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ОглавлениеCircumcision and Three Visitors
Read Genesis chapters 17, 18, and 19:1–29.
God tells Abram that as a sign of the covenant between them, he needs to make a permanent physical mark on every male child. On the eighth day after a baby boy is born, Abram is to take a sharp flint knife and cut off the extra piece of skin that covers the tip of the infant’s penis, then stitch it up, and let it heal. From that day forward, the boy’s penis will look different than other men in the region. This will be a physical sign that he is part of Abram’s tribe. It is called circumcision, and Abram seals the covenant by circumcising himself and all the boys and men in his camp, including his son, Ishmael.
circumcision. The physical mark Israelite boys would undergo to indicate they were a part of the Abrahamic tribe, ritualistically cutting off the foreskin of the penis, typically on the eighth day after birth (Gen. 17:10–13; Josh. 5:2–9).
Notice God makes a slight change to their names. Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. The slight change is the addition of their status in the tribe. Abram is now “Father Abraham” and Sarah is now the royalty, or princess.
Jewish and Muslim men continue the practice of circumcision for boys at birth; many Christians also practice this with their infants. Numerous medical sources have determined that circumcision is hygienic and lowers the chance for infection and cancer in the private area. Most hospitals ask the parents if they would like their infant son circumcised as an option. Some see the practice as barbaric and want to pass laws making it illegal. In the modern age, if you are not Jewish or Muslim, it has become a controversial procedure. But many nonreligious parents still have this done to their infant sons.
What happens next? Sarah laughs at God.
The exact tenor of her laughter is undetermined, but when three divine messengers arrive at her tent and tell her she will have a baby in the next year, she has apparently had enough of God’s promises, and she laughs it off. And who can blame her? She is in her nineties at this point. If your family was all gathered around the Thanksgiving table and Grandpa tapped his wineglass to make a special announcement that Granny was going to have a baby, you might start laughing too.
When the three visitors confront her about it, she denies it. They tell her that when the baby comes they are to name him “laughter.” Isaac is “laughter” in Hebrew.
Immediately after this encounter, God tells Abraham that he is going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. The problem here is that Abraham has family in Sodom. If you recall from your earlier reading in Genesis 13, Lot took his family and settled in Sodom. What ensues is a peculiar exchange between Abraham and God—an argument really. Abraham starts bartering with God, asking him to not destroy those cities. He sounds like a child trying to manipulate his parents for more video game time, starting with a wide target and then bargaining with God toward something narrower. He is trying to save Lot and his family.
Is this a presumptuous move on the part of Abraham? Is it faithlessness? Does Abraham not trust God’s judgment? If God is all-knowing, then Abraham ought to trust him with the decision. It shows how their relationship is somewhat tenuous. If he really wants God to just spare Lot, then why not just ask God to do that? Why the manipulation?
On the other hand, the very fact that Abraham is having an argument with God shows that he trusts their relationship. You could argue that this challenge is an act of great faith. Which do you think it is?
Now it’s about to get a little weird. Notice at the outset of chapter 19 that it says: “The two angels came to Sodom.” Where did the third one go? Some Christians believe that the three visitors to Abraham and Sarah were actually a pre-appearance of the Triune God of Christianity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). This is similar to the theory of a “pre-appearance” of Christ in Melchizedek in Genesis 14. Perhaps since only two of the three visitors went to Sodom, the third must have remained for the argument between God and Abraham. If that is the case, then as God argues with Abraham, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit go to Sodom to judge the city. This fits accordingly with the future understanding of Jesus as one who will “judge the living and the dead” in the early Christian creed. A stretch? Perhaps, but it is not an uncommon interpretation.
Keep in mind this view is superimposed upon the story that occurred some two thousand years before the appearance of Christ and any explicit notion of the Trinity. As we will stress later in this journey through the Bible, a distinction for Judaism among all the Mesopotamian religions was its insistence on monotheism (one god) as opposed to polytheism (many gods). In that sense, a safer reading of this story is that the three visitors were angels. I’ll let you decide.
Polytheism. Worshiping of more than one god. Monotheism. Worship of one god. Abraham and Sarah were distinct from regional polytheistic practices. They followed one God, a foundational teaching for the Abrahamic faiths.
Now, Sodom and Gomorrah. The sins of the cities are multifaceted, but at the heart of them all is a self-centered crude and offensive behavior. The acts that the people in Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to commit with the angels are often held up as the worst of sins. That Lot would rather they attack his daughters than the two guests speaks to how special and beautiful these messengers must have been. Regardless, the terms Sodom and Gomorrah are now synonymous with selfish disregard for others, including senseless, meaningless attacks.
The controversial aspect of Sodom and Gomorrah is the desire of the townsmen wanting to have sex with the angels. What has been overemphasized is the apparent homosexual rape hinted at in the story, but the offense is more expansive than that. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah want to rape divine beings, which is a different thing than a human being. Don’t get me wrong, the entire account is awful. Lot is so committed to protecting his guests he would rather the townspeople attack his daughters than the angels! This is a horrible situation all around.
The result? God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. He tells Lot and his family to flee and to not look back. Lot’s wife looks anyway and is turned into a pillar of salt for disobeying the instruction to not look at the destruction. As an aside, image-search the words “Dead Sea Pillars of Salt.” Sodom and Gomorrah were located south of the Dead Sea near some spectacular salt formations, some of which rise up in a very statuesque manner. Students ask me if one of these pillars is Lot’s wife. Perhaps. But it begs the question, did those salt formations help shape the story?
What happens next is one of the worst stories in the Bible, but keep in mind that the scriptures are not celebrating it. Lot flees from the area and lives in a cave with his daughters. Anxious they will not be able to find someone adequate to marry, Lot’s daughters get their father drunk and trick him into impregnating them. The offspring of this horrific act becomes the ancestral origins of the Moabite people, a group with which Israel shares a contentious relationship for centuries to come. So make a mental note: we will see the Moabites again.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
1. Sarah is ninety-nine years old. By laughing at the three visitors’ news, was she being unfaithful to God? Why or why not?
2. Is arguing with God about whether or not to punish the righteous along with the wicked more an act of faith or faithlessness?
3. Do you think the three visitors are just messengers and angels? Or do you think they might be a pre-appearance of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
