The BKC doesn’t really seem to think that highly of Abram. At least that is the feeling that I get. In Gen 16 when Saria gives Hagoth to Abram the BKC says that Abram was following custom and not the Lord by taking Hagoth. Here is what the BKC says “So Sarai’s suggestion was unobjectionable according to the customs of that time. But God often repudiates social customs.”
I don’t see that that is anywhere in the Bible. After Hagoth becomes pregnant and Sarai gets upset with the way she is acting Sarai tells Abram “May the Lord judge between you and me.” Hagoth was despising Sarai, and it seems to me that Abram must be doing something that helps with that. Why else would Sarai say this unless she thought she were in the right? Apparently Abram agrees and tells her she can do what she wants with Hagoth, so Hagoth runs away. While on the way home the Angel of the Lord finds her and asks her what she’s doing? She says that she’s running away, and the angel tells her to go back and tells her that she will have many descendants. Ishmael is going to be a wild man, but he will also be a father of nations. In what way is God repudiating this?
After the Lord finishes talking to her...
13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Gen 17:13 NIV)
Apparently Hagoth was talking to the Lord face to face, and saw him.
For Gen 17 the BKC has some interesting points. This is the chapter where the Lord reiterates the promise that he made concerning his posterity, and changes his name to Abraham. The BKC points out that it was probably embarrasing to tell people to start calling him, Abraham or “Father of Nations” when he’d only had the one child, and none by his first wife, especially since he was so old.
The Lord tells Abraham that he’s going to have a son by Sarai and he falls on his face and starts to laugh. Now that’s a pretty good relationship to have with the Lord, when you think that what he’s saying could be a joke. This hit me for the first time. In the LDS KJV it says that Hebrew for the word could also be “rejoiced” but the name “Issac” means “One who laughs.” I didn’t know that until the BKC pointed it out. It also said the the name would be a constant reminder to Abraham that he laughed when the Lord gave him a promise.
When the Lord renews the promise, Abraham assumes that it will be though Ishmael. The Lord hears Abraham’s concern “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you (Gen 17:20) and blesses him to be the father of many nations as well. Again I’m not seeing the repudiation here.
In Gen 18 the Lord again appears to Abraham with two other angels and says that the birth is eminent, within the year, and this time Sarah thinks it’s funny and laughs, and when the Lord asks her about it she says she didn’t laugh. So the name Isaac is going to have some meaning to her as well. When the Lord and the other angels appear to Abraham, he hastens to cook them the best meal that he can, and eats with them. How’s that for anthropomorphism? After the meal is over the two angels leave and the Lord looks at Sodom, and says that he’s going to go down and see if it’s as evil as the rumors say it is. The BKC points out that since the Lord in omniscience he must know the answer to this question. I agree with that, and so I’ve come to think that whenever the Lord asks these questions, or makes these statements, like when He asked the Brother of Jaren what he’d seen, the Lord is using the Socratic method on the reciepient. In this case I think it’s to see how the Abraham will react to learning that the Cities on the Plain are about to be destroyed. I think Abraham does well in this test since he argues that the wicked should not be slain for the righteous sake. The Lord agrees that that’s true, but the problem here is there are very few righteous in the Cities of the Plain.
No comments:
Post a Comment