“A Macro View of Scripture”

We are reading through the book of Genesis. We just finished reading another story of how Abraham exposed not only his wife to risk but a whole city to risk, of God’s justice, in order to protect his own life. It makes you wonder about Abraham, but on the other hand, it sounds just like him. He was simply repeating a previous failure. Been there, done that. 

Next week we will read of another failure Abraham and Sarah repeat with Hagar. This is about the time you, as the reader should be thinking, “I’ve been here before.” Which is exactly what the narrator wants you to think. The narrative is set up this way not only to remind you, but to set your expectations for what’s going to happen next. However, as we continue through the narrative there will always be a “twist.” 

With that in mind, today I want us to begin to wrap our head around the macro view of Scripture. Taking a macro view means as we read through chapters 20-22 we should be looking for things that will remind us of the main failures from the previous earlier sections. These things should trigger your mind to think, 

“So I’m supposed to know what will happen next.” 

Then you should go back to remember what happened in the first round and recognize the pattern, with a twist.

At this point in the narrative, we are taken back to chapter 12. There was a famine which caused Abraham to go down to Egypt. Out of fear, Abram (his name at that time) put his wife and Pharoah at risk. But, if you recall, he actually became rich from his deception, like really rich. From this point on a chain of consequences from that ill-gotten gain began to wreak havoc in his life and his family’s life. 

• It’s what causes he and Lot to have to separate
• This separation leads Lot to choose “Sodom and Gomorrah” as the beautiful “Eden.” 
• It’s Abraham’s fault Lot is in Sodom in the first place
• Abraham then needs to intercede for his nephew on the high place
• He acquires an Egyptian slave girl who gets used and abused

Do you see the conundrum? Abraham is both part of the problem and God’s covenant partner in playing a solution to the problem. 

Next week we will encounter failure number two. This time Abraham will lose his first born son, Ishamael. This should make you wonder, 

“Are Abraham’s and Sarah’s sins going to catch up with them?” What do you think? 

Will Abraham have to go up to a high place and do some act of surrender or intercession or put a family member’s life at risk because of his sins? Spoiler alert, chapter 22!

Soon we will be reading the story where God tests Abraham by telling him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. 

If you have heard this story, you may be like me and wonder, “Why is God such a meany?” “Why would God do something so sadistic?” 

Which are fair questions when you pluck the story out of context. However, if you pay attention to the design of the flow of all of the Abraham stories you begin to understand the sense of who God is in this particular story. In reality, Abraham and Sarah are the bad guys, not God. It’s their sins that have caused the entire chain of consequences that leads to the ultimate test of their trust. 

After studying this Literary Design for Genesis I have started to notice the melody of the stories and they are beginning to make more sense to me. I have been in church listening to sermons for most of my life. The main way church goers encounter the Bible is in pretty small, isolated chunks. Even here, as we read through a book of the Bible, there is a week apart from everything. Rather than encountering these stories individually as if they stand alone all by themselves, I want us to see how imperative it is to see that any individual story is totally determined by how it appears in the larger context. The next two stories we are about to read are really good examples of just that. May we take into account the macro view of Scripture as we meditate on the micro view of each story. 

Let’s pray.