Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart: Part One, The Old Testament

By Bob Dowell

Think of the Bible as a divine drama with a prologue, three acts and an epilogue. Think of the Old Testament as the prologue and act one. Think of the prologue as the first eleven chapters of Genesis—containing the creation, God’s plan one (Adam and Eve and the Garden) and God’s plan two (Noah and the Flood). Think of act one,

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Jul 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781949169812

Bob Dowell

Bob Dowell, English professor, retired from university teaching in 1999 in order to devote full time to a project conceived while teaching his favorite course: “The Bible as Literature.” He envisioned developing a forum in which readers could readily engage in a head and heart understanding of the Bible. For a decade, he worked on the project, all the while piloting his production through a church-sponsored Bible study: “Back to the Bible with Dr. Bob.” The success of that study spoke to the efficacy of publishing the materials for purposes of reaching a wider audience. Thus, Dr. Bob’s vision becomes a reality in the publication of Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart. Fittingly, his first publication as a professor is an article in College English (1965) entitled “The Moment of Grace in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor.” Retired, Dr. Bob loves the fact that his literary career is now capped by a notable publication on the world’s greatest literary masterpiece: the Bible.

Book preview

Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart

Part One: The Old Testament

Bob Dowell

Copyright © 2018 by Bob Dowell.

Paperback: 978-1-949169-80-5

eBook: 978-1-949169-81-2

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Dedication

in loving memory of my parents Alton and Valda

in loving appreciation for my wife Nancy and our children: Stan, Dwight, and Brenda

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Contents

[The small number in parenthesis at the end of each prose summary title, listed in Contents below, indicates the Bible chapters and verses covered in that summary. See the Reading Guide for fuller explanation of arrangement of the book’s contents.]

Introduction

Poetic Preface

Reading Guide

The Old Testament in Brief: Designer and Designed; Thwarted Plans and Consequences

Genesis Part One: Creation and Design (1-12:3)

Genesis Part Two: Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Sons (12:4-50)

Exodus Part One: From Egypt to Mount Sinai (1-34)

Exodus—Deuteronomy: From Sinai to the Promised Land (Ex 35-40) (Lev 18-19) (Num 10-14; 20-21; 22-24) (Deut 1-11; 27-31; 34)

Joshua: Taking the Promised Land (1-24)

Judges Part One: The Yo-Yo Years (1-8)

Judges Part Two: More Yo-Yo Years (9-21)

Ruth: A Faith Manual (1-4)

I Samuel Part One: From the Judges to the Monarchy (1-15)

I Samuel Part Two: Saul’s Demise and David’s Rise (16-31)

II Samuel Part One: The Reign of King David (1-24)

I Kings Part One: David and Solomon (1-11)

I Kings Part Two: The Divided Kingdom (12-16:28)

I Kings Part Three: Ahab and Elijah (16:29-22)

II Kings Part One: Elijah, Elisha, and Ahab’s Sons (1-8)

II Kings Part Two: Destruction of Ahab’s Dynasty and Beyond (9-15:15)

II Kings Part Three: Israel’s Demise (15:16-17)

II Kings Part Four: Judah’s Remnant Survives (18-25)

Ezra: The Captives Return (1-10)

Nehemiah: Rebuilding Jerusalem’s Wall (1-13)

Esther: Queen of Beauty (1-10)

Isaiah Part One: Responding to the Call (1-12)

Isaiah Part Two: The Cosmic Drama (13-42)

Isaiah Part Three: Consolation and Mission (43-66)

Jeremiah Part One: The Bad News Prophet (1-27)

Jeremiah Part Two: Jeremiah more than Jeremiad (28-52)

Lamentations: Jerusalem Destroyed (1-5)

Ezekiel Part One: Visions and Revisions (1-11)

Ezekiel Part Two: Captives and Captives To Be (12-34)

Ezekiel Part Three: Then You Shall Know That I Am the Lord (35-48)

Daniel Part One: Converting Nebuchadnezzar (1-4)

Daniel Part Two: Handwriting on the Wall and the Lions’ Den (5-6)

