Abraham’s Tests (pdf)
VaYera Slides (pdf)
VaYera Notes (pdf)
Overview of VaYera (“And He Appeared”) Genesis 18:1 – 22:24
The first two Portions of this Torah Cycle covered over 3,000 years of history; and in the third Portion last week, we were introduced to Abram. He was 75 years old when he received Yehovah’s call to leave his father’s house and go to the place where He would show him. That Portion ended with 99-year-old Abraham receiving the promise of Isaac, covering a period of only 24 years. This week’s Portion starts with Abraham at age 99 and ends just before Sarah’s death at age 127, when Abraham was 137…covering a 38 year period. Last week’s Portion established Yehovah’s promise (in the form of a blood covenant), and this week’s Portion documents the beginning of the fulfillment of these promises. We see throughout the Tanach that Yehovah delights in making promises…and He delights even more in keeping those promises!
Chapter 18 – Abraham’s Three Visitors
At the end of last week’s Portion, Yehovah had appeared (again) to Abraham and told him that Sarah would bear him a son. In this week’s Portion, He confirmed that promise to Sarah. The chapter starts with the words: “The LORD appeared to him [Abraham]…” The Hebrew word that is translated here as “LORD” is YHVH; the exact pronunciation of this word has been lost over the millennia because the Rabbis did not want to “take the name of the LORD in vain.” Many of our English translations use the word LORD, and Jewish tradition uses the word Adonai (literally meaning “My Lord”) or HaShem (literally meaning “The Name”) to avoid what they see as a violation of the Third Commandment. As a result, we now call the Creator of the Universe by a “name” that can correctly be applied to any number of humans as well…not much different than the Southern tradition of calling someone “Bubba”. I think it is important to at least try to pronounce His Name correctly and, therefore, I call Him Yehovah; that may not be the perfect pronunciation but, in my mind, it’s better than calling Him “Bubba”!
Back to the story: We see that Yehovah is personified here as “three men”. This is confusing but, I believe, the Holy Spirit is doing this on purpose. He is giving us this very “fuzzy” picture deliberately as a way to try to describe Yehovah, whose “appearance” is incomprehensible to us mere humans. Notice that Abraham is completely subservient to these “three men” as he rushes to wait on them. Also notice that he instructs Sarah to make bread without leaven…suggesting that this occurred during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Yehovah said, “At the appointed time [mo’ed] I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” Isaac would then be born the following year during the Feast (mo’ed) of Unleavened Bread.
Abraham Pleads for Sodom. The “fuzziness” between the “three men” and Yehovah continues here: the men head toward Sodom and yet the LORD stayed behind talking to Abraham…because He is holy and cannot be in the presence of the sin that is present in Sodom. Abraham started his negotiations with Yehovah to spare Sodom’s destruction: Would He spare Sodom if there were 50 righteous men there? Yes! Abraham pushed Him all the way down to ten righteous men…but stopped there. Why did he stop with ten? This is a foreshadow of the minion (minimum of 10 men) required for a Torah service. Abraham knew that if there were less than ten righteous men, Yehovah would not spare the city!
