Genesis is not only the story of creation. It is the story of the fathers of God's chosen people: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel).
Abraham
In Sunday school we used to sing a song called "Father Abraham Had Many Sons". It states that "I am one of them and so are you". We picture Abraham as an old man with a white beard. A wise elder who almost sacrificed his own son, Isaac, to demonstrate his faith in God. Only years later, when I think about the song, I realize that I never thought about the sacrificial aspect of being Abraham's son.
As sons and daughters of God, we are in effect called to sacrifice our lives, for our father in heaven. Too often, we think about the foreshadowing of God's own sacrifice. Yet, after reading this passage, I have found that God asks us for a willingness to trust Him and His plans. And this can go as far as committing to an awful plan. Something that appears to be quite insane. The Old Testament is full of animal sacrifice. But God puts an end to this ritual by performing the ultimate sacrifice through Jesus. Every sacrifice thereafter, is one of the spirit and soul. The Trinity calls for THREE parts. First, it is God. Then came Jesus. And now, we are in the age of the Holy Spirit. We are called to continue the Father & Son's legacy in our own lives...to make certain sacrifices in good & bold faith.
Isaac
Isaac was a miracle. Abraham and Sarah tried to have children for many years. In turn, Sarah ended up giving Abraham her servant Hagar to sleep with. Just to have children. It seems quite peculiar to us today, to think that a wife would be ok with her husband sleeping with another woman, to enable him to have his own kids. After God promises Abraham a son in his old age, He destroys Sodom & Gomorrah, even though Abraham pleads with him not to. We see here that the relationship between Abraham and God was very special, because God insured Abraham that He would not destroy the city if He finds just 10 righteous men.
Abraham firmly believed that Sodom was going to be spared, because his nephew Lot was living there. And Lot, he thought, was a righteous man. God, however, saved Lot from the destruction of Sodom. Although all this happened, Abraham was STILL surprised that Sarah gave birth to a son - Isaac.
When the time came, Abraham asked his servant to go in search for a wife for Isaac in Nahor. There, by a well, the servant met Rebekah - who was to become Isaac's wife. In Genesis, the well features in many stories. Jacob later builds a well for his son Joseph...the same well Jesus visits in John 4, to speak to a Samaritan woman about the 'living water'.
Nowadays, in Europe, we no longer depend on such wells for water anymore. Our plumbing system has made it easy for us to receive water. Back then, people had to walk to the wells (sometimes very far away) in order for their thirst to be quenched. There is no life without water. And Jesus says: "whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again." (John 4:14) Since Jesus spoke in parables and most of what He said actually meant something else, we are free to interpret what water actually means. In this case, I'd say that God provides us with LOVE. Rebekah, Isaac's wife, was found by the well. She became a bride by giving the servant and his camels water. Jesus, in turn, also came as a servant...and we are His bride. Yet, it is He who provides the water...the true love to nourish us.
Jacob (=Israel)
Wells are mysterious, because often you cannot see how deep they are...or how much water is in them. Isaac proceeded to dig several wells. And in Beersheba, the Lord appeared and blessed him. Together with Rebekah, he had twins: Esau & Jacob. Esau, the slightly older one, became a hunter, whereas Jacob was a stay-at-home-with-mommy kind of guy. Rebekah loved Jacob more than Esau and helped him to betray his brother and deceive Isaac to give Jacob Esau's birthright...the blessing of God. Rebekah then sent Jacob to live with her brother Laban, to be safe from Esau's anger.
Jacob fell in love with Laban's younger daughter, Rachel. And so he vowed to work for seven years in order to marry her. But after 7 years, Laban gave Jacob his older daughter to marry (as was custom). And so Jacob had to endure another 7 years of work in order to marry Rachel, too.
Again, this oddly foreshadows a similar fate in Jacob's son's life. Joseph later finds himself interpreting Pharaoh's dreams...and prophecying 7 years of abundance and 7 years of famine. Although Jacob got the girl he wanted, she wasn't able to have any children. And so a crazy baby-making war ensured between the two sisters, Leah and Rachel. God gave Leah sons, then Rachel's maid was sent to sleep with Jacob, sort of like a surrogate. Then Leah had her maid sleep with Jacob and give birth to sons.
The twelve tribes of Israel came about due to what seems like a silly sister's feud. In the end, Rachel did bear a son - Joseph. And then one last time, she died while giving birth to Benjamin.
So....God told Jacob to return home and make peace with his brother. While doing so, Jacob ended up wrestling with a man (God) at night and this man (God) renamed him "Israel", commonly interpreted as "he who struggles with God". Thus, the nation of Israel, at first, was made up of one man and his twelve sons. Again, this number is reflected in Jesus, the son of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his twelve disciples. One of them would betray him. One of them would doubt that He is who He says He is.
This is why we read the Old Testament TOGETHER with the New. There is a pattern that emerges in the Old, which is reflected in the New. The wells were significant back then. They were outposts...markers for the way. In the same manner, we find these markers in the Old Testament, allowing us to understand why Jesus did the things He did.
The protagonists of the Old Testament travelled from one place to another. They were nomads without a proper home. And the promise God gave Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that their descendants would have a land to call their 'home' would take many more years to be fulfilled.
