Old Testament

Presentation: Genesis 12-50 (ppt) and (pdf)

Course: Old Testament History

Genesis (12-50) From Abram to Joseph

Text: ‘Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.’ (Isaiah 51:2)

‘Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:’ (Genesis 12:1)

Introduction

Part Two (Genesis 12-50)

Focuses on one family.

Abraham and Sarah

Isaac and Rebecca

Jacob and his family

Joseph

Lesson Outline

1. Archaeological excavations

a) Ebla

b) Ugarit

2. Abram in Canaan

a) Chronology of journey to Canaan

b) Abram’s first visit to Egypt (12^th dynasty)

3. God makes a covenant with Abram

a) The Blood Covenant

b) The Importance of the Covenant

c) The Promise

4. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

a) Abram at Mamre

b) The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

c) Descendants of Lot.

5. Moriah and Machpelah

a) Abraham offers up Isaac

b) Abraham buys the cave of Machpelah for a burial ground.

6. Isaac and Rebecca

7. Jacob and Esau

a) Jacob in Haran

b) Jacob’s family in Canaan

8. Joseph in Egypt.

Notes

1. Archaeological excavations

a) Ebla (Tell Mardikh) located in N.Syria, and

55km SW of Aleppo

c. 2500 - 2000 BC

Italian archaeologists excavated Tell Mardikh in 1964

1968 Discovered statue of Ibit-Lim, King of Ebla, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar.

Excavations at Ebla

1968-1978 Discovered over 15,000 cuneiform tablets.

80% Sumerian (world’s oldest language)

20% Unknown Semitic language (Eblaite)

One tablet contained a dictionary of 3000 Eblaite words giving Sumerian equivalent.

Creation

'There was a time when there was no heaven, and Lugal ('the great one') formed it out of nothing; there was no earth, and Lugal made it; there was no light, and he made it'

Ras Shamra the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit

b) b)Bb

Ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit - Ras Shamra

Ancient city in N W Syria on the Mediteranean. Discovered 1928.

Important Mediterranean port – inland trade route to Mesopotamia.

Ugarit

Discovered a royal Palace containing 90 rooms

and two temples.

The temples were dedicated to

Baal (lord of the earth), and
Dagon (god of grain and fertility).

Baal was the son of Dagon.

Ugarit and Egypt

The earliest evidence of contact between Ugarit and Egypt comes from a carnelian bead from the time of the Pharaoh Senusret I (1971 BC – 1926 BC).

Senusret was Pharaoh during the Middle Kingdom.

This was around the time Abram went to Egypt and Sarai was taken into the house of Pharaoh.

Senusret was also married to his sister.

Senusret I (1971 BC – 1926 BC)

Second pharoah of twelfth dynasty.

He was married to his sister Neferu.

2. Abram in Canaan (Genesis 12:4-20)

a) Chronology of journey to Canaan.

In Acts 7:4 Stephen says that Abram left Haran when his father died. His father was 205 when he died.

Abram was 75 when he left Haran

This means that Genesis 11:26 may be a copyist error and that Terah was 130 when Abram was born and not 70.

	BC	From Adam
Abram left Haran	1921	2083	Abram 75	Gen 12:4
(Alternative date)	1981	2023	75
Abram given Hagar	1911	2093	85	Gen 16:3
(Alternative date)	1901	2033	85
Ishmael born	1910	2094	86	Gen 16:16
(Alternative date)	1970	2034	86
Ishmael circumcised	1897	2047	99	Gen 17:25
(Alternative date)	1957	2047	(Ishmael 13)	Gen 17:24
Isaac born	1896	2108	100	Gen 21:5
(Alternative date)	1956	2048	100
Sarah died	1859	2145	Sarah 127	Gen 23:1
(Alternative date)	1919	2085	127
Isaac married	1856	2148	Isaac 40	Gen 25:20
(Alternative date)	1916	2088	40
Jacob and Esau born	1836	2168	60	Gen 25:26
(Alternative date)	1896	2108	60
Abraham died	1821	2183	Araham 175	Gen 25:7
(Alternative date)	1881	2123	175
Ishmael died	1773	2111	Ishmael 137	Gen 25:17
(Alternative date)	1833	2171
Esau married	1796	2208	Esau 40	Gen 26:34
(Alternative date)	1856	2148	40
Isaac died	1716	2288	Isaac 180	Gen 35:28
(Alternative date)	1776	2228	180

Abram 75 years old when he left Haran

Went with Sarai (daughter of Terah – Gen. 20:12)

Sarai and Abram had the same father but different mothers.

