Trekking Genesis

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 12:14 . .When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw how very beautiful
the woman was.

When men talk about a woman's beauty, they're not talking about the sterling
character of a woman like Ruth; no, they're talking about the physical attributes of
a woman like Queen Vashti in the book of Esther. (cf. Gen 6:1-2)

How did the Egyptians see Sarai was a looker? Well, the dress code for women in
her day was nothing like the totally unflattering burqas that Islam imposes upon
women in our day.

Depicted in a wall painting in the tomb of an Egyptian nobleman named Khnum
hotpe, at Beni-Hasen on the Nile river, dating from about 1900 BC, is a Semitic
troupe passing customs to enter Egypt. The women are wearing form-fitting, highly
colored, sleeveless wrap-around dresses whose hems stop at mid calf. Their
décolletage swoops from the left shoulder to just under the opposite armpit, leaving
that side's shoulder completely bare.

Their hair-- fastened by a thin white ribbon around the forehead and covered with
neither a shawl, nor a scarf, nor a hijab --falls loosely over bosoms and shoulders,
and there are stylish little curls just in front of the ears. Adorning their feet are dark
brown, half-length boots. In attire like that, a woman filled out in all the right
places would be very easy to notice.

• Gen 12:15a . . Pharaoh's courtiers saw her and praised her to Pharaoh,

Webster's has a couple of definitions for "courtiers". They are people in attendance
at a royal court; and they are also people who practice flattery. Apparently
Pharaoh's toadies kept their eyes out for appealing women to add to their
sovereign's harem; and thus gain for themselves his favor and approval.

Their sighting of Sarai wasn't just happenstance. Entry into Egypt in those days was
tightly controlled and the only way in was past specified check points. At one time
in Egypt's past, there existed a long chain of forts, watchtowers, and strong points
designed to watch over immigration and possible invasions by the Sand People from
the east. The "wall" stretched north and south across the desert approximately
along the same path as today's Suez Canal. Each check point was manned by
armed soldiers accompanied by officials of the Egyptian government; sort of like
the customs agents and border patrols of the modern world today.

• Gen 12:15b . . and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's palace.

Not good. A woman in the harems of that day would never have a home of her own
nor freedom to travel. Never would she be allowed to pursue romance nor to
associate with her friends and relatives ever again.

• Gen 12:16 . . And because of her, it went well with Abram; he acquired sheep,
oxen, jack donkeys, male and female slaves, jenny donkeys, and camels.

Life is much better when you're connected. Because of Sarai, Abram was a bit of a
celebrity and thus treated very well.

So Abram is getting rich. After all, his sister is in the White House. You think
anyone is going to cheat him or make him pay full price for goods and services? No
way. If anything, people were more than willing to give him lots of expensive gifts
and deep discounts, hoping to remain in Pharaoh's good graces by doing so.

But what's going on in Pharaoh's boudoir at night? There is just no way Abram
could block that out of his mind. If only he had believed God's promise, Sarai's
honor wouldn't be in such immediate danger of compromise. Abram could have
swaggered into Egypt totally fearless of Pharaoh and his country; and kept his wife
within her own camp, safe and snug among her own people.

• Gen 12:17 . . But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his household with mighty
plagues on account of Sarai, the wife of Abram.

I, for one, don't blame Pharaoh for any of that. It was totally Abram's fault.
Pharaoh and his courtiers were duped into thinking Sarai was available. How could
they have known she was spoken for?

Our hero didn't tell the Egyptians about his adventures with The Lord. All he could
think about was how to survive and stay alive. ¡Error! If he had instead been a
faithful witness for God, rather than looking out for his own skin, I think things
would have gone much better for Abram and Sarai down there in Egypt.

But now they will be forcibly deported; in shame and disgrace. So, instead of being
a positive influence for their god, they became a very bad one. God's people are
supposed to believe in their god, and reflect that confidence to others; and at the
very least they ought to be honest. And God's people should never be reluctant to
tell others about their religion even if those others appear to be pagan heathens.

• Gen 12:18-20 . . Pharaoh sent for Abram and said: What is this you have done to
me! Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say "She is my
sister" so that I took her as my wife? Now, here is your wife; take her and begone!
And Pharaoh put men in charge of him, and they sent him off with his wife and all
that he possessed.

One can scarcely blame Mr. Pharaoh for blowing his top. Nobody likes to be duped,
especially monarchs.

Just exactly how Pharaoh found out that Sarai was Abram's wife is not said.
Probably the very same way King Abimelech discovered the truth about her in a
later incident. Here's how that will go when we get there later on. (Gen 20:1-7)

From a totally humanistic point of view, it would appear that God is terribly unfair. I
mean, after all, Pharaoh and Abimelech couldn't possibly have known that Sarai
was married, especially when both she and her husband were telling people
otherwise. But these incidents are valuable to reveal that sin is just a wee bit more
complicated than Man's inadequate little sense of right and wrong and fairness is
able to fully comprehend.

Well anyway; as the texts says: Abram acquired female slaves during this brief
stopover in Egypt; and quite possibly one of their names was-- you guessed it
Ms. Hagar: the mother of Ishmael, the father of the Arab world; from whence
ultimately came Muhammad and the religion of Islam. Just goes to show that chaos
theory may not be 100% right, but it isn't 100% wrong either.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 13:1-2 . . From Egypt, Abram went up into the Negeb, with his wife and all
that he possessed, together with Lot. Now Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and
gold.

The word for "rich" is from kabad (kaw-bad') which means: to be heavy, i.e. in
either a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull) or in a good sense (numerous, rich,
honorable); causatively, to make weighty (in the same two senses); viz: which is
why, I guess, we call the rich "loaded"

So the rich are not only wealthy, but weighted down too. It was a piece of cake for
Abram to pull up stakes and move around wherever God wanted before he got so
wealthy. Now it will be an undertaking especially without power tools and
mechanized conveyances.

NOTE: Though it's not stated, I think it's probably pretty safe to assume that Lot
enjoyed the very same privileged status in Egypt that his uncle Abram did due to
their mutual relationship to Sarai; so that Lot came up out of Egypt a very
prosperous cattle baron.

• Gen 13:3-7a . . And he proceeded by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to
the place where his tent had been formerly, between Bethel and Ai, the site of the
altar that he had built there at first; and there Abram invoked the Lord by name.

. . . Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the
land could not support them staying together; for their possessions were so great
that they could not remain together. And there was quarreling between the
herdsmen of Abram's cattle and those of Lot's cattle.

Pasture can support only so many head of cattle per acre, and the land was just
recently recovering from a famine. Lot's drovers were squabbling with Abram's over
available grass; and probably the available water too. If those men had barbed wire
in that day, I'm sure they would have strung it. Then the shootin' would have really
started up!

• Gen 13:7b . .The Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land.

How do you suppose Abram's and Lot's squabbling looked to the pagans? When
God's people can't get along, outsiders become disgusted with them and they sure
won't be influenced for God in a good way when Moses' people are fighting amongst
themselves like that.

Years ago, when I was a young welder just starting out on my own, I rented a small
room in a daylight basement from a man who was the senior pastor of a medium
sized Seventh Day Adventist church in the Portland Oregon area. He and his wife
radiated the luster of polished spirituality whenever I spoke with them out in the
yard, but in my location under the floor of the house, I could overhear their bitter
quarrels upstairs behind closed doors. Was I favorably inclined to attend his
church? No.

• Gen 13:8-9a . . Abram said to Lot: Let there be no strife between you and me,
between my herdsmen and yours, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before
you?

Palestine was still pretty much a wild frontier in the 20th century BC. Actually very
little of it was private property. And what with no Bureau of Land Management, the
land out west from Ur was pretty much up for grabs to anyone who had the moxie
to take it. Abram and Lot remind me very much of early day American pioneers and
cattle barons.

• Gen 13:9b . . Let us separate.

It wasn't an easy thing for Abram to be firm with his kin, and it was a weakness in
his spiritual life from day-one. He and Sarai were supposed to leave their kin and
come to Canaan alone. He wasn't supposed to take along a nephew. But Abram just
couldn't leave Lot behind. So now he and Lot are separating with bad blood
between them. And Lot's future is very uncertain down in that God-less country
away from his uncle Abram's patronage.

• Gen 13:9c . . if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.

Even though there was some bad blood now between Abram and Lot, the old boy
remained a gracious man. Being the senior of the two, Abram could have claimed
first dibs on the land. But he waived the privileges of rank, and gave his nephew
the choice. But, in point of fact, Abram made Lot a promise that he could in no way
guarantee to honor; because it was God who ultimately dictated where Abram was
to dwell in the land.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 13:10 . . Lot looked about him and saw how well watered was the whole
plain of the Jordan, all of it— this was before the Lord had destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah —all the way to Zoar, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.

The Jordan Valley slopes southward like a ramp from an altitude of roughly 685 feet
below sea level at the Sea of Galilee to an elevation of 1,384 feet below sea level at
the Dead Sea. Water was Lot's primary interest and there was plenty of it down
there in that valley 4,000 years ago. Along with overflow from the Sea of Galilee,
was an abundance of wadis and streams draining into the Jordan Valley from the
highlands.

In its heyday, the Jordan poured about 1.3 billion cubic feet of water per year into
the Dead Sea. Today-- due to dams, diversions, and pumping --only about 2 or 3
percent of those ancient billions reach the sea. In the last century alone, the Sea's
level declined 80 feet in just the sixty years between 1939 and 1999.

Eighty feet may not seem like much depth, but when it's considered that the
surface area of the Dead Sea is roughly 235 square miles; we're looking at
something like 3.56 cubic miles of water. If all that water were to be packed into a
single cube, it's sides would be 1.527 miles in length, i.e. 8,062 feet. There are
currently no man-made structures on earth that tall.

In Abram's day, the Jordan Valley in the region between the Dead Sea and the Sea
of Galilee was well watered, fertile, and very appealing to a cattle baron like Lot. It
had some pretty good jungles too: home to lots of fierce lions at one time.