Daniel Part Three: Dreams and Visions and End Times (7-12)

Hosea: Prophet of Compassion (1-14)

Joel: The Locust Plague Sermon (1-3)

Amos: Justice and Righteousness (1-9)

Obadiah: Day of the Lord Scenario (1)

Jonah: The Great Fish that Swallows (1-4)

Micah: Mercy, Justice, and Humility (1-7)

Nahum: The Destruction of Noxious Nineveh (1-3)

Habakkuk: Searching for God (1-3)

Zephaniah: Judgment Will Come (1-3)

Haggai: The Lord’s House First (1-2)

Zechariah: Cohort of Haggai (1-14)

Malachi: The Last of the Old Testament Prophets (1-4)

We Have Met the Israelites and They Are Us

Introduction

The Bible is a collection of materials usually referred to as books which were collected and assimilated over many centuries. Out of these collected books, believed to have been divinely inspired, emerges a story, but not one told in a straightforward manner. Sometimes events are arranged in chronological order and sometimes not; sometimes events move along rapidly and sometimes very slowly as digressions take precedent; sometimes chronological order is jumbled; and sometimes chronology goes on hold and only theme directs events. But the story that emerges is the greatest of stories, for it is the story of the fall of man (humanity) and of the redemptive process that follows.

Understanding this greatest of stories requires considerable effort and determination. Generally, readers require help in doing so, for it is a complex work written by forty different persons from three continents and spanning a two millennia time frame. Its sixty plus divinely inspired narrative pieces, referred to as books, are held together bound by a progressive thematic thread: the working out of God’s covenant with humanity. This thematic thread needles its way forward, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation, connecting conviction of mind with consent of the heart. Head and heart must be in sync for righteousness to abound as we witness in Abraham’s relationship with God. Abraham’s heart generated faith consented to the inclination of his mind thereby generating belief, faith and obedience the pillars of righteousness. Abraham believed in the Lord, and the Lord credited him with righteousness (Gen 15:6). Who, then, can deny that understanding of God’s word requires the participation of both the head and the heart? To understand the Bible is to understand righteousness, a head and heart matter.

The above observations may bring to mind the following question: What would be an effective format for writing an interpretive work on the Bible? A format with a poetry component would be this author’s answer. And that answer is demonstrated in my tripartite work: Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart—Part One, The Old Testament; Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart—Part Two, Matthew through Acts; and Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart—Part Three, Romans through Revelation.

These three works provide readers multi-interpretive summaries of the Biblical narrative, book by book, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation.* Each interpretive prose summary is followed by an interpretive poetic summary. Because of poetry’s emotive nature—its appeal to the heart— the poetry component facilitates connecting conviction of mind with consent of heart in the service of belief, faith and obedience, the pillars of righteousness. Each piece of the Biblical narrative receives first an interpretive prose summary followed by an interpretive poetic summary in order to better formulate a head and heart understanding of the Bible.

Please see the Reading Guide for a detailed explanation of the format utilized in Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart.

* In order to better serve the narrative of Part One, the following books did not receive separate summaries:

Leviticus, Numbers, Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs.

Poetic Preface

We study the Bible to comprehend God’s will;

There we read what He has chosen to reveal.

The more we read and study, the more we instill;

Ingesting the Bible’s books transforms God into real.

Understanding its laws, its prophecies, its gospels, and its letters

Strengthens our spirit’s capacity for breaking the world’s fetters.

Where start? Where begin? Seekers sound the question again and again

In the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or somewhere near the end?

This Bible study begins at the beginning and follows the narrative thread

Summarizing first in prose, then in poetry, inviting both heart and head.

When appealing to the head the effective mode is always prose,

But to the heart the effective mode is poetry, as the theory goes.

The head learns cognitively, but the heart learns emotively

Depending on feeling and imagination, the pillars of poetry.

Our interpretive summaries accommodate the Bible’s multi-faceted material

Using prose to serve the informational, and poetry to serve the inspirational:

So, let us journey together through the Bible’s enduring narrative of events

And engage both head and heart in discerning its divinely inspired contents.

