Showing posts with label Sarah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sarah. Show all posts

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Old Testament Lesson #10 Birthright Blessings; Marriage in the Covenant

(Genesis 24-29)

ISAAC'S QUEST FOR A COVENANT MARRIAGE

The overriding theme of the stories of these chapters is that it is not easy to come by a covenant marriage, but that when we put forth the tremendous effort required, the Lord will assist and blessings will ensue.  Here are some incidents that teach these lessons:

Gen. 24--Abraham's servant was given the overwhelming responsibility of traveling back to the homeland to find a worthy wife for Abraham's birthright son, Isaac.  He brought great riches with him as gifts, requiring ten camels for transport (vs. 10).  The task was overwhelming, requiring divine guidance.  The servant asked in prayer for a sign that the future wife of his master would be one who would offer him water, and additionally offer the ten camels water.  This would certainly single out the woman, because, although offering water to a male traveler was fairly normal ettiquette, offering to water the camels was well beyond the call of duty.  One camel could drink up to 30 gallons!  It was an extraordinary young woman who would offer this service, perhaps it was even unheard of.  But when the caravan arrived at the well, not only did Rebekah volunteer the service, but she "hasted" and she "ran" to complete it (v. 19-20).  When the servant discovered that she was a cousin, and therefore met the requirement set forth by Abraham, he knew his prayer was answered (v. 23-27). 

Rebekah's family wanted to have a little time with her before she left them to marry Isaac (v. 55), but the servant wanted to obey the Lord immediately, since the Lord had answered his prayer so immediately (v. 56).  Rebekah concurred, and went with the servant, never to see her family again.  Upon their arrival at Isaac's property, she saw a man cutting through the field to meet them (v. 64-65), and was told it was her future husband.  The closing words of this episode of the story are beautiful:  "and she became his wife; and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death" (v. 67).  Loving each other, and comforting each other are elements of a covenant marriage.

Gen. 25--While Isaac's brother Ishmael was blessed with a dozen sons, Rebekah was left childless.  (It's interesting how many righteous women in the Old Testament struggle with fertility issues.)  Finally, she was blessed with twin sons, Esau and Jacob.  An interesting description is given of Jacob in the footnote to vs. 27:  Jacob was "whole, complete, perfect, simple, plain."  Jacob valued the birthright, and bought it from his brother (v. 31-33).  Esau, like so many people, was overtaken by the physical desire of the moment, in his case hunger, and lost perspective of eternity. Unfortunately, many saints today do the same, selling their spiritual privileges for fleeting passions.

Gen. 26--Because Isaac continued in righteousness, the covenant promised to his father was restated in his behalf (vs. 2-5).  The same can be true for each one of us, as covenant children, particularly as we receive our patriarchal blessing.  Like his father, everywhere that Isaac went, he built an altar and called upon the Lord (v. 25).

Meanwhile Esau sold his birthright again, marrying outside the covenant and against his parents' wishes (v. 34-35) while  Jacob remained unmarried until age 40, presumably because no covenant wife was available where they lived.

A little note of explanation: Both Abraham and Isaac, when they moved to a new land, ended up telling the local royalty that their wives were their sisters. Both wives were cousins, so this was true, "sister" and "brother" being general terms for relations. Why hide the fact that they were wives? Camille Fronk Olson explains that if a king desired the wife of another man, he would kill the husband [Women of the Old Testament, p. 32-33]. This deception, therefore, saved the lives of Abraham and Isaac. In both cases, the king, upon discovering that the object of his affection was already married, returned the wife to her husband, and promised protection for the husband from others who might desire the wife. So why did the deception have to occur in the first place? One idea: Perhaps the kings needed to personally get to know the people involved, and gain an appreciation for their integrity, before they would extend this highly unusual offer.

REBEKAH'S LEADERSHIP

"Rebekah is one of the greatest patterns in all the revelations of what a woman can do to influence a family in righteousness...Women are appointed, Rebekahlike, to be guides and lights in righteousness in the family unit and to engineer and arrange so that things are done in the way that will result in the salvation of more of our Father's children" (Bruce R. McConkie, Ensign, Jan. 1979, p. 62, 63).

