Abraham. Big, burly, bearded father of three religions. I was hoping to get through the early bits quickly, but this Abraham is an interesting guy. Wherever he goes, he builds an altar. He also seems to do whatever God tells him to, even though there are times he is fearful or doubtful. He's even a bit of an altruist, giving his Nephew Lot first pick on where to settle and refusing a bounty from the King of Sodom after Abraham's posse of servants took out an organised army (probably after passing around a copy of "Guerilla Tactics for Desert Folk, first edition").
But perfect he sure isn't! Early on in the story he pimps his wife off to Pharoah (he says Sarah is his sister) in order to save his own skin and gets pretty wealthy in the process. He does this again later with another king - Abimelech - saying Sarah is his sister. And by the way it's the guys who take Sarah who get punished, not Abraham. Is it just me or is that really heavy? Or perhaps this wasn't such a strange thing to do in a strongly patriarchal society at the time.
This whole story to me seems to be about destiny and determination. God had a plan for Abraham and a contract in place, and God chose to honour that whilst Abraham bumbled his way along. Maybe I sweat the small stuff to much and that's what this story could be telling me. But I don't think I'll be offerring my wife up for sale anytime soon.
More on Abe to follow........
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