• : Genesis Chapters
• 12
• 1-1
• 17
• 18
• , & 1
• 1-29
• Abram/Abraham & Isaac
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• God’s Mercy vs. His Righteous Judgment
• Key Verses and Themes
• Genesis 12, 17
• Abrahamic Blessing

Gen 12:1-4, 17:1-2, 5-8

— Here we see God’ blessing given to Abraham, which we refer to as the Abrahamic blessing. We will see this blessing throughout our readings being passed down to Abraham’s offspring.

• Genesis 17

— Here we see the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham, which is the “fleshy” act of circumcision. We will compare this with baptism in our NT references section, and see the parallels between the two.

• Genesis 18
• Child in Old Age

Gen 18:11-14

—Sarah having a child in her old age is a miracle of God, and something we will also see in the Gospel.

— God hears AND later addresses the outcry coming to him from Sodom & Gomorrah. We learn from this that God

does

hear the afflicted and respond to their cries, and that He shows compassion and mercy those who are being treated cruelly and unfairly.

— Abraham’s dialogue with God reveals a characteristic of His divine nature, which is to favor mercy over righteous judgement. Hence God’s mercies and compassions are often referred to as overflowing in Liturgical prayers of the ACOE, as we see below.

• Examples
• Diaconal Litany-

“He who is rich in mercies, and overflowing in compassion...”

Prayer during raza/liturgy the Priest recites silently

“We give thanks, O my Lord, for the overflowing riches of your grace toward us...”

Prayer of Absolution-

“O’ our good and merciful God whose grace and compassion are poured out upon all...”

— Even the name God gives himself states “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth..”

• Genesis 19

— Although we see in Genesis 18 that three “men” come to Abraham, we later see that they are angels, as two of them visit Lot in chapter 19. Now is the third angel from chapter 18 an angel, or someone else…?

References to the New Testament & our Church practices

• Abrahamic Blessing &

Apostolic Succession Parallel

A common theme we will see throughout the rest of Genesis is that Abrham’s blessing, which was given to him, with the promises made to him, will continue through his children, and his children’s children. In

Genesis 17:9

, we even see God say He will establish His covenant with Isaac as an everlasting covenant!

Is Isaac’s covenant different from the everlasting covenant that was established with Abraham? No! It is the same covenant, just passed down.

This system of Abraham’s blessing passing down, or succeeding, draws parallels to how the Church that Christ established through His apostles passes down authority through generations, with the laying on of hands, or in Assyrian, “Syam-eeda”.

The blessings and authority that the apostles received, like in

• Luke 9:1-2
• John 20:21-23
• , and
• Matthew 18:18

, has been passed on through generations.

So if we look at His Holiness Mar Awa, our Patriarch, and trace backwards, we will see that He was ordained by Mar Meelis, who was ordained by Mar Dinkha, who was ordained by Mar Yosip Khnanisho, and so on, until you get to the original 12 and original 72 apostles, who were given that authority by Christ Himself!

In the coming weeks, we will see the actual laying on of hands, and then we will look at the early Christians doing the same in Acts!

Circumcision & Baptism Parallels

Another major parallel from the Old Testament scriptures to the New is that of circumcision and baptism. For brevity's sake, please refer to the infographic below to read about those parallels, as well as the discussion questions below.

• Child in Old Age

Luke 1:13, 18-20

In Luke, we read that John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, also bears a child in her old age, just like Sarah. His father, the priest Zechariah, should have known that Sarah gave birth to Isaac in old age, seeing as he was a priest who should have known the scriptures! Instead, he doubted and asked how Elizabeth could have a child, which is why the angel made him mute.

Matthew 3:9

Referencing Sarah’s miraculous birth of Isaac again is John the Baptist, when he speaks to the Pharisees and Sadducees. See what the church fathers have to say about what John means in this verse:

• Bl. Theophylact

Sarah’s womb was like stone on account of her sterility (barrenness)”

• God’s Righteousness towards the afflicted
• Full Parable- Luke 18:1-8
• Luke 18:7-8
• ““Will not God bring about justice for
• His elect who cry out to Him day and night
• ? Will He delay in helping them? I tell you,

He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf.

