Chuck Larsen

I’ve always puzzled over the fleece that Eleazar, Abraham’s servant, set before God when he went to find a wife for Isaac. He prayed that God would let the one who offered, not only a drink, but to water his camels as well be the wife for his master’s son Isaac. Now, if my father had sent a servant to find a spouse for me, I might want to have input on the qualifications. Wouldn’t you? I might ask for a particular hair color, (blonde, brunette, etc). I would want her to be attractive. I would want her to have a nice figure, be pretty of course and have a great personality. It’s strange, but none of those things seemed to have mattered. Admit it, ladies; if you had your choice between Tom Selleck and Don Knotts who would you choose?

We have nothing to indicate that Eleazar didn’t care at all about appearance. But we know for certain what he did care about. She had to be from his family, i.e., a believer in their God. That was why Abraham sent him back to his relatives. There was another characteristic he was looking for as well. He wanted her to be a woman of integrity, honor, strong and healthy with a good work ethic. Henry Morris says, “She should be an industrious girl, harboring no delusions of a life of ease and idleness just because Isaac had great possessions.” I can’t help but wonder how many girls Eleazar asked before he found one who not only gave him a drink but offered to water his camels as well, which, by the way, would be a significant task. I can’t demonstrate this from the text, but I like to think there were several.  The bottom line, however, was that she had to have a “servants” heart. Rebekah? She was the one.

Jesus chose us, the Church, for his bride. He is busy making us what He wants us to be before the big wedding day when He will descend in the clouds and take us home for a 7 year wedding celebration. He wants us to be pure of course, but most of all, I believe he wants us to be servants. He said, “If you want to be great in the Kingdom of God, you must be the servant of all.” He said, “I have not come to be served but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many.” He said after washing his disciples feet, “what I have done (take the servant’s place) you must do for each other.” Would I have offered to water the camels as well? Probably not!

I’ve been married for 53 years come this November 2022. Wow! It seems like a long time. It is a long time to be married to one person, especially by Hollywood standards. But 53 years is really nothing in comparison to Abraham and Sarah’s lifelong marriage. By the time of Sarah’s death in Genesis 23, you can figure that they had been married well over 100 years! Also, it had been over 60 years that they had lived as vagabonds in the land that God had promised to give them. They were soul mates. They went through it all together, hand in hand, for over a century. They traveled together from Ur to Haran, from Haran to Canaan, from Canaan to Egypt and back again. They had shared it all, the ups and the downs. She had put up with Abraham’s failures, even when he made her an accomplice in his sin. Of course she was the principal character in her own failures as well.

Good news for all women. Sarah wasn’t perfect and yet she too, like Abraham, is called righteous. She was Abraham’s soul mate. The woman who gave the most precious gift possible, his one and only son, Isaac. Isaac’s name means “Laughter.” Sarah is the mother of “laughter.” She was buried in the heart of the Promised Land. The purchase of Machpelah, her burial site, marks the beginning of Israel’s ownership of the Promised Land. When Abraham dies, he too will be buried with her in the middle of the Promised Land. Although they were both sinners in their own rights they ended up in the center of the place where God wanted them.

Genesis 23:19 says, “Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.” Machpelah is the place. Guzik gives us a little history of the place. “This is where Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham (Genesis 25:9). Isaac and Rebekah were both buried here (Genesis 49:31). Jacob buried Leah here (Genesis 49:31), and Joseph buried Jacob here (Genesis 50:13). The cave of Machpelah (near Hebron) was the great tomb of the Patriarchs.”¹

Wikipedia has an interesting article on the tomb of the Patriarchs. You might be interested. This is it without the footnotes and pictures.

Over the cave stands a large rectangular enclosure dating from the Herodian era. During Byzantine rule of the region, a basilica was built on the site; the structure was converted into the Ibrahimi Mosque following the Muslim conquest of the Levant. By the 12th century, the mosque and its surrounding regions had fallen under crusader-state control, but were retaken in 1188 by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin, who again converted the structure into a mosque. During the Six-Day War of 1967, the entire Jordanian-occupied West Bank was seized and occupied by the State of Israel, after which the structure was divided into a synagogue and a mosque. In 1994, the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre occurred at the Ibrahimi Mosque, in which an armed Israeli settler entered the complex on the Jewish holiday of Purim—which had occurred during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan—and opened fire on Palestinian Muslims who had gathered to pray at the site, killing 29 people, including children, and wounding over 125. The site is considered to be the second-holiest place in Judaism after the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

¹ David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 23:17–20.

