Latest / Scripture Central / Genesis 18-23 I Come Follow Me I Handmaidens, Harems and Heroines I Lynne Hilton Wilson

Transcript

Genesis 18-23 I Come Follow Me I Handmaidens, Harems and Heroines I Lynne Hilton Wilson · Scripture Central

• 0:00
  In Genesis chapter 19 verse 8, it sounds as if Lot is
• 0:05
  suggesting his daughters go out. He's saying, here, I'll just
• 0:08
  give these to you. Well, we learned in the Joe
• 0:10
  Smith translation that that is wrong.
• 0:13
  The Joseph Smith translation comes in.
• 0:15
  Let me, I pray that you plead with my brethren that I may not.
• 0:22
  And then it goes back to the text.
• 0:23
  Bring them out unto you. Sarah's ire is raised so high
• 0:27
  that she demands that they leave the family.
• 0:30
  And it it scribes Abraham's love for Ishmael.
• 0:33
  He does not want to disown him. He loves his son.
• 0:37
  But Abraham prays about this, and the Lord directed Abraham to
• 0:41
  follow his wife's request. Shalom.
• 0:49
  I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson, part of the Scripture Central team where
• 0:53
  we try to build enduring faith in Jesus Christ by illuminating
• 0:57
  and defending the Scriptures. And I'm thrilled to be part of
• 1:01
  the team to look at the Old Testament.
• 1:02
  This year I'm focusing in on the women, helping them find their
• 1:06
  Messiah in the Old Testament. I've titled it Handmaidens,
• 1:10
  Harems, and Heroines. And today we get our third
• 1:14
  lesson on Sarai or Sarah on 2nd lesson on Hagar, and we
• 1:19
  introduce Lot's daughters and Lot's wife.
• 1:22
  These are very difficult sections.
• 1:24
  I hope we have time to go through some of the maidservants
• 1:27
  of Abimelech and some of the other women that we look at.
• 1:30
  But just as a review, I want to remind you of Sarah's maturing
• 1:34
  years here. You know, she was 52 years old
• 1:37
  when they left Hebron, so she has not been home for decades
• 1:42
  and decades. They first go down to Egypt,
• 1:44
  then back up to Canaan, and they're there for a decade or so
• 1:48
  before she offers Hagar to Abraham.
• 1:51
  And that is when she's 75 years old and Ishmael is born when she
• 1:56
  is 76. But when she's 89, she is
• 2:01
  promised by the three visitors that she will have another
• 2:05
  child. That was last week in Genesis
• 2:07
  17. And the law of circumcision is
• 2:10
  given. And those 3 visitors are
• 2:13
  continuing on their way down South to the Dead Sea, where the
• 2:18
  destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is going to take place.
• 2:21
  In our readings today, Today we also have her bearing Isaac, and
• 2:27
  we have her death at age 127. So these are wonderful chapters
• 2:34
  of her mature years. And we see her as a woman of
• 2:38
  God, a woman of strength. And I'm really excited to talk
• 2:42
  about the chapter 18 of Genesis with you.
• 2:45
  So it says that Jehovah appears to Abraham down in Mamre, and as
• 2:51
  he's there, it's in the heat of the day.
• 2:53
  He goes inside and sits in the tent and it and the text isn't
• 2:56
  really clear, but it sounds like three other people come.
• 2:59
  And as a part of the Eastern traditions of extreme
• 3:04
  hospitality, Abram jumps up and offers them a meal and runs in
• 3:10
  and asks Sarai to start baking some bread.
• 3:13
  Now the crazy thing is the text says use 3 sias of flour.
• 3:19
  Now I don't know if Abraham knew exactly how much that was, but
• 3:23
  when we look at it in today, the numbers that come out of this is
• 3:27
  36 lbs of flour. If this is going to make 45
• 3:31
  loaves of bread or 200 flatbreads, if you're making a
• 3:34
  pita right on the flames, you know this is absolutely
• 3:37
  outrageous for three guests. So I'm wondering if maybe the
• 3:40
  entire community are, are going to join them for this meal, all
• 3:45
  of Abraham's community, because it's going to be a new covenant.
