Reading: Genesis 12-15, Psalm 4

“So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I was thinking a lifelong wanderer who accumulates a lot of wealth but can’t have children.”

I’m guessing this wouldn’t be Abram’s answer as a child or young man. Ironically, I’m not sure this sounds all that bad to a great many people in our present culture, which should probably give us pause about our values as a society. But that is not the point of this story.

Following the reset of the flood the slow degrading of the humans continues, and like Noah, we are introduced to another hero with whom God will make a covenant. Like Adam and Noah before him, Abram receives a mission and a promise. Adam was to work and keep the creation. Noah was to build an ark and restart humanity. But Abram is different. He is to go and inherit. Note that unlike Noah, Abram is not called righteous among his generation. He is just another human. And God’s promise precedes us knowing really anything about Abram. This promise- to make Abram into a great nation, to make his name great, and to make him a blessing to all the families of the Earth- is not made conditional on Abram’s doing anything other that going. Abram goes. He worships God.

Seems good, yes? This guy doesn’t need to do much of anything, and God is promising to bless all the world through him. Maybe we are getting somewhere here with our major Problem.

Abram goes to Egypt. There is this weird little dialogue about how lovely Sarai is. And then Abram gives his wife away. Okay, seriously. Abram has just been given an amazing promise about his family and what they will become. He then immediately enters a situation where his partnership with his wife is broken, and the situation is only salvaged by the honorable spiritual awareness of the Egyptian Pharaoh.

Ugh. Humans, we have a problem.

Next up, Abram gives his nephew Lot the choice of the land which he had already been promised by God. Good work. God reminds Abram that all the land in all directions will belong to his descendants. Abram’s behavior seems bent on making God’s promise impossible to carry out.

Lot gets caught up in a local war. Abram intervenes. There is a strange little interlude with a guy named Melchizedek. Much has been made of this, but really the only thing the story tells us is that this guy is the king of Salem (an early name for Jerusalem, and a title that means King of Peace), that he is a priest of God Most High, and that Abram feels he owes him something- a tenth of the spoils of the local war he just won.

What is the deal with these little stories of Abram? Well, for one thing, though Abram is the one who receives the promise from God, is sure appears like the Egyptian Pharaoh and the enigmatic Melchizedek have a better understanding of God than he does. Abram repeatedly takes actions that imperil himself and his wife, to the point that one wonders if he is testing God’s promise through recklessness.

Finally, in chapter 15, we are given insight into Abrams behavior. He is clearly upset that he has no children of his own. His reckless behavior with Sarai and his determination to rescue his nephew might be seen as responses to this.

So God doubles down on his promise. He takes it beyond his statements at the start of the reading and makes an official covenant with Abram. He promises Abram a son. He tells Abram what he has done- brought him out of Ur to the land of Canaan. Then he has some animals cut in half. Weird. Well, not really so weird. He has Abram carry out a suzerain-vassal treaty signing. This was how lesser and greater kings made treaties in the ancient near east- they would make promises, then walk between the pieces of the animals. Then God tells Abram what he is going to do.

So what has happened to our hero? Well, we have already spent more time on Abram than either Adam or Noah got. God has promised some very specific things to Abram and his family, which neither Adam or Noah got. God has something in mind for Abram that goes well beyond what Abram has in mind for himself. God’s interactions with Abram could be summed up in telling him, “Abram, you are not who you think you are.”