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Hello, faithful friends! This week I started looking into how the author and his audience understood Genesis 22:8 and 14. Here’s what I discovered:

Last Week’s Work

LITERAL CONTEXT and WRITING TYPES

The most prevalent writing type I observed in Genesis 22:1-19 and its literal context is narrative. I believe this is an actual story involving God, his angel, Abraham, and Isaac. Knowing some of the rest of the Bible’s story, I also believe verse 8 contains prophecy, giving us a hint of what Jesus would do centuries later.  

Reviewing Genesis 21, it begins with the long-awaited birth of Isaac. Abraham was finally beginning to see God’s promise fulfilled! God also clarifies here that Isaac was the son through whom Abraham’s offspring would be named, even though Abraham had an older son, Ishmael, from Sarah’s maid, Hagar.

On Sarah’s insistence, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away to perish in the wilderness of Beersheba. But God had another plan. With divine assistance, she discovered a well that enabled them to survive.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Tradition indicates Moses authored this book as a compilation of stories handed down through the generations. It contains a history of the world and the ancestors of the Jewish race, men and women whom God called, watched over, and blessed.

Moreover, Genesis was written for the Israelites whom Moses led from captivity in Egypt toward the “promised land,” which I think includes Moriah, where Abraham traveled to offer Isaac! If that’s the case, I can see this writing connecting those former slaves to important ancestors and helping them establish a new identity as heirs to all of God’s promises.

Wow! As I write this, the Spirit is showing me a similarity between the literal Egyptian slaves, who would be the first audience for this book, and believers, whom Paul describes as former slaves taking on a new identity in Christ. How awesome is that?!

INTERLINEAR RESEARCH

I was most interested in learning more about the phrase will provide since it appears in both of my focus verses (twice in v14). This word is a translation of the Hebrew yir ’eh-, a form of raah (H7200), meaning to see. It’s the same root used in Genesis 1 to describe God’s actions when He saw that [each item He created] was good, and it connected my thoughts to Hagar’s statement, You are a God of seeing [or who sees me]. That made me think of our current expression to see to it, meaning to provide for or make sure something happens. I have definitely seen this aspect of God’s character in my life, especially since I was saved thirty years ago this month!

I also noticed Abraham’s response to Isaac’s question (v8) refers to God as ’Ĕ·lō·hîm (H430). This is a different designation than the acronym YHWH used in v14 and in our previous studies of God’s names (LORD, my Shepherd, and LORD of Hosts). According to biblehub.com, it’s a plural noun but appears with singular conjugation verbs, conveying God’s superlative majesty with a nod to His identity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in One.

In contrast, Abraham’s name for the sacrifice site and the axiom mentioning it (v14) refer to God as LORD or Yah-weh [YHWH] (H3068). This name is used in covenant context and was featured in both our previous studies in this series: YHWH Tsaba (Lord of Hosts) and YHWH Ra’ah (Lord, my Shepherd), where I quoted from biblehub.com’s information page describing YHWH as denoting the personal, faithful, sovereign God who creates, redeems, judges, and dwells with His people. To me, this reflects the relationship Abraham had with God and what we can also have with him. Isn’t it awesome that the most high God (Elohim) is also our personal and faithful God (YHWH) who keeps His promises?!

Dig-In Challenges

Here’s my study plan for the coming week if you want to work along with me:

1. PRAY, of course.
2. REFINE: Consult a concordance or online cross-reference study tool [I’ll be going here and here] to find and read through the available cross-references for your focus verse(s) and log what the Spirit shows you.
   NOTE: For your study, follow one of the above links, then use the Prev or Next buttons below the verse text to go to your focus verse(s).
3. REFINE: Next, compare at least a few other translations of your focus verse(s) and write about what you find in your study journal. I’m planning to compare the ESV, AMP, NIV, NLT, and GNT versions starting with this biblehub.com page. After following this link, you can navigate to your verse(s) by entering the reference in the Enter Reference or Keyword box at the top of the page and clicking the spyglass icon there.
4. REFINE: Last, I plan to check a few commentaries on my focus verses, Genesis 22:8 and 14. If you already have a favorite study Bible or commentary, feel free to review it, too. If you don’t, I recommend bibleref.com if you’re new to the Bible or Bible study: it’s easy to follow and you can find information about the whole book and certain passages.
   If you’re looking for something with more detail, try checking the commentary section of StudyLight.org. There, you can access multiple verse-by-verse commentaries on Genesis 22:1-19 by clicking the box for your focus verse, then clicking the name of the commentary listed immediately under the text of the verse you chose. I recommend you review more than one commentary and listen to the Spirit’s guidance on them

I encourage you to do what you can this week to dig deeper into God’s Word. I know you’ll find immense treasure there. And I hope you’ll check in with me again next week!