Genesis Chapter 25

This is not specifically atrium - I am adding it here because my son has been in atrium with me for 8 years. This past year being is first in level 3 (a year early) - and he reads the Bible a bit different from your average child. I'm not bragging there ;) He reads the Bible like a child has been in level 1 atrium almost continuously for 8 years (at least once a week; sometimes 4-6 times); in level 2 almost continuously for 7 years (at least once a week; sometimes 3-5); and level 3 for a year. Not to mention all the formation courses he has attended! and even assisted!

We have started a sequence of reading through the Bible in a year. At the time of writing this, we are still in Genesis.

Chapter 25 to be specific.

How many times I've read this passage and only THIS time did I really read it. And he picked up on it too.

We all know that Abraham had two sons: as Abram, he bore a son by his wife's maid (Ishmael); then the covenant was completed, his name changed to Abraham and Sarah bore him a son in her old age: Isaac.

DID YOU KNOW?

After the death of Sarah, Isaac took solace in his wife Rebekkah (Genesis 24:67b).

After the death of Sarah, Abraham took solace in a new wife: Keturah.

This one seems accurate - 9 brothers;
but what about their ages? 

DID YOU KNOW? 

Ishmael had 12 sons to rule over 12 tribes.

Isaac grandfathered 11 boys; one boy had two sons to replace him; making what we know as the 12 tribes of Israel.
Side note: Joseph had two sons from whom 2 tribes received their names; Joseph did not have a tribe named after him. Benjamin being the younger brother, this means that only 9 brothers (at most because perhaps some were toddlers!) participated in any way in the selling of Joseph to the Egyptians.
I wish those people who write children's Bibles would at least get the stories ACCURATE.

Keturah bore 6 sons to Abraham; their ultimate descendants as listed come to 13, so it doesn't fit above; all 6 original sons were given grants and sent away from Isaac (probably because of what happened between Isaac and Ishmael).

DID YOU KNOW? 

Abraham, therefore, bore 8 sons. Not 1, not 2. EIGHT.

8. That's an interesting number. 8th day of creation (Easter); 8 people on the Ark.....

Isaac and Ishmael were together at their father's burial. Ishmael was a legitimate son, if not the "first-born" according to the birthright, because his mother was given in place of Sarah - not as a concubine, but as a replacement for Sarah's own womb. When Sarah was then able to bear a child, Ishmael maintained his legitimacy as a child of the Abraham, but lost his birthright as first-born. The other boys were considered to be conceived by "concubinage" despite Sarah being deceased at the time.

Wow.


Just one chapter. And that's not the whole thing!



That same chapter contains the birth of the twins: Esau and Jacob. Interesting that we usually consider Rebekkah to be something of a brat in her preference for the younger son. But indeed -while pregnant with the twins, she felt them wrestling and went to the Lord - the Lord told her that the older would serve the younger; indeed that he would "surpass" his older brother. Hence, she was simply favoring the one the Lord told her would rule.

Hm.


And there's still so much more said in just a few words - the age of the parents involved; how many years would that have been praying for children? the selling of the birthright....


Your turn!


;)