BIBLE PERVERSIONS: Child sacrifice                    BIBLE WOMEN: Hagar the slave/concubine

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      ABRAHAM

 FAMOUS PAINTINGS  
OF ABRAHAM, HAGAR,
AND SARAH

Father offers son as human sacrifice

   PEOPLE IN THE STORY

   BIBLE REFERENCE

   FAMOUS QUOTES

   INTERESTING SITES

   ACTIVITIES/QUESTIONS 

ABRAM SEARCHES FOR A HOMELAND

Abram sensed, felt, believed he had a message from God telling him to leave his native country and set out on a long journey; God would guide him and show him where to go.

So he set out, with his brother Lot and his wife Sarai, and all the possessions their camels could carry. Eventually they arrived in Canaan, and there God came to him and told him that the land he now stood on would be his, and his descendents'.

Abram built an altar of thanksgiving, then when the pasture for his flocks ran out, he moved on to the hill-country east of Bethel, journeying by stages toward the Negev. But the land was barren and stricken by a famine, so Abram kept on heading south to Egypt. 

ABRAM TRICKS PHARAOH

As he traveled nearer and nearer this great civilization of the ancient world, there was one thing that worried him. His wife Sarai was very beautiful, and Abram knew men would look at her, want her, and maybe think of killing him so they could have her. So he asked Sarai to pretend she was his sister.

This would induce the Egyptians to court Abram and win his favor, so they might stand a chance with Sarai. He hit the jackpot. Pharaoh's courtiers saw Sarai's voluptuous beauty and told the Pharaoh about her. Without further ado Pharaoh took Sarai as a wife. Abram did well out of it. He was given sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, and male and female slaves.

But then Pharaoh began to be plagued by bad luck, and he found out about the trick Abram had played on him. He was quite justifiably annoyed, and gave Sarai back to Abram - but allowed him to keep the gifts, which made Abram quite rich.

Abram then headed north, up towards the Negev, and then by stages to Bethel.  He and his brother Lot now had too large a flock of animals to feed together, so they split up, Abram settling near Hebron in Canaan while Lot lived among the cities of the plain, pitching his tent near Sodom.

GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM

At this stage, God made a covenant with Abram: that his descendants should have the land from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, and the territory in between.

The problem was that Abram had no children, so how was he to have descendants? Sarai thought she had a solution. She would give her slave girl Hagar to Abram to be a surrogate mother, bearing a son who would be raised by Sarai and Abram as their heir. 

Things went well at first. Hagar became pregnant, but Sarai became jealous and the two women quarreled. There was a power struggle, and Sarai won -  Hagar was ejected into the harsh desert to die. God had other plans. He sent an angel to save Hagar, and she eventually bore Abram's son, who was called Ishmael.

At about this time God renewed the covenant made with Abram, making certain changes. Henceforth Abram was to be called Abraham, and Sarai Sarah. Every male in the tribe was to have the skin of his foreskin removed. Sarah would bear a son, even though she was well past child-bearing age. This son would be Abraham's heir, even though Ishmael would also inherit and have many heirs. That very day, Abraham circumcised all the men of the tribe.

THE ANGELS AT SODOM AND GOMORRAH

Sarah knew nothing of all this, but one day three visitors approached the tent of Abraham. They were not ordinary travelers, but angels or spirits of some kind. Abraham treated them with great hospitality, but when Sarah heard them talking about her future, and how she would bear a son, she laughed to herself, since she had long since stopped menstruating and Abraham was a very old man. They heard her laughter, and were offended. 'Is anything impossible for God?' they asked.

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The angels/spirits continued on their way, down towards Sodom and Gomorrah. They were going to destroy these cities, they told Abraham - who was understandably concerned, since his brother Lot lived there.

The angels went to Lot's house, and he offered them hospitality. But the men of the city had seen them, and wanted to have sexual intercourse with them. Lot and the angels were able to repel them, but the angels warned Lot to quit the city immediately, since they were about to destroy it. 'Flee for your lives' they said. 'Do not look back or stop anywhere. Flee to the hills.'  

Lot could not budge his sons-in-law, but he gathered up his wife and daughters and spirited them out of the city. They family dashed away just as fire and brimstone began to rain on the city. But Lot's wife looked back, and she turned into a pillar of salt. 

