Genesis 21-25…
I could work through lunch today but I am deciding to read my Bible instead (won’t have time later tonight anyways). Today’s reading is Genesis 21-25, so here goes…
Chapter 21
“Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba” Its a good thing that Abraham was pretty experienced in the whole hearing from God thing at this point because, if I were him, I would be a little uncomfortable sending my kid off into the desert with just a little food and water otherwise.
Its interesting that the passage points out that the angel of God spoke to Hagar, rather than God specifically. When a voice is calling from heaven though, how would she know it was an angel of God and not God Himself? Did she see something as well?
Chapter 22
Again there is a distinction between the angel of the Lord calling down from heaven and God Himself speaking. I know there is no way I will find out the difference really…but am still pretty curious why it is described differently…especially since the angel of the Lord speaks about God in the first person as well (in both chapter 21 and 22, actually).
The story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac, like so many other stories, confuses me. Because God had already made a covenant with Abraham to make him into a great nation, right? At the time He didn’t mention that sacrificing his son would be a condition of that (and, actually, it would technically be impossible for Isaac to be sacrificed now and build a great nation later, for obvious reasons). So why in this chapter does He say that He would bless Abraham because of his willingness to sacrifice Isaac after the covenant was already made? Does that mean that if Abraham had decided not to the covenant would be broken (even if this wasn’t part of the original covenant) or did God make the covenant with Abraham earlier knowing already that Abraham would obey him in this? And if Abraham chose not to do this and the covenant was broken, would he think to himself “crap, I got circumcised for nothing then”? And how does this all work into the whole free will thing? So many questions, so few answers… Sigh…
Chapter 23
Not really many comments on this chapter.
Chapter 24
“This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has directed.” Even though I obviously believe that God did lead Abraham’s servant to Rebekah, its a little odd to me that Laban believed the guy’s story so quickly - enough to send his daughter off with him. Couldn’t the guy have made up the story about the whole camel watering thing after the girl already said it (I don’t think he did, this is hypothetical)? It seems that there is a theme throughout Genesis so far of being a little flippant about who you are willing to send your daughter off with. But I’m sure God was working through the situation though and maybe Laban’s attitude was somewhat different because he could sense that somehow?
“Then they said, “Let’s call the girl and ask her about it.” So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”" Yeah, took them long enough to ask her. Though I guess, given the times, she was pretty lucky that they asked at all.
Chapter 25
“Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.” and “Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.” Is it always about food with guys? 
Ok, that’s it for my comments today (and my lunch hour as well)…
Its as bad as the “losing socks in the laundry”-mystery… Hmmm…