NOTE: The Israel of today is just a dried up husk of its former environmental glory.
For example: Israel's lions, now extinct, once inhabited forests (Jer 5:6) mountain
caves (Nahum 2:12) and the Jordan Valley (Jer 49:19). Israel's bears (2Kgs 2:24)
were eradicated in the early 20th century. The closest kin to the bears that once
roamed wild there are the Syrian brown bears kept in the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem.

What the world sees today in Palestine little resembles the land of milk and honey
into which Joshua brought Moses' people some 3,500 years ago; and there's their
own breaches of the covenant to thank for it.

"Even all nations shall say: Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What
meaneth the heat of this great anger?

. . .Then men shall say: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God
of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth out of the
land of Egypt: for they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods
whom they knew not, and whom He had not given unto them: and the anger of the
Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in
this book" (Deut 29:24-27)

A menu of the curses is on public display at Lev 26:3-38, Deut 27:15-26, and Deut
28:1-69.

• Gen 13:11a . . So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot
journeyed eastward.

Today a descent down to Jericho from Bethel (modern Beitin) would be close to a
4,000 foot drop in elevation. Whooee! That'll sure make your ears pop!

• Gen 13:11b . .Thus they parted from each other;

To me, it would have made better horse sense in a foreign land to consolidate their
holdings-- sort of an Abraham & Lot Inc. --instead of maintaining two separate
independent enterprises. But I guess Lot had ambitions and wanted to be his own
man.

Either Lot had more mettle than uncle Abram; or was just downright reckless
because he had the moxie to go off on his own into a totally strange region with
absolutely no assurance that God would travel with him.

Explorers like Columbus, Cortez, Balboa, and Magellan had that kind of nerve; they
were strong, arrogant, and confident. But I don't think Abram ever was like that. I
seriously doubt he would have left Haran at all had not God called him to it. I
believe it was only the assurance of divine patronage that gave Abram the courage
to travel far from home in that day.

• Gen 13:12a . . Abram remained in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the
cities of the Plain,

Cities in that day didn't in any way resemble the huge sprawling metropolises of the
present. We would no doubt regard them as little more than fortified hamlets.
Some of the cities of the plain were Sodom, Admah, Zeboiim, Gomorrah, and Bela;
which is Zoar. Jericho was in existence then too and no doubt a major population
center in those parts.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 13:12b . . pitching his tents near Sodom.

Logistically that was a pretty sensible arrangement. By living amongst those cities,
Lot had a ready market for his livestock; and a source of goods and services he
could use out on the ranch. There was something special about Sodom that
magnetized him though because he eventually moved his family into town.

I think Mrs. Lot may have had a little something to do with that. Not too many
women enjoy rough-country living out in the middle of nowhere. Most prefer being
near the conveniences of neighbors, shopping, and services.

• Gen 13:13 . . Now the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked sinners against the
Lord.

The precise location of ancient Sodom is uncertain. Some feel it was sited at the
south end of the Dead Sea; but it's difficult to know for sure. According to Gen
14:1-3, the communities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar were
situated in an area of the Jordan Valley the Bible labels "the vale of Siddim; which
is the salt sea". Meaning of course that it was the salt sea when somebody wrote
that section but wasn't always inundated in the ancient past.

The Hebrew word for Siddim means flats; viz: a flood plain; for example river
valleys; which are of course subject to seasonal flooding. Personally, if it were me;
I would have emplaced my community at the north end of the vale rather than
south since the north end was the better location for a ready supply of fresh water
from the Jordan River for homes and farming.

The author's choice of words is curious. The flatlanders weren't just sinners; they
were "very wicked" sinners; and not just very wicked sinners, but very wicked
sinners "against" the Lord; which suggests outright insolence, impudence, and
defiance; viz: standing up to God and asserting one's independence.

NOTE: Everything in Genesis occurred quite a few years prior to the institution of
the Ten Commandments so God couldn't prosecute the vale's people for breaking
any one specific law as per the covenant that Moses' people agreed upon with God
in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. He actually came down on them
for pretty much the same reason He came down on the antediluvians: for ignoring
Him.

"And Yhvh said: My Spirit shall not strive with man forever (Gen 6:3a)

"And this is the condemnation: light is come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)

John 3:19 is pretty much a blanket indictment that God can use any time He wishes
to justify coming down on people.

How could the people of the vale be adjudged defiant if they had no clue God
disapproved their lifestyle? Well; it's interesting that we today tend to count only
published men like Isaiah and Jeremiah as prophets. But God has had numbers of
prophets out and about in the ancient world whose names we've never heard of.

For example: at 1Kgs 19:14, Elijah complained that he was one man alone standing
for God in Israel; but unknown to him, Obadiah had hidden a hundred prophets in a
cave. (1Kgs 18:4 and 18:13)

Abram is listed as a prophet (Gen 20:7). And in point to fact, God has had prophets
out and about ever since Abel (Luke 11:50-51). But the most notable prophet in
the days of Sodom and Gomorrah was a priest named Melchizedek. (Gen 14:18-20.
According to Mal 2:7, priests aren't just for rituals; but also for teaching.

Malachi labels priests Jehovah's "messengers" which is from the very same Hebrew
word for angels; which tells me we should never assume that the word "angel" eo
ipso indicates a celestial emissary. It could just as easily be a human agent on a
divine mission.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 13:14-15 . . And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had parted from him:
Raise your eyes and look out from where you are, to the north and south, to the
east and west, for I give all the land that you see to you and your offspring forever.

Oh the irony of it! If Lot went off only to the Jordan Valley to stake a claim for his
own progeny, then he didn't go far enough away because from Abram's vantage he
could see eastward clear across the Jordan valley and over into Moab (the
Hashemite kingdom of Jordan) and far past the five cities of the Plain. So Abram,
and his progeny, were promised eternal ownership of not only the highlands of
Canaan, but in addition, also the whole Jordan Valley where Lot moved-- and
beyond.

• Gen 13:16 . . I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one
can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring too can be counted.

I just hope Abram remembers what God said the next time he feels inclined to fib in
order to save his skin. Will he never catch on that he cannot die until God makes
good on the promises regarding his progeny?

Abram's biological progeny descend not only from Isaac, but also from Ishmael and
the other boys too. But his progeny shouldn't be construed to be exactly equal to
the number of bits of dust that make up the earth's soil. The expression is a
common Old Testament idiom for very large quantities (e.g. Gen 41:49,
Josh 11:4, Judg 7:12, 1Sam 13:5, 2Sam 17:11, 1Kgs 4:29, Job 29:18, Ps 78:27;
et al).

The meaning is that they would simply become too numerous to count. Later God
will liken the number of Abram's offspring to the sand at the beach. Same thing
there too-- not the precise number of grains, but a number so great that any
attempt to count them would be futile; and the stars too.

Abram lived somewhere in the neighborhood of the 20th century BC; roughly five
hundred years after completion of the Pyramid of Khafre at Giza. So Abram lived
about 4,000 years ago. Millions and millions of Abram's kin have lived and died
since then. And it's not over yet, not by a long sea mile.

NOTE: Not only were civilizations in Egypt great at this time, but elsewhere too; for
example the ancient city of Harappa that was once located in the Indus River Valley
of northwest India: a site now located in Pakistan. Harappa was a fairly large city of
something like 23,500 people; and still in its heyday during the time of Abram. And
the Maya, famous for their apocalyptic calendar; were blooming in and around what
is now the Yucatán Peninsula. By the time of Abram, people had really spread out
from the tower of Babel; and world development was happening by leaps and
bounds.

In Messiah's future millennial kingdom, Abram's people will multiply exceedingly
because they will all enjoy very long life spans and engender large families. The
Bible says that a man of 100 years age in Israel will be regarded as a mere child in
that era. (Isa 65:20)

Abram's offspring truly cannot be tallied; not now or ever. Only The Almighty could
ever get the number right because all the souls belonging to Abram, among both
the dead and the living, have become so numerous.

• Gen 13:17 . . Up, walk about the land, through its length and its breadth, for I
give it to you.

It's notable that God said: I give it to you. The land was Abram's possession right
then and there and no one can ever take it away from him. Not even Almighty God
can take it away from Abram now because once The Lord gives His word, He is
bound to it like a ball and chain (Rom 11:28-29). That should be a comfort to
Moses' people, throughout all the ages, that once God gives His word on something,
He has to make good on it.

"May your steadfast love reach me, O Lord, your deliverance, as you have
promised. I shall have an answer for those who taunt me, for I have put my trust in
your word." (Ps 119:41-42)

Although Abram lacked sovereign control over his real estate at the time, it was his
possession nevertheless.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 13:18a . . And Abram moved his tent, and came to dwell at the terebinths of
Mamre, which are in Hebron;

Hebron (Hevron) itself is today a city of over 70,000 people located about 20 miles
south of Jerusalem at an elevation of 3,050 feet above sea level. Hebron is sacred
in Jewish history; but a very dangerous place to live today what with all the
Palestinian troubles going on in Israel.

The Hebrew word for "terebinths" is 'elown (ay-lone') which means: an oak, or
other strong tree. Oaks, especially the very old large ones, were important meeting
places. Near where I live in Oregon, there's a site called Five Oaks, named after the
five oak trees that once thrived there. In pre white man days, local Native
Americans met at those trees for pow-wows.

Mamre, an Amorite named up ahead in Gen 14:24, was one of Abram's allies. The
oaks of Mamre were apparently named after him; who some believe was a local
sheik or a chieftain.

In Abram's day; Canaan was thinly populated. It was in fact a land of no law and no
order. The inhabitants lived in a state of constant readiness. The widely scattered
townships were veritable islands in the middle of nowhere; and vulnerable to daring
attacks by the desert nomads. Suddenly, and when least expected, those predatory
nomads sprang upon unwary people with indiscriminate butchery, carrying off cattle
and crops. It was probably for that very reason that Abram was allied with Mamre.

• Gen 13:18b . . and he built an altar there to the Lord.

