Genesis 23-24

Genesis 23

Death really sucks. I've lost a ton of grandparents and family friends, and every time I go to a funeral I'm reminded of the beauty of life, but also the sadness that comes with death. 

Abraham had two people in his life that were close to them. One of them, Isaac, he was asked to sacrifice. Fortunately, God intervened. The other, his wife that protected and stayed with him amidst all the travel, passed away. 

That must have been devastating. Sarah and Abraham went through so much together - nobody else in Abraham's life had seen God work like Sarah had. Their names were changed together, descendants were promised to them together, and a son was born to them together when they thought that a son would never come. 

So Abraham wants to honor his precious wife with a burial place suited for the best. 

The Hittites love him, so this is no hard task. The hardest bit of the whole thing was getting them to let him pay for it. 

I'm seriously impressed with the generosity of the Hittites here. To offer whole plots of land - free of charge. I want to be this kind of generous in my own life. 

I'm also thoroughly impressed with Abraham's insistence to pay them for their land. I think that's admirable, and I love that he doesn't take advantage of them. 

I think Sarah would definitely be proud of the whole thing. 

Genesis 24

"...and The Lord had blessed him in every way." What a brilliant opener for a chapter. 

I think we too are blessed in every way as much, if not more, than even Abraham was! I think the the key difference between our lives and Abe's is the shift in perspective. Abraham's life itself he considered a blessing. Unfortunately,  I myself spend more time thinking of what I need, than I do remembering how absolutely beyond blessed I am. 

In an effort to work on this, I'm going to begin recording Jesus sightings. These are little rays of light I see throughout my day - I'm not going to wait to write them down, but rather, am going to record them as I see them. I cannot wait to begin, because I already know Jesus is everywhere, but to keep him in mind as I see him throughout the day should be a brilliant shift in perspective for me. 

Perspective talk aside, can we discuss how awkward making an oath must have been in that time? I totally get that the "hand beneath thigh" is an act of vulnerability and stuff, and that's awesome, but seriously it makes me feel weird. I'm all set with my pinky promise. 

I love Abraham's view on morals, too. "If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” (Genesis 24:8 NIV). He leads us by example; I take it sort of as Abraham's way of saying, "don't settle for just any woman. God has set aside the right one for my son, and if she doesn't fit the bill, then he didn't intend for it to be anyway." 

That's a bit of an ambitious standard to hold us to, but an inspiring one nonetheless. 

God gets that we sometimes need signs. The servant of Abe did, as seen in his prayer in verse 14. Note that God gave him his sign. I love this little proverb I learned lately about our glorious creator: "just ask Him. He'll tell you." 

Let me also point out how quickly God answered his prayer. I mean, he hadn't even finished praying before this woman walked up. And she absolutely fit the bill. 

God worked so much in this servant's favor. First, he made the mission get accomplished fast. Then, he provided a place for the servant to stay, through Rebekah's family. In addition to all this, the servant got the bonus of sharing the love of God with these strangers. And they received it joyfully. 

Lastly, I want to think about the character of Rebekah. Her faith, too, was incredible. She trusted God to guide and protect her, though she was about to journey with a strange man who came to deliver her to her stranger husband. 

Once Rebekah met Isaac, they got married. I love the last little thought at the end of the last verse: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. The fact that Rebekah, who was a stranger to Isaac, was able to bring his heart that much joy after the death of his mama, is gorgeous. I want to do that for people. 

Rebekah is awesome. 

Genesis 22

This has always been one of the most jarring stories in the Bible for me. God asks Abraham to take his precious little son, and sacrifice him on a mountain. 

Holy Toledo. And I sometimes feel like God asks a lot of me. 

I don't know Abraham personally, but I like to imagine that this was not an easy decision for him. If he's anything like me at all, he looked up at the endless blue sky and had a fierce mental battle. Heck, I like to think that he cried a little at the concept that he was going to kill his little boy. 

I get what everyone says about this story. "God wanted to remind us that everything on earth is temporary, and that the first priority in our lives should be pleasing Him." 

That little rant always gets me really mad. I wish I could tell you why for sure - but I think the reason is that I feel like it's completely not what God is about. We are God's babies. He knows exactly how fond parents are of their children, and I really think He gets it even more than we do when parents accidentally put their kids before their Lord. 

The core theme that I take from this is that he will always always always, without fail, deliver us. Even when it's just about to look like He won't. 

Here's how I arrive there: Abraham is about to do this thing that would probably keep him in distress for the rest of his life. Yet, it's also the right thing to do, seeing as it is God's command. He had two options:

1. Kill Isaac and please God. 

2. Save Isaac and be separated from God. 

Neither of those look like solid options to me. How often in life do we look at our options and feel like both of them suck? I often find myself trying to discern the lesser of two evils. 

In Abe's situation, as well as in our own, God can give us a third, beautiful option - one we may not have even realized existed. And all we even have to do is trust God. Like Abraham, we can trust that He's going to give us a way out. 

Guys, I am so bad at this. For whatever humanly reason, I fail time and time again to trust God fully. It's a problem. I always wonder whether I'm really going to be taken care of in every situation. I find myself thinking awful things, like "does God care that I feel lonely right now?" and even simply negativity like "this school year is not that good so far." 

Abraham was about to murder his son, and he stayed calm and trusted God. God delivered him from this huge burden - He can do the same for me, and absolutely the same for you. 