Reading Guide

[Since Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart utilizes a somewhat unique approach to Bible study, this reading guide has been included to expedite reader orientation.]

The interpretive summaries that comprise this study follow the order of the Biblical books.

Most of the books are divided into multiple parts for interpretive summary, and each summary part is given a title. The title and the page number on which the summary begins are listed in Contents.

Note: Each summary title includes a prose version followed by a poetic version. The versions share the same title because each addresses the same Bible chapters and verses.

The small number in parenthesis following each prose summary title listed in Contents indicates the Bible chapters and verses covered in that summary.

The larger number at the very end of each listing is the page number on which that particular summary begins [prose summary followed by poetic summary].

It is recommended that the reader keep a Bible at hand and first read the Bible chapters and verses, then the prose summary followed by the poetic summary.

In most cases, the Biblical quotes in the summaries follow the New King James translation.

The Old Testament in Brief: Designer and Designed; Thwarted Plans and Consequences

Introduction

God created the heavens and the earth and placed man on the earth to rule over it according to certain revealed rules. God gave man free will but free will with consequences. Man did not have to follow the revealed rules of the Creator, but there were consequences for ignoring or defying them.

Creation is designed to run a certain way, and when man ignores this design or tries to modify it, there are consequences. There are consequences because to ignore or to modify the rules of the Designer damages Creation, bringing grief to the Designer and the designed. To over simplify, God is the Designer and man is the designed, and he is designed to function in the larger Design (Creation). Since man is the designed and not the Designer (since he is finite and the Designer is infinite), he is destined to follow the rules of the Designer. So it was at the beginning, so now, and so always.

Man, the designed, has from the beginning rebelled against God, the Designer. How God has dealt with that rebellion comprises a large portion of the Old Testament.

Let us look at a few key passages in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah that address the Designer / designed conflict. For purposes of discussion, let us divide this conflict into Plan One, Plan Two, and Plan Three.

Plan One

Plan One involves the creation of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the rules governing Adam and Eve in the Garden (covenant between Adam and God), and the rebellious breaking of the covenant rules.

The Designer and the Designed

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Gen 2:7).

The Rules Governing the Garden

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. / And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; / but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’ (Gen 2:15-17).

Rebellion and Rationalization

Then the man said, ‘the woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate’ . . . . And the woman said, ‘the serpent deceived me, and I ate’ (Gen 3:12-13).

Consequences

Cursed is the ground for your sake; / In toil you shall eat of it / All the days of your life. / Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you . . . . In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread / Till you return to the ground, / For out of it you were taken; / For dust you are and to dust you shall return (Gen 3:17-19).

Rebelling against the rules of the Designer perverts the Design. Adam and Eve’s rebellion puts them out of the Garden (out of a perfect relationship with the Designer and the Design), and the Design goes awry much to the grief of the Designer. Man, the designed, ignores God, the Designer’s rules, the only rules by which the Design will properly function. Defiance of the Designer’s plan beginning with Adam and Eve progresses to Cain’s murder of his brother Abel and to a world filled with violence as man pursues his own design. God’s perfect Design is usurped by man’s perverted one. Grieved and angered, God, in desperation, takes drastic action: a cleansing by flood.

Plan Two

Plan two involves the cleansing Flood, Noah and the Ark, and Noah’s fall from righteousness.

Cleansing the Earth by Flood

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . . . . / the earth was indeed corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on earth . . . . / And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. / So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast’ (Gen 6:5, 6, 7, 12).

Salvaging a Seed of Righteousness for Renewal

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord . . . . / Noah was a just man perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God . . . . / [and God instructed Noah] ‘make yourself an ark [specifications given] for behold, I Myself am bringing the flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; and everything that is on earth shall die. / But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife and your sons’ wives and you’ (Gen 6:8-9, 14-18).

Noah’s Fall from Righteousness

And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. / Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. / And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. [Shem and Japheth take a garment and walking backward cover their father’s nakedness] So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him (Gen 9:20-24).

