Day 008 - Genesis 20-22

History repeats itself as Abraham once again pretends that Sarah is his sister instead of his wife because he's afraid that he'll be killed so that Abimelech (another cool name) can have her. This time however God intervenes at an earlier stage by appearing to Abimelech in a dream and thus saving the messy inflicting of diseases that we had last time (though all the women in the palace become infertile for a time). It's cool to see that Abimelech was a God fearing man and although has a special place for Abraham in his plan he desire for a relationship with others as well. It also makes you wonder at the character of the Egyptian king from chapter 12 who suffered more and ended up throwing Abraham out of his country.

Isaac's birth is a joyful occasion and the fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham. However the event is overshadowed by Abraham and Sarah's earlier mistrust of God because Hagar and Ishmael are still around. Abraham has to make the difficult decision to send them away, first at the behest of his wife and then after God tells him to listen to Sarah. We then see God's provision again as he cares for Hagar and her son.

God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son after all the things he had gone through must have seemed terrible to Abraham, it definitely seems terrible to the reader. Many consider God to be cruel in this passage to put Abraham through this ordeal and it certainly seems that way on the surface. When you think about it though and study the text you can see that this is a man who has lived trusting God for many years and he knows God's character. He says to his servants that 'we' will come back even though he knows that God has asked him to sacrifice Isaac. It has been suggested that Abraham believed that God could raise his son from the dead and trusted that he would do so. God doesn't give us more than we can handle and he knew that though this would be a great act of faith on Abraham's part, that he would come through and their relationship would be strengthened.