Read Genesis 14:1-17:27 at Bible Gateway.
Hebrew paragraph divisions
Gen 14:1-24 {s} Signs of Messiah: victory over death, Melchizedek, bread and wine
Gen 15:1-21 {s} Promise reaffirmed by covenant
Gen 16:1-16 {s} Abram’s faith in the promise tested (Hagar + Ishmael)
Gen 17:1-14 {s} Circumcision, sign of the covenant, given
Gen 17:15-27 {p} Promise given of seed through Sarah (Isaac)
Strong theme
I realized, when meditating on what the common theme was among these paragraphs, so that they should all be considered facets of a single strong theme, that in one way or another, they all had to do with events surrounding the possible heirs of Abram’s house. When Gen 14 opens, Abram’s only relative is Lot, his nephew; and Abram might have kept the door open in his mind to make him the heir of his house if he did indeed remain childless. The Gen 14 paragraph reveals the test of Abram’s faith in the promise of descendants by taking Lot away (just as in previous chapters the land was “taken away” through famine, and Sarai, the mother of his heirs, was taken away into Pharaoh’s house). Then in Gen 15:2-4 Abram reveals that Eliezer of Damascus, his servant and steward, was the heir of his house, but YHVH tells him this man will not be his heir. When Gen 16 opens, Sarai concludes that YHVH has prevented her from bearing children after faithfully waiting on Him for ten years. What changed? I believe she went through her time of life, so that Ishmael was born to Abram through Hagar. However, in Gen 17, when Abraham appeals to God that Ishmael might live in His sight as the heir of Abraham’s house, YHVH tells him that he will not be his heir, but Isaac, yet to be born to a woman past her time of life, would be his heir (Gen 17:18-19). That it was the son of the promise who is Abraham’s heir, ties Isaac by common theme to the prophecy of Messiah in Gen 3:15 (see Paul on the seed of the promise vs. the seed of the flesh, Gal 3).
Strong theme: Isaac, the promised seed, will be Abraham’s heir (Gen 17:19), not the heir of his father’s house (Lot, Gen 14:13-16) nor the heir of his own house (Eliezer, Gen 15:2-4) nor the heir of his flesh (Ishmael, Gen 16, 17:18).
Gen 14:1-17:27 chiastic structure
1a) Gen 14:1-24 {s} Prophecy of Messiah: victory over death, Melchizedek, bread and wine;
1a) Gen 13:18, Abram moved his tent + dwelt by the oaks of Mamre/ built there an altar to YHVH;
1b) Gen 14:1-9, War between 4 kings + Chedorlaomer/ 5 kings + Bera at the Valley of Siddim;
1c) Gen 14:10, The kings of Sodom + Gomorrah fled the valley for the mountains;
1d) Gen 14:11-12, Chedorlaomer took all the goods of Sodom + Gomorrah, including Lot, and departed;
central axis) Gen 14:13-15, Abram armed his 318 men with his allies + pursued + attacked them as far as Hobah;
2d) Gen 14:16, Abram + his forces brought back all the goods and Lot + his goods;
2c) Gen 14:17a, The king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh;
2b) Gen 14:17b, After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer + allied kings;
2a) Gen14:13-24, Abram, who dwelt by his allies Mamre, Eshcol, Aner, recovered the captives;
1b) Gen 15:1-21 {s} God makes a covenant with Abraham;
1a.1) Gen 15:1, YHVH to Abram: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield + great reward;
1a.2) Gen 15:2-5, Abram: What will you give me, seeing I have no offspring/ YHVH: So shall your descendants be;
central axis) Gen 15:6, Abram believed in YHVH, and He accounted it to him for righteousness;
2a.1) Gen 15:7a, YHVH: I am YHVH, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans;
2a.2) Gen 15:7b-21, To you + your descendants I give this land/ promise ratified by covenant;
central axis) Gen 16:1-16 {s} Abram’s faith in the promise tested + the birth of Ishmael;
1a) Gen 16:1, Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children;
1b) Gen 16:2-5, Sarai gave her maid to Abram to be his wife/ he went in to her + she conceived;
1c) Gen 16:6-9, Hagar fled from Sarai/ the Angel of YHVH found her + spoke to her;
central axis) Gen 16:10-12, The prophecy over Ishmael;
2c) Gen 16:13-14, She called the name of He who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees;
2b) Gen 16:15, Hagar bore Abram a son/ Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael;
2a) Gen 16:16, Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
2b) Gen 17:1-14 {s} Circumcision, sign of the covenant;
1a) Gen 17:1-7a, God Almighty to Abram: I will make My covenant between Me and you;
1b) Gen 17:7b To be a God to you and to your offspring after you;
central axis) Gen 17:8a And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession;
2b) Gen 17:8b And I will be their God;”
2a) Gen 17:9-14 {s} God to Abraham: You shall keep My covenant/ circumcision;
2a) Gen 17:15-27 {p} Prophecy of Messiah: promise given of seed through Sarah (the promised seed).
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