Transcription
[Music] As the last brick of the tall tower was being crushed to dust, and Noah was beginning to die, a boy was being born in the southern corner of Mesopotamia. It's been nearly 250 years since the fall of the great tower in Babylon, and people have developed new ways of talking—dark, weighty [Music] bitter ways—where they hear without understanding and speak without moving their mouths. Their new communities have been so impacted by this one event that they have altogether abandoned the god that created them in his image and have traded him for gods that they have created in their image. They now worship small pieces of stone and wood that have ears but do not hear, and mouths but cannot speak. The people of the world now seek oracles from walking staffs and counsel from the dead. After all, it's easier to worship that which you make, since if the gods are crafted by your own hands, then within you resides the power to choose right from wrong, doesn't it? The scattered people of the world, all choosing for themselves what is right, what is the path to life. But 140 miles southwest of the fallen ruins, in an uninteresting part of the world, a common man, Tehrah, is having his first child, Abram, meaning exalted father. And it is because of this child that, by the end of our tale, everything, including the very namesake of Abram himself, will be changed. [Music] [Music]
Many years pass after Abram's birth, as the beginning of our tale unfolds, and Abram's father, Tehrah, makes a daring move in the early years of human civilization as he attempts to move his family from the town of Ur in the land of the Chaldeans to Canaan. But he ends up stopping and pitching his tent in Haran. But while in Haran, Abram is called to fulfill all that which his father was unable. The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your land, go from your relatives, go from your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation; I will bless you; I will make your name great; and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Now, as odd as it may sound, ancient Hebrew readers and writers always understood that Abram and his family were pagan polytheists, meaning they worshipped many gods. Because of that, however, as the curse of Cain is undone in the man of Abram, here we see that this story will powerfully put on display one incredible attribute of God's character, time and time again, namely his mercy, withholding the punishment that humanity deserves. And it is through this very mercy that we will see the power of God unleashed to humanity. But here it is: God's mercy that presents Abram with a choice: to exalt the God that has just revealed himself to Abram, or to weigh his commands against the promise of other gods. You see, Abram is met with two paths: a tree of life, or a tree of choosing right from wrong, or himself. And so Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." And so Abram built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there too and called on the name of the Lord. And then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.
As Abram and his company travel around the land of which God had called them, they realized that the chaos of the uncreated order has taken over: there's a famine, a severe famine. Abram's journey from here on begins to be peppered with doubt and anxiety. Has he actually given up everything he had known to follow a God he had not known? Abram thinks he understands the right thing to do, but in our tale of twists and turns, that seldom will be the case. Abram commands his company to flee the land that God had called them to, to the land of Egypt. As Abram and his wife, Sarai, approach the land that they're fleeing to, Abram says to his wife, "Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife,’ and they will kill me but let you live. Please say you're my sister, so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account." Though to Abram this may seem like the right thing to do, Abram's distrust in the God that has protected them is painfully apparent. And when Pharaoh sees Sarai, he is overcome. The Egyptians see her beauty and they seize her. Since Pharaoh thinks Abram is her brother and would more than like to win his favor, he treats Abram like a king. But God is none too pleased. Not only has Pharaoh acted unjustly in his desire to take whomever he pleases, like Lamech, but God is determined to see justice brought forth for his people. He strikes the land of Egypt with a series of severe plagues. And when Pharaoh finds out the truth about Sarai, he becomes terrified