Genesis 17 (Second Essay)

Abram really had no response to these words of Sarai. After all, the only thing God said in Gen. 15 was "your very own issue shall be your heir" (15:4). Sarah's suggestion was consistent with those words from God. Wouldn't a child born through slave woman still be "your own issue"? Sure. Let's not blame Abram or Sarai here, for God was really the one who hadn't clarified things. This may be an important issue for what I am calling here the third step of faith. You make choices based on the confusing possibilities that are around you. You make the best choice, or what appears to be the best choice, in the circumstances. Sarai, actually, is never rebuked for urging Abram to have a child with her slave. Maybe God actually understood the interpretive conundrum which beset both of them. Why, then, didn't God clear things up, since it would have been so easy for Him to do so? Why didn't He just say to Abram in Gen. 15, 'No, Abram, Eliezer shall not be your son, but Sarai will bear you a son'? It wouldn't have taken any more words than He said to Abram in Gen. 15:4. Did God want them to "struggle" a bit more? Perhaps they weren't ready to receive the actual story, that Sarai would bear the child. It could have been just too farfetched for them.

But, in any case, in Gen. 16, after living in the land of Canaan for a decade, Sarai gave Abram her slave girl Hagar to conceive a child (16:3-4). Of course, this led to all kinds of complications, since the moment that Hagar conceived a child she looked with contempt on Sarai. Shouldn't they have been able to figure this thing out? That divine grace doesn't really erase the human realities of deep emotion? So, this third step of faith, where confusion reigns, after two seemingly clear words from God, might be the most discouraging part of all. After all, you have received two wonderfully powerful words from God, and you are still screwing up! Indeed, you are getting yourself bogged down into activities and their consequences that are much more complex than ever before. The birth of Ishmael through Hagar brought and continues to bring immense pain to that part of the world--even if the story in Gen. 16 is only a "story."

4. That is why Gen. 17 is so important in the development of Abram's faith. This passage happens a while after the earlier passages (he is 99 years old in Gen. 17; Gen. 12 says he was 75 when setting out for Palestine), though we are not told exactly how many years Gen. 17 comes after Gen. 16 or 15. Nevertheless, even though there is a bit of an objection that Abraham (his name changes here--17:5) brings up in 17:17, he is seemingly a much different person than he was earlier. God speaks, and reiterates, in 17:2, the promise of Gen. 12 and Gen. 15: "And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous." Instead of answering right away, Abram simply falls on his face, as if to worship (17:3). God continues with a much more detailed promise in vv. 5-8, and Abraham doesn't say a word. Finally, after Abraham has raised his mini-objection in v. 17, God let's the final truth out of the bag. "I will bless her (now Sarah, instead of Sarai), and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her" (17:16).

This stage of faith may be likened to the first, only with a deeper appreciation of life's complexities, and with the "privilege," you might say, of objection along the way. Yet, the tone of Gen. 17 differs from that of Gen. 15. In Gen. 15 Abram's complaint was voiced from the beginning; he barely let God get the words out of His mouth before he complained. In Gen. 17, however, Abraham's objection comes only at the end, when all else has been said, when the promise that Sarah indeed will bear a son has been made. Thus, the life of faith develops, and perhaps does not lose its ability to object, but it is a more muted or delayed objection. Abram/Abraham has learned through his hard experience that God is God and that acting on his own he (Abraham) only messes things up. Even though trusting God isn't a "100 percent deal" (i.e., he still chuckles at the news that Sarah will bear a son), he has learned the tough lesson of trust in a God who is basically good and who cares for His people.

5. The final step in Abraham's faith development is beyond the scope of this essay and, at this stage, is beyond my ability to comprehend or write about. That stage would be the near-sacrifice of Isaac in Gen. 22. To give up the very thing that you were promised; to do so at the behest of God; to do so without complaint or objection--that is something that I truly cannot yet understand. That Kierkegaard jumped immediately to that story when he was in his 30s shows not simply a tremendous ambition to understand faith, but also shows a sort of lack of maturity on his part--because this may be a story that only can be understood from the end of a long life of flickering and affirmed faith. Just as the Book of Job is pretty closed to most people who are under the age of 30 and, for those older, is only helpful if you are able and willing to explore some of life's complexities and losses without flinching, so Gen. 22 is too much for almost all of us. It is like a spiritual "K-2," alluring to some but forbidding to all but the most intrepid climbers.

Conclusion

Thus, if one really wanted to do a good job with Gen. 17 yesterday, it would have had to be explained from the perspective of the development of Abraham's faith. Since that wasn't even attempted, I felt I ought to do something about it. Thank God that preachers are so limited in what they do...

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