Peter called Lot “righteous” even though he lived among the wicked and came to a very bitter end. God called Noah Righteous even though he came to a disgraceful end as well. Abraham is another man that God calls righteous. He’s righteous not because he’s perfect (thank you, Lord!), but because he trusted God. Abraham was far from perfect. The story in Genesis chapter 20 is another “perfect” example of Abraham’s imperfections! He lies to Abimelech about Sarah just like he previously did with Pharoah, and lets him take her for his wife. Now, if our God is the God of a “second chance” then Abraham used his up in this episode. But thankfully, God doesn’t relate to us in ways to manipulate our behavior. He wants a relationship with us, not legal obedience. Duguid says, “God continued to be gracious to Abraham. He didn’t come down with a big stick and beat him up for failing again. He didn’t say, ‘That’s it! I’ve had it with you; I’m going to find someone else to fulfill my promises through. You’ve had your chance and you blew it!’ No, God convicted him of his sin—but gently.” ¹

So in spite of Abraham’s second failure in this same way, God intercedes and protects Abimelech from Abraham’s lie. Then he blesses Abimelech and Abimelech responds by blessing Abraham with great wealth. Genesis 20:14 says, “Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.” Clearly we see the truth of Romans 8:28, “God works all things together for good, to those who love Him.” He even uses our sins for His own purposes. God doesn’t love us for what we can do for Him. His love for us is unconditional. Most of you have heard the children’s hymn, “Jesus loves me. This I know for the bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, I am weak but he is strong, Yes, Jesus loves me.” There’s another verse that we don’t sing very often. It says, “Jesus loves me when I’m good, when I do the things that I should. Jesus loves me when I’m bad, even though it makes him sad.” Yes, Jesus Loves me. And you!  Quoting from Oswald Chambers, Hughes says, “It is so common to think that God will love us more if we perform some great work, some external achievement. But the Bible (and here the story of Abraham and Abimelech) focuses on making a great heart. Here God was working in Abraham to create an unusual dependence upon him, because “He chose and used somebodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.”²

When we think about the two episodes of Abraham sending his wife off with Pharoah and then with Abimelech you can’t help to wonder what exactly was on his mind. Sarah had colluded with her husband Abraham previously to bring about an heir for Abraham with her handmaid Hagar. But God had rejected Hagar as the mother of Abraham’s son and Ishmael from being the promised seed. Abraham had no seed and after some time, even after the promise that he’d have one, he tried to claim his servant as his heir. God said “No, Eliezer is not the chosen heir.” Then Abraham seems to claim Lot, his blood nephew as his heir and God said no to Lot. Sarah and Abraham collude to bring about the birth if Ishmael, but God also rejects him. Maybe Abraham was putting Sarah in a position to be impregnated by Pharoah or Abimelech because Abraham was unable to do so. But, God (great little phrase, “but God”) said absolutely not and he prevented any intercourse between other men and Sarah. He was about to work his miracle with Sarah and Abraham. They were about the have the son of promise with made them both laugh so hard they named their legitimate son, Laughter.

¹ Iain M. Duguid, Living in the Gap between Promise and Reality: The Gospel according to Abraham, ed. Tremper Longman III and J. Alan Groves, The Gospel according to the Old Testament (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1999), 117.

² R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 290.

Genesis 19:30 begins another sad story in the Bible. You can almost sense that something bad is coming when you read it: “Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.” I’m sure you know the story. His daughters get him drunk and seduce him and Lot’s grandchildren, Moab and Ammon, are also his children. I’d assume that the catastrophe of losing everything that Lot had when he went down to Egypt and everything he gained while there had been destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet, he still had plenty of wine!! Lot ended up drunk, living in a cave, being seduced by his own daughters (sounds like something from Deliverance!).

I would argue that Lot was not only seduced by his daughters, but he and his daughters had been seduced by the world and the culture they lived in in Sodom. But there was something wrong with Lot that was passed on to his daughters, I think. I don’t think that the place was the real problem, i.e., Sodom. Don’t forget that Joseph lived in Egypt. Daniel lived in Babylon. Esther lived in Persia. It really wasn’t the place because these three ended up being a great blessing while there. That’s not the case with Lot. I think it was a matter of his heart. Lot got his love for the world, possibly, while living in Egypt. Much like his ancestors under Moses’ leadership, he never quite got his heart out of Egypt. His heart was in the world. Lot had been seduced by the world and everything he owned went up in smoke as God’s angels destroyed his home in Sodom. Leaving Sodom, His wife, who had learned to love the world also, couldn’t help but turn and look back with longing, and she too was lost to him as she became a pillar of salt. Then in the cave, all alone, his honor, dignity, as well as his self respect was lost as well as that of his own daughters. Yep, friendship with the world can be expensive.

The two children, grand children of Lot, Moab and Ammon, did not have healthy histories either. According to Guzik, “Their descendants would become enemies and obstacles for Israel, just like the descendants of Ishmael. Lot’s life ended in ruin (past, present, and future), all because of his love for the world.”¹ Deuteronomy 5:9 is one of many passages that speak to us about God visiting the sins of the father upon their children to the fifth generation. The history of both Moab and Ammon reflect this truth. Boice says, “…when the people were marching from Egypt to Canaan through the desert, the Moabites opposed their march, and Balak, the king of Moab, tried to get the prophet Balaam to curse God’s people (Num. 22–24). In later years, there were many wars between the Jews and these two neighboring kingdoms. In Amos there are prophecies of Ammon’s (Amos 1:13–15) and Moab’s (Amos 2:1–3) destruction.² All this came about because Lot wasn’t satisfied with his “Lot” in life with his uncle Abraham and left home to go out on his own in an unwelcoming world. I think I’ll just stay home!