Gen. 27--Isaac planned to bless his son Esau with the birthright, despite Esau's unworthiness.  This would have been a grave error, and Rebekah saw that.  She conspired with Jacob to put him in the right place at the right time to receive the birthright blessing.  This is an example of a wife who kept her covenant to obey her husband "in righteousness."  In this case, she would have been wrong to obey her husband, because in a matter of eternal importance, he was following convention and personal preference, rather than the Spirit.  Rebekah, however, had received a revelation before the twins were born that the younger was to be the leader of the family (Gen. 25:23), and besides, Esau had given up his birthright twice, definitely demonstrating that he did not have the integrity or foresight to be the patriarch of the family. 

When Isaac realized which son had received the blessing, he knew it was right.  What a prophet binds on earth is bound in heaven, but also what he looses on earth is loosed in heaven (Matt. 16:19).  Isaac had the power to revoke the blessing, but he let it stand (v. 33), because he knew his wife was right.  The Lord could easily have caused Jacob to be born before Esau, therefore preventing this problem from arising, but instead He chose to teach a lesson for many generations to come:  Righteousness is more important than circumstance, and revelation is more important than tradition.  When Isaac afterwards blessed Esau, he restated through revelation the same truth that had been revealed to Rebekah years before, that he would be subservient to his younger brother.  Despite the outward confusion, the blessings were given correctly through the Spirit, as the Apostle Paul stated, "By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come" (Heb. 11:20).

Esau was so angry at being tricked, he plotted to kill his brother after his father's death (v.41).  This was told to Rebekah and she sent Isaac away to stay with relatives, saying that otherwise she would lose both her sons in one day: one to murder, and the other to execution (v. 45; see Gen. 9:6).  To Isaac, she stated the reason for sending him away to be the need for Jacob to find a wife among the covenant people, which was definitely necessary.  Of course, this was the Lord's plan as well.

It is worth noting that later Esau took a covenant wife (Gen. 28:6-9), and that when Jacob returned to Canaan many years later,  "Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept" (Gen. 33:4).

JACOB'S QUEST FOR A COVENANT MARRIAGE

Gen. 28--As Jacob went on his journey, he was granted a remarkable dream in which he saw a ladder ascending into heaven, with angels traveling up and down it, and the Lord standing above it.  The message of the dream was that the covenants Jacob made with the Lord were as rungs of a ladder to heaven.  He himself would have to climb the rungs in order to obtain the promised blessings that would allow him to enter into heaven with the Lord (Pres. Marion G. Romney, "Temples--The Gates to Heaven," Ensign, Mar. 1971, p. 16)  The Hebrew word translated as "ladder" could also be translated as "stairway" or "ramp."  The choice the King James translators made to use the word "ladder" provides us with a great symbol of the effort and time required to make our way to heaven.  We believe that it is through the merits of Christ that we are saved, but Christ requires us to move our hands and feet and climb the ladder of covenants in order to qualify for His grace.  It is not an elevator.

David E. Bokovoy, instructor at the Boston LDS Institute, currently a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible studies, recommends circling "the place" or "this place" anytime it is found in the Old Testament, because it almost always refers to a temple place (Know Your Religion Lecture, Feb. 15, 2002, Logan, Utah). Jacob said, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!  this is none other but the house of god, and this is the gate of heaven...And he called the name of that place Beth-el" (v. 16-19).  "Beth-el is [short for] Beth-Elohim, which means literally 'The House of the Lord'" (Pres. Romney, as noted above.)  Even more interesting is to note a couple of additions which Joseph Smith made to verse 22 in his translation.  (These additions are not in the LDS Bible footnotes.)  The added words are in italics:  And the place of this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be the place of God's house.  (How much Hebrew did Joseph Smith know?)

