Abraham's Grand Bargain with Lord Yahweh

Abraham and Sarah were getting quite old, well past the age when most parents have children.  Sarah was worried that she was too old to become a mother.  She had an Egyptian slave girl who was young and pretty, so Sarah went to Abraham one day and said to him, “Abraham, I haven't been able to have a child.  Take my slave girl Hagar as another wife and go to bed with her and get her pregnant and have a child with her so I can have a son.”

Abraham agreed, so one evening Sarah brought Hagar to Abraham, and he took her into his bed as his second wife and slept with her, and soon she was pregnant.

Once Hagar was pregnant her attitude toward Sarah changed.  Hagar became rude and insolent and looked on Sarah with hostility and contempt.  Sarah went to Abraham and said to him, “Hagar has forgotten her place and is treating me badly.  I gave my slave girl to you as your second wife so that we could have a child—but now that she is pregnant with your child she thinks she can get away with insulting me and treating me with contempt.”

Abraham said to her, “Sarah, she's your slave.  You are in charge. Do whatever you want to her.”  Now that she had Abraham’s permission, Sarah punished Hagar and treated her harshly, so Hagar ran away.

Then a messenger sent by Yahweh found Hagar crying and sitting by a spring of water in the wilderness and asked her, “Hagar, slave girl of Sarah, what are you doing here?”

Hagar replied, “I am running away from my mistress Sarah.”

The messenger said to Hagar, “Go home. Return to your mistress and do what she tells you to do.  You are pregnant and will soon give birth to a son.  His name will be Ishmael.  He will become a wild ass of a man.  He will be a troublemaker.  He will fight with everyone and everyone will fight with him, and he will forever live in conflict with all his family."

Hagar returned to Sarah and—just as the messenger of Yahweh promised—Hagar soon bore Abraham a son, and Abraham named his son Ishmael.

Abraham was now quite old.  One day Yahweh appeared to him and said, "I am Yahweh The Almighty.  I'll make a deal with you, Abraham.  If you agree to make me your god and worship only me and ignore the other gods, and you make sacrifices and give offerings to me and obey me no matter what I tell you to do, I promise to give you many descendants.  You will become the father of many nations.  I will make you rich and famous and the father of kings.” 

“This agreement between me and you will last forever, and it will continue between me and your offspring through the generations to come.  So long as you keep this agreement I promise to be your god and the god of your children after you, forever.  I will give you and your children, and their children, all the land where you are now an outsider and an alien.  I will help you conquer all the land of Canaan and it shall be your land forever.” 

“So, Abraham, if you agree to my conditions, I will be your god, I will watch out for you and protect you, and I will see that you conquer the land of Canaan.”

Yahweh continued, "You have duties under this contract, Abraham.  You and your descendants after you must agree to keep me as your god forever.  As a sign of your agreement and a reminder of your promise to me, you, your servants, everyone who lives with you, all members of your tribe and every one of your male descendants must be circumcised.  Throughout all the generations of your descendants every male among you must be circumcised when he is eight days old.  That includes slaves born in your house and slaves that you buy or capture.  From now on any male who is not circumcised shall be excluded from my people and from my protection.”

“As for Sarah, your wife, I promise that she will become pregnant soon and that she will provide you with a son so that you can be the father of many nations to come.”

Abraham fell down laughing.  “My Lord Yahweh, you have got to be kidding me.  I'm 90 years old.  I'm too old to become a father, and Sarah is too old to become a mother. Why don't you just remove the curse you put on Ishmael and recognize him as my son instead of giving me a new son?”

Yahweh said, “That’s not the plan, Abraham. I'm serious about this.  You and Sarah soon will have a son, and she will become the mother of nations. Ishmael who was born to your slave Hagar, will not inherit.  However I heard your request about Ishmael. I will remove the curse and I will be generous to him and make him fruitful and he shall become the father of his own people, but my agreement with you will be through your son Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year."

When he had finished talking with him, Yahweh left Abraham. Then Abraham gathered together his son Ishmael and every male among his relatives and his followers.  He took out his knife and circumcised them that very day, just as Yahweh had ordered. 

 

The gods of nomadic people such as these Hebrews are literally family gods who were believed to watch out for the interests of a tribe and its leader.  As its part of the deal the tribe makes offerings in payment to its god to seal the contract.  The “contract” which Abraham’s god proposed recognizes that implicit relationship.  These nomads were not monotheists (believers that there is only one god), they were actually polytheists (people who believe that there were many gods), but in practice they tended to favor a special relationship with their personal household and tribal god.  The origins of male circumcision are lost in time, but this story “explains” the practice as being required by their god as a mark of their long term relationship and contractual agreement.  The story answers the question, why do our people practice male circumcision when other people do not. It was the custom among Amorites, whose home base was in Haran, for men whose wives did not bear children to father children with their slaves, since children were very important to nomadic people, and the laws of the time provided for certain rights to accrue to these secondary wives.  In this story it is interesting that Ishmael, who is described as a “wild ass of a man, fighting with everyone,” is acknowledged by Muslims to be their spiritual father and their link to Abraham.