God's special promise to Abraham, from Genesis 12-21. Before I began reading, I was thinking this was going to be a long story. To my surprise, it turned to be a shorter story than expected. So, I went to the Bible... and WOW! I read 12-21 and talk about a brief summary children's bible is... there is so much that is left out: The call from the Lord to leave this country, Abram in Egypt where Sarai (Sarah) is taken as an Egyptian's wife and God inflicted disease, Abram and his brother Lot (whom is not even mentioned) separate to avoid conflict, God gives Abram land and the promise of offspring forever, war between many kings and Abram rescues Lot, (Gensis 15, the first part that was from the story) God comes to Abram (again) and promises a son and asks him to count the stars, Hagar (Sarai's maidservant) is taken as Abram's wife and becomes pregnant - she runs away and an angels finds her and convinces her to return and name the son Ishmael, (Genesis 17) God comes, yet again, to promise Abram a son and tells Abram, "any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." God changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah, Abraham gives himself, Ishmael and every other man in their household circumcisions. Three visitors come, it is mentioned again Sarah will bear a children which causes Sarah to laugh, Sodom is destroyed and Lot invites two angels home with him - Men surround his house looking for the men who are at his home and want to have sex with them, but Lot offers his two virgin daughters instead (What?! Ok, I know why this was left out) the angels struck all men with blindness and told Lot to get everyone out that they (and the Lord) were going to destroy the place, Lot and his two daughters escape the the mountains they wanted to preserve their family line so they got their father drunk and "lay with him" and they both became impregnated and bore sons, Abraham and Sarah continued to move and did the brother/sister trick again and God was going to destroy Abimrlech and his kingdom... And finally the birth is Isaac!
OK, now back to "Son of laughter." Now I know why Sarah laughed. Even though she was old, God had come to them numerous times before (over a span of almost 20 years) promising a son. I could see why she was starting to doubt.. as humans we are impatient - if something doesn't happen as we would like we will believe it won't happen at all.
It mentions that the world was not getting any better that people were still getting sick and dying... but it was because got was cursing people with disease and destroying cities at a time. Saying, "It was never meant to be like this," is that implying that God had made a mistake?
Not in any of the versus did it mention "God's Secret Rescue Plan" and that one of Abraham's great-great-great grandchildren will be the Child!? I do like how the storybook bible keeps bringing that in and it makes all of these stories a story about Jesus, but is that more of an afterthought?
I guess the most important thing to remember as we go through this Storybook is that that's exactly what it is - a storybook for children...So even though the exclusion of Ishmael was kind of a slap in the face at first, overall it makes sense. The goal of this book is to introduce children to stories from the bible while continuously tying them all to the story of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThat being said...
I do think leaving out the details of how long Sarah had to wait to get the baby she had been dreaming for kind of cheapens the lesson of the story - believing that God will fulfill his promises to us, even if we have to wait longer than we think we should have to. The way the story is written makes it seem like God only made the promise once and she immediately became pregnant. "Sure enough, nine months later, just as God had promised, Sarah gave birth to a baby boy."
I haven't been able to make up my mind on if I'm upset by the exclusion of Ishmael...on one hand it's a difficult story for a child to understand, on the other hand knowing the story of Ishmael and Isaac sets up the foundation for understanding how all of the Abrahamic religions are related. More important later in life...but how do you change the story later on? "Oh, by the way, you know the story of Abraham and Sarah? Well, you see, Abraham had another son too...but he wasn't Sarah's..." I'm usually more of the be up-front from the beginning type.
I understand it is a children's book, and I agree that many of the things mentioned should left out of the children's version of the story... but why include it underneath the title. Nothing from 12-14 were included! why not say 15, 20-21 or whatever it was. That's my biggest thing.
DeleteI agree that Ishmeal could have been mentioned, as well as Sarah's long waiting. I also thing that God changing their names is an important aspect that could have been added. When I first started reading 12, I was thinking to myself, "Who is Abram? I thought this story was about Abraham?" I thought maybe they were two different people, or maybe one of the books got the name wrong..." until the verse where the name was changed.
But in the end, if you believe wholeheartedly, God will make things happen for you, you just may have to wait longer than you expect... you are on God's time! This goes back to Pop's Christmas gift... James 1:5-6
RE :"never meant to be this way" and "God's secret rescue plan"
ReplyDeleteThese lines are interpretation. The book is foremost trying to tie the bible into a narrative and explain how everything connects to Jesus. From the garden onward, man's relationship with God was broken and therefore everything has been out of line with the original intention of creation which is to live in perfect relationship with God, the earth and each other.
RE: Ismael
I agree that it was a large omission, along with some of the other sections of Abraham's story. But again, this book is focusing on the essential. God made a promise to Abraham that "all people's of the earth will be blessed through you" According to Christian faith, that blessing comes through Jesus, descendant of Issac.
There is a great lesson about God's timing in the story of Abraham. He was called as what seems like a fairly young man to leave into the wilderness and fully trust God. And it is a long time before he sees any of God's promise -- for land, for offspring -- to come to pass. It is a good story for lent and a good story for a walk with God. As much as Abraham messes up or argues with God or has his ups and downs, it is pretty clear that he walks with God throughout his life and has a strong relationship. And in that, God continues to speak to Abraham, listen to Abraham, correct him and lead him towards his promise. But, the timing is definitely on God's time.
The things I learn from Abraham's story for my own faith is
1. Walking with God involves conversation.
2. Walking with God involves going places and doing things that are risky and believing in things that are unclear or unseen.
3. God's plan is much larger than the spans of what we can experience