目录

一、介绍

二、衔接

定义

类型

背景

榜样

影射

总结

三、含义

基本影响

主要主题

神的恩典

亚伯拉罕的忠实

赐予亚伯拉罕的祝福

藉亚伯拉罕赐的祝福

四、总结

一、介绍

真正跟随基督的人们都很喜欢阅读《圣经》，我们发现《圣经》以很多不同并且非常个人的方式，向我们说话，这是基督徒永远不能忘却的关乎《圣经》的宝贵真理。然而，很多时候，《圣经》这一奇妙的个人层面，往往会使我们忽略一些我们应该常常记住的东西。《圣经》最初的写作对象不是你我。起初的时候，《圣经》是写给那些生活在几千年前的人们的。因此，当我们设法明白如何把《圣经》应用到今天的人生时，我们必需小心，我们今天的应用要基于《圣经》原本的含义。

这个系列课程我们定名为「先祖亚伯拉罕」。这些课程中，我们要探讨创世记11章10节到25章18节中，有关亚伯拉罕生平的记载。

本课是三个介绍性课程中的第二课，这一课的题目是「亚伯拉罕的生平：原本含义」，本课中，我们要了解，从起初写作的时间和写作的对象为出发点，阅读亚伯拉罕生平的故事是多么重要。我们要探讨，当以色列民族跟随摩西走向应许之地时，这些故事最初在他们身上所应当产生的影响。

我们要探讨创世记11章10节到25章18节的原意，主要查看两大点，第一，我们要指出，摩西怎样引出亚伯拉罕生平的历史和他的最初读者之间的联系；第二，我们要总结，这些联系对原初读者的一些含义。

在查看亚伯拉罕一生的原本含义之前，我们应该稍微回顾一下前一课我们所学的内容。到此为止，我们已经注重了两个重要的问题，首先，我们已经提出，创世记12章1到3节揭示了亚伯拉罕故事中的四个主题：神对亚伯拉罕的恩典（很多方面神向先祖们所显的大怜悯）；亚伯拉罕对神忠心的责任（很多方面神期待亚伯拉罕的顺服）；神对亚伯拉罕的祝福（大国、后裔、土地和名为大的应许）；神透过亚伯拉罕对别人的祝福（亚伯拉罕要使地上万族得福的应许）。

除此之外，我们也发现，这几个主题决定了亚伯拉罕生平故事的叙述方式。我们学习到亚伯拉罕的故事，可以分成五个对称的步骤。首先，从11章10节到12章9节，从亚伯拉罕的背景和早期的经历开始；第二，从12章10节到14章24节，集中在亚伯拉罕早期和其他族群代表互相往来的几个情节上；第三部分，也是亚伯拉罕生平的中心部分，从15章1节到17章的27节，主要集中在神与亚伯拉罕的立约方面；亚伯拉罕生平的第四部分，从18章1节到21章34节，转向亚伯拉罕后期与其他族群代表的互相往来；第五部分，从22章1节到25章18节，着重叙述亚伯拉罕的后裔及其寿终。

这五个步骤，以对称的形式，展现了族长的一生。第三部分，从15章1节到17章27节，主要叙述神与亚伯拉罕的立约，这一部分是亚伯拉罕一生的中心点。第二和第四部分彼此呼应，都集中在亚伯拉罕与其他人的交往。第一和最后部分进一步彼此呼应，提供了亚伯拉罕生平的开始和结束，从过去到将来，追述他的家谱。

从许多方面来讲，本课以此为基础，构成亚伯拉罕一生的架构和内容。在我们准备进入本课程的主题：创世记一书中记载亚伯拉罕生平的原本含义时，请大家牢记这些复习性的内容。让我们先开始探讨，亚伯拉罕的生平故事和最初读到这些故事的以色列人的经历之间存在的联系。

二、衔接

在这个系列课程中，我们对亚伯拉罕生平的解释，是建立在一个假设前提之上，此前提就是这些故事最初写在摩西时代，而且他们从本质上和我们现有的文本毫无区别。很多《圣经》批判学者相信这些故事不是在摩西时代写成，但是，旧约的其他部分和耶稣自己都坚持摩西是创世记的作者。因此，现代的基督徒应该确定此书为摩西所写。但是本系列课程中，我们要更进一步。我们不光停留在摩西是这些故事的作者上面，我们还要知道为什么他写这些故事。他对亚伯拉罕生平的观点是什么？他写作的目的是什么？探讨亚伯拉罕生平故事原本含义的最好方法之一，就是寻找摩西把亚伯拉罕的故事和最初读者的经历关联在一起的方式，这些经历就是以色列人跟从他从埃及到应许之地的经历。

为了探讨摩西如何把亚伯拉罕的相关故事和最初读者的经历关联在一起，我们要触及三个问题，首先，我们要探讨我们说的这种关联是什么意思；第二，我们要查看出现在亚伯拉罕故事中这些关联的一些类型；第三，我们要通过查看亚伯拉罕生平故事结构的五个主要步骤，来总结故事中的这些关联。我们将从探讨我们说的这种关联的含义开始。

定义

在许多方面，当摩西撰写亚伯拉罕生平的时候，他发现自己，和其他《圣经》叙述体书卷的作者一样，在一个处境中。他站在两个世界之间。一方面，摩西已经领受了我们所说的「那个世界」的记述，即亚伯拉罕的世界。从历史传统，更是从神那里来的超然启示，他知道了500年到600年之前发生在亚伯拉罕身上的事情。从这个意义上来看，摩西首先涉及的是亚伯拉罕生平时代的远古世界。

但是，另一方面，摩西也涉及他生活的时代，我们可以称之为「他们的世界」，就是摩西和跟从摩西的以色列人的世界。作为那个时代神子民的领袖，摩西撰写远古时代亚伯拉罕的生平，为了满足他们世界的需要。

当摩西站在亚伯拉罕生平的「那个世界」和他同时代的「他们的世界」之间，他把亚伯拉罕的人生和读者的人生联系起来，这样，他们能够看到这些故事的关联性。也就是说，摩西挑选并塑造这些故事的方式，使跟从他的以色列人能够明白亚伯拉罕的人生和他们的人生有关联。摩西写作的目的大部分在于此，使他的读者能比较、对比亚伯拉罕与他们当时的经历。这些对比和比较有时比较轻微，有时比较强烈，但是每个情节，摩西都注重亚伯拉罕的人生和最初读者人生之间的联系。

既然已经了解了关联和原意的概念，我们现在转向第二个重点，就是摩西建立亚伯拉罕人生和以色列原本读者人生经历之间的关联类型。

类型

任何一个故事要和读者发生联系，读者一定要对所描述的世界能够了解。如果一个故事所描述的世界和现实世界迥然不同，如果读者和故事的人物和主题毫不相关，那么这个故事就不能表达任何意义。用本课的术语来讲的话，就是，如果亚伯拉罕的「那个世界」和摩西以及以色列「他们的世界」迥然不同的话，亚伯拉罕的故事对以色列人就毫无意义，毫不相关。因此，摩西费尽心思，把亚伯拉罕的世界和走向应许之地的以色列人世界之间关联起来。

本课中，我们的问题是，摩西怎样使这些联系清晰明朗，他怎样安排亚伯拉罕的故事，能够使它们和读者的世界关联起来？随着我们课程的进展，我们会了解到摩西用三种主要的方法，使他的叙述和以色列人的经历关联起来。首先，摩西所写的这些故事，可以告诉以色列人他们经历这一切的历史背景。第二，摩西所写的这些故事，为以色列人提供了要效法的榜样和要吸取的教训。第三，摩西所写的这些故事，表明了族长的经历预示和影射了以色列人的经历。因为以后的课程中，我们会很多次提到这些联系，所以，我们应该介绍摩西使用的这三种技巧，来显示亚伯拉罕的生平对摩西原初读者的关联。首先，让我们看看亚伯拉罕的生平，怎样为摩西时代以色列人的经历提供了背景，这是所有联系中最容易识别的。

背景

很普遍，在人生旅程中，人们彼此之间用讲故事的方式，来解释他们自己经历事情和事件的历史背景。父母对孩子经常是如此，教师们讲课也常用这种方式，牧师甚至政治领袖也如法炮制。我们常常用故事关联我们的听众，从而引起他们注意力，以此来提供有关的历史背景。

对于亚伯拉罕的人生来说，我们可以下面方式来描述这种联系。当摩西指出以色列人的经历历史性地根植于亚伯拉罕的生平时，我们就看到这种历史背景的联系。例如，摩西解释迦南地是以色列人家园的历史背景的方式。你可能记得，出埃及的时候，很多次，以色列人怀疑为什么他们要走这么长途跋涉到迦南地，为什么摩西不允许他们停下来，不进入那地？

很多情况下，摩西提到这一问题的时候，提供关于亚伯拉罕生平历史背景的具体细节。总之，摩西显明了神已经明确地把迦南地赐给亚伯拉罕，以此使以色列人能够明白为什么他们也要在迦南地安家。例如，在创世记15章18节，记载神对亚伯拉罕说，

这节经文确立了摩西坚持以色列人占领迦南的根源或者历史背景。神已经把迦南地赐给了他们的先祖，同时，也赐给了他们，就是亚伯拉罕的后裔。因此，住在其他地方是行不通的。

我们越仔细查考亚伯拉罕的生平，我们就越了解摩西常常指出这种历史背景。摩西把亚伯拉罕的生平和当时的以色列人联系起来的第二种主要方式是，为他们树立榜样。我们一起来看看榜样在这些故事中怎样起作用。

榜样

摩西不想他最初的读者把亚伯拉罕的故事仅仅当作历史背景来读，他描述了族长生平的很多情形，这样，他们就可以发现，亚伯拉罕的生平和他们的情形有太多相似的地方。这些相似的地方为这些人提供了道德上的方向，摩西指出这些相似点使以色列人有可能找到效法或者拒绝的榜样。

为了提供榜样或模范，讲故事是联系故事和听众的一个很普遍的方法。这样的事常常发生，我们警告人们在工作的时候，不要做这个、那个，我们会常常加上的一个故事，讲到某个人上次曾经犯过的错误。如果教育小孩子，为什么在学校要好好学习，我们也常常用人们在学校努力学习而成功的故事作为例子，来加强我们的教导。