Besides Noah’s drunkenness, we presumably have gross perversion performed by his son Ham, and Noah curses him for his act: Cursed be Canaan [Ham’s son] / A servant of servants / He shall be to his brethren (Gen 9:25). This scene of drunkenness and perversion is presumably given to underscore Noah’s inability to promote righteousness through his sons. Sadly, Noah fails as the exemplary prototype for restoring righteousness to the new earth, cleansed by the Flood.

After the Noah debacle comes the Tower of Babel incident. If the Noah debacle represents disobedience through lack of resolve, the Tower of Babel debacle represents disobedience through arrogant aggression. Planning Babel, the people say, Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens (Gen 11:4). God thwarts the Babel plan through diffusing their one language into many, and sets out to find an exemplary person for His own new plan.

Plan Three

Plan three involves the covenant with Abraham, the covenant ratified by Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, at Sinai. The Israelites’ ratification of the covenant places on them the awesome obligation to live by the covenant and to serve as a light to the world.

The Covenant with Abraham

Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. / I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. / I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).

The Covenant Ratified by the Israelites at Sinai

So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the Lord has said we will do.’ . . . [oxen are then sacrificed] And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the covenant [the Ten Commandments and other statues that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai] and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood [the half from the basins] and sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord had made with you according to all these words’ (Ex 24:3-8).

Moses Reviews Covenant Obligations with the Israelites

One of the last acts of Moses is to review with the Israelites their covenant obligations. He delivers the following exhortation only days prior to their crossing of the Jordan to enter the Promised Land: The Lord did not make this covenant [the Ten Commandments and other statutes given Moses] with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive (Deut 5:3).

After reviewing the Book of the Covenant with the Israelites, Moses provides a number of exhortations for remembering the covenant and for abiding by it. The most famous is the following which became known as the Shema [Hebrew for the first word, Hear] and which became a basic confession of faith for Judaism.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! / You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might. / And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; / you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. / You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. / You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:4-9).

The total Shema is comprised of the following verses: Deut 6:4-9 which focuses on the love of God; Deut 11:13-21 which focuses on the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience; and Num 15:37-41 which focuses on means of remembering.

The Israelites are God’s chosen people to model righteousness for all people and to serve as a light to the world. Perhaps this concept is expressed most clearly in Isaiah: I, the Lord have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles (42:6). Here Isaiah, the prophet, is reinforcing Moses, the lawgiver, in clarifying the obligations and expectations for the Israelites. Recall that the Abrahamic covenant, as set forth in Genesis, ends with the words and in you [Abraham] all the families of the earth shall be blessed (12:3). And, in Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the Israelites, poised to enter the Promised Land, of their special, but awesome, calling: for you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth (Deut 7:6).

Summary

God, the Designer, placed His earthly design in the hands of man and gave him instructions for keeping it on track. Man, exercising his free will, ignored God, the Designer’s instructions. First and foremost is Adam whose disobedience dissolved the state of Eden thereby making it more difficult for later man to follow the Designer’s will, for the design became more perverted by more and more disobedience. Thus ended Plan One.

God, the Designer, tried cleansing the earth by flood and giving man a second chance through Noah. But Noah’s pre-flood righteousness greatly outshines his post-flood righteousness. It soon becomes apparent that his life is insufficient to serve as a guiding light for a new world. Thus ended Plan Two.

God, the Designer, sought a more exemplary foundation to build on. He found that foundation in the faithful Abraham and, with Abraham made a covenant to ultimately bless all the families of the earth. Thus began Plan Three, a plan that preoccupies most of the Old Testament and furnishes the center piece for the New Testament.

Genesis Prose Summary Part One: Creation and Design

The Creation

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, pronounced it good, and rested. He created the land and the seas, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the field. Then God created man, male and female created He them in His own image and gave them dominion over the earth. On the seventh day, He rested. This seventh day God blessed and sanctified because He rested from all His work.

The Design

God created with purpose and design. In the beginning all was harmonious between God and man, between man and woman, between beast and man, and between beast and beast. Left to God’s original design, it was a perfect world. But God gave man free will so that he would not merely be a puppet or robot. Unfortunately though, we see that from the beginning man uses his free will to thwart God’s design, obliging God to initiate new plans to salvage his original design.