Abram's altars testify to the fact that his worship wasn't restricted to a special
location. Later; Israel's covenanted law would do that very thing; but Abram wasn't
under its jurisdiction so he was at liberty to sacrifice wherever it pleased him. This
is an important Bible axiom; viz: law cannot be broken where it doesn't exist. (Rom
4:15, Rom 5:13, Gal 3:17)

NOTE: It was in the interests of trade that Egypt, in 3,000 BC, was the first great
power to stretch out its tentacles towards Canaan. A hard diorite tablet, listing the
details of a ship's cargo of timber for Pharaoh Snefru, is stored in the museum at
Palermo. Its date is 2,700 BC. Dense woods covered the slopes of Lebanon then.
The excellent wood from its cedars and meru (a kind of conifer) were just what the
Pharaohs needed for their elaborate building schemes.

Five hundred years prior to Abram's day, there was already a flourishing import and
export trade on the Canaanite coast. Egypt exchanged gold and spices from Nubia,
copper and turquoise from the mines at Sinai, and linen and ivory for silver from
Taurus, leather goods from Byblos, and painted vases from Crete. In the great
Phoenician dye works, well to do Egyptians had their robes dyed purple. For their
society women, they bought lapis-lazuli blue-- eyelids dyed blue were all the rage
--and stibium, a cosmetic which was highly prized by the ladies for touching up
their eyelashes.

The coastal communities of Canaan presented a picture of cosmopolitan life which
was busy, prosperous, and even luxurious; but just a few miles inland lay a world
of glaring contrast. Bedouin attacks, insurrections, and feuds between towns were
common.

A much more profitable enterprise than pillaging villages in malicious and barbaric
fashion, was to hold them hostage; kind of like the plight of the villagers in the
movie: The Magnificent Seven. To avoid being murdered and ravaged, the villagers
gave the lion's share of their Gross National Product to the bullies. It was just that
sort of scenario that resulted in the capture of the cities of the Plain while Lot was
living down there among them.

ASIDE: Though I would not care to live in Abram's day; I can't help but envy some
of his advantages. There was no light pollution, no air pollution, no water pollution,
no soil pollution, and no aquifer pollution. All his fruits and vegetables, all of them,
were 100% organic.

Nobody fattened pigs, sheep, fowl, and cows with genetically modified grains--
overcrowded and standing ankle deep in their own droppings --in an intrinsically
unsanitary concentrated animal feeding operation; so there was no E.coli 0157:H7
to fear.

All livestock was grass-fed outdoors on open pasture lands, which produces a
medically, and nutritionally, superior grade of meat compared to grain. The cattle
themselves were healthier too and had no need of antibiotics to keep them from
getting sick in nasty, dirty feed lots. And chickens weren't hybridized to produce
breasts so immense and out of proportion that the poor things can scarcely stand
up on their own two feet.

NOTE: Most kinds of cattle are herbivores, i.e. they are not designed to subsist on
grain. If they are fed too much grain for too long a time, cattle develop digestive
and intestinal problems; possibly even death. However, seeing as how grain fattens
cattle faster than roughage, grain is the preferred fodder in feed lots where cows
are on their final steps to the slaughter.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 14:1 . . Now, when King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King
Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of nations.

Shinar was the whole of Babylonia; Ellasar was the leading tribe in its southern
part; and Elam was the original kingdom of Persia.

The Hebrew word for "nations" is gowy (go'-ee) a word wielded by some Jews as a
racial epithet to indicate non-Jewish peoples. But gowy isn't really all that specific.
The people of Israel are called gowy at Gen 18:18, and Jacob, the father of the
twelve tribes, is called a gowy at Gen 25:23. Gowy really just simply indicates a
massing; e.g. a herd of animals and/or a horde of locusts; which when extended,
indicates a particular people; e.g. Iroquois, Maya, Inuit, Chinese, Pacific Islanders,
Japanese, and/or Arabs, et al.

Mr. Tidal was probably the chief of a large confederacy consisting of mongrel, multi
racial people; possibly a tribal area in northeastern Babylonia. America is a perfect
example of Tidal's confederacy because it's a melting pot of assimilation,
intermarriage, and diverse races, cultures, languages, and nationalities. The only
true Americans in America are its indigenous peoples. Everybody else is either an
immigrant or the posterity of an immigrant.

At one time, Amraphel was thought to be Hammurabi; the great king of Babylon.
But it's now widely agreed that Hammurabi didn't arrive on the scene until many
years later. The other kings remain a mystery too, having not yet been
archaeologically identified.

• Gen 14:2 . . made war on King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King
Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar,

None of these men were "kings" in the fashion that we today think of royalty. They
were more like mayors, sheiks, or chieftains. And they didn't actually have
extensive realms; nor very much jurisdiction beyond the very community each one
dominated.

Canaanite cities weren't really serious municipalities; but rather more like fortified
hamlets-- much like the strategic villages in Viet Nam; except that just about all
Canaanite towns were enclosed within stone walls made of rough boulders about six
feet in diameter. Archaeologists call this type of wall a Cyclops wall. The boulder
walls were usually combined with an escarpment and reinforced with earthen
revetments.

Canaanite towns doubled as forts; places of refuge in time of danger, whether from
sudden attack by nomadic bands or from civil wars among the Canaanites
themselves. Towering perimeter walls invariably enclosed small areas, not much
bigger than Ste. Peter's Square in Rome. Each of these town-forts had a water
supply, but weren't really suitable for housing large populations in permanent
homes.

Inside the walls lived only the chieftain, the aristocracy, wealthy merchants, and
even sometimes Egyptian representatives. The rest of the inhabitants of the
township-- the ranchers and farmers, the vassals and the servants and the serfs--
lived outside the walls; often in tents or simple mud hogans or wattle huts.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all lived in tents; viz: pavilions.

In Tell el-Hesi, probably Eglon, the town proper was just over an acre. In Tell es
Safi, formerly Gath, it was twelve acres. In Tell el-Zakariyah, formerly Megiddo, the
same amount. Gezer, on the road from Jerusalem to Jaffa, occupied just over
twenty acres. Even in the more built up area of Jericho, the inner fortified wall, the
Acropolis proper, enclosed a space of little more than five acres; yet Jericho was an
important city and one of the strongest fortresses in the country.

So the five cities of the Plain were nothing to brag about-- well, maybe in their day
they might have been notable enough amongst their contemporaries.

• Gen 14:3 . . all the latter joined forces at the Valley of Siddim, now the Salt Sea.

In its early history; the valley was home to the Sedom Lagoon. Back then, water
from the Red Sea was able to ebb in and out of the lagoon because the region
hasn't always been land-locked like it is today. At one time the Jordan River had an
easy outlet to the gulf of Aqaba. But over time, tectonic forces altered the region;
preventing drainage into the gulf and trapping water in a huge basin from which
they cannot now escape.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 14:4a . .Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer,

Apparently El Ched was the instigator behind the extortion scheme holding Sodom
and its neighbors economically hostage. The other kings who came along with him
to Canaan were just reinforcements to back his play. You have to wonder how The
Ched ever found the Valley of Siddim in the first place and what in the world
motivated him to travel so far from home.

Ched's home turf, Elam, is a well-known tract, partly mountainous, whose western
boundary, starting on the northeast side of the Persian Gulf, practically followed the
course of the lower Tigris. It was bounded on the north by Media, on the east by
Persia and on the west by Babylonia. The Assyro-Babylonians called the tract
Elamtu, expressed ideographically by the Sumerian characters for Nimma or
Numma, which seems to have been its name in that language. As Numma, or Elam,
apparently mean height, or the like, these names were probably applied to it on
account of its mountainous nature.

Another name by which it was known in early times was Ashshan-- or Anshan --or
Anzan, (Anzhan) --one of its ancient cities. The great capital of the tract, however,
was Susa (Shushan), whence its Greek name of Susiana, interchanging with
Elymais, from the semitic Elam. Shushan is famous for its stories of Esther and
Nehemiah.

The modern-day city of Ahvaz Iran is a pretty good locator for the region of Elam. If
you have a map handy you can readily see just how far The Ched traveled to reach
the Jordan Valley. Even if he came straight over by helicopter, it's at least 780
miles.

It's amazing the distances that conquerors traveled on foot and the backs of
animals in ancient times. Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps, with
elephants no less, to attack northern Italy. (The Alps have so eroded since that
Hannibal would have difficulty following the same track today.) But even just
getting to the far sides of those mountain ranges from Carthage was itself an
arduous journey sans mechanical conveyances. It's no surprise then that the
Second Punic War lasted nigh unto seventeen years.

In the past; it took armies a long time just to get to the battlefields before they
even did any fighting. Invaders from China thought nothing of skirting the
Himalayas and entering India via the Khyber Pass in order to conduct campaigns in
the Ganges River Valley. I really have to wonder sometimes how commanders kept
their armies from becoming discouraged by all that travel and by all that time away
from home.

That situation actually befell Alexander the Great. After eight years and 17,000
miles, his weary army refused to campaign anymore in India and mutinied at the
Hyphasis River (today's Beas). Abandoning his ambition to conquer lands and
peoples more distant to the east of Greece than any man before him, including his
father Philip, the young commander had no choice but to turn back.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 14:4b . . and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

El Ched wouldn't get wind of that right away of course. There was no email, no
radio, no sat-com, no land line, no snail mail, no cells, nor television, nor telegraph,
nor aircraft, nor motorized conveyances in that day so it would take some time for
an overland caravan to return and tell him how the federation of five towns in the
Valley refused to cough up their payments.

Meanwhile the local sheiks had some time to prepare themselves for attack while
The Ched organized an expeditionary force.

• Gen 14:5-7 . . In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with
him came and defeated the Rephaim at Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, the
Emim at Shaveh-kiriathaim, and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El
paran, which is by the wilderness.

. . . On their way back they came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and subdued all
the territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who dwelt in Hazazon-tamar.

Ched took no chances that any nearby clans would come to the aid of the Valley
people. So before launching his attack against the Federation, he first subdued
everyone in the region roundabout who might be sympathetic to their cause. The
Ched was a very shrewd commander.

Dr. Nelson Glueck, a leading Palestine archaeologist, has this to say about El Ched's
conquest:

"A punitive expedition developed into an orgy of annihilation. I found that every
village in their path had been plundered and left in ruins, and the countryside laid
waste. The population had been wiped out or led away into captivity. For hundreds
of years thereafter, the entire area was like an abandoned cemetery, hideously
unkempt, with all its monuments shattered and strewn in pieces on the ground."

