This Torah portion is full of examples of what Bill Gothard called “Birth of a vision, death of a vision, and supernatural fulfillment of the vision.” It is a pattern we see over and over throughout redemption history, because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of YHWH”. What is merely natural could be explained away. But what is impossible can only be explained by taking YHWH into account when it actually does take place. Avraham’s own efforts to fulfill the vision crashed and burned, and his son had to later go through the same process of seeing that “the arm of flesh will fail you; ye dare not trust your own”. Later Avraham seems to have learned the lesson well, and he figuratively did receive the resurrection (see Hebrews 11:19) when he acted on what YHWH said despite all appearances to the contrary. Anything that is truly lasting has to be put to the ultimate test to prove that it can indeed survive the fire and will not be shaken in the final analysis. Thus it gives us even more confidence in the One for whom nothing is impossible. The Israel that results from a couple hopelessly beyond childbearing capacity is the counter-history that alone can accomplish the repair of the condition the world had come to be in. The pattern continues for us, as we surrender our own strengths and natural abilities so that they can be truly set apart to YHWH, He brings them back to life in a richer, fuller way like the seed that dies and becomes a magnificent tree full of hundreds of times more fruit. The shadow gives us a picture of the substance, but is only two-dimensional and cannot substitute for the real thing. What is not put to death in this way remains earthly, but when we, in obedience based on trust in the One who called us out of darkness, burn all bridges on which we rely so that we can somehow retain an escape hatch, what comes back to us is something that only YHWH can produce and His best as compared with our mediocre, fragmentary capacity, which has so many undesirable side effects, for “the blessing of YHWH makes rich, and He adds no grievous labor with it.” (Prov. 10:22)​

Portion VaYera'   
(And He appeared)
CHAPTER 18

1. Then YHWH appeared [yera'] to him by the oaks [belonging to]  Mamre while he was sitting at the opening of the tent around the hottest time of the day.

                    Mamre (who lived at Hevron) means "strength". Being at least 14 years after he 
                    had taken them to rescue Lot, a conservative estimate of the sons of 318 men 
                    would be that there were a total of 1,000 men and boys to circumcise. He 
                    needed strength!

                    2. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, there were three men standing                     near him! When he noticed [them], he ran from the entrance of the tent to                     meet them. He then bowed to the ground,

 If this appearance of YHWH was a vision, he now turned his attention back to this world. Based on this incident, the Talmud says hospitality to our fellow men is even more important than remaining at prayer. Avraham understands that the only way to fully see and love YHWH is to see and love one his fellow men.  In Jewish tradition (based firmly on Yasher 18:3), this took place the third day after he had been circumcised, when his pain would have been greatest (see 34:25), and now it was hot, yet he was still looking to see if there was anyone who needed hospitality. He ran, showing how eager he was to be hospitable. (See Lev. 19:33, 34) This also needs to be a strong trait for his descendants who are returning to the covenant that is even earlier than the one given at Sinai. (Lev. 19:9ff) He had been a wanderer and a stranger in many lands, and knew how important hospitality is. To this day, it is still the law among desert-dwellers that one offer hospitality even to one’s enemies, as this may be the only way they can remain alive.  

3. and he said, "My Masters, please, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass on from before your servant.

My Masters: He seems to have realized they were very important.  He had met Pharaoh and other kings, but did not give them this much honor. He even asks permission to serve them!

4. "Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

Wash your feet: a culturally important aspect of hospitality in an arid, dusty environment. He brings them under the shade of a big tree so they can relax and acclimate to a new climate.  

5. "And I will bring a piece of bread and refresh your heart. Then you may pass on, because this is why you have chosen to pass by your servant." So they said, "Yes, do as you have said."

Bread is not only a sustainer of life for travelers, but a picture of fellowship and unity. He says, "This is why it is me to whom you have come", because he can provide such community. Of course, he has more in mind than merely a small piece of bread. In Hebrew, lekhem can mean anything that can be consumed. This is an appetizer so they will not leave while he prepares the rest of the meal. He was prepared with food on hand to provide for unexpected guests. 

6. So Avraham ran into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Hurry, prepare three se’im of fine meal; knead it and make pitas."

Hurry: He responds quickly to the words of YHWH through His messenger. In 19:3 we see Lot serving them unleavened loaves, which can be made more hastily, and this is the reason unleavened bread is commanded on the first Passover--because the leavening process requires a long delay. He only promised them a snack, but prepared a feast. In a parable, Yeshua compares the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven that a woman hid in three measures of flour. (Matt. 13:3) Sarah is the only woman we see in Scripture preparing three measures of flour. So while Sarah did not literally leaven this bread, Yeshua added an element to the allegory: what we are to offer to our neighbors is the Kingdom. Three se’im make one eyfah (a dry measure equal to ten omers, each omer representing a person, Ex. 16:16, and ten of them making a full congregation, based on v. 32). The bread sustains one (v. 5) until "the Feast", which symbolizes the Kingdom, when all things are in readiness. Ephesians 4 also alludes to this "rebuilding the fallen Adam" through ministering to one another when it speaks of spiritual gifts enabling us to grow up into the "MEASURE of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah"--the complete Man, the Last Adam, of which we can each mystically become a part. This image, lost by Adam, began to be restored through Avraham, and is completed as we behold that likeness in the mirror of His word (Yaaqov/James 1:23) and are changed into the same image. (2 Cor. 3:18) We each contribute different aspects to the building up of this body; the chief among these attributes that characterized Avraham was his mercy. This passage is Yeshua’s authority to teach that “this bread is My body”.  

7. And Avraham ran to the herd and selected a calf, tender and appropriate, and gave it to the youth, and he hurried to prepare it.

He is still hurrying. The youth: possibly Yishmael, who also needed to be taught hospitality. And he learned well. Probably the reason this “wild man’s” descendants have not disappeared from the earth is because they excel at hospitality.  

8. Then he took the curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set them before them under the tree, and he stood by them while they ate.

The fact that Avram waited until all was ready to serve anything (except the bread to tide them over) calls into question the common view that Ex. 23:19; 34:26; and Deut. 14:21 mean that dairy products and meat should never be eaten together. (It is even clearer in Yasher 18:8 that he served butter and milk, beef and mutton, to them before the calf was ready!)  Gen. 26:5 says that Avraham kept all of YHWH's statutes, decrees, and instructions (toroth), so we know that what he did here does not conflict with the true intent of the Torah. The Renewed Covenant writers also place the milk before the meat, signifying that we need to learn the "letter" first (1 Peter 2:2), then go on to the greater maturity of being able to understand the "spirit" or the deeper intent (Rom. 7:6; 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12-13) by being able to carry the principles into other contexts as well. But the two should not be separated.

9. And they said to him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" And he said, "There, in the tent."

10. And he said, "I will certainly return to you at the time of life, and behold, a son shall be born to Sarah your wife." And Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, and it was behind him.

A nomadic host always hopes travelers to whom he provides hospitality will bring him news from the outside world, but this is more than he expected. Note the parallel in Elisha’s words. (2 Kings 4:16). 

11. Now Avraham and Sarah were aged, getting along in days, and the course of women had ceased for Sarah,

12. so Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have become old, will I still have pleasure—my master [also] being old?!"

We, too, are often surprised that YHWH does what He says he will do, though we said we believed it. Old: two different words are used here. Sarah was "worn out, used up, withered"--she could no longer bear children, presumably. Avraham, however, was only "aged"; he ended up having more children. (25:2) Pleasure: of having a child. But the Hebrew word is "Eden"! "After being withered, will I again have Eden?” Thus she speaks for the whole human race: the continuation of the line which was intended to reverse the damage done there now seemed unlikely, but hospitality opened the door for the reparation to begin, allowing Eden to indeed be possible again.

13. But YHWH said to Avraham, "Why did Sarah laugh at this, saying, 'Sure! Will I give birth—old woman that I am?'

14. "Is any thing too difficult for YHWH? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah will have a son."

"Appointed time" is a term used of the prescribed feast days of YHWH. This was an anniversary in advance of the Passover, the time of death for the Egyptians, but the time of life for those freed from them. 

15. But Sarah denied it, saying, "I didn't laugh!"—because she was afraid. But He said, "[That's] not [true], because you did laugh."

When YHWH was speaking to Avraham, Sarah heard it as well, so he was not off in a trance when he heard Him.

16. And the men got up from there and looked in the direction of S'dom. And as Avraham was going with them, to see them off,

A Bedouin host still escorts his guests to the edge of his territory as the final stage of his hospitality. Bedouins are descendants of Avraham and the wife he married after Sarah died, so they learned this practice from him.

17. YHWH said, "Can I hide what I am going to do from Avraham—

18. now that he is sure to become a great and numerous nation—him into whom all the nations of the earth shall be grafted?

He does nothing without revealing it to His prophets. (Amos 3:7) But it is as if YHWH felt He needed to justify to Avraham why He needed to destroy some of the peoples into whom his seed might potentially be grafted. Naturally, he would be likely to have mercy on them, so he needed to hear the whole counsel of why justice was needed. (v. 19)  

19. "Because I have come to know him, on account of the fact that he can command his sons and his household to follow him and keep the way of YHWH, to carry out righteousness and justice, in order that YHWH may bring upon Avraham that which He has spoken in regard to him."

YHWH could see he not only had the best intentions, but could actually succeed, because of the influence he had proven to have in making his servants willing to go through the painful procedure of circumcision without revolting against him.  

20. So YHWH said, "The outcry of S'dom and Ghamorah has become great, and their sin weighs exceedingly heavily.

Their sin: Not just their well-known perversion which formed the basis for the term "Sodomy". Y’hezq’el 16:49ff tells us that though they were well-fed and had an abundance of leisure, they did not help the poor and needy. In short, they did not show hospitality, in direct contrast with Avraham. A Midrash says they had made a pact not to entertain guests from outside, but only steal from them. They did not want anyone who was not rich to remain in the area, so they sodomized them to chase them away. (Lot was wealthy enough to seem beneficial to them.)

21. "I will go down now and see whether they have done everything that its outcry implies. And if not, I will know."

Every physical deed makes waves in the heavenlies as well, and there was so much spiritual wickedness emanating from this city that it called for YHWH's direct attention. Was the blood of the oppressed crying out? Or did Shem, who had to care for those whom these cities would not take care of, complain to YHWH about them? He had seen firsthand how helpful YHWH's punishment can sometimes be for the rest of the world.

22. So the men turned their faces from there and started walking toward S'dom, yet Avraham was still standing before YHWH.

Only two of the messengers arrived in S'dom, for, according to Rashbam, one was sent to rescue Lot and the other to destroy S’dom; the third had come to announce Sarah's conception, and thus would not need to continue on, but could remain behind as YHWH's special emissary.  

23. And Avraham came forward and said, "Will you really sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?

His first thought is of his “brother”. This is the first time a man is recorded as interceding in prayer on another's behalf. Noakh recognized YHWH's decision to judge was irreversible, but Avraham, as the spiritual "father of many nations", caught the hint of uncertainty in YHWH's pronouncement (v. 21) and took the occasion to remind Him to remember mercy. (Hoffman)

24. "What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Would You still sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people within it?

25. "It would be foreign to Your nature to do such a thing as this—to put the righteous to death along with the wicked, so that it will be the same for the righteous as for the wicked! Far be it from You! Shall the Judge of the whole earth not do justice?"

Foreign: or profaning. Yeshua echoed this theme when he spoke of leaving 99 sheep to rescue one.

26. So YHWH said, "If I find in S'dom 50 righteous people in the midst of the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account."

27. And Avraham responded by saying, "Here I am now, undertaking to speak to my Masters, though I am but dust and ashes!

My Masters: Heb., Adonai, which can also be a majestic-plural way to speak of YHWH alone, since the other masters have already left.

28. "Yet what if five be lacking from the 50 righteous? Will you destroy the whole city on account of these missing five?" And He said, "If I find 45 there, I will not destroy it." 

29. And he still continued to speak to Him, and said, "What if 40 be found there?" And He said, "I will not do it on account of the 40."

30. And he said, "Please do not let the Master be upset if I speak on: Might it be that there will be found 30 there...?" And He said, "I will not do it if I find 30."

