Day 8: The Surrender of Abraham

Today's reading: Genesis 16-17, Job 5-6, and Proverbs 1:20-33.

I. The reading in Genesis begins with the birth of Ishmael. Sarai was distressed over being old and not having had children like God promised Abram, so she convinced him to have sexual relations with her servant girl, Hagar, instead. Ishmael was the child born from their union. 

Sarai chose poorly, especially not trusting God in what He had promised.

The Ignatius Bible states in the footnotes:

Sarai makes a fateful decision to give Hagar to the embrace of her husband. The fallout is tension in the home (16:4), retaliation (16:6), and the birth of a wild and contentious son (16:12). Archaeological finds have shown that surrogate motherhood by a servant girl or concubine was indeed practiced in the ancient Near East. (p. 78)

Interestingly, God doesn't express anger over Abram's lack of trust but instead speaks of His covenant with him! He changes Abram's name to Abraham, or from "exalted father" to "father of a multitude" (p. 79). Sarai becomes Sarah, with both being "variations of the same name, both meaning 'princess' but with the latter being more "prominent with the promise that Sarah will be the mother of "kings" (p. 79-80). God insists His covenant will be through Abraham's future son by Sarah, and not Ishmael (17:19). He does bless the latter, though (17:20). As a sign of God's covenant, Abraham and all males in his household are circumsized. Something interesting to note here is the name changes. This is the first instance where God changes the name of His chosen one to signify their destined importance.

With this, today's reading in Genesis ends.

II. In Job, his friend Eliphaz continues to insist that Job must have sinned, which is why he is being punished by God. The Ignatius Bible notes:

Suffering is sometimes a corrective action of God in response to sin. Divine discipline aims to promote moral and spiritual maturity, just as parental discipline aims at forming children in proper behavior... When we accept the Lord's reproof, he is always ready to heal and restore (5:18). In saying this, Eliphaz enunciates a true principle, yet he wrongly applies it to Job... (p. 794)

 Job is grief-stricken, feeling abandoned by his friends (6:14-21) and deeply wounded by God's judgment (6:4). He pleads to know what sin he is guilty of (6:24). It is with this heartfelt plea that today's reading in Job ends.

The BIY Companion, Vol 1, had some good commentary on this:

Sometimes the people who love us the most understand us the least. Job's friends have answers for him, but he just wants them to be with him in his grief. Sometimes the people in our lives do not need our answers as much as they need us simply to be present. It can be the same with God. We think we need God to give us an answer, but maybe we just need God to be with us in our confusion and pain. (p. 22)

III.  Finally, in Proverbs the final verses of Chapter 1 are given. The father finishes his advice to his son, focusing on the importance of wisdom for learning in life and avoiding calamity. Still "trusting the process," but I'm glad to have finally been able to finish this chapter! Dividing it up over 3 days seems a bit too much.

That's it for today.