摩西也是这样来把亚伯拉罕的故事和他原本的以色列听众的人生联系起来。他展现亚伯拉罕的故事，这样，亚伯拉罕的品性就能成为以色列人效法或拒绝的榜样。例如，看看摩西如何劝告以色列人，面对占领迦南地的迦南人的威胁时要壮胆。从民数记和申命记中我们知道，跟从摩西的以色列人拒绝进入迦南地，因为那地的迦南人很强大。他们的心中充满了恐惧，因为迦南人看起来象是不可战胜的敌人。申命记1章26节到28节，摩西这样对以色列的各支派说，

针对对迦南人的恐惧，摩西所采用的方法之一，就是向以色列人提供亚伯拉罕当初面对迦南人的例子。例如，在创世记12章6节，我们看到亚伯拉罕人生首次提到迦南人，

「亚伯兰经过那地……那时，迦南人住在那地。」（创世记12章6节）

同样的方式，创世记13章7节，这样说，

为什么摩西在两个相连的情节中两次提到迦南人住在应许之地？摩西其中的一个目的就是，向以色列人显明亚伯拉罕的情形和他们的情形非常相似。亚伯拉罕的时代，就有迦南人在应许之地，就像摩西时代的以色列一样，然而，亚伯拉罕相信神的应许，就大胆进入迦南人居住的地方。以此方式，摩西来鼓励他的读者要效法亚伯拉罕的胆量，相信神的应许，即使迦南人仍然占领那地，也要进去。这样，亚伯拉罕就成为他们效法的榜样。

当查考亚伯拉罕的整个生平时，我们发现很多段落提供了正面和负面的例子。但是第三点，有时，摩西用亚伯拉罕人生的事件怎样影射、预示他自己的时代所发生的事件，来关联亚伯拉罕的生平和他最初的以色列听众的人生。

影射

从许多方面来讲，为了达成目的，历史背景的联系几乎不要求故事和听众之间的相似性；榜样、模范则较多地要求故事和听众相关例子的相似性。但是影射只发生在极度相似的时候，以至于亚伯拉罕的「那个世界」看起来就和以色列人「他们的世界」几乎完全一样。这种广泛的联系，在亚伯拉罕的故事中，不经常发生，但是，时不时，摩西也描述亚伯拉罕的时代和他自己时代几乎相似的事件。

我们很多人听说过一个谚语，「历史往往重演」。当然，我们都会十分清楚，没有任何的两个历史事件会是完全一模一样的，但是有时历史事件如此相似，以至第二件看起来就是第一个事件的翻版。《圣经》作者看待过去的事件就好象是他们读者人生中的重演，他们常常使这种联系清晰可辨。这种文字技巧，就成为我们常说的影射或预示。

影射的一个例子，出现在创世记15章1节到21节，这一个熟悉的情节描述亚伯拉罕与神的立约。神透过呼召亚伯拉罕准备一个立约的仪式，让他确信他的后裔将来有一天要占领迦南地。亚伯拉罕就准备，他把一些动物切成两半，把这些切开的肉块一半对一半地摆列。族长沉沉地睡了之后，他看到一个异象，里面的事情完全类似最初听众在他们时代所经历的。创世记15章17节这样说，

从这段经文广泛的前后文，我们发现这些冒烟的炉，烧着的火把，代表神自己经过那些切开的动物肉块，作为神确定赐给亚伯拉罕后裔应许之地的确据。

抓住这个画面。创世记15章17节，神以烟火的形式从亚伯拉罕的面前经过，使他相信神要将应许之地赐给他的后裔。对我们现代的读者来说，神以烟、火的形式使亚伯拉罕确信，这样非常奇怪。但是，如果我们记得摩西记述亚伯拉罕的生平是为了以色列人能跟随他进入应许之地，就一点也不奇怪摩西为何加入这些细节了。以色列人的整个旅程中，神在以色列人面前，就是以冒烟的炉和烧着的火把出现。在带领以色列前往应许之地的荣耀的云彩中，神也是以烟和火的形式向他们显现。

因此，神以此种方式向亚伯拉罕显现，预示了他在摩西时代向以色列人显现的方式。神以此方式在亚伯拉罕面前经过，使他得到了获得那地的确据，同样，以色列人听到这个故事也能在他们的时代得到应许之地的确据。

另外，一个更加强烈的影射，发生在创世记12章10节到20节，亚伯拉罕从埃及被拯救出来的情节。这段经文的描述是为了引导以色列人对埃及的立场。这个事件中，摩西建构整个情节，以此来对比在他领导之下的以色列人的经历。创世记12章10节到20节，因为迦南地遭遇饥荒，亚伯拉罕下到埃及暂居，因为法老把撒拉带进宫，使他们在埃及的日子延长，但是神救赎亚伯拉罕，降大灾与法老全家，法老就打发亚伯拉罕离开埃及，亚伯拉罕离开埃及的时候，带走了许多财物。

很显然，亚伯拉罕的这个故事有意影射以色列民族后代的经历。和亚伯拉罕一样，因为迦南地遭遇饥荒的缘故，他们暂居在埃及，他们被法老控制在那里，神救赎他们，降灾祸给法老全家，法老命令以色列人离开，以色列人就离开埃及，带走了埃及人很多的财富。摩西刻意的塑造这个记载使得它能影射他以色列读者的经历。这种强烈的影射在亚伯拉罕的生平中并不多，但是这种联系时不时出现在亚伯拉罕的故事中。

我们通读亚伯拉罕的故事，我们会看到所有这三种不同方式、不同时间的联系。摩西把亚伯拉罕生平的「那个世界」和最初读者「他们的世界」联系起来，让他们明白他们经历的历史背景，提供他们效法或拒绝的模式，向他们显明亚伯拉罕的生平怎么影射他们许多的经历。

我们已经清楚了摩西用来联系亚伯拉罕和以色列的类型，总结一下亚伯拉罕人生中的每一个步骤怎样和最初的读者的人生联系起来，会对我们很有帮助。

总结

你可能回忆亚伯拉罕的生平分成五个对称的步骤，每个部分里面，摩西都找到把亚伯拉罕的生平和最初读者的人生关联起来的方式。

首先，摩西谈到有关亚伯拉罕的背景和早期经历，设法将跟随他出埃及的人们的背景和早期经历联系起来。亚伯拉罕和以色列人都来自同一个祖先。亚伯拉罕和以色列人都被神呼召去承受迦南地。因此，摩西给出历史背景，设立亚伯拉罕为榜样，甚至显明亚伯拉罕的生平来影射最初读者的经历。

其次，摩西也描述亚伯拉罕和其他族群互相往来；设法联系到他的读者，他提到亚伯拉罕怎样和埃及人交往，因为以色列人在那时也与埃及人往来，他提到亚伯拉罕和罗得的交往，因为以色列人也和罗得后裔，摩 押人和亚门人来往，他写到从东方来的王和索多玛的迦南王，因为以色列和外国的王和迦南城市，也有相似的经历。

第三，摩西写到神与亚伯拉罕的立约，因为以色列人也进入和神立约的境况。亚伯拉罕与神所立的约，在很多方面，影射了神与以色列所立的约。

第四，摩西写到有关亚伯拉罕后期与其他族群的互相往来。他写到所多玛和蛾摩拉的人们，罗得，非利士人亚比米勒，因为当时的以色列 人也面临相似的族群：迦南城市，摩押人，和非利士人。

第五，摩西记载有关亚伯拉罕的后裔及其寿终，设法和以色列的读者联系在一起。他集中在以撒作为亚伯拉罕特殊的儿子和继承者，因为以色列读者是以撒的后裔。他注重撒拉的墓地，因为那块地在神应许给以色列的土地中。他注重亚伯拉罕的其他后裔，但不是继承者，尤其是以实玛利，因为以色列人当时必须面对以实玛利的后裔。

因此我们看到，当摩西写到关于亚伯拉罕的事情时，他设法使他的故事和以色列读者的经历之间产生很多联系。他这样做，为了向以色列人在跟随他进入迦南地时，提供重要的引导。

既然我们已经明白了摩西所使用的主要方法，来关联亚伯拉罕的生平和他最初的以色列读者，我们需要问另外一个关于原本含义的重要问题，这些联系对起初的读者有什么应用意义？他们应该从亚伯拉罕的生平中学到什么？

三、含义

毫无疑问，当人们花时间撰写复杂的历史，就像创世记里面亚伯拉罕的生平，他们都会有各种各样的动机和目的，他们想要他们的故事对他们的读者产生多重的影响。实际上，摩西撰写亚伯拉罕的生平时，他的用意是使相当多的方面，以至于根本不可能完全来解释清楚，更不可能用几句话就完全表达。但是同时，我们有可能来总结出，摩西希望他的原本读者们从亚伯拉罕的故事中应该得出的主要含义。

我们要探讨，亚伯拉罕生平最初含义的三个步骤。首先，我们要描述这些故事原本对最初读者的基本影响。第二，我们要看看这些故事的影响怎样在亚伯拉罕生平的四个重要主题中展开。第三，我们要总结，摩西记述亚伯拉罕生平五个步骤中每一个步骤的最初含义。让我们先来看看这些故事原本计划的基本影响。

基本影响

一般来讲，这样总结亚伯拉罕故事的目的对我们会有所帮助，「摩西撰写有关亚伯拉罕的故事，是为了教导以色列人为何及如何要离开并忘记埃及，继续征服应许之地。」换句话说，从亚伯拉罕看到他们人生的历史背景，从亚伯拉罕的故事中找到效法榜样或吸取的教训，识别他的人生怎样影射他们的人生，透过这些，跟随摩西的以色列人能够明白他们追求神为他们所设立目标的方式。

虽然基于《圣经》的见证，甚至耶稣自己的见证，我们确信创世记写于摩西时代，但是我们也应该注意，我们无法确定摩西写成这些故事，就是我们现有的《圣经》故事，确切的时间。无论怎样，我们可以确实地说，摩西写亚伯拉罕历史的时候，他的关注的无论是对第一代出埃及的、还是对第二代进迦南的以色列人都一样。他写有关亚伯拉罕的故事，是为了使他们的心离开埃及，去拥有应许之地。