31. And he said, "Look at me now—still undertaking to speak to Adonai! What if 20 will be found there?" And He said, I will not destroy it on account of the 20."

He would not utterly destroy, but He did not say He would not punish. Avraham knows he will be hard pressed to find so many righteous there, so he is not confident. Yet if one asks the questions, he will receive the truth: there are far fewer righteous than he expected. Do not ask if you are not ready to face the facts. 

32. And he said, "Do not let my Master be upset if I speak only this once more: Maybe if...ten...will be found there...?" So He said, "On account of ten, I will not destroy it." 

Ten was the bare minimum, for it symbolizes a whole congregation. He will not spare for anything less than a righteous congregation. Being individually righteous does not count for as much as a unified righteousness.  From this came the custom of ten being a quorum, or "minyan", for a public prayer.  

33. And when He had finished speaking to Avraham, YHWH left, and Avraham returned to his place.  

YHWH had promised not to destroy the whole earth again, but localized judgments are sometimes necessary. If He had not destroyed these cities, many of Avraham’s descendants would undoubtedly have been led astray by their influence. He does not wish for anyone to perish, but people make that choice for themselves. Lot was not enough. If Lot had really been in S’dom to make students rather than just for the sake of wealth, there would have been more than ten righteous there. Yet YHWH did not destroy these cities merely on the basis of hearsay, but went to investigate. We cannot just write anything off with a broad brush, for there are some precious things preserved among what is otherwise worthless. But we must test each thing to see what is real.  


CHAPTER 19 

[Year 2047 / 1953 BCE]

1. Two of the messengers arrived in S'dom at evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of S'dom. When Lot saw them, he rose up to meet them, and bowed his face to the earth. 

Sitting in the gate: where a city's elders and judges assembled to discuss legal issues, conducted town business, or even decided which traders would be let into the city. Not just anyone could walk past the gates; they had to be screened. This in itself was a form of judgment. Having camped near the evil city, he has now been sucked into not just living in it, but being one of its leaders. He may have been given an honorary position because his uncle had rescued all its townspeople; in any case he was respected as someone capable of judging matters, but he was in the wrong place. He had ceased to be a tent-dweller (as Avraham was, symbolic of one who has to trust YHWH for protection against his enemies). He could afford to let others care for his flocks and herds, and thus he could live in the city. Tent-dwellers expect to move on, and part of that expectation is the understanding that they must help others who are also doing so. Though he still knew YHWH, he had moved here because of wealth, and due to its influence on him he trusted in the “insurance” of the city. Bowed his face (literally, nostrils) to the earth: in lavish Middle Eastern hospitality. But the very fact that he was at the gates during “non-business hours” suggests that, like Avraham, he was there specifically for the purpose of seeking someone to whom he could offer hospitality. He had left Avram before his camp was circumcised, so he was not part of that covenant, but he had not lost Avram’s influence completely.

2. And he said, "Behold now, my masters, please turn in at your servant's house, and find lodging, and wash your feet, then you can rise early and go your way. But they said, "No, [that's okay], we can spend the night in the open [square]." 

Being in a walled city, they had a general expectation of being treated “civilly”. One would not want to create the impression of wanting to impose on anyone. It was somewhat of a cultural game, still common among the Arab and Bedouin descendants of Avraham, to pretend to reject an offer the first two times, even if one had the intention of ultimately accepting it, to see whether the offer is really serious. If it is offered the third time, one commonly accepts the offer. Since these men had no obvious wealth, he knew the S’domites would thus demand of them whatever they did have.  

3. But he pushed them, so they turned aside to him, and came into his house. He made a feast for them, and baked unleavened cakes, and they ate. 

Knowing the city's reputation, he knew that if they survived a night in the square of this particular town, it would not be without a brush with the city’s disgusting practices. Note the additional Passover themes--unleavened bread as a precursor of the urgency with which the messengers would drive them out (see v. 15 below), as Pharaoh did, and a messenger of death. Many such catastrophes occurred throughout history on the anniversary of Passover (see note on v. 24 below). Ate: compare the messenger who was sent to Shimshon’s parents. (Judges 13:16) Though the Hebrew word for messenger can also mean “angel”, over and over these are called “men”, and the root meaning of this word in Hebrew is “mortal”.  

4. They had not yet lain down when the men of the city, S'domites, surrounded the house, from the young to the elderly--all the men from every quarter! 

Note how complete the wickedness of the city was. They were all in one accord, but for the wrong reasons. This underscored the fact that indeed there were by no means “ten righteous” there.  

5. And they called out to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them." 

Know them: not in the sense of acquaintance, but as Adam “knew” his wife; note the parallel in Judges 19:22ff.  

6. But Lot went out to them at the entrance, and shut the door behind him, 

He should have known better, but up to this point, they, being “polite” as dwellers in close quarters must be, still had some respect for one’s private space. And he thought he had “earned a hearing” with them, so he treated them as better than they deserved:  

7. and he said, "My brothers, please do not act wickedly. 

Targum Neofiti says Lot’s wife was a daughter of this city, so in that sense they were literally his brothers-in-law. But they were also like-minded in their pursuit of wealth; the reason the city had been attacked 13 years earlier was because it was so rich. And what we are after will determine who our brothers are. At the moment his goals were not the same as theirs, but he lived there because he sought security like they did. Lot was trying to walk the fence between two opposing worldviews that can never coexist peacefully. He feels he has become accepted as one of them, hoping his influence will be enough to persuade them to straighten out and do the right thing. But it never works for one who is attached to Avraham to also be attached to the wicked. By this point, Lot was simply in the wrong place. It drove him to an unimaginable depth of compromise:

8. "Here, now, I have two daughters who have never known a man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you see fit, but do nothing to these men, because this is why they came under [the shadow of] my roof. 

They were probably betrothed but not yet fully married. (v. 14) Not that he took his daughters' virginity (and probably their lives) lightly. Rather, it shows how seriously he took his hospitality; this was an extreme, last-ditch effort to dissuade them from doing something far worse. In Middle Eastern hospitality, once someone comes "under one's roofbeam", he is responsible to protect them at any cost. If a guest died in your household, his family had a legitimate blood libel against you. These city dwellers saw things in the opposite way: “If you come within our gates, you had better have something to offer us!” They were only hospitable to those who could pay them back.  But his commitment to hospitality, though strong, is out of context. After being away from Avraham for so long, his own descendants lost the trait of hospitality, and for this reason YHWH forbade them from ever becoming part of His people. (Deut. 23:3-5)  

9. But they said, "Stand back!" They also said, "The guy came to sojourn among us, and he's been judging and judging us! For that, we'll do evil to you instead of to them!" And they pressed so hard against Lot that they came close to breaking down the door. 

Those who seem tolerant of anything will change as soon as you hold them to a standard. As soon as he stood in the way of their desires, they brought up the fact that (although he had a position of authority in the city) he was really not one of them after all. Many remain in such untenable situations because they feel that they are the only thing that is keeping their friends out of trouble. But these people have rejected the idea of closed doors already. All they want to do is make Lot just like them.  

10. But the men put out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with themselves, and shut the door. 

Shutting the door behind one would be yet another characteristic of Passover, adding yet another confirmation that this was the season. Lot wanted to be “out among the people” who needed what he had to teach. But the messengers of YHWH brought in the only one who was supposed to be inside that house. 

11. Then they struck the men at the door to the house with sudden blindness, from the small to the great, and they tired themselves out trying to find the entrance. 

These are people whom Avraham had rescued, and thus symbolize those who have been offered salvation through Yeshua, but, having been used to the less strict Gentile ways, find his lifestyle too difficult and thus decide to compromise, building a house to their own liking instead of continuing to search for the narrow gate. (Luke 13:23-30) Normally YHWH wants us to give sight to the blind. But in season these men needed power to blind them. The timing may have coincided with the discharge  of some of the noxious gases that would soon ignite, and this may have been the physical cause of their blindness. If we always see YHWH's heroic messengers as supernatural beings, we will use this as an excuse to not even take up any responsibility to bring about His work in the earth.

12. And the men said to Lot, "Who do you still have here? Bring your sons and sons-in-law and daughters out of this place, and whoever in the city belongs to you, 

While only Lot was required to leave (v. 22), others were offered the choice. Moshe (the Torah) and Eliyahu (the spirit of the one who restores all things) have come to take us out of the lawless system as well.

13. "because we are about to destroy this place, since their outcry is great before YHWH, and YHWH has sent us to destroy it. 

14. So Lot went out to speak with his sons-in-law—those [who were] taking his daughters [as wives], and said, "Get up and leave this place, for YHWH is about to destroy the city!" But to his sons-in-law he seemed as if he were playing a prank. 

Now that the citizens of S'dom were all blind, he could leave the house undetected. Even this long ago, people who said, "the end is near" were not taken seriously.

15. Then when the dawn came up, the messengers urged Lot on, saying, "Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who have been found, so that you won't be consumed along with the perversity of the city!" 

Dawn: at another Passover, the Israelites stayed indoors until the sun rose, then left Egypt. Like that Passover some 400 years later, there are messengers of death, and the righteous hesitate to leave until driven out:

16. But he hesitated, so the men took hold of his hand and his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters—YHWH having mercy on him--and they brought him out, and didn't let them go until they got outside of the city. 

This was real love; if He had let them hesitate it would have proved He did not really care about their welfare. Even the righteous had to be dragged away. There were not enough hands for more to be rescued.

17. And as they were bringing them outside, he said, "Take care to save your lives by all means! Don't look behind you, and don't stop anywhere in the plain. Flee to the mountain, or else you'll be consumed!" 

Don't look back: Possibly the flash of conflagration would blind them too, but she should also have no regrets about leaving a place that had become so evil. There is no room for such deadly nostalgia. Concerning Babylon, we are also told, "Come out of her… lest you participate in her sin and be taken away by her plagues." (Rev. 18:4) They were to get as far away as they could, because the destruction would be bigger than just the two cities. They could only be safe if they left before it began. If you bide your time, it may be too late when you finally decide it is time to go—like the five foolish virgins. (Mat. 25:1ff)  

18. But Lot said, "Please, not that, Masters! 

“We have already tried living with Avraham; I’m glad to be away from this evil influence, but now it’s just You and us. I don’t want to ascend. Avraham is in a war camp. I just want a place of safety.” But Lot now has no possessions to cause strife with Avraham, and going back would allow him to learn much more about righteousness.  

19. "Here now your servant has found pity in Your sight, and you have been magnanimous in your mercy, which you have shown me by saving my life. But I can't escape to the mountain, because the evil might overtake me and I'd die from it! 

He may have thought enemies would attack him if he went back to living in a tent like Avraham, where there is no natural protection; one must trust YHWH directly. Lot, though righteous, was not ready for that level of faith.

20. “There's a city over here close enough to flee to, and it is a tiny one. Please let me find refuge there—it is just a little one, isn't it?—in order that my soul may survive!” 

He did not understand the gravity of the matter. He probably thought that living in a smaller town might not be as spiritually detrimental as the big city. He still wanted the security of numbers. Yet YHWH’s presence is the only true security. Judging by where his descendants ended up dwelling, he chose to run to the other side of the Rift, even further from Avraham.

21. So He said to him, "All right, I have granted you consideration even as far as this thing you ask; I won't overturn this city. 

It is a dangerous thing when He lets us have our way. Lot would have a high price to pay for insisting on this.  

22. "But hurry, escape to there, because I cannot do anything until you have arrived there." So the city was named Tsoar.

Tsoar means "Tiny" or "insignificant"; "a trifle", or "petty". YHWH had provided the deliverance, but he chose a smaller measure of obedience. He chose to go from a position of authority in a city which, though evil, even Heaven recognized, to being a peon in a town where he could influence no one, just so he could be safe, when he could have joined Avraham and become truly great. 

