Genesis 17

People, particularly Christians, will often say that God has a sense of humor, or that Jesus would often laugh and joke with those whom he spent time. Yet all too regularly those same people will ignore the truth that God does have a sense of humor, and that Jesus expressed it, and focus on the stuffed shirt God who would singe the edges of one’s eyebrows with a lightning bolt should He see a smile cracked or a smirk released from one of His creation’s lips.
I see it much differently. I know full well that God has a sense of humor, and I can prove it. He created me – and let me get married! Should there be any greater proof of this sense of humor of the Almighty, then I surely haven’t seen it!
It is my intent in this blog is to show God’s sense of humor, and how we as His creations can see this sense of humor in biblical text as well as experiencing this sense of humor every day. My experience with the biblical text shows not only wailing, struggling and pain but also rejoicing, singing and yes, laughing.
Note: This is intended to be a family friendly blog. Basically this means that even your newborn can read it. And if your newborn can read it, all I have to say is what are you doing sitting at the computer? You should be out there showing that genius off! Anyway, I wanted to suggest that for this first entry, you scan it before letting anyone under the age of 17 or over the age of 80 with a heart condition read it, as it contains material that may be mature for some audiences.

It is sometimes hard not to look at portions of the Bible without taking into account our 21rst century perspective. It is with this in mind that I have always been fascinated by Genesis. In particular, I find that exploring Genesis 17 has the ability to put a smile on the face of even the most cynical.
For those of you without a bible handy (or who don’t simply want to run over to biblegateway.com and look it up!), Genesis 17 can be summed up as God explaining to the newly minted Abraham about the covenant He plans on setting up. God lays out what to Abraham must have seemed like an overly ambitious plan – for there to be a myriad of descendants from the nearly century old man, and for the land that these descendants would occupy and in which they would be able to worship God. Sarai would become Sarah, and Issac would be born, and that would pretty much be that.
Oh, and Abraham and all the males in his household (including servants) and every male child for generations to come at the age of eight days has to be circumcised.
Now, for Abraham, I’m sure this wasn’t really all that hard to deal with. Here he is, facedown in front of the one true God, who created all things that have ever existed and ever will exist, being given instructions on how his descendants will be vast and dwell in a still alien land and be God’s for all time. I’m sure Abraham had no question about it, and if he did he surely wasn’t going to verbalize it.
Abraham did, however, find time to laugh, though not for the one thing we might consider worth chuckling about. Instead of finding the method of covenant to be somewhat humorous to Abraham (or at least so hard to participate in that he HAD to laugh), Abraham laughs to God about the ludicrous notion of a couple whose ages total nearly two centuries bearing a son that was going to be the tip of the spear of great people.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m still back at that whole circumcision thing perhaps causing problems with God’s perfect plan.
Nevertheless, God is able to ignore Abraham’s chuckles, finish what he was saying, and leave so the man can take care of business. Oh, and lest Abraham forget, he needs to go back and have that whole circumcision thing done to his entire household.
His ENTIRE household.
The biblical text doesn’t specify it, but I have to believe that on some level Abraham was going back and forth in his mind as to exactly how he was going to break the news to all these people. He had no doubt that he was going to follow through on God’s command, just as to the method by which he would let the others in on the news. Not only are there family members to consider, but also servants and foreigners, those that would have not necessarily been as easy to convince.
Perhaps Abraham though about opening with a joke, or an otherwise disarming statement. There might have been something along the lines of “a goat, a mule and a sheep walk into a stable”, or “talked to God earlier, you’ll NEVER guess what He asked us to do” or even “Hey guys, good news is we’re not going to die…”
Now imagine being on the receiving end of that news. Here comes Abraham back from his time with God, and he gathers all the men together. There were all the servants, family members and even perhaps those that had married into the family, standing around Abraham as he begins talking.
Then he finishes, and all the men look at each other…
Wait. What?
Hit hardest with the news was probably Ishmael. Poor Ishmael. He’s The Son at the moment, and he’s pretty much out of luck when it comes to this request. Not only did his dad ask him to do this, but God commanded it as well! His father and The Father. If you’re Ishmael in this situation, you’re pretty much locked into anything they said at that point.