这个对起初读者的一般含义几乎怎样强调都不会过分。摩西写作的目的是为了鼓励以色列民族跟随他，永远不要向埃及回头，要成功地占领应许的迦南全地。这个广泛的含义引导着我们在现今世代对亚伯拉罕生平的应用。作为一个基督徒，我们也是在一个人生的旅程中，这个旅程是完成摩西时代以色列人就开始的那个旅程，我们正朝向新天新地前进。因此，为要合宜地将亚伯拉罕的故事应用到我们人生中，我们必须注意，他们对原本读者教导的方式，使他们持续地向迦南行进。

为了稍微揭开这个要点，我们要回头来看在创世记里已经确定的四个主题，更详细察看摩西的目的。你可能记得本课前面我们讲到，创世记12章1节到3节陈述了至少4个主题，与族长历史的这一部分相对应。

主要主题

这四个主题表达了摩西有意要在这些故事中的主要影响。首先，他注重神对亚伯拉罕的恩典；第二，他注重亚伯拉罕的忠心；第三，他注重亚伯拉罕的祝福；第四，他注重借亚伯拉罕赐下的祝福。从这个四个要点入手，可以帮助我们思想摩西写亚伯拉罕生平的原始目的。

神的恩典

首先，摩西描述神向亚伯拉罕实行怜悯的方式。广义上来讲，我们已经看到，无论是早期他与神的关系，或是他整个人生中的每一天，神都向亚伯拉罕大大施恩。神恩典的要点定意要提醒摩西时代的以色列人，神也已经向他们大大地施恩。在早期神带领他们出埃及到达西乃山时，已经向他们大施怜悯。后来的每一天，神都持续向他们施怜悯，甚至预备他们将来征服迦南地。

神在西乃山著名的话在出埃及记19章4节，这样提到神的恩典，

「我向埃及人所行的事，你们都看见了，且看见我如鹰将你们背在翅膀上，带来归我。」（出埃及记19章4节）

很不幸的是，摩西所带领的以色列人忘记了他们从神领受的是何等大的恩典。起初，他们抱怨神和摩西欺骗他们，使他们离开舒适的埃及。他们抱怨在旷野没有食物、没有水。当神呼召他们去征服应许之地时，他们认为神向他们要的太多。因此，摩西常常强调神向亚伯拉罕所施行的怜悯，来提醒他最初的读者神祝福他们的方式，神一次又一次向他们所显的怜悯。

亚伯拉罕的忠实

第二点，我们已经看到摩西也强调亚伯拉罕的忠实，着重神要求亚伯拉罕的责任去遵行他的命令。摩西反复强调神期待亚伯拉罕要忠实于他的命令，因为这个焦点和跟随他的以色列人也有关系，要求忠实的焦点也向摩西时代的以色列人宣告。出埃及记19章4-5节，看看神在西乃山上不断向以色列人讲话的方式，

注意这里说「作属我的子民」的祝福取决与以色列人的忠实，虽然神向这个民族显明了极大的怜悯，但是每个时代中每一个人的地位，取决与他们对神命令的回应。

我们已经看到，神给亚伯拉罕的主要责任就是他要去迦南地。摩西强调这个责任，因为他想要那些跟随他的以色列人也持守在去迦南的进程中。当然，摩西也提到亚伯拉罕其他的责任，他这样做是为了教导当时的以色列民，他们也有这些责任。这些对亚伯拉罕很多忠心的要求清楚地讲明一个事实，就是最初的读者也要对神的命令忠心信靠。

对亚伯拉罕的祝福

第三点，我们也已经看到神对亚伯拉罕祝福这一主题的重要性。在亚伯拉罕的故事中，摩西集中在神应许的福气上，成为大国，繁荣昌盛，亚伯拉罕及其后裔要名为大。很多情况下，我们也看到亚伯拉罕在他有生之年，已经先经历了其中的一些祝福，在很多其他情况下，亚伯拉罕的故事集中在这些祝福要在将来的后代中完成。摩西以此来注重亚伯拉罕的祝福，因为这些应许也是给亚伯拉罕后裔的，即摩西所带领的以色列人。神也应许以色列人有大的祝福，他们要成为大国，经历前所未有的繁荣昌盛，当他们进入迦南地之后名要为大。

实际上，正像亚伯拉罕一样，在创世记写成的时候，以色列也预先经历的许多这些祝福，他们已经在他们有生之年看到这些应许的实现。然而，这些很多其它的祝福还要到他们占领应许之地之后才会实现。出埃及记19章6节，神在西乃山上提到这些将来的祝福时，对以色列人这样说，

摩西写到神应许给亚伯拉罕的这些祝福，给他那个时代的以色列民带来希望，当他们读到神给他们的先祖的应许时，他们能够清楚地看见神大大的祝福也怎样为他们存留。

籍亚伯拉罕赐的祝福

第四，我们也已经看到亚伯拉罕的故事显明了神的祝福可以从先祖流到整个世界。你可能记得，从亚伯拉罕而来的祝福不是单一的方式，从创世记12章3节，我们了解到神透过祝福亚伯拉罕的朋友，咒诅他的敌人来使亚伯拉罕成功。在情节变化中，摩西指出神怎样使亚伯拉罕在他的有生之年，通过和一些代表其他族群的人物交往，预先经历这个过程。亚伯拉罕生平的很多故事中，摩西指出很多祝福将来才能成就。

摩西强调这种动机，因为这和当时跟随的以色列民有关。神确定使他们能成为别人的祝福，因为神要祝福他们的朋友，咒诅他们的敌人。他们也看到这些应许的初步结果，在他们的年月当他们与不同族群的人互动时，已经实现。他们已经看见，在很多情况下，神祝福他们的朋友，咒诅他们的敌人。除此之外，摩西注重这些问题，也是为了使以色列人着眼将来，当他们进入迦南地时，扩展神的国度到地极的时候，应许的最终成就。我们刚刚看的那节经文，出埃及记19章6节，神这样对以色列说，

祭祀的国度这个异象不但指出，作为特别的圣洁子民事奉神，而国度本身受到祝福，而且同时指出，以色列的子孙将在全世界事奉神的旨意。当摩西激发以色列进入迦南地时，亚伯拉罕的故事有意要在他们当中传达这样的异象，就是神要怎样使用以色列扩展神的国度，所以他的祝福是对全世界的。

既然我们已经明白了亚伯拉罕生平四个主题对最初读者的意义，让我们从创世记中记载这位族长生平结构的每个步骤，来简要总结亚伯拉罕故事对最初读者的影响。

五个步骤

你可能记得亚伯拉罕生平的故事分成五个主要的步骤。首先，11：10－12：9，亚伯拉罕的背景和早期经历；第二，12：10－14：24中，亚伯拉罕早期和其他族群代表的互相往来；第三，15：1－17：27中，神与亚伯拉罕立约；第四，18:1-21:34中，亚伯拉罕后期与其他族群代表的互相往来；第五，22:1-25:18中，亚伯拉罕的后裔和寿终。

每一个主要步骤又分为很多小的片断或情节。我们将简要地概括这些情节的内容，以及对摩西的写作对象，即原初读者的一些主要含义。

背景和早期经历

亚伯拉罕生平的第一步骤，他的背景和早期经历，记述了亚伯拉罕的家庭和神首次呼召亚伯拉罕服事他的一些特征。一般来说，摩西构思的这个第一步骤，来向他最初的读者显明，从亚伯拉罕生平的这些事件中，他们怎样了解他们自己的家庭背景，以及他们从神而来的呼召。

第一步骤分成三个情节或片断。亚伯拉罕的生平从11：10－26的家谱开始，表明亚伯拉罕的家谱是蒙神恩典的一支。这些经文确定了亚伯拉罕是闪的家族中一个至高的人物，闪的家族是在神面前蒙恩的家族，是神特别拣选的人。这个家谱提醒摩西最初的以色列读者，作为亚伯拉罕家族的后裔，他们也拥有同样蒙恩的地位，他们是神特别的选民。

亚伯拉罕背景和早期经历的第二个情节，是记载在11：27－32的另一个家谱。简单来讲，这段经文描述了他拉是个敬拜偶像的人，要往迦南地去，但是没有去成。摩西最初的读者很容易就看出来他们的情况和亚伯拉罕的情况极为相似。他们的祖先因为拜偶像，也没有到达迦南地。所以，正如亚伯拉罕必须避免重复他父亲的失败，同样，跟随摩西的以色列人也必须避免重复他们父母亲的失败，出埃及的第一代人，因为拜偶像而没有能够进入迦南地。

亚伯拉罕的背景和早期经历，接着就到了12：1－9，亚伯拉罕迁到迦南的故事。神呼召亚伯拉罕到迦南地，尽管有很多的困难，但是亚伯拉罕顺从神的呼召。几乎同样的情况，神呼召摩西最初的以色列读者到迦南地，尽管有很多的困难，他们也要顺从神的呼召。因此，亚伯拉罕迁移迦南地的故事，有起初的意义，就是摩西时代的以色列人，要跟从亚伯拉罕的脚踪，象亚伯拉罕一样，进入迦南地。

透过这三个片断，，摩西介绍了亚伯拉罕的生平，为他的最初读者，当他们服事神面临挑战的时候，提供了重要的引导。

早期与其他人的来往

创世记记载亚伯拉罕生平的第二个主要步骤，集中在先祖早期与其他族群的往来上。当原本的以色列读者与其他人交往时，描述先祖与其他族群的人们以不同的方式往来的这些章节，将会有效地引导他们。

第一个情节，在创世记12：10－20，摩西描述亚伯拉罕从埃及被救出来的事情，你可能记得先祖因为饥荒的缘故到埃及地暂居，但是神把他从埃及人的束缚中解救出来，使法老的家遭遇灾难。因为神奇妙的拯救，亚伯拉罕带着很多财富离开埃及，再没有回来。亚伯拉罕清楚地知道埃及不是他的家。

摩西最初的以色列读者也能够看到他们自己的经历和亚伯拉罕的经历有很多类同的地方。因为饥荒的缘故，他们来到埃及，神使埃及人遭受灾难，来救他们脱离埃及，他们从埃及人身上带走许多财物，离开埃及。不幸的是，当以色列人在途中面临困苦时，他们中的许多人就把埃及的生活理想化，想要回头。这个情节应该是最初的读者非常清楚，埃及不是他们的家，他们应该记得神怎样荣耀地拯救他们，要离开埃及，要远远地把埃及抛在脑后。