23. The sun had risen on the land when Lot came into Tsoar. 

This was later than the dawn, because the eastern horizon here consists of the wall of a very high plateau, appearing like mountains. YHWH also does His work in broad daylight, not stealthily. (Contrast Luke 22:53)  

24. Then YHWH rained on S'dom and Ghamorah brimstone—fiery brimstone of YHWH, moreover—from out of the sky. 

There is evidence of enough springs and rivulets being here in the past to have supported thriving civilizations. But where oil and asphalt are abundant (14:10) there will also be highly-flammable gases. The volcanic activity in this area ignited a pocket of them and caused the 
                whole plain to explode open, and the salt and brimstone thrown into the sky rained                 back down. Patten, Hatch, and Steinhauer cite evidence that a close flyby of Mars 
                (which then had an orbit that overlapped earth's and came "shockingly" close every 
                108 years) packed enough gravitational pull to swing the earth's axis so quickly that 
                the equatorial bulge (earth's diameter being 26 miles longer there than at the poles) 
                had to shift location so rapidly that it simply tore a perpendicular gash in the 
                earth's crust--the Great Rift Valley, which stretches form Syria to Zimbabwe. 
                Asteroid showers also often accompany such events. (See Y’hoshua 10.) Matching geologic strata on the two escarpments and the valley between them show that this whole segment of the valley sank down, so that it is now the lowest point on the earth's surface, and its end dammed the Yarden/Jordan River, so all it could now do was fill in the 40-mile long crater that is now the mineral-rich but lifeless lake we call the Dead Sea. The Arabs still call it "Lot's Lake". The deepest gash was filled in by Josephus' day. He said it was caused by a “thunderbolt”, which was typical of the electrical discharges between Mars and Earth while their paths still crossed every 54 years until 701 B.C.E. The dimensions he gives--and the fact that a road then crossed the valley near Matzada (Masada), giving the stronghold a strategic location--show that spillover that filled the much shallower southern section of the Sea did not come until much later. (It now averages only 13 ft. in depth, while the northern part reaches 13,000 ft.) Salt-caked trees were visible beneath the water in the 19th century, when the level was still low enough for there to be islands and fords.

25. And He overturned those cities, and all of the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the produce of the ground. 

                                        Produce: Targum Onqelos has “vegetation”. This was why he had                                         brought his flocks here to start with. Now it was gone, so he had no 
                                        excuse not to return to Avraham. But he had become used to making 
                                        his own decisions rather than following the orders of someone he 
                                        might not have wished to admit was greater. And now the crater 
                                        made it even harder to get back to where Avraham was.

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

Rather than looking ahead to where she was going, she was more concerned about what she had lost. She may have just wanted one last look at all she had known. Her children had been born there; maybe she had too. But placing too much importance on the things we are used to can be another form of idolatry; it was time to rise above the natural and seek the best instead of the merely acceptable.  

27. Now Avraham had risen up early in the morning [and gone] to the place where he had stood there before YHWH. 

Morning liturgical prayers ask for the return of the exiles to the one camp. While Lot's hospitality might have been enough to mark him for rescue, it took Avraham's prayers (Yaaqov/James 5:16) for the messengers to drag him out.

28. And he gazed toward S'dom and Ghamorah, and toward the whole surface of the land of the plain, and he saw it, for indeed, the smoke from the earth rose like the smoke of a kiln.

Asphalt such as filled this valley (14:10) causes tar-filled smoke. Compare Rev. 18, in which Babylon’s sins also reach to Heaven, two witnesses are sent, and the city’s smoke goes up forever.

29. Thus when Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain, Elohim kept Avraham in mind, and sent Lot out from the overthrow when overturning the cities in which Lot had settled. 

Elohim: the name emphasizing YHWH’s judgment. He had some mercy on the city where Lot lived because of Lot, but the other cities may have been deserving of nothing but judgment. Overturning: probably the reason the remains of these cities has not been found; they are likely deep beneath the lake’s surface.  Others think they may be hidden in plain sight, just turned into what look like natural rock formations by the intense heat--but the 90-degree angles are too regular to not be man-made city walls (Ron Wyatt):









30. Now Lot went up out of Tsoar and lived in the mountains, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Tsoar. So he and his two daughters dwelt in the cave. 

Lot finally goes where he knew he should have gone at first, but with heavy losses already. But he left because of fear (probably thinking Tsoar, too, would be destroyed) rather than spontaneous obedience. This is just one case proving that "cavemen" are often not pre-civilized, but post-civilized outcasts who became diseased and their facial muscles distorted by the stress of gnawing uncooked food. (Custance)  They sank into more primitive conditions, having the vestiges of technology but lacking the pooled resources of populated areas. 

31. And the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come into us as is the manner of all the earth! 

32. "Come on, let's get our father to drink wine, then let's lie with him, so we can preserve our father's seed." 

33. So they got their father drunk with wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father, but he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. 

34. And it was on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, "Look here: last night I lay with our father; let's go in and drink wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him, so that between the two of us we can be sure to keep our father's seed alive." 

35. So they got their father drunk that night too, and the younger rose up and lay with him, but he did not notice it when she lay down, nor when she got back up. 

Noakh recognized what had taken place when he got up, but Lot was even fooled the second time.

36. And both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. 

They acted stealthily since such a righteous man (2 Keyfa/Peter 2:7) would be unlikely to participate in seeming incest, but they probably really thought they were the only human beings left alive on the earth (v. 31), and thus there was no other way of preserving the race. At the least, there was no man for many miles around, so in a levirate manner, their intention was to preserve his seed in particular. Still, they did it their own way rather than waiting on YHWH for the best way, and their progeny later became an annoyance to their distant relatives. (Deut. 23:3f) Had Lot taken his daughters to Avraham’s camp, they could have found wonderful husbands. 

37. And the firstborn bore a son and named him Moav ["from Father"]; he is the tribal ancestor of the Moav of today. 

Moav's territory was the mountains southeast of the Dead Sea. The Moavites were significant enough by the day of Egypt's Raamses the Great that he boasted of having conquered them.  

38. And the younger also bore a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi ["a son of my people"], and he is the ancestor of the Sons of Ammon to this day. 

Ammon: a name they probably chose for themselves, because it means “the great people”. The evidence that they inhabited the region north of Moav is carried on in the name of Jordan's capital (Amman) to THIS day.  


​CHAPTER 20 

[Year 2048 / 1952 B.C.E.]

1. Avraham then moved from there to the land of the Negev, and was settling between Qadesh and Shur. When he was sojourning in Gerar,

Moved: Literally, pulled up tent stakes. He was not "nailed down" as Lot had been. He moved partly because YHWH had given him the general command to walk throughout the length and breadth of the land. (13:17) Though he had received the promise here, he needed to keep moving through every aspect of his inheritance to see the covenant fully come to pass. Though he was responsible for hundreds of people, he was still ready to move when YHWH told him to. It is the wicked who say they will never be moved. (Psalm 10:3-6) After each move, momentous events took place, and YHWH wanted him to see from many different points of view so he could gain more complete understanding. He would also move on when his sheep had exhausted the pasture wherever he was camped. Negev: Israel's large southern region, now a desert. Gerar: halfway between ‘Azzah (Gaza) and Be'er-sheva'. Qadesh means "set apart", and Shur means "a wall". So he is between two types of separation. He has rejected the security of walled cities, but is establishing his security in YHWH, built not of stone but of walking in His instruction. Gerar means "a lodging place", but one form of the same word means "to chew the cud"--one of the signs of a clean animal and an idiom for meditating on YHWH's word--thinking on it over and over to get the full insight into all it can mean. (Y'hoshua 1:8) This is how Avraham maintained this equilibrium.

2. Avraham said [with regard] to his wife, Sarah, "She is my sister." So Avimelech, the king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. 

While people would often kill a man for his wife, they might befriend a brother, hoping to win her through his consent as her protector. Avraham had used this tactic with Pharaoh (chapter 12). He had also just seen evidence that very few people are actually righteous, but will tend to follow their flesh, so he overreacts to that knowledge. Avimelech’s name means "My father is a king"--a Hebrew name, so he may have been a descendant of Shem, but not in Avraham's immediate family. Sarah must still have been very beautiful at 90, but kings often looked to make a treaty with someone as powerful as Avraham by marrying into his family.  

3. But Elohim came to Avimelech by night in a dream, and said to him, "Watch out! You are a dead man because of the woman you have taken, since she is married to a husband.” 

Even if he knew her only once, a permanent psychological connection would be formed, and even if she were then returned to Avraham, the purity of the mother of all Israel would have forever been lost. YHWH later required the priests to marry only virgins unless they were widows, and the one in line to be high priest was not even permitted to marry a widow, for he had to be as pure as possible (Lev. 21). In our day of loose standards, it is harder to sense the impact defilement has on a people. Such standards seem unrealistically strict, but it only shows how far we have come from a real understanding of holiness.

4. But Avimelech had not come near her, so he said, "O Adonai, will You kill off a righteous nation as well? 

A righteous nation: unlike the cities of the plain. He knew who had destroyed them, and is claiming to bear no resemblance to them. Knowing Avraham was a prophet, Avimelech may have seen him as the agent who had dispatched the destruction of S'dom and Ghamorah, and feared the same would become of his people. So he uses the same prayer pattern that Avraham had used in regard to those cities. As this is taking place just before Sarah conceived (21:1), it must be about the time of Shavuoth, which commemorates the Torah being offered to other nations as well, and the glad news of the Kingdom going out in many languages. (Acts 2) 

5. "Didn't he tell me, 'She is my sister?' And she herself even said, 'He is my brother'. In the integrity of my heart and the purity of my hands I have done this." 

6. And Elohim said to him, "Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart, and I Myself also held you back from sinning against Me; that is why I did not give you the occasion to touch her. 

YHWH acknowledges that his intentions were right, but this did not suffice to make him blameless.  

7. "But now, return the man's wife to him, because he is a prophet, and he can intercede for you, and you will survive. But if you do not give her back, be advised that you will die for sure—you and all that belong to you." 

Intercede: This word means to pray as a mediator, but with a sense of discriminating or judging. This is the only time Avraham is called a prophet, but YHWH said it, so once is enough.  Even one with the best intentions has to be on the right terms with the prophet to be in the right relationship with YHWH. His “hands are tied” until Avraham himself determines Avimelekh can be spared. Though he is the leader of a righteous nation, he has no covenant, and must be under the covering of one to whom it belongs. Even his land is promised to Avraham, so if he wants to survive, he must be a friend of Avraham.  

8. So Avimelech got up early in the morning and called for all of his servants, and spoke all of these words in their ears. And the people were very frightened. 

9. Then Avimelech called for Avraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? And what have I done to wrong you, that made you bring such a great sin upon me and my people? You have done things to me that should never be done!" 

While asking forgiveness, he also rebukes Avraham at the same time, because he has acted foolishly by having less concern for the welfare of a righteous nation than he had for the wicked ones.

10. Avimelech also said to Avraham, "What did you see, that made you do this thing?" 

11. So Avraham said, "Because I thought, ‘There is certainly no fear of Elohim in this place, and they will kill me for my wife.’" 

It was an honest mistake, but unrealistic nonetheless; there was in fact more fear of Elohim here than Avraham expected.  

12. "And then again, she really is my sister, too—a daughter of my father, but not a daughter of my mother, and she also became my wife. 

He also finds a loophole that makes his statement a half-truth rather than an outright lie. It is not necessarily the case that his father was polygamous; he could have assumed the levirate position of husband to his brother's widow, and therefore become her adopted father, or have had a daughter in the process of trying to raise up a son to carry on his brother's name. As a foster-sister who had grown up under the same roof, they would easily have known they were compatible enough to marry. Every brother in his society also had a special duty to protect the sister nearest him in age. (cf. Lev. 21:3) Yet Avraham’s actions here seem like another example of using natural methods to try to guarantee that a spiritual promise will be fulfilled. It backfired on him yet again. Out of fear he only claimed her as sister, not as wife. She is supposed to be viewed as Avraham’s companion in the context of YHWH’s covenant, in which she plays a pivotal part, since the seed of promise is to come through her. (17:21) He could not fulfill the covenant if she remained in another context. Since he does not put her in her rightful place, another, who does not know this, sees the obvious benefit in having this connection with her. YHWH wanted her returned from the household of the “king’s son” to that of the prophet. As such, what is she a picture of? The prophet’s companion is always the Torah. Because some of his descendants claimed only a loose connection to the Torah, saying it was fine to have as a sister but too demanding as a wife, the righteous Gentiles have tried to use it to make it serve their goals, but YHWH will not let it uphold their approach to righteousness. The Torah must be in the context of the covenant with Avraham. Those who have claimed authority over it (whether Christianity or Rabbinic Judaism) must release it back to its original context. YHWH wants us to be not just his servant but His bride. (R. Webster) 

13. "And when Elohim caused me to wander from my father's home, I told her, 'Let this be your kindness that you do for me: in any place to which we come, say of me there, "He is my brother".'" 