Lot (Abram’s nephew) – son of Haran.

Arrived in Shechem

On to Bethel

Pitched tent between Bethel and Ai.

Built an altar.

Famine

Went to Egypt.

Sarai – beautiful.

Called Sarai his sister. Noticed by Pharoah. What Pharoah?

b) Abram’s first visit to Egypt at the beginning of 12th dynasty.

The 12th dynasty lasted about 200 years (c.1991 BC – c.1802 BC).

The whole of Egypt was united under one rule during the 12th dynasty.

Time of prosperity and civilisation.

Amenemhat I (1991 BC – 1962 BC)

First ruler of the 12th Dynasty

Moved capital from Thebes to Itjtawy

Amenemhat I pyramid at Lisht.

This was the pharoah if the date of Abrams arrival in Canaan was around 1980BC.

The more probable date for Abrams arrival in Canaan is 1920BC

Amenemhat II (1929 BC to 1895 BC)

Third Pharaoh of Twelfth Dynasty

Son of Senusret I and Queen Nefru.

If Abram came to Canaan around 1920BC then Amenemhat II was the pharaoh who took Sarai into his house.

Powerpoint Slide:

Sphinx of Amenemhat II at the Louvre, Paris.

3. God makes a covenant with Abram

a) The Blood Covenant (Genesis 15)

God entered into a blood covenant with Abram.

The significance of the blood covenant was that each party now was indivisibly linked to each other.

The blood covenant meant that one party could always depend upon the other for assistance.

Genesis 15:5 ‘And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.’

God keeps His Covenant

God will chastise His people for not keeping covenant.

What does it mean to keep covenant?

Love God and love others

Obedience – Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

A new commandment – John 13:34-35. Love one another as I have loved you.

Illustration: Bohol, Philippines

Powerpoint Slide:

Plaque commemorating the Blood Compact between Sikatuna and Legaspi.

The Islanders would not trust the Spaniards until a blood compact was made.

The ceremony had great significance to the Filipinoes.

The Spaniards used the Blood Compact to their own advantage.

b) Importance of the Covenant

Covenant - Gibeonites

Covenant with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9). The Gibeonites acted deceitfully but once the covenant had been made it could not be broken.

The covenant was passed down from generation to generation. God chastised Israel for not keeping this covenant during the reign of David. (2 Samuel 21:2)

There was a 3 year famine. (2 Samuel 21:1)

Gibeonites wanted revenge on Saul’s descendants. (2 Samuel 21:6)

Covenant - David and Jonathan

David made a covenant with Jonathan (1 Samuel 17:3-4)

Jonathan gave David his robe, and his armour.

Jonathan kept covenant (1 Samuel 20:4)

David kept covenant by showing kindness to Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son.

(2 Samuel 9).

David protected Mephibosheth because of his covenant with Jonathan. (2 Samuel 21:7)

c) The Promise

Four hundred years refers to ‘in a land not theirs’ (Canaan and Egypt)

Genesis 15:13 ‘And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;’

Period from birth of Isaac (1896 BC) till the Exodus from Egypt (1492 BC).

Strangers in a land not theirs (400 years – Canaan and Egypt)

Shall serve them (Egypt). They shall afflict them (slaves in Egypt).

Genesis 15:14-16 ‘And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.’

Israel’s conquest of the promised land (Joshua) was also God’s judgment on the sins of the Amorites. God commanded Joshua to destroy them.

God had a testimony in the land before he destroyed the inhabitants.