I haven't ever counted the number of times that God appears to tell Abraham about the Covenant. It happens quite a bit for a couple of reasons. First, anytime you find something repeated in scripture it's because that thing is important and the authors want you to pay attention. Second, the several variations of the covenant probably reflect the focus of the different writers and editors who put the story into its final form. There's some more information about that in this article.
There's a reiteration of the covenant in chapter 17 but not enough new for me to want to comment on. In chapter 18 though, something remarkible happens.
Abraham is at his camp when three strangers appear out of the desert. He offers them generous hospitality, which is not surprising. Ancient Hebrew cultre had a code of hospitality similar to the objigation of diyafa among the Bedouins. That's something worth noting, because the way these travellers are given or denied hospitality is very important through the rest of their story.
One of the strangers tells Abraham that, in one year's time, he will have the long awaited son that God has promised. This knowledge reveals that these are no ordinary travelers. On hearing the news, Sarah laughs, and thus the boy is to be names Isaac, which means (roughly) "laughter."
When the strangers (now explicitly identified in the text as God) start to go, they hesitate. God is heading to the Cities of the Plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. There is some great wickedness in these cities and God is going to destroy them. The nature of the wickedness is not revealed and has been the cause of much speculation. I'll get into that in some detail in my next posting. For now I'll just say it is not homosexuality.
Next comes the amazing part of the story. Having heard about God's plan, Abraham decdes to argue with the Almighty. He does it respectfully, to be sure, but he has a different idea about what should happen and isn't shy about saying so.
Abraham thinks that the cities should be spared for the sake of the good people in them. He reminds God that he is supposed to be the God of Justice and such an unjust action doesn't fit with that. He challenges God to act like God.
God agrees. If there are even 50 good people in the city, he will spare it for their sake. "What about 45?" Abraham asks, "Surely you're not going to let 5 people make the difference for the whole city. The negotiations go from there, Abraham acting more like a customer haggling with a merchant than a worshipped with his God. Eventually he gets God down to 10. If there are that many good people in the city, God will relent.
This story flies in the face of what we are used to. We do not expect a faithful man to argue with God. Many preachers will tell you that God is always right and we have no business questioning or challenging God. They will justify some of the ugliest stories in the Bible saying: "It's God's will, therefore it's automatically good and should not be questioned."
That kind of unthinking faith is not for Abraham. If he sees something that is cruel or unjust, he's going to challenge it, even if it means taking on God. This is something that we will see many times inth eOld Testament. We see Job questioning God, and we see it in the Psalms. True faith isn't the same as bline obedience. True faith is an honest relationship, and that means you're going to argue sometimes.
Another thing that strikes me about this passage is that God doesn't strike Abraham odwn, or even critize him for arguing. God seems comfortable with being challenged, as if that's a proper thing for the faithful to do.
I think we can learn a lot from this story.
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