This tradition was motivated by fear, and it almost got a righteous nation killed. He was following a “policy” too strictly rather than walking in the promises YHWH had already given him, which he knew to be true. Since he did not get the point the first time that he should trust YHWH instead, YHWH repeats the lesson with much greater clarity.

14. Avimelekh took sheep, oxen, and male and female slaves, and gave them to Avraham, and he gave his wife Sarah back to him. 

15. Then Avimelech said, "Here, my land is before you. Live wherever you please." 

Part of the Promised Land is made available to Avraham even within his lifetime. 

16. But to Sarah he said, "I—mark my words—I have given your 'brother' a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is a covering of the eyes for you, to all who are with you, and to everyone you are thus cleared." 

"Covering of the eyes": a compensation that diverts people’s attention from a wrong that has been done so one who has “lost face” can have his honor restored. Cleared: Vindicated; i.e., “Everyone knows it was my mistake, not your decision.” The Torah may have brought our unrighteousness to the surface, but this is no fault of its own. (Romans 7:7-14)

17. So Avraham prayed to Elohim, and He healed Avimelech, his wife, and his concubines, and they [were able to] give birth

18. (because YHWH had completely restrained every womb of the household of Avimelech because of Sarah, Avraham's wife). 

It may have been in part as a reward to Avraham for his compassion in considering their plight that his own wife's lifelong infertility ended just then. (21:1) Avraham himself was granted continuance. 


CHAPTER 21 

1. Then YHWH looked after Sarah as He had said He would; indeed, YHWH did for Sarah as He had promised. 

Avraham finally “confessed his wife before men”, admitting that she did not merely have the same father, but she was his beloved, and she was able to be fruitful. When he did not, the fruitfulness of another righteous people was diminished. (20:17-18) The Torah (which Sarah represents as the prophet’s closest associate) does not belong to them, but if we do not put it in its proper place, others will try to to block even our access to it. We should have no apologies for the Torah, for it is YHWH’s idea, not our own. 

2. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Avraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which Elohim had told him. 

Appointed time: or “rehearsal”; the term often refers to one of the festivals mandated by YHWH. In this case, it is Passover. (See notes on 18:5-6) So this interlude in Gerar had taken approximately two or three months, so that the son was born at the same time of year the messengers had come to Avraham. (17:21) We, too, as her descendants, must be “in season”.

3. And Avraham named the son who was born to him (whom Sarah had borne to him) Yitzhaq. 

4. Avraham circumcised his son Yitzhaq when he was eight days old, as YHWH had commanded him. 

Avraham did not invent circumcision; an Egyptian priestly caste was practicing it four centuries before him, and Herodotus says it was for the purpose of cleanliness. Many other ancient peoples practiced it, but most circumcised a boy at puberty as a rite of passage, but an Israelite’s lifelong purpose is fruitfulness. If the parents waited until the bar mitzvah to bring him into the covenant, the child would have ample time to choose a different lifestyle. What was unique with the Hebrews is infant circumcision (which is why Moshe could be immediately recognized as a Hebrew baby) and the fact that it is a sign of the covenant. (17:10-14; Ex. 12:44-48; compare Ex. 4:24-26)  

5. And Avraham was 100 years old when his son Yitzhaq was born to him. 

Part of the significance of telling us his age is that in 17:16, the word for the "kings" that were to come forth from Sarah has the numeric value of 100 in Hebrew. So does the phrase "could have told" in verse 7 below. YHWH intervened by having him born when it seemed too late, so that no one could doubt that the resulting nation was not just an accident but something directly created by YHWH.  It was on time (v. 2), but every season takes preparation; we cannot pick the fruit if we have not planted the tree ahead of time. 

6. And Sarah said, "Elohim has made laughter for me; all who hear about it will laugh with me!" 

Laughter: related to the name “Yitzhaq”.  As Michael Card sings, “They called him ‘laughter’, for he came after the Father had made an impossible promise come true…No other name would do!”

7. And she said, "Who could have told Avraham that Sarah would nurse children? —because I have borne a son to him in his old age!" 


[Year 2050 / 1950 B.C.E.]

8. When the child had grown and was weaned, Avraham made a great feast on the day Yitzhaq was weaned. 

Feast: not the same word used for the holy convocations and appointments of YHWH; the word is rather based on "to drink". So Yishmael's actions below may have been affected by drinking too much. Weaned: the book of Maccabees says it would have been around the age of three years. 

9. But Sarah noticed the son of Hagar the Egyptian jeering at Yitzhaq, 

Jeering: the same word for “laughing” (like Yitzhaq’s name), but in its intensive form, i.e., he was making fun of him. Sarah said everyone would laugh with her, but Yishmael was laughing when she was not. He was laughing AT Yitzhaq, possibly out of a sense of superiority as the bigger son (now between 14 and 16 years old), when Yitzhaq was still a stumbling toddler. He was not glad about Yitzhaq or upholding him, or showing the proper respect for one whose equal he could never be. A "wild ass of a man" he was proving to be (16:12) An alternate reading is that he was simply playing with Yitzhaq, indicating that Yitzhaq had become attached to him and would be influenced by his Egyptian mother’s ways, of which Sarah did not approve.  

10. And she said to Avraham, "Drive away this slave-girl and her son, for the son of the slave-girl shall not be a rival with my son—with Yitzhaq—for the inheritance. 

Slave-girl: though legally married to Avraham as well, she was still Sarah's slave. Sarah does not even mention her or her son by name. She was Egyptian, and though she lived in the camp of Avraham, she had not become a Hebrew like Avraham; she still carried Egypt in her heart. Yishma’el was meant to have been adopted by Sarah (16:2), but his mother. In her arrogance, Hagar (who by tradition was Pharaoh’s own daughter) apparently had not allowed him to grow close to Sarah. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan calls him “the boy who abandoned the training you gave him”.  

11. But this matter was an intensely crushing blow in Avraham's eyes, since [Yishmael was, after all] his son. 

Crushing blow: denotes something that made him shudder. His compassionate heart was exposed immediately. But this time it would stand in the way of the covenant if he followed it. The Hebrew word for “son” comes from “building stone”, and occasionally stones that endanger the rest of the house must be removed. (Lev. 14:34-55)

12. Nevertheless, Elohim said to Avraham, "Don't see this as a distressing matter on account of the lad and your handmaid; all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice, because in Yitzhaq shall your seed be called. 

Only offspring through Yitzhaq would be considered Avraham’s true heirs. Thus the Arabs have no claim to the land of Israel except by Israel’s permission to dwell as sojourners there under its laws. YHWH knows better what the outcome of allowing Yishma’el to remain would be, and though we would naturally regard such an action as cruel, if it is YHWH’s word, we must trust that He knows what He is doing. He is warned not to miss the joy that is meant to come of this.  

13. "But I will also make the son of the slave-girl into a nation, since he is [after all] your offspring [too]." 

YHWH considered him Avraham’s as well, and thus deserving of a decent life, but did not count him as his “son” in the sense of an heir to the covenant.  

14. So Avraham got up early in the morning, got some bread and a skin full of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she left and wandered in the desert of Be'er-Sheva. 

Got up early: He wasted no time before obeying, not even dragging his feet to do a job that was distasteful to him. Yishma’el was old enough to be responsible for himself, and thus Avraham had fulfilled his responsibility to him. Be'er-Sheva is 28 miles southwest of Hevron, and east of Gerar, and is Israel’s fourth-largest city today.  

15. When the water from the skin ran out, she put the boy under one of the shrubs. 

16. And she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, because she said, "Don't let me see the boy's death." So she sat opposite [him] and raised her voice and wept.

A bowshot: up to 500 meters.

17. And Elohim heard the voice of the lad, and the messenger of Elohim called out of the heavens to Hagar, and he said to her, "What is troubling you, Hagar? Do not be afraid, because Elohim has heard the voice of the lad right where he is. 

Elohim has heard: Heb., Yish’ma Elohim. (Note the word play on her son's name.) Apparently he, too, called to YHWH on his own, because he, rather than she, was the one he responded to, possibly because he had a part in Avraham, while she did not. Elohim: The angel does not refer to Him as YHWH to her, only as the Mighty Judge. To the extent that we walk after the flesh, we are Yishma’el, and must be judged by the Torah. Inasmuch as we walk in confidence that the Father loves us and has chosen us, and thus do not need to mock others or put them down to build ourselves up, we are Yitzhaq (5:17), and are thus not repressed by the Torah (5:18), but find it a joyful thing, for it lets us know what our Father is like, and what He is making us into as well.  

18. "Get up, pick up the lad and keep your hand firm upon him, because I will make a great nation of him." 

Muslims consider Yishma’el to be the ancestor of one sixth of them.

19. And Elohim opened her eyes, and she noticed a well of water, and she went over and filled the skin with water, and gave the young lad a drink. 

Avraham, who was known for his generous hospitality, did not give her more water than she could carry on her shoulder. He knew this well (the Be'ersheva of v. 14) was there; in fact, he had dug it himself. (v. 30)

20. And Elohim was with the lad, and he grew up and lived in the desert, and became an accomplished archer. 

Lived in the desert: most of his descendants have as well. His bow has protected the Temple Mount from further desecration of the type the Crusaders had begun, and we can learn more about the ancient ways of life so common to Avraham and his earliest descendants from Yishma’el than from any other source. There is more in them to honor than there is in Constantine and the popes, but today they are also pointing their bow at the Land in very fierce ways. Thankfully, there is a third way that is better than both: the way of Yitzhaq’s son Israel.

21. Now he lived in the Desert of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 

Desert of Paran: near Eilath at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, the east fork of the Reed Sea. She had him marry back into Egypt—a parallel with those who use what they receive from Avraham to serve the purposes of the flesh (selfishness or personal security). Yishmael's descendants are three parts Khamitic and only one part Semitic. That is, they incline more to the Egyptian way than the way of Avraham.

22. At that time, Avimelekh and Fikhol, the general of his army, spoke to Avraham, saying, "Elohim is with you in everything you do. 

Avimelekh's name means "My father is a king”. This is a foreshadowing of the days when men from every nation will take hold of the tzitziyoth of a Jew and say, "We will go with you, since we have heard Elohim is with you."

23. "So please swear to me here by Elohim that you will not deal falsely with me, or my son, or my heir. In keeping with the kindness which I have sworn to you, do for me and for the land in which you have sojourned." 

Not deal falsely: Avraham had told him a half-truth that endangered him, so he wanted to be sure this would not take place again.  

24. And Avraham said, "I will swear to do so." 

Avraham knows he represents a righteous nation, and will not profane the house. But because of this request, Avraham’s descendants could not inherit his land until after at least his son, or possibly even grandson, had died.  

25. But Avraham reprimanded Avimelekh in regard to a well of water that Avimelekh's servants had seized. 

26. But Avimelekh said, "I don't know who did this thing, and furthermore, you had never told me about it, nor did I ever hear of it until today." 

The Hebrew word for “well” is be’er, from the verb ba’ar, meaning “to explain or clarify”.  It is specifically called a “well of water”(v. 25), which would seem redundant unless we recognize the symbolism. Water is often a picture of the Torah, or YHWH’s word in the broader sense. This "righteous nation" had once taken control of Sarah (who here pictured the Torah), but all of his fruitfulness was cut off at that time, so he did not try that again, but now his underlings are taking control of the interpretation of the Word of YHWH. They seized the right to explain what it “really means”, saying it is all spiritual, and is deadly if you actually practice it. Avraham demands it back, because these explanations are wrong. If the Church can control the doctrines, they can remove the critical importance of Avraham in the minds of those who drink from their well. However, this was not the intent of the original leaders who began bringing the Northern Kingdom (the righteous nation of Yeshayahu 26:1, according to Yehudah) back to YHWH, and certainly Yeshua did not do this. Like Avimelekh, most Church leaders today are unaware of how the change to what we have today took place, since it was many centuries ago that Constantine and others put a Christian veneer over paganism and passed it off as completely biblical.

