Biblical Commentary

Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3

COMMENTARY:

GENESIS 13-15: THE CONTEXT

In chapter 13, Abram and Lot separated because “The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together: for their substance was great, so that they could not live together. There was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock” (13:6-7). Abram allowed Lot to choose the left hand or the right (13:9) with the result that “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom.” (13:12). The narrator states ominously, “Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh. ” (13:13).

In chapter 14, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah found themselves on the losing end of a great battle (14:10). “They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went their way. They took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed” (14:11-12). When Abram learned of this, he assembled “his trained men…three hundred and eighteen, and pursued ” (14:14). He defeated the enemy and rescued Lot, his goods, and all the people (14:16).

Then Abram received a blessing from the priest Melchizedek (14:17-20) and the king of Sodom gratefully offered to give Abram the booty from his raid if Abram would only return the people to him. Abram refused to keep anything beyond his expenses, lest people say that the king of Sodom had enriched him (14:21-24).

This background is of interest, because the shield in 15:2 is part of a soldier’s armament and may be related to Abram’s raid in 14:14-16—and the reward in 15:2 may be related to Abram’s refusal of booty in 14:21-24.

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 poses a many challenges. There are a number of things, such as the reference to the slave Eliezer of Damascus in verse 2 and the symbolism of the ritual in verses 7-11, that we poorly understand and about which we can only make educated guesses. However, the significance of the major emphases—that Abram “He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness” (v. 6) and that “Yahweh made a covenant with Abram” (v. 18) are clear enough.

GENESIS 15:1-6: ABRAM BELIEVED IN YAHWEH

1After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” 2Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram said, “Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.” 4Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.”5Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So shall your seed be.” 6He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

“After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision,” (v. 1a). The phrase, “after these things,” connects what follows with the events of chapters 13-14.

“Don’t be afraid, Abram, I am your shield” (v. 1b). People are often fearful upon finding themselves in the presence of the Lord. We are reminded in particular of the angels using these words to reassure Zechariah and Mary and the shepherds (Luke 1:13, 30; 2:10). God or God’s messenger often uses these words to encourage people facing danger (21:17; 26:24; 46:3). God does not pose a danger to Abram, but is instead Abram’s shield. Soldiers use shields to deflect the weapons of their enemies. Abram can surely identify with this “God is my shield” metaphor, having just returned from battle (14:14-16). To use a shield requires skill, but having God as one’s shield places the initiative in God’s capable hands. The outcome depends on God, and therefore is certain.

“your exceedingly great reward” (v. 1c). Rewards are usually given in recognition of commendable behavior, but God doesn’t specify here which of Abram’s behaviors he is rewarding. Earlier Abram obeyed the command to leave his country and his kindred and his father’s house (12:1) and God promised to make of him a great nation and to bless him (12:2-3). Most recently, Abram declined to take goods from the king of sinful Sodom, saying, “I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich'” (14:22-23). Most likely, God is rewarding both of these behaviors.

“Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless” (v. 2a). No reward can have any meaning for Abram in the absence of a legitimate heir—someone to inherit his wealth and to carry on his name. Abram is already wealthy (13:2), so additional wealth won’t change his lifestyle. What he needs is not more sheep or land, but an heir.

What is remarkable here is Abram’s willingness to question (or challenge) God at the very moment that God is offering to reward him. Abram’s question shows that his childless condition is very much on his mind. It also shows that he is comfortable enough in the presence of God to raise this question.

“and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” (v. 2b). This has provoked a great deal of scholarly debate. First, there are questions of translation that go beyond the scope of this exegesis (see Hamilton, 420-422; Wenham, 328). Second, we know nothing of Eliezer other than this and the following verse. Third, we are not sure about the custom that would result in Eliezer being Abram’s heir. From extra-Biblical sources, we know that the Nuzi tribe from Mesopotamia allowed a childless couple to adopt a slave who would then become responsible for assuming the responsibilities of a son—caring for the couple in their old age, seeing to their proper burial, and mourning them following their death. The adopted slave would then assume the right of inheritance (Hamilton, 420; Wenham, 329). We have no reason to believe that Abram has adopted Eliezer, but he has obviously considered it as a last resort.

“Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.” (v. 3). This is where we learn that Eliezer is Abram’s slave and was born in his house. God has promised to make of Abram a great nation (12:2), but has failed even to give him a son. There is a great distance between God’s promise and Abram’s reality.

“This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir” (v. 4). God reassures Abram that he will, indeed, have a son who will become his heir. At this point, God could fulfill this promise by having Abram father a child by someone other than Sarai. Not until 17:16 does God specify that the mother of the child will be Sarah.

