Week 17 Prayer Requests

1.  Beth will be leading a discussion with the 2nd-4th grade Sunday School class about the worship service.

2.  Gary needs wisdom in his relationship with his father.

Week 17 The Relationship of the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant

Recap

- Last week we looked at how foundational the covenant with Abram in Genesis 15 was to the rest of the Bible.

- Genesis leads us to the conclusion that the answer to the problem of the fall and to sin is the covenant with Abram.

-  There were 3 things awesome about the covenant with Abram:

   1.  God would condescend to a weird ceremony to strengthen Abram’s faith.

   2.  God alone makes the oath and walks between the animals.  Abram does nothing.

   3.  The curse God undertakes is not theoretical, God undergoes the curse himself.

-  The new covenant which comes to fruition in the life and work of Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of this covenant with Abram.

-  So if Genesis 15 is the major turning point in the Bible, and the rest of the history of redemption is rooted in the promise of Genesis 15, how does the Mosaic covenant and the law relate to the Abrahamic covenant?

Q.  Are the Mosaic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant different?

-   The Abrahamic covenant is based on promise.  The Mosaic covenant is based on successful completion of the stipulations.

-    Leviticus 18:5 

Q.  What happened to the Abrahamic covenant when Moses instituted the law?

-  Galatians 3:15-18  “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls or adds to it once it has been ratified.  Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.  It does not say, “and to offsprings” referring to many, but referring to one, “and to your offspring,” who is Christ.  This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.  For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 

-  So we can conclude that the Mosaic & Abrahamic covenant operate under two different principles and that the Abrahamic covenant is not annulled by the Mosaic covenant.

Abrahamic Covenant in More Detail

-  Promised land, seed, and blessing

-  All the families of the earth would be blessed through Abram and his descendants. 

-  We learn 2 additional things in Genesis 17 about these promises to Abram:

1.  These descendants would include kings.

2.  The result of the Abrahamic covenant was that YHWH would be the God of Abram’s descendants and they would be God’s people.  

Principles of Mosaic Covenant

-  In the covenant with Abram, YHWH takes the responsibility of fulfilling the covenant by himself.  YHWH swears the oath and YHWH alone suffers the sanctions of the covenant if the stipulations are not met.

-  Exodus 24:6-8 “And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he threw against the altar.  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.  And they said, “All that YHWH has spoken we will do and we will be obedient.”  And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that YHWH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Q.  Who takes the oath here and who suffers the sanctions of the covenant if the stipulations are not met?

-  Israel swears the oath and Israel alone suffers the sanctions of the covenant if the stipulations are not met.

Q.  What would happen if Israel kept the covenant?

-  Israel would continue to dwell in the land of Canaan and would be blessed and prosperous.

-  It is important to note that Israel would not earn eternal salvation, the Mosaic covenant could only provide temporal rewards, not eternal reward.

Q.  What would happen if Israel did not keep the covenant?

-  They would be exiled from the land of Canaan.  They would not be damned to hell for breaking the Mosaic covenant.  Now they are sinners and have failed the moral law and are condemned, but not as a result of the Mosaic covenant.  Daniel was a believer suffering the sanction of the Mosaic covenant, but because of his faith in God’s promises Daniel’s eternal salvation is secured. 

Republication

-  There is a parallel between the Mosaic covenant and the covenant with Adam.  Both were giving a land and the law.  

-  The land is a place where God dwells.  Israel is a land of milk and honey paralleling the paradise of Eden.  Isaiah 51:2-3 “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.  For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving, and the voice of song.

-  While Israel looks back to Eden it also looks forward to the New Heaven and New Earth.  The restoration of Israel is what is looked forward to by the prophets when they describe the day of the Lord, or last days.  Revelation combines imagery from both the restored Israel and Eden when it describes the New Heaven and New Earth.  

-  Failure to keep the law results in exile in Eden as well as Israel.  In both cases though they were given a promise of grace.  Adam was given the promise of the seed of the woman who would crush the seed of the serpent.  Israel was given the promise of a mediator and atonement pictured in the priesthood and the sacrificial system.

 -  The Mosaic law communicates the failure of Israel to follow the covenant.  It points to the need for grace.