Gen. 29--Interestingly, Jacob met his wife, Rachel, at a well, just as his father's servant had met his mother at a well.  In this case, however, it was Jacob who served Rachel, by rolling away the stone covering, and drawing the water for the flock.  Typically it was the woman's job to water the sheep, however in this instance it seems that a tremendous effort was required to open the well, since the shepherds were waiting for all to be gathered together in order to do it (v. 8).  It was "a prodigious feat for one person--a measure of Jacob's elation at seeing [Rachel]" (Harper-Collins Study Bible, p. 44)  Both of these covenant marriage relationships began with an act of great service: another lesson for us to follow throughout our marriages.

In an ironic twist, Jacob's father-in-law Laban and Rachel's older sister Leah tricked him into marrying Leah first, a similar act to the deception that Jacob and his mother worked in order to procure the birthright blessing.  Of course, in keeping with social convention, the older daughter should be married first, and in all the seven years of labor, there was apparently no other suitor.  Since parents always arranged their children's marriages, and the father had supreme rule over the family, it was not so strange for Laban to control the marriages of his daughters (Sidney B. Sperry, "Hebrew Manners and Customs," Ensign, May 1972).   It certainly would have been nicer, though, if it could have been done honestly, as this method set up a conflict and competition in the family at the outset: Leah was "unloved" (another translation for the word used as "hated" in v. 31), while Rachel was cherished (v. 20).

BEING "LOVED" OR "UNLOVED"

The people of the Old Testament times lived in an imperfect society with flawed families.  Plural marriage was particularly plagued with feelings of competitiveness and unfairness, so much so that the problems of "loved" versus "hated" wives were actually recognized and addressed in the Law (Deut. 21:15-17).  We today still live in a fallen world with imperfect people and troubled relationships.  We may encounter discrimination, negligence, or abuse from others when we expected love and kindness.  But God Himself is perfect, and His love is extended towards all.  In the lives of Leah and Rachel, as in the lives of Sarah and Hagar, we see the impartial kindliness of the Lord.  In both cases, both women found solace in their relationships with God.  In both cases, the Lord blessed the less-loved wife with the compensatory joy of motherhood immediately, and made the favored wife wait a while.  This delay of infertility, though, was followed by the delight of a son who had the birthright, or earned it through his righteousness.  In all cases, the Lord communicated his care and concern to the woman in her individual trial (Sarah in Gen. 21:1, 6; Hagar in Gen. 21:17; Leah in Gen. 29:31-32; Rachel in Gen. 30:22). 

God is always inviting, comforting, and encouraging, and is no respecter of persons.  The scriptures show repeatedly that His love is offered to all:  "He layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him" (2 Ne. 26:24); "Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price" (2 Ne. 26:25); "All men are privileged [to partake of God's goodness] the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden" (2 Ne. 26:28); "Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men" (Alma 5:33); "Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost" (3 Ne. 12:6).

In our times of affliction, or our situations of injustice, we can have confidence that the love of God will find us and compensate.  "I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction. O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever" (Jacob 3:1-2).
 
COVENANT MARRIAGES BRING BLESSINGS
 
(This is my own photograph of the Salt Lake City Temple.
I hold the copyright, but you are welcome to use it
for teaching purposes.)
 
Despite the imperfections of the partners involved, covenant marriages put us on that ladder, bringing us ever closer to heaven.  Both Leah and Rachel developed great faith through their marriage and child-bearing trials, which carried them through other trials.  For example, when their prophet-husband received the command of the Lord to uproot the family and move back to his birthplace, where the threat of being murdered by Esau weighed heavily on his mind, he consulted both women, and both responded, "Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do" (31:14).  Jacob did, and was joyously surprised by the heartfelt welcome of his now repentant brother Esau (Gen. 33).  Generations afterward, when Boaz married Ruth, the blessing of the members of the wedding party to Ruth was that God would make her as great as Leah and Rachel.  Together, these two women, with their two handmaids and their husband, bore and built the House of Israel, and their names are honored forever.  Today, regardless of our circumstances, we similarly play a part in building our own branch of the House of Israel, and we can also leave a great legacy of faith as we make and remain true to our covenants.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Old Testament Lesson #9 "God Will Provide Himself a Lamb"

