The Three Encounters With YAHWEH At The Oak Of Mamre
On the 'high place' of Mamre YAHWEH revealed himself on three different occasions. On each he delivered a message which had a considerable effect on the history of the sons of Yisrael.First encounter: the Covenant between YAHWEH and HIS people; a son is to be born to Abram, the gift of the land of Canaan to the descendants of the Hebrew chieftain.
Second encounter: confirmation of the perpetual Covenant; the institution of circumcision; announcement of the birth of a son to Abram and Sarai, who is to be called Yitschaq.
Third encounter: three mysterious persons arrive at Abram's camp; YAHWEH is the head of this little group; confirmation of the birth of Yitschaq which is to be in a year's time; Abram pleads that the destruction hovering over Sodom and the accursed cities be turned away.
There were therefore three manifestations, interspersed with certain social events whose importance should not be neglected.
First Encounter With YAHWEH Under The Oak Of Mamre: The Covenant (Bereshith 15)
According to the Scriptures Abram had a 'vision', during which he had a conversation with YAHWEH. Two points were established: the promise of a son and the repeated promise of the land of Canaan. In conclusion there took place a strange archaic sacrifice intended to seal the Covenant.Faced with these very general, not to say vague statements by YAHWEH, for the first time Abram shows evidence not of disbelief but at least of a certain reasonable worry. After all, YAHWEH keeps on speaking of Abram's descendants, but Sarai his wife is barren. He had no child to succeed him, and one of his slaves, probably Eliezer, would inherit. How in these circumstances could Abram count on a 'reward', taking into account the social importance attached in the east to succession in the direct line?
YAHWEH replied with a correction: the patriarch's heir would not be the slave in question, but a son of his own flesh and blood. The innumerable stars in the night sky provided an apt comparison: 'Look up to heaven and count the stars if you can. Such will be your descendants.' At once Abram put his faith in YAHWEH's promise. At the human level the realization of this promise appeared impossible, but Abram's was real faith.
YAHWEH had just predicted to the aged patriarch the birth of a son, and now he was going to bestow on him, as his personal property, for his descendants, the land of Canaan. But how could Abram imagine that this country, dotted with formidable strongholds defended by garrisons should be his; how could he believe that his clan would seize all these prosperous farms and cities defended by a highly organized military aristocracy? It seemed beyond comprehension.
Abram's very understandable reaction is hardly surprising. Promises were hardly enough, now a little proof would be welcome. YAHWEH was about to give it to him in the ritual ceremony of the Covenant. This Covenant, granted by YAHWEH of HIS own accord, unilaterally, could only be solemnly promulgated during an impressive sacrifice.
The traditional requirements for such a sacrifice were well known: 'Get me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year old goat a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon.' Abram obtained all these, cut them in half, and put half on one side and half facing it on another with a sort of path between with room to walk. This was an ancient Sumero-Akkadian rite; the contracting parties went forward together between the divided carcases, each accepting in advance the fate of these victims if they ever violated the promises made to the other.
And now Abram fell into a deep sleep. YAHWEH appeared to him and told him that his descendants would go to a foreign land (the future migration of the clan of Yacob to Egypt) and that there they would undergo oppression for the space of four centuries; in the fourth generation they would return to the land of Canaan.
The sun had just set and night came down. To seal the agreement in the Mesopotamian manner YAHWEH made ready to go between the halves of the victims, as was explained above. But on this occasion it was YAHWEH alone who carried out the gesture because the pact was unilateral. YAHWEH could not treat man as an equal. HE 'gave' of HIS free will and pleasure, without the creature having any rights in the matter. It was HE who settled it and laid down what was to be done. HE bound himself, but only in relation to HIMSELF.
How did YAHWEH show HIMSELF? In his deep sleep Abram saw a smoking furnace and firebrand that went between the halves. In this way YAHWEH made HIS Covenant in the following terms: To your descendants I give this land, from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates 2 (Bereshith 15:18). After which life continued with its daily work and concerns, but we may well imagine the direction taken by Abram's thoughts.
