Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham... (Gen 22,1)

Abraham received the promise of the birth of a son in the beginning, and then was tested for 25 years to see if he would be able to trust God that he would actually be born. Israel accepted the promise of coming out of Egypt into the promised land, and then was tested in the wilderness before they were to enter. Gideon was told that he would deliver the Israelites from the power of the Midianites, but then he was tested several times, was supposed to overthrow the altar of his father, and then go into battle with a small handful against incredible odds. Will they believe? Jesus was tested after his baptism and filling with the Holy Spirit when he was "immediately led into the wilderness." After triumphing in the temptations, he returned "in the power of the Spirit" to Galilee. These are but a few examples which illustrate that there is always a trial between the promise and the receiving, or if you will, between the promise and our actual elevation to a higher plane of life with God. There we abound in the things of God to a far richer degree than the preceding - let us simply call it a victory. 

When a man was driven out of Eden, Eden remained guarded by angels with drawn swords. The mention of the sword is meant to reassure us that it is absolutely impossible for us ever to return there. Even if we come to God and are accepted as His own children, He does not carry us back to Eden. That path is already closed in this age. But God IS with us nonetheless - in the valley of this world, accompanying us on our journey to the new creation, the new earth and heaven, something much higher than paradise. But on earth, we will probably see our lives as far more of a kind of trial than paradise, if only because we keep choosing God's way again and again. And yet, God is in this "wilderness" with us, giving us drink so that "we shall be in want of anything" but it is true because we let ourselves be led where he goes before us. We no longer seek our own ways.

Many preachers in rich countries preach a gospel in which they promise people some kind of paradise (believe and it will be well with you, Jesus is good, come to God and he will solve your problem). Sure, many of us have experienced this too, but as a secondary effect of our pursuit of God. Have you noticed that those who come to God primarily with this motive usually don't actually experience this? For the gospel preached by the apostles was otherwise: deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ into eternity - at whatever cost, despite all the adversity it will cost you.

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham... (Gen 22,1)

Why did God want to test the man who was closest to Him in all the earth? Wouldn't it have been more logical for Him to make his path easier, to shower him with favor and to test others for whom there was much more reason to separate the wheat from the chaff?

In everyday life, students are tested most often. Even craftsmen have their final exams before they are allowed to practice their craft, doctors have to pass attestations so that it is sure they know how to practice medicine. Examinations are the gateway to something subsequent, higher - and this is also true on God's path.

The pattern of PROMISE - TEST - BLESSING is repeated over and over in Scripture. God will present His way to man and give him a promise to go with it, but then man goes through a certain test, beyond which he receives the promised blessing. In fact, the whole Bible can be seen through this prism: man is offered the highest existence in Paradise, but he must first prove his choice in the test in which Adam failed. We now attain eternity through the grace of Jesus Christ, but if we look at it from the perspective of man, then our earthly life is a form of trial in which we repeatedly, in different situations and stages of life, choose Christ or ourselves, the heavenly or the temporal. If we pass the test, we receive the blessing of "what eye has not seen and ear has not heard, God has prepared for those who love him."

The formula of PROMISE - TEST - BLESSING also applies to the partial episodes of life. We grow and achieve blessing in them after we have triumphed in them, usually by preferring God's way in one area or another after some personal struggle. (The episode of the arid desert that the Israelites had to pass through before entering the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey is perhaps the most well-known picture of this principle in the Old Testament.) We may not find the period of testing pleasant, but if we persevere, we will find that a new blessing from above will then open up for us.

Abraham has changed enormously over the years. He has been tested several times and has stood - not always, but often. Now he is to be tested again. Not because God wants to "find something wrong" in him, but to shower him with even greater blessings thereafter. Moreover, as we shall see later, his test has another, very specific dimension.

If all the good things were cheap to buy, they would not be worth much in the end.

And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days. (Gen 21,34)

Being someone's guest is usually a pleasant experience. You can take a break from all the worrying and cooking that you would have to do at home and enjoy what your host has prepared for you. (And they have it usually very tidy too!)