The invasion first crushed all the sheiks north, east, and then west of the Dead Sea
before it reached the communities of Siddim, against whom the invasion had been
mounted in the first place. The purpose was no doubt to eliminate the possibility of
an attack from the rear while Ched was occupied fighting the Federation.

Dr.Glueck identifies Ashtaroth Karnaim, where The Ched encountered the Rephaim,
as two adjacent cities in southern Syria, Tell Ashtarah and Sheikh Sa'ad, which was
called Carnaim in New Testament times. The name Ashtarah comes from the name
of the Greek moon goddess Astarte , equivalent to the Babylonian god Ishtar and
the Canaanite goddess of sensual love Ashtaroth, whose worship was one of the
sources of gross immorality among the Canaanites.

After defeating the Rephaim, Ched smashed the Horites in Mount Seir-- a
mountainous region somewhat to the southeast of the Dead Sea --Esau's future
turf. Then he went to El-Paran, in the southern wilderness, and then returned to
Kadesh, on the western side of the Dead Sea where he crushed the people in a
region that would later belong to the Amelekites. He also defeated a contingent of
the Amorites, who were very probably the dominant tribe in Canaan at that time.

Some identify Hazazon-tamar as En-Gedi. If this identification is correct, then
Hazazon may be Wady Husasah, northwest of 'Ain Jidy.

Another suggestion, which certainly seems very likely true, is that Hazazon-tamar
is the Thamara of Eusebius, Onomasticon (85:3; 210:86), the Thamaro, of Ptol.
xvi. 3. The ruin Kurnub, 20 miles west-southwest of the south end of the Dead
Sea-- on the road from Hebron to Elath-- is supposed to mark this site. My maps
aren't too detailed in that area but Karnub seems to be in a region triangulated by
Dimona, Arad, and Be'er Sheva.

Anyway, after thus neutralizing all who might stand in his way, Ched's confederated
army then turned its full attention to the five communities in the Plain. And woe
and behold, Abram's nephew Lot was right smack in the middle of it all.

• Gen 14:8-9 . .Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah,
the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar, went forth and engaged
them in battle in the Valley of Siddim: King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of
Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar-- four kings against
those five.

That was probably a wise move. If each town had remained behind its own walls,
defending against El Ched individually on its own, he could have conquered them
very easily one at a time. By combining their forces, and meeting him in the open,
they stood a much better chance. But valley dwellers were no match for a seasoned
expeditionary force. The men from Babylonia were battle-honed veterans.

• Gen 14:10 . .The Valley of Siddim was full of slime pits. The kings of Sodom and
Gomorrah fled and fell into them while the rest fled to a mountain.

The Hebrew word translated "slime pits" is be'er (be-ayr') which is everywhere but
maybe three places translated "well" as in water wells and/or cisterns. Some Bibles
translate it "bitumen pit" but bitumen and slime are interpretations rather than
translations. The pits apparently were natural features in the valley; viz: random
sink holes.

NOTE: The level of the Dead Sea dropped a record five feet in 2012; and in the
years between 1939 and 1999 it dropped eighty feet. The Sea's shrinkage has been
a major problem for decades, with its shoreline retreating as much as a mile in
some spots. The process destabilizes the ground surrounding it, causing massive
sink holes that have actually devoured whole villages.

The Hebrew word for "fell" is very ambiguous and could just as easily be translated
"got down". Compare Gen 17:3 where Abraham fell on his face. In other words: the
chieftains of Sodom and Gomorrah jumped down into some of those naturally
occurring pits like Army fox holes for cover and concealment.

• Gen 14:11-12 . . The invaders seized all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah and
all their provisions, and went their way. They also took Lot, the son of Abram's
brother, and his possessions, and departed; for he had settled in Sodom.

Talk about riches to rags! Lot went from a prosperous cattle baron to a slave in
sixty minutes (so to speak).

The word for "provisions" is 'okel (o'-kel) which means: food. Victuals were an
important spoil of war in those days when supply lines were totally nonexistent.
There were no heavy-drops from cargo planes, nor helicopters to ferry in MRE's,
medicine, FNG's, ammo, potable water, and things of that nature. When El Ched's
army needed re-supply, they had to take it from their vanquished-- ergo: they
were highly motivated; because if they wanted to eat, then they had to fight; and
they had to win.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 14:13a . . A refugee brought the news to Abram

It was a trek from Sodom to Abram's camp. He was way up in Mamre; and a goodly
portion of it uphill-- very uphill. At any rate, news of Sodom's overthrow meant that
Lot was captured; or maybe even dead. One way or the other, Abram had to find
out if his nephew was still alive-- kind of like John Wayne looking for his two nieces
in The Searchers.

• Gen 14:13b . . the Hebrew,

This is very first appearance of the word "Hebrew", which is 'Ibriy (ib-ree') and
means: an Eberite; viz: a descendant of Eber. It can also mean "the other side"
which implies that Abram may have been known as one who came from the other
side of the Euphrates river-- sort of like Mexican, Central, and South American
immigrants who cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas. But more likely he
was called Eberite because of his family's lineage. Eber was first mentioned back in
Gen 10:21.

NOTE: Hebrews weren't Jews in Abram's day; no they were Gentiles. It was Abram's
eventual progeny who became Jews-- specifically people genetically and/or
religiously associated with Judah: Jacob's fourth son: patriarch of the Messianic
tribe (Gen 49:8-12, Heb 7:14).

The word for "Jew" is yehuwdiy (yeh-hoo-dee') which means Judah-ite; and doesn't
appear in the Bible until 2Kgs 16:6; many, many years after the Exodus.

• Gen 14:13c . . who was dwelling at the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, kinsman
of Eshkol and Aner, these being Abram's allies.

Abram had become a shrewd sheik. The best way to survive on the frontier is to
team up-- especially with someone that all the others know and fear. That way
most everyone will leave you alone because they don't want to deal with your
friends. The terebinths (oaks) belonged to Mamre, a well known Amorite in that
region. His kin, Eshkol and Aner, were Abram's friends too.

That tactic pays off in many of America's penal systems too. First thing a new
inmate has to do is join a gang or otherwise he'll be prey for all of them.

• Gen 14:14a . .When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he
mustered his retainers, born into his household, numbering three hundred and
eighteen,

The word for "retainers" is chaniyk (kaw-neek') which means: initiated; i.e.
practiced. This is the one and only place in the entire Old Testament where chaniyk
is located so it's difficult to know precisely what Genesis means by it; but seeing as
how the retainers' origin is mentioned, chaniyk possibly refers to Abraham's
security forces who would of course be trained to handle weapons effectively.

Abram was their sheik by birth, rather than by conscription. So these particular
men weren't mercenaries; but rather more like his very own sons. They were men
of deep gratitude for their master's providence; and every one of them, to a man,
were more than willing to die for him.

Though Abram was by nature a man of peace, he was prepared to fight in the event
it became necessary. In the wild untamed land of Palestine 4,000+ years ago, men
without mettle didn't survive very long. And even today, it's still true that a strong
man armed, keeps his goods. (cf. Luke 11:21)

They numbered 318. If we assume that each one was married, then the number of
persons doubles to 736. If each man had at least one child, then the number triples
to 954. A plausible scenario is that Sheik Abram's camp was a community of at
least 1,000 people-- a fair sized town. When this man broke camp, it was a serious
caravan.

• Gen 14:14b . . and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

At this early date, there was neither a region, nor a town, in Canaan colonized and
named after Jacob's son Dan. There wasn't even one in Moses' day. It wasn't until
Joshua 19:40-48 that Dan's tribe received their portion of Canaan. So Dan's name
could very well be a later editorial insertion.

It's unthinkable that Abram would leave his camp and his wife, and all the women
and children unprotected while he and his warriors traveled miles from home. So
it's reasonable to expect that some of his Amorite allies remained behind to
reinforce Abram's camp while he was out of town.

• Gen 14:15a . . At night, he and his servants deployed against them and defeated
them;

Very commendable for a former city slicker. Abram, no doubt coached by Mamre,
employed excellent Bedouin guerrilla tactics against a well-armed, seasoned foe of
superior numbers. After his scouts located The Ched's caravan, Abram dogged him,
waiting for an opportunity to attack in circumstances to his advantage. When the
time came, he did it under cover of darkness, rather than in daylight; and came at
them from more than one direction, which would help to create confusion, chaos,
and panic amidst Ched's army.

El Ched's men were probably laid back, stuffed full of stolen food and sleepy with
booze; and proud of themselves for their victories; totally unsuspecting anyone
remaining in Canaan would have the moxie to take them on. Having no flares, nor
Claymores, nor barbed wire, mines, nor flashlights, night vision capability, nor
motion detectors, or early warning systems of any kind; Ched's forces were easily
surprised and routed.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 14:15b . . and he pursued them as far as Hobah,

Unfortunately this is the only place in the entire Old Testament where Hobah is
mentioned; and archaeologists have had no luck so far in discovering its exact
location.

• Gen 14:15c . .which is north of Damascus.

Many, many years later, in 1918, the Hejaz Arab Army led by T.E. Laurence
(Laurence of Arabia) would fight the Turks in this very region and drive them out of
Damascus.

Ol' Abram sure didn't want those guys to forget Canaan none too soon. It wasn't
enough to beat them at Dan; no, he ran them all the way out of the country. The
survivors of the invading army no doubt straggled back to their homelands as best
they could, amazed at this sudden, unexpected humiliating end to what had been
up till then a mighty wave of victory and conquest.

No mention of this battle has ever yet been found on any of the Babylonian or
Elamite inscriptions-- which is understandable. Ancient kings were accustomed to
boast only about their victories since defeat usually left them dead or in slavery.

• Gen 14:16 . . He brought back all the possessions; he also brought back his
kinsman Lot and his possessions, and the women and the rest of the people.