SARAH AND ABRAHAM HAVE A SON

Then God allowed Sarah to conceive, and she had a son. When it came time for her son to be weaned, she became angry and jealous of Hagar's son Ishmael, and had Hagar expelled from the tribe. Abraham allowed this to happen, even though he knew that his son Ishmael had virtually no chance of survival in the desert. Again God intervened, and sent an angel to show Hagar where to find water so that she and Ishmael survived.

Abraham's second son Isaac grew up, and was Abraham's pride and joy. But it seems almost as if, after all the unworthy things that Abraham had done, that God was not sure He had made the right choice, for God now set a test for Abraham. He asked for the life of Abraham's son Isaac (the sacrifice of a favored child may have been a current way of showing loyalty to one's God at the time).

THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC

Abraham agreed. He rose early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and set off with his son Isaac towards the distant mountain where the deed must be done. 'Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' asked Isaac. 'God will provide one, my son' replied Abraham. Or is it 'God will provide one: my son.'

When they reached the mountain, Abraham and Isaac together built an altar and placed the wood they had brought on top of it. Then Abraham bound Isaac with a rope and lay him upon the altar. He raised the knife to kill his son, but at the last moment he heard a voice telling him to stop. 'Now I know you have not withheld your only son from me', said a voice. 

Then Abraham saw a ram nearby. It was caught in a bush, and Abraham pulled it out and sacrificed it instead. He had passed the test. Abraham returned to Sarah with Isaac. Later, he arranged a marriage for Isaac. When Sarah died he bought a burial cave for her, where he himself was buried when he died.

BIBLE REFERENCE
Genesis 11:26-25:11

INTERESTING WEBSITES - stories, pictures, reconstructions

Child sacrifice - surely the worst perversion of worship
BIBLE TOP TEN: PERVERSIONS 

The Mesopotamian pyramid-temples that Abraham saw
BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: ZIGGURATS   

Tent dwellings of nomadic herdsmen like Abraham
BIBLE ARCHITECTURE: HOUSING   

Famous paintings of Abraham and the slave/concubine Hagar
BIBLE ART: HAGAR   

Photographs of the land Abraham  traveled
BIBLE LANDS: BEERSHEBA  

Slavery in the Bible, case studies of three slaves including Sarah's slave Hagar
BIBLE TOP TEN: SLAVERY   

A short biography of Abraham's son Isaac
BIBLE PEOPLE: ISAAC 

Hagar, the slave/concubine, mother of Abraham's son Ishmael
BIBLE WOMEN: HAGAR

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ACTIVITIES AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

 Discussion of the Abraham story, then Quiet Reflection
Is there one particular characteristic of Abraham's that gets him into trouble? What might it be? How could he have avoided getting himself and his family into strife? Do you have a particular characteristic that gets you into trouble? What is it? Can you do anything about it?

 Working on your Relationships: The Command to Sacrifice Isaac
Read the story of the command to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22). Who is involved? What does this tell you about the dynamics of a nomadic tribe, and of Abraham's own family in particular? What are the dynamics within your own family? Are you satisfied with them? Would you like change to happen? How might that be achieved? Draw up a list of things that YOU could do.

In depth study of one person's story
Choose one of the people whose stories are told on this site and develop a PowerPoint presentation about them.
The presentation must be at least 10 slides long and should include 
 *  a supporting image/picture/painting of each person 
 *  a map of Israel showing the cities and areas where the story took place.  
You may call up other websites to support your ideas.

In your presentation (approximately 10 minutes), answer the following questions:

1. What are the main events of the person's life? Tell the story.

2. What were their main qualities? What made them stand out from the crowd?

3. What obstacles did they face? Did they overcome them, or go with the flow? Explain.

4. How did they use their abilities to do God’s work?  

5. Which part of their story appeals to you most? Why?

You must include three short quotations from the Bible texts to illustrate the points you are making. 

FOCUS QUESTIONS

1. What are the most interesting moments in Abraham's story? 
2. In the story, who speaks and who listens? Who acts? Who gets what they want? If you were in the story, which person would you want to be friends with? Which person would you want to avoid?
3. What is God's interaction with the main characters? What does this tell you about the narrator's image of God? Do you agree with this image?
4. What is happening on either side of the story, in the chapters before and after it? Does this help you understand what is happening?
5. The narrator/editor has chosen to tell some things and leave other things out. What has been left out of the story that you would like to know?
6. Are the characteristics and actions of the people in the story still present in the world? How is the story relevant to modern life, especially your own?

Bible  Study Resource

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Bible Stories: People of the Old Testament - Bible Study Resource
Abraham, Sarah and Isaac - Finding a New Land