The Fall

God places Adam in a perfect setting: the Garden that He planted for him to tend. In this unspoiled, pristine environment, Adam is lacking only one thing: a helpmate. So from Adam’s rib, God creates Eve making Eden complete. There is only one prohibition, Adam and Eve, suzerains of the Garden, must not eat of the tree in the midst of the Garden, the Tree of Knowledge. They could eat from all the other trees, but not this one interdicted tree. Tempted by the serpent, Eve partakes of the fruit of the interdicted tree, gives some to Adam, and they both eat. In doing so, they foil God’s design and alienate themselves from their Creator: the Fall.

The Flood as Plan Two

Seeing His design for the world violently foiled by man, seeing wickedness great on the earth and the mind and heart of man continually dwelling on evil, God grieved in His heart and regretted having created man. He considered destroying the earth and man by flood, but one righteous person triggered God’s compassion and grace. Seeing Noah, God decided to simply cleanse the earth by flood and initiate a new start with the righteous Noah. This plan, plan two, is thwarted by Noah’s fall from righteousness.

The Covenant with Abraham as Plan Three

Seeing Noah naked, inebriated and shamed by his son Ham, God looks elsewhere for a special person to further His earthly design. In the land of Ur, He finds that incredible man of faith: Abraham. With Abraham, first called Abram, He negotiates a long range covenant to repair the breach initiated by Adam and Eve and further widened by their descendants (In Adam’s fall, we sinned all). God is trying hard to help man live up to the prescribed design: created in the image of God! Exercising free will, man tries just as hard to subvert God’s design to his own perverted one. God hopes that His covenant with the faithful Abraham will move things back on track, toward the original design, and save the world from hopeless degradation and damnation. Thus begins plan three.

All Creation Good in the Beginning

Genesis begins with the memorable line, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (1:1). After each phase of the creation follows the refrain, God saw that it was good (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Last of all God creates man and woman in His own image: So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them (1:27).

The Covenant with Abraham a New Beginning

Get out of your own country / From your kindred /And from your father’s house, / To a land that I will show you. / I will make you a great nation; / I will bless those who bless you / And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. / I will bless those who bless you; / And I will curse him who curses you; / And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (12:1-3).

Genesis Poetic Summary Part One: The Creation and Design

God created the heavens and the earth and everything in each realm:

Humans to watch over the earth, male and female He created them.

Out of chaos he brought forth form and order and a special design;

He instilled animals with instinct and in humans he installed a mind;

He made male and female in His own image and hoped for the best;

He looked over his six days of work, declared it good and took a rest.

This example He set for His earthly images and sanctified it as the Sabbath.

Male and female he expected to rest, to worship, to obey, and not to laboreth.

Grubbing for gain was to be relegated to six days, the seventh day to heaven.

One tenth, the tithe, given in obedient stewardship furnished the essential leaven.

Grubbing more than enough lead to spoil like the Israelites’ hording of manna;

Giving, not grubbing, pleased God: witness his blessing of the barren Hannah.

From the beginning, man kicked against the goads, so says the King James translation.

Adam and Eve could not abide the interdicted tree and squandered Eden for damnation.

Cain slew Abel and evil slithered everywhere elevating violence and shedding of blood;

After a while God began to regret His creation and decided to clean it up with a flood.

In all of creation He could find only one righteous person: Noah that notable patriarch.

So He put this one holy person to work on a preservation project called building the ark.

Out of mercy for this one righteous soul He decided to salvage a few beings and lives:

Namely, a pair of each bird and beast, Noah’s spouse, his three sons and their wives.

Every other living thing became a flood sacrifice for cleansing earth of wholesale sin.

Had old Noah kept things clean after the flood, he could have claimed a peerless win,

Yet after floating so long above the depths of sordid sin he himself fell victim to the vine

Leaving God to find a more sterling subject to carry out a new plan divine.

God left Himself no choice but to begin again, for He had made a promise in the bow

That He would not repeat the flood, so He cast about looking for a new seed to sow.

