Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.” – Genesis 27:3-4

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 18, 2018): Genesis 27

Shania Twain released her hit single “That Don’t Impress Me Much” on December 15, 1998. Soon after the release of the song, I was on a bus with a group of teens, and some of the young girls were singing along with the Twain’s then-new hit single. In the song, Twain remarks about things that don’t impress her, like intelligence and cars and apparently “movie star looks.” At one point in the song, she remarks -

Okay, so you're Brad Pitt
That don't impress me much
So you got the looks but have you got the touch
Don't get me wrong, yeah I think you're alright
But that won't keep me warm in the middle of the night
That don't impress me much

The truth and intent of the song, that looks are a passing thing and that there are other things more valuable in a relationship, were lost on the young teenage girls who were traveling on the bus. At this point in the song, they sang “That does impress me much” and then broke into uncontrollable laughter that lasted throughout the rest of the chorus.

We are an impressionable people. Some things make an impression on us, and maybe make us do silly things. What might impress us varies from person to person, but all of us are impressed by something.

Isaac was impressed by Esau. Esau seemed to be a man’s man. He was good with the bow and successful in his pursuit of game. In fact, it becomes apparent as the story is told that it is not the taste of the food that impresses Isaac. Evidently, at this point in his life, Isaac can’t tell the difference between the game caught by Esau and the lamb prepared by Jacob. But Isaac wants a son that is skilled in the hunt. Esau was skilled in this way, and Jacob was not. Isaac liked that about his older son so much that he was willing to disregard the directives of God. God had already made it clear the line of blessing would follow Esau’s younger twin brother, Jacob. But Isaac was determined to give his blessing to Esau, in spite of the plan of God.

The temptation to chase after what impresses us instead of what impresses God is something that shapes us still today. Too often we go down wrong paths because we are impressed by things that have left God unimpressed. To have his heart means that we want to be impressed by what impresses him. We want to see with his eyes, as we act as his hands and feet in the world.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 28

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. – Genesis 26:34-35

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 17, 2018): Genesis 26

I have never really believed that romantic love has the power to “complete” us. For me, it is a Hollywood notion that long ago wore out its welcome. If we see ourselves as incomplete people waiting for someone to come along and complete us, then we will always be incomplete. The only way that we can build healthy marriages, and healthy relationships of any kind, is if we are comfortable in our own skin. That does not mean that there are not growth areas and things that we would like to change about ourselves, but that kind of fixing can only happen from within. Being in a relationship with someone is never the answer to “completing” or “fixing” us.

Having said that, I do believe that marriages, and relationships of any kind, with the wrong person can break us. Our relationships are more likely to bring us down to the level of our partners than they are able to raise us up to their level. There is truth in the idea that we reflect the character and ideals of the people with whom we spend our time. And I have to admit that I have met with people who are getting married and my first reaction has been “this is going to be a train wreck.” I wouldn’t actually tell them that, people in love rarely listen, but usually I am right.

Esau got married at the age of forty, and apparently not just to one woman, but two. There is so much that was wrong with Esau relationships with these women. First, he was a polygamist. Usually the fact that he married two women in such a short period of time, along with other facts from the story of Esau’s life of which we are aware, reveal that Esau had a problem with his passions. Esau’s passions ruled him, not the other way around. It is for this reason that the author of Hebrews labels Esau as “sexually immoral” (Hebrews 12:16).

Second, Esau was impatient. His marriage seems to have been done without the support of his family. It seems likely that Isaac wanted to make sure that Esau was married to a girl with a proper pedigree, one whose beliefs matched those of the family of Isaac and Rebekah. Abraham had arranged for such a marriage for Isaac. And Isaac, would do the same for Jacob, and it is understood that he would have liked to do the same for Esau. From a modern perspective, getting married at the age of forty does not seem impatient, but when reading the Bible, we have to remember that numbers need to be treated differently. The number forty in Hebrew thought indicates a time of transition and change. Esau may have been much younger than forty when he got married, but the use of the number forty simply indicates that there was a change in Esau’s life, which is very true. This comment about Esau’s marriages is the beginning of the story of Esau losing the blessing from Isaac that was rightfully his. Changes to the life of Esau were coming.

