Trees of Testing and Blessing – Genesis E4

Hey, this is John, and before we get started on today's episode, I wanted to let you know about our new expanded show notes. These are really cool show notes. Now have chapter by chapter summaries, reflection questions for you to dig deeper. Every time we reference scripture or look at a biblical word, that's all going to be referenced in the show notes. And you can find a link in our episode description. You could also find them in the Bible Project app. All right, here's the show. One of the first stories in the Bible is of Adam and Eve at the tree of knowing good and bad. And God says, "Do not touch it, or you will surely die." Eve is tempted by a snake to desire the fruit of this tree and she takes it. Now keep in mind this story and those details when we read another story about Abraham meeting King of Bimlek. In this story, Abraham starts telling everyone that his wife is his sister. And so King of Bimlek takes her. What's interesting is God appears to this king in a dream. It says, "Hey, this guy lied to you, and don't touch that woman, or else you will surely die." Abraham's wife is the tree that is not to be touched or eaten from, lest you die. This king becomes the Adam figure, and Abraham plays the role of the snake, the lying treacherous snake in the story. Today on the podcast, we are in the second movement of the Genesis scroll. These are the stories of Abraham. And in this movement, we're tracing the theme of trees. In Hebrew, it's the word "eighths." Eights can refer to any wooded object, a tree, a bush, or log. And when we see "eighths," we sometimes find moments of temptation. But we also find moments of deliverance. Like when Hagar is wandering in the wilderness with her son about to die, and she puts her son under an eighths. You have a woman who's about to die, and her child about to die in the desert with no water. By a bush, that's the word used to describe the bushes in the eaten story. And then her eyes are open, and what she sees is water. God provides water in the wilderness and gives them life, and says, "I'm going to make you into a great nation." In these chapters, we also get the climactic story, where God asks Abraham to surrender everything. And he does it at the top of a mountain on an altar of eights. Here, God asks them to completely surrender the future blessing of their family over to God in the form of a sacrifice, only to receive it back by God's grace with not just a promise of blessing, but a covenant oath of blessing. I'm John Collins, and you're listening to Bible Project podcast. Today, Tim Mackey, Chris Aquinn, and I trace the theme of eights through the second half of the Abraham stories where we find temptation, deliverance, and blessing. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. All right, we're back at it. We are moving through the Bible, movement by movement. And we are currently in movement two of the scroll of Genesis, which is the first scroll in the Bible. Oh, and Chris, hi. Hi. And Tim. Hello. Three of us are working through this. And we're looking at the theme of trees in the Abraham stories. And so we just looked at how the theme of trees begins in the Garden of Eden. Well, actually, it begins in the creation narrative. Yeah, yeah. In Genesis 1, where God gives seed bearing trees, fruit bearing trees as his gift of life. It's a good thing for humans. And then in the second creation story, there's a really extra special tree, the tree of life. And it's in the center of the garden, which is in the center of the land, which is this hot spot where heaven and earth are connected. And so trees in the Bible, this theme is already really connected to this idea of being in the place where God and humans work together as one Eden. And tree and Hebrew can refer to what we think of as a tree. Yes. Like an oak tree. But it can also refer to what we would call bush or a vine, a wooded kind of plant. That's right. So what it means is that you go on in the biblical story, the tree imagery of Eden can be activated, not just by the same word tree, but also by the appearance of other bushes or plants or low lying shrubs. But if they play the same role in the story as the Garden of Eden tree, then you know you're in the presence of a repeated theme. And it can also be activated not by tree imagery, but by that same word, et's being translated in English as wood. So I think we see that come up in this movement later. Genesis 22. Yeah, the examples we're going to look at today show the creativity that later biblical stories can use to activate the Garden of Eden tree. So the second time a tree shows up then is when Noah, who is kind of this new Adam character, who walks with God, he goes through the chaos waters, God does a new creation and he up on a mountain. But he survives because of a boat made of woods. Oh yeah, that's right. Okay, we can talk about that. The tree is the means by which God says. The little micro Eden. Yeah. And then he goes onto a mountain and he plants a vineyard, which is a tree. And there again, we have this idea of God and humans together on the ice. Yeah. And the tree also becomes his downfall. Hmm, sadly, just like in the garden. Yeah. Yes. In the garden, there were two trees and one became the downfall. So when we got into the Abraham narratives, Tim, you kind of showed us how Abraham or Abram, as he was first called, he is a new Adam again, a new Noah, a new opportunity. God pulling one person out of the many to give them blessing and try to restart this project of partnering with humanity to bless the world. So you showed us how there's stories of Abram and he's hanging out at a tree. This is random details. Like, oh, he's at the oak of Mure and we pitched a tent and built an altar and Yahweh appeared to him. Yeah. You know, suddenly you realize, oh, this is Eden stuff. We're in Eden territory. So we looked at a number of those. In fact, this whole block of Abraham stories ended with him again at a tree on a mountain. And then God actually comes to visit and they have a feast in a garden. Yep. Feasting on food that described using the exact vocabulary of the food offerings from the book of Leviticus. Yeah. Yeah. It's like enhancing that image of approaching God and connecting with him. Correct. So the tree that was the downfall of Adam and Eve, now Abraham's hanging out at the tree inviting God in and it's a success. It's like a reverse of the fall. Yep. And then this is where then God promises Abram that he's going to give him a son, which is crazy because Abram's really old and his wife is really old. In the late 90s. Yeah. But that's that famous story. And this is a really high moment for the life of Abram and for the whole story of the Bible so far. Yeah. Totally. So that's where we left it at the beginning of chapter 18. So what's going to come next is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and how God invites Abraham into his divine council to determine the fate of the nations. And it turns out that he always really eager to show mercy. He'll spare the many, many wicked if there's just a few righteous. But that's a whole story we don't have time to get into. No trees in that story. No trees, but other cool stuff, more flood narrative stuff happening in that story. So after the Sodom and Gomorrah story, yeah, we move into the second part of the