亚伯拉罕早期与其他族群往来的第二个片断，在13：1－18，是他与罗得发生冲突的故事。这个广为人知的故事是记述罗得的仆人和亚伯拉罕仆人之间的冲突。这两群人为了他们羊群的自然资源而争吵。这场冲突中，亚伯拉罕以仁慈来对待罗得，允许罗得平安地住在他所选择的地方。创世记最初的读者毫不费力地就能理解这个故事所包含的意义。根据申命记2章，当他们向应许之地前进的时候，摩西命令以色列人要善待罗得的后裔，让他们平安地住在他们祖传的土地。结果，亚伯拉罕善待罗得，向以色列人显明了他们应该如何对待他们时代的摩押人。

亚伯拉罕早期与其他族群的往来的第三个情节，在14：1－24，亚伯拉罕救罗得的故事。这个复杂的故事记述了亚伯拉罕如何打败来自远方强大的暴君，以及如何进一步以仁慈来待罗得，救他脱离残暴君王们的手。这个故事很清楚地向以色列人说明要跟从摩西。以色列人穿过摩押人和押们人的境地，这些人是罗得 的后裔，以色列的军队打败了亚摩利王西宏和巴珊王噩，这两个王都是欺压摩押人和亚门人的。透过解救摩押人和亚门人，以此方式，以色列人遵循了亚伯拉罕为他们设立的榜样。

亚伯拉罕生平的这个阶段中的每个情节，就是以上述方式，使亚伯拉罕成为以色列那个时代遵循的榜样。

与神立约

现在我们到了亚伯拉罕生平的第三个主要步骤，在15:1-17:27中，神与亚伯拉罕的立约。一般来讲，这个步骤集中在神与先祖的立约，以此来显示以色列与神立约关系的特点。这些章节可以分成三个片断。

第一个特别集中神与亚伯拉罕立约应许的情节，记载在15：1－21节。这章经文是众所周知的神与亚伯拉罕立约的记述。神给亚伯拉罕后裔和土地的应许。具体来讲，神应许亚伯拉罕有众多的后裔，他的后裔要寄居在别人之地，要被苦待一段时间，然后，亚伯拉罕的后裔要被带回到应许之地。这段经文的目的就是提醒以色列人，神曾经透过摩西和他们立了类似的约。不但如此，这段经文也向他们表明，他们自己正经历神对亚伯拉罕应许的实现。以色列人是亚伯拉罕应许的后裔，他们从埃及回到神给他们先祖的应许之地。怀疑这个事实，就是怀疑神与亚伯拉罕所立的约、与摩西重申的恩典之约的应许。

第二个集中神与亚伯拉罕的立约的情节，记载在16：1－16节，是先祖因夏甲的失败。这个令人伤心的故事，讲述了亚伯拉罕与撒拉背离神圣约的应许，从撒拉的埃及使女夏甲而求得一个孩子，亚伯拉罕和撒拉没有信靠神圣约的应许，而神也厌弃了他们变通的计划，不接纳他们的孩子以实玛利作为亚伯拉罕的真实的后裔。摩西起初的读者不断背离神圣约的应许，向往埃及的舒适。亚伯拉罕生平的这个故事教导他们，就如神厌弃亚伯拉罕的计划一样，神也厌弃他们的变通计划。

第三个集中神与亚伯拉罕立约的情节，记载在17：1－27节，记述了圣约对亚伯拉罕的要求。这段经文中，神直面亚伯拉罕没有顺从神的计划，耶和华神重申了对圣约忠心的要求，设立了割礼成为圣约的记号，要亚伯拉罕和他的后裔遵守。透过这个记号，神提醒亚伯拉罕他的立约关系需要承担忠心的责任，这个忠心会带来很大的祝福。摩西重述这个立约的记号，来直面那时以色列人的失败，提醒他们要忠实，重申以色列人对圣约忠心的必需。只有以色列人忠实于他们圣约的神，才能够希望得到神大大的祝福。

因此，亚伯拉罕生平的中心点，就是与神的立约，注重了神对以色列伟大应许的恩典。但是，也强有力地提醒了他的读者，他们有义务显示他们对立约之神忠心的服事。

后期与其他人的交往

我们到了亚伯拉罕生平的第四步：在18:1－21：34，记述他后期与其他人的交往。这些章节中，亚伯拉罕遇到不同的人，这些人和生活在摩西时代的人有关联，与亚伯拉罕交往的人有：住在所多玛和蛾摩拉的迦南人、罗得、亚比米勒和以实玛利。一般来讲，亚伯拉罕与这些人的交往，教导了以色列他们应该怎样他们当时代的人交往：迦南人、摩押人、非利士人，和以实玛利人。

先祖生平这一部分的第一个故事是记载在18：1－19：38所多玛和蛾摩拉的故事。这是个大家熟悉的故事，描述神的审判临到罪恶的迦南城市，提到亚伯拉罕对城中义人的关切，这些城市的毁灭，以及罗得一家的被救。这些事件直接指向摩西起初的读者所面临的景况，帮助他们明白生活在他们时代的人们所发生的事情：神的审判临到迦南人，他们关切这些迦南人中的义人（象他们在耶利哥城遇到的喇合），迦南城市将要面临毁灭，以及他们与罗得的后裔，摩押人和亚门人的关系。

亚伯拉罕后期与其他人交往的第二部分记载在20：1－18。这个故事中，亚伯拉罕又一次为一个当地的名叫亚比米勒的非利士人代求。你可能记得，亚比米勒不知道撒拉是亚伯拉罕的妻子，就把撒拉夺去，威胁到亚伯拉罕的未来，接着，神的审判临到亚比米勒，亚比米勒悔改他的行为，证明他心中是公义的。悔改的结果，亚伯拉罕替亚比米勒代求，亚伯拉罕和亚比米勒就享受他们彼此之间的和平与友谊。

这个故事向摩西时代的以色列人讲明，他们对当时的非利士人应有的态度。非利士人以不同的方式，对以色列造成威胁。但是神的审判临到非利士人当中的时候，他们就悔改，以色列人就为他们代求，同时享受他们之间长久的和平。

这个一部分的第三个情节在21：1－21，主要集中在以撒和以实玛利之间难处的关系。以撒和以实玛利都是亚伯拉罕的儿子，但是他们两个人关系紧张的时候，神告诉亚伯拉罕把以实玛利从他家里赶出去，神仍然祝福以实玛利。但是显而易见，以撒是亚伯拉罕的继承者。当摩西告诉他的最初的以色列读者这些事件的时候，他要帮助他们明白他们与当时以实玛利后代的关系。以色列人和以实玛利人关系紧张时，以色列人要记得，神已经将他们分门别类。虽然神从多方面祝福以实玛利人，但是以色列才是亚伯拉罕真正的继承者。

亚伯拉罕后期与其他人交往的第四个情节在21：22－34，这个故事是讲到亚伯拉罕与亚比米勒的和约。故事记载了非利士人亚比米勒认识到神对亚伯拉罕的恩典，亚伯拉罕如何同意和亚比米勒及其后裔和平相处，后来又讲到因为亚伯拉罕羊群的水井发生争执，亚比米勒怎样在别是巴和亚伯拉罕签订正式的和约，保证彼此互尊互荣。

亚比米勒和他的军长提醒了摩西和以色列人，当时的非利士人威胁很大。从中，摩西教导他的跟随者们，如果非利士人认识到神对以色列人的恩惠，那么以色列人应该遵循亚伯拉罕的榜样，和他们和平相处。这个井称为别是巴，一直存到摩西时代，提醒以色列人在这里签订的和约，以及他们应该如何寻求和非利士人之间彼此和平相处。

因此，我们发现亚伯拉罕后期交往的故事中，牵扯了很多人物，这些人物和摩西与以色列人遇到的人相对应。透过看亚伯拉罕的行为，以色列人应该学到很多功课。

后裔和死亡

我们到了摩西记载亚伯拉罕生平的最后一步，他的后裔和死亡，在22：1－25：18。这些情节注重在亚伯拉罕的遗产，把他与神的立约延续到他的后代。一般来讲，以色列人最早从摩西读到这些故事，应该了解到他们自己的地位是亚伯拉罕的后裔，了解到他们对他们的后代要有希望。

亚伯拉罕生平这一部分的第一个情节记录在22：1－24节，是大家所熟悉的亚伯拉罕受试验的故事。这个试验的目的是证明亚伯拉罕是否爱他的儿子以撒过于爱神，神给他一个很难的试验，叫亚伯拉罕献上他的儿子为祭物，亚伯拉罕听从了神的吩咐，神使亚伯拉罕确信，因他的顺服将会给以撒美好的未来。

对于以色列人跟从摩西来说，虽然这个故事有很多应用，但是这段经文最显著的特点就是，提醒他们神在试验整个以色列民族，看他们对神的忠心程度。神给摩西时代的以色列民族很多的试验。亚伯拉罕的顺从，提醒他们自己也需要顺从这些试验，不管这些试验多么艰难。以撒作为亚伯拉罕的后裔，得到美好未来的确定，以此来提醒以色列人，如果他们通过了试验，他们也有美好的未来。

亚伯拉罕生平最后一步的第二个情节，记录在23：1－20，是先祖购买墓地的故事。这个故事讲述了，亚伯拉罕的妻子撒拉死了之后，他怎样在希伯仑得到一个家族的墓地。故事的叙述注重在先祖不是作为礼物得到的，而是他购得的。这块土地的所有权建立的他的家族把迦南地看作是他们家园的合法权利。

跟随摩西的以色列人，明白这块买来的墓地对他们自己来说，有何等的重要意义。这是他们祖先的墓地。亚伯拉罕、以撒和雅各都埋葬在那里，他们明白，在征服以前，这地就是他们合法的财产。亚伯拉罕、以撒和雅各一生都在希伯仑及其附近生活，以色列人忠心地把希伯仑看成他们的家园，所以把他们的先祖雅各的骸骨运到希伯仑来安葬。亚伯拉罕购买墓地的故事，证明了他子孙后代的正当的土地就是迦南地，而不是其他地方。

亚伯拉罕的后裔和死亡的第三个情节，记录在24：1－67，这是一个动人的故事，亚伯拉罕的儿媳利百加，成为他特别的儿子以撒的妻子。这个故事中，为了保证以撒避免迦南人的堕落，亚伯拉罕坚持以撒不要娶迦南女子为妻。但是亚伯拉罕也确定以撒要定居在应许之地——迦南，于是就差遣他的仆人为以撒找一个妻子回来，用为以撒寻找妻子的方式，亚伯拉罕确保以撒和他的后裔从神那里得到将来极大的祝福。