of the powerful God that has come up against him. He sends Abram and Sarai away with a multitude of possessions. But now Abram and his family have another problem: they've become so wealthy that they can't all fit in the land. So he and his nephew, Lot, they decide that they must separate from each other. Lot takes the plains as far as Zoar in the east, near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abram, he pitches his tents near the oaks of Mamre in Hebron in the west. And now all would be well if it weren't for the depravity of human sin and the corruption of power. Suddenly, a war of mighty kings is stirred upon the face of the earth like a raging tempest on a mountainside. The key player, Kedorlaomer, king of Elam, he's on a rampage to take over the whole of the land that God had given to the family of Abram. He has recruited, by force or by diplomacy, three kings to aid in his mighty conquest: Amraphel, king of Shinar; Arioch, king of Ellasar; and Tidal, king of Goiim. But the sitting valley is not so easily conquered. Spurred by the threat of war, the four kings are met with five: Bera, king of Sodom; Birsha, king of Gomorrah; Shinab, king of Admah; Shemeber, an unnamed king of Zeboiim. The armies advance in the valley of Siddim, but the five kings just can't seem to hold off the evil four for long. The four kings advance into the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and that's when it becomes personal. The four warring kings bind and capture Abram's nephew, Lot. And when Abram hears of this, armed with 318 trained men, the mighty men of Abram's household strike down the four warring kings. They pursue them as far as Damascus. Abram nearly single-handedly rescues Lot. His heroic bravery and courage attract the attention of many officials from the area. You see, it is in the Shiva Valley where Abram is met by two kings. The first king, Melchizedek, as it was written of him somewhere else by translation of his name, it means king of righteousness, and also the king of Salem, that is to say the king of peace. He was without father or mother or genealogy; he had neither beginning of days nor end of life, but he resembled the Son of God, and he continues as a priest forever. He is all that Adam was created to be and could not be. And another king meets Abram in the valley: Bera, meaning the son of evil. He is the king of the wicked city of Sodom. And the two kings meet the hero where he stands. Melchizedek brings gifts of bread and wine, and he blesses Abram with a blessing straight from the heart of God. By all accounts, a mere offering of bread and wine would seem weak, but in comparison to the son of evil, king of Sodom, that offering is absolutely nothing. The king of Sodom offers Abram nearly everything he possesses, and Abram refuses. He says that he has sworn an oath to his God, Yahweh, God Most High, the God that has strengthened and protected him. Abram says that he promised that God that he would not take anything from the king of Sodom lest the son of evil claim he made Abram rich and require a return blessing out of sheer gratitude. Abram humbly gives one-tenth of everything he owns to the house of Melchizedek, priest king of righteousness and peace. Abram believes that the God of Melchizedek is the true, only sovereign God, King of creation, and his faith in this God is beginning to be a shining light to the nations as the kings meet him in the Shiva Valley. And so it is no coincidence that after this encounter, God appears to Abram shortly thereafter. God makes a promise to Abram right then and there. He says that Abram will have a son, even though he is old in age. He promises that this son will give way to offspring more numerous than the very stars. And God promises Abram that the land that he stands on, the land of Canaan, will be given to him and his descendants as a possession. Abram believes God; he believes that he is the one true God of creation, and everything that Abram has, will have, or has ever had was given to him by this one and only God of creation. And so, even though Abram has failed time and time again up until this point, his belief is counted to him as righteousness, and Abram is immediately put into proper relationship with the God of the universe. But this vision that Abram has is not over; it lasts until Abram is put into a deep sleep. And in his sleep, a dark shadow overcomes the man of God. God makes a peculiar claim to Abram in this dream. He says that his kindred will be foreigners in a land for 400 years before God brings judgment upon the nation that will enslave them.