Galatians 3:21-24 “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not!  For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.  But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.  Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the come faith could be revealed.  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”

Q.  What does the law teach us?

-  The kingdom of god must be earned by perfect obedience.  God cannot allow sin and must banish it from His presence.

-  Humanity cannot keep God’s commandment.  The entire record of the Old Testament is of a privileged blessed people who continually fail to follow God’s commandments.

-  The law drives us to the conclusion that our only hope lies in mediation and atonement found in the sacrificial system.

-  By driving us toward Christ, we learn the perfect obedience required to earn heaven. 

Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant

-  Earlier we said that Israel was a picture of Eden, but it also looked forward to the ultimate consummation of God’s kingdom in the New Heaven and New Earth.

-  As a result we see Abraham’s covenant being fulfilled in two stages.  One under the Mosaic covenant which is a picture in type and shadow of the ultimate fulfillment that results from the New Covenant.  

-  Abraham is promised descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on the sea.  Abraham is also promised the land of Canaan and given a precise Google maps description of the extent.  Israel is to extend from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.  

-  1 Kings 4:20 “Judah and Israel were as many as the sand of the sea.  They ate and drank and were happy.  Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt.  They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.  

-  Abraham is promised not only people as his descendants but kings.  Genesis 49 tells us these kings would come from Judah.  David from the tribe of Judah fulfills this prophecy and ultimately is confirmed in the Davidic covenant.  

-  However, land, seed, and kings were always envisioned as something permanent.  Genesis 17:8 says that the land will be an everlasting possession.  The Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7:16 says this covenant will be everlasting.  

-  So while there was partial fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, it was never complete.  Sin led to exile, the Davidic dynasty ended with Jehoiakim imprisoned in Babylon.  The people were disbursed throughout the earth.  At no point do we see all the nations of the earth blessed through Abraham.

-  This is the point the author of Hebrews is trying to make in chapter 4 when he talks about Israel’s failure to achieve Sabbath rest.  

-  All of this was the result of Israel’s failure to live up to the standards of the Mosaic law.  

-  What is needed is the New Covenant which leads to a permanent king under Jesus, a people who are Abraham’s true descendants, because like Abraham they respond to God’s promises in faith, a land that will ultimately include the whole world. 

Similarities Between Covenants

-  I will be your god and you will be my people is a phrase that is used throughout the Bible.  The point of the Mosaic covenant was for YHWH to be their God and for them to be God’s people. 

-  God desires a relationship with man, they are his representatives created in His image to perform a task that will bring glory to God.  

-  According to Jeremiah the point of the New Covenant is the same thing: Jeremiah 31:33

-  Revelation ends with a picture of the new heavens and new earth: Revelation 21:3

-  So regardless of the difference between the two covenants, the central point of everything is for YHWH to be god to a people.  We can call this the Emmanuel principle.  God passionately desires to be with His people.  

Why the Mosaic Covenant?

1.  Jesus comes as the second Adam.  He comes as the obedient vassal to successfully  complete Adam’s task.  As the Mosaic covenant is a republication of the Adamic covenant and Israel is a picture of Eden, the situation provides the setting whereby Jesus could fulfill the role of man’s task.

2.  Israel and the Mosaic law provide context to communicate the meaning of what God is trying to accomplish through Jesus.  Jesus could have been born in Zimbabwe and died an unjust death to atone for the sins of the world and brought back a book of systematic theology with everything logically defined for us.  However, God chose to communicate this to us through a story because it would be relatable, understandable, and meaningful to us.  This is why Jesus uses parables.  This is why we are taking this approach to the Bible in small group.

3.  The works principle acts as a pedagog convicting us of sin and convincing us of our inability to satisfy God’s demands.  

4.  Through the sin and folly of Israel, we see God’s mercy and passionate desire to be with His people.  We see Him preserve and protect the remnant.  We see Him promise a seed and we see Him bring life out of infertility and old age.  We see the hesed or lovingkindness of God expressed in His fierce loyalty to His people.  The story of God’s works allows us to trust Him and have faith in Him.   