27. So Avraham took some of his sheep and oxen and gave them to Avimelekh, and the two of them made a covenant. 

Since Avimelekh had a valid point in that Avraham should have brought this to his attention sooner, Avraham himself provides restitution in a sense by supplying Avimelekh with the part he needed to bring to the covenant-ratifying ceremony in addition to his own part. In doing so, Avraham gave back some of what Avimelekh had given him. (20:14) He actually paid for what was already his, so no one could doubt whose it was:

28. But Avraham set seven ewe lambs aside separately, 

29. and Avimelekh asked Avraham, "What are these seven ewe lambs that you have set aside for?" 

30. And he said, "Take the seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may serve me as a testimony that I am the one who dug this well." 

Fikhol: in Hebrew it sounds like “the mouth of all”, for every tongue had to admit that Avraham—not the righteous nation, not Eusebius, Paul, Moshe, or even Yeshua—had “discovered” the monotheistic way of interpreting the facts.

31. On account of this, that place is called Be'er-Sheva, because the two of them swore an oath there. 

            Be'er-Sheva: a word play combining "well of the seven" with "well of the oath". The 
            number seven thus represents an oath sworn by witnesses, or a complete witness.
            This particular oath was indeed honored for centuries. (26:13ff).  

            32. And so they cut a covenant in Be'er-Sheva, and Avimelekh and Fikhol rose 
            up and returned to the land of the Filistines. 

This does not necessarily indicate that Avimelekh was a Filistine; it may only be a clarification by Moshe of the area in which he lived. Or it may mean that the Filistines were already settling in the Land by this time, and that they were not yet as evil as they would later be.

33. But he planted a tamarisk tree in Be'er-Sheva, and there he called on the name of YHWH the eternal Elohim. 

Tamarisk: A tree that does not grow tall but very wide, with abundant foliage so as to provide ample shade. It can even absorb salt water, and since it can use water other plants cannot, its bark is unattractive to insects and birds, making it a very pleasant place to entertain guests. The Mishnah calls it the “tree of hospitality”, saying that its Hebrew name, ashel, is an acronym for akkolah (food), shetiyah (drink), and lavayah (escort)—the three things an ancient host was always expected to provide for his guests. By swearing an oath (the same word for seven), one is saying that the other party is the one on whom he depends for completeness. So seven is the number of a promise.  Called on the Name: appealing to the merciful side of His nature.

34. Then Avraham lived in the land of the Filistines for many days. 


CHAPTER 22 - The "Akkeydah" (Binding)

[c. Year 2087 from creation; 1913 B.C.E.]

1. Now what took place after these things [was that] Elohim tested Avraham, and said to him, "Avraham!" And he replied, "Here I am!" 

These things: literally, “these words”. Which words? The last recorded words are that he proclaimed the Name of YHWH as the Elohim of everything. (21:33) He is not called YHWH here, because He is acting in the role of judge. Even Avraham cannot escape being tested: Did he actually believe what he had said? Have the insights he has received really shaped who he is? Did He really believe YHWH controls everything? Avraham quickly passes the first part of it, responding in such a way that shows he is ready to be judged. But now he is given a test that we pray we will never have to face:

2. And He said, "Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, and go into the land of Moryah, and bring him up there as an ascending [offering] on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you." 

Your only one: a term for one specially-beloved. With Yitzhaq, he would no longer be an individual of faith, but a people. Yet will the child of promise even stand between Avraham and YHWH? Whom you love: Avraham, in his natural heart, did love Yishmael (21:11-12), but he had to choose one over the other—often the meaning of “love” in Hebrew--instead of letting only his emotions rule. Avraham’s strong points were kindness and hospitality, but he needed to rise above this inclination and do as the situation called for, even when it was not easy. Yitzhaq was no longer a child; based on the age of Sarah in 23:1, a midrash recorded in Aramaic targum Pseudo-Jonathan (based in the book of Yasher) says Yishma’el was arguing that he was more worthy to be Avraham’s heir because he had been circumcised at 13, when he could have refused, but did not, while Yitzhaq had been too young to choose. To this Yitzhaq replied, “I am now 37 years old [a tradition based on the age of Sarah in 23:1], and if He were to ask for all of my members, I would not withhold them.” YHWH heard him and this precipitated the test here.  Moryah: "Myrrh of YHWH" or "teaching of YHWH". Ascending: this foreshadows the pilgrimage festivals, which Yitzhaq's progeny would later make to this same place. The word "offering" does not appear in the text, and the word “burnt” is not here, although what is burnt will “go up” in smoke. YHWH intended the ascent to take another form than burning (for He would later say that burning one’s children is an abomination to Him), yet anything like this is difficult for a man known for his compassion. But a person cannot build up one side of his body and let the other side remain limp. (David could be both deeply compassionate and a man of war, and YHWH said he was a man after His own heart.) So he trusted YHWH and did what was unnatural for him:

3. So Avraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey. And he took two of his young men with him, and his son Yitzhaq. He split wood for the offering, then arose and went to the place which YHWH had indicated to him. 

Rose early: He did it as soon as he could, and in the early hours before the noise of the day drowns out YHWH’s still, small voice, we can hear Him more clearly. Avraham had nothing to go on but this voice and a vision (v. 4), and he could easily have reasoned that this could not be YHWH. He had none of the Torah and prophets that we have today by which to verify that it is really Him speaking. Yet he did not hesitate, but went as far as he could on the limited information he had. He did not put it off until he had gone through his normal daily routines or even let Yitzhaq spend a last day with his mother. He does not let what Sarah would think of this influence his decision. YHWH’s instructin was his priority. YHWH appeared to be rescinding his only connection with His promises, but he knew that if he obeyed, the rest was YHWH’s responsibility. Staying within our comfort zone brings little advancement. It made no sense to him, but he must have reasoned, rather than taking something from him, YHWH was actually giving him something—making him more flexible and well-rounded so he could go beyond his own strengths, preferences, or even beliefs. Young men: i.e., servants. 

    4. And on the third day, Avraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a        
    distance. 

    He had come as far as he could with the information YHWH had given first, but again he 
    did not wait for all the details before acting, but took what steps he could to obey, and got to     where YHWH could show him the specifics. Lifted up his eyes: an idiom for foreseeing in the     spirit as well. A day is like a thousand years to YHWH. (Ps. 90:4) Prophetically, the third     millennium after this (“at a distance”)  is when Messiah would be seen. "The Place" is a Jewish euphemism for where YHWH would set His name (Neh. 1:9), and indeed Moryah would later become the Temple Mount. (He seems to have perceived this in v. 5; compare 28:17) It is first visible from a point south of Yerushalayim called Talpioth (see photo at left). 

5. And Avraham told his young men, "You stay here with the donkey, while I and the young man go yonder, so that we may worship, and then we will come back to you." 

The donkey: khamor, an unclean beast could not enter a holy place. The young man: Yishma'el was also called this (21:17-18), so Avraham was acting out the Yom Kippur ceremony before it was overt: one of his two “firstborn sons” was sent off into the desert, and the other was offered at the Temple Mount.  

6. So Avraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it upon his son Yitzhaq, and he took the fire and the knife in his own hand, and they both walked together. 

7. Then Yitzhaq spoke to his father Avraham and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am." And he said, "Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for an ascending [offering]?" 

8. And Avraham said, "Elohim will see to the lamb for the ascending [offering] Himself." And the two of them walked on together. 

Walked on together: i.e., they remained in agreement; Avraham’s answer satisfied Yitzhaq, like Yeshua, who told His Father, “Not My will, but Yours be done”. (Lk. 22:42; Yochanan 10:18) Avraham knew that Yitzhaq was a gift from YHWH. He was his. If YHWH asks us to give back something He has given us and promised to make fruitful, he had to surmise it is because He will give it back again in better condition—like a father asking his child to give back the computer he gave her, so it can be upgraded with better features. A more common way we give back to Him the blessings He has given us is by passing them on to others.

9. When they came to the place that the Elohim indicated to Avraham, Avraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son Yitzhaq hand and foot and laid him on the altar, above the wood. 

Bound: This is where the traditional title for this chapter is derived from. It is not just a story, but a launching pad to understand what YHWH is doing in us as we return to the covenant of Avraham. Midrash says that Avraham reasoned that since YHWH had promised to preserve his seed through Yitzhaq, YHWH must have planned to raise him from the dead. (Heb. 11:19) Tradition even says Yitzhaq asked to be bound so he would not try to escape, and thus render Avraham's offering unfit. YHWH's servant has to trust that he would one day see the fruit of his suffering (Yeshay./Isa.53:10), though everything visible seems to militate against it. 

10. Then Avraham stretched out his hand to ritually slaughter his son with the knife. 

He would not stab him like so many traditional depictions, but kill him like a kosher animal is killed, with one quick, painless slit across the jugular vein and windpipe.

11. But the messenger of YHWH called out to him from Heaven, and said, "Avraham! Avraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 

12. And He said, "Do not stretch out your hand toward the lad or do anything to him, because now I know that you are a fearer of Elohim; you have not withheld even your son—your only one—from Me."  

Not withheld your son: compare Romans 8:32. “What Abraham was asked to do He’s done: He’s offered His only Son.” (Michael Card)

13. Then Avraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, lo and behold! A ram was entangled by its horns in the thicket behind him! So Avraham went and got the ram, and offered it as an ascending offering in place of his son. 

There is a double meaning here: the word for "behind" can also mean "after him (in time)". Avraham had a vision of the antitype, but in v. 8, he had spoken of a lamb (a young sheep) being provided by YHWH, but here it is a ram (a full-grown one). So there remained a prophecy to fulfill. This is what Yochanan the Immerser had to have been alluding to when he identified Yeshua as the "lamb of Elohim, who bears the sins of the world", since the Passover lamb as such does not bear away sin, but wards off the messenger of death. In place of: As Michael Card sings, “[YHWH] will provide a lamb to be offered up in your place… What Abraham was asked to do He’s done: He’s offered His only son.” An idiom for coming to the Land of Israel, and especially to Yerushalayim, is to "make aliyah" (ascend). Yitzhaq indeed never did leave the Land of Israel, for to do so is thus to descend. Yet since Yerushalayim is called the place where heaven and earth meet (based on Psalm 122:3), and "in place of" can also mean "beneath" in Hebrew, he might have been on the true altar in the permanent city which is not yet seen but sits "above" the temporary altar where the ram was offered.

14. And Avraham called the name of that place "YHWH will see", so it is said even to this day, "In the mountain of YHWH it will be seen." 

YHWH saw that Avraham would withhold nothing from him. Yerushalayim appears to mean, "They will see a dual completeness"--"They will see a dual completeness"--for here He would look upon the temple sacrifices, which effected a covering, but from this mountain, too, the Torah will go forth to bring order to the whole world, for Mt. Tzion (Mikha 4:2), from which it will go out, is now joined to Mt. Moryah. It is the "one of the mountains" (which can also be read as "single, unified mountain") on which all these important events took place. Even Gulgol’thah, where the later Lamb was offered, is at the highest point on Mt. Moryah.

15. Then the messenger of YHWH called to Avraham from out of Heaven a second time. 

16. And he said, "'I have sworn by Myself', declares YHWH, 'that on account of this thing that you have done, not even withholding from Me your son, your only son, 

Sworn by Myself: thus it is an irrevocable oath. (Heb. 6:13ff; 7:20ff)

17. "'that I will richly bless you, and multiply your seed exceedingly—like the stars of the heavens and the sand that is on the seashore! And your seed shall capture the gate of his enemies. 

Stars: this promise is repeated from the initial requirement that Avraham fulfilled previously. Sand: this promise was added because of this obedience to what seems to now be appended to the covenant. (v. 18; compare Yeshayahu 49:6.) Yeshua, too, was rewarded and exalted by YHWH (Yeshayahu 53:12; Phil. 2:11) because of his obedient action, and is counted worthy of honor by men because of it (Rev. 5:9). Seed: specifically David and his line, which includes Yeshua, who would make possible the release of the Northern Kingdom, taken captive by Assyria, but still held captive within many other nations (not to mention by spiritual enemies) until the glad news reaches them that they can again be part of the covenant.