story of Abraham. It's makes up what we call chapters 20 through most of chapter 22. There's four narratives that are arranged here. They're really tightly organized through repeated words and images. So the four stories go like this. Right after the Sodom and Gomorrah event, Abraham goes down to the south, south, western coast of the land, which is where the Philistines will later live. And he goes there to a city and he lies about the identity of his wife in the city. This has happened before. A second time. Yeah. Totally. And that's actually part of how you know it's the beginning of a new part is in the first part of Abraham's story right after he was given the blessing. He lied about the identity of his wife and put her in jeopardy for her safety in jeopardy. That was the first thing he did. Now, Abraham just received another promise of blessing and a son. And the next narrative about him that kicks off the next part is him replaying his failure. So what's interesting is God appears to this king in a dream and says, Hey, this guy lied to you. And don't touch that woman or else you will surely die. She is the tree. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So this king becomes the Adam figure. Abraham's wife is the tree that is not to be touched or eaten from, less you die. And Abraham plays the role of the snake, the lying treacherous snake. neck in the story. Yeah, that's crazy. It's a really critical portrait of Abraham. And the king passes the test. And the king's like, "Hey, listen, man, I haven't touched her and listen. Are you the kind of God that's in the business of killing righteous people?" Because I haven't done anything wrong yet. Yeah, I haven't done anything wrong. And God says, "Yeah, I know. That's why I'm telling you and just wanted to." Anyway, it's a fascinating story. So it's this whole story of conflict of lying and treachery. Is that going to count as a tree hit, even though the tree isn't explicit? That she's kind of like the tree? Oh, God. It's definitely an Eden replay, but the tree doesn't appear in the story. And it doesn't have the same connotation that these other hits have with the tree being on a high mountain and meeting God there. Okay. So then you get a story about how Isaac is born. Finally, Abraham and Sarah's son is born. Hooray! But there's a division with his brother. There's a division among the mothers. Sarah and Isaac are in tension with Hegar and Ishmael. And so there's a division among the brothers and the unchosen mother and son are exiled from the land. This is replaying the cane to enable tension and the exiled of the nonchosen from the land. That's what interesting. And so you get a whole story of Abraham and Ishmael. Then right after that story, you have another narrative about Abraham and that king. The king that he had conflict with. And now it's the story about how that king wants to make a covenant with Abraham because he sees that, "Hey, God is with you." And I noticed that, you know, even though you're kind of a chump, your God like has your back and things go pretty good for you. So let's be friends. Let's be friends. Maybe I can get some of that, some of that Eden blessing. So they make a covenant by tree. And then after that story, you get the famous story of Abraham and the binding and the near-sacrifice of Isaac, 1522. So it's kind of a story about Abraham and this king, Abraham and the nonchosen son, Ishmael, then a story about Abraham and that king again. And then a story about Abraham and the chosen son. So it follows a neat symmetrical kind of pattern and there's lots of hyperlinks and connections between the stories. But it's all about, remember, the whole thing is that nations are going to be blessed through you and your seed. And that's exactly what these four stories are exploring and meditating on. How the nations get in on the promise. But what if the promise is put into the hands of a guy who's a blind treacherous snake, whose family is dividing? Which is what this is about. And so it only happens when instead of lying that Abraham and the nations find a way to make peace through covenant together. And then what does that mean for the future of the family? Well, it's going to mean the singling out of the nonchosen and God's going to take care of them. Though it's sad that there has to be a division of the brothers in the first place. And then what we're going to see is God is even going to ask for a division between father and son. Abraham is going to be asked to give up the son on whom the promise hangs. Which brings all story to a crisis because it's like the whole thing depends on this. So that's the arc of this section of Abraham's story. So lo and behold, trees play a role in Genesis 21, the story of Abraham and Shmell, Genesis 21, the story of Abraham and Abimlek, and the story of Abraham and Isaac. All three have eaten tree moments that really pop with cool significance. You say it's right here. You've got this Hebrew transliterated Yitzek. Oh, yes. That's Isaac. Yeah. I'm trying to spell the names the way more of the way they sound in Hebrew. So Abraham is Ishmael. Yeah. Yeah. Abraham is, how you say, Abraham Abraham. Yep. And Abimlek is the name of the king. So should we just kind of dive in? Yeah. To these stories here. All right. So in Genesis 21, right after Isaac is born, so Abraham and Sarah finally have that promised child and they make a big feast. They have a big party. Hooray. In Genesis 21, verse 9, story goes and Sarah saw, she looked at the son of Hegar, the Egyptian, the one she had born for Abraham, making laughter, causing laughter. She saw the son and she laughed. She saw the son and that son was causing laughter or making laughter. Oh, the son was laughing. Yeah. Most of the English translations say playing. Yeah, playing or mocking. Yes. Yeah. But, you know, just a few verses prior, right? Sarah had said, anyone who sees that God has blessed me like this will laugh. Mm-hmm. They'll laugh with me. A positive thing there. Yeah. So Isaac's name means laughter because both Abraham and Sarah laughed when they first heard they were going to have. They were going to get it. So they name him laughter. And then you write just sentences before the, she said, everyone who hears of my son that I had a son will laugh with me. So it seems, yeah, seems positive. Yeah, laugh with me. Yeah, laugh with me. Yeah. So laughter is born, but then she sees that other son from that other wife and he is causing laughter. Mitzacheck. So interestingly, I think because our English translations see some sort of negative connotation here, what she doesn't like what she sees. Right. So NIV translates it mocking. Yes, V says laughing. Mm. Interest V. Full on like doesn't interpretive move. Playing with Isaac. Yeah, okay. It doesn't say that in the text. They're just inferring that story. So it's not the normal word for laughter. It's a causative verb like causing laughter. So it's a little unclear. Maybe it's like, you know, Isaac is meant to cause laughter when Sarah has him. I know she sees Ishmael causing laughter. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's on the turf of the seed. Yeah. For sure, it's a word play on her own son's name. So she gave birth to laughter, but then there's this other son who thinks you can laugh. You can do it. Yeah. You know, so the narrative doesn't nail down for you what he was doing, but you can tell from her reaction that she interprets it really negatively. It's just like the division of Canaan Abel. The narrative doesn't say why one offering was better than the other. Yeah. Or if it was. That's exactly right. That's actually great. That's a great observation. One of the brothers in Canaan Abel's story, there's some ambiguities and why God did what he did. And there's going to be that same ambiguity, what God is about to do here, but also in what Sarah's response is. So what she says, we know what she's feeling because what she says in verse 10 is banish the slave and her son. He will not inherit the son of the slave woman along with my son along with laughter. You talk. But she wants to separate the two sons. Now this matter was bad in the eyes of Abraham on account of his son. He's bombed. Yeah, this is real bomb for him. An on account of his son is that referring to Ishmael? Mm hmm. Yeah, there's so much son language in the story. Yeah, I think it's about his first born son. Ishmael. Ishmael. Yeah. In 17, God said, "Hey, listen, the son that came from when you guys took advantage of Hegar, that's not the promised son." Yeah, it's just interesting paired with that line right above Sarah saying he won't inherit this along with my son. And then Abraham is bombed on account of his son. His son. Yeah, because Abraham said a couple chapters ago, like, "Hey, what about Ishmael? Like, make him the chosen one." So the reason Ishmael exists is because of Abraham and Sarah's lack of faith. And so it's not because Hegar and Ishmael are bad. It's that Ishmael is a son that results from their scheming and their plan. And the whole point is for God to show them that this blessing will only come as a gift by his new creation power. And also there is a theme of the second born being chosen over the first born, which is a whole other thing. That's right. Well, and I think that's what's being highlighted here. This was bad in the eyes of Abraham because I already have a first born son. Like he's born first. That's how we do it. In the East here, we raise up the first born. Even if it's not from your, and I don't know how this works, but your primary. You primary? Yeah, right. It doesn't matter. Totally. The first born is the first born. Yep. I mean, this little tension is going to be full on developed in the story of Jacob to follow with his many wives. Who's the favorite sons and their all jockeying for position and so on. So Elohim says to Abraham, "Listen, don't let it be bad in your eyes. I've already told you that Isaac is going to be the one to inherit the blessing. So don't let it be evil about the boy and the slave woman. Listen. What Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. It is by Isaac that your seed will be called. And the son of the slave woman, I'm going to make him into a nation because he is your seed." So bless those associated with you. Yeah, I'm going to bless those who bless you. So Ishmael is going to have the Eden blessing going on and go his way, but that doesn't mean he's the chosen one. So it's interesting, the chosen and the non-chosen can have God's blessing. But what the promise is going to trace is the lineage that leads to the seed of the woman crushing the head of the snake. And the promise is looking for the human who will not fail the test or crush evil. Yeah. So Abraham is asked to give up his first born son right here. And he's going to be asked to give up his second born son in another chapter. And the parallel story. Yeah. So these are both stories about God promising the whole story after now has been, I'm going to give you a great family. And then now Abraham finally has two sons. And he's God's saying you have to give them both back or give them away. Give one away. Yeah. Send one away and give me back the other. Yep. It's a real crisis in the narrative here. So Abraham rose early in the morning. He took bread and like essentially like a Nalgene water bottle like a, you know, so he gives a loaf of bread and a water bottle and he gives us this to Hegar placing upon her shoulder and also the child and he sends her away. And they're in the desert. Yeah. They're in the deserts. Rough. Yeah. So here she is. She wanders into the wilderness of the air Shava. The name of air Shava means well of seven, like spring or well of seven. And all of a sudden the water was finished from the water bottle. And what can she do? She's in a land with no water. And so she puts her child under a bush and she goes away sitting at distance away. You know, it's about as far as you can shoot a bow. And she said, I can't see the death of this child. And so she sat distance away, lifted up her voice and wept. That's powerful. Really so. Really sad. Yeah. So just real quick here, she's in a desert where there's no water. Deserts with no water. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Genesis 1 verse 2. The land was wild and waste. But remember how the Garden of Eden narrative began? Yeah. With, they were no bushes in the land. Oh, actually. This is a good one. He's word for bush here. In Genesis 2. Genesis 21 verse 15. This is the bush that she puts. Yeah. She puts them under. Yep. The only two times that that word, unique word, bush is used is right here and that the very beginning of the Garden of Eden story. When it says there were no, even no bushes in the land. Yeah. But God caused a stream to rise up out of the ground to water the surface and he makes life out of non-life here. So now we have a woman who's just run out of water in the wilderness and she puts her child under a bush. But we know that the name of this place is called the well of seven. Well, seven. Yeah. Elohim heard the voice of the boy and the messenger of Elohim called to Hegar from the skies and said, "What are you concerned about? Hegar, don't be afraid. Elohim's heard the voice of the boy. Get up. On your hand I'm going to make him a great nation." And Elohim opened her eyes and she saw a seven well, the well of seven. That she saw is like more way the tree of morey. Yes. Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's right. And also actually this opening of the eyes, do you remember that when the woman went out of an evil at the tree and Snake says, "Oh, you're not going to die. The day you eat of the tree, your eyes will be open." And you'll know. Yeah. You'll know good and evil and be like God. Exactly. Here you have a woman who's about to die and her child about to die in the desert with no water by a bush that's the word used to describe the bushes in the Eaton story. And then her eyes are opened and what she sees is water. God provides water in the wilderness and gives them life and says, "I'm going to make you into a great nation blessing." Yeah, that's almost verbatim, the covenant promise given to Abraham and Isaac. So the reason why we're tying it into the tree of life is because of this word, "bush." And then all of the image of the desert, no water, but then God provides water and gives blessing of future seed. And that's not the word aids. Nope. It's a word bush. It's a different word for a bush. But it's the same word in Genesis 2. Mm-hmm. It's connected to the soul thing. That's right. Because when it said there were no bushes in the land and then the responses, "But God planted a garden and made trees to sprout there." Yeah. And the other big hit here is water. Yeah. Right. Because in the garden story, you showed us, it was originally mist, but you called it a spring. Oh, a stream. A stream comes up. And that's, is that the one that turns into the four rivers? Yeah. The mist comes up and waters the ground, making mud. So this one God forms the human, plants the garden, and then there's a river flowing out of the tree. It's a river flowing, the river blessing. And so here you've got a land with no water and they're going to die from a lack of water. Yeah. And then God provides water. But there is a little detail here of the bush you want to point out. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this is how Biblical authors work. They'll use unique vocabulary often. And you'd be like, why are we using that word? Why not just use another word for bush, a more normal word, but it echoes something important from earlier. Yeah. I think when you're reading along and you read, she casts the child under one of the bushes. It kind of makes you think, okay, where have I read bush before? That's not a very common word. Yeah. I haven't seen that come up a lot. And then yeah, if you search for it. Is that true in English though? Yeah. Is that all I can hear you? Yeah. I think so far in an English translation, I don't think you would come across bush yet, except for Genesis 2. Oh, interesting. 5. Okay. Because it would just be. And then I don't think it's translated bush. It's translated shrub. Shrub of the ground or shrub of the field. Yeah. That would actually make it stand out more to me if it was called a shrub. Under the shrub. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. The bush translated the same in English. The shrub is a very English. Yeah. So it took all these little details away because the story of Abraham and Isaac is going to be employing a lot of this vocabulary here, especially, ooh, like the Hebrew word for under is the same Hebrew word in the place of the Hebrew word tachhat. And that's going to be to be in the place of the bush. It's going to be important in the Abraham and Isaac's word. Under the bush. Yeah. So this story also is important because this is an Eden blessing with the bush and the water in the desert for the nonchosen seed. Nonchosen, exactly. Kind of. Like with the kings who are with Abraham. Yeah. And this way, so Ishmael is different than Cain, Enable. Yeah. Even though Cain was not chosen for blessing, but then God said, hey, listen, like you have a choice. How are we supposed to go? If you do good, there will be exaltation for you too. But he didn't do good. He just murdered. Here, you have the nonchosen brother. And they don't do evil instead. They're banished. And so what they get is the promise of blessing. Yeah. He's exiled. And in that place of exile, there's a mini Eden and a blessing for him. That's right. It's a little Eden not here in the desert for Hagar, Enish, Meow. Yeah. Okay. There's that story. Genesis 21. Let's move on to the next appearance of trees, which is in the very next story that takes place in the same place. But the well of seven. So we're moving on to this next story here, Avi Malek, the king who he deceived back here in chapter 20. Now comes up to him, Abram. And here's the story. It came about at that time that, you know, Avi Malek said, "Oh, also Fikoal, the captain of his army was there." And he also said, "Dabraham." So you have a king and an army captain. Okay. You're like, "Okay, that's same." That's intimidating. Fikoal is kind of an unfortunate name. Fikoal. Yeah. Fikoal. It means Fee is the word mouth. And Cole is the word everything. It's kind of a scary name for an army captain, right? Yeah. Yeah. Mouth of everything. The mouth of everything. Oh, I was thinking like, "I eat everything." Oh, oh, oh. I think I love it. Yeah, everything of the mouth. Yeah. Fikoal. Anyway, I'm sure it was a great name back then. So here you have the nations, both kings and warriors coming and saying, "Elohim is with you in everything that you're doing." So how about a swear note together? A swear note to me by Elohim. Look, if you deal falsely with me or with my descendants according to the loyal love I've done to you, so you will deal with me and with the land that you're migrating within. So when he says, "Basically, don't deal falsely with me," you know, like you did last week. And what did I do to you? I showed you loyalty. You came to my city. You lied to me. I didn't know what my whole city in danger, but I did write by you. So you do the same to me. So Elohim is with you. Do you remember the dream? He has a dream, it's on. Yeah. So Abraham said, "Yeah, all right. Deal. Let's go in on this contract together. So they make a contract together. Now, what's interesting is Abram just happened to remember something at that moment that he had a dispute with now his covenant partner on account of a well of water. Because the servants of Avimella could stolen a well from him. So it's sort of like, okay, we're covenant partners now. Yeah, what about this well that you guys took for granted? What this really is is like a conflict of interest between two business partners. And it's like, how are we going to get along? Especially when we're not blood relatives. All that's binding us together is this contract. Remember the other cana nights we were in a covenant with Abram up chilling by the trees? Yeah. And that was rad. You know, they're like, you know, they're going to battle together. But now we're exploring the opposite portrait. What if there's a conflict between the chosen one and the nations? How are they going to sort this out? Well, Avimella said, I don't know who did this. And beside you waited till now to bring this up. You didn't report it to me in the past. I haven't heard of this until right now today. So, Abraham took sheep and oxen. He gave them to Avimella and they cut a covenant. Abraham set up seven lambs. What is that cut a covenant? What's these sheep and oxen? Oh, got it. Well, to cut a covenant, it's the most common term to use it about the making of a covenant together. Okay. So sometimes it would mean a sacrificial ritual of the animals. Like what happened earlier in the Abraham story when God makes a covenant with Abraham and he cuts animals in half. Here, they're going to cut a covenant. But then what-- We're about to learn what's going to happen. Exactly. Yeah, that's right. So, Abraham gets seven lambs. And Avimella said, what's up with these seven lambs? And Abraham said, well, you're going to take these seven lambs from my hand. And these seven lambs will be a witness on my behalf that I dug this well. Basically, he's paying for the well. Yeah. Even though it's not Avimella's well, Abraham's well. He dug it. But he's going to pay for it anyway. So, like a super generous move. Yeah. He's like, yeah, what do you-- And shrewd. But also shrewd. Yeah. It's generous if he really did dig it. Yeah. Right? Yeah, that's true. Yeah. All we know actually did he say that he dug it? Oh, no, he says. I dug this well in verse 30. Yeah, that's right. So for this reason, this is why people call it the well of seven. Bersheva. Because the two of them swore a Shavuah there, and they coven it at the well of Shavu. So there's many word plays crashing together. So Shavuah is the Hebrew word for the number seven, but it's spelled with the same letters