But we have shown that Abraham's stay with the Philistines did not fall into this category. The Philistines had not invited him, and certainly had no plans to host him. Shortly after he arrived, because he had no choice (the drought drove him to it), they let him know who was here boss when Abimelech had Sarah brought in. Abraham clearly did not enjoy his stay in their land, but from the beginning was in fear for his own life. At his age, he was no longer naive, and he was not wrong. It could have ended badly for him.

When God supernaturally intervened, Abraham gained the respect of the Philistines, so they didn't dare touch him, but he was still only a tolerated guest. This is how the verse should be understood: he is called "a guest" because he was outside his home country, but in reality he was a stranger here.

But even in the original area of the Promised Land where he was staying, he did not have a home of his own in the sense we understand it, on an own piece of land or in his own apartment, with security, a legal environment, and hot water to turn on the tap. What faith had settled in his heart that he could see beyond the boundaries of his own life and believe that it was in these places that his descendants would one day be not just guests like him, but truly at home. He did not feel handicapped - because he believed. "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth....But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." (Heb 11,13.16)

Probably the older a person gets, the more he realizes that he, like Abraham, is only a guest on this earth and in this life, and his true home is really elsewhere.

Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. So Abimelech rose with Phichol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days. (Gen 21,32-34)

The visit of the Abimelech and Phichol to Abraham was by no means a warm reunion of old friends. Rather, it was forced by the need to find reconciliation and to establish mutual boundaries, both geographical and in terms of how the two sides would deal with each other. It is not for no reason, therefore, that it is mentioned that as soon as the agreement was achieved, the two guests returned "at once" to their land. Neither side felt any need to prolong the meeting.

Abraham breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad to be able to stay in this place, now when it was obvious that the Philistines were not going to get any closer than was necessary. After their commanders left, he realized again with gratitude that his God would accompany him on his travels. After all, if it hadn't been for that, things could have gone very badly with him, the conflict having nearly flared up at least twice. So he did something which was already a characteristic part of his life, but this was especially true after significant events. He had done it so many times, and yet the Scriptures do not fail to mention it about him again: he "called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God."

Abraham built altars and called upon God throughout the land that God had promised him. In this sense, he omitted Egypt, which did not belong to him, but did not exclude the land of Philistines. For God had told him of all that land, including Gerar, that it would belong to his descendants; he could not yet give it to them, but he was already entrusting it to his God. He already understood well that this gift, which God had given him, was not just there for his descendants to enjoy. The land was, moreover, to fulfill the higher purpose of the eternal God - to be a revelation of His glory to the whole world.

So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?” And he said, “You will take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that they may be my witness that I have dug this well.” (Gen 21,27-30)

The lives of the patriarchs can be viewed in purely spiritual terms, view them as those who were primarily concerned with following the Lord, and seek parallels with the figurative meanings revealed in the New Testament. Or there is another way:  to stand above them, look at them as backward people of a lower cultural level who, like everyone else, wanted to get the most out of life for themselves, but moreover practiced some new religion.

As it happens, the truth about any man is not exclusively black or white. Even the God´s people of the Old Testament are just people, not angels. Their heights are when they transcend the plane of their average lives and ascend higher, even if that which meant "higher" in their time and situation looked very different from today.

Abraham may have been a pilgrim following the eternal God, but he also had to deal with quite ordinary earthly problems on a daily basis. Abimelech's people had robbed him of his well, and now he was asking for it back. Therefore, he gives Abimelech seven sheep as a testimony so that he and everyone later will forever acknowledge that this well will belong to Abraham.

Abraham could not go about all day gazing into the distance as in a dream and praying; there was the farm, the flocks, the daily routine, the business, the need to provide safety for all his people. And yet, when he thought of God's promises, with what heart must he have given Abimelech sheep just that he might be granted even a simple righteousness in Gerar - in the land which, according to God's promise, belonged to him, Abraham?  

In fact, he experienced the same thing that has accompanied his followers for millennia: "we have nothing, yet everything belongs to us" (2K6:10). He certainly didn't walk gazing into the distance all day long, but at least he occasionally lifted his head and looked there. And he gave praise to God for all His grace to him and the provision he had received so far. But then he had to come back to earth in his thoughts , take the sheep and give them to the ungodly ruler so that he could at least somewhat live in his land.

Whenever we look into the distance we get hope that the time will finally come when there will be no need for anything like this.

Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech’s servants had seized. And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today.” (Gen 21,25-26)

 

I have already written that Abraham did not feel quite safe in Gerar, as though he was not on friendly ground. He and his servants worked hard, dug a well (a deep and challenging task in the desert areas due to the low degree of mechanization at the time), but once Abimelech's servants found out, they came and grabbed it from him. Abraham was certainly not standing alone at the well at that time. There were at least 300 men on his farm, but they did not engage in the in battle, but rather retreated. Is it possible that Abimelech was unaware of the incident? Gerar was not big and there were many people involved, moreover, namely "his servants". So it's probably a lie. In any case, the Phichol must have known about it, because the Philistines seized the well by force. They must have had so many men ready on the spot that they were outnumbered and Abraham did not think of fighting. (Though perhaps he would not have fought anyway, just as Isaac did not later fight over the dug well in the same area (see Gen 26), and probably thereby followed this example of his father. Since Isaac also experienced here exactly the same treatment from the local men, this is obviously a kind of usual behavior here.) But the Philistines assumed he might fight. After all, resolving things by violence was even more common in the world of that time than it is today. It is always the case, after all, that some try to create something, and others seize their fruit. A war has always been a profitable business in this sense.

 

God's people use to have a double experience on earth: on one hand, God's favor, but on the other, the hostility of the environment. We are not always loved here, but often rather suffered. The only meaningful way remains anyway not to succumb to small-mindedness and to try to invent and create things, even if they are then sometimes taken away from us.

And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.” (Gen 21,22-23)

Abimelech had previously had a terrifying experience because of Abraham, in which God told him directly that He would kill him and his men if he took Sarah. He had previously come to take her by right of the tribal leader of the area Abraham had come to dwell in. After this divine intervention, Abimelech was shaken, as only a man can be shaken who encounters firsthand the living God with whom he is not reconciled, and thus comes to know Him primarily as a judge. After this experience, Abimelech had a special relationship of respect, but not love, for Abraham. Sometimes similar relationships between two parties who are cut from completely different cloth are quite helpful. In fact, by keeping a respectful distance between the two, they prevent the emergence of conflict.

Abimelech clearly had a stronger army than Abraham, who had only a volunteer troop (if we can call armed peasants that way) numbering hundreds of men (Gen. 14:14), while Abimelech had professionals (...the piper, the commander of his army...). And yet he feared Abraham. Or perhaps another way: he feared his God. So he wanted to protect himself by making a covenant with him, feeling that it was not advisable to mess around with this man - his God might come and bring about something big.

He therefore tries to impress Abraham by supposedly "'having shown him mercy.'" Does he mean he didn't kill him outright? These are deceptive and rather insincere words. As we shall see, Abraham clearly did not feel very friendly in this land from the beginning; he was rather only tolerated there.

Sometimes God's seed in this world feels just that way. We are different, and therefore are sometimes only suffered by others. But we need to be thankful that even in such times and places something sovereignly of God can be born in our lives, just as Isaac was born to Abraham right there.

So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. (Gen 21,20-21)

A person moves through life on a trajectory that is determined by his or her strongest character traits. We can imagine them physically as forces that impact an object and make it move in a certain direction, or, more poetically, as strings that pull a person somewhere, often without him being directly aware of it. Since these are features of his own nature, it seems quite natural to him that his path turns wherever he is drawn.

Once a man comes to know God, many things change. New standards will be set above what he naturally inclines to.  "New forces" or, if you like, "new strings" are involved. From that  moment on, choices are made between the old and the new, sometimes in  the form of hard-fought struggles over who is with whom.

We don't  know much about the practical life of Ishmael and Hagar beyond the above two sentences, except perhaps that Scripture later states that Ishmael grew into a nation. But one cannot help but notice a striking difference in the way life decisions are made in case of Ishmael or  Isaac. What efforts were later made to make sure that Isaac finds the right woman who was not to be from the surrounding nations. After all, it is primarily the women who determine the inner disposition of the family. Moreover, they often brought a form of godliness from their original tribe. Therefore, Abraham gave the choice of a wife for Isaac entirely to God and asked Him for a miraculous act. Scripture describes this in detail in Gen 25.