• 3:49
  It's not just Abraham who's getting the covenant of
• 3:51
  circumcision. His entire people are going to
• 3:55
  do this. And I, I, I just wonder if that
• 3:59
  number is accurate. I'm sure Sarai had many people
• 4:02
  to help her. We know these three divine
• 4:05
  beings are separate from the Jehovah who first visited him,
• 4:09
  but it is interesting that they're going to be able to eat,
• 4:12
  as we talked about before. But we learn in the Joseph Smith
• 4:16
  translation that not only was the city of Enoch translated
• 4:21
  with people being able to come back and forth and minister to
• 4:24
  those who had received their higher ordinances, but the city
• 4:28
  of Melchizedek also joined the city of Enoch as translated
• 4:34
  beings because we learned that Abraham had sought that earlier.
• 4:38
  So perhaps these angels were from one of those places.
• 4:42
  I, I'm not, I'm not sure. But going back to Genesis, I'm
• 4:46
  going to read from the New International Version, chapter
• 4:50
  18, verse 10. I will surely return to you
• 4:54
  about this time next year. And Sarah, your wife will have a
• 4:59
  son now. Abrams, 99, Sarah's 89.
• 5:03
  They're receiving their new names.
• 5:05
  They're receiving the law of circumcision.
• 5:07
  And the promise that they have been waiting for for decades is
• 5:12
  going to come to pass at the most amazing time, the time they
• 5:16
  did not expect it all, but the Lord is going to strengthen them
• 5:20
  to be able to go through this. At this time, the ancient world,
• 5:25
  men and women did not eat together.
• 5:27
  Women did not eat a meal with male guests that were coming.
• 5:30
  You didn't know if you could trust the guests.
• 5:32
  You kept your women safe. And so they were segregated.
• 5:36
  So Sarai is not at the table as they're eating or on the on the
• 5:40
  ground wherever they're eating. A small low place, probably on a
• 5:43
  rock shelf or something. I don't know.
• 5:44
  They're nomads. They're not dealing in houses
• 5:47
  right now, but as this prophecy is given, I don't know if Sarah
• 5:52
  laughed out loud or what happens, but the three guests,
• 5:55
  these divine beings say, why did Sarah laugh?
• 5:59
  She's listening in. She's eavesdropping.
• 6:02
  She overheard it and she's laughing.
• 6:05
  Thousand years later, the rabbi say the reason why you can't
• 6:09
  trust a woman is because Sarah lied.
• 6:12
  She said she didn't laugh when she did so.
• 6:15
  Women are should not be in courts of law.
• 6:17
  You know, this is absolutely ridiculous.
• 6:20
  That's not what the text is talking about.
• 6:22
  It's too good to be true. She doesn't want to have this
• 6:26
  hope again. She's hoped her entire life for
• 6:28
  this. I don't think we can ever
• 6:30
  understate what it meant to that ancient world to be able to bear
• 6:34
  a child. As a woman, you know the
• 6:37
  greatest gift you could give the world was to have a child.
• 6:42
  The angel's answer is anything too hard for the Lord, that's
• 6:47
  Genesis 1814. However, the Lord's timing in
• 6:51
  this case is very interesting because not only is a 99 year
• 6:55
  old woman expecting, and I assume her body was as sick as
• 6:59
  most of ours and she is nauseated and exhausted and
• 7:03
  uncomfortable and emotional and irritated, I assume she also has
• 7:09
  a harder time moving around. And yet during this year they
• 7:13
  have two moves. The entire community, I think,
• 7:17
  is moving at least twice in Chapter 18 and 19.
• 7:21
  Have a break, though. They don't go right into the
• 7:23
  moves. They go and tell us a little bit
• 7:26
  about Sodom and Gomorrah. So let's go with the text now at
• 7:30
  this horrendously wicked city where there's terrible sexual
• 7:35
  devency and absolutely revolting degeneracy.
• 7:39
  And as the three angels, the three divine beings who have the
• 7:44
  meal with Abram and give him the law of circumcision, that Sarah,
• 7:48
  I'm sure, was very much aware of as she was part of the
• 7:52
  healthcare givers to all the men who had this surgery, including
• 7:57
  her adopted son Ishmael. But as the angels left Abram,
• 8:03
  they go down to Sodom and Gomorrah, and they tell Abram as
• 8:08
  the prophet, I guess his new name is Abraham, I can start
• 8:11
  using their new names now that this city is going to be
• 8:14
  destroyed. And Abraham starts pleading with
• 8:18
  these. He says, please forgive me, God,
• 8:20
  for being so, so presumptuous, but if there's 50 righteous
• 8:24
  people, can you please save the city?
• 8:27
  And the Lord says, yes. And he said, I don't want to be
• 8:32
  out of line. And I know that I'm nothing, I'm
• 8:34
  just dust. But God, can you save it if
• 8:37
  there's 40? Can you save it if there's 30?