“Yahweh brought him outside, and said, ‘Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ He said to Abram, ‘So shall your seed be’” (v. 5). Earlier God promised, “I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth” (13:16). Now he promises to make Abram’s descendants like the stars of the sky.

Both metaphors (dust and stars) suggest numbers beyond comprehension—beyond human counting. A shepherd accustomed to walking unpaved pathways with a flock of sheep would be intimately acquainted with dust—with its pervasiveness and endless quantity. He would also be accustomed to seeing stars on very dark nights. There would be no light pollution to spoil his vision of an otherwise perfectly dark sky lighted by millions of tiny points of light.

Stars are a more attractive metaphor than dust—we don’t like dust, but we do like stars. Also stars have a permanence that dust doesn’t enjoy. Dust gets kicked around and blown about so that you can never tell where a particular grain of dust will be tomorrow. The stars, on the other hand, are immanently steadfast. An astronomer can predict with great accuracy exactly where a given star will be at any given time.

“And he believed the Yahweh” (v. 6a). This is a key moment in the text—in the Bible—in human history. Abram decides to trust the promise rather than the evidence. God has been faithful to him in many ways, so he believes that God will be faithful to him in this way as well.

Verses 1-3 and 4-6 have a similar structure. “In each there is a promise and a response. The promises are the same in substance. But the two responses are very different” (Brueggemann, 144).

In the next chapter, Abram will seem to waver. At Sarai’s behest, he will go in with Hagar and she will conceive and bear a child (16:4). It will seem that Abram has decided to take the initiative—to force the issue—to remove the matter from God’s hands. However, we must remember that God has not yet told Abraham that Sarai will be the mother of his child. When Sarai insists that Abram have a child with Hagar, he might believe that she has discovered God’s plan. At Ishmael’s birth he will be eighty-six years old (16:15), and it will have been many years since God first began making promises. Best to get on with it! Of course, as it turns out, it isn’t best at all. Ishmael isn’t God’s plan. He will turn out to be “like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man” (16:12). Hagar will regard Sarai with contempt, and Sarai will force Hagar to leave (16:6). It will be thirteen years before God brings up the subject again (17:1).

“and he reckoned (hasab) it to him for righteousness” (sedaqa) (v. 6b). Hasab “means ‘to assign…value; in this case the Lord assigns Abram’s faith the value of righteousness” (Mathews, 167). It is as if a beneficent creditor has decided to wipe the debtor’s slate clean—a matter of pure grace.

In the Old Testament, righteousness (sedaqa) is something most often achieved by compliance with Jewish law. However, God has not yet transmitted the law to Moses, so there is no law for Abram to observe. Yahweh is reckoning Abram as righteous, even though there are not yet any standards by which Abram’s conduct could be judged as righteous.

The New Testament spells out the implications of Abram’s belief:

• “By faith (Abram) received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11:11; see also Hebrews 11:8-22).

• Just as Abram received righteousness as a gift, so also we “being justified freely by (God’s) grace” (Romans 3:24). Paul says,

“For what does the Scripture say?
‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’
Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace,
but as something owed.
But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:3-5).

Paul goes on to note that God did this reckoning before Abram was circumcised.

“He received the sign of circumcision…
that he might be the father of all those who believe,
though they might be in uncircumcision,
that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision,
but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham,
which he had in uncircumcision” (Romans 4:11-12; see also 4:13—5:11).

• Paul also says:

“We, being Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners,
yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law
but through faith in Jesus Christ,
even we believed in Christ Jesus,
that we might be justified by faith in Christ,
and not by the works of the law,
because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law…..

For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
I have been crucified with Christ,
and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me.

That life which I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself up for me. I don’t make void the grace of God.

For if righteousness is through the law,
then Christ died for nothing” (Galatians 2:15-16, 19-21).

Genesis 21:1-3

GENESIS 12-20: THE CONTEXT

Abraham’s story began with his call, when his name was Abram. God told Abram, “Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you” (12:1-3). God’s promise to make of Abram a great nation implies that Abram will have a legitimate heir.

Abram was 75 years old at the time of his departure from Haran (12:4). He was married to Sarai (later Sarah), but they had no children—and at their age they had no reason (except God’s promise that he would make of Abram a great nation) to believe that they would ever have a child.

Later, God said, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” But Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” (15:1-2). God responded, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir. Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them. So shall your seed be” (15:4-5). This promise is very specific. Abram will have a child—a legitimate heir. Abram “believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness” (15:6).