18. And with your seed shall all the nations of the earth be mingled, because you have obeyed My voice.'" 

Mingled: or grafted; see 48:4, 16, 19; 49:22; Ruth 4:10ff; Hos. 7:8; Yeshayahu/Isaiah 49:6; Rom. 11:17ff. Obeyed: literally, heard (though obedience is implied)—for YHWH saw that Avraham had taken both of His contradictory words (“I will continue your seed through Yitzhaq” and “slay your childless son”) as truth; he “heard” what YHWH was saying, though it was incomprehensible, and was confident that He knew what He was talking about.

19. And Avraham returned to his young men; they arose and went together to Be'er-Sheva, and Avraham settled at Be'er-Sheva. 

​Despite his promise that both of them would return (v. 5), here only Avraham is seen returning. That Yitzhaq did not come back home at this point—or simply the realization that Avraham had gone even as far as he had--could explain why Sarah lived in a different place from Avraham after this (23:2) and may have died of grief because she did not have Avraham's faith. He was a prophet, so he had confidence that eventually Yitzhaq would return. (Compare Yochanan 14:3) Since Yitzhaq was figuratively resurrected (Heb. 11:19) on the third day (v. 4), the fact that Yitzhaq does not again appear in the actual text until his bride is ready, is a picture of the Messiah's disappearing until his return for his bride. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan says the reason Yitzhaq does not return yet is that Avraham sent him to the school of Shem for three years. Since Melkhitzedeq is identified with Shem and he lived but half a mile away in Shalem (later Yerushalayim), it was only natural that, having ascended, he would not descend again until he had learned something worth teaching others, just like the Levites who would later come up to Yerushalayim to serve and go back down to teach the rest of Israel. Avraham, who represents the covenant, comes back to the witnesses before Yitzhaq, who represents Yeshua, does. We cannot expect to see Yeshua until we have the covenant with Avraham restored.

20. And after these things, Avraham was told, "Indeed, Milkah—she too—has borne sons to your brother, Nakhor: 

21. "Utz, his firstborn; Buz, his brother; and Qemu-El, the father of Aram; 

Utz: Iyov/Job later lived in his land. Buz appears in Iyov 32:2. This Aram is not Shem's son as seen in 10:22.

22. "and Kessed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Yidlaf, and B'thuel." 

23. (Now B'thuel was the one who would father Rivqah.) Milkah bore these eight to Nakhor, Avraham's brother. 

Yitzhaq's bride's (v. 23) is introduced right after his "death", just as Yeshua's “bride” was made possible only when he died.  Rivqah means “ensnarer” or “captivating”. She would indeed ensnare the blessing for the son she (and YHWH) loved. (ch. 27)

24. And his secondary consort, whose name was Re'umah, also bore Tevach, Gakham, Tahash, and Maakhah.

They inhabited Bashan/the Golan Heights, and are associated with Aram, or Syria. (1 Chron. 19:6). Thus Nakhor, like Esau, Yishma’el, and later Yaaqov, had twelve sons.
When our story begins, Avraham and Sarah are in their 90’s. By that age they are pretty well-versed in the normal patterns of how things work. So when someone told them that they were going to become parents, we can’t blame them for being a bit skeptical. There were probably as many scams going around then as there are now.

But (18:3) Avraham somehow knew who it was who was bearing this news-- the One for whom nothing is too hard. So when what seemed too good to be true actually did come true, they gave their son a name that would remind them not to doubt Him again. (21:3) Thankfully, YHWH allowed them to save face by giving them other reasons to explain why they had given him such an unusual name! (19:6-7)

But the story doesn’t end there. Avraham and Sarah were given a miracle, but this meant something all the more valuable to defend. It meant having to make some hard choices (21:9-12), the hardest of which was to remember that the Giver was even more important than the gift. (Chapter 22) But, as the psalmist says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but YHWH rescues him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19)  

Now look at Lot, on the other hand. When it was his turn to choose, he had made a bad choice, and although his association with Avraham gained him compassion from YHWH (19:16), he had some serious consequences—not only the loss of some relatives, but the dubious blessing of grandchildren who were also his children, and who would not prove to be the most exemplary peoples—not to mention that his daughters must have wondered how safe they were after he had offered them in exchange for his guests’ welfare. (19:8)

Lot’s hospitality was admirable, but some of it may have been simply because he knew it was life-and-death dangerous for people to spend the night in the park. (19:2-3) The fact that he was living in such a place should have tipped him off to the fact that he was in the wrong place, long before he had to go to such extreme measures just to keep his guests alive. Had the guests not been stronger than Lot, his daughters would undoubtedly not have survived, nor would Lot himself have. When you start having to make excuses for culture of the place you live, it is wise to ask if you should really be there. Being a light in a dark place can only go so far when no one is listening anymore. But YHWH listened to the outcry against those places (18:20; 19:13, 29) and prevented such practices from spreading any further. The Judge of all the earth did do right (18:25), giving us confidence that while He can do anything (18:14), He is not going to abuse that power. The All-powerful One is also not only benevolent but righteous.

But, since we mentioned Lot being spared because of his association with Avraham, we have to pay special attention to chapter 21, which discusses the beginnings of the Arab race. Though Yishma’el did prove to be a wild man who made enemies easily, even (especially?) among his relatives (16:12), and though he was not given the highest place in the family or the covenant (21:12), still we are told that Elohim was with him (21:20) because he was Avraham’s son. (21:13) This should influence the way we look at those who are so often “Public Enemy Number One”.

This does not mean pander to them no matter what. The Philistines, to whose progeny Avraham specifically made promises (21:23-24), later had to be wiped out by righteous kings because they turned bad. But though we adhere to the higher road of the Torah, we have to remember that Islam made Yitzhaq’s brothers less wild than they would have otherwise been.  
Muhammad, in particular, was strongly influenced by a father who subscribed to a faith much like our own, having benefited from the spread of the faith of Yeshua, which was originally about returning the scattered descendants of Avraham from their idolatry to the faith of their ancestor. Though he got some details wrong, Muhammad did aim to accomplish that. So if we can find any common ground with these other sons of Avraham, soft answers may turn away wrath and we may have a shot at the kind of harmony most have written off as impossible.

YHWH asked many unusual, perplexing things of Avraham. But because he obeyed even when it appeared that all the promises Yitzhaq carried would be lost forever, his faith was put on even firmer footing.  

Again, the Hebrew language comes to our rescue, for Avraham did in fact obey YHWH even when He stopped him short of making Yitzhaq a burnt offering, for what He literally asked him to do was make Yitzhaq “an ascending”. By staying on the highest road, even when it went against every fiber of love, hospitality, mercy, and even common decency in him, Avraham did raise Yitzhaq and his progeny—which no one can count—to a higher level. Because he was willing to put himself in a position where only YHWH could resurrect hope, the fulfillment of the promises could never again be written off as a coincidence or a mere matter of course.  

Israel is a nation built on one miracle after another. When YHWH calls you to lay it all on the line again (after you make sure that it is really He that is doing the calling), don’t laugh it off. Don’t settle for an ordinary existence. Step up and make sure your link in the chain of miracles that is Israel is one that keeps Yitzhaq ascending.
Extent of the Great Rift Valley,: this event greatly widened and deepened an existing fault.
"Lot's Lake" looking east
Companion Passage:
2 Kings 4:1-37
Study Questions:

1. Why does Avraham address one of the messengers as YHWH? (Genesis 18:3, 13, 23) If YHWH cannot be seen, can this literally be true? How might this help explain how Yeshua manifested YHWH, yet was not YHWH (Yochanan 1:1, 18)?

2. Does Genesis 18:8 call into question the prohibition of never eating milk and meat together? Why or why not?

3. Which came first: Avraham’s skill in keeping his household righteous or YHWH’s choice to empower him? (18:18-19)  

4. What do you think the outcry that rose to heaven (18:20-21) was? Might 4:10 hold a clue? What does the fact that YHWH went personally to investigate tell you about the value he places on justice?

5. Avraham is described as “friend of Elohim”! (2 Chron. 20:7; Yaaqov/James 2:23) What character traits does he show in Genesis 18 that would make YHWH proud to call him that? (cf. Hebrews 11:16)

6. Avraham thought YHWH would be displeased or irked by his questions after YHWH declared his intent. Do you think his negotiation actually displeased YHWH? (18:23-32) Who later used this as a precedent to plead with Him for mercy?

7. Though S’dom was not spared, did Avraham actually receive what he really wanted in regard to it? (Gen. 19)

8. What does the fact that Lot “sat in the gates” (Gen. 19:1) tell you about Lot’s involvement with and position in S’dom?

9. Though Lot’s expectations that the people of S’dom could change turned out to be unrealistic (19:5, 9, etc.), was he wrong to hope they might?

10. How was Lot’s bargaining with YHWH (19:19-20) different from Avraham’s (19:23-32)?

11. Were Lot’s daughters well-motivated in what they did (19:31-38)? Why was the preservation of their father’s seed so important? They apparently thought they were the last humans left alive on earth; does this change your opinion of what they did?  

12. In chapter 20, Avraham repeats the tactic he used in chapter 12, despite its effect on other people. Why do you think he still was comfortable doing things this way (20:12)? Was he too pessimistic about other people’s attitude toward YHWH (20:11), or was his caution justified, considering what S’dom was like? Did what befell S’dom make other nations more reverent, or were they already more pious than he gave them credit for? (20:4-5)

13. What impact does YHWH’s request of Avraham (22:2) have on your level of comfort in your walk with Him? Would you be as ready as Avraham was to trust that He knew what He was doing? 

14. The Hebrew wording of the request is “make him an ascending”; does this change your idea of what He was actually asking? Even if YHWH stopped him from interpreting this according to the most common usage of the word (“going up in smoke”), did his obedience to what he thought was being asked for in fact fulfill the deeper meaning of the words?

The Sidewalk
for kids

Do you like having “company” (guests) at your house for dinner? If so, you show that you really are one of Avraham’s children.

Avraham was known for his hospitality, which means “receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way”. In other words, loving your visitor as yourself. It’s making sure they have everything they need to get through until they reach their next stopping place.

Avraham went all-out to give to some travelers refreshment. He promised only a little, but came through with a lot. That is much better than the flowery speech some of his descendants are known for—“promising the moon”, but providing only moonlight. He was eager to give these guests everything he could, and he got his whole household involved too. When your parents have visitors, do you do everything you can to make them feel at home?

S’dom—the city where Lot had settled-- was a different story. Y’hezq’el says S’dom and the other cities around it “had more than enough and plenty of time, but did not extend their hand to the needy.” But the hospitality in S’dom was also deceitful; they only wanted visitors for what they could get from them, not for what they could give. There’s a midrash (a story from outside the Bible) that tells us that they wouldn’t even let anyone into the city unless they could pay a lot. (These two visitors, which it seems were angels, must have sneaked past that first screening point! But we don’t know if Lot knew this about them, as Avraham seemed to; in fact, this may be the first instance of “entertaining angels without realizing it”, and one reason Lot deserved to be rescued was that he passed this test.)

He was a good man, but he was in a place where no one was hospitable, so he had to make sure he was the one who invited the visitors to his own home, because he knew anyone else would rob them and worse. His hospitality was real, but misplaced. He was wasting his good gifts trying to improve a ship that was already sinking. We even see Avraham’s famous attempt to save the cities from destruction through his respectful arguing with the “Judge of all the earth”. (Gen. 18:23-33) If there was anything left there of any value, YHWH would give them another try, like the parable Yeshua told about the fig tree that didn’t bear fruit. (Luke 13:6-9)  

But the only ones worth saving were Lot and his family, and they could be spared by leaving that place. It was such a bad environment that he had to offer something no one should offer just to keep danger away from his guests. That was hospitality indeed, but it would have been to a tragic extent if, thanks to YHWH, his guests had not also been hospitable, and saved the life of their host and his family.