• 8:39
  And when they go back and forth and then he finally says in
• 8:42
  Genesis 1832, if there's 10 good people, can you save the city?
• 8:49
  And the Lord says, if there are 10, the answer is yes, I will
• 8:53
  save it. This just blows me away.
• 8:57
  What is our responsibility as disciples of Christ?
• 9:00
  We are to bless the world. This is how we're the leaven.
• 9:03
  This is how we're the salt. Just a little sprinkling of
• 9:07
  goodness can save an entire community.
• 9:11
  May we live righteously wherever you live around the world.
• 9:16
  This experience of a wicked, degenerate people being saved.
• 9:23
  I just a few is something that applies to me now.
• 9:28
  But as these three angels come down, this horrific wicked city
• 9:35
  sees three men come in and they immediately come to Lot's house
• 9:39
  and say we want the men and we want your daughters.
• 9:43
  But the Genesis account does not say that.
• 9:45
  The Genesis count is a little different.
• 9:47
  We're very fortunate to have the Joseph Smith translation because
• 9:50
  in Genesis chapter 19, verse 8, it sounds as if Lot is
• 9:56
  suggesting his daughters go out, his two virgin daughters.
• 9:59
  He has other daughters who are married, but his young
• 10:02
  daughters, he's saying here, I'll just give these to you.
• 10:05
  Well, we learned in the Joe Smith translation that that is
• 10:08
  wrong. That is some sort of a deranged
• 10:10
  editor who's made that mistake or perhaps it was a
• 10:13
  misunderstanding. I don't want to throw stones at
• 10:16
  the editors there, but but first, but what we have in King
• 10:20
  James is wrong. The mob becomes angry.
• 10:24
  Lot steps outside to try to pacify them.
• 10:27
  And I'm going to read to you from the Joe Smith translation.
• 10:30
  It starts out in verse 11 by saying, wherefore they said unto
• 10:35
  the man quote, we will have the men and thy daughter.
• 10:40
  This is the mob yelling at Lots and thy daughters also, and we
• 10:44
  will do with them as seemeth us good.
• 10:46
  The text goes back now in still the Joe Smith translation.
• 10:49
  Now this was after the wickedness of Sodom and Lot said
• 10:54
  then we join back to Genesis chapter 19 verse 11.
• 10:58
  Behold now I have two daughters which are not known of men.
• 11:01
  The Joseph Smith translation comes in.
• 11:04
  Let me, I pray that you plead with my brethren that I may not,
• 11:10
  and then it goes back to the text.
• 11:12
  Bring them out unto you. So the knot is so important.
• 11:16
  Lot is saying, I will not have you take my daughters, and you
• 11:19
  will not have my guess. The King James has just a couple
• 11:23
  of words, and then the JST comes back in.
• 11:25
  For God will not justify his servant in these things.
• 11:29
  Lot is a servant of God, He is not going to do that.
• 11:32
  Wherefore let me plead with my brethren this once only, that
• 11:38
  unto these men ye do nothing, and that they may have peace in
• 11:43
  my house. Well, the mob had nothing to do
• 11:44
  with it. You know the story.
• 11:46
  They had to pull Lot back inside the house.
• 11:48
  But the family is protected by the night because the Lord
• 11:52
  causes blindness on the mob and they can't find the door.
• 11:55
  It's a great story. And but the next morning before
• 11:59
  sunrise, the angels or the divine beings have already said,
• 12:03
  you have got to get out of here now.
• 12:05
  But of course Lot and his family are running a little bit late.
• 12:08
  The sons in law don't want to come.
• 12:10
  They think that Lot's old crazy guy and they're they're running
• 12:16
  late. The angels finally grab them by
• 12:17
  the hands and run out the door with them.
• 12:19
  And as they are leaving, they receive the commandment to obey
• 12:25
  and to move forward. And as you know, unfortunately,
• 12:29
  Lot's wife disobeys that express command.
• 12:33
  And I want to read to you verse 26 in the transparent
• 12:39
  translation of Genesis 19. But Lot's wife turned and gazed
• 12:44
  longingly on the city and turned into a pillar of salt.
• 12:50
  And we do not know what this means.
• 12:52
  We do know that the text says God caused fire and brimstone to
• 12:57
  come down from heaven. You know, it sounds like a
• 13:00
  horrific explosion that's going off.
• 13:02
  Whatever it is that is destroying that city affected
• 13:06
  her as well because she did not live the commands of God.