as the Hebrew word Shavuah, which means oath, which is a synonym for covenant. [LAUGHS] Okay. So also, at the well of seven, think of the previous story. Yeah. Yeah. This is exactly where Hegar found water that provided life for her. So these two stories are next to each other about the way God provided life out of death at the well of seven in the desert. And then here at the well of seven, instead of brother's dividing, you have the families of the nations coming together in peace. But it requires Abraham to give this costly act of generosity. And so the nations make peace. They make a covenant with God's chosen line. The story says, "Avimela got up and Fikoal, the captain of his army, they returned." And so, you know what Abraham did? He planted a tree, a tamerisk tree at the well of seven. And he called on the name of Yahweh, who is the eternal God. So what's great is the whole story builds up the Eden imagery, or rather, it waits till the end to place all of this whole scene at the well of seven by a tree where he's going to meet with and worship and call on the name of Yahweh. So when the nations make peace with the chosen one, when the chosen one will sacrifice and give seven to enter into a covenant, then there's peace in the land at a Eden tree. Yeah. I think that's how the images work here. Yeah, because the idea is if the nations are going to be blessed through Abraham, yeah, what does that practically look like because life is messy. Totally. People steal stuff. Yeah, yeah. Even unintentionally. Like, this is a story of a guy and I even realized he had done something wrong by Abraham. So you're saying this story, Abraham giving seven lambs is the symbol of like going above and beyond to make this relationship right. And so we get this cool picture of that. And then at the very end of the story, we're told that, or were shown that this is like an Eden picture. Yeah. As Abraham plants a tree. Yeah. Yeah. Peace among the nations so that gods chosen ones can really be that blessing to the nations. But it's costly. It requires sacrifice. It requires generosity and the binding together of people at odds in the making of a covenant. And then the last little note is, by the way, this is a Eden-like place because of what happened here. So it's another reversal of Eden, but it's almost reversing both the failure of Adam and Eve, but it's reversing the division of the brothers. The story that just happened was about the division of two wives and two brothers. At the same place. Or it's really the division of two nations. Which is the division of the nations. Right next to it is a story about the reunion of the nations at the same place, bear Shava. So when there's jealousy and strife, like what Sarah, drives out the nations through Ishmael, so to speak. And then, so that's kind of a sad portrait, but God brings life. Here, there's division among the nations, but Abraham gives a costly gift and they make a covenant, and then you have peace among the brothers. So there's two contrasting portraits that are riffing off the ideas of the Cain-enable story about the division of the brothers. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So Eden is defined as peace between nations and the tree is signifying that. Or drawing it into that, marking it. Yeah. That's right. So there you go. We had two mothers and two brothers at odds that result in division. Now we had two tribal chieftains at odds. [LAUGHS] And they make peace together. We're going to revisit now the next story, the climactic story about how God is going to cause a division between father and son, paradoxically, in order to redeem both. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Genesis 22, the story of the near sacrifice of Isaac. This is a troubling story in the Bible. The God even asks for a sacrifice. Yeah. The God would ask somebody to sacrifice their child. And that the right thing to do would be to say, OK, I'll go to it. Yeah. Yeah. It's a surprising story. Yeah. When you get to Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the later prophets, in those books, God speaks through those prophets about child sacrifice as something God says in Jeremiah, it's something that never even enter my mind. It's so distal from anything I would ever ask from somebody. And so you just have to sit and go, but wait, what about this story? Yeah, because you did ask for it. Because you did ask for it once. So this story begins by telling you, it came about after all these things, Elohim tested Abraham. So that does put into the reader's mind already. Whatever is about to happen, it is a test. Yeah. But that could mean multiple things. You don't know quite what it's going to mean. What kind of test? Because it could be a test of your loyalty to me by giving up your son, by actually sacrificing him. That could be what it means. But it could also mean that it's a test meaning, I'm going to tell you to sacrifice him, but I really have another plan of how this is going to work out. But the narrative doesn't close down either possibility. You just have to keep reading. And it's also maybe important to keep in mind that not only is this a sacrifice of a human, your child, which I mean, yeah, nuts. But this is also a sacrifice of the whole game for Abraham. It's exactly what-- the whole blessing. That's right. That God had promised of becoming a great family, inheriting this land, being the one that restores the Eden blessing to the whole world. Correct. That's all in the balance. That's right. And that doesn't have the same angst for me, the reader, but actually has a ton of gravity in the narrative. And God has already said that blessing would come through Isaac. So Abraham's heard that promise from God. Exactly. Yeah. No, this is super important. I think it's a challenging and intense narrative. But we have to read it. This is a culmination of the story so far. And so you have to read it in light of that. God has made very clear promises of things that he's going to do that this request contradicts. God said he's going to bless the nations through your son. But what? So the narrative is highlighting this contradiction. God seems to be going against God's own will. Right. It's almost like God is testing God in terms of on the narrative surface, it seems like God's going back. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So what's going to happen? Yeah. And there's nothing for it. You just have to let the tension drive you. One other piece, too, is the whole story has been about a promise of a son. They got their first son by abusing a slave and then by further. or abusing a slave by banishing that slave out into the desert. - Yeah. - So Abraham and Sarah have hurt two people really badly in their quest for a son. - Yeah, they've both tried to make it come about through Hagar and Ishmael. - Correct. - But then also even when they had Isaac, they tried to make that promise come about through Isaac by banishing Hagar and Ishmael. - Yeah, that's right. - So it's like they're trying with both sons to do it their own way. - That's right. - So it seems to me that is an important part of the reason why God is dealing severely here is because they've been very severe. - So Abraham might be thinking this point, like, okay, I blew it. I deserve this kind of thing. - Well, I don't know if that's what he's thinking, but you the reader know that they've been so terrible to these Egyptians that you can begin to understand why God would deal severely with his chosen one for their evil. So we're just at the first sentence, you know, but those are some factors that are important here. So I'll just kind of summarize. God tells Abraham to take your son, your only one, just kind of odd, 'cause-- - Yes, too. - Yes, two sons, but it's the only son through Sarah, the son that you love, Yitzhak, and get yourself going to the land of Moria. No, that's interesting. Do you remember where Abraham visited when he first went into the land? - Yeah, he was. - He met with God there. - He was a true of Moria. - Yeah, the land of Moria. - Oh, Moria. - Moria. So it's one letter different. - Okay. - But both Moria and this land Moria are both built off of the Hebrew verb to see. - Okay. - And make him go up there as a going up offering on one of the mountains that I will say to you. - What's a going up offering? - Oh, it's usually translated burnt offering, but it's called Ola, and it literally means the offering that goes up. - Oh, because of the smoke of it. - The smoke going up. - And it's like the whole offering, not just a part of it. - So he is to go to the mountains in the land of Moria, just like he went into the mountains by the tree of Moria at the beginning. So as if we're wrapping the whole story up here, we're coming to a climax here. So there's no narrative of the internal dialogue. He's just, we see, Abraham rose early in the morning, bound his donkey, took two young men and Yitzhak, and he split the wood. And the word wood, there's the word eights. It's the tree, he split the tree for the going up offering, and he rose and went to his place. So I think maybe in the video, oh, about the tree of life, we talked at length about the story. - Yeah. - This is Abraham's tree of testing. The wood represents the choice that he's making. - Yeah, because at trees are moments of testing. Not only do trees kind of mark this is an Eden place, but it also is a place to mark that there's an opportunity to, yeah, a choice to be made, and you can make a good choice, and you can make a bad choice. And he is making the choice to, okay, even though it seems to go against. - It's gonna sacrifice the whole game. - Yep, that's right, because God's asking me to, which sounds like a contradiction. - Yeah. - But there you go. - At any point, you'd be like, I think I don't wanna follow this God anymore. This would probably be the place. - You know what's interesting, and we also know that Abraham is not afraid to stick up, to stand up and speak as my God, when God said I'm gonna, I'm just gonna say I'm gonna go more, and he's like, wait a minute, you know. There's righteous people there. And he doesn't do that here. - Wait a minute, you're not the kind of God who, - Yeah, it's very-- - It asks for the life of kids. - This narrative is so puzzling in so many ways. - Yeah. - So they go traveling, and on the third day, this is the first time that that little formula appears in the Bible on the third day, and it's associated with a testing narrative that it's all gonna be about what happens on this wood, on the aits. Abraham lift his eyes, he saw the place from a distance, and he tells the young man, hey, stay here. Me and the young boy, we will go there, we will worship. We will return. - Yeah, it's interesting. - And you could be just giving him the slip, like. - Yeah. - Oh, you know. - Don't worry, nothing weird's gonna happen. - We will return to you, or maybe he believes that-- - Exactly. - Like, there's no way God's actually gonna make me do this. - I wonder which one will prove to be true. So Abraham took the wood, that phrase right there, taking from the tree, it's the same word, take the aits. He put it on its aqisan, then he took in his hand the fire, oh yeah, this is good, and the maqele, it's the word food, or eating, and it's a very odd way to describe a knife, the eater. In Hebrew, if you describe a sword with two edges, there's a two mouth sword. - Oh, okay. - 'Cause it eats flesh. - Two ways. - Yeah. - So you could call a knife a eater, but also he takes from the tree, the wood, and he takes the eating. In Hebrew, it's activating the vocabulary of the tree. - What's the word in Hebrew? - It's from the root, eat. And when the woman sees that the tree is good for eating, and she took from the tree, that's the vocabulary being activated right here. - So, do we know yet if we're supposed to be seeing this as a negative, eat in moment, if he's taking an eating. - I see, yeah, well-- - 'Cause sometimes it's inverted, so maybe we don't. - That's right, yeah. I mean, he's doing what God said from the dim. So God said to Adam and Eve, don't take from the tree and don't eat from it. - Yeah. - Here, he told him, take your son and offer him a sacrifice. So he takes from the tree wood, and he takes the eater knife. So he's obeying the word of God. And the two of them went together as one. The two are one. - That's a very interesting-- - Eat in moment. - To the Adam and Eve. - So, the dog said to Abraham, hey, dad. Oh, yeah, son, I'm right here. Hey, look, here's the fire, here's the tree wood. Where's the sheep for the offering? - Elohim will see to it. There's that word see again. That's the same root letters that appear in the word Moria, the mountains of Moria. Elohim will see to it, that is the sheep for the going up offering, and the two went as one. So they went to the place. Abraham built an altar. Do you remember what he did when he first went into the land? He built lots of altars. He arranged the wood. He bound up Yitzhak his son. In Jewish tradition, this story is called the Achaida. - The Praiding. - That's the noun that comes from this Hebrew verb to bind. Actually, it's better than the sacrifice of Isaac, 'cause Isaac isn't sacrifice, but he is bound. He placed him on the wood. He sent out his hand. He took the eater, that is the knife, to slay his son. Notice how the narrative's really slowing down, showing you each step here. - Yeah, also I'm noticing, since we're reading through Leviticus on our own, Leviticus goes to these great lengths to say, there's the altar, and then put the wood on the altar, and then put the sacrifice on the wood on the altar. - Correct. - And it's almost exact. - That's right. You know what he's saying is this vocabulary is drawing, or the same vocabulary that you find in the sacrificial descriptions in Leviticus. Which gives it maybe just another lens to view this as a-- - Prisly moment. - Yeah, prisly moment and a sacrifice of something. - Yeah, truly is a sacrifice. And at the moment, he's holding the eater, his hand is holding the food. Again, the word knife here is spelled with the same letters as the word food from the tree in Genesis 3. That's exactly the moment. The messenger of Yahweh called from the sky, saying, "Avraham, Avraham, look, it's me. "Don't send out your hand. Don't do anything. "Now I know that you fear Elohim." Remember what Adam and Eve said? - They feared Elohim. - Yeah, but too late. Or they didn't fear Elohim. - At the right time. - At the right time. - Yeah, at the test, the moment of the test, they didn't fear Elohim. They desired to be Elohim. And here, Abraham is fearing Elohim. - Yeah, do you think this, now I know, the word no here is also a plan, the tree of knowledge that