Third, Esau’s wives were going to lead Esau into sin. The Jewish Targums all agree that Esau’s wives worshiped different gods than Isaac and his family, and would lead him into idolatry; they were proud and would lead Esau into believing that he knew what was best, disregarding the admonitions of God; and his wives were disobedient, tarnishing the image of Esau and his family.

And through all of this, Isaac and Rebekah grieved for their son. They had wanted so much more.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 27

Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east. – Genesis 26:5-6

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 16, 2018): Genesis 25

Are you your parent's favorite child? I know, it is a weird question to ask. And yet it seems to be a common theme of life. I don’t think that there is a parent that I have ever spoken to who would admit to having a favorite child, we love our children equally. However, the subject seems to come up frequently when I am speaking with the children. According to what I hear the children say, I would have to guess that a lot of us feel like we are the Black Sheep of the family and that one of our siblings was the favorite.

Part of this is likely just the “grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” phenomenon, but it shapes us in unexpected ways. People who seem to feel that they are the experts on every subject, usually seem to have felt that they needed to know things as children to get any recognition from their parents. Rebellion is often the result of feeling like they can’t measure up, so why try. But then there are the stories of the Bible. Here there is no misunderstanding available. Men of the Bible had favorite wives, and parents had favorite children.

This verse has caused a bit of confusion. The only women that we know of who could have been considered Abraham’s concubine was Hager, the mother of Ishmael. The other two women in Abraham’s life were his wives, Sarah, and then after Sarah’s death, Keturah. If there were other concubines, we do not have any record of who they might have been. We also have no indication that Abraham’s relationship with Hagar lasted longer than the attempt to provide a male heir for Abraham. Sarah’s jealousy of Hagar over the birth of Ishmael would seem to have made that impossible. And yet there were a total of seven sons born to the concubines of Abraham and one son who was born to his wife, Sarah.

The easiest solution to the problem is to assume that the six boys mentioned in this passage were born to Keturah. If that is true then, while Abraham married Keturah, she was never placed in the mind of Abraham equal to Sarah. And the story of Abraham may also reveal what could be considered to be the first prenuptial agreement. While Keturah would be Abraham’s wife, neither she nor her children would stand to inherit anything from the Patriarch. Abraham would be generous with them throughout his life, but when he died, everything would go to Isaac. Isaac was the son of the promise, and nothing could be allowed to change that.

Abraham also began a family tradition of choosing favorite sons. He chose Isaac. Isaac would choose Esau. Ironically, Isaac’s choice was away from God who had chosen Jacob to be the next son of the promise. And Jacob would choose Joseph and Benjamin as his favorites, the only sons of his favorite wife, Rachel. And along with the tradition of favorite children came a tradition of dysfunction that was revealed in both the families of Isaac and Jacob, because the choosing of favorites is often damaging to both the favorite and the ones overlooked. But that is another story.

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 26

And she added, “We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.” – Genesis 24:25

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 15, 2018): Genesis 24

Over the past few years, I have become certain that we have read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as the partner story of Gibeah (Judges 19), wrong. I am not saying that whatever you might believe about same-sex sexual activity is necessarily wrong.  On that issue, I choose to withhold my judgment. But we cannot use the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the story of Gibeah, as proof to the wickedness of a same-sex lifestyle. That is reading into the story facts that simply are not there, no matter how much we might want them to be. The twin stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Gibeah, are about hospitality, not same-sex sexual interaction. The crisis present in the story is that two visitors come to Sodom, and later to Gibeah, in search of a place to sleep. In both stories, the people of the towns are xenophobic; they fear the stranger. The threatened same-sex rape in both stories is instituted as ways to keep unwanted strangers from stopping by their towns. Sodom was not populated by same-sex attracted males. It was populated by men who wanted to punish any visitors who chose to visit the town. In the case of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the story of the destruction of the cities is preceded by a wonderful example of hospitality extended to these same visitors by Abraham. The opposition of these two stories is purposeful. Abraham extended the proper hospitality that was required by the situation. The men of Sodom did not.