Chapter 19 – Destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah
The “two men” described in the last chapter have now become two angels (or, more correctly, messengers). They entered the city of Sodom and were greeted at the city gates by Lot, indicating that he was a high official (probably a judge) whose duty was to vet all those who wanted to enter the city to insure that no unsavory characters entered. Lot invited them to stay in his home, but they insisted that they would sleep in the town square…the most dangerous place for two men to sleep in the entire city. Lot insisted and they agreed to go with him; they entered his house (crossed his threshold) and he served them unleavened bread…another indicator that these events happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But all (not some, but all) the men of the city stormed Lot’s home and demanded that he turn over the two messengers to them … presumably so they could have homosexual relations with them. And then Lot did something that seems completely horrible to us: he offered to send out his two daughters into the mob. As a father of two daughters, that is something I couldn’t even think of doing; but yet Lot seemed to offer them willingly. It could be that he knew they would be safer among the mob of homosexuals than the two male messengers would be; but the point being made here is the power of the Threshold Covenant that Lot extended to the two messengers. When Lot opened his home to the two messengers and they stepped across the threshold, they were under Lot’s protection – he was responsible for their well-being as long as they remained under his roof. The mob continued to demand the two men and threatened Lot with physical harm if he didn’t comply with their wishes. This is when the two messengers went into action: they incapacitated the mob outside Lot’s door and they told Lot to gather his family so they could immediately flee the city. He convinced his wife and two daughters to leave but was unsuccessful in convincing their other two daughters and their husbands. The Messengers had to almost drag the four of them out of the city so that Yehovah could destroy it. Once Lot and family were safely out of the way, Yehovah rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and the other wicked cities on the plain. But Lot’s wife “looked back” (the Hebrew word means to “look with pleasure”; the implication here is that she actually turned to go back to the city…and to her daughters) and she was destroyed along with all of the other inhabitants. The Messengers told Lot they were taking them to the mountains for safety; but Lot liked the cities much better than the wilderness. So he convinced the messengers to send them to Zoar, a small town outside the area of destruction.
The Sin of Lot’s Daughters. Abraham could see the smoke of Sodom & Gomorrah’s destruction all the way from his home in Hebron…and Lot could see it even better from his closer position in Zoar; so he decided that the Messengers knew where the safest place for them was, and he and his daughters fled from Zoar into the mountains. Remember, a person’s world view then was as large as he could see with his own eyes – and all Lot could see outside of this little town they were in was total destruction. They were probably wondering if Yehovah would destroy Zoar next, so Lot and his two daughters headed for the mountains!
And what happened next is also unthinkable: the two girls got their father drunk and had sexual relations with him, and both became pregnant. Why on earth would they do that??? Perhaps, in their limited world view, they thought that Yehovah had destroyed the entire World and spared only them and their father. It would, therefore, be their duty to procreate and repopulate the earth. In any event, they each bore a son by their father: the firstborn daughter bore Moab (meaning “from the Father”…how ironic); he became the father of the Moabites. And the other daughter bore a son named Ben-Ammi (“Son of My People”…also ironic) who became the father of the Ammonites. You can see these on the Chart of the Generations of Terah here: https://torahnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-Generations-of-Terah.pdf You might want to print this for future reference as we continue through Genesis and the rest of Abraham’s descendants.
Chapter 20 – Abraham & Abimelech
The events in this chapter bear a strong resemblance to those back in chapter 12 when Abram and Sarai ventured to Egypt, and Pharaoh took Sarai into his harem because Abram said the she was his sister. Well…these same events occur here when Abraham traveled to the west into Abimelech’s (whose name means “My Father is King”) kingdom to find more pasture land for his flocks and herds. And we get the same outcome: Abimelech took Sarah into his harem (remember, she was 89 years old now – she must have still been a real “looker”!); Yehovah warned the king not to touch Sarah because she was another man’s wife, and he sent Abraham and Sarah out with great wealth. Abraham recognized that Abimelech did the right thing, and he asked Yehovah to bless Abimelech with children…both him and his household.
Sorry folks…I don’t have any more spiritual insight into this chapter; if you do, then please let me know so I can share it with all of us.
Chapter 21 – Isaac’s Birth
The “set time” (mo’ed) had come and Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the Son of Promise; and Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac grew and when he was weaned (perhaps as late as age five, as was the custom then), his half-brother Ishmael mocked him. This made Sarah furious and she demanded that Abraham send Ishmael and his mother Hagar away. Now Yehovah promised Abram (in Gen 12) that he would be the father of many descendants and He would give Abram a land in which to live. Abram immediately asked Yehovah if Eliezer, the “chief of staff” of Abram’s household would be the promised heir – Yehovah said “No.” Later he asked if it would be Lot, his nephew – and Yehovah again said “No.” So Abram separated himself from Lot. And now Abraham asked Yehovah if Ishmael would be the promised son – and He again said “No.” So now Abraham is driving Ishmael and Hagar out so Isaac can be the focus of this story. Yehovah reassured Abraham that Ishmael would become a mighty nation too, but His covenant would be through Isaac and not Ishmael.