跟从摩西的以色列人应该从这个故事中学到，他们和亚伯拉罕相连的先祖以撒，持定迦南地为他的家，但是却在迦南地的腐败中保持自洁。以撒承受祝福的未来，也是他们的未来，只要他们也拒绝住在应许之地的迦南人的腐败。

亚伯拉罕生平的最后一个情节，记录在25：1－18，是先祖去世和后裔的故事。这段经文包含了几个简要的记录，亚伯拉罕从除了撒拉之外的妻子而得的子孙，接着就记述先祖的去世，其中，以撒得到了亚伯拉罕的祝福，以及他法律上的继承权，最后结尾是一个对比的部分，列举的以实玛利的后裔。

对起初的读者，亚伯拉罕生平的结尾部分有很多的含义。这里列举了亚伯拉罕其他的子孙，把他们和以色列人区别开来，突出了亚伯拉罕对以撒最后的祝福，跟随摩西的以色列人确定，他们是亚伯拉罕真正应许的后裔。这里提到以实玛利的后裔，来驳斥任何有关以实玛利人是亚伯拉罕继承者的说法。摩西以此方式来结束亚伯拉罕生平的记载，稳固了亚伯拉罕真正后裔的身份、权利和责任，这些后裔就是他所带领前往应许之地的以色列人。

我们查看了摩西撰写亚伯拉罕生平的故事，教导他所带领的以色列人，他们为何及如何要忘记埃及，前去征服迦南的应许之地。为了实现这个目的，摩西以不同的方式，在先祖生平的每一个情节中，强调他们以色列人怎样成为先祖恩惠的后裔，就如先祖一样曾经的尽责尽忠，他们应如何有责任向神尽忠；正如亚伯拉罕一样，他们应如何接受从神而来的祝福，以及他们将来要如何祝福全地的万族万民。摩西对亚伯拉罕生平的记载，对跟随摩西前去征服迦南地的以色列人来说，具有深远的意义。

四、总结

本课中，我们查看了创世记中记载亚伯拉罕生平的原本含义。我们查看了来探讨原本含义的两种方向：一方面，我们查考了摩西所建立的这些故事以及读这些故事的以色列人之间的联系。另一方面，我们查考了摩西怎样有意安排他的故事，来影响他的读者，离开埃及，向征服迦南地前进。

当我们更进一步地学习摩西所刻画的亚伯拉罕和以色列读者之间的关联，以及他写作的故事对他的读者所产生的影响时，我们就能不仅发现亚伯拉罕生平故事的每个情节，是怎样刻意地引导当年的以色列人。我们也能更好地明白这些故事怎样应用到我们今天现实的生活之中。

Father Abraham: Original Meaning

INTRODUCTION

Sincere followers of Christ love the Scriptures. We find that they speak to our lives in many different and very personal ways. This is a precious truth about Scripture that Christians should never forget. But many times this wonderfully personal dimension of Scripture can actually cause us to lose sight of something that we must always remember. The Bible was not written directly to you or me. In the first place, Scripture was written to other people who lived thousands of years ago. So as we try to understand how the Scriptures apply to our lives today, we must always be careful to base our modern applications on the original meaning of Scripture.

This is a series of lessons that we have entitled Father Abraham. And in these lessons we are exploring the account of Abraham's life that appears in Genesis 11:10–25:18.

This is the second of three introductory lessons, and we have entitled this lesson "The Life of Abraham: Original Meaning." In this lesson we will see how important it is to read the stories of Abraham's life in light of when they were written and to whom they were written. We will explore the original impact these stories were intended to have on the nation of Israel as they followed Moses toward the Promised Land.

We will explore the original meaning of Genesis 11:10–25:18 by looking at two main issues. First, we will point out how Moses drew connections between the history of Abraham's life and the experiences of his original audience. And second, we will summarize some of the implications these connections had for the original audience.

Before we look at the original meaning of the life of Abraham, we should take a moment to review what we saw in the previous lesson. Up to this point, we have focused on two critical issues. First, we suggested that Genesis 12:1-3 reveals four major themes in the story of Abraham. God's kindness to Abraham (the many ways God showed mercy to the patriarch), Abraham's responsibility to be loyal to God (the many ways God expected Abraham to obey him), God's blessings to Abraham (the promises of a great nation, many children, a land, and a great name) and God's blessings through Abraham to others (the promise that Abraham would be a blessing to all the families of the earth).

Beyond this, we also saw that these major themes shaped the way Abraham's story was told in Genesis. We learned that the story of Abraham divides into five symmetrical steps. First, we begin with Abraham's background and early experiences in 11:10–12:9. Second, several episodes concentrate on Abraham's earlier interactions with representatives of other peoples in 12:10–14:24. The third and central segment of Abraham's life focuses on the covenant that God made with Abraham in 15:1–17:27. The fourth section of Abraham's life turns to Abraham's later interactions with representatives of other peoples in 18:1–21:34. And the fifth segment deals with Abraham's progeny and death in 22:1–25:18.

These five steps present the patriarch's life in a symmetrical pattern. The third section of 15:1–17:27, which deals with God's covenant with Abraham, serves as the centerpiece of Abraham's life. The second and fourth sections correspond to each other as they both focus on Abraham's interactions with other peoples. The first and last sections correspond to each other further by providing bookends to Abraham's life, tracing his family line from the past and into the future.

In many respects, this lesson will build on these insights into the structure and content of Abraham's life. With this review in mind, we are ready to move into the main concerns of this lesson, the original meaning of the life of Abraham in the book of Genesis. Let's begin by exploring the connections that exist between the stories about Abraham and the experiences of Israel who first received these stories.

CONNECTIONS

In this series of lessons we are building our interpretation of the life of Abraham on the assumption that these stories were originally written in the days of Moses, and that they are substantially the same now as they were then. Most critical scholars believe that these stories were not written in the days of Moses, but other portions of the Old Testament as well as Jesus himself insisted that Moses did write Genesis, and because of this modern Christians should have affirmed the Mosaic authorship of this book. But in this series we are also concerned with going a step further. We want to grasp not just the fact that Moses wrote these stories; we want to know why he wrote them. What was his perspective on the life of Abraham? What was his purpose in writing? One of the best ways to begin to explore the original meaning of Abraham's life is to look for the ways Moses connected his stories about Abraham with the experiences of his original audience, the Israelites who followed him away from Egypt and toward the Promised Land.

To explore how Moses connected his stories about Abraham to his original audience, we will touch on three matters: first, we will explore what we mean when we speak of these connections. Second, we will look at some types of connections that appear within the stories of Abraham's life; and third, we will summarize the connections in these stories by looking at each of the five major steps in the structure of Abraham's life story. Let's begin with what we mean when we speak of connections.

Definition

In many ways, when Moses composed his history of Abraham's life, he found himself in a situation that all writers of biblical narratives found themselves. He stood between two worlds. On the one hand, Moses had received accounts of what we will call "that world": the world of Abraham. He knew about what had happened in Abraham's life some 500 to 600 years earlier both from tradition and from extraordinary revelation from God. In this sense, Moses dealt in the first place with the ancient world of Abraham's life.

But on the other hand, Moses also dealt with the world in which he lived, what we might call "their world": the world of Moses and the Israelites who followed him. As the leader of God's people at that time, Moses wrote his stories about the ancient world of Abraham's life for the sake of meeting the needs of their world.

As Moses mediated between "that world" of Abraham's life and "their world" (his contemporary world), he drew connections between the patriarch's life and the lives of his readers so that they could see the relevance of the stories that he wrote. That is to say, Moses selected and shaped his stories in ways that made it possible for the Israelites following him to see that Abraham's life had connections to their lives. In large part, Moses did this by writing so that his audience could draw comparisons and contrasts between Abraham and their own contemporary experiences. Sometimes these comparisons and contrasts were only slight and other times they were more extensive, but in every episode Moses somehow drew attention to these kinds of connections between Abraham's life and the lives of his original audience.

Now that we have seen the basic idea of connections and original meaning, let's turn to our second concern, the types of connections that Moses established between Abraham's life and the experiences of his original Israelite audience.

Types

For any story to have relevance for its readers, it must portray a world that its readers can understand. If the world of a story is completely different from the real world, if readers cannot relate to the story's characters and themes, then the story will not communicate. Or to put it in terms of this lesson, if "that world" of Abraham was completely different from "their world" of Moses and the Israelites, the stories about Abraham would not have been meaningful or relevant to the Israelites. So, Moses worked very hard to draw connections between Abraham's world and the world of the Israelites who were moving toward the Promised Land.

The question before us in this lesson is how Moses made these connections clear. How did he shape his stories about Abraham so that they connected to his readers' world? As we move forward in this series, we will see that Moses connected his accounts to the experiences of the Israelites in three main ways. First, he wrote his stories so that they told the Israelites about the historical backgrounds of things they experienced. And second, he wrote so that his narratives provided the Israelites with models or examples to follow or to avoid. And third, he wrote to show that many of the patriarch's experiences foreshadowed or adumbrated the Israelite's experiences. Because we will refer to these kinds of connections many times in future lessons, we should introduce all three of these techniques that Moses used to show the relevance of Abraham's life for his original audience. Let's look first at how Abraham's life provided backgrounds for Israel's experience in Moses' day.

Backgrounds

In many ways, this is the easiest of all connections to identify. It is quite common for people in all walks of life to tell stories to each other for the main purpose of explaining the historical backgrounds of things they experience. Parents often do this with children, teachers illustrate their teachings in this way, pastors, and even political leaders do the same. We often connect stories to our audiences by drawing attention to the way they provide historical backgrounds.

Now with respect to the life of Abraham, we can describe this connection in this way: we find the connection of historical backgrounds when Moses pointed to ways in which Israel's experiences were historically rooted in the events of Abraham's life. Take for instance, the way Moses explained the historical background of viewing the land of Canaan as Israel's homeland. You will recall that a number of times during the exodus the Israelites wondered why they had to go all the way to the land of Canaan. Why would Moses not allow them to stop short of entering that land?

On a number of occasions, Moses addressed this very issue by providing certain details about the historical background of Abraham's life. In a word, he showed that God had specifically given Abraham a homeland in Canaan so that the Israelites could see why he insisted that they too had a homeland in Canaan. For instance, we read these words that God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 15:18:

"…to your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18).