In the ancient world, hospitality was incredibly important. There were no hotels in which to stop. If one had to travel, for whatever reason, they did so only with the help of the strangers that they would meet along the way. The practice was understood. I will help you on your travels because one day I might need the help of a stranger to assist me.

Abraham had sent his servant to find a wife for his son. The servant did not want to find just any woman but needed to know that the child possessed the necessary characteristics to make a good wife for Isaac. One of those characteristics would have been that she was trained in the practice of hospitality. When Rebekah gave him water and offered to water his animals, she passed one of the first tests of hospitality. When the servant asked her if there might be a room in her father’s house for him stay, it was the second hospitality test. The servant understood that how Rebekah reacted to a stranger is important, especially if Abraham was going to become the father of a mighty nation.

Hospitality has become an awkward behavior in a world dominated by social media, and one where we seem to want to live in an echo chamber of our own closely held beliefs. We have not reached the evil levels of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Gibeah, but a quick glance at how we treat the stranger in our midst, the immigrant, or the Sikh, Muslim, and Buddhist, should tell us that we have taken the first steps toward their evil behavior. We no longer need to depend on the hospitality of strangers to travel, but the practice of welcoming the stranger into our midst is still important, at least it is if we want to follow in the steps of Jesus.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 25

Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants. – Genesis 23:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 14, 2018): Genesis 23

British philosopher Alan W. Watts argues that “we seldom realize … that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.” Language and the customs of the society, things that we expended no effort to create, are the guiding rails of our thoughts and actions. We think and act within that cultural understanding. And even when we violate one custom, it is usually so that we can act through another.

With some religions, it is a common understanding that we should not take advantage of our brothers and sisters within the religion, but that those who exist outside of the faith boundary are fair game. In fact, in many cultures, it is expected that the stranger would be cheated in some way. Often, the tourist trade is built around this understanding. You will probably never see the stranger again, so it does not matter whether or not you treat them honestly. So often the message is that we need to be careful in our business dealings when it comes to intercultural trade, and honest when it comes to dealing with people who speak our culture language. The idea of buyer beware, at least in some cultures, is a warning about intercultural dealings.

Abraham and Ephron the Hittite are engaged in a cultural dance that was generations in the making. From their interaction, it is understood that Ephron believed that Abraham was a rich man and that he too was wealthy. This dance was not one between economically diverse parties, which made the rules of the dance appropriate for these the two men.

First, Ephron offers the land for free, knowing that the offer will be, according to the cultural language, refused. Abraham follows the cultural norms, he refuses the gift and requests a price. Ephron then replies with what is essentially the starting price. Like most products where haggling is expected, the starting price is very high. Ephron expects that Abraham would offer a lower price, and the haggling over the land would have begun.

But, here Abraham exits the cultural dance. Maybe it is because he is in mourning for his wife. Maybe Abraham understands that everything has been given to him by God, and God can do whatever he wants with his wealth. It is apparent that Abraham has no fear of being seen as weak in the negotiation. He has probably has been involved in enough dealings in the area that he knows Ephron understands him to be is a shrewd businessman. But here, Abraham is unwilling to haggle.

And so he pays the exorbitant price for the field. If there was one thing that Abraham wanted Ephron to understand, it was that times of stress would bring out the best and not the worst of the man of God. As an act of remembrance for his late wife Sarah, Abraham would act generously, and in this way set the example for all God-fearers who would read the story, and understand the cultural implications.  

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 24

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son … Genesis 22:15-16

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 13, 2018): Genesis 22

Sometimes we see the world emotionally. Maybe that is why we find that poetry and music have the intense ability to speak to us. They help us to encounter the world around us with our emotions instead of our senses. And the reality is that emotional truth is real truth for each one of us.