Genesis 21

Genesis 21 

I love babies. So I absolutely delight over the entire story of Abraham and Sarah having Isaac, after going their whole life thinking that sort of miracle was impossible. I love, too, that God directed them to name their son after the word laughter. God has such an affinity for laughter - there is nothing I see more sign of Him in than bubbling, free, uncontrollable laughter. 

Abraham and Sarah are the typical parents; they throw a party for Isaac, and get defensive when he's being teased by his half-brother. They're doting, and full of love for their precious child. This completely parallels God's love for us, except for that God's love is more perfect. 

I get the feeling that God really wants me to believe that He'll always provide. It is a universal truth, seen here again with Hagar in the desert. Just when she runs out of hope, and has essentially an emotional breakdown, her creator wipes away her tears and opens her eyes to something that she missed - a well of water, that may as well symbolize a well of life. Without the well, Hagar and Ishmael surely would have died of dehydration. But God was taking care of them. 

And God keeps taking care of them throughout their life in the wilderness. 

One of my biggest concerns about this new school year is friends. It always is. Every year, I have a fair 

amount of anxiety over this ridiculous idea that "what if I don't really have friends?" This idea is preposterous. I have been blessed with amazing friends, and I can't imagine having any with more beautiful souls. I love them to death. However, I'm reminded in this passage today that God will make us friends, too. 

That king guy- Abimelech- saw the light of God in Abraham. Because of this light, Abimelech wanted to make an oath with Abraham. They promise to treat each other well, and thus: a friendship was born. 

Abraham gives his friend a generous gift of seven sheep, and he gets to keep the well, and he has a new friend in his corner. 

I love that Abraham celebrated this connection through worshipping God. So many times, I fail to recognize the blessings that God is working in my life. 

And I'm eternally grateful for my marvelous friends. 

Genesis 19-20

Genesis 19

Now begins the list of things I have problems with in Genesis 19, for there are many. Prepare yourselves. 

Every man in the village surrounded Lot's house and begged him to send out the angels so that they could have sex with them. I mean, seriously. 

The part that disturbs me about this isn't the whole "homosexuality" part at all. The part that messes me up is how freaking desperate these men were. I never understood how completely despicable and hopeless Sodom and Gomorrah were until I read this today. If you're having trouble grasping this, let me spell it out for you. 

You're chilling in your eno outside your hut when you see some friendly-looking men walk past. You urge them to come in and eat with you and your family, and after much pleading, they reluctantly agree to share a meal with you. You prepare and eat the food, making friends with these angels, and begin to hear a pounding outside your house. Embarrassed, you get up and open the door, expecting to perhaps shoo some obnoxious kids away to play somewhere else. However, it is instead a massive group of males. In fact, it's your friends and people you recognize from town. All of them. As if the noise isn't disruptive enough, they start screaming at you to release your guests to them to have their way with. They're not asking quietly, but their voices grow continually louder until there's no doubt in your mind that the men inside can hear every word. 

That sucks for Lot. I mean, that's seriously embarrassing. A gorgeous dinner, wrecked by lust. 

His response bothers me even more than this whole situation though. 

He offers his daughters. Seriously? We as people look with respect at this man that did something I find totally unforgivable. He tells the men of the village that they can just take his daughters. I have never in my life heard something that disgusts me more than that. Parents are supposed to protect and defend their babies, not offer their virgin daughters as playthings for a village of men. 

God has so much more mercy than I do. He's seriously incredible. 

The angels at this point have seen enough. They step in, grab Lot, strike the desperate men blind, and save the day. 

The Message phrases a part of this beautifully. "The outcries of victims here to God are deafening; we’ve been sent to blast this place into oblivion.” (Genesis 19:13 MSG)

I love the use of the word "victim" in this translation. God didn't hate the people of Sodom and Gomorrah; he simply took pity on them. He saw that they weren't getting it, and that their lives were not fulfilling. He was saving them from Hell on earth. 

Lot is saved, and his wife and daughters. Well, his wife is turned to salt, which I suppose is at least a little better than what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. 

Lot ends up where the angels told him to go in the first place: a cave. I'm reminded of the song "The Truth is a Cave" by the Oh Hellos, as well as the song "The Cave" by Mumford & Sons. Miracles happen in caves. 

But in this cave, the horror that is Genesis 19 continues when not one but both daughters sleep with their dad and become pregnant through him. 

I really can't imagine what's worse: would it be getting gang-raped earlier in the chapter, or turning to your father to impregnate yourself?

I can't imagine.

Genesis 20

I still fail to understand how Abraham using his wife for safety and loot is a righteous thing to do, but God didn't seem to have an issue with it, and he does know best. 

I like the ending of this story better than the one that occurs earlier in Genesis: The Lord comes to the king guy and stops him from sinning with Sarah. Then, he gives Abraham a ton of stuff, as well as his wife back. 

God provided for Abraham like crazy. I mean, He had men giving Abraham so much stuff that he didn't have to worry about anything. I'm certain that He wants to do the same for us. He knows what we need, and has ways to take care of our every concern. We just have to let Him infiltrate our lives, and they will be better than ever. 

This chapter, I also received the significant shock that Sarah actually is Abraham's half-sister. That's something. 

Lastly, I think the way God healed the king and his family is awesome. Getting their ability to have babies back must have been more exciting than I can fathom. I love the way that God works miracles in the lives of those who let Him.