• 13:11
  That's just one of the bad things that happened.
• 13:13
  The city's destroyed #2 his wife is destroyed.
• 13:17
  And there's a third tragedy that happens.
• 13:21
  And I'm very grateful again for the Joseph Smith translation
• 13:23
  that clarifies this was wickedness.
• 13:27
  And as they Lot and his daughters leave, the angels say,
• 13:31
  we're going to go all the way out to that mountain and get in,
• 13:35
  get in The Cave and stay there. And Lot says, oh, there's a
• 13:38
  little neighborhood city. Let me just go into Zoar there
• 13:41
  and the Angel says OK, go into Zoar, but we can't make the
• 13:45
  destruction until you're there. So get into that city and get
• 13:48
  out of here so we can have the destruction.
• 13:51
  And it sounds like there's going to be nuclear fallout or
• 13:53
  something. I have no idea, but it sounds
• 13:56
  like there were reverberations if you stayed close.
• 13:58
  Well, unfortunately as soon as Lot gets there, he realizes that
• 14:02
  the angels actually had the right information and that this
• 14:04
  is a wicked place and it's not safe for himself nor his
• 14:08
  daughters. And so he's does end up
• 14:10
  following the Angels advice. Tyson goes up to the mountain.
• 14:13
  He finds a cave. But the Joseph Smith translation
• 14:15
  adds that as they're living in this cave, these young girls,
• 14:21
  whether they're acting ignorantly or out of fear, or if
• 14:25
  they've sort of they're in a state of PTSD and they're a
• 14:28
  little deranged. But for some reason, the Joseph
• 14:31
  Smith translation says the eldest daughter dealt wickedly
• 14:37
  and she convinces her younger sister to do the same thing.
• 14:39
  They get their father drunk and they procreate with him.
• 14:44
  And the Joe Smith translation is very clear in Genesis 1937 and
• 14:48
  38 that this is wickedness. When this story finishes with
• 14:52
  Lot, and the offspring of Lot become people that we read about
• 14:58
  all throughout the Old Testament, the people of Moab
• 15:01
  and the people of Ammon, they often are used as antagonistic
• 15:06
  figures with the grandchildren of Isaac and Jacob, but they're
• 15:10
  always in the same neighborhood. They have the same land.
• 15:13
  They fulfill part of the promises of Abraham's
• 15:16
  descendants. It's interesting.
• 15:17
  I know we don't have the whole story, but as one who believes
• 15:22
  that scriptures initially were the word of God, God, I just can
• 15:26
  put a lot of these stories on the back burner and say, let's
• 15:30
  keep looking For more information.
• 15:32
  You know, I love different translation.
• 15:34
  I love going back to the Hebrew. I appreciate reading the Dead
• 15:37
  Sea Scrolls. I appreciate reading the legends
• 15:39
  of the Jews, but we do not have the whole picture.
• 15:42
  I do believe that God was the author of goodness and some of
• 15:47
  these stories were very confusing.
• 15:51
  But in chapter 20, we go back to Abraham and Sarah, and during
• 15:57
  this year of her pregnancy, as they're moving, they go down to
• 16:02
  the coastal lines. They're a little bit inland of
• 16:05
  the Gaza Strip and they're in King Abimelechs land.
• 16:10
  And it says in Genesis chapter 20, verse 2, that Sarah again
• 16:15
  takes on the role of a sister of Abraham, and Abraham's wife was
• 16:20
  so sacred and their relationship was so sacred that God actually
• 16:26
  sent a physical consequence to the harem of Abimelech and to
• 16:30
  that household, and it lasted for months.
• 16:33
  The things that sort of strange though, is that in verse 14, it
• 16:37
  says that Abimelech later learns that Sarai has already been
• 16:40
  married. And so he takes sheep and oxen
• 16:44
  and again, men servants and women servants, these are slaves
• 16:47
  or servants, and he's giving them to Abraham, asking to
• 16:51
  restore Sarah to him, his wife. It's very strange, this
• 16:56
  relationship. But we read in the Joseph Smith
• 16:59
  translation that God is the author even of this.
• 17:02
  So sometimes when we're asked to do things that are strange to
• 17:05
  us, we need to know what the Spirit of the Lord sounds like.
• 17:11
  We need, like Abraham, to follow our promptings.
• 17:15
  We learn that Sarah is able to deliver, and she's now 90 years
• 17:21
  old. And she brings forth the
• 17:24
  promised child, Isaac, and she names him Laughter.