If Abram had left the Federation's people in enemy hands and rescued only his
nephew, no one would have faulted him for it. They were, after all, total strangers
and had nothing in common with either Abram or Abram's religion; being "very
wicked sinners against the Lord." But that would have been a terribly ignoble show
of charity; not to mention downright politically stupid in a land where you needed
all the friends you could get.

It's easy to imagine the tremendous amount of respect this campaign won for
Abram in the eyes of all the Canaanites. He was a great sheik in that land, no doubt
about it now. Abram beat a Babylonian army.

That was an impressive accomplishment; and a testimony to his cunning, his
dependability, and to his courage under fire. Everyone in Canaan knew now that
Abram wasn't a man to be trifled with. He's a perfect example of the old proverb:
Walk softly, and carry a big stick. Abram was no bully, yet didn't allow others to
bully him. Now if only he would quit lying to people about his relationship to Sarai.

NOTE: US President Theodore Roosevelt is famous for his comment about walking
softly, but the way he went about obtaining the Panama Canal zone was not what I
would call "soft".

• Gen 14:17 . .When he returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings with
him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, which is the
Valley of the King.

The location of the Shaveh Valley is a total mystery; this being the only place in the
entire Old Testament where it's mentioned. "Shaveh" is a transliteration of Shaveh
(shaw-vay') which means: plain or level or equal.

Some feel that the Shaveh Valley was some sort of neutral zone, like a Geneva
Switzerland; where rival sheiks could meet and talk turkey without fear of reprisal
or assassination. The Valley of the King is thought to be a special location where
kingships were publicly bestowed upon individuals-- which, if true, would imply that
Abram may have been offered an opportunity to rule a portion of Canaan.

It's not unusual for victorious military commanders to be politically popular. General
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the USA's 34th president, was one of those; and so was the
great Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh. (had the British not reneged on their
commitment to support Tecumseh's hard-won coalition of eastern tribes, the United
States east of the Mississippi river might be half its size today)
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 14:18a . . And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine;

Melchizedek's name is Malkiy-Tsedeq (mal-kee-tseh'-dek) which means: king of
right or possibly just simply righteous king; in contrast to the wickedness which
was the stock in trade of Bera, king of Sodom. I tend to think that King Mel was a
widely-accepted circuit judge in that region; a sort of one-man Supreme Court in
his day like Samuel was in his.

Salem is an early name of Jerusalem; translated from the Hebrew word Shalem
(shaw-lame') which means: peaceful.

Some make a big deal out of the bread and wine; relating it to the elements of the
Christian communion service, a.k.a. the Lord's Supper. However, the Lord's bread
was unleavened; keeping with the law of the Passover.

The Hebrew word for unleavened bread is matstsah (mats-tsaw') whereas the
Hebrew word for the bread that Mel brought is lechem (lekh'-em) which is a
nondescript word for all manner of food; it isn't limited to bakery products.

A good example of the ambiguity of lechem is the feast that Joseph ordered
prepared for his brothers (Gen 43:25-31). It wasn't a basket of Focaccia al
rosmarino; rather, an entire banquet.

There's really nothing especially symbolic about the wine either; it was a common
dinner beverage introduced to the post Flood world by none other than grampa
Noah. (Gen 9:20-21)

Mel's catering service probably brought enough food and drink for Abram's entire
detachment. They certainly deserved to be feted for their efforts, not just the old
boy himself. Mel's feast was a celebration; no doubt instigated by Mel, but
participated in by the whole region as a gesture of deep gratitude to Abram and his
men for ridding Canaan of that awful Ched person. In other words: I think that
what we're looking at here is a fiesta.

The wine that Mel brought to this event was capable of making everybody quite
drunk if they imbibed an amount beyond their tolerance. The word is yayin (yah'
yin) which means: to effervesce; wine (as fermented); by implication, intoxication.
It's the very same word used of the beverage that hammered gramps in chapter
nine.

Mel was not only a political figure in that region; but a religious figure as well.

• Gen 14:18b . . he was a priest of God Most High.

"Most High" is a brand new superlative for God at this point in Genesis. It's 'elyown
(el-yone') which means: an elevation, i.e. lofty. As a title it means: the Supreme,
or the Very Highest.

We might have thought that Abram's camp comprised the only God-fearing people
in all of Canaan. But surprise of surprises. There was another man in the land who
was a God-fearing sheik just like Abram. But Mel went one better. This man was
not just a sheik, but also a priest of the Supreme God; and he holds the honor of
being the very first official priest of God in the entire Bible; many years before
Aaron.

Abram was a prophet, a great sheik, and a great man of God; and although he did
the part of a priest for his clan-- as did Job, Noah, and others-- he was never really
an official priest nor was he ever really a true king. So Mel easily outranked Abram.
(cf. Heb 7:4-7)

True priests are mediators between God and Man; and in that capacity, have the
authority and the wherewithal to effect a reconciliation between the two whenever
there's a breakdown in diplomatic relations. Priests also have a knowledge of God;
which they have a sacred duty to dispense to their constituents. (Mal 2:7)

The Bible is completely silent about Mel's origin. It doesn't list his genealogy; no,
not even so much as his mother and father; which is very unusual because Aaronic
priests have to prove their lineage before being permitted to take office. So that, in
reality, a priest like Mel doesn't have to be related to Aaron, nor does he even have
to be particularly Jewish; nor any other specific ethnic for that matter. He just has
to be a human being because high priests are taken from among men rather than
from among angels. (Heb 5:1)

However, humanness doesn't eo ipso qualify someone for the office of
Melchizedekian priest because it's an appointment rather than a career track. (Ps
110:4, Heb 5:4-6)

Mel was definitely a Gentile because Abram (himself also a Gentile, from the region
of Iraq) had yet to engender Isaac; the father of Jacob, who was to become the
progenitor of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel; viz: the Jews. So; though
Christ was a Jew, a number of his ancestors weren't.

NOTE: The most important thing to note about Mel is that he was a priest prior to
the institution of Israel's covenanted law. Therefore, since Bible law isn't
retroactive-- viz: doesn't have ex post facto jurisdiction (Deut 5:2-4, Gal 3:17)
then Mel's constituents weren't obligated to comply with the Ten Commandments;
ergo: the Commandments cannot be used to prosecute them in heaven's court of
law (cf. Rom 4:15, Rom 5:13).

This rather outstanding advantage carries over to Christ's constituents too because
his priesthood is patterned after Mel's. (Ps 110:4, Heb 5:4-6)

Another thing to note about Mel's priesthood is that according to the letter to
Hebrews; it's a high-priest priesthood; which means that only one man at a time
can hold the office.

That right there totally invalidates Mormonism's order of Melchizedek. It also
invalidates Mormonism's Aaronic order too because Aaron's is also a high-priest
priesthood. In other words: the high priest's priesthood doesn't consist of a panel of
priests like the nine justices comprising the US Supreme Court. No, the high
priest's priesthood is a one-man show.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 14:19-20a . . He blessed him, saying: Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered
your foes into your hand.

At this point in time, Abram's relationship with God was very satisfactory. 'Elyown
had nothing critical for Mel to say of Abram; and Mel verified that God was the
reason behind Abram's success in battle. David's too.

"In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall (2Sam
22:30)

"He prepares me for battle; he strengthens me to draw a bow of bronze. (2 Sam
22:35)

"Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for
battle" (Ps 144:1)

etc.

There are Christians who, allegedly for conscience sake, are totally against all war
and violence. They fail to appreciate that peace, liberty, and human rights are
preserved in an evil world only by force of arms.

Conscientious objectors-- while refusing to put themselves in harm's way standing
guard over their family and their country, and to lend a hand in keeping the world a
relatively safe, stable place to live, sacrificing their own lives and futures if need be
--don't seem to mind taking advantage of the abundance of benefits purchased by
the blood of others whom they despise as baby killers and war mongers.

• Gen 14:20b . . And [Abram] gave him a tenth of everything.

According to Heb 7:1-4, this particular tenth regarded only the recent spoils of war;
not of all Abram's estate in its entirety. So then, tenths should be reserved for
times when you know in your heart that it was God who engineered your success.

Just exactly how King Mel disposed of Abram's tenth isn't stated; but typically
contributions back then went towards a local priest's support. This principle would
apply of course only if Mel was useful to Abram as a priest; viz: a source of spiritual
counseling and/or a mediator between himself and God, otherwise Abram would
owe him nothing.

But enough of that. A comprehensive dissertation on the Melchizedekian priesthood
is located in the New Testament's open letter to the Hebrew people.

• Gen 14:21 . .Then the king of Sodom said to Abram: Give me the persons, and
take the possessions for yourself.

Sheik Bera was very grateful to Abram, and asked only for the return of his fellow
citizens; but not for the return of their stolen goods. Abram was more than
welcome to keep it all as his reward for rescuing the people of the Plain. Although
Bera and his citizens were very wicked, this is one time I have to give him some
credit for showing excellent propriety.

But Abram refused. There was just no way he was going to get rich by exploiting
his own neighbors' misfortunes. Although he had a perfect right, within the customs
of that day, to all the spoils of war, (a tenth of which he already gave to
Melchizedek) he waived it in favor of looking out for Sheik Bera's best interests. I
tell you, this man Abram was incredibly gracious; and his manner of life, as a rule,
made his religion, and his god, look pretty good.

• Gen 14:22-23 . .But Abram said to the king of Sodom: I swear to the Lord God
Most High, Creator of heaven and earth; I will not take so much as a thread or a
sandal strap of what is yours; you shall not say: It is I who made Abram rich

When you get down to it; a person's reputation is all that really matters in life;
because it's really the only thing we take with us when we pass on. Abram didn't
want to be known as someone who got rich through the misfortunes of others. And
that is exactly what would have happened had he agreed to Bera's suggestion. You
can imagine what that would have done to his influence for God in that region; and
how it would have ruined Abram's own self respect. It would be awful indeed if
people round about gossiped that Abram's only motive for rescuing his nephew was
for profit.