The Seed of the Woman and the Blessing of Abraham

This is a great paper that I just came across that summarizes pretty much everything that I have been trying to get across in small group this year.  It is a little technical, but I do not think it is too bad.  The points the paper makes should sound very familiar.   Hopefully, it will be helpful in making clear what we have been discussing in small group this year.  The second half of the paper goes beyond the material we have covered, but I plan on eventually covering the Numbers the 2 Samuel 7 passages in some detail.  I was very excited to find this paper and I think this will be well worth your time.

Here is the link: http://www.tyndalehouse.com/tynbul/library/TynBull_2007_58_2_05_Hamilton_SeedOfWoman.pdf

Feel free to send any questions or comments about this paper my way.

Week 16 Prayer Requests

1.  Samantha home and recovering from another surgery.

2.  Bruce (Aaron's friend) father-in-law with his severe heart problems.

3.  Dave Howell sick (or possibly on a top secret mission)

4.  Lucia returning from Connecticut on a plane with three children.

Small Group Week 16 YHWH's Covenant with Abram

Recap

-  Last week we studied the tower of Babel and the call of Abram

-  The tower was built in order to make a name for themselves and to prevent them from being scattered.  

-  Humanity is trying to recover the security and significance they lost in the fall.

-  The tower builder’s attempts proved futile and God frustrated their efforts

-  The writer of Genesis sets up a pattern of sin, judgment, and grace but the tower of Babel ends with no mention of grace.  The reader is left to wonder.

-  After the Babel story, Genesis introduces Abram a descendent of Shem and promises him land, seed, and blessing.  

-  By juxtaposing the call of Abram with the story of Babel, Genesis is trying to tell us that God’s promise to Abram is the answer to the problem of the fall and the loss of security and significance.

-  Everything the tower builders attempted to achieve by their own efforts, God gives to Abram.  Abram is promised land, seed, and blessing.

-  The blessing on Abram is not an end to itself.  God intends to bless all people through Abram.  Last week we saw how this blessing of the world through Abram finds its origin in the blessing on Shem & Japeth and we looked at how Isaiah & Zechariah take this concept and expand upon it and how ultimately it is fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

Background

-  Abram leaves Ur and travels to Canaan.  Using Abram to solve the problem of the fall looks like a bad idea.  Abram is from a nomadic tribe of no importance dwelling in a Sumerian city.  His family worships pagan moon gods. The text seems to go out of it wife to mention that his brother is dead and his wife is barren.

-  This seems to be the way God usually works.  

Q.  Can you think of some other examples where God uses non-obvious or pathetic people?

-  He passes over the first born.  He provides children to the barren.  He uses fisherman, shepherds, and tax collectors.  He selects Israel because it is the smallest.  

-  Abram travels to Canaan and builds alters to God in Shechem and Bethel effectively marking out the land as God’s territory.  The only problem is that there were Canaanites there.  

-  Abram travels to Egypt during a famine where is wife is taken into the Pharaoh’s harem because Abram lies and says Sarai is his sister.  

-  The result is that Egypt suffers a plague and Sarai is saved.

Q.  Why does God punish Pharaoh and not Abram?  

-  God has promised to unconditionally curse those who curse Abram.

-  God promises a child for Sarai & Abram.  There can be no question that any children Sarai has is from Abram.

-  Lot is taken prisoner by raiders and Abram joins a coalition of armies to rescue Lot.

Q.  Why does the author of Genesis tell us these stories about Abram?

-  Genesis wants to show us that God is beginning to fulfill his promise to Abram by blessing those who bless Abram and cursing those who curse him.  

Ratification Ceremony

Q.  What causes God to perform this ceremony?

-  God has promised Abram a child and Abram is worried because he has no children, he is old, and right now Eliezer of Damascus is the one who will inherit his property and name.

Awesome 1:

-  Rather than getting upset at Abram for his doubt, God gives Abram this ceremony to reassure him in his faith.

-  God promises that Abram will have more descendants than the stars in heaven and Abram believes this promise and it is on the basis of his faith and nothing else that results in him being counted as righteous.

