From: Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3
God’s Covenant with Abram
[1] After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Fear not,
Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” [2] But Abram said,
“0 Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my
house is Eliezer of Damascus?” [3] And Abram said, “Behold, thou hast given
me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.” [4] And behold,
the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; your own
son shall be your heir.” [5] And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward
heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said
to him, “So shall your descendants be.” [6] And he believed the Lord; and he\
reckoned it to him as righteousness.
The Birth and Circumcision of Isaac
[1] The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did Sarah as he had
promised. And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the
time of which God had spoken to him. [3] Abraham called the name of his son
who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.
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Commentary:
15:1-21. God rewards Abraham for his generosity towards Mechizedek and for
his renouncing of the riches offered him by the king of Sodom. He appears to
him in a vision and promises his help, many descendants and the land of Ca-
naan. Here all that is required of Abraham is that he believe in the promise that
God himself, through a rite of covenant, undertakes to fulfill. This passage em-
phasizes the gravity of God’s promise and speaks of the faithfulness of God,
who will keep his word.
15:2-3. Abraham does not understand how God can keep the promise he made
to him in Haran (cf. chap. 12). The fact that he has no children is a severe test
of his faith; and anything else God may give him means little by comparison.
This is the first time Abraham speaks to God, and their conversation shows the
deep intimacy between them. He makes his concerns known to God: because
Lot has left him and Abraham has no son of his own, he needs to appoint an
heir who will take over leadership of the clan in return for serving Abraham in his
lifetime. This is the first friendly dialogue the Bible records between God and a
man since the dialogue God had with Adam in paradise (cf. 3:9-1.2). It is a con-
versation between friends and the first example, therefore, of a prayer of friend-
ship and filiation, for to pray is to speak to God.
“Of Damascus”: this is the translation most frequently given for a word which is
very unclear (the original text is unrecoverably corrupt). It does not seem to mean
that Eliezer was a native of Damascus, for he was a slave or servant born in Abra-
ham’s house (v. 3); therefore, it must be some other sort of title whose meaning
escapes us.
15:4-6. Once more Abraham is asked to make an act of faith in the word of God,
and he does so. This pleases God and is reckoned righteous. This makes Abra-
ham the father of all those who believe in God and his saving word.
In the light of this passage St Paul sees Abraham as the model of how a person
becomes righteous in God’s eyes—through faith in his word, the definitive word
being the announcement that God saves us through the death and resurrection
of Jesus. In this way, Abraham not only becomes the father of the Jewish people
according to the flesh, but also the father of those who without being Jews have
become members of the new people of God through faith in Jesus: “We say that
faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned to
him? Was it before or after he was circumcised? It was not after, but before he
was circumcised. He received circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteous-
ness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was
to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus
have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the father of the circumcised
who are not merely circumcised but also follow the example of the faith which
our father Abraham had before he was circumcised” (Rom 4:9-12).
Abraham’s faith revealed itself in his obedience to God when he left his homeland
(cf. 12:4), and later on when he was ready to sacrifice his son (cf 22:1-4). This is
the aspect of Abraham’s obedience which is given special emphasis in the Letter
of St James, inviting Christians to prove the genuineness of their faith with obe-
dience to God and good works: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works,
when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along
with his works, and faith was completed by works, and scripture was fulfilled
which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteous-
ness’; and he was called the friend of God” (Jas 2:21-23).
21:1-7. The promise recounted in 15:18 and 17:19-21 now begins to be fulfilled,
The patriarch’s age serves to show the special intervention by God in the birth of
Isaac; as does the etymological explanation of the child’s name, “she began to
laugh”, which is now interpreted as “God has made laughter for me”, that is, has
made me happy (cf. 18:15). And Abraham’s obedience is very clear: he strictly
fulfills the commandment of circumcision.
This is perhaps the most joyful moment in the patriarch’s life: up to now it has
been very much marked by trials and tribulations. With the birth of Isaac Abra-
ham’s trust in God grows, as can be seen now by his prompt obedience to his
Law. The Lord is strengthening the patriarch for the final test which he will make
him undergo later. This event in Abraham’s life helps us to see that in moments
of darkness in the course of our life we need to put our trust in God: “The time
has come to cry to him, Remember, Lord, the promises you made, filling me
with hope; they console me in my nothingness and fill my life with strength (Ps
119:49-50). Our Lord wants us to rely on him for everything: it is now glaringly
evident to us that without him we can do nothing (cf. Jn 15:5), whereas with him
we can do all things (cf. Phil 4:13). We confirm our decision to walk always in
his presence (cf. Ps 119:168)” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 305).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19
The Good Example of the Patriarchs
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[8] By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he
was to receive as an inheritance and he went out, not knowing where he was to
go.
11] By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past
the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. [12] Therefore from
one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the
stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
[17] By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had re-
ceived the promises was ready to offer up his only son, [18] of whom it was said,
"Through Isaac shall your descendants be named." [19] He considered that God
was able to raise men even from the dead; hence he did receive him back, and
this was a symbol.
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Commentary:
8. Abraham, "our father in faith", is the greatest example, in the Old Testament,
of faith in God (cf. Gen 12:1-4; Rom 4:1ff; Gal 3:6-9; Heb 6:13ff). It is not surpri-
sing that the author pauses to dwell on the faithful life of the father of the chosen
people. Putting all his trust in the divine word, Abraham gave up all the security
and comfort of his native land in Ur of the Chaldeans, to set out for a distant and
unknown place, the land of Canaan, which God had promised to give his descen-
dants. "Neither the love for his homeland nor the pleasure of his neighbors' com-
pany nor the comforts of his father's home were able to weaken his resolve. He
set out courageously and ardently to where God willed to lead him. What self-
abasement and abandonment! One cannot love God perfectly unless one renoun-
ces all attachment to perishable things" (St. Francis de Sales, "Treatise on the
Love of God", book 10). Abraham symbolizes the need for detachment if one is
to obtain redemption and to be a good servant of God and of others.
