Brian Somers Torah: Genesis 12:1 – 17:27
Haftarah: Isaiah 40:27 – 41:16
New Testament/Brit Chadassah: Romans 4:1-25
In this third parashah of the parashiot, we begin our walk with Abram, who would go on to become Abraham, the father of our faith (Romans 4:12). In this parashah, we glean more examples of how Hebrew Israelite men should behave, conduct their family affairs, and be prepared for unpleasant social circumstances. Before we continue, let’s look ahead and consider what YHVH said to Isaac, son of Abraham, about his father.
2 The Lord appeared to [Isaac] and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”
Genesis 26:2-5
What a wonderful testimony for a son to hear about his father from the Heavenly Father! May all those men who follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob conduct themselves as Abraham did so their sons can rejoice in their fathers!
Last week toward the end of Genesis 11, we were introduced to Abram’s heritage and family background. He was a descendant of Shem, son of Noah.
26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
27 Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. 32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
Genesis 11:26-32
Looking over Abram’s genealogy one is struck by the fact that most of his ancestors had their first child in their early thirties, while Terah delayed having his first child until he was seventy. The text also records that it was known early on that Sarai was barren before they left Ur Kasdim for Canaan. But Abram did not put away Sarai nor did he take any other woman to him during this time. This is before YHVH spoke to Abram in Haran.
Chapter eleven closes with the statement that Terah died in Haran.
Chapter twelve opens with YHVH speaking to Abram after Terah’s death. This seems to indicate that Abram was possibly getting too comfortable in Haran and grieving his father’s death.
After Terah died, YHVH called Abram:
- From his country
- From his relatives
- From his father’s house
To replace what he would be giving up, YHVH told Abram that in the new land that would replace his former country,
“And I will make you a great nation,
Genesis 12:2-3
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
By obeying YHVH, Abram would leave his old nation to become a new nation.
By leaving his relatives and father’s house, Abram would become a blessing to all the families of the earth. In doing this, Abram was showing great faith. He stepped out of the familiar into a new way of living. He crossed over the Euphrates and became the first Hebrew, ‘he who crossed over’. That is the starting point for every Hebrew Israelite man. We have faith that He will do what He promised to Abram, because as his descendants, we are part of his story.
Each of us has our starting point where we truly encounter YHVH for the first time. Faith in Him and His promises enable us to take that first step on the Way, and faith in Him will enable us to take the final step on the Way as our eyes close in death.
Abram’s path took him to Shechem where YHVH appeared to him and confirmed that he was in the right place. This was millennia before GPS, so I’m sure Abram appreciated the confirmation and built an altar to memorialize this confirmation.
Back then, most gods that were worshipped were gods of cities or regions. Abram’s encounters with YHVH in multiple places throughout the Middle East would demonstrate that YHVH was different from the others. YHVH showed Himself to not need an idol carted around from place to place. Neither did He need to ask permission from the local deity to appear to His servant. He showed Himself the Sovereign Suzerain (king), and Abram was His vassal. Who is like Him? There is no other!!
Backing up a bit, when Abram left Haran, he didn’t leave alone.
5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.
Genesis 12:5
If Abram as a vassal was now responsible to YHVH instead of his father Terah’s god or the god of Ur Kasdim (which may or may not be the same), he was also responsible for a sizable group of people who looked to him as their leader. It could be argued that this group was now his family.
After building the altar in Shechem, Abram went on to the area between what became Bethel and Ai and built another altar there. Then, because of a famine, he went down to Egypt. There he asked Sarai to say she was his sister because she was a beautiful woman even in her mid-sixties and Abram was nervous he’d be killed by someone who wanted her as his wife.
Abram may not have thought this through completely, as Sarai was recommended to Pharaoh as a desirable woman and she went into Pharaoh’s house. Pharaoh gave Abram much in return for Sarai: young men and woman servants and various beasts. But YHVH stepped in on behalf of His vassal and afflicted Pharaoh’s house until the king of Egypt realized that Sarai was Abram’s wife, returned her, and made Abram persona non grata.
In the next chapter, after leaving Egypt, Abram returned to the area between Bethel and Ai. During this time, Abram and Lot became very wealthy in the sizes of their herds to the point where their herdsmen started arguing with each other. In order to diffuse the potentially volatile situation, Abram proposed the second separation of his life (the first being his separation from his family in Haran) to Lot. Lot chose the plains to the east near Sodom and Abram remained in the area near Bethel and Ai.
10 Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. 11 So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.
Genesis 13:10-13
Let’s take a moment and process what Lot was thinking. The valley was well-watered and possessed great grazing for his herds. That was the positive. The negative was that it was next to cities filled with wickedness. Lot allowed the positives to outweigh the negatives in his decision-making. Later, we will read that he lost everything and nearly his entire family in the judgment that the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah. That is something we should be keeping in mind when evaluating our options. At the time of this writing (October 2020), neither the Greater Exodus nor the Great Tribulation has happened, though the foresighted can see both of them coming over the horizon. Abram did not complain that Lot chose the better living, but as the older man, he probably worried over Lot’s proximity to Sodom. Abram chose his neighbors more carefully even if it meant working harder to provide for his household.