This passage established the origin or historical background of Moses' insistence that Israel possess Canaan. God had given that land to Israel's great father and he had given it to them as his descendants, so settling in some other land would not do.

As we explore more details of Abraham's life we will see that Moses frequently pointed to these kinds of historical backgrounds. A second main way that Moses connected the life of Abraham to Israel in his day was by providing them with models. Let's see how modeling worked in these stories.

Models

Moses did not want his original readers to receive the stories of Abraham as mere background information; he described many situations in the patriarch's life so that they could see a significant number of similarities between the circumstances of Abraham's life and their own circumstances. These similarities raised moral issues for Abraham's audience. Moses pointed out that these similarities made it possible for Israel to see examples to follow and to reject.

Telling stories for the sake of providing models or examples is a common way to connect stories to our listeners. It happens all the time. When we warn someone at work not to do this or that, we often add a story about what happened the last time someone made this mistake. If we are teaching children why they should work hard in school, we often reinforce instruction with stories that give examples of people who have a great success because they have worked hard in school.

Moses often did the same thing to connect his stories about Abraham to his original Israelite audience. He presented Abraham's story so that his characters could serve as models for Israel to follow or reject. Consider for instance, how Moses exhorted the Israelites to boldness against the threat of the Canaanites who occupied the Land of Canaan. We know from the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy that the Israelites following Moses refused to enter Canaan because powerful Canaanites occupied the land. Their hearts were full of dread because the Canaanites seemed to be an invincible foe. In Deuteronomy 1:26-28 we read these words of Moses to the tribes of Israel:

But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, "The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky'" (Deuteronomy 1:26-28).

One of the ways Moses addressed this fear of the Canaanites was to provide his readers with the example of Abraham facing Canaanites in his day. For instance, we find the first reference to Canaanites in Abraham's life in Genesis 12:6:

Abram traveled through the land… At that time the Canaanites were in the land (Genesis 12:6).

And in a similar way, in Genesis 13:7 we read these words:

The Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land at that time (Genesis 13:7).

Why did Moses mention the Canaanites' presence in the land of promise twice in two adjacent episodes? One of his purposes was to show Israel that Abraham's situation was very similar to theirs. Canaanites were in the Promised Land in Abraham's day, just as they were in the days of Moses in Israel. Yet, Abraham believed the promises of God and went forward boldly into the land occupied by Canaanites. In this way Moses encouraged his readers to imitate Abraham's boldness by trusting the promises of God and by going into the land even though Canaanites still occupied it. In this way Abraham became their example to follow.

As we make our way through the life of Abraham, we will find many passages that offer positive and negative examples. But in the third place, there were times when Moses connected the life of Abraham to the lives of his readers by showing how events in the patriarch's life foreshadowed or adumbrated events that took place in his day.

Foreshadows

In many respects, the connection of historical backgrounds requires very little similarity between the story and its audience to accomplish its purpose; examples or models require more similarity between the story and its audience for the example to be relevant. But foreshadowing occurs only when there are many similarities, so much so that "that world" of Abraham looks almost exactly like "their world" of Israel. Now this kind of extensive connection occurs infrequently in the stories of Abraham's life, but from time to time, Moses described the days of Abraham in ways that closely resembled events in his own day.

Many of us have heard the adage, "History often repeats itself." Of course, we all know that no two sets of historical events are ever exactly alike. But sometimes events are so similar that the second seems to be a repetition of the first. When biblical writers saw events in the past seemed to be repeated in the lives of their audiences, they often made this connection clear. And this literal technique is known as foreshadowing.

One example of foreshadowing appears in the well-known episode that describes Abraham's covenant with God in Genesis 15:1-21. God gave Abraham assurance that his descendants would one day possess the land of Canaan by calling him to prepare for a covenant ritual. Abraham prepared by cutting some animals in half and by placing the pieces of their torn flesh on either side of a path. After the patriarch had fallen asleep, he had a vision of something that closely resembled an experience the original audience had in their day. In Genesis 15:17 we read these words:

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces (Genesis 15:17).

In the larger context of this passage we learn that this smoking pot and blazing torch represented God himself passing among the torn flesh of animals as an assurance that he would surely give Abraham's descendants the land of promise.

Now get the picture. In Genesis 15:17 God passed before Abraham as smoking fire to assure him that God would give his descendants the land of promise. Now, to us as modern readers it may seem strange for God to assure Abraham by appearing as smoke and fire. But when we remember that Moses wrote about Abraham's life for the Israelites following him toward the Promised Land, it is not surprising at all that he would include this detail. Throughout the Israelites' travels, God had appeared before Israel in a way that resembled the smoking pot and flaming torch. In the glory cloud that led them toward the Promised Land, God appeared to them too as smoke and fire.

So, in this way God's appearance to Abraham foreshadowed the way he appeared to the Israelites in Moses' day. And as Abraham gained assurance of possessing the land because God went before him in this manner, the Israelites hearing this story should have gained assurance of possessing the land in their day as well.

Another, even more extensive foreshadowing occurs in the episode of Abraham's deliverance from Egypt found in Genesis 12:10-20. This passage was written to guide Israel in their outlooks on Egypt. In this case, Moses constructed the entire episode so that it closely paralleled the experience of Israelites under his leadership. In Genesis 12:10-20 Abraham began a sojourn in Egypt because of a famine in the Land of Canaan, he was delayed in Egypt when Pharaoh took Sarah into his harem, but God delivered Abraham by sending diseases on Pharaoh's house. Pharaoh then sent Abraham away from Egypt and Abraham left Egypt with great wealth.

This story about Abraham was clearly designed to foreshadow the experience of the nation of Israel generations later. Just like Abraham, they sojourned to Egypt because of a famine in the Land of Canaan, they were held there by Pharaoh they were delivered by disease sent from God to the house of Pharaoh, Pharaoh ordered Israel's release, and Israel left Egypt having plundered the riches of the Egyptians. Moses purposefully shaped this account so that it foreshadowed the experiences of his audience. This kind of extensive foreshadowing is rare in the stories of Abraham, but such connections appear here and there in Abraham's stories.

As we read through the life of Abraham we will see all three connections in different ways and at different times. Moses connected "that world" of Abraham's life to "their world," the world of his original audience, by giving them the historical backgrounds of their experiences, by providing them with models to follow and reject, and by showing how Abraham's life foreshadowed many of their experiences.

Now that we have seen the types of connections that Moses established between Abraham and his Israelite audience, it will be helpful to summarize how each major step of Abraham's life connected to the lives of the original audience.

Summation

You will recall that Abraham's life divides into five symmetrical steps. In each of these sections Moses found ways to connect the stories about Abraham to the circumstances of his original audience.

First, Moses told about Abraham's background and early experiences in ways that connected to the background and early experiences of the people who had followed him out of Egypt. Both Abraham and Israel descended from the same family. And both Abraham and Israel had been called by God to inhabit the land of Canaan. So, Moses gave historical backgrounds, set up Abraham as a model, and even showed ways that Abraham's life foreshadowed the experiences of the original audience.

Second, Moses also described Abraham's early interactions with others in ways that connected to his audience. He spoke of how Abraham interacted with Egyptians because Israel interacted with Egyptians in their day. He spoke about Abraham and Lot because Israel interacted with descendants of Lot, the Moabites and the Ammonites. He wrote about kings from the east and the Canaanite king of Sodom because Israel had similar experiences with foreign kings and Canaanite cities.

Third, Moses wrote about God's covenant with Abraham because Israel had entered into covenant with God as well. Abraham's covenant with God foreshadowed the covenant God made with Israel in many different ways.

Fourth, Moses wrote about Abraham's later interactions with other peoples. He wrote about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, and Abimelech the Philistine because Israel faced similar people in their day: the Canaanite cities, the Moabites and the Ammonites, and the Philistines.

And fifth, Moses wrote about Abraham's progeny and death in a way that connected with his Israelite readers. He focused on Isaac as Abraham's special son and heir because his Israelite audience was descended from Isaac. He drew attention to the burial ground for Sarah because that ground was in the land God promised to Israel. He drew attention to other sons of Abraham who were not Abraham's heirs, especially Ishmael, because Israel had to deal with the Ishmaelites in their day.

So we see that as Moses wrote about Abraham he drew many different connections between his stories and the experiences of his Israelite audience. And he did this in order to provide significant guidance for the Israelites as they followed him toward the Promised Land.

Now that we have seen the main ways Moses connected Abraham's life to his original Israelite audience, we need to ask another important question about the original meaning. What were the implications of these connections for the original audience? What were they to learn from the stories of Abraham's life?

IMPLICATIONS

There should be little doubt that when people take time to write a history as complex as Abraham's life in Genesis, they have all kinds of motivations and goals. They want their stories to have multiple impacts on their audiences. In fact, when Moses wrote the life of Abraham, his intentions were so manifold that it is impossible to decipher them completely, much less to state them all in a few sentences. At the same time, it is possible to summarize the chief implications Moses hoped his original audience would draw from his stories about Abraham.

We will explore the original implications of the life of Abraham in three steps. First, we will describe the basic impact that these stories were designed to have on the original audience. Second, we will see how the impact of these stories unfolds in the four major themes of Abraham's life. And third, we will summarize the original implications of each of the five steps in Moses' stories about Abraham. Let's look first at the basic impact these stories were designed to have.

Basic Impact

In very general terms, it helps to summarize the purpose of Abraham's story in this way: Moses wrote about Abraham to teach Israel why and how they were to leave Egypt behind and to continue toward the conquest of the Promised Land. In other words, by seeing the historical backgrounds of their lives in Abraham, by finding models or examples to follow and reject in the stories of Abraham, and by discerning how his life foreshadowed their lives, the Israelites following Moses could see the ways they were to pursue God's purpose for them.

Although we can be confident on the basis of the testimony of Scripture and even Jesus himself that the book of Genesis comes from the days of Moses, we should note that we cannot be sure precisely when Moses completed these stories as we have them now. Whatever the case, we may safely say that Moses' main concern when writing the history of Abraham would have been very similar for either generation. He wrote about Abraham to turn their hearts away from Egypt and toward possessing the Promised Land.

