Here are some more thoughts on Abraham from his position as husband of Sarah and then of Keturah, and lastly his “concubines.”
·
23:17-20: When Sarah died, Abraham did not want
to use the cemeteries of his friendly neighbors (23:6). They respected him; that’s why they made the
offer. Remember that some of these men
had joined Abraham (Gen. 14) when he went to retrieve Lot and the rest of Sodom
from the invading Chaldeans. Certainly
they got along. But Abraham had a
promise from God that the land was his and would be his at some point. So he wanted his own piece of land for a burial
site (v4). The word “property” has a
sense of “possession,” whether by inheritance or by seizure. Further, Abraham didn't want Ephron to just
give it to him; Abraham wanted to buy it and then he wanted it “deeded” to him
(v17). The term “deeded” in the NKJV just
means it was set up or made valid. The
property was Abraham’s!
·
Gen. 24 is the story of finding a bride for
Isaac. Again, the emphasis on the “land”
is strong. The servant is not to go to
Ur. Isaac isn’t going anywhere either;
the bride must be brought to him. If you
thought in the early part of Abraham’s life that he was unsure, that is gone;
he is all about the covenant God has made with him, including the land.
o 24:50,55:
This is interesting, and perhaps understandable. The father (Bethuel) and brother (Laban) of
Rebekah are okay with the plan; it is from YAHWEH. But then the brother and mother want to slow
things down a bit. Sounds like mom.
·
25:6: So, Abraham had concubines. And even had sons by them. What are we to think about this?
o First, with respect to the Abrahamic Covenant,
the one thing you can say is that through Keturah came other nations. But neither her sons nor the sons of the
concubines have any claim to the land God promised to Abraham; all these were
sent away, with generous gifts, but to live elsewhere.
o Abraham
lived 38 years after Sarah died. In this
time he took another wife (Keturah). As
for “concubines” Easton’s Bible Dictionary says what is said by most others: a
concubine “in the Bible denotes a female conjugally united to a man, but in a
relation inferior to that of a wife.” At
a later time in Israel there would be statutes in the Mosaic Law that would
provide for their protection (Ex. 21:7-9; Deut. 21:10-14). It is quite possible this was, for various
reasons, an accepted part of life in the time of Abraham (and Jacob).
o
As for Christians, the sacredness of marriage
has been restored. As Jesus put it, “from
the beginning it was not so.” It was
possible that concubines in Abraham’s case were related to his mercy shown to some
who had no husbands and were in desperate situations. I’m not saying that to excuse them, but to
say how it might have come about. It
seems doubtful, in the case of Solomon (700 concubines), that it was
mercy. Smith’s Bible Dictionary says
that “a concubine would generally be either …
§
A Hebrew girl bought from her father;
§
A Gentile captive taken in war;
§ a foreign slave bought; or
§ a Canaanitish woman, bond or free."
o Having
said all this, there is one view that the “concubines” spoken of here are Hagar
and Keturah. In the inheritance issue
both were treated as concubines, as less than the wife (Sarah). It may be just as simple as that. At the time (Gen. 16) we know the
relationship with Hagar was wrong, but not so much because of immorality. Rather it was wrong because it was not God’s
plan. The child of promise was to come
from Sarah, period!
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