Well, a long time passes after this vision, you see, and Abram and Sarai are now nearly 100 years old, and they still have no children. How will their offspring be more numerous than the stars? How will they take over the land that God had promised them? How will there be a man to come from the seed of the woman and crush the head of the snake that is going to enslave them? Well, Sarai begins to scheme, and her schemes lead her to an idea that seems right in her own eyes: that well, although she cannot serve Abram by becoming pregnant, her servant Hagar can. And so Abram conceives with his servant Hagar, and she bears a child that they name Ishmael. God appears to Abram shortly after this. He appears to Abram, and he commands, "I am God Almighty; walk in my presence and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you greatly." And Abram falls on his face in reverence. And as God metaphorically picks up his head, he renames him to Abraham, the father of many nations. You see, in the chaos of creation, God creates order when he speaks it into existence and begins to order the created realm by ordaining names to all that he creates. And so when God changes Abram's name to Abraham, not only does he remind him of the promise that will come to pass, but he also firmly establishes his relationship to Abraham: that he has ordered Abraham's life and the events therein and will continue to do that until and even beyond Abraham's death. From here on, the sign of circumcision will represent how Abraham and his kin are grafted into the household of faith. It represents cutting away the sin and the failure of human depravity. His promise is reassured in the heart and the mind of Abraham: that in spite of his own failings, in spite that Abraham and his family choose deliberately, time and time again, to do what is right in their own eyes, God will bring forth from Abraham a mighty king, and God will continue to be the God of Abraham. God's promises to Abraham will be maintained even if Abraham and his family breach this covenant. We can see the light of the snake crusher from the early chapters of this book filling the hearts and minds of the people of God. God changes Sarai's name here also to Sarah. And while both names mean princess, the addition of the 'h' aligns her powerfully with the God of all creation. And thus, from her, the children that they will bear together, subduing the earth under God's rule. [Music]
One year passes. God appears to Abraham and Sarah again by the oaks of Mamre. Abraham is 99 years old at this point, well past the age to have children, and yet God assures them that in one year God will bless them with a child. Meanwhile, God goes to the oaks and stares out over the valley. He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their idolatrous wickedness, the very city where Lot and his family have pitched their tents. Abraham, now grafted into this monotheistic care of the one true God, is about to be tested. When we left the light of the garden, we were promised that one day would come a man to crush the head of the evil serpent. This man would have to rule over creation with the magnanimity of God himself; all that Adam could not do. That means that he would have to rule in righteousness and with justice. And so, to test the strength of Abraham's character, God shows Abraham what he will do: his plan is to judge the cities of wickedness that have perverted any concept of righteousness and justice. Abraham pleads with God eight times. He says if he can find a certain number of righteous people in the city, then God would be unjust to destroy the cities. God thinks the same way. Eventually, Abraham and God agree that if just 10 righteous people—if 10 people align with God's concepts of righteousness—then he will not destroy the city for the sake of the ten. And so two angels go and investigate the city. And when they step into the town square, Lot, Abraham's nephew, sees them and bows low to the ground, recognizing them to be righteous, royal men. He pleads with them that they not stay long in the square, for the men of the city are evil. Reluctantly, the men go with Lot back to his house. When suddenly there comes a bang on the door: a crowd of people have gathered outside of Lot's house. Seeing that he has brought two mysterious men into the house, they demand that Lot bring out the men so that they can commit unspeakable sexual acts towards them. And just as the wicked men are about to breach the door, the angels strike them with blindness and have Lot and his family escape early the next morning. And as the family of Lot is running, a mixture of fire and sulfur pour forth from the sky as the chaos of creation is undone on itself once again. When Abraham sees that the city had been destroyed and not ten righteous people were found there, he decides to move his family to the Negev: a reset button with his new name, a new God, and new-found mercies. They traveled back to where they started. But in an almost comic series of parallel events, the king of the land, Abimelech, wants to take Sarah as his wife. But God comes to Abimelech in a dream that night and threatens the mighty king for taking another man's wife. When Abimelech pleads his innocence, the identity of Sarah is then revealed to him, and he too becomes terrified of the man that he has taken to be a prophet. In his rushed fear, he gives Abraham an immense amount of possessions and makes it known that they are welcome to dwell in the land peacefully, all they would like. It is after this that the Lord visits Sarah, and she conceives and bears a son. They name him Isaac, the seed of the woman. When Isaac is born, the Lord protects Hagar and her son Ishmael when Sarah demands that they be sent into the eastern wilderness. Abraham gives them provisions for the journey, and God meets the servant and her son by a river. God promises that Ishmael will grow old and father many kings. And we learn that from the son of Abraham, Ishmael fathers the twelve princes of Arabia. Meanwhile, Abimelech returns to greet Abraham and Sarah. He's been watching the growth of this immense family and is likely worried that Abraham will overtake the land of the Philistines that he's the king of. And so the two set up an agreement to stay clear of each other's way and maintain their amicability in future generations. Because of the peace that had now been brought upon the family, Abraham plants a tamarisk tree, and he worships God, claiming him to be the one true everlasting God of creation.