the humans were trying to gain? - Totally. - And now it's God that has the knowledge. - It's saying he's gaining knowledge. - Yep, yeah. The humans gained knowledge by eating from the tree, but now the focus is on God's knowledge of Abraham's character because he took the tree and the food that is the knife. And how do I know you fear Elohim? You didn't withhold your son, your only son. So this is what's interesting. Abraham lifted his eyes and he saw, he said, "God will see to it that there's a sheep "for the offering." That's what he said. Abraham lifted his eyes and he saw and look, a ram, caught in a bramble, a bramble bush. - Haven't seen this for a while? - By its horns. And so he went and took the ram and made it go up as it going up offering in the place of his son. Do you remember in the story with Haggar Nishmale, she puts her son, Tachat. - The bush. - The bush. - Under the bush. - And then his life is saved by the water. Here, Abraham looks and he sees an animal, caught in a bush and he takes the ram and puts it Tachat in the place of his son. And so, Abraham called the name of that place, Yahweh will see or see to it. So this is the mountain of Moriah, the mountain of the bush. of seeing where Yahweh saw to it and Yahweh will see. And hey dear reader, you know still in Jerusalem today we say on the mountain of Yahweh it will be seen or it will be seen too. So this whole story is being told from the perspective of an Israelite way later in their history as a foreshadowing. Israelite who lives at a time where the Tabernacle or the temple is on the mountain of Yahweh which is Jerusalem. Mount of Yahweh means Jerusalem. Yes. So yeah man. Why is this often translated as provided in English translations? Well that's what it means. It will be. Oh it will be seen too. It will be. Yeah. Taking care of provided. When Isaac asks where's the sheep for the offering? Mm-hmm. Abraham says Elohim will see. He'll see too. Which is a Hebrew idiom that we have an idiom in English. I'll see to it. That's why I use the C to it. Yeah. Literally just see you see. Yeah. Oh interesting. Yeah. Which is really interesting. There are so many parallels here to Hegar. Oh yeah. Like Hegar saying naming God the God who sees. Yep. That's right. And Hegar lifting her eyes and seeing just like Abraham lifted his eyes and saw. Yeah it's all over. Yeah. These narratives. Yep. And the bush. Mm-hmm. Bramble. So you remember what happened after God spared the life of Ishmael when he was Tachat in the place of the bush. Mm-hmm. He provided water and then said I'm going to make him a great nation. Mm-hmm. Blessing. So here God provides a substitute for the chosen son in the bush and then that unlocks the blessing again. The messenger of Yahweh called the Abram a second time saying I swear an oath. Remember how you and Avimelec just sworn out to each other. Now Yahweh says I swear an oath because you did this thing. You didn't withhold your son. I will bless you. I'll multiply your seed like the stars of the skies like the sand on the sea. Your seed will inherit the gates of their enemies and all the nations of the land will find blessing in your seed. So here the chosen son receives the blessing again but it was all hinging on Abraham's obedience at the tree. Yeah. At the bush. At the wood of tree at this time was the altar. Totally. Yeah. The tree imagery is going all kinds of directions now and so they get up, they leave and they go to the well back to the well of Stavon. Mm-hmm. Wow. So the main point here is Abraham. This is the full inversion of the Eden failure. All the language of the tree of testing here gets reversed and when you have someone who will be willing to give up the life of their future family or their own law. I mean it's his own future. It's own life that's a stake here. You're saying give up clinging to making the promise happen on your own. Yeah. Yeah. It's giving up the life of your family that could sound really scary. Oh, I understand. Yes. But letting go of controlling the blessing on your own. That's good. Abraham and Sarah were willing to sacrifice the safety and well-being of Haggar and Ishmael abusing them to get the blessing on their own terms. Yeah. Here God asks them to completely surrender the future blessing of their family over to God in the form of a sacrifice only to receive it back by God's grace with not just a promise of blessing but a covenant oath of blessing. And so it creates this pattern at work that because humans are so screwed up and they hurt each other so much, it seems like the only way forward now is when God's chosen ones are willing to surrender everything over to God and that those are the moments when God's Eden blessing can break out over to the nations. Yeah. It's a powerful story. The last time the Tree of Life imagery appears is actually in a story about death. The last part of the Abraham story is a really interesting little section. There's a short narrative about the birth of Abraham's niece back in the land that he left a long time ago. Then there's in contrast to the story of his niece's birth is the story of his wife's death. Yeah. That's Rebecca and then Sarah. That's right. Rebecca is born but then Sarah dies in the next chapter and so he buys a cave in a field with all kinds of trees. We'll talk about that but after that story we go back to Rebecca and she makes a journey just like Abraham did. She leaves her family and her land to go to the land of Canaan and she receives blessing. Oh, her name sounds like the word blessing and so there's that whole story and then the next story is Abraham marries again and then he dies and he's buried in the same cave. So this is all about birth and death, the passing of one generation, the birth and marrying of the next generation. So definitely death is both signaled here in this double death of Sarah the Abraham but then also the new life and blessing is signaled by the birth and marrying of Rebecca and Isaac that opens up the door to the next generation. So that's kind of this last section here but this cave dude this cave the cave in Makpeila. Okay, this is a long story. We don't have time to go through the whole story but you're given a short notice of Sarah's death and then there is a long story about Abraham negotiating the rights of this cave. This is long like back and forth like how about 400 no no just take it. No please this please my lord listen to me no no listen to me yeah it's like listening to hagglers that I'm arguing or something yeah and we're not going to go do it. We're not going to go. But the whole thing is Abraham legitimately the nations want to give this yeah and he wants to buy it and he says no I'm not going to take it I'm going to buy it fair and square and this is the first and only piece of land in Canaan that Abraham ever purchases yeah purchases it's so bittersweet because it's for death it's a place of death yeah exactly but it's that paradox that it's where he and Sarah die in our buried but it's the first down payment yeah of the promise that the nations will find blessing when your seed is in this land yeah and they'll be buried there forever it's a feel yeah totally you can go to the city of Hebron today in the West Bank and there's a mosque that commemorates this spot and then there are some centuries old like buildings and tombs that marks a traditional spot of the