-  In Romans 4, Paul takes this and runs with it to show that entire Bible is built up from faith being credited as righteous.  Paul looks back, as we have been looking forward we see that everything in Genesis has been leading up to this.  The answer to the problem of sin and the fall is belief in the promises of God such as Adam had when he names his wife Eve, or Laban had when he names his son Noah, or Noah had when he built the ark.  

-  In the ancient near east, covenants were ratified in highly symbolic ceremonies.

-  Animals were lined up and cut in half symbolizing what would happen to parties swearing the oath if they did not fulfill their commitment.  Ordinarily, both parties would walk between the split animals.

Q.  What/who walks between the animals?

-  A smoking fire pot and a flaming torch.  These are symbols of the presence of God.  The people Moses was writing for in Genesis would have recognized this as the cloud of day and the pillar of fire at night that led them through the wilderness.

Awesome 2:

Q.  Who is making the commitment and who suffers the penalty if the covenant is broken?

-  God is the one making the commitment.  God alone suffers the penalty if the covenant is broken.  This is how we know this is a promissory covenant and not a suzerain-vassal covenant.  Under a suzerain-vassal covenant, the vassal takes the oath and is punished if the stipulations of the covenant are not met.  In a typical ceremony, both parties would walk between the split animals.  Here the suzerain is the one taking the oath. 

-  This is a self-maledictory oath.  

Abrahamic Covenant in the Old Testament

-  In Genesis 17, God will give Abraham the sign of the covenant, circumcision.  The effect of the covenant is that YHWH would be God to Abraham and his children, and they would be YHWH’s people.  This formula will be used throughout scripture.  

-  Basis for the Exodus:  Exodus 2:24

-  Jeremiah prophecies and new covenant that will fully realize the promises of Abraham’s covenant:  Jeremiah 31:31-33

-  Ezekiel also prophecies and a new covenant that will fully realize the promises of Abraham’s covenant:  Ezekiel 36:28

Abrahamic Covenant in New Testament

-  Mary links the blessing of the messiah to the covenant with Abraham: Luke 1:54-55

-  Zechariah does the same thing in Luke 1:72-73

-  Peter connects the covenant of Abraham with the New Covenant in Acts 3:25-26

Galatians 3:7-9 “Know then that is to those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.  So then, those who are of faith are blessed along Abraham, the man of faith.

Galatians 3:15-18  “To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls or adds to it once it has been ratified.  Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.  It does not say, “and to offsprings” referring to many, but referring to one, “and to your offspring,” who is Christ.  This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.  For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 

Galatians 3:29 “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

-  The Abrahamic covenant predates the Mosaic covenant and is not annulled by the Mosaic covenant.  The Abrahamic covenant is still in effect.

-  The Abrahamic covenant is a promissory covenant and is contrasted with the Mosaic covenant which is based on works.  

-  Therefore, since the Abrahamic covenant is still in effect and not annulled by Mosaic covenant then Abraham’s descendants are ultimately still heirs to the promise of Abraham.

-  Christ is the ultimate expression of this promise and the vehicle for the blessing to the descendants of Abraham and ultimately to all the families of the earth.

Summary of Abraham Covenant

-  Abraham is promised land, seed, and blessing.  This promise is unconditional and will be accomplished because God has sworn to do so.

-  The covenant was meant to be eternal, but Israel operating under the Mosaic law receives these promises only temporarily.  The Mosaic law demands God’s punishment and so Israel is driven from the land into captivity and the promises of Abraham are left unfulfilled.

-  All nations were intended to be blessed through Abraham.  Something that we never see achieved by Israel.

-  In order for God to keep His word to Abraham a New Covenant is promised which will deal with the Israel’s failure to keep the Mosaic law.  

-  By solving the problem of sin Abraham’s covenant finds its full benefit.  The promises are fully realized and greater.  

-  Now the land is no longer limited to the geographic boundaries of Israel, but to the whole earth.  The seed is no longer physical descendants of Abraham but now the blessing of Abraham has been extended to all families of the earth on the basis of faith, just as it was for Abraham who believed God and it was credited as righteous.

-  The take home message is that the New Covenant is not new in the sense that it comes out of nowhere, but is based on the covenant with Abraham.  The Hebrew word for new hadash and the Greek “kainos” frequently mean new in the sense of restored or renewed, for example the new heavens and new earth or a new moon.  

