The Birth of Isaac
1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she[c] began to sob.
17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation. ”
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
The Treaty at Beersheba
22 At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. 23 Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.”
24 Abraham said, “I swear it.”
25 Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized. 26 But Abimelek said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”
27 So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelek, and the two men made a treaty. 28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, 29 and Abimelek asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?”
30 He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well. ”
31 So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there.
32 After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. 34 And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.
Summary: Abraham and Sarah finally have a son, who they name Isaac. He is circumcised and weaned, and they have a feast. Sarah asks Abraham to send away his son, Ishmael, and his son’s mother, the slave Hagar. God tells him to listen to Sarah and they are sent off with some food and a flask of water. After a near death experience, God shows Hagar a well and promises her that Ishmael’s descendents will be a great nation. At the end we get a dry bit about a treaty between Abimelek and his commander, Phicol, and Abraham over a well at Beersheba. Abraham stays in the land of the Philistines.
Women in the Bible:
The chapter opens with Sarah finally happy now that she is a mother, but that happiness quickly wanes as she sees her teenage step-son mocking (something). Sarah’s response is to send Ishmael and Hagar away. Abraham worries about what to do about Ishmael, since he is his son, but doesn’t seem to have any worries about Hagar, although whether this is due to her being a slave or a woman is unclear. Then we get this little gem:
“Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
The only time we’ve seen so far that God has listened to a woman, or that a man has listened to a woman. Also, it is interesting to note that their child would have had to be a son, since daughters do not get to partake in God’s covenant. We have seen skewing towards male prominence, but this is the first time we’ve seen a preference in children/heirs.
A Pro-Slavery God?
During the dark time in American history (and in other such places where the practice existed) where Slavery was the norm, and later when it was bloodily contested, Christians could be seen on both sides of the argument. Thankfully, abolitionists won out in the end, but some of the most fervent pro-slavery, and later pro-segregation, pro-Jim Crow laws, and/or anti-miscegenation crusaders throughout time quoted Bible verses to back their claims. Many of them truly believed that God Almighty had declared it to be so, and therefore took moral affront when the status quo was questioned. It is in the chapters we have read of Genesis so far that we see why this is the case: these men and women were made in the image of the Genesis God.
In the previous chapters, God commanded that Hagar return to Sarah and submit to her mistreatment, he told Abraham that Ishmael, his son, couldn’t partake in the covenant promised Abraham’s descendents, and now he is ordering Hagar and Ishmael turned away, with little provisions at all. The Bible only mentions some food and a flask of water.
((Isn’t Ishmael 14 here? Why is she placing a teenager under a bush? I mean, that’s practically manhood…))
It is difficult for me to see how a Christian can answer to the violent whims of this Genesis God.
Further Reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_United_States
(I highly recommend reading this. We aren’t taught enough about our history, especially on our failures in the not so distant past.)
Boring Treaties and the Witchcraft of Religion:
Why did Abimelek approach Abraham? Because he wanted to secure the favor of a temperamental God. He says to Abraham :
“God is with you in everything you do. Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.”
Although we saw in Chapter 20 (where Abraham pulled the old wife-sister swap on this king) that Abimelek was indeed a God-fearing king, he now requires a mediator to get to God’s good graces. So how does Abraham respond? He brings up a well. Apparently pretty threateningly, because Abimelek has to immediately say, “I’ve never heard about it; you only just told me… it wasn’t me.”
Abraham’s proof that he himself dug the well? 7 ewes. I don’t know if this is him purchasing the well back through bartering, and I really don’t know anything about how the economy was working back in the day, but the wording drives me crazy:
Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.
Sounds suspiciously like, “I’m the guy with access to God. Take these sheep and give me the well or else.” Furthermore, this is the first time we explicitly see a mediator between people and God (although one presumes it existed before, since we have met a High Priest).