This general implication for the original audience can hardly be overemphasized. Moses wrote to encourage the nation of Israel following him never to return back to Egypt and to succeed in the conquest of Canaan and this broad implication guides us in our modern application of Abraham's life. As Christians we are on a journey, a journey that actually completes the journey begun by Israel in the days of Moses. We are moving toward the new heavens and new earth. So, for us to apply Abraham's stories properly to our lives, we must pay attention to the ways they instructed the original audience to keep moving toward Canaan.

To unpack this overarching focus a bit, we should look into Moses' purpose in more detail by returning to the four major themes we have already identified in this portion of Genesis.

Major Themes

You will recall that earlier in this lesson we suggested that Genesis 12:1-3 presents at least four themes that give coherence to this part of the patriarchal history. These four themes express the central impact Moses designed his stories to have. First, he focused on divine grace to Abraham; second, he concentrated on Abraham's loyalty; third, he was concerned with blessings to Abraham; and fourth, he focused on blessing through Abraham. It helps to think of Moses' original purpose for writing about Abraham in terms of these four motifs.

Divine Grace

In the first place, Moses wrote about the ways God had shown mercy to Abraham.

In broad terms, we have already seen that God showed much grace to Abraham, both in the early years of his relationship with God and on a daily basis throughout his entire life. The motif of divine grace was designed to remind the Israelites in Moses' day that God had shown great mercy to them as well. God had shown them early grace when he brought them from Egypt to Sinai. And day after day, he continued to show them mercy, even as he prepared them for the future conquest of Canaan.

The well-known words God spoke at Sinai in Exodus 19:4 speak of God's grace in this way:

"You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself" (Exodus 19:4).

Sadly, the Israelites who Moses led had forgotten how much mercy they had received from God. Early on they complained that God and Moses had cheated them by taking them away from the comforts of Egypt. They complained about food and water in the wilderness. They thought God had asked too much of them when he called them to enter the conquest for the Promised Land. So, Moses frequently stressed the ways God showed mercy to Abraham to remind his original audience of the ways God had blessed them, the mercies God had shown to them over and over.

Abraham's Loyalty

In the second place, we have seen that Moses also emphasized Abraham's loyalty by drawing attention to the many ways God held Abraham responsible to obey his commands. Moses repeatedly emphasized that God expected the patriarch to be faithful to his commands because this focus was also relevant for the Israelites who followed him. This focus on the requirement of loyalty also spoke to Israel in Moses day. Listen to the way God continued to address Israel at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19:4-5:

"You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession" (Exodus 19:4-5).

Notice here that the blessings of becoming a treasured possession were dependent on Israel's faithfulness. Although God had shown much mercy to the nation, the status of each person in each generation depended on how they responded to the commands of God.

Now, as we have seen, the main responsibility given to Abraham was that he go to the land of Canaan. Moses stressed this responsibility because he wanted Israel following him to stay the course for the land of Canaan as well. And of course, as Moses wrote about Abraham's other responsibilities, he did so to teach the Israelites of his day about their many other responsibilities. The many requirements of loyalty from Abraham spoke plainly to the fact that the original audience was to be loyal and faithful to the commands of God as well.

Blessings to Abraham

In the third place, we have also seen the importance of the theme of God's promised blessings to Abraham. In his stories about Abraham, Moses focused on the promised blessings of a great nation, prosperity and a great name for Abraham and his descendants. And on a number of occasions we even see that Abraham experienced some foretastes of these blessings in his own lifetime. And on many other occasions the stories of Abraham focused on the future fulfillments of these blessings in generations to come. Moses focused on Abraham's blessings these ways because these promises were also for Abraham's descendants, the people of Israel whom Moses led. The people of Israel were promised great blessings too. They were to become a great nation, to experience unprecedented prosperity and to receive a great name when they entered into the Promised Land.

In fact, much like Abraham, Israel had also experienced many foretastes of these blessings by the time the book of Genesis was written. They had already begun to see fulfillments of some of these promises in their own lives. Yet, there were still many future fulfillments of these blessings to come once they entered the land of promise. God spoke of these future blessings for Israel at Sinai in this way in Exodus 19:6:

"You will become for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6).

Moses wrote of the blessings God promised Abraham to raise the hopes of Israel in his day. As they read of God's promises to the patriarch, they could clearly see how God had great blessings in store for them as well.

Blessings through Abraham

In the fourth place, we have also seen that the stories of Abraham revealed that God's blessings would also come through the patriarch to the entire world. As you will recall, the blessings through Abraham would not come in a simple fashion. In Genesis 12:3 we learn that God would give Abraham success through a process of blessing Abraham's friends and cursing his enemies. In a variety of episodes, Moses pointed out how God gave Abraham foretastes of this process in his own lifetime as he interacted with other peoples representing different nations. And on a number of occasions in his stories of Abraham's life, Moses pointed out that many fulfillments would come in the future.

Moses stressed this motif because it was so relevant to the people of Israel who followed him in his day. God assured them of success in being a blessing to others because he would bless their friends and curse their enemies. They too had seen foretastes of these promises as they interacted with various groups of people in their own day. They had already seen God bless those who were their friends and curse their enemies on a number of occasions. And beyond this, Moses also focused on these matters to turn the eyes of the Israelites toward future fulfillments as they entered the Promised Land and spread the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. As we have just seen, in Exodus 19:6 God said this to Israel:

"You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6).

This vision of the nation as a kingdom of priests did not simply point out that the nation itself would be blessed with the privilege of being a holy people serving God, but also pointed out that the children of Israel would serve God's purposes throughout the world. As Moses inspired Israel to move toward the Promised Land, his stories about Abraham were designed to instill within them the vision of how God was going to use Israel to spread his kingdom and thus his blessings to the entire world.

Now that we have seen the implications of the four major themes of Abraham's life for the original audience, let's briefly summarize the impact of Abraham's stories on the original audience by looking at each major step in the structure of the patriarch's life as it is recorded in Genesis.

Five Steps

You will recall that the stories about Abraham's life divide into five main steps. First, Abraham's background and early experiences in 11:10–12:9; second, Abraham's earlier interactions with representatives of other peoples in 12:10–14:24; third, the covenant that God made with Abraham in 15:1–17:27; fourth, Abraham's later interactions with representatives of other peoples in 18:1–21:34; and fifth, Abraham's progeny and death in 22:1–25:18.

Each of these major steps divides into a number of smaller segments or episodes. We will briefly summarize the content and some of the main implications that these episodes had for the original audience for whom Moses wrote.

Background and Early Experiences

The first step of Abraham's life, his background and early experiences, reported several features of Abraham's family and the time when God first called Abraham into his service. In general terms, Moses designed this first step to show his original Israelite audience how they could learn about their own family background and their call from God from these events in Abraham's life.

This first step divides into three episodes or segments. The life of Abraham begins with a genealogy that presents Abraham's divinely-favored lineage in 11:10- 26. These verses establish that Abraham was a climactic character in the family of Shem, a family that held a favored status before God as God's special chosen people. This genealogy in turn should have reminded Moses' original Israelite audience that as the family line of Abraham, they shared this same favored status. They were God's special chosen people.

The second episode of Abraham's background and early experiences is another genealogy in 11:27-32. In a nutshell, this passage depicts Terah as an idolater who attempted to go to the land of Canaan but failed. Moses' original audience easily would have seen the similarity between Abraham's circumstances and their own. Their parents had been involved in idolatry and had failed to reach the land of Canaan as well. So, just as Abraham had to avoid repeating his father's failures, the Israelites who followed Moses also had to avoid repeating the failures of their fathers and mothers, the idolaters of the first generation of the exodus who failed to reach Canaan.

Abraham's background and early experiences then move to the story of Abraham's migration to Canaan in 12:1-9. God called Abraham to the land of Canaan, and Abraham obeyed the call of God despite many difficulties. In much the same way, God called Moses' original Israelite audience to the land of Canaan, and they were also to obey despite many difficulties. So the story of Abraham's migration to Canaan had the original implication that the Israelites in Moses' day were to follow the footsteps of Abraham and migrate as he did to the land of Canaan.

With these three segments, Moses introduced Abraham's life and offered significant guidance for his original audience as they faced the challenges of their own service to God.

Early Contacts with Others

The second major step in the Genesis account of Abraham's life concentrates on the patriarch's earlier interactions with other peoples. These chapters depict the patriarch interacting with other groups of people in a variety of ways to guide the original Israelite readers as they interacted with others.

In the first episode, Moses described Abraham's deliverance from Egypt in Genesis 12:10-20. You will recall that the patriarch sojourned in Egypt because of a famine, but God delivered him from Egyptian bondage by sending diseases on Pharaoh's house. Because of God's great deliverance Abraham left Egypt with many riches and never returned. Abraham learned very clearly that Egypt was not his home.

Moses' original Israelite readers could see that their own experiences reflected many aspects of Abraham's story. They had gone to Egypt because of a famine, they had also been delivered when God sent diseases on the Egyptians, and they had left Egypt with many riches from the Egyptians. Unfortunately, as the Israelites faced difficulties in their travels, many of them began to idealize life in Egypt and wanted to return. This episode should have made it clear to the original audience that Egypt was not their home. They were to remember how God had graciously delivered them, and to leave Egypt and the Egyptians far behind.

The second segment of Abraham's earlier interactions with others is the story of his conflict with Lot in 13:1-18. This is the well-known story of struggle between Abraham's men and Lot's men, when the two groups quarreled over natural resources for their sheep. In this struggle, Abraham treated Lot with kindness, allowing Lot to live in peace in the lands he chose. The original readers of Genesis would have had little trouble understanding what this story meant for them. According to Deuteronomy 2, as they traveled towards the Promised Land Moses commanded the Israelites to treat Lot's descendants with kindness, to let them live at peace in their ancestral land. In effect, Abraham's kind treatment of Lot showed the Israelites how to treat the Moabites in their day.

The third episode of Abraham's earlier interactions with others is the story of Abraham's rescue of Lot in 14:1-24. This complex story described how Abraham defeated powerful, tyrannical kings who had come from afar, and how he showed further kindness to Lot by rescuing him from these tyrannical kings. This story spoke rather plainly to the Israelites following Moses. As Israel passed through the lands of the Moabites and Ammonites, who descended from Lot, the army of Israel defeated the tyrannical kings Sihon of the Amorites, and Og of Bashan, both of whom had oppressed the Moabites and Ammonites. By rescuing the Moabites and the Ammonites in this way, Israel followed the model that Abraham had set for them.

