- I'd like to have an understanding of marriage and multiple wives from this time period, not to mention marrying your half-sister. It seems obvious that the children of Adam and Eve would have had to bear children with their sisters (Answers in Genesis has some interesting insight into this as well). Was it okay with God for multiple wives/concubines. It seems so foreign in this day and age. In Gen 25:6, apparently Hagar wasn't the only concubine that Abraham had children with. The nation that would come from Abram's son with his servant Hagar will later rule over the children of the promised son with Sarah. Is this because Abram's and Sarai doubted God's promise and took matters into their own hands, or because Hagar wasn't his wife. I would think the doubt was the reason.
- From men living to be 800 and 900 years old, Abraham is considered to have lived a good old age when he died at 175. I'm assuming that disease and sin increasingly reduced the life span as time went on. Two big famines have been mentioned as well, about 125 years apart.
- Even though Abraham scoffed at being too old to have his first son when he was told at the age of 99, apparently he went on to have at least 6 more children after the age of 136 (25:2).
- There was no such thing as fast food when you had company (18:6). Make our guests some bread and bake it, and kill that goat after you milk it for something to drink. Dinner will be ready in about 8 hours.
- In 18:21, God says He will go down and check on Sodom. In 19:1, two angels appear. Does He go in the form of an angel, and maybe Jesus with him (note the "we" passages used in the creation account), or does he just send someone?
- Lot appears to be a weak loser. Why would he stay in Sodom when he knew it was so bad. The sin was well known and not hidden, and the men of Sodom considered Lot an outsider (19:9). How could he offer up his daughters to these awful men. It doesn't seem like he know the strangers are angels, and he takes his time heeding their warning to get out and then complains he can't go as far as the mountains. He was only rememebered and saved because God remembered Abraham. A character study on Lot would be interesting.
- It was mighty big of Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael off with a bit of bread and a container of water into the desert. Sarah must have really put her foot down and shown her jealous streak. Hagar returns to Egypt and finds an Egyptian wife for Abraham's son. Payback is coming.
- God promises several times that Abraham's decendants will become a great nation. This is a glimpse of the stubbornness of the chosen nation to come and how they have to be continually reminded.
- Why did God send Abraham out from his father to basically be a wanderer without land of his own? He didn't even have land to bury Sarah.
- I'll have to try the "thigh oath" (ch 24) with someone.
- God will provide the Lamb. Does the song from "Behold the Lamb" instantly enter your mind?
- Rebekah must have been gifted as a giver and a servant. Can you imagine how long it would have taken to water 10 camels with a jar until they would stop drinking. This was no passing comment, and a sure sign that God had answered the servant's prayer. This servant showed great thanks to the Lord in the passages in which he is involved.
- Sometimes you'll do almost anything for a good bowl of stew.
- Esau's wives (again more than one) were a grief of mind to his parents. Interesting. Also interesting that they were Hittites. Surely a quick answer to God's promise that one people would serve the other (25:23).
Gotta go - time to take my goodies to the worship ministry pitch-in and see what Pastor Doug has in store for us this coming season.
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