By now God had reconciled Himself to the trauma of having given man free will;

He knew that His created image must be free to choose; there was no alternate deal.

His design readily ruled out a robot without mind and heart to follow the prescribed dot,

Opting for a creature with mind and heart, and free will to choose righteousness or not.

Without free will there could be no choice; without choice there could be no righteousness.

Minus choice, actions become no more than instinctive reactions or automated reflexes.

Obviously, free will entailed great risk, but consider the alternative: mechanical dullness.

Made in His own image with free will to choose, even creature man has a chance for bliss.

Genesis reveals that Adam and Eve could have abstained from the interdicted tree of fruit,

But Satan roaming the Garden with evil intent found in Eve, too easily, a willing recruit.

Yet Adam must equal responsibility bear: God made him first and about the tree did chide.

He well knew that Eve was formed from his rib to be his loving helpmate, not his guide.

God made them both, male and female, with fortitude sufficient temptation to withstand,

Yet lured by Satan to dream of being gods themselves, they transgressed hand in hand

Sorely disappointing their hopeful Creator, and surely causing all of creation to groan:

Henceforth earth would never be the same, gone forever the Eden all might have known.

So that Adam’s fall would not damn us all, God began work on an extensive redemption plan.

Soon old Noah was nixed: his notorious, inebriated acts condemned this once righteous man.

God needed a patriarch of perfect faith who could keep a covenant and father a notable nation;

He needed a man who would listen to his Lord long enough to help heal the breach in creation;

He looked to the east and the west; He looked to the north and the south; He looked everywhere;

He searched the earth for a sterling man of faith, and finally found him in the far off land of Ur.

Leave your country; leave your kinsman and go to a land that I will show you, Yahweh tells him,

Knowing He had found a faithful follower, a worthy covenant cohort, in this man named Abram.

The Adam-Eden plan had gone awry; the Noah-Flood plan sank in sin; now the Abram plan began.

And it is a faith-covenant plan: Get out of your country, says Yahweh, "from your kinsmen sever;

Get to a land that I shall show you, for I will make of you a notable nation. I will bless you ever;

I will make your name great; those who bless you I will bless; those who curse you, curse I must,

For all the families of the earth shall be blessed because of this covenant bond between the two of us."

All the families of the earth would be blessed, for faithful Abraham knew the way of Yahweh,

And he exemplified it in his righteousness, not the Law, as the apostle Paul was wont to say.

At ninety-nine, Abraham circumcised the flesh, a physical manifestation of the covenant bond

Knowing, of course, that true circumcision occurs in the heart, and only then is God’s will done.

Oh that Abraham’s descendants had truly learned, like their patriarch, that faith alone elicits grace;

So cried the prophets of the Old Testament and the New ever trying to convince this stiff-necked race.

Genesis Prose Summary Part Two: Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Sons

Abraham and Isaac

Abram becomes Abraham when his covenant with Yahweh is sanctified through circumcision. He is ninety-nine and Sarah is ninety when Yahweh tells them they will have a child (17:17). Their God’s mention of a child ignites a little laughter between the two, partially for joy and partially from doubt because of their advanced ages. Yet the son comes and they name him Isaac [meaning laughter], and thus begins a direct line of descendants later known as Israelites after Isaac’s son Jacob who had twelve sons who became the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. The covenant was renewed with Isaac, with Jacob and with the twelve tribes on Mount Sinai at the time that Moses led the exodus from Egypt.

Abraham and Ishmael

Abram is called out of the land of Ur [Mesopotamia] to a land that Yahweh promises him if he lives up to their covenant. Also promised are descendants who will become a great people. To help the plan along, Sarai, because she is barren, gives Abram her handmaiden Hagar who has a son by Abram named Ishmael. This is not God’s plan and it causes a few problems. When Sarah has Isaac, she demands that Abraham banish Hagar and Ishmael, a painful act for Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. Furthermore, the split creates two antagonist peoples, the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac. In trying to help along Yahweh’s plan, Abraham and Sarah have complicated it, but through Isaac God’s plan progresses.