And so it is that in each episode of this step of Abraham's life, Abraham was presented as a model for Israel to follow in their own times.

Covenant with God

Now we come to the third major step of Abraham's life, the covenant that God made with Abraham in 15:1–17:27. In general terms, this step focuses on God's covenant with the patriarch in ways that reveal the character of Israel's covenant relationship with God. These chapters divide into three main segments.

The first episode focuses especially on God's covenant promises to Abraham in 15:1-21. This chapter is the well-known account of the time when God entered into a covenant with Abraham. God promised to give Abraham progeny and land. Specifically, God promised that Abraham would have a multitude of descendants, and that after a time of mistreatment in a foreign land, Abraham's descendants would be brought back to the land of promise. This passage was designed to remind the Israelites that God had made a similar covenant with Israel through Moses. And more than this, it showed them that they themselves were experiencing the fulfillment of God's promises to Abraham. The Israelites were Abraham's promised progeny, and they were returning to the very land that God had promised to their patriarch. To doubt these facts was to doubt the gracious covenant promises God had made to Abraham and reaffirmed with Moses.

The second episode that focuses on God's covenant with Abraham is the patriarch's failure with Hagar in 16:1-16. This sad story recalls how Abraham and Sarah turned from the covenant promises of God by seeking a child through Sarah's Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar. Abraham and Sarah failed to trust God's covenant promises, but God rejected their alternative plan by not accepting the child Ishmael as Abraham's true seed. Moses' original audience repeatedly turned from God's promises in covenant and desired the comforts of Egypt. And this story from Abraham's life taught them that just as Abraham's plan had been rejected, their alternatives to God's plan would also be rejected.

The third episode focusing on God's covenant with Abraham is the account of Abraham's covenant requirement in 17:1-27. In this passage, God confronted the patriarch over his failure to follow God's plan. The Lord also reasserted the need for covenant loyalty by instituting circumcision as a covenant sign that was to be applied to Abraham and his sons. By this sign, God reminded Abraham that his covenant relationship entailed the responsibility of loyalty, and that loyalty would lead to great blessings. Moses recounted this side of Abraham's covenant to confront the Israelites in his day over their failures to remain faithful and to reassert the Israelites' need for covenant loyalty. Only as the Israelites were faithful to their covenant God could they rightly hope for his great blessings.

So, the centerpiece of Abraham's life, his covenant with God, drew attention to the grace of God's marvelous promises to Israel. But it also forcefully reminded his audience that they were obligated to display loyal service to their covenant God.

Later Contacts with Others

Now we come to the fourth step of Abraham's life: his later interactions with others in 18:1–21:34. In these chapters Abraham encountered various people who were associated with people living in Moses' day. Abraham interacted with the Canaanite inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, Abimelech, and Ishmael. In general terms, Abraham's interactions with these people taught Israel how they would interact with the Canaanites, the Moabites and Ammonites, and the Philistines and Ishmaelites of their day.

The first story of this portion of the patriarch's life is the account of Sodom and Gomorrah in 18:1–19:38. This well-known narrative tells of the threat of divine judgment against the evil Canaanite cities. It tells about Abraham's concern for the righteous in the cities, and the destruction of these cities as well as Lot's rescue. These events spoke directly to the situation facing Moses' original audience. They helped them understand what was happening with people living in their day: God's threat against the Canaanites, the concern they were to have for the righteous among the Canaanites (like Rahab whom they would encounter in Jericho), the destruction that was sure to come against the Canaanite cities, and their relationship with Lot's descendants, the Moabites and Ammonites.

The second portion of Abraham's later interactions with others appears in 20:1-18. In this story Abraham once again interceded for an inhabitant of the land, namely for Abimelech the Philistine. You will recall that Abimelech threatened Abraham's future by taking Sarah from Abraham, not knowing she was his wife. Then, God brought judgment against Abimelech, and Abimelech proved to be righteous by repenting of his actions. As a result of this repentance, Abraham interceded on Abimelech's behalf, and Abraham and Abimelech enjoyed lasting peace and friendship with each other.

This story spoke to the Israelites in Moses' day about the attitudes they were to have toward the Philistines in their day. In a variety of ways, the Philistines threatened Israel. But when the threat of God's judgment brought repentance among the Philistines, the Israelites were to intercede on their behalf, and to enjoy lasting peace with them.

The third narrative of this section, found in 21:1-21, focuses on the difficult relationship between Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac and Ishmael were both sons of Abraham. But when tensions rose between them, God instructed Abraham to separate Ishmael from the family. God still blessed Ishmael, but made it very clear that Abraham's only rightful heir was Isaac. As Moses informed his original Israelite audience of these events, he helped them understand the nature of their relationship with the Ishmaelites of their day. When tensions rose between Israel and the Ishmaelites, the Israelites were to remember that God had ordained a separation between them. Although God blessed the Ishmaelites in many ways, the Israelites were the true heirs of Abraham.

The fourth episode of Abraham's later interactions with others is the story of Abraham's Treaty with Abimelech in 21:22-34. This story reports how the Philistine Abimelech acknowledged God's favor toward Abraham, and how Abraham agreed to live in peace with Abimelech and his descendants. It goes on to tell how controversy arose over water rights for Abraham's sheep, and how Abimelech and Abraham entered a formal treaty at Beersheba, pledging mutual respect and honor.

Abimelech and his commander reminded Moses and the Israelites of the potent threat the Philistines were in their day. Here, Moses taught his followers that if the Philistines would acknowledge God's blessing on Israel, then Israel should follow Abraham's example and live in peace with them. The well called Beersheba still remained in Moses' day, reminding Israel of the treaty made there, and of how they were to pursue peace and mutual honor with the Philistines.

So, we see that the stories of Abraham's later interactions involved many characters who corresponded to people who Moses and Israel encountered. By looking at Abraham's actions the Israelites could learn many lessons for their day.

Progeny and Death

Now we come to the final step of Moses' record of Abraham's life, his progeny and death in Genesis 22:1–25:18. These episodes focus on Abraham's legacy, which extended his covenant relationship with God to future generations. In general terms, the Israelites who first received these stories from Moses should have learned much about their own status as Abraham's heirs, and about the hopes they were to have for their own progeny.

The first episode in this portion of Abraham's life is the well-known story of Abraham's test in 22:1-24. This test was designed to determine if Abraham loved God more than he loved his son Isaac. God initiated a difficult test, calling Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham complied, and God assured Abraham that the result of his compliance would be a very bright future for Isaac.

Although there were countless implications of this story for the Israelites following Moses, the most prominent feature of this passage was that it reminded them that God was testing the nation of Israel to see the depth of their loyalty to him. God initiated many tests for the nation of Israel in Moses' day. And Abraham's compliance to his test reminded them of their own need to comply with these tests, no matter how difficult they were. And the affirmation of Isaac's grand future as Abraham's progeny reminded the Israelites of the grand future they themselves would have if they passed these tests.

The second episode of the last step of Abraham's life is the story of the patriarch's purchase of burial property in 23:1-20. This story describes how Abraham acquired a family burial site in Hebron when his wife Sarah died. The narrative emphasizes that the patriarch did not accept this property as a gift, but rather that he purchased it. This deed of property established his family's legal right to see the land of Canaan as their homeland.

The Israelites following Moses understood the importance and implications of this purchased burial site for their own lives. It was their ancestral burial site. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all buried there. They understood that it was their legal possession in the land, even prior to the conquest. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob spent much of their lives in and around Hebron. The Israelites were so committed to Hebron as their ancestral homeland that they even carried the bones of the patriarch Jacob back to Hebron for burial. This story about Abraham's purchased burial land demonstrated that the proper place for his descendants was none other than the land of the Canaanites.

The third episode of Abraham's progeny and death is a touching story about Abraham's daughter-in-law, Rebekah, who became the wife of his special son Isaac in 24:1-67. In this story, in order to ensure that Isaac would avoid Canaanite corruption, Abraham insisted that Isaac not marry a Canaanite woman. But Abraham also insured that Isaac would remain in the land of Canaan, the land of promise, by sending a servant to bring a wife to Isaac. By finding a wife for Isaac in this way, Abraham insured a great future of blessings from God for Isaac and his descendants.

The Israelites following Moses should have learned from this story that Isaac, their ancestral connection to Abraham, remained pure from Canaanite corruption even as he maintained his homeland in Canaan. Isaac's bright future of blessing would be their future as well, so long as they also resisted the corruption of the Canaanites who dwelled in the Promised Land.

The final episode of Abraham's life is the story of the patriarch's death and heir in 25:1-18. This collection of several brief accounts lists Abraham's sons by wives other than Sarah. Then it turns to the patriarch's death, during which Isaac received Abraham's final blessing as his legal heir. Finally, it closes with a contrasting section that briefly lists Ishmael's descendants.

This closing of Abraham's life had many implications for the original audience. It listed the other sons of Abraham to distinguish them from the Israelites. It highlighted Abraham's final blessing on Isaac to assure the Israelites following Moses that they were the true heirs of Abraham's promises. And it mentioned Ishmael's descendants to dispel any claims the Ishmaelites might have made to Abraham's inheritance. By closing his account of Abraham's life in this way, Moses settled the identity, rights and responsibilities of Abraham's true descendants, the Israelites whom he led toward the Promised Land.

So we see that Moses wrote his stories about the life of Abraham to teach the Israelites he led why and how they should leave Egypt behind and move toward the conquest of the Promised Land. To accomplish this goal, Moses stressed in various ways in each episode of the patriarch's life how they were the heirs of the grace given to the patriarch, how they were responsible to be loyal to God as the patriarch had been responsible, how they would receive blessings from God as Abraham had, and how they would one day bless all the nations of the earth. Moses' account of Abraham's life had immeasurable implications for the Israelites who followed him toward the Promised Land.

CONCLUSION

In this lesson we have looked at the original meaning of the account of Abraham's life in Genesis. And we have looked in two main directions to explore this original meaning: on the one hand we have examined the connections Moses established between these stories and the experiences of the Israelites to whom he wrote. And on the other hand, we have looked at how Moses designed his stories to impact his original audience as they left Egypt behind and moved toward the conquest of Canaan.

As we learn more about the connections Moses drew between Abraham and the original Israelite readers, and the impact he expected his story to have on his audience, we will discover how each episode of Abraham's life was intended to guide the Israelites. And we will also be better able to discern how these stories should apply to our lives today.