(Abraham 1; Genesis 15-17; 21-22)

As Latter-day Saints and members of the House of Israel, we share a common ancestry with the Muslims, who also descend from Abraham, and who also were blessed of the Lord with a great promise.  I'm going to approach this lesson in two parts.  First, this blog entry, with the story of the fulfilling of the Abrahamic Covenant through Abraham's heir, Isaac.  Then, my next blog entry will touch on the fulfilling of the promises made by the Lord to Abraham's older son, Ishmael, and the founding of the great nation of Islam.

THE PROMISES TO ABRAHAM

Abram was promised a great posterity which would bless all nations of the earth.  (See The Abrahamic Covenant in a previous post.)  Years went by with no indication that this promise was going to be fulfilled.  The heir of Abram's house was a steward, a servant.  The Lord assured Abram that an heir would be born to Abram himself (Gen. 15:1-5).

ABRAHAM'S WIVES

As time went on, Sarai, still childless, apparently began to consider whether she should do something in order to fulfill this covenant made to her husband.  Laws of the period gave a solution to this dilemma, stating that should a woman not bear a child, she was required to provide her husband a concubine, a legal wife who was previously a servant.  The child born to the concubine would be under the authority of the first wife, and the concubine would remain a servant to the first wife.  However, being the means of providing the first child often confused the status of the concubine and she would sometimes elevate herself.  If this happened, creating confusion and contention in the household, there were three options available to the head wife:  "1) free the concubine and send her away, 2) brand her a slave and return her to servitude, or 3) punish her.  The first option is arguably the most generous course of action" (Camille Fronk Olson, Women of the Old Testament, p. 37, 42; also Encyclopedia of Mormonism, p. 1260).

Sarai followed the custom of the time and the command of the Lord (D&C 132:65), and gave her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, to her husband to wife.  Before the baby was even born, Hagar elevated her status and "despised" her mistress (Gen. 16:4).  Sarai consulted with her husband, he gave her authority in the situation, she punished Hagar, and Hagar ran away (Gen. 16:5-6).

But the Lord loved Hagar, too, and heard her despair.  An angel visited her, promised her to be the mother of a great nation who would dwell among their brethren, and commanded her to return and submit herself to her mistress, which she did (Gen. 16:7-16).  When her son was born, she named him Ishmael, "God heareth" (LDS Bible Dictionary, p. 707). Abram was 86.

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord restated the covenant, and expanded upon it.  He changed Abram's name, which means "honored father," to Abraham, which means "father of many nations," and Sarai's name to Sarah, which means "princess," and promised a child through Sarah.  As Abraham rejoiced in this announcement, still his thoughts turned to his beloved eldest son, and he said to the Lord, "O that Ishmael might live before thee! (Gen. 17:18). The Lord promised that Ishmael also would be a great nation, through twelve princes, but that through Isaac would come the Priesthood leadership (Gen. 17:18-20).  And indeed, Abraham became the father of many nations: the Jewish and Christian nations through Isaac, the Islamic nation through Ishmael, and other nations through the six sons of his third wife, Keturah, most notably the Midianites.  The blessings of the priesthood applied to all the descendants of Abraham (for example, Moses was ordained by his father-in-law, Jethro, who was a Midianite), but the leadership, the House of Israel, would come through the birthright son, Isaac (Gen. 17:21).

When Isaac was born, 13 years after Ishmael, there was a culmination of strife between Sarah and Hagar, and Ishmael "mocked" or "persecuted" his little brother (Gen. 21:9-10; Gal. 4:29).  According to the well-respected ancient historian Josephus, Sarah loved Ishmael "with an affection not inferior to that of her own son," but she began to fear that Ishmael might take the life of Isaac after their father died, in order to supplant him (quoted in Olson, p. 42).  Perhaps she was, again, doing her best to make sure the covenant was fulfilled.  She chose the kindest recourse of the law, freeing Hagar and sending her away with her son.  In this first recorded divorce, as in any divorce, there was sorrow.  "And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.  And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.  And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed" (Gen. 21:11-13).  God was with Ishmael and Hagar, as well as with Sarah and Isaac, and saved and blessed them in the wilderness in answer to Ishmael's prayer (Gen. 21:20).