-  This is clearly how Paul sees it in Galatians and Romans and why he so often contrasts the promise and faith principle of Abraham’s covenant with law and works principle of the Mosaic covenant.  

Christ and the New Covenant

-  Earlier we talked about the covenant ceremony and the symbolism of the animals that were cut in half.

-  We are tempted to look at the ceremony and to view it as theoretical since we know God can fulfill him promise.

Awesome 3 

Q.  Why are these particular animals chosen for the covenant ratification ceremony?

-  It is no coincidence that the animals used in the covenant ratification ceremony are all clean animals suitable for sacrifice under Levitical law.  As the Levitical sacrifices all point to Christ, the animals cut in half in Genesis 15 also point to Christ, the new and living way.  

-  However, God is also a God of justice and justice demands that he judges even His own covenant people.  As sinners they will be found in violation of God’s commands, and therefore subject to the punishment. The wages of sin is death.

-  God is present in two symbols, the smoking fire pot and the flaming torch.  This may symbolize that God is acting as both the suzerain and the vassal.  In this case God is committed to His role as suzerain, but also acting as a substitute for Israel’s commitment.  

Hebrews 10:19-20 “Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, his flesh.”

Q.  Abram is given this ceremony of cutting the animals to reassure him as a believer in God’s promises that they are trustworthy.  What are we given in the New Covenant?  

-  We are given Communion, where the body of Christ is broken just as these animals were broken and we drink the blood of Christ just as Abram would have experienced the blood of the animals as he cut them in half.  

Genesis 1-11 Grid

Small Group Week 15 Homework

Read Genesis 15.  This passage covers the covenant between God and Abram.

The Great Ziggurat of Ur

This is the Ziggurat of Ur, built in the 21st century by King Ur-Nammu.  The call of Abram occured in 2091 B.C., so it is likely that this would have been newly built about the time Abram lived in Ur.  Ur was the dominant city in Mesopotamia at the time.   The ruling Third dynasty of Ur had achieved a high degree of prosperity and civilization arising out of the ashes of the collapse of the Akkadian empire.

The Ziggurat was dedicated to the moon god Nanna.  It is estimated it would have been 100 feet high or as high as a 10 story building.  The remains are still impressive today and certainly back then it would have been one of the greatest works of humanity.

A ziggurat was designed to reach heaven and provide a temple for god to dwell.  It is also likely that it provided practical security such as protection from flooding and an easily defensible structure to provide protection from invading armies.  Ziggurats would have been a source of prestige in the community and kings who built the largest ziggurats would have been respected.

It is likely that the tower of Babel was an early ziggurat.  Later ziggurats, such as the great ziggurat of Ur certainly shared with the builders of Babel a desire to reach heaven and to make a name for themselves.  Ziggurats were a physical representation of the desire of humanity for security and significance.

Abram would have grown up in the shadow of this work.  His family all had names that pointed to worship of the moon.  It is from this world that God draws out Abram promising Abram real security and significance.

Small Group Week 15 Prayer Requests

1. Samantha from Kids Night Out is still in the hospital with a fever and a CSF leak.  The mother is particularly distressed and is considering shifting care from Duke to UNC.

2.  Aaron's mother is having a different time dealing with Aaron's grandmother's and the care needed for her.  The other members of the family are making it especially difficult.

3.  Carrie (the wife of a coworker of Kristen) has thyroid cancer and is undergoing a radiation treatment.  As a result of the treatment, she will be separated from her family for some time.  

4.  Annabelle Durham suffered a concussion and is having a difficult time with recovery.

5.  Karen's parents and Karen herself are under a lot of stress.

6.  The congregational committee as they are involved in the future of Grace Hill Church.  Pray for the survey and also for clarity of direction among the members.

Small Group Week 15 The Tower of Babel & the Call of Abram

Recap

-  After the flood we have seen sin reintroduced into the world.  The fall recurs again with the exposing of nakedness by Ham.

-  Shem and Japeth, by covering Noah, act as God did when He covered Adam and Eve with animal skins.

-  The judgment issued by Noah curses the seed of Ham in a similar manner as the serpent was cursed in Genesis 3.  