Isaac and Sons

Abraham sees that his legitimate son Isaac marries wisely by sending a servant back to Haran to his own people to find Isaac the appropriate spouse. The servant is guided by God and brings Rebecca who bears twin sons, Esau and Jacob, the first born a hunter, and the second a rascal. The rascal buys his brother’s birthright at a bargain, and with the help of his mother deceitfully receives the blessing of his father, thus usurping his elder brother’s privileges. Finally, Jacob wrestles with an angel of God and though crippled by the angel tenaciously hangs on until he receives God’s blessing. Supposedly, God sees more useful good in a spirited rascal than a depressed hunter who values his birthright less than a bowl of lentil stew.

God Confirms His Choice of Jacob

During his flight from his brother Esau’s wrath, Jacob has a dream. Then he dreamed and a ladder was set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending. And behold the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants’ (28:12-13).

Jacob and Sons

To escape his brother’s wrath, Jacob flees to the land of his uncle Laban and matches wits with him for twenty years. Jacob gets the woman he loves, Rachel, but Laban, his wily uncle and father-in-law, slips an elder daughter into the marriage vows. Perhaps it furthered God’s plan, for Leah, the unwanted spouse, begins a begat game giving Jacob son after son hoping this will secure her husband’s approval and love. Not to be outdone, Rachel enlists her handmaiden in the begat game and the race is on. From four women Jacob begat twelve sons: six by Leah and two by Leah’s handmaiden; two by Rachel and two by Rachel’s handmaiden.

Jacob’s favorite son is Joseph, his beloved Rachel’s first son, whose preferential treatment provokes his older half-brothers to sell him into Egyptian slavery. Again, God uses an act of rascality, this time to bring Jacob and sons into Egypt where they begat so prolifically that 430 years later Moses leads out a nation of Israelites. They are called Israelites because they are the direct descendants of Israel’s twelve sons [The angel with whom Jacob wrestled gave him the name Israel (God’s fighter)].

Genesis Poetic Summary Part Two: Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Sons

Abram becomes Abraham when his covenant with Yahweh is sanctified through circumcision;

He is ninety-nine, somewhat past his prime, but ever faithful and astute in matters of religion.

His aging wife Sarai becomes Sarah, and Sarah is promised a child at the age of ninety or after

Stretching their credulity; Yahweh’s talk of a child elicits from the two of them a little laughter.

Yet their faithfulness and Yahweh’s steadfastness brings forth the promised progenitor Isaac

Establishing the means of carrying out the covenant promise: an explosion of begets seismic.

Isaac on the scene poses a problem of unforeseen proportions for Sarah, now a mother real.

Hagar’s son, Ishmael, sneers at his legitimate rival, for this new heir messes up his own sweet deal.

Seeing the sneering, Sarah has no hesitation; her judgment is harsh: Hagar and Ishmael must go!

Abraham hears Sarah’s distressing proclamation, and urges Yahweh to say it isn’t so;

Abraham loves his ill conceived son of whom Sarah first approved, but now says no.

When Yahweh intervenes on Sarah’s side, Abraham tries not to let his feelings show.

Hagar takes Ishmael and goes her separate way sure that God will make her alien son great someday.

Isaac remains to serve as instrument of his father’s famous test: irrefutable proof of faith to Yahweh.

Abraham passes the famous faith test, and Yahweh stays his knifed hand replacing Isaac with a ram.

Though untold, getting out of that jam Abraham must have muttered a joyful noise like holy shahzam!

Having an heir, the covenant promise of ensuing blessings for countless descendants could now unfurl:

A promised land, a chosen people of God, a beacon light, a blossoming blessing for all the world.

The disbelieving laughter that preceded Isaac’s conception becomes the believing smile of joyful praise;

Laughter becomes Isaac and Isaac becomes the covenant child that Sarah and Abraham gratefully raise.

Abraham sends a trusted servant to his native city of Nahor, near Haran, where resided his kindred;

It is from there and not from conniving Canaan the bride must come for his son Isaac to wed.

