RE: Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis
November 21, 2018 at 9:41 am
(This post was last modified: November 21, 2018 at 9:43 am by GrandizerII.)
The LORD's Covenant With Abram
Genesis 15
"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."
These were God's words of comfort and reassurance uttered to Abram in a vision. A shield, and a very great reward. This was what God was like to the ancient Israelites ... a protector of the weak and vulnerable, and a desirable end in its own right.
But an understandably unsatisfied Abram, still childless at this point, did not yet fully trust in the LORD to bear him the promised offspring, and expressed concern that his household servant would instead be his heir. Here, Abram dares to point his finger at God and reminds him of his situation.
"You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
Nevertheless, the LORD reassures him again that he will eventually have a son in his own flesh and blood. And uncountable offspring. Taking him outside, the LORD utters the following words to Abram:
"Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them."
That's how many descendants Abram would have. Or least that's the number God promised Abram in this book.
After this, Abram believed God, "and he credited it to him as righteousness". This would later be quoted in at least two different places in the New Testament and interpreted differently in each case, but it's clear that Abram's trust in the LORD (despite the persistent hurdle of childlessness) was counted as a merit on the part of Abram.
Abram still had questions for God, though. And he wanted to be sure that his descendants would really inherit the land of Canaan (where Abram was living at the time). So he asked for a sign from God, and God instructed him to bring "a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon". Which means some bloody sacrifices were about to occur.
Abram then cuts the heifer, the goat, and the ram into two halves each, arranging "the halves opposite each other". The birds, dead that they were, were left intact.
Then some "birds of prey" arrive at the scene to have a bite of the dead animal bodies, but Abram would have nothing of that, and manages to shoo them all away. Totally unnecessary detail if you ask me, but whatever.
At sunset, Abram falls into deep sleep, with thick dreary darkness hovering over him, and more words from God uttered to him:
"Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
Notice here the kind of character God is. God does not act "impulsively" so to speak, but waits for the right time or right conditions to do his thing. Once the sin of the Amorites was at its peak, God would ensure that the descendants of Abram would take over the land of Canaan. Until then, they would have to endure a few decades of suffering and oppression by "a country not their own" (i.e., the country of Egypt). After that would be escape, and then the takeover of Canaan. And these will be fun stories to talk about later on, in Genesis and the rest of the Torah/Pentateuch (along with Joshua).
Once the darkness had fully set, "a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces". It's not clear in this passage if Abram was awake to see what was happening, or whether he was seeing this in his sleep, but that was the divine sign that Abram had asked for. And thus the LORD's covenant with Abram was made, promising Abram the whole land of Canaan:
"To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
And that is all for today. Not an exciting passage, but still a milestone event of some sort (plot-wise).
Genesis 15
"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."
These were God's words of comfort and reassurance uttered to Abram in a vision. A shield, and a very great reward. This was what God was like to the ancient Israelites ... a protector of the weak and vulnerable, and a desirable end in its own right.
But an understandably unsatisfied Abram, still childless at this point, did not yet fully trust in the LORD to bear him the promised offspring, and expressed concern that his household servant would instead be his heir. Here, Abram dares to point his finger at God and reminds him of his situation.
"You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
Nevertheless, the LORD reassures him again that he will eventually have a son in his own flesh and blood. And uncountable offspring. Taking him outside, the LORD utters the following words to Abram:
"Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them."
That's how many descendants Abram would have. Or least that's the number God promised Abram in this book.
After this, Abram believed God, "and he credited it to him as righteousness". This would later be quoted in at least two different places in the New Testament and interpreted differently in each case, but it's clear that Abram's trust in the LORD (despite the persistent hurdle of childlessness) was counted as a merit on the part of Abram.
Abram still had questions for God, though. And he wanted to be sure that his descendants would really inherit the land of Canaan (where Abram was living at the time). So he asked for a sign from God, and God instructed him to bring "a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon". Which means some bloody sacrifices were about to occur.
Abram then cuts the heifer, the goat, and the ram into two halves each, arranging "the halves opposite each other". The birds, dead that they were, were left intact.
Then some "birds of prey" arrive at the scene to have a bite of the dead animal bodies, but Abram would have nothing of that, and manages to shoo them all away. Totally unnecessary detail if you ask me, but whatever.
At sunset, Abram falls into deep sleep, with thick dreary darkness hovering over him, and more words from God uttered to him:
"Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
Notice here the kind of character God is. God does not act "impulsively" so to speak, but waits for the right time or right conditions to do his thing. Once the sin of the Amorites was at its peak, God would ensure that the descendants of Abram would take over the land of Canaan. Until then, they would have to endure a few decades of suffering and oppression by "a country not their own" (i.e., the country of Egypt). After that would be escape, and then the takeover of Canaan. And these will be fun stories to talk about later on, in Genesis and the rest of the Torah/Pentateuch (along with Joshua).
Once the darkness had fully set, "a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces". It's not clear in this passage if Abram was awake to see what was happening, or whether he was seeing this in his sleep, but that was the divine sign that Abram had asked for. And thus the LORD's covenant with Abram was made, promising Abram the whole land of Canaan:
"To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
And that is all for today. Not an exciting passage, but still a milestone event of some sort (plot-wise).
