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Abraham, a Real Man's Man

    We are already in the 12^th chapter of Genesis for this parasha. Time sure flies. Our parasha this week is Genesis 12:1-17:27. The parasha begins with YHVH calling Avram to leave his country. In the previous chapters we read where Avram’s father had just died while they were in Charan. Actually they (they=Avram, Sarai, Lot, and Terah) had left the Ur of Chaldees earlier to go to Kanaan and when they got to Charan they stopped. There Terah as I said died.

     You will notice in verse one of Genesis 12, it states that YHVH told Avram to get out of his country, leave his family (mishpocha), and leave his father’s house. Now if you leave your family behind, wouldn’t that automatically have you leaving your father’s house? So because the Word specifically says to leave your family AND your father’s house, you know there is a second meaning there to leaving your father’s house. He was telling Avram to leave his family and leave behind the mindset of his father. Commentaries tell us that Terah (Avram’s father) made pagan idols for a living. YHVH told Avram to leave his family, but he took Lot with him. A decision that would later cause him a lot of grief and trouble. But Lot was the son of his brother (Haran) who had died, so maybe Avram felt a responsibility to take care of Lot. So now Avram is 75 years old and is told to leave and start his life anew. An interesting fact is Avram was born in 1948 B.C. and Israel became a nation in 1948 C.E. and what was Avram called, the first Hebrew.

       So we see Avram and Sarai and their bunch begin their journey to Kanaan. Twice we see where Avram stopped and built an altar to YHVH. You don’t build an altar without a sacrifice to offer on it. Sacrifices were known about then.

      There was a famine in the land and Avram journeyed down into Egypt. Story sound familiar with Jacob? So we see Avram getting fearful for his life. He believes Sarai is so beautiful someone will kill him to get to her if they think he is her husband. This just goes to show you even a mighty man of faith like Avram gets scared on occasion just like we do. So he has Sarai tell everyone she is his sister. Now one might think, wasn’t he telling a lie here? But in those days people often called any close relative a brother or sister. Avram called Lot his brother (Genesis 13:8 & 14:14,16)  when we know for sure he was his nephew. I’ve heard people say that Sarai was indeed Avram’s half sister so he was not telling a lie because of that. But Sarai was not his half sister, she was his niece. She was the daughter of Haran, Avram’s brother. She is also called Iscah in Genesis 11:29. This gets a bit confusing, because in Genesis 20:12 you have Abraham indeed saying Sarai is his half sister. So who is she, his niece or his sister? This question gave me some consternation, as it seemed unclear. After checking into a few commentaries and research material, I came up with this answer. She was his niece! Back in those days they called a granddaughter a daughter. Also as we said, they referred to one another as brother or sister, as Abraham referred to Lot as his brother. So when Abraham said in Gen.20:12 that she was his sister from his father, but not from his mother, we have to look into that statement. As I said, they called a granddaughter a daughter. Sarai was the daughter of Haran, as was Lot the son of Haran. Being so, Sarai would be the granddaughter of Terah (Abraham’s father). So Abraham would have referred to her as a sister based on this tradition of calling a granddaughter a daughter speaking from his father Terah’s point of view. But Haran (some spell it Charan), Abraham’s brother, had a different mother than Abraham did according to some famous scholars. Thus accounting for Abraham saying she was my father’s daughter, but not from my mother. So when Abraham said what he did in Genesis 20:12, that she was his sister from his father, but not from his mother, it was essentially true in keeping with the custom of how they related terms to family members. Back then Sarai would have been called a sister, today she would be called a niece. To further this idea, if you look at the word Iscah in Genesis 11:29 (descendants of Haran) on e-sword, you’ll see it says this person was Lot’s sister. If Sarai had been Abrahams’s sister, than she would have been Lot’s aunt, not sister. Iscah, according to some of the sages, is another name for Sarai. It meant divine revelation. Sarai was destined to see divine revelation take place in her life, such as giving birth beyond her years, etc. So a few resources and hair pulling later, it appears that Sarai was indeed Abraham’s nieceJ. If this paragraph didn’t highly confuse you, then you’re doing ok in the world of Biblical studiesJ.     

     Just as Avram had feared, the Egyptian Pharoah took a shine to her, as we say down south and took her into his house, or more like his palaceJ. But YHVH protected Sarai. He caused a plague to come upon Pharoah and his household. Rashi said the plague was a debilitating skin disease that made cohabitation impossible, thereby assuring Sarai’s safety. Now once again remember, this statement is commentary, not scripture. The scriptures do not tell us exactly what the plague was. But either way, all ended well as the truth came out as to who Sarai really was and the Pharaoh sent the couple away much richer than they had came.

