Really starting to get into life of Abraham now.
Tony compared Hebrew narrative to modern literature. Expanding upon that some, if Genesis would have been a modern story, we would have had many descriptions about how tall Adam was, skin color, muscular build, hair color, many snippets of dialogue so we knew how he thought and similar comments about Eve. By the time we reached the flood narrative we would have had multiple vignettes about the lives of people who died in the flood and heard repeatedly from Noah as he preached to his neighbors and interaction and strife between daughters in law and Mrs Noah about everything imaginable and what everybody else thought about Noah's message from God.
But a classic Hebrew narrative does not include any of those elements. We are told only bare facts and what is important to the story. Therefore when we get into this story of Abram and we start finding out things about his nephew Lot, the fact that Sarai was barren, Abram's possessions, etc we know that something is different. Why are we getting this detail? How will it factor into the story?
Then I want to jump to the Egypt story - we concentrated mainly on Abram's failings, how verse one said leave family and everything but we read of him leaving with dad, nephew, 'people', and a whole slew of possessions. Then we read about him telling untruth's to save his own neck and getting lots more possessions in the process. Not at all the honorable forefather we usually associate with him, but something we alluded to but did not really discuss was some of the foreshadowing - looking forward to the Joseph narrative. Went into Egypt, and left basically being chased out, with the possessions of the Egyptians, after a period of plagues and pestilence... did you note the similarities? The question - Why?
Scott pointed out that we should see Jesus on every page of the Old Testament. Obviously Jesus is the fulfillment of the sin-judgment-grace-punishment variation on a theme message, but why speifically do we see this foreshadowing of Moses in Abram? Are we supposed to see Abram as a savior model? He is so imperfect - why is he blessed by God?
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Sorry, wasn't ignoring you last week!
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that God knew that we would be no good at subtleties, hints, etc. and instead left glaring signposts with neon lights around them all through the Bible. "Hmmm... this Moses story sounds familiar-- it's like something similar happened before." "Hmmm... this Jesus guy seems familiar-- it's like the same God is controlling all this."
I'm not much into the "types" in literature that Jeff is always talking about-- I'm just not that versed in literature to get it most of the time. However, there is part of me that says, How can we not see in Abram glimpses of what is coming in Jesus? If nothing else (and there is plenty else!), as a man made in the image of God, who chooses most of the time to do the Lord's will, we would have to say the good in him comes from the Lord.
That thought is not running the way I wanted it to, but it's close enough. Anyway. If God doesn't bless imperfect people, then we are all in trouble! Why Abram and not someone else? Hard to say, really. Everyone on earth at this point is descended from Noah, they've scattered after the tower-- Why Abram and not his father? Why not Abram's servant? Why not Pharaoh? I think the answer, such as we can understand it, must lie in Abram's heart. God saw something there that Pharaoh didn't have.