I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 21-23.
Just as God had promised, Sarah bore Abraham a son, who was named Isaac. When Isaac was about to be weaned, Ishmael, his older half-brother pulled a typical teenager faux-pas. Ishmael made fun of his baby brother. Now this may have been simple teenager high spirits, or it may have been spoiled brat bullying, or anywhere in between. The passage does not make clear. I suspect it was closer to bullying than not. Whatever the case may be, Sarah insisted that Ishmael and his mother be sent away. After some serious soul searching, Abraham complied. Now Abraham was committed to Isaac as his heir and the heir to God’s promise to him.
I want to take a side note here from my main theme to note that Ishmael at this point was fourteen years old at this point. The way we often read this story, and the wording makes this easy, we tend to think of Ishmael as a young child when he was sent away. In fact, he is a young man at this point. Still too young to truly be out on his own, but old enough to start taking some adult responsibilities. The fact that Hagar led him around the desert aimlessly until their supplies ran out and then left him under a bush tells us something about their relationship. Surely by this time, Abraham had taught Ishmael something about navigating the territory they lived in. Yet he either did not provide any guidance to his mother, or she ignored it.
The fact that Abraham had previously sent Ishmael away puts his actions to sacrifice Isaac into a different light then if Ishmael was still around. After years of not having an heir of his body, then a few years of having one who was half-Egyptian rather than fully of his culture, Abraham finally had an heir who checked all of the boxes. However, surely if he was truly dedicated to his god, he would sacrifice this son to him, as his neighbors did to theirs. I do not know whether God spoke to Abraham in an actual voice as the passage implies or not, but a look at his interactions with those around him suggests that he would have certainly felt pressure to sacrifice Isaac from the practices of his neighbors. Abraham was fully willing to sacrifice his family to server God, but God made it clear that not only does He not require it, doing so is a violation of His will. We should be willing to risk our families in order to serve God, but God will never call us to a task which calls on us to sacrifice them.
The other two stories in today’s passage reflect Abraham putting down roots in this land. In the first of these two stories, Abimelech, a Philistine king, approaches Abraham to make a treaty. I am unsure what the significance is of the fact that he brought his army commander with him, but remember that later David entered into several treaties with people without his army commander, Joab, and Joab later killed those people. During their negotiations Abraham complained about a well which Abimelech’s servants had forced him to stop using. Abimelech denies any knowledge of this. I do not think we are supposed to believe Abimelech’s claim, nor do I think that Abraham believed him. That exchange was merely the opening for Abraham to establish that the well at Beersheba was his and gain Abimelech’s agreement. In this exchange, Abimelech agrees that he will not attempt to extend his territory any further into the area where Abraham grazes his flocks and Abraham agrees that his people will not raid Abimelech’s lands (nothing in the Bible suggests that Abraham’s people raided their neighbors, but we know from history that other nomads similar to Abraham did so).
The final story of today’s passage concerns Abraham obtaining a site to bury Sarah after her death. When Sarah died near Hebron Abraham approached to local Hittite leaders for a burial site. Their response was, “You are one of us. Of course you may bury your wife in our cemetery.” To which Abraham said, “No, I do not wish to bury her among your dead. I would like this plot of land over here in which to bury her (and perhaps others who die in my household).” Here once again Abraham is establishing ownership of some of the land separate from the people among whom he lives.
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