Quarrel Among Wives
Between the deep experience just described, together with the ceremony of the Covenant and the second encounter with YAHWEH, which was soon to be followed by a third, all at the Oak of Mamre, there took place an incident provoked by the behaviour of the two women of Abram's family, the wife (Sarai) and the concubine (Hagar).Sarai was hopelessly barren. And throughout the Near East it was a shameful thing for a woman to be unable to provide for the continuance of the line. Fortunately, Sumerian law provided her with a legal means of obtaining a child; she was allowed to choose from among her slaves a serving girl whom she could bestow on her husband as a concubine. If the servant conceived she gave birth 'on the lap of the wife' and according to Mesopotamian law the new-born child would be regarded henceforward not as the concubine's son but as the lawful wife's. In short, it was a shrewd method of adoption in which the father's rights were safeguarded.
As it happened there was soon dissension in Abram's family circle. Hagar, the Egyptian slave given to Abram by Sarai as his concubine, became pregnant. At once she began to behave very disagreeably towards her mistress, though it is possible that Sarai was not the soul of patience. In short, there was soon open war between the two women. Sarai informed Abram of the whole affair, complaining bitterly of being treated with scorn by a mere slave girl. According to Sumerian law the lawful wife could treat the concubine as she liked so long as the latter had not given birth. So, asked for his advice Abram replied, 'Treat her as you think fit.' This was not cowardice on Abram's part; his behaviour was entirely in accordance with the prescriptions of the Sumerian code. Accordingly Sarai 'treated her so badly that she ran away from her'.
Hagar set out in the direction of Egypt, her native land, but to reach the banks of the Nile she had to cross the desert of Negeb and the wilderness of Paran, a foolish undertaking on her own for it meant almost certain death. At a spring on the road to Shur, some distance from the frontier, God appeared to her. A moving and dramatic dialogue now took place.
'Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from, and
where are you going l' YAHWEH asked.
'I am running away from my mistress Sarai,' she replied.
'Go back to your mistress and submit to her,' said YAHWEH.
There followed a series of promises concerning Hagar's
'descendants; her son Ishmael was to be the ancestor of the Arab race. 'I will
make your descendants too numerous to be counted.' Then YAHWEH uttered this
prophetic verse in which can be felt all the wildness of the desert Arab:
Now you have conceived, and you will bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael,
for YAHWEH has heard your cries of distress.
A wild-ass 3 of a man he will be, against every man, and every man against him,
4 setting himself to defy all his brothers. 5 (Bereshith16:11-12).
Hagar now gave to YAHWEH and the well of Shur names whose meaning is difficult to grasp. According to the Yerusalem Scriptures the text of Hagar's words is certainly corrupt, and the site of the well (near Bered, an unidentified place) appears very uncertain.
Hagar thereupon returned to the camp. History is silent on the welcome that she received from her mistress Sarai. The child which was subsequently born, following the command was called Ishmael. For the time being peace was restored in the patriarch's tent, but Sarai bore a grudge and trouble seemed bound to recur.
2 The southern frontier of what was to become Palestine was very accurately stated: the wadi of Egypt (wadi EI-Ghazzeh to the south of Gaza). But on the subject of the northern boundary it looks as if the scribe's stylus has wandered a little, for the frontiers of the Promised land never reached the Euphrates; more unpretentiously they stopped in the neighbourhood where the Yardan rises.
3 Wild ass probably the species Equus onager (Ehemippus) of Central Asia. In its morphological characteristics it is half donkey, half horse.
4 Like the wild ass, which is unmanageable and almost impossible to tame Ishmael the son of Abram and Hagar, the Egyptian slave was to grow up to be warlike half-wild or at least very unsociable. His descendants, the desert Arabs, breeders of camels, were to follow his example.
5 Setting himself to defy all his brothers. Here we have noted the psychological opposition complex of the wandering Arab who is bitter, and the avowed opponent of everything that is not to his taste.
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