There the trusted servant finds by sign the maiden Rebecca and knows on first sight she is the one;

Happily, she proves to be the daughter of Abraham’s brother; she is a gracious, beautiful cousin.

Enticed by gifts and praise, Rebecca leaves her family to sortie south to meet her groom, sight unseen.

Five-hundred miles later she spies afar a stately young man eyeing her caravan as if expecting something.

Behind her veil she looks her fill before the groom takes her into his mother’s tent, for he loves her well.

No doubt, Rebecca soon learns that she is wed to the immediate covenant inheritor who has much to tell.

Clearly, she learns it well, and clearly Abraham chooses well, for it is Rebecca who recognizes Israel;

Isaac would have blessed Esau, but Rebecca rightly perceives the potential in Jacob, the wily rascal.

The acts of Abraham and servant, of Rebecca and Isaac, of Esau and Jacob foment a providential brew;

Yahweh knew He could do more with a wily rascal than one who trades his birthright for a bit of stew.

Rebecca aided providence in guiding the dim-eyed Isaac to lay last blessings on the younger of the two;

Cleverly, on the younger Jacob she sewed kid gloves and from the carcass prepared an Esau stew.

Old Isaac thought the gloves Esau’s hairy hands and the stew Esau’s too, and blessed Jacob unwittingly.

Though Esau threatened Jacob angrily and old Isaac moaned mournfully, the thing was done fittingly.

With his brother raging and father faltering, Jacob could see the wisdom in his mother’s advice to flee.

The time was immediately; the destination was Mesopotamia; on both points they could readily agree.

Following precedent, Jacob marries kin, the daughters of his mother’s brother, the wily Laban.

He might have been monogamous had wily Laban not deceived him by slipping the elder daughter in

Forcing two wives to vie for his love by competing in child production, ever seeking one more son.

Both Leah and Rachel entered their handmaids in the production game and kept score one by one.

Fourteen years Jacob labored for his wily uncle who through chicanery grabbed an extra seven;

Little did Laban dream that his son-in-law kinsman from Beersheba was rascal enough to get even.

Never think Jacob a rascal and nothing more, for he made a major stop on his flight to Mesopotamia,

And there he saw a ladder extending from earth to heaven with angels coming and going each way.

In this dream God was reaffirming the covenant and promising prosperity and protection

Impressing upon this grandson of Abraham that he, rascal or no, was destined for election.

Jacob called the place Bethel, House of God, and promised to embrace his fathers’ God for posterity.

Yahweh blessed Jacob mightily giving him numerous sons and livestock, and tempering his roguery.

In twenty years of slick, selective breeding Jacob accrued more livestock than uncle Laban could abide.

Thus, Jacob tried to depart surreptitiously, yet all his accumulated abundance he could not possibly hide.

But recognizing division mutually beneficial, Laban soon agreed to boundaries for separating the two,

And Jacob departed with sons and wives and servants and livestock as he had originally intended to do.

Back to Canaan he treads with all his acquired prosperity though one major obstacle brings dread;

Eventually, he must cross over the brook of Jabbok and there surely meet angry Esau head to head.

In a precarious time before crossing over, Jacob’s life changes tellingly as he wrestles through the night,

And with broken hip steadfastly refuses to let the divine being go without a blessing at morning light.

Such persistence the Lord most surely admired, for He blesses Jacob and changes his name to Israel.

Bygones are bygones: Esau forgives as the younger becomes the chosen patriarch, the one to prevail.

Back in Canaan Jacob moves his family and herds from place to place, from Bethel to Shechem and back.

His daughter Dinah is violated by the prince of Shechem causing her brothers to plan a deceitful attack

That allowed them to destroy the newly circumcised males of the city, an act not approved by their father

For their attitude, like that of Lamech, exemplified pride in excessive retaliation against anyone a bother.

God calls Jacob to Bethel where they had communicated when the rascal was fleeing from Esau’s wrath.

Bethel, House of God, Jacob had named it after his ladder vision there while on his Mesopotamia path.

Jacob is now Israel and has been so since his wrestling with God who then