Genesis 21 - 25
Ok, so this is pretty much wrapping up the story of Abraham and all his friggin Sons (of which he only claims one legitimate son and sends all the rest away.
There really isn't much to say about these chapters, but there were some interesting things.
First, we find the first real test of man by God. God tests Abraham by commanding him to go to this far-off mountain and sacrifice his son Isaac. And then BOOM! just before Abraham kills his son, the Angel of God shows up and says, "Dude, don't do it! We were just messin' with you. You know, a test. There's a ram over there, sacrafice it instead."
We also see the first bit of deception creeping into the mankind. Isaac eventually grows up and gets married and has a couple of sons. They're twins named Esau and Jacob. Esau was the older of the two and stood to inherit his father's stuff, but Jacob was a slick little con man. One day Esau was exhausted to near death from working in the fields and asks his brother for some food. Jacob says, "Sure bro, I'll give you some food. Just as soon as you sell me your birthright." DAMN!!!! That's harsh. And so Esau falls for it and sells Jacob his birthright.
But the thing I find most intersting is a subtle little shift that occurs half-way though Genesis 22. In the beginning of that chapter God is speaking directly to Abraham, but halfway though the language changes and God no longer talks to Abraham, instead it's the Angel of the LORD. More importantly, God is not heard speaking directly to anyone else through the remainder of these chapters.
I'm not sure if this trend will keep up or if God's voice with re-enter the picture later on, but I think this represents a shift in the religious practices of the authors. Once it might have been seen as fine to talk directly to God, but now one cannot talk directly to God, instead, you have to talk to his appointed translator. Very interesting.
On a side note, I just counted the chapters in Genesis and found out I'm only halfway through it. There are 50 chapters. I need to speed things up a bit if I ever want to finish this project before I die of old age.
There really isn't much to say about these chapters, but there were some interesting things.
First, we find the first real test of man by God. God tests Abraham by commanding him to go to this far-off mountain and sacrifice his son Isaac. And then BOOM! just before Abraham kills his son, the Angel of God shows up and says, "Dude, don't do it! We were just messin' with you. You know, a test. There's a ram over there, sacrafice it instead."
We also see the first bit of deception creeping into the mankind. Isaac eventually grows up and gets married and has a couple of sons. They're twins named Esau and Jacob. Esau was the older of the two and stood to inherit his father's stuff, but Jacob was a slick little con man. One day Esau was exhausted to near death from working in the fields and asks his brother for some food. Jacob says, "Sure bro, I'll give you some food. Just as soon as you sell me your birthright." DAMN!!!! That's harsh. And so Esau falls for it and sells Jacob his birthright.
But the thing I find most intersting is a subtle little shift that occurs half-way though Genesis 22. In the beginning of that chapter God is speaking directly to Abraham, but halfway though the language changes and God no longer talks to Abraham, instead it's the Angel of the LORD. More importantly, God is not heard speaking directly to anyone else through the remainder of these chapters.
I'm not sure if this trend will keep up or if God's voice with re-enter the picture later on, but I think this represents a shift in the religious practices of the authors. Once it might have been seen as fine to talk directly to God, but now one cannot talk directly to God, instead, you have to talk to his appointed translator. Very interesting.
On a side note, I just counted the chapters in Genesis and found out I'm only halfway through it. There are 50 chapters. I need to speed things up a bit if I ever want to finish this project before I die of old age.