-  The God of Shem is blessed indicating that the descendants of Shem will be those who identify with name of God.  Remember that Shem means name.

-  Again this is reminiscent of Genesis 3 where we had the seed of the woman identified with the people of God and the seed of the serpent identified with opposition to God. 

-  However, a third group, the descendants of Japeth are described.  These people will eventually be incorporated as God’s people.  Isaiah uses language reminiscent of the passage in Genesis 9 to identify these people as the Gentiles.  

Tower of Babel

Q.  What are your thoughts or questions on the tower of Babel?

Q.  What is the motivation for building the tower of Babel?

-  They want to make a name for themselves.

-  Name is a motif that recurs throughout Genesis 1-11.  By naming the animals, Adam exercises the authority over the animals given to him by God.  Adam demonstrates his faith in God’s promise by naming his wife Eve or life.  The descendants of Seth begin to call upon the name of YHWH at the end of chapter 4.  The children of the union of the sons of god and daughters of men are the conquering warriors who are described as men of the name.  Shem means name and his family is identified with God.  

Q.  Assuming that the repetition of the word name is important, what conclusions are we supposed to draw from it?

-  Humanity either seeks to glorify its own name or God’s name.

-  Glorifying its own name, without reference to God, is acting autonomously and is a repetition of Eve’s decision to decide for herself if it was appropriate to eat the forbidden fruit.  

-  The root of all sin is the desire to act apart from God.  That is why Proverbs starts off by stating “The beginning of wisdom is fear of YHWH.”  and “Trust in YHWH and lean not unto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”

-  Notice humanity was instructed to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the whole earth.  Instead the men of Shinar come together in one place specifically so they 

are not dispersed over the whole earth.  These people are acting in rebellion to God and His commands.  Once again we see more evidence of autonomy.  

-  The men of Shinar hope to reach heaven by their own construction.  The texts mocks this by specifically mentioned that God had to come down to investigate the structure.

-   The result of God’s judgment is that man is dispersed over the face of the earth.  The point is that God’s purposes for man will be accomplished.

Patterns

-  There are many patterns apparent in the first 11 chapters of Genesis.  The text alternates back and forth from the city of God to the city of man.  

-  We start with garden, we then follow Cain and his descendants.  We jump back to the line of Seth, then we move to the sons of god and daughters of men.  Next we have the story of Noah, then we have the table of Nations and the tower of Babel.  So after the tower of Babel we would expect a return to the city of God.  That is what we get with the genealogy of Shem ending with Abram.

-  At critical junctures the text resorts to poetry.  In the garden the creation of man and woman is expressed as a poem.  Adam’s introduction to Eve is expressed in a poem.  After the fall, God’s judgment is in the form of poetry.  Lamech’s drunken boast illustrating the rebellion inherent in the city of man is expressed as poetry.  Noah uses poetry in his judgment on his three sons.  

-  My point is that this section of Genesis is highly structured and written with care.

-  There is another pattern that recurs.  Sin, judgment, and grace.  For example, Adam & Eve sin at the fall and God issues judgment.  However, they are also given the promise of the seed.  Cain kills his brother and is exiled as a fugitive, but he is given divine protection.  Mankind becomes evil and is judged by the flood, but given the promise associated with the rainbow.  

-  As we close this section we have the sin of the tower of Babel and we have God’s judgment, but what we have missing is God’s grace.  The narrative is incomplete and we are left wondering if God has changed His purpose.

-  However, we are then introduced to the genealogy of Seth concluding with Abram and so the text hints that something new is happening and that God’s grace will be found in this person Abram.  

Abram’s Biography

-  Abram is from the land of Haran.  So most likely he was an Aramean which was a nomadic people from what is now Syria.

-  Abram is living in Ur a Sumerian city in the southern part of present day Iraq near present day Basra.  

-  It was not unusual for an Aramean to be in Ur. It was a cosmopolitan city at this time and the dominant city of the reason.

-  Mesopotamia had been united in the 24th century B.C. when Sargon of Akkad had conquered all the city states of the Tigris and Euphrates and united them into the Akkadian empire.  