Abram didn't need Bera's stuff anyway. What the heck; he had plenty back home
already. Why be greedy? I mean: how much does it really take to satisfy? Does a
man really have to own every skyscraper, every square foot of real estate, every
drop of water, every cow, pig, and chicken, every inch of agricultural land, every
fruit and vegetable seed sold around the world, every watt of electricity, every
telephone system, every share of stock in a blue chip company, every software
program, every car dealership, every oil well, every refinery, every electric
generating plant, every natural gas supplier, a monopoly on insecticide and weed
killer, every utility, and every hotel and apartment building before he feels he has
enough?

When will Walmart's corporate managers finally say "Lets stop expanding. We have
enough market share". They never will because Walmart's greed and its predatory
nature knows no bounds.

As I watched a NetFlix documentary about corn production; the producers visited a
chemical plant that makes high fructose corn syrup. The manager of the plant was
asked how much market share his product had. After answering, he was then asked
how much market share he would like to have; and he answered "all of it"

The Supreme Almighty God, who had so blessed Abram thus far, would surely
continue to do so. Abram had far more personal honor and self respect than the
predatory ENRON traders who took advantage of forest fires in California some
years ago to raise that State's electric rates.

• Gen 14:24 . . For me, nothing but what my servants have used up; as for the
share of the men who went with me-- Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre --let them take
their share.

Abram's only request was replacement of his own provisions that his troops
consumed during the mission. He didn't permit them to take a share of the spoils;
and since they were his slaves; they had no say in it. But his Amorite allies spoke
for themselves. If they wanted anything, it was their own decisions about it and
Abram didn't interfere. I mean, after all; the cities of the plain owed the Amorite
guys at least a little something as compensation for saving their bacon.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 15:1a . . Some time later, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.

This is the very first record of a vision in the Bible. The Hebrew word is machazeh
(makh-az-eh') and it appears in only four places in the entire Old Testament; which
is pretty amazing considering the volume of prophecy the Old Testament contains.

Visions aren't always visible scenes, but sometimes contain only audible words; and
this is one of those instances. It wasn't the Lord who came to Abram in a vision: it
was His word; viz: this vision was something heard rather than seen i.e. a
message.

• Gen 15:1b . . Fear not, Abram, I am a shield to you;

The vision informed Abram that Yhvh intended to protect him; which was a good
thing because quite possibly Abram at this time was feeling a bit anxious that a
counterattack might be organized up in Shinar and return to Canaan for revenge
with a much larger force than the one recently defeated.

• Gen 15:1c . .Your reward shall be very great.

In other words; his reward would be much greater than the one he just recently
forfeited. In those days, it was winner takes all; but Abram had not exercised that
option.

Below is an ancient take on the event.

T• Thereupon was the word of the Lord with Abram in a vision, saying: Fear not; for
if these men should gather together in legions and come against thee, My Word will
be thy shield: and also if these fall before thee in this world, the reward of thy good
works shall be kept, and be prepared before Me in the world to come, great
exceedingly. (Targum Jonathan)

• Gen 15:2a . . But Abram said: O Lord God, what can You give me, seeing that I
shall die childless,

Apparently Abram misunderstood God back in Gen 12:2 when He promised to make
of Abram a great nation; even though God restated the promise at Gen 12:7 and
Gen 13:15 and clearly meant Abram would engender biological progeny. However, I
think the man had grown so accustomed to Sarah's sterility that it just never
occurred to him that God's promise might actually be for real.

• Gen 15:2b . . and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

Eliezer wasn't Abram's blood kin; however, by common law in Canaan, he was
Abram's default heir apparent in the absence of legal progeny.

• Gen 15:3 . . Abram said further: Since You have granted me no offspring, my
steward will be my heir.

When a man without children died in that day, common law stipulated that his chief
steward got it all and had a legal right to pass it all on to his own son. Abram had
no real estate, but if he did, then Eliezer would get that too in the event Abram died
with no heir. Sarai? Well, she'd probably stay on as Eliezer's concubine.

But the real danger at this point wasn't to Abram's gold, silver, slaves, herds, and
women; but to the promises that God made to Abram concerning his heir. Those
would pass to Eliezer too.

• Gen 15:4-5 . .The word of The Lord came to him in reply: That one shall not be
your heir; none but your very own issue shall be your heir. He took him outside and
said: Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And
He added: So shall your offspring be.

In Abram's day, prior to the invention of optics, the only stars that people could see
with their own eyes were those in our home galaxy; the Milky Way; which consists
of an estimated 100-400 billion stars. But many of those estimated billions of stars
appear to the naked eye not as stars but as glowing clouds; viz: they cannot be
individually distinguished by the naked eye so those didn't matter to Abram when it
came to actually tallying the heavens.

The entire global sky contains roughly five or six thousand stars visible to the naked
eye. However, we can't see all those stars at once; only the ones when the sky is
dark. So then; in Abram's day, he could see at most three thousand discernible
stars from dark till dawn. God had said "if you are able to count them". Well; even
at only three thousand, the task would be difficult.

NOTE: The term "stars" may have been an ancient idiom for large numbers
of just about anything. Compare Heb 12:1 where "cloud" is a term for the same
purpose.

Anyway . . it finally sank in that God's promise was for real and that's when one of
the most significant events in history took place.

• Gen 15:6 . . And he believed in Yhvh; and He counted it to him for righteousness.

That is the very first time anything "righteous" was said about Abram in Genesis;
and it resulted not from piety, but rather, from belief.

The Hebrew word for "belief" is horribly ambiguous. 'Aman can mean, among other
things: (1) to build up or support, (2) to foster as a parent or nurse, (3) figuratively
to render (or be) firm or faithful, (4) to trust or believe, (5) to be permanent or
quiet, (6) to be morally true or certain, and (7) to rely upon.

Any choice I make from that list would be entirely arbitrary; but my money is upon
trust and reliance because at that moment, Abram began seriously pinning his
hopes on God to do something about his childless situation.

The thing to note is that Abram's hope wasn't based upon wishful thinking. No; he
had a testimony from God to justify his confidence.

According to the first chapter of Genesis; the cosmos-- all of its forms of life,
matter, and energy --is the result of intelligent design. Do people gain a degree of
righteousness when they believe that chapter is true? No; I mean, even demons
believe that chapter is true; and fat lot of good it does them because there are no
personal guarantees in that chapter; it's entirely academic.

But how about this?

"I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the One who sent
me. And this is the will of the One who sent me, that I should not lose anything of
what He gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day. For this is the will of
my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal
life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day." (John 6:38-40)

Whether people do or don't rely upon and/or trust that statement will have no
effect upon its outcome; viz: it is going to happen. However, their doubt will cost
them a degree of righteousness because John 3:38-40 isn't academic; no, it's a
personal guarantee.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 15:7a . .Then He said to him: I am The Lord who brought you out from Ur o
the Chaldeans

God here identifies Himself as Yhvh (a.k.a. Jehovah, a.k.a. Yahweh). That may
seem unimportant but there are those who claim Abram was unaware of that name
because of Ex 6:3. But it just goes to show you that sometimes the Bible is not all
that easy to understand.

One thing we should never overlook about Abram is that, although he was a
Hebrew, he was never a Jew. He and his wife Sarai were both Gentiles whom God
selected to engender the people of Israel. There was nothing particularly special
about Abram. In fact he came from a city, and a family, of idolaters. (Josh 24:2)

So God began by reminding Abram of his roots. Abram was a Babylonian; and it
was God who took an interest in him, and the one who got him out of there and
gave him a future. It wasn't Abram's idea to re-invent himself; nor was it Abram's
idea to pack up and leave his native country. Actually, if not for God's interference,
Abram would've still been back at Ur, living like a pagan.

• Gen 15:7b . . to assign this land to you as a possession.

God gave this man a future. Abram was a nobody, going nowhere in Ur. Of His own
sovereign volition, God moved into Abram's life and made a difference. He'll do the
very same thing again later on with Jacob.

Some Gentile Christians are way too puffed up with religious pride. It wouldn't hurt
a few of them to consider their own roots once in a while too because they have
absolutely nothing to brag about.

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to
live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the
air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived
among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

. . . But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive
with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have
been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show
the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ
Jesus." (Eph 2:1-7)

"Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called
"uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the
body by the hands of men)-- remember that at that time you were separate from
Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the
promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you
who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." (Eph
2:11-13)

• Gen 15:8 . . And he said: O Lord God, how shall I know that I am to possess it?

When men struck deals in those days, they gave each other a token of their word.
What Abram requested was sort of akin to a notarized signature. That's interesting
because though Abram believed God's promise of a biological heir; he didn't really
have all that much confidence in God's promise of the heir possessing Canaan. In
other words: Abram wanted a token of God's good faith.

During this dialogue, Abram has been calling God by the title 'Adonay (ad-o noy')
which means Lord, Sovereign, and/or Master (as a proper name for only God) This
is, in point of fact, the very first instance in the Bible of somebody addressing God
by that title. It is precisely what everyone should call God only when they are
serious about living in compliance with His will.

So please don't ever address your maker as Lord, Sovereign, and/or Master unless
you mean it. It is very insulting, and quite meaningless, to refer to someone as
your commander when you have no intention of doing what they say or if you're
going about it in a half-hearted manner.

"And why do you call me Lord and Master and do not what I say?" (Luke 6:46)

"A son honors his father, and a servant his lord. If I am a father, where is the honor
due me? If I am a lord, where is the respect due me?-- protests the Lord of Hosts."
(Mal 1:6)

• Gen 15:9-10 . . He answered: Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old
she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird. He brought Him all
these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not
divide the [young] bird.

Full grown turtledoves are towr (tore). Young birds are gowzal (go-zawl'); viz:
nestlings, quite possibly still covered in chick down. Of all the animals that God
specified, the gowzal is the only one that wasn't mature. How Abram knew to cut
the mature ones in two pieces is not stated.

The ritual that is about to take place amounted to a notary public. Abram wanted
God's name on the dotted line and this is the way God chose to do it. This ritual
may look silly and barbarous to modern Man, but it was serious business and may
very well have been a common custom for sealing pacts in the Canaan of that day.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 15:11 . . Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove
them away.

The only responsibility that Abram had in this ritual was to set it up. So it was his
job to protect the carcasses from damage and keep the scene clear of interference
from people and critters who had no business there.