But Sarai, in anguish because she had been unable to bear children for Abram, told him to go in to her slave-girl, Hagar, so that Hagar might bear a child for him (16:2). She had grown weary of waiting for God to keep his promise to Abram, and felt a need to take matters in her own hands. Abram did as she asked, and Hagar conceived a child. Hagar then began to look with contempt on Sarai, who complained bitterly to Abram (16:5). Abram gave Sarai permission to do as she would with Hagar, and Sarai acted so harshly that Hagar ran away into the wilderness (16:6). An angel found her there and told her that she would bear a son who would have so many descendants that they could not be counted. The angel told her to name her son Ishmael (Hebrew: yismael—”God hears”).

“Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael” (16:15).

We should take special note of two things in chapter 16, because they will have bearing on our understanding of chapter 21.

• First, Hagar’s wilderness journey in chapter 16 is similar in several respects to her wilderness journey in chapter 21. In both accounts, Abraham accedes to Sarah’s demands. In both accounts, it is Sarah’s anger that results in Hagar’s going to the wilderness. In both accounts, an angel helps Hagar in her extremity and assures her that Ishmael will have many descendants. These similarities have led some scholars to believe that these are two accounts of the same incident written by two different authors. That is reinforced by the different names used for God in the two accounts (Yahweh in chapter 16 and Elohim in chapter 21)—the idea being that the Yahwist (J) wrote chapter 16 and the Elohist (E) wrote chapter 21. It is also reinforced by the change in Hagar, who was contemptuous in chapter 16 but is passive in chapter 21.

• Second, Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born (16:15) and 100 years old when Isaac was born (21:5). This means that Ishmael was 14 years old when Isaac was born—a fact that has implications for chapter 21.

In chapter 17, God makes a covenant with Abram, reaffirming the promises that God made earlier. Abraham responded to this promise by falling down laughing (17:17). The motif of laughter repeats throughout this account.

In chapter, 18, God promises Abraham and Sarah (the names conferred by God on Abram and Sarai in 17:5, 15) that they will have a son, and Sarah laughed (Hebrew: sahaq—a word related to yishaq or Isaac, which means “He laughs”).

Chapter 19 tells the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and chapter 20 tells of Abraham’s shameful behavior at Gerar (20:2).

GENESIS 21:1-3. YAHWEH VISITED SARAH AS HE HAD SAID

1Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. 2Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.

“Yahweh visited (Hebrew: paqad—visited) Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken (v. 1). This verse uses two similar phrases to express the same thought. Some scholars conclude that there are two different authors involved here, but it seems more likely that this is simply a poetic way of expressing the exciting truth that Sarah has conceived a child, as God promised that she would.

A divine visit (paqad) is usually to show people favor (Genesis 50:24; Exodus 3:16; 1 Samuel 2:21) but is sometimes to punish them (Exodus 20:5; Isaiah 10:12).

Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him (v. 2). This verse spans a significant measure of time—from the time God promised a son to Abram (17:16: 18:10-14)—to the time of the child’s conception—to the time of the child’s birth nine months later.

This verse mentions Abraham’s old age, but Sarah is also old (18:11-12). It is more unusual for an old woman to become a mother than for an old man to become a father. A woman’s reproductive system typically shuts down much earlier than a man’s. However, this birth doesn’t depend on Abraham and Sarah, but on God. It is God’s will that the child be born. As the Lord asked Abraham earlier, “Is anything too hard for Yahweh?” (18:14).

“Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac” (v. 3). It is the father’s duty to name the child. Abraham obeys God by naming his son Isaac (17:19).

whom Sarah bore to him (v. 3b). We must keep in mind that this is not Abraham’s only son. He also has a son by Hagar, the slave woman whom he has taken as a concubine. This new baby, however, is by his wife, Sarah. This makes for confusion with regard to status and succession. Isaac enjoys special standing as the son of Abraham’s legitimate wife, but Ishmael enjoys special standing as Abraham’s firstborn. This will create a serious problem in the near future.

SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public domain (no copyright) modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version (ASV) of the Bible, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament. The ASV, which is also in the public domain due to expired copyrights, was a very good translation, but included many archaic words (hast, shineth, etc.), which the WEB has updated.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Achtemeier, Elizabeth, in Van Harn, Roger, E. (ed.), The Lectionary Commentary: The First Readings: The Old Testament and Acts (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001)

Bowie, Walter Russell and Simpson, Cuthbert A., The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 1 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952)

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Brueggemann, Walter, Interpretation Commentary: Genesis (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982)

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Newsome, James D. in Cousar, Charles B.; Gaventa, Beverly R.; McCann, J. Clinton; and Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV–Year C (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994)

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Copyright 2012, Richard Niell Donovan