Genesis 17

Yesterday the Old Testament reading (which the lector insisted was the "Hebrew Bible" reading, though it doesn't make much difference what you call it, I guess; people still don't read it..) was from Gen. 17. But the lector just read the text, and no mention of this wonderful passage was made in the sermon. Thus, I felt a little "cheated." What is the sense of reading a delicious text and then not fulfilling the longing of the hearers to have it exposited? So, I came home and decided that I would say a few words about it. In order to do that properly, however, we must understanding Gen. 17 in the context of the development of Abraham's faith.

The Development of Abraham's Faith

If I were doing a study, or writing a book, on the faith of Abraham, I would describe five specific "movements" in his life of faith.

1. The first is captured in Gen. 12. In that text God calls Abraham (Abram at the time), and in clear and majestic language tells him to leave his people and home and go to another land which God would show Abram. A threefold promise is given:

"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. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed," (Gen. 12:2-3).

In the strength of that promise, Abraham sets out (v. 4), not knowing where he is going but full of hope, faith and desire to fulfill God's bidding. This may be likened to the time of innocence or "first love" in the life of faith, where everything seems so clear, and the call to set out or depart from what we have been doing falls on such fallow ground that we, as it were, leave our nets and follow God. No questions arise; no doubts enter this little citadel of faith.

2. The second stage of faith is captured by the narrative in Gen. 15, where God appears to Abram in a dream and reiterates, in briefer form, the sentiments of Gen. 12. "Your reward shall be very great," is what God says (15:1). But now Abram isn't so sure. Time has passed; trials have been endured; he even has had to act in a prevaricating manner to protect his wife. We are introduced to the people of Sodom, and we feel that things may just fall apart for that little town some day. Thus, when God appears to Abram in Gen. 15 a number of things are different, even though the promise is the same. Abram has gotten older; the possibility of having a child through natural means (i.e., with his wife) seems to be fading; God's promise seems, at best, a distant and fondly-remembered memory. So, when God approaches Abram, Abram gently objects. What truly is on his mind is progeny. But what compels as the story unfolds is the way that Abram already is thinking how he needs to "help" God with the promise. He assumes that the slave in his house must be the heir God is talking about. He thinks, 'Oh, you have promised me a son, but since I continue childless, and I have a slave, you must mean, God, that this man will be my heir.'

But this interpretive sleight of hand by Abram must be tremendously dissatisfying for him. After all, he was led to believe that God was going to go "all the way" in providing an heir. So this would be a sort of theological "bait and switch" and Abram would feel like any consumer who has fallen prey to that tactic feels. Then, he might have felt, for a fleeting moment, that God really wasn't the great God He was cracked up to be. Indeed, God makes promises and then has to back off from them. Isn't that the way it is with all of us? 'Well,' he thinks, 'I guess we just have to accept a God of more limited means.' He might be able to hide his disappointment, but really the damage would have been done. Then, finally, there is the desire to "help God," but making it "easy" for God to fulfill the promise. It is like already recognizing a student's "life experience" as fulfilling a graduation requirement, and thus telling them that they have already "earned" their degree before even showing up for school. There may be a small degree of satisfaction in that for the student, but if there is satisfaction, it will be because life is being built on a tissue of lies and deception.

Thus, Abram complains to God. This is the faith of a mature person, a person who knows what it is to be cheated or misled, a person who doesn't forget those times when this has happened, a person who has had to live with the multiple disappointments of failed or limited expectations in life. But the response of God is interesting. God reiterates the promise from Gen. 12 but does it with much greater specificity here; Abram's concern is dealt with directly by God and God says "your own son shall be your heir."

3. I guess this should have settled things for Abram, but it really didn't, as Gen. 16 shows. Indeed, if Abram is a paragon of faith for the Judeo-Christian tradition, then there are probably many who easy surpass him in faith, at least at this point of his life. He has had two glaringly clear promises from God which have served to limit Abram's interpretational latitude. His own son will be his heir. Clear. But then, in Gen. 16, another complication arises. What if his own son will be his heir but it will not come through Sarai? Indeed, the way that the story of Abram's faith in Genesis unfolds, you would think that it was written by a lawyer, for we lawyers are always "solving" problems only to have one little teenie weenie problem still persist. Even though God had severely limited Abram's interpretive space in Gen. 15, God still left open the possibility that the child might come through someone other than Sarai. God didn't batten down the hatches of all the interpretive possibilities. Leave it to humans to explore them..

So, Gen. 16 explores one of the dangling possibilities left open by the story of Gen. 15. If Abram's own son will be heir, perhaps it will come through another means than through the aging Sarai. Indeed, Sarai seems to have been the one to suggest this idea first to Abram, for in 16:2 she says:

"You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her."

The next essay completes these thoughts.

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