¹ David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 19:33–38.

² James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 644.

I love the question that God asks in Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Some questions in the bible are worded in such a way as they expect a positive answer! Others are worded in such a way that the answer could be yes or no, but this question is worded in such a way that God expects Abraham to answer it with a resounding “NO, nothing is too hard for God.” In the last chapter God had revealed himself to Abraham with the name “El Shaddai.” That name means “God Almighty.” There is nothing too hard for God. We can’t miss the parallel here with the miraculous birth of Jesus. Hughes notices this and writes, “There was no way that Sarah could give birth apart from God’s power—which was precisely the situation that later faced Mary, the mother of our Lord. Her response to Gabriel’s announcement was, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’ (Luke 1:34). And Gabriel’s answer—’the power of the Most High will overshadow you’ (v. 35)—was parallel to what God said to Sarah. But whereas aged, barren Sarah became pregnant by Abraham, young Mary would be with child without ever knowing a man sexually! Why? Because nothing is too hard/wonderful for the Lord!”¹

Even the Prophet Isaiah, prophesying about the coming of the Messiah made an allusion to this question about anything being too hard for God. Guzik catches that and writes, “Hard is the same word for wonderful in Isaiah 9:6: For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given … And His name will be called Wonderful. Jesus is our “wonderful” One, and He isn’t too hard or wonderful for God to give unto us.”² When the Angel Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus to Mary he appears to be quoting from this verse in a loose way. He says to Mary who asks him how it can happen since she’s still a virgin. He say in Luke 1:37, “ For nothing will be impossible with God.” My favorite Prophet in the Old Testament, Jeremiah, echos the same idea when Jeremiah speaks back to God and says in Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

Believing that nothing is impossible with God is an easy thing to say but when it involves something that’s readily perceived as impossible by all human standards it become a little more difficult to have faith. You have to admit that when Sarah laughed when she heard the Angel say at 99 years of age she was going to have sexual relations with her 100 year old husband and they were going to conceive a child we can understand it. I’m 75. My wife is 70. We would laugh if we heard that we were yet to conceive and have a child! Ross and Oswalt observes, “The Bible is filled with stories of how God did the impossible, worked miracles, overcame seemingly great odds, and finally conquered death. And God expects the believer today to take him at his word, even though it may seem to be laughable folly.”³The resurrection of the dead and life beyond the grave from all appearances is a laughable suggestion. Yet, that’s what God promises to all believers in Jesus.

¹ R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 258.

² David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 18:13–15.

³ Allen Ross and John N. Oswalt, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, vol. 1 (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), 125.

The first couple I married 35 years ago are named “Laden.” When they were expecting, I suggested that they name her “weary” or possibly “heavy.” I once new a man named Meek who was always asked if he had inherited the earth. Donald Grey Barnhouse told of a man he knew by the name of Wrench who divided his acquaintances into two classes: Those who did not make wise cracks about his name and those who did. He was often asked “are you related to Monkey?” God likes to change names. in Genesis 17:4-5 he changes Abram’s name to Abraham. The passage says, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” He also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah. He changed Jacob’s name to Israel. Simon is changed to Peter and Saul in the New Testament is changed to Paul. One of the promises God had given to Abram was that he would make “his name great.” He certainly did that literally. He added a syllable to Abram’s name which is seen both the Greek translation of the Old Testament and in the Hebrew. It’s also obvious in the English. But I don’t think that’s what this is all about.  One of the promises God had given to Abram was that he would make “his name great.” He certainly did that literally. He added a syllable to Abram’s name which is seen both the Greek translation of the Old Testament and in the Hebrew. It’s also obvious in the English. But I don’t think that’s what this is all about.

Can you imagine being named “Abram” which means “father of many” when you didn’t have any children at all? Every time you introduced yourself you’d wait to be asked “how many children do you have?” Whatever response you would come up with, you’d be secretly embarrassed. I suppose that Abraham got used to the smirks on people’s faces when he would answer. Even after Ishmael was born you sure couldn’t call Abram a father of many! But before God changes Abram’s name he introduces himself again to Abram by His own name. He calls Himself “El Shaddai” which means God Almighty. He is able! Then he changes Abram’s name from father of many children, to father of many nations, “Abraham.” He says “I will make you exceedingly fruitful.” Can you imagine what everyone thought when Abram informed them, at 99 years of age, that he didn’t want them to call him “Father of many” but now he wants them to call him “father of many nations.” Everyone must have burst out with laughing. From the human point of view that would seem ridiculous. Of course it would be if God’s name wasn’t “El Shaddai.”

Kent Hughes wraps up his discussion about “El Shaddai” by saying, “Christians, it is the same for us. The way we live is determined by what we think of God. If our God is El-Shaddai, the awesome, mighty God of this account, then our lives will live out the fullness of God’s promises to us. What you truly believe about God is the most important thing in your life. Any thoughts of a God less potent than the God of Abram will shrink your soul and neutralize your faith.”¹

¹ R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 246.