Abraham
In Sunday school we used to sing a song called "Father Abraham Had Many Sons". It states that "I am one of them and so are you". We picture Abraham as an old man with a white beard. A wise elder who almost sacrificed his own son, Isaac, to demonstrate his faith in God. Only years later, when I think about the song, I realize that I never thought about the sacrificial aspect of being Abraham's son.
As sons and daughters of God, we are in effect called to sacrifice our lives, for our father in heaven. Too often, we think about the foreshadowing of God's own sacrifice. Yet, after reading this passage, I have found that God asks us for a willingness to trust Him and His plans. And this can go as far as committing to an awful plan. Something that appears to be quite insane. The Old Testament is full of animal sacrifice. But God puts an end to this ritual by performing the ultimate sacrifice through Jesus. Every sacrifice thereafter, is one of the spirit and soul. The Trinity calls for THREE parts. First, it is God. Then came Jesus. And now, we are in the age of the Holy Spirit. We are called to continue the Father & Son's legacy in our own lives...to make certain sacrifices in good & bold faith.
Isaac
Isaac was a miracle. Abraham and Sarah tried to have children for many years. In turn, Sarah ended up giving Abraham her servant Hagar to sleep with. Just to have children. It seems quite peculiar to us today, to think that a wife would be ok with her husband sleeping with another woman, to enable him to have his own kids. After God promises Abraham a son in his old age, He destroys Sodom & Gomorrah, even though Abraham pleads with him not to. We see here that the relationship between Abraham and God was very special, because God insured Abraham that He would not destroy the city if He finds just 10 righteous men.
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” (Genesis 18:32)
Abraham firmly believed that Sodom was going to be spared, because his nephew Lot was living there. And Lot, he thought, was a righteous man. God, however, saved Lot from the destruction of Sodom. Although all this happened, Abraham was STILL surprised that Sarah gave birth to a son - Isaac.
When the time came, Abraham asked his servant to go in search for a wife for Isaac in Nahor. There, by a well, the servant met Rebekah - who was to become Isaac's wife. In Genesis, the well features in many stories. Jacob later builds a well for his son Joseph...the same well Jesus visits in John 4, to speak to a Samaritan woman about the 'living water'.
Nowadays, in Europe, we no longer depend on such wells for water anymore. Our plumbing system has made it easy for us to receive water. Back then, people had to walk to the wells (sometimes very far away) in order for their thirst to be quenched. There is no life without water. And Jesus says: "whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again." (John 4:14) Since Jesus spoke in parables and most of what He said actually meant something else, we are free to interpret what water actually means. In this case, I'd say that God provides us with LOVE. Rebekah, Isaac's wife, was found by the well. She became a bride by giving the servant and his camels water. Jesus, in turn, also came as a servant...and we are His bride. Yet, it is He who provides the water...the true love to nourish us.
Jacob (=Israel)
Wells are mysterious, because often you cannot see how deep they are...or how much water is in them. Isaac proceeded to dig several wells. And in Beersheba, the Lord appeared and blessed him. Together with Rebekah, he had twins: Esau & Jacob. Esau, the slightly older one, became a hunter, whereas Jacob was a stay-at-home-with-mommy kind of guy. Rebekah loved Jacob more than Esau and helped him to betray his brother and deceive Isaac to give Jacob Esau's birthright...the blessing of God. Rebekah then sent Jacob to live with her brother Laban, to be safe from Esau's anger.
Jacob fell in love with Laban's younger daughter, Rachel. And so he vowed to work for seven years in order to marry her. But after 7 years, Laban gave Jacob his older daughter to marry (as was custom). And so Jacob had to endure another 7 years of work in order to marry Rachel, too.
Again, this oddly foreshadows a similar fate in Jacob's son's life. Joseph later finds himself interpreting Pharaoh's dreams...and prophecying 7 years of abundance and 7 years of famine. Although Jacob got the girl he wanted, she wasn't able to have any children. And so a crazy baby-making war ensured between the two sisters, Leah and Rachel. God gave Leah sons, then Rachel's maid was sent to sleep with Jacob, sort of like a surrogate. Then Leah had her maid sleep with Jacob and give birth to sons.
The twelve tribes of Israel came about due to what seems like a silly sister's feud. In the end, Rachel did bear a son - Joseph. And then one last time, she died while giving birth to Benjamin.
So....God told Jacob to return home and make peace with his brother. While doing so, Jacob ended up wrestling with a man (God) at night and this man (God) renamed him "Israel", commonly interpreted as "he who struggles with God". Thus, the nation of Israel, at first, was made up of one man and his twelve sons. Again, this number is reflected in Jesus, the son of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and his twelve disciples. One of them would betray him. One of them would doubt that He is who He says He is.
This is why we read the Old Testament TOGETHER with the New. There is a pattern that emerges in the Old, which is reflected in the New. The wells were significant back then. They were outposts...markers for the way. In the same manner, we find these markers in the Old Testament, allowing us to understand why Jesus did the things He did.
The protagonists of the Old Testament travelled from one place to another. They were nomads without a proper home. And the promise God gave Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that their descendants would have a land to call their 'home' would take many more years to be fulfilled.
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