Isaac is Born!

Genesis 21

With the joking of recent posts aside, Genesis 21 is an important chapter for believers in the Bible, particularly this first verse:

Genesis 21:1, NIV Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.

It took years, but in the end, Abraham and Sarah believed, and God fulfilled his promise to them. According to the story, Isaac was created through divine intervention, and was a gift from God to a couple who continued to have faith in him. The moment comes quietly, calmly, at the exact moment in time that God promised.

The happiness soon becomes marred, however, by what happens next. Sarah does not want Ishmael and Hagar to be around her son, and demands that Abraham casts them out. He does so, giving them a measly jug of water and bread as a farewell gift. This is the parting gift Abraham gives to his son, not long after he received numerous riches from King Abimelech? Oh wait, that is Isaac’s inheritance.

It is interesting to note that in Hammurabi’s Code, there is a law about what to do in regards to children of slaves in which the father was their master. In Law 171, If the father while still living did not say to the sons of the maid-servant: “My sons,” and then the father dies, then the sons of the maid-servant shall not share with the sons of the wife, but the freedom of the maid and her sons shall be granted.”

This is exactly what happens to Hagar and Ishmael in this chapter, and is more than likely a reflection of societal laws followed during the time period of the authorship of the Abraham story in the ancient Near East.

Hammurabi’s Code, the common law of ancient Babylon, contains many similarities to the laws found in the Old Testament, and can provide insight into the customs that are apparent in Old Testament stories. The influence of the Laws of Hammurabi extended far beyond the city of Babylon, throughout Mesopotamia.

Growing up, the main thing I remember learning about this chapter is that Ishmael “mocking” Isaac was the main reason for being cast out. As an adult, reading the Bible for myself instead of relying on what other people tell me, it seems far more about Sarah’s jealousy, and taking advantage of an opportunity to assert Isaac’s right of inheritance over Ishmael.

In Hebrew, the term applied to Ishmael’s behavior is mitzachek, defined as mocking. Jewish scholars have generally been split in opinion as to whether mitzachek refers to playful behavior, or something more vicious.

Tamarisk shrub.

New words:

Wilderness of Paran (He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt)– unknown origin, but believed by Christians and Jews to be near the Sinai Peninsula. In Arabic tradition it has been associated with an area of the Al-Hejaz, west of present-day Saudia Arabia.

Beer-sheba (or Beresheba/Be’er Sheba) – currently the largest city in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Archaeological digs date the earliest human habitation of the area to the 4^th millennium BCE. It became one of the southernmost territories settled by Israelites. The name seems to be a play on words—be-er means “well”; sheva means seven, which corresponds to the seven lambs that Abraham gives Abimelech as proof that he dug a well mentioned in Genesis 21. It was located at the edge of an agricultural area in ancient Palestine.

Tamarisk (Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba) – refers to 50-60 species of flowering evergreen and deciduous shrubs that form dense thickets, and are native to the drier regions of Eurasia and Africa.

Philistines (And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines a long time) - little is known about the original language of the Philistines, but they were not part of the Semitic Canaanite population. They appeared in the southern coastal area of Canaan (the Levant) at the beginning of the Iron Age (circa 1175 BCE), possibly from the Aegean region.