Commentary on Genesis 11:1-9, 16:1-6, 18:1-15, and 18:16 – 19:29
There are four stories here: The Tower of Babel, the Birth of Ishmael, the Prediction of the Conception of Isaac, and the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Are there any connections between these four?
The New Interpreter’s Study Bible says the Tower of Babel story shows that humans wanted homogeneity, but God wanted diversity! The NISB downplays the human pride and hubris that are usually associated with this tale. Indeed, Genesis seems to take great pains to show the close blood relationships between tribes sired by the same father, and then describe the tensions that also erupt to stand as barriers among them. It’s as if they are saying to each other: “We are related! You are my brothers! And yet we hate each other, are strangers to each other, and must eventually go to war!” Does not this story keep playing out over and over through the centuries?
How people treat one another is pictured as a great concern of the Most High God. As an horrific example, NISB states that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is not because of homosexuality, but because of the oppression of the poor and the alien! Abraham can’t find even ten people who are just.
Some think that Sodom and Gomorrah were situated on the southern shores of the Dead Sea, and the turning of Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt explains the actual pillars of salt that can be found in that desolate environment.
D.H. Lawrence refers to Lots’ wife in his anguished poem “She Looks Back,” This is a poem about his regret for a lover and a mother who can’t forget the children she left behind in England, and so can’t relate wholeheartedly to him. The poem can create a new sympathy for Lot’s wife who, like Abraham, can’t forget their friends and relatives in those doomed cities.
With all of this doom and gloom, some laughter is welcome, and Genesis supplies it in the story of Sarah. God is pictured as carrying on with his plan. He is going to bring out the best in these humans, despite their outrageous behavior to each other. Just as there are just and sterling individuals, like Abraham, so also God will cause there to be a whole people who will be a model for other nations and a channel for hope in the world. The flood is behind Him, and Genesis shows again and again that it is the loving action of God that brings about blessing and not the impotent attempts of men.
As modern spiritual writers express this, God loves us more than we can love ourselves. Despite our pushing and shoving, He is always working to bring about our ultimate happiness.
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