-  Sargon’s children were not as adept as he was at running an empire and during the reign of his grandson the Akkadian empire was destroyed by a tribe from the Zagros mountains called the Guttians.

-  Amidst the collapse of the Akkadian empire, the city of Ur rose and became prosperous.  It never tried to unite Mesopotamia the way it had been under Sargon, but it was the dominant city in the region.

-  At the time of Abram, the King of Ur, Ur Nammu, built a ziggurat in honor of the god Nanna.  Nanna was the local god of the city of Ur and a moon deity.  

-  So everyday when Abram went outside he was confronted with the beautiful ziggurat which must have been one of the greatest achievements of man in the world.  The rationale behind a ziggurat is to reach heaven.  A ziggurat is another embodiment of the theology of the builders of the tower of Babel.

Q.  Was Abram a worshipper of YHWH?

-  In the book of Joshua we are told that Abram was a pagan.  Joshua 24:2

-  The names of Abram’s family all point to moon worship.  Sarratu means queen and was the wife of the moon god Nammu.  Malkultu was the daughter of the moon god.  Terah is the Hebrew word for moon.   

Call of Abram

Abram is promised 3 things:

1.  Great nation

2.  Great name

3.  Bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you

-  Earlier we noted that the two things humanity lost in the fall were security and significance. 

-  Throughout Genesis, the city of man has been attempting to gain back security and significance.  Cain builds a city, Lamech’s violence and the violence of the sons of god are all attempts at security and significance.  

-  The author of Genesis places this story right next to the tower of Babel to highlight that Abram is promised everything the men of Shinar were trying to accomplish by building the tower.  

-  The point is that security and significance can only come from the Lord and is not the results of humanity’s autonomous effort.  

-  Abram is promised land and seed which seems to be a restatement of the command throughout Genesis 1-11 for humanity to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue and have dominion over the earth. 

-  In Genesis 1-11 the word curse is used 5 times - the serpent is cursed, the ground is cursed, Cain is cursed, Noah is named as a possible answer for the curse, and Canaan is cursed, in the call of Abram the word bless is used 5 times.  

-  God is going to bless Abram in order to restore the devastation and broken relationships brought about by the fall and worked out in the first 11 chapters of Genesis.

-  Abram is a major turning point.  The first 11 chapters cover a huge time period - tens of thousands of years.  The next 24 chapters will cover 20 years.    

Q.  What is the difference between how land and seed is stated to Abram and how it has been used earlier?

-  It is given to Abram in the form of a promise not a command.

Q.  What is the purpose of the blessing on Abram?

-  Abram is blessed specifically so he would be a blessing to others.  The promise to Abram does not end with Abram.  Abram is meant to be the vehicle through which God’s blessing would be extended to all the families of the earth.  

Q.  Can you connect this point to anything we have studied earlier?

-  Noah says blessed be the God of Shem and then promises that Japeth would be enlarged and dwell in the tents of Shem.

-  By establishing that Abram is descendent of Shem, we see this prophecy begin fulfillment through the blessing of God on Abram who will take that blessing to the descendants of Japeth.  

-  Remember last week we looked at Isaiah who takes this prophecy and runs with it.  The idea is that at some point worship of YHWH will no longer be limited to Israel.  A time is coming when there will a new Exodus and the nations will stream to Jerusalem.  This new Exodus would be accomplished through a figure that Isaiah calls the servant:

Isaiah 49:6 “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

-  Other prophets will elaborate on Isaiah’s vision, for example Zechariah

Zechariah 8:22-23  “Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem  and to entreat the favor of the Lord.  Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

-  This prophecy begins its fulfillment at Pentecost.  Noah’s prophecy in Genesis 9 leads to a listing of the descendants of Ham, Shem, and Japeth in Genesis 10 which leads to the story of the Tower of Babel where human language is confused.

-  Luke describes the events of Pentecost with rushing winds, the appearance of fire, and the speaking of tongues.  After noting the amazement of the people that they could understand the words of the apostles in their own language, Luke gives a list of the different nations represented at Pentecost and then Peter preaches a sermon the central point is that the last days described by the prophets have arrived as a result of Jesus Christ and this promise of salvation is “for you and your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”