See how just as in Sodom and Gomorrah, God hears the “outcry” against those wicked cities, so too does Christ speak of hearing those who cry out to Him (God).

• Angels

Hebrews 13:2

“Some have unknowingly entertained angels”. Entertained is used here as another way to say showing hospitality. Who is St. Paul referencing here? It is Abraham and Lot, who did so in chapters 18 and 19 of this week's reading.

• Discussion Questions

What was God’s promise to Abraham?

That He will make Abraham a great nation, he will bless him, curse those who curse him, all the people on the Earth will be blessed through him, and that He will give Canaan (the modern land of Palestine & Israel) to his descendants.

What was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham, which we read in Gen 17:9-14?

That every male must be circumcised, and that for newborn baby boys, it must take place on the 8th day after their birth.

We know that baptism has superseded circumcision

in the New Covenant that we have through Christ, so they are similar and have parallels. What is one such parallel that we can see in Genesis Genesis 17:12 and 17:23-27?

God instituted the sign of the covenant to be performed on the 8th day for newborns, and Abraham, in verses 23-27, circumcises ALL the males in his house, including his 13 year old son Ishmael, and probably many younger kids, as he had a large household, and many servants who would also have children (context: middle east thousands of years ago, a lot of kids!).

So the parallel with baptism is that just as little children, who because of their nature as kids were IGNORANT of the religious significance and meaning of circumcision, were still circumcised, so too does the Church baptize babies and little children, not withholding the gifts of God from them because of their ignorance. Just as Abraham’s faith in God extended towards having the children of his house baptized, so too does the Christian faith of the parents lead their child to be baptized. We have examples of this in the New Testament too, mainly in Acts (

• Acts 16:14-15, 16:33, 1 Corinthians 1:16

). Remember the context we gave about households and having little children!

In chapter 18:16-32 we see Abraham plead with God over Lot, who was living in Sodom & Gomorrah. God said he would destroy the city, but then it appears Abraham changed His mind. Does that mean God made an initial mis judgment/mistake?

NO! God does not make mistakes, and He is not a changing God, as we read in

Malachi 3:6 & Hebrews 13:8.

Rather, God’s overflowing Mercy and Grace often overrules His righteous Judgement, because His nature is to be merciful and graceful, and he is NOT swift to punish, just as St. Peter says in

2 Peter 3:9.

In this case, because of the righteous people living in Sod. & Gom., God did not destroy the city, hence why first Lot and his family flee, and then it is destroyed.

Another example is that of the Ninevites, whose rogation/fast approaches on Feb 10-12. God did not “change His mind” in regards to not destroying the city, but because the entire city REPENTED and changed their ways, God’s mercy overruled his righteous judgment, and they were spared.

This is why as Christians, we always stress repentance and beseeching of God’s mercies in our lives and prayers. God is a merciful God, and he does not delight in us sinning and calling for His righteous judgment to come upon us, but instead he wishes we return to Him so that He grants us grace and forgiveness (as we proclaim the Diaconal Litany during Feasts, which is from

• Ezekiel 18:23 & 33:11

).

• Questions that came up during reading

Why did Lot offer his daughters in Genesis 19:8?

At face value, this seems very wicked, unloving, and flat out evil. Remember, the time period we are reading about did have much of that, but here are a few reasons why Lot did that.

He was greatly perturbed and shaken by the fact that the people of Sodom immediately came to have homosexual relations with the two "men" (angels) that came to his house. So, he may have said something out of extreme stress that he did not mean, but was trying to prevent a greater evil with a lesser evil.

He knew that the men outside his door were looking for homosexual relations, and so they would not want anything to do with his daughters, so he said what he did to try and buy some time.

This is similar to the previous point, but we read that Lot's daughters were already engaged and promised in marriage to some of the men of the city, so combine this fact with number 2.

• This Week's Study

—Update the "Group Bible study Form" sent out on remind!

—Read all the verses and chapters of Genesis we skipped, and ask questions on the form under the "Contact Us" page!

— Read Acts chapter 10, and consider what parallels it has with circumcision. Is there something in Acts 10 that makes baptism "more broad" for lack of a better term, than circumcision?