The Covenant with Abimelech For whatever reason (perhaps he feared Abraham would rise up against him and take by force the pasture land that Abraham had been using), Abimelech cut a covenant with Abraham, so that Abraham would deal fairly with him. The covenant was “sealed” with sheep, oxen, and lambs in exchange for Abimelech’s recognition of the well that Abraham had dug for his livestock at Beersheba (“Well of the Seven Oaths”). This well (and this covenant) will come up again in chapter 26.
Chapter22 – Abraham’s Test
Now that Abraham had separated himself from Eliezer, Lot, and Ishmael the time was right for Yehovah to test his faithfulness by requiring him to sacrifice his only son – the Son of Promise. Not only am I the father of two daughters, I am also the father of a son…and I cannot imagine sacrificing him as Yehovah asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. But Abraham knew that Isaac was the Promised Son through whom all of his descendants would follow. If Abraham sacrificed Isaac, he would have to be resurrected for Yehovah’s promise of many descendants to be fulfilled.
I was taught starting many years ago in Sunday school that Abraham took this little five or six-year-old boy up the mountain to sacrifice him on the altar. But there is every reason to believe (we will look at this next week) that Isaac could have been in his 30’s…certainly old enough to resist Abraham from subduing him on the altar. Isaac was a willing participant in this, and perhaps this event was as much a test of Isaac’s faithfulness and willingness to obey Yehovah as it was of Abraham’s faithfulness.
We know the story: Abraham and Isaac set off to Mount Moriah, and Abraham “lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.” I’m sure he did see the mountain range from a distance away, but I believe there is something more spiritual going on here; I believe that Abraham also saw the mountain afar off in time…some 2,500 years later when The Father would offer His only-begotten Son on that same mountain as a sacrifice for the sins of Mankind.
As Abraham was ready to plunge the knife into Isaac, Yehovah knew that Abraham’s faith (and also Isaac’s faith) was sufficient for him to accomplish the tasks that Yehovah would place before them; He stopped Abraham and He provided a ram (not a lamb) for the sacrifice. We will see in Leviticus that a ram would be used as a mandatory Guilt Offering.
When it was all over, Abraham returned to his home at Beersheba…and we are not told where Isaac went. But we will meet up with Isaac next week.
The chapter and Portion end with a listing of the descendants of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. And we are introduced to Rebekah here, whom we will get to know better next week.
The Accompanying Haftarah Reading is II Kings 4:1-37; it parallels the announcement of Isaac’s miraculous birth from the Torah Portion. Here the Prophet Elisha announces the miraculous birth of a son to an elderly childless woman; we read from II Kings 4:8-17:
“Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.” And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there. Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.” So he said, “What then is to be done for her?” And Gehazi answered, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.” So he said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!” But the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her.”
The Accompanying Brit Chadashah (New Covenant) reading is John 3:14-17
Abraham was given the greatest test of his life when God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac. How many of us parents could pass that test? But Abraham was obedient to God and offered his son; and because he was in covenant relationship with God, God also offered His Son as a sacrifice. We read in the Brit Chadashah of God’s sacrifice of His Son Yeshua in John 3:14-17:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
We see here the connection that the Apostle John makes with Moses lifting the brass serpent on a pole to Yeshua’s sacrifice on the Tree; that’s the manner in which Yeshua was offered as a sacrifice for us (in the natural). We also see the spiritual connection with Abraham’s willingness to offer his only son Isaac to God’s sacrifice of His Only Son Yeshua.