All this Happened a Long Time Ago and just Yesterday too….
Okay, maybe not the marrying our step sisters with whom we share the same father, being directed by God to forsake our own child, or being tempted by God to sacrifice our other child but the hurt, sorrow, and grief felt in the Old Testament is just as real today.
Perhaps there is not the fear of God in this place… was the reason given by Abraham as to why he told Abimelech that Sara was his sister and not his wife.
Is there a fear of God in the world we live in today or in our personal life and relationships or in our heart?
Should there be?
Sara said to Abraham: Cast out this bondwoman (Agar), and her son (Ismael): for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my (our) son Isaac.
Abraham took this grievously for his son (Ismael). He grieved while he sent his son and her surrogate mother away. Assumedly as willed by God who said the He would make Ismael a leader of a great nation because he was Abraham’s son.
Several times in these passages Abraham’s simple response was “Here I am Lord (show me Your Will and give me the power to follow thorough)…”
Abraham had to nearly sacrifice his second son Isaac.
Then Sara dies and Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac from his hometown. Isaac took Rebecca as his wife and he loved her so much, that it, moderated the sorrow which was occasioned by his mother’s death.
How many of us men have blessedly gone from the love of a mother to the love of our wife? God spoke to this earlier in Genesis 2:24: “Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall be two in one flesh.”
My first wife and I did exactly this, leaving home and family behind and moving to California after we were married. We were blessed with two beautiful sons after only a few years of being on our own together.
Abraham’s trustful plead: “Here I am my Lord God Eternal,” has resonated with me through all of my adult life in Dan Schutte’s song “Here I Am, Lord,” published in 1981:
I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard My people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin,
My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear My light to them?
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord, Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my heart.
I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my people’s pain.
I have wept for love of them, They turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone,
Give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak My word to them
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord, Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my heart.
I, the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame.
I will set a feast for them,
My hand will save
Finest bread I will provide,
Till their hearts be satisfied.
I will give My life to them,
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord, Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my heart.
What beautiful, meaningful and relevant lyrics: I will go Lord, if You lead me… Give them hearts for love alone… Here I am Lord, Is it I, Lord?
Is it I? Is it you? Why can’t it be everyone?
After all, this happened a long time ago but maybe something different can happen today…
Day 7: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; All this Happened a Long Time Ago and just Yesterday too….
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Genesis Chapters 20-24
Bible Notes:
Genesis, the genesis or origin of the world, the history of Creation.
Noe and the Deluge, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph
Closes with the deaths of Jacob and of Joseph in Egypt, whither Joseph had called his father and brothers.
Genesis Chapter 20: Abraham dwells in Gerara; God commands Abimelech to restore Sara; Abimelech reproves Abraham; Abimelech restores Sara to Abraham; Abraham’s prayer brings children to Abimelech.
And he (Abraham) said of Sara, his wife: She is my sister. So Abimelech the king of Gerara sent, and took her.
Lord, will thou slay a nation, that is ignorant and just?
In the simplicity of my heart, and cleanness of my hands have I done this.
Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet…
Expostulate—express strong disapproval or disagreement.
Abraham answered: I thought with myself, saying: Perhaps there is not the fear of God in this place: and they will kill me for the sake of my wife; howbeit, otherwise also she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, and not the daughter of my mother, and I took her to wife.
Genesis Chapter 21: Birth of Isaac; Agar and Ismael driven out; God protests Agar and Ismael; Covenant between Abraham and Abimelech; Abraham plants a grove.
Sara said to Abraham: Cast out this bondwoman, and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.
Abraham took this grievously for his son.
But I (God) will make the son also of the bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy (Abraham) seed.
…and there called upon the name of the Lord God eternal.
Genesis Chapter 22: Abraham told to sacrifice Isaac; Faith and obedience of Abraham; Renewal of Promises to Abraham; Descent of Rebecca from Nachor.
Here I am (Abraham).
God tempted Abraham…
Son Isaac to Father Abraham: where is the victim for the holocaust?
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Genesis Chapter 23: Age and death of Sara; Abraham buys a burial ground from Ephron; Burial of Sara;
Sara lived 127 years.
Genesis Chapter 24: Abraham seeks a wife for Sara; Abraham’s servant in Mesopotamia; Rebecca comes to the well; Laban entertains Abraham’s servant; Abraham’s servant explains his mission; The marriage of Rebecca and Isaac approved; Meeting of Rebecca and Isaac.
The man took out golden earrings, weighing two sicles: and as many bracelets of ten sicles weight.
Isaac took Rebecca as his wife and he loved her so much, that it, moderated the sorrow which was occasioned by his mother’s death.
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