The Sacrifice
This section starts off telling the story of Abraham and the sacrifice. Abraham wakes up one morning and says to his son, Isaac, let's go to the mountains and offer God a sacrifice. They take up the wood and other materials needed for the sacrifice. Isaac notices they have everything for the sacrifice but he asks, where is the animal? Abraham tells him God will provide.
This section starts off telling the story of Abraham and the sacrifice. Abraham wakes up one morning and says to his son, Isaac, let's go to the mountains and offer God a sacrifice. They take up the wood and other materials needed for the sacrifice. Isaac notices they have everything for the sacrifice but he asks, where is the animal? Abraham tells him God will provide.
They get to the place where they will have the sacrifice and he binds Isaac. He places him on the altar and raises a knife to kill Isaac. A voice from heaven tell him to stop! Do not lay a hand on your son and harm him.
God provided a ram that was caught in the thicket. They sacrificed the ram and come down from the mountain.
The story has a few twists and turns that do not fit normalcy. First, if society where to look at Abraham they would have thought him a little crazy. He was about to kill his son. Having said that though, in the old testament there are dozens of stories, well maybe not dozens but enough to let us know that human sacrifice of children was all too common. So in this light Abraham was not crazy. Perhaps human sacrifice during his time was also common. The Bible does not say.
The amazing thing to me that Isaac, I don't know if he was a teenager or young adult, would let his father bind him and put him on an altar and allow him to stab him without saying anything. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of conversation took place since the Bible really does not record all of their conversation.
Most of the youth today would have in someway disrespected Abraham but Isaac did not. In this day you would have even had some who may have tried to defend himself and end up hurting Abraham. And our court system would have justified his defense.
Within this culture, this kind of act was allowed. God used it to illustrate what it would be like for Father God and the Messiah, his son; and the redemption he offers us. The rest of this chapter covers the offspring of Nahor, the brother of Abraham.
Sarah Dies
Sarah Dies
The story moves on and delivers a sad piece of news. Sarah dies at the age of 127 years old. That means that Isaac was 37 years old when his mom died. There is a long exchange between Abraham and Hittites to determine where he would bury Sarah. The Hittites wanted to give him the cave since he was a mighty prince among them. But Abraham wanted to buy it and it eventually he did for 400 shekels of silver. The property he purchased included the field and a cave. It was near a place called Machpelah near Mamre which was near Hebron.
Water bearer
When Abraham gets very old he is concerned about getting his son a wife. So he finds his most trusted servant and has his servant swear to him that he would find a wife for Isaac among his own clan. Abraham makes him swear by placing his hand under Abraham's thigh.
Abrahams servant travels to Abraham's homeland and prays that God will help him find the woman for Isaac. He asks God to let this woman give him water and his camels water to drink when he asks. Rebecca comes along, he asks, and she gives him and the camels water. He learns that this is Abraham's granddaughter.
He asks if he can stay the night with the family and he gives her two bracelets and a nose ring. They get to the house and when her brother Laban sees them talks to the servant, they agreed to let God's will be done concerning Rebecca.
The servant gives them the gifts that Abraham provided and then he tells them he wants to be on his way back home. Laban and his mom ask if Rebecca can stay at home for 10 more days with them and Abraham's servant says no. They decide to let Rebecca make the decision and she is ready to go.
They leave and when they get close to home, Rebecca sees a man sitting in the field. She asks who is he and learns that it is Isaac. He is out in the field meditating, the Bible says. She covers her face with a veil. Isaac marries Rebecca and sets her up in his mother's tent and then he is comforted since he lost his mother three years ago.
My thoughts
This is a wonderful love story that works out pretty good. The Bible says that Rebecca is very beautiful. You get the feeling that Isaac is pretty handsome as well.
Sometimes I wonder why Sarah had to die so early compared to the long years of Abraham. I am guessing that if she had not died then perhaps Isaac would have never had Rebecca as his wife. I guess timing is everything. The stories in these readings are straightforward. I don't see anything new here. What I do come to understand is that God's hand is moving the story along among humans.
That's it for today.
Water bearer
When Abraham gets very old he is concerned about getting his son a wife. So he finds his most trusted servant and has his servant swear to him that he would find a wife for Isaac among his own clan. Abraham makes him swear by placing his hand under Abraham's thigh.
Abrahams servant travels to Abraham's homeland and prays that God will help him find the woman for Isaac. He asks God to let this woman give him water and his camels water to drink when he asks. Rebecca comes along, he asks, and she gives him and the camels water. He learns that this is Abraham's granddaughter.
He asks if he can stay the night with the family and he gives her two bracelets and a nose ring. They get to the house and when her brother Laban sees them talks to the servant, they agreed to let God's will be done concerning Rebecca.
The servant gives them the gifts that Abraham provided and then he tells them he wants to be on his way back home. Laban and his mom ask if Rebecca can stay at home for 10 more days with them and Abraham's servant says no. They decide to let Rebecca make the decision and she is ready to go.
They leave and when they get close to home, Rebecca sees a man sitting in the field. She asks who is he and learns that it is Isaac. He is out in the field meditating, the Bible says. She covers her face with a veil. Isaac marries Rebecca and sets her up in his mother's tent and then he is comforted since he lost his mother three years ago.
My thoughts
This is a wonderful love story that works out pretty good. The Bible says that Rebecca is very beautiful. You get the feeling that Isaac is pretty handsome as well.
Sometimes I wonder why Sarah had to die so early compared to the long years of Abraham. I am guessing that if she had not died then perhaps Isaac would have never had Rebecca as his wife. I guess timing is everything. The stories in these readings are straightforward. I don't see anything new here. What I do come to understand is that God's hand is moving the story along among humans.
That's it for today.
No comments:
Post a Comment