• Gen 15:12 . . As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a
great dark dread descended upon him.

At this point, Abram is placed in a condition that is much more powerful than a
trance. It's the sleep of anesthesia-- the very same kind of sleep that God put
Adam into when he amputated material from his side to make the woman at Gen
2:21-22.

In this condition, Abram is totally powerless to either participate or to interfere; nor
would he want to anyway. It's God who's putting His name on the dotted line; not
Abram. This entire ritual is for Abram's benefit; and his alone, because Abram
didn't have to reciprocate and promise God one single thing in return. God is the
one who voluntarily obligated Himself, and now He is going to notarize his word per
Abram's request; to set Abram's mind at ease regarding a biological heir, and the
heir's possession of Canaan.

This pact, that God made with Abram, is totally unconditional. No matter what
Abram did from now on, nothing would place himself in breach of contract because
God alone is in obligation. There is nothing in the pact for Abram to live up to;
therefore it was impossible for Abram to endanger either his own, or his posterity's,
permanent possession of the land of Palestine. They may lose their occupation of it
from time to time, but never their possession. And best of all, the contract that
Moses' people agreed upon with God as per Deut 29:9-5 cannot endanger the
security of this covenant because theirs was introduced too late to make a
difference.

"And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot
annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make
the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of
promise; but God gave it to Abraham as a promise." (Gal 3:17-18)

Law grants blessings on condition, but promises grant blessings with no strings
attached and nothing asked in return.

"As far as the gospel is concerned, [God's people] are enemies on your account;
but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for
God's gifts and His call are irrevocable." (Rom 11:28-29)

• Gen 15:13 . . And He said to Abram: Know well that your offspring shall be
strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four
hundred years;

God predicted three things concerning Abram's offspring (not Abram himself) that
would occur over a 400 year period:

(1) They would be resident aliens, (2) They would be oppressed, and (3) They
would be slaves.

From the time Jacob moved his family down to Egypt, until the day Moses' people
left under Moses' leadership, was only about 210 years. But according to Ex 12:40
41 the people of Israel were supposed to have dwelled in Egypt 430 years.

Paul said that Israel's covenanted law, (enacted about a month after the people of
Israel were liberated from Egypt) came 430 years after Abram's covenant. (Gal
3:16-18)

The data is somewhat sketchy, but from what exists, it appears that an all inclusive
430-year period began with Abram's covenant scene in Gen 15. But God didn't say
Abram himself would be effected by the prediction. He said Abram's progeny would
be. Ishmael doesn't count as Abram's progeny in respect to the land. So the holy
progeny began with the birth of Isaac; which occurred about 30 years after Abram's
covenant was ratified. So the 400 year period of Gen 15:13 apparently began with
Isaac. Even though he himself was never a slave in Egypt, Isaac was nevertheless
an alien in lands not belonging to him; and later, his son Jacob would be too.

Abram's holy progeny were resident aliens in at least three places-- Canaan, Egypt,
and Babylonia. Jacob lived, not only in Canaan and Egypt, but also on his uncle
Laban's ranch in Haran; which is up in Turkey.

Precisely why the entire 430 year period is reckoned in Ex 12:40-41 as "the length
of time that the Israelites lived in Egypt" is totally unknown; except that it reflects
the Septuagint's version; which is a Greek derivative of ancient Hebrew texts no
longer available.

• Gen 15:14a . . but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve,

That of course refers to the famous plagues that occurred in Egypt during Moses'
confrontation with one of its Pharaohs; culminating in the death of the firstborn of
man and beast during the Passover.

• Gen 15:14b . . and in the end they shall go free.

Actually they didn't "go" free like the English text suggests; but rather, were set
free-- viz: liberated --because on their own, they would never have been able to do
it. It was at that time that the people of Israel learned the true connotation of the
name Yhvh. It's not just another divine moniker. It identifies God as a savior; which
Webster's defines as a rescuer.

"God also said to Moses: I am Yhvh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob
as 'El Shadday, but by my name Yhvh I did not make myself known to them." (Ex
6:2-3)

Those three men knew the moniker; but their association with 'El Shadday was not
on the basis of a savior. Their association was on the basis of a provider; viz:
providence; which can be defined (in their case) as God's kindly patronage.

• Gen 15:14c . . with great wealth.

The "great wealth" was in the form of voluntary plunder. (Ex 11:1-3, Ex 12:33-36)
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 15:15a . . As for you,

Abram must have begun to wonder if maybe he too was in danger of oppression
and slavery.

• Gen 15:15b . .You shall go to your fathers in peace;

Have you ever wondered how you'll die-- by accident, poison, in a violent mugging,
disease, cancer, car wreck, a fall, hit in the head by a tree limb, or from a random
bullet in a drive-by shooting? People often die suddenly and totally unexpected.
Many people die a very unhappy death-- miserable, alone, unloved, and unfulfilled.

God promised Abram that he would not die like that. His death would be tranquil
and calm and actually quite satisfactory. He would experience no fears, no anxiety,
and no regrets.

• Gen 15:15c . .You shall be buried at a ripe old age.

Death stalks each and every one of us like a hungry predator, waiting for its chance
to do us in. We just never know.

"Jesus told them: The right time for me has not yet come; but for you any time is
right." (John 7:6)

Abram had the envious advantage of knowing he would live a full life before he
died. Everyone should be so lucky!

• Gen 15:16 . . And they shall return here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity
of the Amorites is not yet complete.

God mentioned only one of the nations living in Canaan. Why was He going to delay
transferring possession of the land until the iniquity of the "Amorites" was
brimming-- why them and not the others? Probably because God promised Abram
that He would bless those who blessed him.

Well . . the Amorite men-- Mamre, Eshkol, and Aner --were Abram's friends and
allies during the recent military campaign to rescue Lot; so that the ultimate
destiny of Canaan hinged upon the decadence of just one tribe: the Amorites.
Sometimes it really pays to have God-fearing friends in this world; for example:

Jacob:

"And Laban said to him: Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have
learned by experience that Yhvh has blessed me for your sake". (Gen 30:27)

"The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and Yhvh has blessed you
wherever I have been". (Gen 30:30)

and Joseph:

"When Joseph's master saw that Yhvh was with him and that Yhvh gave him
success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his
attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care
everything he owned.

. . . From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned,
Yhvh blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of
Yhvh was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field". (Gen
39:3-5)

• Gen 15:17 . .When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking
oven, and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces.

The Hebrew word for "oven" is tannuwr (tan-noor') which means: a fire pot. But it's
not just a simple bucket of coals. It was actually portable kitchen equipment,
especially for baking fresh bread. There are several passages in the Bible where
ovens are connected with Divine judgment. (e.g. Ps 21:9-10, Mal 3:19-21, Matt
13:40-43)
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 15:18a . . On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,

This is now the second covenant that God made with His creation. The first one was
with every living creature back in chapter nine. That one is often called Noah's
Covenant. But this covenant, well known as Abraham's Covenant, is somewhat
different. It's not made between God and every living creature, but between God
and one specific human being and his progeny.

• Gen 15:18b . . saying: To your offspring I assign this land,

The word for "offspring" is zera' (zeh'-rah) which means: seed; figuratively, fruit,
plant, sowing-time, and progeny. Zera' is one of those words that is both plural and
singular-- like the words sheep and fish. One sheep is a sheep, and a flock of them
are called sheep too. So the context has to be taken into consideration; and even
then there can still be ambiguity

Here's an instance where the meaning of zera' is obviously one child.

"Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, meaning:
God has provided me with another offspring in place of Abel. For Cain had killed
him". (Gen 4:25)

Here's an instance where the meaning is clearly more than one child.

"And He said to Abram: Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land
not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years" (Gen
15:13)

Sometimes the context contains both the singular and the plural.

"Abram said further: Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be
my heir. The word of the Lord came to him in reply: That one shall not be your
heir; none but your very own issue shall be your heir. Yhvh took him outside and
said: Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And
He added: So shall your progeny be". (Gen 15:3-5)

• Gen 15:18c-21 . . from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the
Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgasites, and the Jebusites.

If you have a map handy, it's instantly apparent just how huge a piece of real
estate that God assigned to Abram and his offspring. It's very difficult to precisely
outline the whole area but it seems to encompass a chunk of Africa east of the Nile,
(including the delta), the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Onan, UAE, Iraq,
Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

The "river of Egypt" is very likely the Nile since there was no Suez Canal in that
day. The Euphrates is Iraq's eastern border. The distance from Cairo Egypt to Al
Basrah Iraq is about 983 miles as the crow flies.

That's roughly the distance from San Diego to Abilene Tx. The distance from Aden
Yemen to Hilab Syria is about 1,698 miles as the crow flies; which is just a tad
under the crow-distance from Los Angeles to Chicago.

I'm talking about some serious square mileage-- roughly 1,538,370 of them; which
is more than Ireland, United Kingdom, Scotland, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden,
Norway, and Finland combined! Currently, Israel, at its widest east to west
dimension, across the Negev, is less than 70 miles; and south to north from the
Gulf Of Aqaba to Shemona, about 260; comprising a square mileage of only 8,473:
a mere half of 1% of the original land covenanted to Abram.

God has yet to give Abram's seed complete control over all of his covenanted land.
In point of fact, the boundaries were very early on temporarily reduced for the time
being. (Num 34:1-12)

The temporary boundaries run from the Mediterranean Sea eastward to the Jordan
River; and from the southern tip of the Dead Sea northward to a geographic
location which has not yet really been quite accurately identified. Ezk 47:15 says
the northern border passes along "the way of Hethlon" which some feel is very
likely the valley of the Nahr al Kubbir river which roughly parallels the northern
border of modern day Lebanon, and through which a railroad track lies between An
Naqib on the Mediterranean coast to Hims Syria.

The next event in Abram's life has repercussions all the way to the World Trade
Center-- September 11, 2001. The son produced by his union with Hagar went on
to become the father of the Arab world; and ultimately, Muhammad: the inventor of
Islam.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 16:1 . . Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian
maidservant whose name was Hagar.

It's entirely possible that Abram purchased Ms. Hagar while they were all down in
Egypt during the famine back in chapter 12.