burial so you can go there and it's really really cool but what I just want to focus on is the paragraph at the end of chapter 23 and what's interesting is that it talks about oh okay so first of all so the cave of Machpila the word cave it's the Hebrew word met aura that comes from Hebrew word exposure or nakedness oh really yes like a room oh it's both a word play on a room spelled with the same letters yeah but it is actually a spelled with the root letters of the word expose even though cave is the opposite of an exposure it's an enclosure it's an enclosure but it's the words in Hebrew sounds like in Hebrew sound like the word exposure or nakedness the word Machpila means doubling or pair so it's the nakedness the exposure of the pair is the name of this place naked pair the naked pair come on what what is this about what do you mean can I think of another pair in the book of Genesis word Adam and Eve they were exposed their nakedness was exposed okay it's the cave of nakedness and remember their nakedness was a sign of their disobedience that led to death this is a burial cave named the nakedness of the pair oh come on this is so good man it just doesn't get any better so Abraham bought this this verse 17 this it was transferred this field that belonged to Ephraim the Canaanite the field that was in pair which was facing mom right remember that's where the tree was the trees of mom right yeah the field and the cave that's in it and all the trees so many trees around the nakedness of the pair that are on the surrounding border it was all transferred to Abraham as a possession in the eyes of the sons of Hitt along with those entering the gate of his city after this Abraham buried his wife in the nakedness of the field of the pair which was facing mom right that is hebron in the land of Canaan and so it was transferred the field and the cave that was in it to Abraham as a burial plot possession from the sons of Hitt you know hebron also oh yes the root of hebron is united yeah to unite yeah unity yeah totally so there's this whole paragraph that's designed in this really unnecessarily wordy way right that's my point when usually when that happens it's because there's a literary it's a symmetry happening feature that's trying to draw your attention to something and clearly the emphasis by repetition is associating the nakedness of the pair that's what the cave the phrase cave of Mark Pellet means associating it with a field full of trees and it's right next to mom Ray well what do I know about mom Ray yeah the whole story oh man that's the place this is Eden place it's a Eden spot Yeah, so essentially Abram is now owning not just putting up his tent in but now owns and possesses a little Eden But it's a place of death. Yeah, he's bearing his wife there Yeah, so he did is where there's just to be eternal life exactly. Yeah. Yes, but it's a possession It's like a down payment. Yeah, and the possession is a down payment of and the way God wants to restore the blessing So what a what a like optimistic place to bury. Yeah, yeah, the loved one totally in the place where eternal life is supposed to take root Yeah, it's sort of like think of somebody who buys the plot of land Cultivates it gives it over to all of his grandchildren and then is buried there Mm-hmm, but precisely so that it can be where the next generation is gonna flourish So it's a place of death, but also a place for life and promise Yeah, especially if it's a plot of land associated with the promise of life Yeah, that's right, which is what the story has been about so you're saying that the cave Being next to the field with the trees and all this repetition of that Mm-hmm, and next to mom Ray next to mom Ray, which is the place where Abraham met with God. Yeah under the tree under the tree had the feast Yeah, this mega high point of Eden Moment, but it's all bringing that together. Yeah, not only that, but the nations coming to an agreement. Yeah, yeah That's right and a moment of Abraham actually inheriting the land in a very tangible way. Yeah, he didn't steal it Yeah, he didn't fight for it. Yeah, it was like a peaceful negotiation. Yeah, yeah, this is the last This is how the Abraham story ends Oh, excuse me though it's death. Oh, yeah, Abraham still dies. Yeah, he dies a couple chapters later But it ends with him buried in this cave. That's the last I see of Abraham's story is him dying and then him being buried in this spot Mm-hmm in all the same language. Yeah, yeah So even his death Has all these little hints of the promise of Eden life Through whatever God's gonna do in the next generations Man, these stories are so amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Well If you've got a couple Hebrew scholars Tagging along with you. I mean, I've read these stories, you know before and it can become mind-numbing all these Random people and random places. Yeah, and then repetition of random details and you just go Yeah, like I'm lost. I'm a little bored and I'm confused and I know this is supposed to make sense It's supposed to make sense. It's supposed to be God's word to me. I'm supposed to have this devotional moment Yeah, but um, yeah, this yeah reading Bible and community That's right in community over and over and that's why we're on this journey together It's why we start the Bob project Now did you want to is there one more hit then with that's it? It's it. Yeah, Abraham's dead Abraham Sarah They're gone. They're buried in the cave of the naked pair. So that wraps up movement - yeah Of the Genesis scroll trees in the story of Abraham. Yeah, yeah, so we'll move to movement Move to the movement three of Genesis, which is a story of Isaac and Jacob. Yeah, mostly about Jacob Yeah, and we're gonna be tracing a new theme through that movement and we'll introduce that theme in that movement when we get there all right Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project podcast next week We begin the third movement of the Genesis scroll in this section We follow the complicated journey of Jacob and we trace the theme of blessing and curse and then as we're gonna see There's three moments in page one of Genesis where God blesses God blesses three times and in each time It is an effective blessing or it brings into reality the thing that God is saying and so it's Performative speech and there's traces of that when we say bless you after you sneeze At least there's a hope that my word will bring about the health to you instead of the cold The biblical meaning of blessing is its Performative speech and when God speaks it brings it about and then when we speak it what we are Meaning is that we pray that God will bring a blessing to you today Show is produced by Cooper Peltz edited by Dan Gummel and Zach McKinley the show notes are by Lindsey Ponder Bible project as a crowdfunded nonprofit we exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus The Bible is beautifully designed literary arts and we're learning to read it through its own structure and To see its own themes you can develop these skills in our new Bible project app It's free on iOS and Android in fact everything we make is free this podcast our videos the app and It's all free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you all over the world Thank you for being a part of this with us. 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