Shades of things to come

In the beginning of Genesis 12 God commands Abram to leave for Canaan:

Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. … and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

So Abram takes his wife, Sarai, his nephew, Lot, and all their possessions and “the persons whom they had acquired”, and journey to Canaan. At Schechem, at the “oak of Moreh”, God appears to Abram, and tells him “[t]o your offspring I will give this land”. Abram builds an altar. He also builds one between Bethel and Ai – i.e. he founds shrines, at places that will be significant later.

When famine strikes Abram takes his entourage to Egypt. This is quite a strange interlude. Since Sarai is a great beauty Abram fears that he will be killed by the Egyptians. So he asks that Sarai pretend to be his sister. And she does indeed attract attention – the officials of the Pharaoh recommend her to him because of her beauty, and she is taken to live in the Pharaoh’s house. Abram profits from this arrangement – he acquires numerous livestock and slaves.

While there is no indication that Abram is at all disturbed by losing his wife to Pharaoh, God certainly is. He afflicts the Pharaoh “with great plagues” because of Sarai. Pharaoh, understandably upset with Abram, asks him why he did not tell him the truth (he receives no answer to this question), and gives Sarai back to him. And Pharaoh’s men “set [them] on the way”. Note: Abram’s conduct seems to leave something to be desired, but he is not censured by God.

After leaving Egypt Abram eventually arrives back at the place between Bethel and Ai, where he had made the altar. Trouble starts between the herders of Abram and those of Lot. Both Abram and Lot are wealthy, and it appears that the land isn’t big enough for both of them, their people and their livestock. To solve the problem Abram decides that they should separate, and gives Lot the option to choose first which land he would settle. Lot who, we note, doesn’t hesitate or courteously decline to choose first, settles on the “well-watered” plain of Jordan, “moving his tent” as far as Sodom. (And the people of Sodom, we’re told, “were wicked, great sinners against the Lord”.) Abram settles in Canaan.

God tells Abram that all the land his sees in every direction “I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth”. And Abram builds another altar at Hebron, by “the oaks of Mamre”.

Lot meanwhile, finds himself in the middle of a war between four eastern kings on the one side and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, in addition to three others, on the other. (Ominously, the name of Sodom’s king Bera means “in evil”, and the name of Birsha, king of Gomorrah, “in wickedness”.) When the dust settles Sodom and Gomarrah are left defeated and looted, and Lot taken away in captivity.

When Abram is informed of his nephew’s abduction he takes 318 “trained men”, along with his Amorite allies – all of whom he has rather suddenly and mysteriously acquired – and go in pursuit. After routing the enemy he liberates Lot and his goods, women and people. Abram meets with the king of Sodom and Melchizedek, the priest-king of Salem (Jerusalem), and is blessed by the latter. And Abram gives Melchizedek “one-tenth of everything”. However, Abram refuses to accept anything from Bera, so that Bera “might not say, ‘I have made Abram rich’”. He only allows his Amorite allies to take their share.

Point to ponder: there has been no indication up to now that Abram is skilled in military tactics and has recourse to fighting men. It seems a bit “shoehorned” in.

Famine, Egypt, plagues, Sodomite sinners … shades of things to come.

Notes:

• Canaan is inhabited by the Canaanites and Perizzites at the time Abram settles there.
• The Notes say that the region between Shechem and Hebron was “the principle area of Israelite settlement”. Abram’s settling there, and his building of altars, means that he is portrayed as a “cultural and religious founder of Israel”.
• Abram is promised a great lineage several times, but Sarai is barren …
• Hebron is to become the chief city of Judeah, and David will be crowned king there. (Notes)
• Apparently the story of Lot’s captivity and rescue “cannot be identified with any of the pentateuchal sources”. (Notes)
• The names and countries of the eastern kings and the kings of the plains are “concocted” as opposed to historical, say the Notes.
• “Melchizedek” means “my king is righteousness”.
• According to the Notes “[t]he blessing on Abram creates a patriarchal link with Jerusalem and its cult (including the payment of a tithe to its priests), which are in some sense legitimized by this association”.

Image 1: Abraham on the Way to Canaan by Pieter Lastman (ca. 1583 – 1633)
Image 2: Abraham Meets Melchizedek by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640)

~ by tamfuwing on May 18, 2008.