The word for "maidservant" is shiphchah (shif-khaw') which is a female slave (as a
member of the household). So, Hagar wasn't just another skull in the slave pool. As
a member of the household staff, she merited a measure of respect. Hagar
probably seemed like a daughter to ol' Abram in spite of her slave status.

It's my guess that Hagar was Sarai's personal assistant similar in status to that of
Anna: lady Mary's maid in the popular television series "Downton Abbey".

The duties of a lady's maid typically include helping her mistress with make up,
hairdressing, clothing, jewelry, shoes, and wardrobe maintenance. I think all-in-all;
Hagar had it pretty good; that is, until this fertility issue came along to spoil
everything.

• Gen 16:2a . . And Sarai said to Abram: Look, the Lord has kept me from bearing.

Sarai's logic, at least from a certain point of view, was reasonable. She was likely
familiar with Gen 1:22 and 1:28, where fertility was stated to be a blessing;
therefore, in her mind at least, infertility was an evidence of God's disfavor.

There's a rare defect in women that is just astounding. I read about it in the Vital
Signs column of Discover magazine. The defect, though rare, is most common in
otherwise perfectly gorgeous women-- girls like Sarai --and seems to be somewhat
hereditary. Their birth canal is a cul-de-sac; viz: a blank pouch. There's no ovaries,
no fallopian tubes, no uterus, and no cervix. One of the first clues to the presence
of the defect is when girls are supposed to start menstruating, but don't.

The story I saw was of a young Mexican girl (I'll call her Lupé). Young, beautiful,
and filled out in all the right places; Lupé came to a clinic for an examination to find
out why she wasn't having periods and that's when they discovered she didn't have
any generative plumbing.

Lupé was devastated, not only with the news that she would never have any
children of her own, but to make matters worse; in her home town's culture, fertile
girls are highly valued and respected, while the sterile ones are treated like
expendable grunts-- char-girls and slave labor. Lupé left the clinic with the full
weight upon her heart that in spite of being a ten, and in spite of her feelings to the
contrary, she would have to spend the rest of her youth solo because no man in her
community would want her; and even among her own kin Lupé would be looked
upon as cursed and untouchable.

I'm not insisting Sarai had the same problem as Lupé. It's only one possibility from
any number of fertility problems; e.g. hostile womb, anovulation, tubal blockage,
uterine issues, etc. But unbeknownst to Sarai, God wanted her biological progeny to
be a miracle baby rather than a natural baby; and why God didn't keep Abram
informed about that I can only speculate: but won't.

• Gen 16:2b . . Consort with my maid; perhaps I shall have a son through her.

This is the very first instance in the Bible of the principle of adoption. According to
the customs of that day, a Lady had the right, and the option, to keep a female
slave's children as her own if the Lady's husband sired them. No one bothered to
ask Ms. Hagar how she might feel about it because slaves had no say in such
arrangements.

• Gen 16:2c . . And Abram heeded Sarai's request.

Sarai wasn't specifically named in God's original promise of offspring; so Abram
may have figured that any son he produced could qualify as the promised seed.
This is one time he really should have gone to one of his altar and inquired of The
Lord what to do. But it was an innocent mistake, and totally blindsided Abram
because what he and Sarai did wasn't out of the ordinary in their own day.

• Gen 16:3 . . So Sarai, Abram's wife, took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian-- after
Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan ten years --and gave her to her husband
Abram as concubine.

Hagar no doubt was attracted to any one of a number of fine unattached young
men in Abram's community; but due to circumstances beyond her control, she was
doomed to a lonely limbo of unrequited love. Her lot in life, though no doubt very
comfortable and secure, was, nonetheless, probably tainted with an unfulfilled
longing that robbed her of true peace and contentment.

Abram was ten years older than Sarai; so he was 85 at this point in time; which is
equivalent to about 43 of our own years of age.

The word translated "concubine" is 'ishshah (ish-shaw') --a nondescript word for
women (cf. Gen 2:22-23) which just simply indicates the opposite side of the Adam
coin.

Concubines in those days weren't adulteresses. They had a much higher status than
that. Webster's defines a concubine as: a woman having a recognized social status
in a household below that of a wife. So they weren't quite as low on the food chain
as a mistress or a girl toy. They at least had some measure of respectability and
social acceptance; and they had a legitimate place in their man's home too. But, at
the same time, they were not a real wife. They were, in fact, quite expendable.
When a man was tired of a concubine, he could send her away with nothing. They
shared no community property, nor had rights of inheritance.

If Hagar had truly been Abram's wife, then she would have enjoyed equality with
Sarai as a sister-wife. But she didn't. Hagar continued to be a slave, and there is no
record that she and Abram slept together more than the once. She didn't take up a
new life married to Abram; and Abram never once referred to her as his spouse. He
always referred to Hagar as Sarai's slave. The tenor of the story is that Sarai gave
her maidservant to Abram as a wife, but not to actually marry him. Sarai's intention
was that Hagar be a baby mill; nothing more.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 16:4 . . He cohabited with Hagar and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became lower in her esteem.

Before this incident, Hagar knew her place and was humble and self effacing around Sarai, but afterwards she regarded her mistress as somewhat less of a woman than herself. There's no record of Hagar gloating over Sarai, but sometimes women communicate just as effectively with "looks" as they do with words.

• Gen 16:5 . . And Sarai said to Abram: The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; and now that she sees that she is expecting, I am lowered in her esteem. The Lord decide between you and me!

Sarai attempted to take the high moral ground by insinuating that had Abram been a real man, he would've seen that sleeping with Hagar was a bad idea and refused. Therefore it was his fault for not putting a stop to her idea before things got out of hand.

People accuse God of the very same thing all the time. In their mind's eye, if God were really as wise, loving, omniscient, and all-powerful as He's alleged to be, then He would never have put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden to begin with; and when the Serpent tempted Eve, He would have stepped in and put a stop to it before things got out of hand. Therefore, they conclude, it's not the human race's fault for being what it is: it's God's fault for not protecting us from our own stupidity.

• Gen 16:6a . . Abram said to Sarai: Your maid is in your hands. Deal with her as you think right.

Abram should never have given Sarai carte blanche to do as she pleased with Hagar. In her mood, it would surely get out of hand and go too far. But he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Abram had to live with Sarai. He could get by without Hagar's good will; so hers was sacrificed to keep peace in the home.

Most men would do the very same thing in his place because it isn't easy for a man to live with an indignant woman. In point of fact, I would put an indignant woman even higher on the graph of difficulty than a weeping woman.

Note that Abram didn't refer to Hagar as "my wife"; nor even as "my concubine". He referred to her as "your maid". It's sad, but obvious that Abram was ashamed of himself for sleeping with Hagar just to make his wife happy; and took care to distance himself from Sarai's maid so she wouldn't get any ideas that Abram had an attachment for her.

• Gen 16:6b-7 . .Then Sarai treated her harshly, and she [Hagar] ran away from her. An angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur,

Old Testament angels aren't necessarily celestial beings; seeing as how the Hebrew word simply indicates a deputy and/or a messenger.

The road to Shur went south from Abram's camp; so possibly Hagar's intent was to return home to Egypt. At this point, she was a runaway slave and must have been feeling very lonely, very unimportant, and very unsure of her future. No one cared for her soul, whether she lived or died-- and, where was she to go? Maybe her parents would take her back in when she got home. But how was she to explain the baby?

Genesis doesn't say, but Hagar could have hitch-hiked a ride with a caravan. It's hard to believe a woman in that day would dare attempt a journey that far on foot, and all by herself.

Shur is the name of a desert region east of the Suez Canal and extending down along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Suez. Shur means "wall" and may refer to the mountain wall of the Tih plateau as visible from the shore plains. The position of Shur is defined as being "opposite Egypt on the way to Assyria" (Gen 25:18). After crossing the Red Sea, the people of Israel entered the desert of Shur (Ex 15:22) which extended southward a distance of three days' journey. The region is referred as being close, or adjacent, to Egypt. (1Sam 15:7 and 1Sam 27:8)

• Gen 16:8a . . the angel said: Hagar, slave of Sarai,

It should be pointed out that the angel didn't refer to Hagar as Abram's wife; but as Sarai's slave-- additional clues that Hagar and Abram were never married otherwise her status would be that of Abram's spouse rather than Sarai's slave.

This is the very first instance in the Bible record where somebody addressed Ms. Hagar by name. What I like best is that although her human masters aren't recorded calling her by name, a messenger of God-- higher in dignity and rank than either Abram and Sarai --did call out to her by her own name.

• Gen 16:8b . . where have you come from, and where are you going?

At first the angel probably impressed Hagar as just another friendly traveler. But there was something very unusual about this mysterious stranger. He knew Hagar's name, and he knew she was a slave; and he knew her mistress' name too. And he also knew Ms. Hagar was preggers. That had to break the ice quite nicely don't you think?

• Gen 16:8c . . And she said: I am running away from my mistress Sarai.

Somehow the angel won Ms. Hagar's confidence, and she was comfortable talking about herself. There's a very real possibility that the angel was the first person to take a genuine interest in Hagar's feelings for a long, long time.

In my 76+ years journeying through this life, I've discovered there are lots of people out there aching for someone to take them seriously. They don't like being marginalized; they don't like being made to feel unimportant, inferior, unnecessary, expendable, mediocre, and stupid-- they want to count; they want to matter, they want to be noticed and they want to be heard. I've no doubt that is the very reason behind the success of social networks.

One of the four common characteristics of seemingly level-headed Muslim men who become suicide bombers is the wish to devote themselves to a cause higher than themselves; viz: they desire to make their lives count for something. Those kinds of personalities are good candidates for martyrdom.

NOTE: An extreme case of what we're talking about here is Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber. Ted isn't an especially violent man. He has some ideas and the only way the friendless, isolated loner could think of to get the world to listen was blast people to pieces at random.

Ted's frustration kind of reminds me of a friend who, when he was in grammar school, had a crush on the little girl sitting in front of him. My friend couldn't think of a way to talk to the girl, so he spit on her hair. It sure got her attention, and that right quick.
_