Genesis 12:1-17:27
Isaiah 40:27-41:16
by RABBI STEPHEN PEARCE
“All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants” (Genesis 22: 18). Whereas this promise to Abraham provided the title “Progenitor of a Multitude of Peoples” (Gen. 28:3), traditional commentators believed that Abraham’s spiritual legacy and divine call to become “Father of the Jewish People,” was earned through 10 tests:
1. Seventy-five-year-old Abraham was sent forth from the prosperity of his native land for an unknown land (Gen. 12:1).
2. God’s revelation to Abraham (Gen. 15:1).
3. Abraham’s sojourn in Egypt placed Sarah in a compromising position when she was taken into the households of Pharaoh and King Abimelech (Gen.12:15, 20:2).
4. Abraham’s role as a peacemaker was tested by his competitive relationship with his nephew Lot (Gen.13:7ff).
5. At age 90, God revealed Himself and promised to make his descendents “exceedingly numerous” (Gen. 17:11).
6. Childless Abraham doubted God’s promise to make his descendents as numerous as the stars of heaven, saying, “O Lord God, what can you give me, seeing that I shall die childless” (Gen. 18:1).
7. At age 99 Abraham was commanded to circumcise himself” (Gen. 17:9ff).
8. Abraham acted contrary to his parental, spousal, nurturing instincts by acceding to Sarah’s demand that he expel Hagar and Ishmael (Gen. 21:9ff).
9. Abraham interceded on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:28ff).
10.The last and supreme test was that of the binding of Isaac (Gen. 22:1ff).
Lech Lecha focuses on the first test, Abraham’s call to leave his native land, his kindred folk, the place he called home. He set out from Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, on a journey biblical commentator E.A. Speiser called “the most fateful commencement in history,” for an uncertain future in an unknown land. However, if Abraham was fulfilling God’s command, why was this considered to be a trial?
The rabbis believed that Abraham’s spiritual struggle was also a personal struggle. The Midrash portrayed Terach, Abraham’s father, as an idol-maker who returned to his shop to find that all of the household gods but one, the largest, in smithereens.
“Who did this?” Terach demanded of Abraham, who had been left in charge of the shop. Abraham explained that the gods had an argument about which one was the most powerful and important. Finally, he said, “The biggest one took a stick and smashed all the others to pieces.”
An enraged Terach replied, “These gods are only stone and wood; they cannot do anything!”
Abraham replied, “Do your ears not hear the words of your mouth? They cannot do anything, but we let our customers believe that these wooden and stone images have the power to answer their prayers, protect them, give them children, cure them of illness, and make them rich and powerful” (Gen. Rabbah 38.13).
This account, imagined by the rabbis to explain why Abraham would leave the most cultured society of his day for backwater Canaan, highlights the test fathers create when their sons’ new ideas collide with sacred notions they hold. A concerned Terach questioned his son: “How did your god appear to you? Does he have a shrine? Does anyone else worship him? How can you follow the demands of a god you have never seen? Where was your god born? Why haven’t we ever heard of him before? Does he speak only to you or can others hear him? Does his power extend to the land where you plan to settle? How can one god take care of the business of all the other gods? Will your god intercede if you have a problem? Will you write home?”
Abraham’s gentle answers are poignant: “I have never seen my god, but he has spoken to me. He has no other followers, but I know that my god is all-powerful and existed before there was anything. He was never born and will never die. It is hard to understand a god that cannot be seen or heard, but in time he will provide me with all the answers to your questions and to mine. My search is for a righteous god who shows justice and mercy to all, even those that do not believe in him. And yes, I will write. I will never forget you, no matter where my god sends me.”
Thus, iconoclast Abraham, smasher of idols, passed the test and left his place of his birth and his kindred folk for a distant land, ensuring the realization of God’s promise, that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. In so doing, he set forth on his fateful commencement, on a journey for God and for each of us.