Reading the Bible: Genesis, Chapter 3

Avraham and Noah: crazy or leaders?

Bible starts automatically from the part where God tells Avraham to take his family and go to the promised land. But it doesn’t say how it came to that.

One question is what has happened in the world that brought us from a group of people knowing God (from Adam to Noah), to a situation where all men worship statues in the age of Avraham?

Second question I have is how both Noah and Avraham succeeded, in spite of the fact that they lived in a society that completely did not believe in God and did not trust these men. Were they just crazy and just inventing the voices in their heads, or is this a real story?
since, if they were the only ones who heard the voices, perhaps they were wrong…

Avraham Journies. meeting faroe for the first time

so Avraham takes his wife, and Lot (son of his brother) and they all reach Israel. they switch several places between Shchem, Bet El and the Negev.

then famine grows in the country and they go to fertile Egypt (this will happen another time later with brothers of Joseph). knowing that his wife is very beautiful, avraham asks her not to say she is his wife, fearing they will kill him and take her. well, since she said she was his sister, the egyptians took her anyway…

God made egyptians very sick, and the Egyptian king, Faroe, gives Sarai back to Avraham, and cries “why didn't you say she is your wife? take her and leave”. it doesn't say how egyptians actually realised that Sarai was the cause of the disease.

Lot separates from Avraham

by that time, avraham already is very rich. i believe that in his journies and travels he managed to attract followers, and this tribe perhaps was “useful” in battles.

they went back to the original places they had in israel.

Lot’s people started fighting with Avraham’s. Avraham suggested that they would split and would go to sit in different lands. Lot went closer to Sdom and Amora, while Avraham stayed in Bet El.

Big war. Avraham the savior

then we are told of a big war with many unknown kings. eventually, the losers, Sdom and Amora, are being stolen from. Lot’s property and wealth was taken from him, together with many prisoners. Avraham hears about this, and chases down the conqueror all the way to Damascus. he manages to kill the enemy, free to people, and save the taken property.

he brings this back to Lot, and while doing this he receives world fame from all the kings. they tell him he can keep the property as a reward, but he only accepts some reward for the warriors who were with him. he says that he himself will not take anything, since this might be a reason for them to say that he got rich because of them.

an heir for avraham and the first covenant with avraham

avraham is sad for the fact that he has no children. God promises many kids to him. the fact that he believed in this — accounts as the key difference between avraham and other men.

avraham takes several animals, cuts them to pieces. during the night a pole of fire moves behind these pieces. God gives avraham a look into the future.

Hagar and Ishmael

since Sarai could not give birth she allows Hagar, her maid, to sleep with avraham. but since then, Hagar becomes arrogant over Sarai, and it pissed her off. avraham allow sarai to do as she pleases with hagar and she abuses her.

hagar escapes, but god angel convinces her to go back, promising her son greatness. the angel also says that the son will be a wild boy, uncontrollable. Ishmael, would become the father of all Muslim (monotheism but not Jewish).

the second covenant with avraham

god contacts avraham again and changes their names (from Avram to Avraham, from Sarai to Sarah). he also promises the land and defines the borders of it. god defines the circumcision rule. avraham goes and circumcises the entire tribe.

but god also tells avraham that he will still get a son from Sarai, and the covenant will be from him. since avraham laughed at this, the name was Yitzhak (issac) which means “he laughed”.

i think that this event came as surprise to avraham, who already made peace that ishmael is his real son and heir. while now, god says that there would be another son from his wife, sarah.

episode Genesis: Lech Lecha in hebrew

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