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| From Error to Heir
A number of years pass after God tells Abram not to fear, that his descendants will be as countless as the stars, yet Sarai remains barren (Gn 16:1, 16:3). Despairing of ever having children, Sarai suggests that Abram sleep with her maid Hagar in order to have a child. Following the adage that “God helps those who help themselves,” Abram helps himself to his wife’s maid Hagar, who soon becomes pregnant. Modern readers are often taken aback at Genesis’ apparent silence regarding Abram’s actions. Once again, rather than proclaiming a condemnation of Abram’s deed, the immorality of such actions is revealed in the details of the story, not least through an allusion to the Fall. Just as Eve gave the forbidden fruit to Adam, p 40 so likewise Sarai gives the forbidden fruit of Hagar to Abram. Once more the bitter fruit of sin will be reaped, with division and rivalry springing up almost immediately. Hagar, seeing that she has given Abram the son Sarai could not, treats her mistress with contempt. Sarai blames Abram and mistreats Hagar. Hagar flees, only to find life in the wilderness even harsher. Feeling lost and abandoned, Hagar encounters God, who comforts and counsels her. She names God “a God of seeing” because everyone else overlooks her and treats her more like an object than a person (notice that in the narrative Sarai and Abram never refer to Hagar by name, but simply as Sarai’s maid). God, however, sees Hagar, calls her by name, and treats her with compassion. Not only does God see Hagar, but what is more, God allows Hagar to see him: “Have I really seen God and remained alive?” (Gn 16:13). Following God’s direction, Hagar returns home to Abram and bears a son, whom she names Ishmael. Thirteen years pass before the narrative picks up again. This deliberate jump in time, which places the events of Genesis 16 and 17 next to one another in the narrative, indicates that the events of these chapters are very much related. In Genesis 17, the reader will receive additional clues that Abram erred in using Hagar as a surrogate mother. Punishment that Fits the Crime Abram has had no encounters with God since taking Hagar as a concubine. Finally, after thirteen years, God breaks his silence. The last time God appeared he had told Abram to “fear not” (Gn 15:1). Now his first words are, “I am God almighty; walk before me, and be blameless” (Gn 17:1). Abram failed to heed God’s word; Abram’s fear of not having a child led him to a woman other than his wife. God’s admonition for Abram to walk before him and be blameless is a rather strong hint that, by taking Hagar he, in fact, had not walked before God, nor been blameless. In Genesis 17, God again swears a covenant oath to Abram. Once again, God promises Abram that he will have a multitude of descendants, and to make the point of Abram’s future progeny, God changes his name from Abram (“exalted p 41 father”) to Abraham (“father of many nations”). Abram, though childless most of his life, will be not only a father, but the father of nations and kings. Sarai, too, will receive a new name, Sarah, as she will be the mother of these nations and kings. All of these promises sound great, until we get to Abraham’s part of the bargain: the sign of this covenant will be circumcision. At the age of ninety-nine, it isn’t hard to imagine Abraham asking God to reconsider, maybe suggesting that God give him a sign like he gave to Noah, something along the lines of a rainbow. Why does God demand this painful procedure as a sign of his covenant with Abraham? Taking a step back, we might also ask why there even needs to be another covenant at all, especially after God just made a covenant with Abram in Genesis 15? By placing the recounting of Abram’s sin with Hagar between the covenant oaths of Genesis 15 and Genesis 17, the narrative suggests that God recalls Abram to make a new covenant in atonement for his sin in Genesis 16. Circumcision, then, is not only a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham, but also a not- so-subtle punishment for Abraham’s sin of the flesh. The narrative goes out of its way to point out that this covenant is made with Abraham and all his male heirs when Ishmael is thirteen years old—the age when Egyptians were circumcised as a rite of manhood. In short, Ishmael, Abraham’s son by the Egyptian maid Hagar, is shown to belong to Egypt, whereas the future son of promise, Isaac, will be circumcised on the eighth day and belong to the covenant people of God. The covenant of Genesis 17 and its sign of circumcision is a very real reminder of the cost of living without faith in God. tải về 6.33 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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