That’s the other side of hospitality. Do guests ever bring gifts when they come to your house? It’s a nice courtesy that shows they appreciate your invitation and want to give something back instead of just receiving. (Not that we should only give to people who can give back; that would actually be like S’dom; Proverbs 19:17 tells us that if we are merciful to the poor we are lending to YHWH, and He is the one who will repay us. But we are talking here about the job of the one who is on the receiving end.) Lot’s guests gave him that escape from a danger he didn’t know was there as well as one he did know about. The same guests also brought Avraham and Sarah a gift: a promise that what they had been wanting for many years would finally be theirs within just one year.  

And Avraham appreciated this gift and its Giver so much that he was willing to give back to Him anything in the world that He asked for—and this was put to the ultimate test, which Avraham passed with flying colors. (Chapter 22)

Think about it: When someone does something very kind to you, what kind of treatment do they deserve? Do you treat them that way? How much are you willing to give them in return?

The Renewal of VaYera'

Avraham gave us a great example of hospitality. The book of Yasher (18:3) tells us that these visitors came to him the third day after his circumcision, which from Gen. 34:25, we know is the day when there is the most pain and someone feels weakest. Yet he jumps up and runs to be an enthusiastic host. But the command to be hospitable and choose only hospitable people as leaders is overt in the Renewed Covenant (Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; 1 Kefa/Peter 4:9). It even commands us to do like Avraham and not be afraid to entertain strangers, adding that they might even be angels! (Heb. 13:2)
But his visitors came to carry out judgment. Avraham did not have the attitude we see so often today of “Just carpet-bomb them and blow them all away!” He was concerned that YHWH would be just-- selective and targeted in His punishment, and not indiscriminate.

Yet he was humble in realizing it might not be right to imagine that the Judge of All the Earth might have forgotten one or two details. He was not guilty of “contempt of court”, but had the attitude of, “Of course, I could be wrong.” He was not “in your face” and brash toward authority like so many people today who think that, just because they have rights, they should be able to say whatever careless words come to mind or just express whatever they may be feeling and still be respected. He knew when to stop asking. But he did want to give the benefit of the doubt if there was any way possible.

The Renewed Covenant puts this attitude into a beautiful poem:

“Love has great patience [and] is kind; love is not envious.
Love is not boastful; [it] is not arrogant.
It does not act unbecomingly, does not demand [things] for oneself, is not [easily] irritated, 
does not keep count of wrongs [done], is not glad when [a rival] suffers damage, 
but is delighted along with others when the truth [comes to light].
It puts up with anything, trusts all kinds [of people], expects [the best in] all [situations], [and] perseveres [through] anything.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

But it wasn’t possible. This place had to be history, because it couldn’t be fixed. The book of Yasher (18:11-19:44) tells even more about the kind of things that went on there. And no matter how many people nowadays want to just call their lifestyles “alternative” instead of wrong, the things the people of S’dom did are just as odious to YHWH under the Renewed Covenant (1 Cor. 6:9-10) as they were when He gave the Torah. (Lev. 20:13) But Yeshua said that on the day of judgment, cities that knew more about what was right but still did not do it, would fare worse than S’dom and ‘Amorah, who really only had Lot’s minimal witness. (Mat. 10:15; 11:23-24) That is something every modern culture needs to ponder. Yeshua said the days just before his return would be much like those days. (Luke 17:28-30) And just in time, as a vivid warning, those cities have been found again—hiding in plain sight: on first glance they have eroded into part of the landscape, but a closer inspection reveals man-made right angles and the tell-tale gnarling of limestone and sulfur melded at extremely high temperatures that silenced their sin. There is a limit to what YHWH will put up with, and that has not changed.

Avraham learned to be just as tough on himself, though mercy was his forté. There are many elements in the akkeydah—the binding of Yitz’haq—that beg for a “sequel”. It holds many prophecies that come to light when we look at them in Hebrew. “On the third day”, we’re told, “Avraham lifted up his eyes.” (22:4) That is a Hebrew idiom for seeing on a higher level. So what did he see on the third day? He saw “the place far off”-- another idiom for seeing something in the distant future. "The Place" is shorthand for “the place where YHWH would set His name” (Neh. 1:9), and indeed Moryah would later become the Temple Mount. Yaaqov already recognized that fact when he “encountered the Place”. (Gen. 28:11)

When Yitz’haq asked Avraham where the lamb for the ascending offering was, Avraham said YHWH Himself would provide (literally “see to”) the lamb. There is another double entendre in 22:13, where, after he passes his test, he sees a ram “behind him”, and it gets substituted for Yitz’haq, allowing him to remain alive. Again, in Hebrew, "behind" can also mean "after him (in time)". But this is not a lamb, but a full-grown ram. So there must be more to the story. In fact, Avraham speaks in terms of the future again when he says of that Place, “In the mountain of YHWH it will be seen.” (22:14) What will? The lamb that YHWH would “see to”—that He would make sure would be there at the right time.  

Moshe told us that with YHWH, a day is like a thousand years. (Ps. 90) Sure enough, Hebrew tradition speaks of history as a week, in which the “third day” from Avraham’s time is when a lamb would be seen on this mountain—which by that time was widely called “the mountain of YHWH”, for the Temple was there on Mt. Moryah. Both Isaiah and Micah say that one day the nations will say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of YHWH…He will teach us His ways.” That is talking about the same place. But a little-known fact about that mountain is that its highest point is a craggy outcropping of rock that looks like a skull, and was called “the place of the skull”--Gulgol’thah in Hebrew. At that place, a man who was first introduced in public as “Elohim’s own lamb” was stretched out on a piece of wood just like the Passover lambs and ON Passover, after being, as Yeshayahu/Isaiah had said, “Led like a lamb to the slaughter.”

YHWH told Avraham, “You have not withheld even your son—your only one—from Me." (22:12) That sounds an awful lot like how YHWH was later described: “He who spared not His own Son, but gave him up for us all…” (Romans 8:32) As Michael Card sums it up, What Abraham was asked to do, He’s done: He’s offered His only son.”

But again, that’s not the end of the story. Hebrews 11:19 tells us that Avraham had the logic of faith: he reasoned that if YHWH asked him to give back the son He said would make Avraham the father of multitudes, then it had to be the case that He would bring Yitz’haq back to life. Bill Gothard called this pattern, seen many times throughout Scripture, the “birth of a vision, death of a vision, and supernatural fulfillment of the vision.” When He wants to do something really great, He makes sure it becomes impossible without His direct intervention. All natural ways of getting there are cut off.

Most of Yeshua’s disciples had forgotten about this when the lamb was so cruelly slaughtered, as Isaiah said it would seem that all hope was lost: “Who can speak of his descendants? Because he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, who deserved to be struck down.” (53:8) But YHWH said that because he made his soul a guilt-offering, and submitted it to death, he would get to see the full reward of his suffering.

As Yitz’haq figuratively got his life back after he submitted willingly, Yeshua carried the picture all the way, and accomplished what Avraham only acted out as a rehearsal, putting it on even firmer footing, so that we have what the letter to the Hebrews (6:19) calls “an anchor of the soul—sure and stedfast”. So when things look impossible to you, remember that YHWH not just can, but does raise the dead.
Limestone and sulfur ash in strange patterns caused by being heated to thousands of degrees
"He Laughed" 

There are several different kinds of laughter in this Torah portion. First, when the messengers from YHWH announced that she was going to have an impossible son, “Sarah laughed within herself.” (18:12) Yet they called her out on it, and when she said “I didn’t do it”, they said, “Did too!” Literally, it was more like, “Not so, because you did laugh!” (18:15)

This “within herself” is a Hebrew idiom for a thought, like when it says, “YHWH said” something (Gen. 6:7), even though he did not tell Noakh about it until later (6:13). I.e., it was not speaking out loud the first time, so we would consider it thinking. But this was a thinking that was resolved to act. It was not an idle thought. Right in this Torah portion, when Avraham was asked why he lied, he says (as most translate it), “Because I thought…” But in Here it says, “Because I said…” (20:11) So, yes, it counted when Sarah laughed, even if it never made it to being a sound. Now not every thought that crosses our mind is something that we really meant to think, but Yeshua says we will be judged by our intents, even if it never makes it to an action. (Mat. 5:22, 28) YHWH knows the difference, and though Sarah stifled the outward act, apparently it was not because she didn’t really think it was impossible (as with Avraham in ), but only so she would not get caught scoffing. But she got caught anyway, by the One who “judges the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

When two of the same messengers asked Lot if there was anyone close to him needing to be rescued from the destruction of S’dom, he urged his sons-in-law to escape, “He seemed to them like someone who was jesting”. (Gen. 19:14) You know, the way you feel when someone talks about the world coming to an end—the laugh that comes before the “You’re not kidding, are you?” That word for “jesting” is another form of the word for—you guessed it—“laughed”. He may have spoken with the kind of nervous laugh that my daughter often catches me in, saying, “Abba, that’s NOT funny!” The laughing was because of irony, not humor, but still that’s how it comes across. And that kind of misunderstanding cost these men their lives.

When Yitz’haq finally was indeed born, Sarah described the reason for his name: “Elohim has made me a laughingstock; now everyone who hears about it will laugh at me!” I.e., “Touché! He caught me laughing the wrong way.” But the word’s range of meaning allows it to take a positive turn, for like Avraham, those who really hear the story for the first time laugh in amazed awe at the impossible things YHWH can still do.

Yitzhaq itself means, “He laughed”, because when Avraham had first heard that Sarah herself was to have his son, he “fell on his face and laughed” (17:17) That time it must have been a laughter of delight over what was much more than a pleasant surprise, but a world-changing relief, in light of . And the name stuck, by divine decree. Maybe there is another “He” that laughed (in mockery of the one who thought he had thwarted His plans, per Psalm 2:4?).

Finally, that down side of the word “laughter”—the mocking side that Sarah initially participated in—turned back on her when Yishma’el was seen laughing at Yitzhaq—in the sense seen in Proverbs 10:23: “Doing mischief is a laughing matter for a fool.” One of the extracanonical books tells us that he was teasing Yitzhaq by pointing his bow and arrow at him. The rabbinic interpretation is that he said, “Can’t you take a joke?” But again, the issue was intent. (Jasher 21:14-15) What would he have done if he she had not noticed? No wonder Sarah got so upset. That laughter cost him his home.  

So let us all, to paraphrase another later bit of advice, “take care how we laugh”. 

Which is More Permanent?

YHWH’s promise to make a name for Avram took the pressure off him to try to do it himself, or even to try to have an advantage; hence his allowing Lot to choose the “better” land. But which was better in the long run? YHWH had more confidence in Avram (Gen. 18:17) than he had in himself. (18:27, 30, 31, 32) But that is how it should be; he had genuine fear of Elohim. Knowing He was the “judge of all the earth” (18:25) made him properly humble, for only YHWH really knows what we are able to become. 

But still he dared to ask the right questions. From the fact that YHWH would not spare S’dom for fewer than 10 people was derived the concept of a minyan—the idea that a public prayer requires a minimum of 10 men present. (18:32) But is this the same thing? Will He not even listen to the prayers of a few? Yeshua seemed to think differently: “Where 2 or 3 are gathered…” (Mat. 18:20) Did he base this on the principle that “by the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses shall a matter be established in Israel” (Deut. 19:15)?

The men of S’dom wanted to know his guests. (19:5) That sounds fair enough--“Just let us meet them! Who are they?” But Lot got the impression they meant “’know’ in the biblical sense” (v. 7; cf. 4:1), and he told them it would be an evil thing to do. They didn’t want him to judge. (19:8) So why did they allow him to be on the city council? (19:1) That is who “sat in the gates” to judge, among other things, what (or who) would be allowed into the city. The other “judges” did not want such visitors to feel welcome.

Why did Lot’s warning to his sons-in-law sound like a joke? (19:14) Was it just that their culture took nothing seriously? Was he laughing nervously? (The word for “joking” is related to Yitzhaq’s name.) Or had he raised false alarms before, so they thought this was just another of his “hare-brained theories”? Are we careful to back up our claims well so we are reliable sources of information, putting the burden of proof on the skeptics instead? That’s not to say our logic will be the same as that of the skeptics.