"Never forget that Christ cannot be reached without sacrifice. You have to get rid
of everything that gets in the way [...]. You have to do the same in this battle for
the glory of God, in this struggle of love and peace by which we are trying to
spread Christ's kingdom. In order to serve the Church, the Pope and all souls,
you must be ready to give up everything superfluous" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends
of God", 196).
11-12. Sarah, like Abraham, was very elderly when God announced that she was
going to have a child. At first she was puzzled and even sarcastically skeptical
(cf. Gen 18:9f), but soon her attitude changed into a faith which God rewarded by
her conceiving Isaac. The faith of Sarah and her husband can be said to exceed
that of the earlier patriarchs because what God promised could come true only
by means of a miracle, since Abraham, like his wife, was old and incapable of
begetting children. That is why it says that from one man "and him as good as
dead" innumerable descendants were born. God is generous in rewarding man's
faith. "'Si habueritis fidem, sicut granum sinapis"! -- If your faith were the size of
a mustard seed!...'
"What promises are contained in this exclamation of the Master!" (St.. J. Escriva,
"The Way", 585).
The conception of Isaac is also a "type" of that of Christ. "All the miraculous con-
ceptions which occurred in the Old Testament were prefigurements of the grea-
test of all miracles, the Incarnation of the Word. It was fitting that his birth from
a Virgin should be prefigured by other births so as to prepare people's minds for
faith. But there is this difference: God miraculously enabled Sarah to conceive by
means of human seed, whereas the blessed Virgin conceived without it" (St. Tho-
mas Aquinas, "Commentary on Heb.", 11, 3).
17-19. It is very difficult for us to imagine what Abraham thought when God asked
him to sacrifice Isaac, the son of the promise, his only son, in the mountains of
Moriah (cf. Gen 22:2). The Old Testament shows how resolute Abraham was, his
absolute docility, his serenity even in the midst of suffering his trust in God (cf.
Gen 22:1-18). This is revealed in the touching conversation between the Patriarch
and his son, when Isaac asks him where is the lamb for the offering and Abraham
replies, "God will provide himself with the lamb for a burnt offering, my son". In St.
Paul's epistles generally Abraham's faith is proposed as an example (cf. Gal 3:7;
Rom 4:3, 11-12; 4:17-22); but that was in the context of his faith in God's promise
that he would have a multitude of descendants. Here, however, the Patriarch's
faith is to be seen in the way he approaches a commandment which seems to
negate that promise: how could God possibly ask him to sacrifice his only son?
The answer lies in the fact that God knew that Abraham had faith in his ability to
bring the dead back to life.
Abraham's obedience to God in this episode is the most striking proof of his faith.
Here most of all the Patriarch "believed against hope [...]; he grew strong in his
faith as he gave glory to God" (Rom 4:18, 21). "The Patriarch hears words which
deny the promise; he hears the very author of the promise contradict himself, but
he is not dismayed; he is going to obey as if everything were completely consis-
tent. And in fact the two things were compatible: the two things God said were
contradictory as far as human logic was concerned; but faith brought them into
agreement [...].
"God tested Abraham's faith. Did he not know the strength and integrity of that
great man? Undoubtedly he did, very well. Why, then, did he put them to the
test? He did not do it to prove to himself the Patriarch's virtue; he did it to show
the world how excellent Abraham was. The Apostle, moreover, shows the He-
brews one of the causes of our temptations, so that anyone who is afflicted
should not think that God has abandoned him" ("Hom. on Heb.", 25). we know,
moreover, that precisely on account of Abraham's generosity and faith, God re-
newed his promise to him, now ratifying it with an oath (cf. Gen 22:16; Heb 6:
13-18).
19. "Hence he did receive him back, and this was a symbol": after offering Isaac,
Abraham was given him back, because God stepped in before Isaac was sacri-
ficed (Gen 22:11-12). And he received him as "a symbol" (literally, as "a para-
ble"). Tradition has always seen the sacrifice of Isaac, the only Son, as a sym-
bol of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ; and, particularly, it has seen God's inter-
vention on Mount Moriah as a symbol of the Resurrection. "He saw it as a sym-
bol," Theodoret comments, "that is, as a prefigurement of the Resurrection. (I-
saac) was brought to death by his father's will, and then brought back to life by
the voice which prevented his death. All this amounts to a prefiguring of the pas-
sion of the Savior, and that is why the Lord told the Jews, 'Your father Abraham
rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad' (Jn 8:56)" ("Inter-
pretatio Ep. ad Haebreos, ad loc.").
Origen, a writer of Christian antiquity, reflects this tradition very beautifully when
he says that the sacrifice of Isaac helps us to understand the mystery of Re-
demption. "Isaac carrying the wood for the burnt offering is a symbol of Christ,
who carried his (own) cross. But it is also the function of the priest to carry the
wood for the burnt offering [...]. Christ is the Word of God, but the Word made
flesh. Therefore, there is in Christ an element which comes from above and a-
nother which comes from human nature, which he took on in the womb of the
Virgin. This is why Christ experiences suffering: he suffers in the flesh, and he
dies, but what suffers death is the flesh, and the ram is a figure of this, as St.
John said, 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world' (Jn
1:29) [...]. Christ is at one and the same time victim and high priest. Thus, ac-
cording to the spirit he offers the victim to his father, according to his flesh, he
himself is offered on the altar of the cross" ("Homilies on Genesis", 8, 6 and 9).
For all these reasons, Eucharistic Prayer I links Christ's sacrifice with those of
Abel, Isaac and Melchizedek.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.