• 17:28
  She names him the laughing One. It says in Genesis 21 verse 6 in
• 17:33
  the NIV translation. God has brought me laughter, and
• 17:38
  everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.
• 17:42
  And in the ancient world, a mother nurses her children for a
• 17:47
  lot longer than we do now. And many examples are two or
• 17:51
  three years. And we have some ancient
• 17:53
  examples of five year olds. But when he is finally weaned,
• 17:57
  Sarah and Abraham have a huge feast.
• 18:00
  We assume that it's their whole community that's invited.
• 18:03
  We aren't sure exactly, but after this feast there is an
• 18:08
  unfortunate situation. Now remember Ishmael was 13
• 18:12
  years old when Sarah has Isaac. And so we now are dealing with
• 18:19
  an Ishmael who is 23456 years older.
• 18:24
  You know, he's probably 16 years old or something, give or take a
• 18:28
  year. So even though in the text that
• 18:30
  calls him a young man, do the math.
• 18:32
  This is not a little sibling rivalry.
• 18:35
  This is a very old teenager who should know better.
• 18:39
  You know, if the in the ancient world, you are married by these
• 18:41
  ages and some cultures. And so there's something that's
• 18:47
  going on that is extremely offensive to Sarah.
• 18:51
  And don't look at Hagar with a, with a small little, you know,
• 18:55
  678 year old. Look at Hagar with a older
• 19:00
  teenager and the relationship here.
• 19:03
  Unfortunately, something has happened that is so offensive.
• 19:08
  It's it's only described as mocking in our text.
• 19:11
  But I wonder if there was abuse of some sort or threatening of
• 19:14
  some sort. I don't know.
• 19:16
  But but poor Hagar and Ishmael had been transplanted and it's a
• 19:20
  very difficult situation for everyone.
• 19:23
  And Sarah's ire is raised so high that she demands that they
• 19:28
  leave the family in chapter 21, verse 10.
• 19:31
  And it describes Abraham's love for Ishmael.
• 19:34
  He does not want to disappear. Own him.
• 19:36
  He loves his son. Now, many of the artwork show a
• 19:39
  small little boy here, but that is not historically fitting into
• 19:44
  the context. But Abraham prays about this,
• 19:47
  and the Lord directed Abraham to follow his wife's request.
• 19:53
  So when you think of the story, don't think of a little nine
• 19:56
  month old getting weaned and a little 13 year old.
• 19:59
  Think of it much high older and realize that Hagar is to go to a
• 20:08
  different location through God's direction as well.
• 20:11
  And they move down to the Sinai desert, and Angel intervenes,
• 20:15
  and Angel again appears to Hagar, and she is reminded again
• 20:19
  that she is to be the mother of a promised generation, but now
• 20:24
  she is a single mother. And now they have to fend for
• 20:27
  themselves. God is with them.
• 20:30
  It says on Genesis verse 20, chapter 21, God was with the boy
• 20:34
  and he grew up and he lived in the desert and became an Archer.
• 20:39
  And he was living in the desert of Prahran.
• 20:41
  And his mother got him a wife for him from Egypt.
• 20:45
  So they're down in the South by Egypt.
• 20:47
  She is Egyptian, she came from a good family.
• 20:50
  She probably has lines there. And he is married and he has a
• 20:53
  huge posterity. We don't hear more about what
• 20:56
  happens to them for a few more years.
• 20:58
  But in Genesis chapter 23, verse one and two, we learned that
• 21:03
  after 35 years of being able to raise her son Isaac, Sarah dies.
• 21:10
  She's now 127 years old, which makes Abraham 137.
• 21:16
  And it makes her son, 37, Isaac, when she passes on.
• 21:22
  And the mourning is described with great sorrow.
• 21:27
  But this wonderful family purchases A burial plot and
• 21:32
  buries her there and has a time of mourning.
• 21:35
  And next week, we'll talk a little bit more about how
• 21:40
  Abraham and Isaac are able to remarry and heal from the death
• 21:45
  of their wonderful matriarch, Sarah.
• 21:48
  I am so grateful for her example of faith.
• 21:50
  And I am grateful for the faith of every disciple of Christ who
• 21:56
  is on the earth now. We each can be daughters of
• 21:59
  Sarah and sons of Abraham as we follow the covenants and the
• 22:04
  promptings of God. May God bless you in your
• 22:07
  Scripture study to also find our promised Messiah in the name of
• 22:12
  Jesus Christ, Amen.