Goodbye foreskin; Abraham's visitors

Genesis 17 is all about circumcision. When Abram was 99, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me faithfully and be blameless.” Blameless’ literal meaning is “whole.” God continues, “Then I will make my covenant between us and greatly increase your numbers/make you fruitful/bring kings from your line/make you the father of many nations.” This sounds a lot like what God has been saying for decades. We know that God is making Abram into a great man of faith and that takes years. When Abram saw God, he was probably thinking, “Great. Son time.” But no. It’s member-alteration time, Abram. Enjoy. Maybe you are thinking, “God already signed a covenant with Abram and said he’d do this. Why are we reading another chapter about this same freaking contract?” This time the covenant isn’t just with Abram, but with all of his descendants as well. It is an everlasting covenant to be their God and to give the land of Canaan to the Jewish people.

The Jewish end of the covenant is to have every man circumcised when they are eight days old. I love this detail, because children don’t form an important blood-clotting vitamin, K, until the 5th-7thday of life,   making day eight the earliest safe day for surgery. Between days two and five, there would be dangerous bleeding. Thousands of years ago, God and the Bible knew that this was the right day. It’s a small detail, but it blows my mind. Then God renamed Abram and Sarai. They were now to be called Abraham and Sarah. Abram meant “father of many” and Abraham means “father of many nations.” Sarai meant “my lady” or “my princess,” but Sarah means “a princess of many.” God is into name changes and into bringing the people who get the new names far enough that they will one day be worthy of them. In Revelation 2:17, it’s implied that all of us will be renamed by God. (“ I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”) Mine will obviously be “Batman.” And I’m trusting in God to make me cool enough to deserve it, haha.

Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son who you will call Isaac, and he is going to get all the stuff I’ve been talking about.” Isaac means “laughter,” which is appropriate for both the joy he will bring and all the laughing Sarai, Abram, and likely their neighbors did over God’s promise. Sense of humor? God? God says, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you and I will bless him too, making him fruitful. He will be the father of twelve rulers and I will make him into a great nation.” That’s right. The Arabic peoples were blessed by God because of Abraham, just like the Jewish people. God has enough blessings to go around.

Abraham took 13-year-old Ishmael and all the men in his household and circumcised them all that same day. Abraham was circumcised as well. This was a sign of trust, since none of these men could fight while they healed. Abraham trusted that no attack would come while he was fulfilling the covenant. As an aside, God has been appearing to Abraham, but the Bible says no one can see God and live, and other people in the Bible nearly get their faces burned off seeing just a little of him. Possibilities for Abraham’s having God appear to him are a) God was hiding behind some kind of angel, using him as a proxy (“the angel of the Lord”) or b) this was Jesus, taking on a temporary human appearance. Surely this would only be a controversial debate to Mormons, so I don’t really care which it is. It was God and that’s that.

   

As for circumcision, notice that Abraham wasn’t shocked at this statement. He didn’t ask, “What’s this? How is it done?” This implies that other ancient peoples had done this thing. It was a known thing, possibly for hygiene. But God wanted it as a sign. It’s cutting away flesh, showing that Abraham would no longer trust in flesh, but in the unseen. As for as the current circumcision debate, I don’t think it matters. Christians can do it or not do it. Socially, in America, it’s probably better to do it. Plus, it’s easier to clean (not speaking from personal experience). It certainly isn’t abuse and is up to the parents of the child. People should leave people alone and let them do what they want.

  

 In Genesis 18, we have the three visitors. One of these is God. The Bible says, “The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.” Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. Abraham showed them great hospitality. He hurried to the tent and told Sarah to bake the trio some bread. Is this the earliest instance of a man telling his wife, “make me a sandwich”? Abraham also had meat prepared from a calf. There was no fast food back then. These guys were chilling for a while. When they were finally eating, one of the men said, “About this time next year, Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was dropping eaves and laughed to herself, thinking, “After I am worn out and Abraham is old, will I now have this pleasure?” She was crudely saying both “Yeah right, like that will ever happen” and “too little, too late.” Then the Lord, who obviously heard Sarah’s thought, said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? I’ll see you next year.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I didn’t laugh!” But God is all, “Um, actually you did.”

Before the three men left, they looked down at Sodom. Two of the men went toward Sodom and one stayed. The two men were likely the angels that presided over Sodom’s destruction and the third man was the Lord. The Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” This is interesting. Doesn’t God already know how bad it is without going down, sending angels, and checking it out? Abraham pleaded for Sodom saying, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” No. God doesn’t do that. Abraham says, “What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?...Far be it from you to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Lord said, “If I find 50 good guys, I’ll spare Sodom for their sake.” 

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if there are 45? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” God agrees. Abraham then proceeds to barter God down to ten. Now, if you haven’t already done so, is the time to listen to Tim Keller’s “Real Friendship and the PleadingPriest.” But I think the best thing about this story is that God didn’t get mad during the debate and compassionate intercession. God allows questioning, bargaining, and challenge.