After this second separation, like the first, YHVH appeared to Abram and confirmed the land covenant:
14 The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. 16 I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. 17 Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”
Genesis 13:14-17
I think we are seeing a pattern of Abram doing the right thing, however painful, and then YHVH confirms it to him. I’m sure the reader can think of similar separations that have been painful, but the right thing to do. The first separation was for Abram to follow YHVH, and the second separation was to keep peace in the family. Moreover, Lot was not Abram’s descendant, but his nephew, and did not have a direct share in the covenants YHVH was making with Abram.
While the text does not explicitly say so, based on Genesis 26:5, I think Abram spent some time wandering around the region before heading south to Hebron and settling there.
Some time passed and then we have the War between the Nine Kings, five against four. Kings to the north and east mounted a military campaign against the western part of the Fertile Crescent. The casus belli was the rebellion of the five kings of the plains against the northern and eastern kings. The invading four kings engaged their rebellious vassals and won the battle. Unfortunately, in the battle’s aftermath, Lot and his family were captured and were going to become slaves apparently by being deported to one of the victorious king’s countries.
Upon being told of what happened, Abram took the men of his house who were trained for war and those of his Amorite allies and pursued the four kings northward. When he caught up with them, he organized a surprise nighttime attack and routed the kings. He and his small army pursued the fleeing remnants of the northern army for a good way and then returned.
When Abram returned with the captives and the booty, he met Melchizedek, king of Salem, who also was a priest of YHVH. Melchizedek blessed Abram, and in turn, Abram paid a tithe to Melchizedek. While the king of Sodom offered to reward Abram, he refused, except for the food that had been eaten and the shares owed to his Amorite allies.
There are several implications for Hebrew Israelite men in this story. First, Abram had trained his men in warrior skills. I’m sure that men with military training probably can think of a hundred things that Abram had to ensure that his men could do. I can say that skill with weapons, the discipline to follow orders, and the physical conditioning to make a long chase, fight a battle, and then pursue the retreating warriors a goodly distance was the minimum required to accomplish this. For present-day Hebrew Israelites, some skill with weapons and the willingness to use them to protect family is incumbent. The second thing is to choose your allies and friends wisely. The three Amorite brothers proved their worth when they helped Abram. When they helped Abram, they may have unknowingly bought themselves time because YHVH said that the ‘iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full’ (Genesis 15:16). The third thing is that we don’t want to put ourselves into obligation to a king or some powerful person who doesn’t have our best interests at heart or is a wicked man.
I think this episode where Abram acted on his own to protect his family, even though they were separated had another effect: YHVH appeared to him afterwards and told him not to be afraid as He would be Abram’s Shield. As Abram protected the family, so now YHVH would protect Abram. In addition, YHVH spoke of a reward.
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
“Do not fear, Abram,
Genesis 15:1
I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great.”
In this cutting of the covenant, Abram was put to sleep and the two lights that represented YHVH and the Angel of the Lord took both sides of the covenant granting the land to Abram unconditionally.
I want to touch briefly on one thing in chapter sixteen which is the story of Abram, Sarai and Hagar. Sarai had given Hagar as a slave wife to have a child by her. Abram went into Hagar and she had a child by him. But her pregnancy caused her to disrespect her barren mistress. Abram told Sarai that she could do what was appropriate to her slave, and Hagar fled from Sarai’s discipline. Abram respected the chain of command which in this case flowed from Abram to Sarai to Hagar. After Hagar fled, the Angel of the Lord appeared to her. Among other things, the Angel told Hagar to return and submit to her mistress. (Genesis 16:9). As a full discussion is outside the scope of this commentary, I will refer the interested reader to the article “Abram, Sarai and Hagar” posted on my blog, Kol Yisrael Torah and Prophecy.
Thirteen years later, YHVH appeared to Abram and made another covenant. In this covenant, Abram’s name was changed to Abraham and the sign of the covenant was instituted.
9 God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. 13 A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
Genesis 17:9-14
A man can decide for himself to submit to circumcision. But for a man to command all the adult men to submit to circumcision requires both the authority to be obeyed, and for the men of his house to respect and obey him. This is what patriarchy is. This is what modern Hebrew Israelites must have in their households, both the authority and the respect for obedience.
23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all the servants who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the very same day, as God had said to him. 24 Now Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 In the very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 All the men of his household, who were born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Genesis 17:23-27
Abraham didn’t see any point in wasting time once he received the commandment of circumcision as that self same day, he and all the males of his household were circumcised. We should view YHVH’s commandments the same way.