      Avram was rich and so was Lot. This became a problem, as Lot’s herdsmen could not get along with Avram’s herdsmen. Somewhat like tossing Paris Hilton and Britney Spears together in a beauty contest against each other. Bad blood arising! Avram being a man of peace told Lot (paraphrasing), Dodge is not big enough for the both of us, so choose which way you want to goJ. Lot was concerned with the riches of life, so he took what he perceived as being the best of the lands. The Jordon valley is similar to the Nile valley, in that a river which is not dependant on rain, constantly flows down the center of the valley and provides water for irrigation. Lot chose the Egyptian way of life where he would not have to look for God’s help for his sustenance. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom (Gen.13:12). It says the men of Sodom were wicked and exceedingly sinful. Nice bunch of people for Lot to throw in with

     Then Sodom was overthrown and Lot was taken captive along with others. Also food and other items were taken in the war as the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled the scene. Avram had to go and rescue Lot. Not only did Avram bring back Lot, but all the other people and all the spoils that had been taken too. Coming back from this endeavor was when Avram met Malkitzedek, king of Salem and Kohen to YHVH. He met Yeshua incarnate. He gave him tithes of all he had gotten. This Kohen gave him bread and wine, a picture of the future body and blood of Yeshua that would be shed for mankind. Notice it says “He blessed him.” The He there is capitalized, generally a common pronoun is not capitalized. Secondly, a normal man could not bless another man spiritually, only YHVH/Yeshua could do that. The He there is Yeshua. It is not Shem as some Rabbi’s try and tell people. It is said this Malkitzedek had no beginning or ending. I do believe Shem had both.

       Next we see YHVH appearing to Avram in a vision. Avram asks YHVH what will he give him in the way of an heir. The only heir he has now is only a male born in his house, but not an actual son. Avram is getting a bit anxious at this point that Sarai has not conceived and will not likely conceive in the future, as she’s already no spring chicken and he’s no fall fryerJ. But YHVH tells him to look up at the stars and that is how many seed will end up coming from him. Then just like all of us, he asks, how will I know this will come to pass. So YHVH makes a covenant with him using the same type of animals that will later be used in temple sacrifices. Avram takes as a sacrifice a goat, a heifer, a ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon as he was instructed. He splits them all in half except the birds. Then YHVH puts Avram to sleep and it says a smoking furnance and a burning lamp passed between the pieces. This smoking furnance was YHVH and the burning lamp was Yeshua. It takes two witnesses according to scripture to establish anything and Avram could not be a witness to anything while he was sleeping.

       So Avram and Sarai waited on the expected seed, and they waited, and they waited. Finally, after ten years of waiting, Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands and help YHVH out in this “bearing seed idea.” So you know the story of how she gave her handmaid Hagar the Egyptian to her husband and got a son by proxy you might say. You won’t find where Avram protested this act. But things didn’t work out too well after Hagar got pregnant. Hagar decided then she didn’t like Sarai anymore. Sarai delt harshly with her over it and Hagar ran away. But YHVH spoke to Hagar in the wilderness and told her to go back to her mistress. He also told her she would bear a son and how that son would behave in life. YHVH performed an ultra sound on Hagar right there in the wilderness telling her if her child was going to be a boy or girl without even any high tech equipmentJ.  Abraham was 86 years old when Yishma-El was born.

       Now at this point it seems like that child was the only seed Avram was going to have. Then at 99 years old YHVH appears again to him and reminds him that he is going to be the father of many nations. Avram still thinks it’s going to be through Ishmael, so he prays for Ishmael. But YHVH tells him it is not going to be through him. Although He will make Ishmael great also. It’s funny that Ishmael was to begat 12 princes and out of Isaac would come the seed for 12 tribes. Both involved 12’s.

     So here YHVH changes Avram and Sarai’s names to Avraham and Sarah. He adds the  Hebrew letter hei to their names. Hei is a letter that you have to breathe out in order to pronounce, so YHVH breathed out life into them. YHVH had Abraham make a token of their covenant by performing a circumcision on both himself (what a man) and all the males in his household. He did the procedure on Ishmael who was thirteen at the time and on himself the same day. Nothing like father- son togetherness I say. Thereafter it was done on the eighth day after birth. Abraham was 99 years old when he did this. Not being a man I cannot fully relate to how much courage it took to do this, but understanding the procedure, I’m sure it took more than I could have mustered upJ. Back then they did not understand why YHVH chose the eight day to have this procedure done, they just did what he said. Today we know the vitamin K that causes the blood to clot is in the highest concentration in the baby’s blood on the eight day after birth. So YHVH was choosing the safest day for the baby to have the procedure done. 

     So we come to a close for this parasha. Tune in next time as we see Abraham welcoming visitors in the heat of the day on what is said to be the third and worst day of a circumcision. Can you imagine, I don’t want company if I tear a fingernailJ. But that Abraham, now there was a real man’s man!