Ishmael was violent in character, and  became an archer. They lived in Paran near Egypt, so his mother gave him a woman from the area, for that was her nation. Not that these choices were in themselves a sin. However, the trajectories of Ishmael´ and Isaac´s lives and that of their descendants diverged more and more over time as other forces, other "strings" were at work. Abraham no longer wanted  to make only natural choices. He wanted to involve his God in them. He desired that Isaac would later also take up his spiritual heritage, his faith in a unique God and the path that Abraham walked in God's presence.  Therefore, he urgently dealt with God in making decisions  about Isaac's life (which, as Gen 25 shows, was quite a struggle) and did not let things run their course.

If there is anything to be learned from Abraham's life, it is in this regard.

And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do". (Gen 21,22)

Abimelech did not know a personal God. One who would speak to him and have a relationship with him, one who would demand not only sacrifice, but obedience, coupled with a search for the highest possible way. With the gods he knew, "devotion to the brand" and sacrifice were enough. So he could not understand at all how Abraham approached his God and experienced the pursuit of Him. Abimelech knew nothing like that.

He therefore understood Abraham's religion only in this ver pragmatical light. Yes, God was indeed with Abraham in all that he did, but if we know something about the pursuit of Him, then unlike Abimelech, we will have to insert here "finally". God is finally with you in everything you do, Abraham. After all the years that you have been learning to follow him, which has not always been easy for you, sometimes you have strayed from the path and had to seek it again.

Abimelech understood that the gods could bless a man, make him prosper, but he did not understand that with the Lord of Abraham there exist two kind of blessing: a blessing bestowed and a blessing acquired. The bestowed is that which one receives freely from above, completely without merit. Parents give good gifts to their children, those that go the good way and those that often cause wrinkles on their foreheads. God likewise "lets his sun shine on the good and the bad" (Mt 5:45), or, referring to God's children, blesses them because of their sonship. This does not necessarily mean, however, that they are always choosing the best possible path in life.

I will use the analogy of a farmer who gives his children what they need from his abundant harvest. That is the blessing bestowed. But when the farmer considers that the time has come to pass on his farm to the heir, then it is not enough for the potential heir to meet the single criterion of being his child. He must be willing to learn from the farmer, to deny himself, to work and to know how to do things, or he will bring the whole farm and all its people to collapse. He who is willing to enter such a school and be taught by his father will then be able to enjoy gifts far greater than he would have had as a mere son, and he will be able to bless others from them.

This is an acquired blessing. It comes when God can say to a man, "Now I know I can trust you."

And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do". (Gen 21,22)

Abimelech first had a conflict with Abraham when he rebuked him for the way he had treated him (out of fear, Abraham concealed that Sarah was his wife, and when Abimelech took her into his harem, God scared him with a death threat if he has sex with her). From the above verse, we can better understand why Abraham was afraid at the time: "...and Phichol, the captain of his army." Abimelech was practically just a tribal leader of Gerar, but he also had his own army with a certain command structure, so it was not just a few people. When Abraham came to reside in their territory, he was clearly in the minority and acted accordingly in fear, but we've covered that before.

So, after God's intervention, Abimelech was afraid to harm Abraham, but his attitude towards him was certainly not entirely friendly. Rather, it could be described as "respect from a proper distance." But that is precisely why his observation that "God is with you, Abraham, in all that you do" is so valuable. If Abimelech had been his friend, he would have inclined to say only positive things to him and to view reality in a somewhat distorted way, as is usually the case with friends. At those we like we excuse a lot of things. But when a person who doesn't love us says something positive about us, then we can be sure it's true. So the Council of Constance senselessly condemned John Hus for heresies, but could not deny him (as it stated) that he lived a very virtuous life. Surely there can be no doubt about this, if even his enemies acknowledged it! 

Abimelech's observation that God is with Abraham "in all things" demonstrates the extent of the greatness of God's blessing upon this man of God. Abimelech understood only that part of it which was outwardly visible, and could therefore reach the minds of the Gentiles. In other words, he measured God's favor by earthly success. He clearly seems not to have any idea of that far more precious part which is found in the inner man, when he is filled with a living relationship with God.

As for Abraham, I personally conclude that after his long road on the path of discipleship, this inner part was already much more important for him and far more valued.