It is after all of these things, time and time again, that Abraham and his wife choose for themselves to know the difference between right and wrong, that Abraham is met with his ultimate test in his trust in God. And as we will learn later in this story, God uses this test to give us a beautiful picture of who he is. God calls out to Abraham, "Here I am," he answered. "Take your son," God says, "your only son Isaac, whom you love; go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you about." And so Abraham got up early in the morning; he saddled his donkey and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place that God had told him about. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. And then Abraham said to the young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there to worship; and then we'll come back to you." Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. The hill that Abraham sees in the distance, for Isaac will bear many names over the centuries, but in Aramaic the name of that place was Golgotha, the place of the skull. Has Abraham made a terrible mistake here? After all, he spent a great deal of time bargaining for the life of his nephew Lot, which proved his sense of righteousness and justice. He, of all people, knows that God will listen to his plea; he, of all people, knows God's mercy. But when it comes to his son, he stays silent. To be fair, Abraham's life had been given to him by the God that he now worships. [Music] Will God's mercy fail? Will God pronounce judgment on Abraham for sacrificing his son, even if that is a failure on Abraham's part? Will God pronounce judgment on Abraham for withholding his son, even if that's a failure on Abraham's part? The question to ask is this: will God's mercy fail for those he calls righteous? As Abraham lays his son bound on the altar, his hand raises with a sharpened knife. [Music] "Here I am," and then he said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy; do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." Abraham looked up and he saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. And so Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that place, "The Lord will provide," Jehovah-jireh. So it is said, "It will be provided on the Lord's mountain." Abraham considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did. Abraham's life had been given to him by the God that he worshipped: his wealth, his son, and perhaps most importantly, a sacrifice—the very sacrifice that proves Abraham's commitment to trust God's authority, the very sacrifice that reveals a profound display of God's faithfulness. [Music] God reassures Abraham of the covenant that they had made. And it is here when Sarah dies at the age of 127. When the time of mourning was complete for Abraham, he buys a large, choice tomb to bury his wife, and he pays Ephron, a man that he meets, 400 pieces of silver for it, although Ephron was willing to give it to him for free. Abram wanted there to be no doubt in their minds that this land was indeed his and his kinsmen. Before Abraham dies, he takes a second wife named Keturah, and together they have many, many children. At the age of 175, Abraham dies, and he's buried by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, come together, united under their father and their God, and they bury their father in the cave next to Sarah. These stories may seem strange to us now, but they give us indeed a profound picture of sacrifice and atonement throughout the rest of the biblical epic. You see, when Babel had fallen and the people scattered, the gods that they made spoke to them; they commanded them to commit horrific acts, including the act of sacrificing their own child. So let me be clear: the God of this story is still unlike every other god in thought at the time. We will see his detestation of child sacrifice as we go on. You see, he never intended Abraham to kill his own son that Abraham loved, for God loved him too. And from Isaac will come the very man to crush the head of the snake. [Music] And so we must see in Isaac something of the snake crusher: that for the death that was brought on by the serpent to be defeated, the snake crusher must enter through the chaotic waters of the grave and come out on the other side victorious. For now, God says in this story, for now, a ram will do. [Music] But for long it cannot. You see, we know that God loved Isaac because one day God too will send himself as the Son whom he loves, and the Son will know, and the Son will choose a path of life or a path from knowing right from wrong, and there will be no ram that day, only the God who provides the way to eternal life by himself. [Music] This was Bible Unbound. We'll see you next time. [Music] [Music]