Blessed to Bless. Tim Sean Youmans
the widow and attempt to give her a child so she can have an heir and someone who will care for her in old age. Er’s brother Onan is unwilling to fulfill this obligation (the term, Onanism, comes from this story of him spilling his seed, or sperm, on the ground). Tamar takes matters into her own hands by deceiving and seducing her father-in-law Judah in order to get the pregnancy she needs to survive. It is one hot mess. The twin children that are born of this union between Judah and Tamar are linked to the future Jesus. Perez is in the line of Judah that bears David, and Jesus was born in the line of David.
God takes the messiness of our convoluted choices and uses them for larger redemptive purposes.
You intended it for harm, but God intended it for good.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
1. Can you think of an event in your life that when it was happening to you it was terrible, but later you saw the good that came from it, either for you or someone else?
2. Is there anything you are going through now that in the long run might be good for you and someone else?
Abraham’s Family Is the Foundation
Watch both of The Bible Project videos on Genesis, part I and II.
The groundwork has been laid now for you to forge ahead into the heart of the Bible. What you will be reading now is the religious history of the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. The origin stories in Genesis 1–11 are in some ways a self-contained mini-drama that ends unresolved. The story of Abraham and Sarah begins what will be the eventual resolution of that conflict. The Christian tradition sees the Bible as a unified narrative that will eventually lead to a resolution. Keep in mind that the history of Abraham and Sarah’s descendants is a process. They will grow, change, and develop in a similar manner that a person grows, changes, and develops. So with that in mind, let’s keep reading.
Exodus, Wilderness, Conquest, and the Judges
The Books of Exodus, Leviticus,Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua,Judges, Ruth, Job, and 1 Samuel
The Exodus: Forty Years in the Wilderness and the Halacha
Exodus 1–34; Leviticus 11, 17;
Numbers 11–13, 16–17, 2–22
The book of Genesis is divided into two sections. Chapters 1–11 are what are sometimes called the mytho-poetic stories. “Mythos” does not mean false or made up. Rather a myth is a story that conveys ideas that are important to a culture. So they can be fiction, history, or a mixture of genres. Genesis 1–11 are origin stories about the earth, human nature, sin, and include an ancient apocalyptic flood story. The first eleven chapters tell the story of the creation and the fall of humanity.
Chapters 12–50 tell the story of one particular family, Abraham and Sarah, and their offspring. God envisions that this family’s descendants will be a means for the brokenness set into motion in Genesis 1–11 to be repaired. It won’t happen immediately, but in the very distant future. This God gives Abraham and Sarah a Vision Quest: through their descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed. And so the second half of Genesis is setting the stage for that culture to grow and one day fulfill that purpose. They will be blessed to bless.
Read Exodus chapters 1–14.
One way to cover these chapters is by watching Dreamwork’s Prince of Egypt.1 It is an animated film, geared toward children. These chapters have some interesting aspects that the film skips or changes.
Joseph is the bridge between Abraham’s tribe in Canaan and the story of Moses in Egypt. You’ll recall from Genesis 39–47, Joseph was a hero in Egypt, but eventually “a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph” (Exod.1:8). The tribal people of Abraham were initially respected in this foreign settlement and in some sense were seduced by the affirmation they received in Egypt under Joseph. They were given a separate place to live, the region of Goshen, in order to maintain some cultural distinction. But they stayed too long and were eventually enslaved by a Pharaoh who didn’t care about the past. Four hundred years transpire—a very long time.
The Name of God
The name Moses (mosh-ah) is a Hebrew word that sounds like the words “to draw out.” When this Pharaoh’s daughter found him, she took him as her son and named him Moses (Moshe), saying, “I pulled him out (meshitihu) of the water” (Exod. 2:10). This has a double layer of meaning, the first being the description of the Egyptian princess drawing him out of the water, and then secondarily, Moses rising to draw the people out of slavery.
Notice the literary parallel here. Just as Pharaoh killed the firstborn sons of the Hebrew slaves, so now God will do the same to the Egyptians. The term for the intentional killing of infants is infanticide (infant-cide). Words created with the Latin root and the various prefixes may be familiar: homicide (killing of a man), fratricide (killing a brother), satricide (sister), suicide (killing oneself), regicide (killing of a king or queen). I hate that it is often these biblical stories that introduce these dark aspects of human nature to those fully reading the Bible the first time.
Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite shepherdess. Midian was a region associated with northwestern Arabia, and for this story it is assumed that Zipporah’s family was from the Sinai Peninsula. Moses marries outside his tribe. He was a Hebrew who was raised culturally as an Egyptian and then marries the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest. Take note of what must have been some level of ethnic, religious, and cultural integration. This is important as we move forward in the story.
Moses asks God for the Lord’s name. God responds with an obscure Hebrew word (YHWH) that had never been in use but that was similar in form to the verb “to be.” It has been translated “I am,” or “I am who I am.” A more awkward but perhaps more accurate rendering would be “existing” or “existence.” Regardless, it sets a precedent in Hebrew culture of God being nameless. To name something is to define it and, in a sense, control it. Have you ever met someone who controls their relationships by giving everybody nicknames? It may be disguised as cute and friendly, but on another level, it is patronizing. God cannot be defined and controlled. God is nameless and held in mystery. Hebrews thus have referred to God as “God of the name (Elohim Hashem)” or “He whose name may not be spoken.” Over time, in the Hebrew tradition, God seems to have many names, but they are actually descriptions of God’s behavior, much like a nickname is given to someone based on what they do or how they are perceived:
El