By Roy B. Blizzard
We want to continue today with our study of the roots of Biblical faith. Where do those roots begin?
There are many important personages and interesting stories in the Biblical text in the early chapters of Genesis. But, it is not until we come to Abraham that we begin to touch down on any solid chronological ground.
Actually, the date for Abraham and the patriarchal period is only a relative date, circa 2000 BCE, but at least it gives us a peg upon which we can hang our chronological hat.
Abraham, you remember, was the son of a man named Terah (Genesis 11:27), who lived in Mesopotamia in a city called Ur of Chaldees. After the death of Abram’s father (as he was then known), God spoke to Abram and told him to go from Haran into the land that He would show him. He told Abram that He would make of him a great nation and bless him, make his name great and he would be a blessing. Further, He told Abram that he would bless those that blessed him and curse those that cursed him. So, they set out for the land of Canaan.
The one thing that we tend to overlook is that this is a mass migration of hundreds, if not thousands of people from Mesopotamia down into Canaan. That, in fact, might explain why Abram is called "The Hebrew." For years, that posed a question. Some said he was called "The Hebrew" because he was a descendant of Eber (Genesis 11:14), or that he had come from across (avar) the Tigress Euphrates Rivers (as Hebrew in Hebrew is "Ivri").
With the archaeological endeavors of the last fifty and more years, archaeologists discovered a parallel. From Mesopotamia and Egyptian documents of the 19th and 18th centuries BCE, roughly corresponding to the time of Abram, we have a mention of a group of people known as the Habiru or the Apiru. Because of the similarity, some suggested that the mention of these people in the ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian documents were references to the Hebrews. However, in Ugaritic documents of the 14th and 15th centuries BCE, scholars found a mention of a group of people called the Ibrim who were synonomous with the Habiru and the Apiru.
In the Hitite documents from the same period of time, they are referred to as the sa.gaz, which was the Hittite pictogram for a cutthroat or a mercenary. It referred to a way of life, or a manner of life, rather than an ethnic group. It seemed to refer to those who held no allegiance to any king or kingdom but rather went where they wanted, took what they wanted, and settled where they wanted. If we follow carefully the migration of Abraham into the land of Canaan, and read carefully between the lines, this is basically the story of Abraham. According to Genesis 13, Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, in gold. It is a better than a good possibility that he was a descendant of kings. The movement of Abraham and his people is well documented for us in Genesis 12 and following so that we need not follow that migration step by step, but only note some significant passages that relate directly to the historical foundation of the Biblical text in Genesis 15:18.
God cut a covenant with Abram (in Hebrew the word literally is cut) and said unto him, "I gave this land from the river of Egypt (the Nile) to the River Euphrates" along with a list of the peoples who inhabited the land.
Then we have the story of Sarah, her barrenness and her giving of Hagar, her Egyptian handmaiden, to Abram and the birth of her son, Ishmael, whose name means, "and God Heard."
When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him again and reiterated His covenant that he would multiply him exceedingly and his name was changed from Abram (which means exalted father) to Abraham (which means the father of a multitude.) He reiterated that Abraham would be exceedingly fruitful and that there would spring forth nations and kings from him. God also told Abraham that He would establish His covenant between Abraham and Himself and Abraham’s seed after him throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant and would give to him the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. This covenant was sealed with the circumcision of every male throughout all his generations as it was to be an everlasting covenant. Also, males who were not circumcised had broken the covenant and would be cut off from His people. Abraham that self same day at the age of 99 was circumcised along with all of the men in his house.
In the same chapter (17), God prophesized the birth of Isaac and says, in verse 19 – and this is very important for our study –
"I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. And, for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he begat and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac.
In this verse, God specifically declares that the covenant that He made with Abraham would pass from Abraham to Isaac and to his seed after him.
Hhere is an interesting question. Why did God choose Abraham in the first place? Of all the hundreds of thousands of people who were obviously alive at that time, why – out of all of them, did God chose Abraham and his descendants after him – to become the nation that would have as its plan and purpose the reclamation and redemption of all mankind?
Frankly, when you look at them individually, at their lives, at their actions throughout the course of their history for hundreds of years, they are not all that righteous a bunch of characters. Perhaps there were those who were even more righteous than Abraham. What about Melchizadek, for example, who was a priest of the most high God and to whom Abraham paid one-tenth of all he possessed.
So again, why Abraham?
The answer is to be found in Genesis 18:19:
"For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteous and justice to the end that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him."
And, therein lies the reason why Abraham. Because God knew that he had that something that was necessary to pass on God’s commandments to his son and his sons after him.
In Genesis 21, Isaac, the son of the promise is born and the two sons of Abraham go their separate ways: Isaac, the son of the promise and Ishmael, the son not of the promise.
In Genesis 22, we have an interesting dialogue between God and Abraham. To further emphasize the place of Isaac, when God calls to Abraham and Abraham says, "Here am I."
And God says, "Take now your son…"
Abraham might have responded – Which son? I have two.
God says, "Thine only son."
Again, Abraham responds, "But I have two sons."
Then God says, "The son whom thou loveth."
Then Abraham says, "But, I love them both."
And God responds, "Isaac."
And we are now told the story of the offering of Isaac and God’s provision of a substitute and God’s further blessing of Abraham.
From that point in the Biblical text, the focus begins to shift to Isaac, the son of the promise, and to his sons, Jacob and Esau. According to the right of inheritance, Esau should have been in line to inherit the lion’s share of Isaac’s possessions. But Jacob, whose name means "supplanter" was chosen instead and we might ask the question, Why Jacob?
The answer is to be found, again, in the Biblical text in Genesis 25:32-24.
In verse 34, we are told that Esau despised his birthright. Jacob, on the other hand, was ambitious – we might even say overly ambitious. Esau, on the other hand had no respect or regard for his inheritance, but Jacob did. Not just for the inheritance but for the tradition and the teaching of his fathers. It further appears that his mother, Rebekah, instinctively knew this. Now, we have another division with Esau going to the south into the land of Edom and Jacob and his sons remaining in the land of the promise.
Let’s briefly note for purposes of our historical development that Jacob has twelve sons by two wives and two concubines.
The first wife, Leah, delivers Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.
Rachel delivers Joseph and Benjamin.
Leah’s handmaiden, Zilpah, has Gad and Asher.
Rachel’s handmaiden, Bilhah, delivers Dan and Naphtali.
Each one of the sons becomes the head of what is later known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Although there is no tribe of Joseph, Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim receive what is essentially a double portion. And, Levi, from whom will spring forth the priestly leaders, will actually have no inheritance in the land.
All of these descendants of Jacob wind up in Egypt where they live in the land of Goshen for some 400 years. The religious situation is such that they are so surrounded by Egyptian paganism and polytheism that they forget the name of their God. Then we are introduced to a Hebrew shepherd by the name of Moses tending sheep in the land of Midian, who, at the age of 80 years, is called by God to go back into Egypt to appear before Pharaoh and say, "Let my people go."
And with Moses, we begin a whole new period in Hebrew history that gives us much more information and a much deeper insight into the historical foundation of Biblical faith.