What about the servants? They probably thought to themselves “maybe I wasn’t doing as good of a job as I had thought out in the fields or with the animals. But isn’t there some sort of three strike policy in this place? A verbal warning, a written warning maybe, then if I don’t shape up you can drop the hammer? Tell me again, which way is it to human resources?”
And if there were men who married into the family, you have got to believe that perhaps they were looking over at their wives and mouthing the words “Did you know anything about this? Is this why he was so eager to let me marry you?” I myself love and respect my father-in-law, and would do just about anything for him. But such a request would undoubtedly take me several days to mentally process, and an affirmative answer would be an unlikely result. Like Abraham, my father-in-law works outside a lot in hot, humid and sunny weather. I would suggest to him that maybe this day was a little too sunny.
But not just the adult men were affected, but so was any male child at least eight days old, and in turn this affected their mothers. Many mothers can be very protective of their young children. It’s hard enough for me to offer the children of my friends a piece of candy or a sweet treat. I’ll often get shooed away with the adminiton that little Johnny or Mikey can’t have the candy or sweet. “He does not need that!” they will say, with a mixture of indignance and shock that should be reserved for a time that I suggest little Johnny or Mikey play with the freshly sharpened bayonet on the end of my working, loaded and cocked rifle. Now imagine suggesting to that same mother that we try this little procedure that up until this moment in history our people haven’t done. Oh, and it’s not my idea, it’s God’s. You might be lucky to escape with you life.
The text does not suggest that there was ever a disagreement or question about this proposal among any in the household of Abraham. In fact, we know that everyone got it done – from 99 year old Abraham to 13 year old Ishmael to the lowliest of servants – within the year, and probably a lot sooner than that. Which puts a whole new spin on Larry the Cable Guy’s catchphrase “Git-R-Done”. But that’s an article for another day.
Abraham and Ishmael even had it done on the same day. Heck of a father-son activity if I do say so myself. Personally, I would take playing catch or working on the car together over that. Maybe even shoeing the camels or a hike into the hills with dear old daddy Abraham would have been preferable. I do not know the specific numbers, but I would think this puts Abraham and Ishmael in an elite group through the annals of time of fathers and sons who did this particular activity on the same day. Here I am thinking that it is amazing when a father and son play on a major league baseball field at the same time, like Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey, Jr, or when a father and son have both been President of the United States like George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. But this takes the cake. And I do hope there was cake afterwards, because if something deserves cake, this certainly does.
Yet there is something much bigger at play here. Look at the way that Abraham and his household ultimately responded to God. If there was any dissension, it wasn’t worth noting by the author of Genesis. And the lack of dissension points to the greater truth of the power and majesty of God. When God asks something of you, even something that to us would seem so very difficult, delicate and perhaps unnecessary, you can trust that God’s plan is better than any of your fears or worries.
It isn’t written in the text, but I can imagine a separate paragraph preceeding Genesis 17:23 where God says to His people “I know this might be difficult, but it will be right. Throughout time, and up until the end of time, I am going to ask many people to do many difficult things, many of which will be harder than this. I will ask my people to do things that the World will look on as stupid, worthless, ignorant and foolish. But in the face of that all, my people will do it. They will do what the World calls stupid, worthless, ignorant and foolish because it is what I have asked them to do, and it is right. It is what they were created for, and they will praise me and I will bless them. Fear not, house of Abraham, for what you do this day will begin a series of events that will lead to the salvation of all mankind. I ask you to do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard, and because I am Holy. And I will not leave you nor will I forsake you.”
Imagining such a speech brings me chills Honestly, God could read me the phone book and it would bring me chills. But God didn’t need to give that speech for the people to follow. Abraham was a man of God, and his household knew that. When Abraham said that God told them to do this, they had the reverence and fear of the Lord, as well as the respect for Abraham, to know that what he said came from the voice of God. Still, God could have made that speech, and if He did, I can imagine the perfect ending.
“House of Abraham, what you do this day will begin a series of events that will lead to the salvation of all mankind. I ask you to do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard, and because I am Holy. And I will not leave you nor will I forsake you. For I am the Lord Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth, the Lord of Majesty. If you think this is hard, just wait. Just wait to see what I ask my son to do.”