Ishmael remained in contact with his father and brother, or returned to it at some point in life, because when Abraham died, Ishmael and Isaac, as brothers, buried their father (Gen. 25:9).

THE BIRTHRIGHT SON




(Picture from LDS.org)


Although Isaac was the second son of Abraham, he was first son of the first wife, giving him the birthright.  This means he had greater blessings in order to carry out the responsibility of caring for the entire family.  He had been promised 1) land, 2) posterity, 3) and priesthood through which to 4) carry the gospel to the world.  He was also promised 5) the protection of the Lord.

With these promises in mind, we come across the story of the sacrifice (Gen. 22:1-2).  The Lord calls Abraham to go to the mountain, which is the temple, and offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him" (Gen. 22:3).  We receive an insight into Abraham's emotions: rather than merely chopping wood, the word clave denotes extreme violence in the action.

"And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together" (Gen. 22:7-8). 

Having been in Isaac's position himself as a youth, this must have been extremely traumatic for Abraham to be the one holding the knife.  He may have hoped that an angel would intervene and save his son's life, as his had been saved on the altar of the idol.  (See "Abraham's Dysfunctional Family" in a previous post.)   Another possibility also seems likely:  The Lord had assured Abraham, in Gen. 15, that the promise of posterity would be fulfilled through a child born to Sarah, despite her advanced age.  When we read Abraham's response to the Lord (verse 6), "And he believed in the Lord; and the Lord counted it unto him for righteousness" we see in the footnotes a link to the JST. In this inspired insert, as Abram asks the Lord how this will be fulfilled, the Lord says, "Though thou wast dead, yet am I not able to give it thee? And if thou shalt die, yet thou shalt possess it, for the day cometh, that the Son of Man shall live; but how can he live if he be not dead [first]? he must first be quickened. And it came to pass, that Abram looked forth and saw the days of the Son of Man, and was glad, and his soul found rest..." (JST Gen. 15:9-12, p. 798 of LDS Bible).  I think it is likely that Abraham expected Jehovah to raise his son from the dead.  But when, and how?  Trusting in this resolution would have required an incredible amount of faith.
 
Fortunately, he did not have to lower the knife.  Abraham's statement to his son was literally prophetic:  The Lord did provide a ram.  Isaac's life was spared, and the covenant was fulfilled (Gen. 22:9-13).
 
THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB
 
Ever after, when the phrase "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" is used in the Bible, it refers to the Abrahamic Covenant, and specifically to God's ability to save his children in any circumstance.  Although God requires us to submit everything to him, even (and especially) the fondest desires of our heart, yet he will preserve us and reward us for so doing.  No matter what God asks us to do, if we obey, it will always turn out right.  Eventually.
 
Of course, the offering of Isaac was a type of Christ (Jacob 4:5).  Isaac and Christ were both the promised, covenant, birthright sons.  The site known traditionally as the place where Abraham offered Isaac is now the site of the Dome of the Rock.  A few hundred yards to the north on a higher point of that same ridge system is Golgotha, the place where God offered his Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice.  It is likely that Isaac was in his thirties as the time of the sacrifice (see Gen. 23:1), and old enough to be able to overpower his father and refuse to be placed on the altar, but "they went both of them together" (Gen. 22:6).  Likewise, the Savior of the World submitted himself to the will of his Father.  Elder Dallin Oaks tells us, "This story...shows the goodness of God in protecting Isaac and in providing a substitute so he would not have to die.  Because of our sins and our mortality, we, like Isaac, are condemned to death.  When all other hope is gone, our Father in Heaven provides the Lamb of God, and we are saved by his sacrifice" (Ensign, Nov. 1992, p. 37).