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Bible 101 Lesson 3C

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Bible 101 Lesson 3C

Genesis 17: The covenant of Circumcision

1. God (El Shaddai) gives Abram a new command: “Walk before me and be blameless.” (v.1)
2. God gives Abram a new name: Abraham. It means “Father of many nations” (v.5)
3. The covenant is for Abraham and his descendants forever to be their God. (v.7)
4. The sign of the covenant is circumcision to be performed on the 8th day. (vs. 10-14)

The number 8 in Biblical numerology is the number of new beginnings.

5. All male children of Abraham, of anyone in his household to include servants and slaves, must be circumcised.
6. Any male who is not circumcised is excluded from the covenant.

7. Sarai gets a new name too: Sarah. She will be and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her. (v. 16)

Abraham laughs. (“You’ve GOT to be kidding. I’m 99 and she’s reeeeealy old. Cant we just do this with Ishmael?)
God says, “No.” The your wife will bear you a son named “Isaac.” (Isaac means: He laughs.”)

Barren women who give birth to a miraculous child is a constant theme in the Bible. They include: Isaac, Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist, and Jesus. (Though Mary isn’t barren but a virgin.)

Gen 18: God in 3 persons (sort of), Sarah laughs, God’s had enough of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Gen 18:1-5 Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. “Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.”


Reminder: This is LITERATURE.

The Lord appears to Abraham as three men. Just let that percolate. Don’t analyze. Abe saw the LORD and the LORD was three men.

When Abe asked to be allowed to provide the LORD with some refreshment, the three men replied.

(vs. 9-15) The birth of Isaac is restated and this time, Sarah laughs.

Gen 18:9-12 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”



Gen 18:20 The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Time to put an end to it.
And the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave,

18:23-33: Abraham asks about justice and mercy.
And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”


Eventually, Abraham bargains with God so that even if there are ten righteous people in the two cities, God would spare them from destruction. (This may be the origin of the phrase, “Jewed him down” referring to someone who drove such a hard bargain that he could successfully bargain even with God!)

And why was Abraham so concerned with the possibility that there might be a few righteous people among the unrighteous sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah? He was probably so concerned because his nephew Lot lived there and he was not going to have time to get a message to him to get out as quickly as possible.

Gen 19:1-11 The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is homosexuality
The men of the city demand that Lot release the two angels to them so they can gang rape them.

Lot even offers the men his two virgin daughters (because it would be a disgrace not to protect your guests) but the men of the city aren’t interested in females.

Vs. 12-25: The angels get Lot, his wife and their two daughters out of town and the cities are destroyed.

V. 26: But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

No explanation is given. This is a great topic for speculation!

Gen 19:27-28: And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.

Here God again demonstrates that, even though He is merciful and patient with sinners, there is a limit to His patience and, at some point, He will bring an end to sinners who refuse to repent so as to bring an end to the sin so that it will not spread to other people.

The destruction by fire of Sodom and Gomorrah will be used by Peter and Jude as an illustration of the fate of sinners. (2Pe 2:6; Jde 1:7)

Lot feared that some evil would befall him while he was escaping the destruction of the five cities of the plain so he pleads with the angels (or is it the LORD?) to allow him to flee to the small city and for them to spare that city. The city is called “Zoar” which means “small.” The angels agree but Lot is afraid of the people of that town and, after the destruction of the other cities, he takes his daughters to the mountains and dwells in a cave.

Gen 19:30-38 Incest produces the Moabites and Ammonites who will be enemies of Israel in the future.

Because they are hiding in the mountains and living in a cave, the daughters don’t expect that they will ever have husbands and children. So they decide to take matters in their own hands; get their father drunk; and lay with him. (He doesn’t even remember in the morning.) The result is each has a son.

A recurring theme:

When Adam sins, he does so because Eve offered him the forbidden fruit. When God confronts Adam about violating His command, Adam blames the woman. The suggestion is that he would have obeyed God had it not been for the woman.

Gen 3:12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

In a similar manner, God promises Abram that his wife will have a son but Sarai doesn’t believe God’s promise and proposes that Abram have a son by her servant Hagar. Then, when that does not go well for her, she blames Abram.

Gen 16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.”

So, Adam blames Eve for his sin and Sarai blames Abram for her lack of faith. But in both cases, the man went along with what the woman proposed even though both men knew it was not what God wanted. In both cases, the men failed to take a leadership position and avoid future problems.
 
Lol! :lol I guess that answers my Sarai question from A. However, I don't understand at all what's going on here with the angels and the gang rape.
 
Lol! :lol I guess that answers my Sarai question from A. However, I don't understand at all what's going on here with the angels and the gang rape.
The men of Sodom (from whom we get the word "Sodomy") wanted to rape the two angels thinking that they were just really good looking men.
It is a reflection of what was "normal" for the city of Sodom and the evidence that God wanted to make sure He was doing the right thing by destroying them.
 
The men of Sodom (from whom we get the word "Sodomy") wanted to rape the two angels thinking that they were just really good looking men.
It is a reflection of what was "normal" for the city of Sodom and the evidence that God wanted to make sure He was doing the right thing by destroying them.




Oh okay they were two angels that the men just assumed were other men. Either way you look at it, it's wrong, sinful, and totally disgusting.
 
Oh okay they were two angels that the men just assumed were other men. Either way you look at it, it's wrong, sinful, and totally disgusting.
Eggs Ackley!
And that's why God wiped them off the face of the earth. He had had enough of their evil and didn't want it spreading.

That is an example for us not to tolerate evil among us but to purge it so it doesn't destroy ourselves, our families, our neighborhoods, our town, our city, our nation or our world.
 
4. The sign of the covenant is circumcision to be performed on the 8th day. (vs. 10-14)

The number 8 in Biblical numerology is the number of new beginnings.
the 8th day also happens to be when the k clotting factor is at it's highest level which means it's the safest time for a circumcision of a little baby

it's interesting that the wisdom of God was recorded in the bible thousands of years before science caught up enough to verify it

same with the bubonic plague - if people would have read the ot and followed God's commands to bury all feces in the ground outside the camp (the living area of the community) this never would have happened

same as God's command to cleanse things in running water - many hospital deaths would have been eliminated prior to science discovering that doctors washing their hands in a basin of water and then going to the next patient and spreading disease to all the patients as the same basin was used the whole day

awesome post - thanks
 
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