A clue: Lot made unleavened bread – in a hurry (19:3), at an “appointed time” (18:14), though there was no Passover yet associated with it. Or was there? Donald Patten saw a pattern and discovered repeated “passes over” at the same time of year by a planet whose orbit later changed, but which first brought huge catastrophes--from the flood to the Red Sea, Joshua’s long day to Akhaz' retrograde sundial—giving advantage where less likely. YHWH did not override the natural laws He had made; He just used lesser-known ones. We don’t have to suspend reason to believe the reports of His marvelous deeds. 

Its gravitation shifted the equatorial bulge and made a small valley into a gash spanning 1/3 of earth’s latitude. I thought the doomed cities were blown away by the immense blast that made the crater (now the Dead Sea). But YHWH left them there, on the periphery—not even sending enough rain there in 4,000 years to erode the ashy remains away—as a warning. Half that time later, Josephus saw remains that he called “marks of credibility which our very sight affords us” (Wars of the Jews, Bk. 4, ch. 8: 485), and now they have been rediscovered (by Ron Wyatt) as an even greater judgment by fire looms nearer.

What became of the livestock for which Lot chose the “better” land? Is that why he hesitated to leave? (19:16) No wonder Yeshua warned us not to go back to get anything once we see the impending signs. (Mark 13:14-15) So Avram’s tent proved more permanent than Lot’s “secure” house in the walled city! YHWH preferred to dwell in a tent of curtains instead of a temple of stone. (2 Sam. 7:2) What He really wants is one made of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5)—“hearts of flesh, not stony (ones)” (Ezk. 11:19; 36:26). Avram had more children (21:13; ch. 25) but the only one who counted for His purpose (21:12) was the one who was a miracle more than once. (21:5-7 and ch. 22) That ‘s what started building that “temple”.
Prophecies, Puns, & Putting YHWH First

When Avraham saw his guests arriving, he ran to meet them (Gen. 18:2)—an especially-noteworthy enthusiasm since, by tradition, it was the third day after his circumcision (the last event in the previous chapter)--the most painful day. (34:25) If true, it shows how important hospitality—and for this Guest in particular—was to him. Even his bold negotiating showed exemplary deference and humility. (18:23-32)

He also hurried to tell Sarah, “Quickly, get three measures of fine flour ready…and make cakes.” (18:6) She was also told to “knead it”, so we know it was leavened this time. Yeshua apparently alluded to this: “The kingdom of heaven is like a woman who took leaven and hid it in three measures of flour until the whole was leavened.” (Mat. 13:33) The three men she fed brought a message confirming that “hidden within her” was a seed that would grow into many to spread blessing to the whole world. (22:18) On Shavuoth, which features leavened loaves (Lev. 23:17), blessing to all nations would break forth. (Acts 2)

The number three—and the third day in particular—shows up again in this parashah: “On the third day Avraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.” (22:4) This is significant because “to YHWH a day is as a thousand years.” (2 Kefa/Peter 3:8, based on Psalm 90:4) 

 How does this fit here? When the angel stayed his hand since YHWH had accepted the length he was willing to go to in his greater love for YHWH than even for YHWH’s finest gift to him, he saw a ram in the thicket “behind him”. (22:13) Joseph Good has pointed out that “behind him” is also an idiom in Hebrew for “later in time”, i.e., after him in sequence.

Avraham, a prophet (20:7), had told Yitzhaq, “Elohim will provide the lamb for Himself” (22:8) and it was then offered “in place of his son”. (22:13) He now prophesied again that “on the mountain of YHWH it will be seen.” (22:14) 

 What will be seen? And why even mention the mountain? “The place” he saw was Mt. Moryah, and the highest point on Mt. Moryah is the “place of the skull”—Gulgol’thah, where the Lamb YHWH provided to take our place, the seed through which all nations would be blessed, was indeed seen—far “behind” him in time, by just over 2,000 years, as the third “day” was underway!

That phrase “behind him” appears twice more in this parashah: “Sarah heard, inside the tent door, which was behind him” (18:10) when a son was promised, and she laughed. She was constantly reminded of how little she knew about what is possible by her son’s name, Yitz’haq—an onomatopoetic word play: “he laughed”, for Avraham laughed too when he heard it (17:17), not with skepticism, but delight. The second? “His [Lot’s] wife looked back from behind him, and became a pillar of salt.” (19:26)

Are these prophecies too? I’m not sure, but it’s good they were “behind”--in the “background”--since both are examples of NOT putting YHWH first—before one’s own logic or nostalgia for something He wanted put out mind. 

 Avraham, in contrast, did put YHWH first, before his own pain and even before the only apparent way YHWH’s promises to him (also prophecies) could be fulfilled. They had to be fulfilled, for all nations needed His blessing--so apparent in chapters 19 & 20. He reasoned that if he did what YHWH asked, YHWH could still bring his son back from the dead. Well did Michael Card summarize the link here: “What Abraham was asked to do, He’s done: He’s offered his only son.” And He did receive his son back by resurrection as Avraham did “figuratively” or “as a prototype”. (Hebrews 11:19)

Can we do the same—put YHWH first even when it is painful, even when it does not make sense, even when it brings us agony—and do so with joy and enthusiasm? The phrase used to describe Avraham’s rising early to perform this hardest-ever form of obedience is “yashkem”—literally, “he shouldered the burden”. Michael Card again summarizes how we can “serve YHWH with gladness” (Ps. 100:2) even when it brings pain: “The promises kept give us strength to accept this burden of bearing the light.” 

The Precarious 
and the Impossible

Life was very precarious for everyone in Avraham’s day. YHWH stood up for His friends and had their back (20:3-7), though Avraham unnecessarily endangered others’ lives due to assumptions that did not always hold true. (20:11; 12:12) But YHWH proved reasonable toward those He had to threaten in the process. (20:6)

Even for S’dom: its outcry to heaven was great. (18:20) Why did YHWH have to go down to see if it was really as bad as it sounded? (18:21) Maybe just so He would be tangibly vindicated when presented with challenges like Avraham’s own: “It would violate Your honor to put the righteous to death just like the wicked! Will the Judge of the whole earth not act justly?” (18:25) He would not be accused of not taking every factor into consideration.

Yet Avraham’s attitude even in his questioning is instructive: Though he has already been commended by YHWH, he recognizes that he, a mere mortal, has no inherent right to even address YHWH, much less to suggest what He should do. (18:27) If we were as unpresumptuous as he, we might be more careful what we ask, and not say rash things. (See Qoheleth/Eccles. 5:2) Lot, on the other hand, was less hesitant to wrangle with Him. (19:29)

It almost seems YHWH Himself was willing to err on the side of lenience for the sake of Avraham or of some theoretical group of righteous people whom Avraham could not imagine would be lacking. Maybe he did not want to believe his nephew was in an environment with no good people at all. Yet every sector of the city (19:4) turned out to be wicked. Even Lot’s daughters do not seem to have been as innocent as he assumed (19:8, 33).

There are many clues that this cataclysmic “overthrow” (19:25) took place at Passover (18:6, 14; 19:3), lending credibility to Patten & Windsor’s theory of Mars’ pattern of close flybys in antiquity. (See The Mars-Earth Wars.)

Why the eighth day for circumcision? (21:4) YHWH, the Creator, knew what He was doing when He commanded this. Vitamin K and prothrombin (which help blood clot) are at their highest levels in one’s entire life on the eighth day of one’s life! I also learned last week from Jeff Eargle that a child’s body does not produce antibodies on its own until the eighth day either. But the eighth day is also symbolic of a new beginning—a rebirth, so to speak. This child becomes part of the covenant people at this time, and is no longer alone in the world.

Thus when Avraham was asked to render Ishma’el and his mother alone in the precarious world of the desert, he hesitated to listen to his wife, especially after what resulted the first time he had done so (and considering YHWH blamed Adam for doing the same, Gen. 3:17), seeing that Ishma’el was indeed proving to be a problem. (21:9) Still, this seemed to be taking it too far. But YHWH let him know that this time she was right and it was safe to do what she demanded to preserve the integrity of the covenant for the promised seed (21:12), the lamb YHWH Himself would provide (22:8) on the same mountain (22:14), so restoration could spread to Eve’s whole race. (22:18) YHWH saved Ishma’el too from an untimely death (21:19) and kept the drama alive down to our own day.

Yes, life is precarious, but as Avraham could see, even death does not mean the end when YHWH is involved.
Cries that Reach Heaven

What does it take to get YHWH’s attention? In this portion we see an example of a pattern that reappears throughout Scripture: “The outcry of S'dom and Ghamorah has become great, and their sin weighs exceedingly heavily.” 

 Every physical deed on earth makes waves in the heavenlies as well, and there was so much spiritual wickedness emanating from these cities, it screamed out for YHWH's direct attention: “I will go down now and see whether they have done everything that its outcry implies. If not, I will know.” (Gen. 18:20-21.) It had gotten so bad that He had to intervene.

This especially holds true for murder: earlier in this book, YHWH told Qayin that Hevel’s blood “cries out to Me from the ground.” (4:10) That sounds rather mystical, but the rest of Scripture reveals that the cry is for Him to bring justice for the life that was cut short. By Noakh’s day it reached a critical threshold: "All flesh has reached its limit before Me, for through them the earth is filled with violence; … I’m going to destroy them along with the land.” (6:13)

After He did, He gave Noakh new laws about capital punishment to deter the repetition of such a buildup. (9:5-6) For Israel, where the standard is highest, His equation leaves no wiggle room: “You may not take a ransom for the life of a murderer… because blood profanes the land; nor can the land be covered over in regard to the blood shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.” (Num 35:31-33) But search it out thoroughly (Deut. 19:15ff), as He did at S’dom, or what seems just easily becomes injustice. Part of the reason for our own exile is that YHWH held us to this: “I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.” (Hos. 1:4)  

Another reason the cries reach Heaven is that the slaughtered don’t stop calling out: on the other side of the veil, the martyrs still cry out, “How long, O YHWH, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood…?” (Revelation 6:10). He has already told us: just as He begins to restore that Kingdom that ceased, “YHWH is coming out from His place to punish those who occupy the land for their perversity; the earth will lay bare her blood, and no longer conceal her slain.” (Isa. 26:21) All unjustly-spilled blood will be disclosed and He’ll bring about complete justice for these victims.

But sometimes “men groan… and the soul of the wounded cries out”, but YHWH seems to do nothing about it. (Job 24:12) Yet these “lesser” offenses do reach His ear too: “The wages of the laborers who mow your fields, of which you have defrauded them, are crying out for vengeance, and [their] cries… have entered the ears of the Master of Armies!” (James 5:4) He is especially attuned to the most disadvantaged: “If you afflict [a widow or fatherless child] in any way, and they cry out to me at all, I will certainly hear their cry, and my wrath will grow hot, and…your own wives will become widows, and your own children fatherless!” (Ex. 22:22-24) He knew what it takes to get our attention too.

The wicked will not prosper forever. (Psalm 73) Sometimes YHWH just waits to deal with many injustices in one all-encompassing act (Ps. 92:7), as when “the descendants of Israel groaned from the servile labor, and they cried out for help, and their outcry reached Elohim due to their [hard] labor.” (Ex. 2:23) Again it had reached a critical threshold.

He is glad when we want justice. (It’s His idea!) He wants us to call for Him. He gave Israel a special way to pierce the Heavens: “If you go to war in your Land against the enemy that oppresses you, blow an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before YHWH your Elohim, and saved from your enemies.” (Num. 10:9)

It need not always be dramatic: even if we lack such resources, “whoever calls on the name of YHWH will be delivered”. (Yo’el 2:32) Fasting is one way to call. We in the U.S. just saw many crying out to YHWH for relief from an oppressive government that threatened to get much worse; in His mercy He turned back the tide by means of a vote. In the haftarah (2 Kings 4:1-7), the widow of one of Elisha’s students cried out to YHWH for help by way of His prophet. He set His representatives among us to deal with the “lower-grade”, more localized, but still important-to-Him victims of “everyday” oppression.  

Thankfully, it’s not just the calamities that get His attention.
There are positive outcries that reach Heaven as well: “My soul longs, even faints for the courts of YHWH: my heart and my flesh cry out for the living Elohim!” (Psalm 84:2) He pays attention to these cries of our hearts to know and to be closer to Him, marking those who call on Him in this way as “men after His own heart”. The calls He is most eager to hear are those that come when we’re not in trouble.