Maybe that explains Donald Trump better than anything else that I can write. He encounters the world emotionally. He speaks of the world in hyperbole, which is essentially the tool of poetry and our emotions. And so everything is the best, or the worst, which are the expressions of our emotions. I get frustrated when he speaks of immigration and says that “The Democrats,” those lowly servants of the evil empire, want to throw the doors open and welcome everyone into the beckoning arms of the United States. My problem is that I have never heard anyone say that there should be no limits to immigration, nor has any commander in chief ever proposed that, but then again I am speaking logically and not emotionally. Emotional language is never precise. It exaggerates freely in its effort to get the message across.

Here the angel of the Lord speaks emotionally. If I attempt to encounter this passage with logic and rationality, then the truth is that the angel lied. Did you catch the lie as you read the passage? I have to admit that I missed it until now. Here is the lie; Isaac is not the only son of Abraham. Ishmael is also the son of Abraham. Granted, Isaac is the son of promise and Isaac is the only son of Abraham’s beloved wife Sarah, but he is not the only son of Abraham.

And there would be other sons of other wives. But at this moment, Abraham has two sons, and the angel speaks emotionally about Isaac, calling him the only son. Isaac is the son that Abraham cares the most about, he is the one who God had promised and the one who would carry the promise of God forward. He was not the only son, but emotionally he may very well have been. Neither Ishmael nor the future sons of Abraham would ever take the place of Isaac, which meant that the possible sacrifice of Isaac was the hardest one for Abraham to make.

Critics have often asked how Abraham could even consider sacrificing his son. Traditionally, Rabbi’s have responded that such was Abraham’s faith. He knew that in the end, God would have another plan. By faith, he knew that there would be another sacrifice, or that Isaac would be raised from the dead after the sacrifice. After all, God had said that the promises made to Abraham would be continued through Isaac. If that was to happen, Isaac had to live. Abraham had faith that somehow God would find a way. He heard the emotional voice of God, not the rational one, and in faith believed that God saw a path forward that Abraham could not see.

He is still a God who continues to find a way – and one who is still willing to speak to us emotionally.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 23

Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” – Genesis 21:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 12, 2018): Genesis 21

Robert Frost insisted that “If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.” We need to laugh. We need to see the lighter side of life. When we don’t, things go terribly wrong. Reports emerged from the G7 meeting last month (June 2018) which make me want to laugh or cry. Laughing might be the healthier choice. Stories like the one where President Donald Trump tosses Starburst candies at German Chancellor Angela Merkel adding the comment “Don’t say I never give you anything” cause concern. I hope somebody laughed when it happened and celebrated the absurdity of the moment. Hopefully someday, looking back on the events of June 2018 G7 conference, we will be able to find the humor in the situation.

Originally, Sarah scoffed at the suggestion that she would bear a child in her old age. She didn’t believe that such a thing was possible. She laughed. And the angel who brought the message heard the laugh of Sarah. He repeated his prophecy of Sarah impending pregnancy and added that Abraham and Sarah would name their newborn son Isaac, a name which means “He laughs.” It was a gentle admonition that reflected Sarah’s unbelief.

But now, as Isaac is born, Sarah turns the name into an expression of joy. His name is Isaac because God has brought me laughter. And when my friends hear that an old woman has given birth to a son, they will laugh with me. The idea that a child could come from me is absurd and worthy of laughter.

The truth is that Sarah had had precious little to laugh about during the latter part of her life. She was childless. Therefore she was powerless to give her husband an heir that would come from her own body. Sarah probably didn’t laugh much. The bursts of jealousy between her and Hager and her son, Ishmael, might reflect that the situation was too much for her and was slowly causing her mental health issues. Sarah needs to laugh. Not a laugh of disbelief that she gave to the angel a year earlier, but a laugh that rocked her body and filled her soul with joy. And now, that was exactly what God had given to her – a son and the ability to really laugh.

So, when life greets you laugh. Laugh with the birth of your child. Laugh when a world leader throws candies at you. Laugh for no reason. After all, it is better than the alternative.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 22