Seraphim Hamilton

Genesis 17-22 is set against the backdrop of the Flood. Abram has just fallen, by “listening to the voice of his wife” (compare Genesis 3:17) and broken the covenant. This is part of a pattern in the Bible where the covenant is made and immediately broken. It happens to Adam in Genesis 2-3, it happens to Abraham in Genesis 15-16, it happens to Israel in Exodus 20-32, and it happens to David in 2 Samuel 7-12. Following the breaking of a covenant, God renews the covenant through death and resurrection. In the story of the Flood, the solution was the “cutting off” of all flesh so that the world might be reborn. In Abraham’s case, the solution is the “cutting off” of his flesh in circumcision, which symbolizes death and resurrection. There are many ways we know this, but one way to understand it is by connecting circumcision with Passover.

In Exodus 4:22-23, the Lord comes to Moses in the night and attempts to kill his firstborn son. The boy is immediately circumcised and the blood made visible to the Lord on his leg. This is a type of the next time that the Lord comes to strike down firstborn sons, and only those with blood on the doorposts are saved. Meredith Kline points out that the word “pasah” (from where we get “Pascha”) is actually a parody of an Egyptian word “psah” referring to sacramental tomb temples. The houses of Israel are their tombs, and the Glory of God “covers over” the doors so that when the sun rises, the people of Israel rise from the dead.

So we know that circumcision is about death and resurrection. We know that it is associated with the Flood, which is about the rebirth of creation. And this story continues with the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In order to precisely understand how the two are parallel, it is essential to understand that water and fire are twin symbols in the Bible. For example, in Daniel 7, a throne of fire proceeds from the throne of God. The Garden of Eden corresponded to the Holy Place of the Tabernacle in the middle of the holy mountain. At the very top of the holy mountain was a fountain that flowed into Eden- presumably with a throne, eventually to be occupied by the Last Adam. In Revelation 22, we see Daniel’s vision again, except this time, it is not fire, but water that proceeds from the throne of God.

That is why in the account of the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, we are told that fire “rained from heaven.” Symbolically, this is the glory of God which falls from Heaven and wipes out the wicked. Furthermore, the Flood itself was associated with the exodus. Israel passes through divided waters and comes to the holy mountain, while God redivides the primeval waters and brings Noah to the holy mountain. These types coalesce in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the two witnesses come to inspect the city, the people wish to abuse them. Lot (who by this point, was a judge in the city) abhors such violence, but wants to toss his daughters to be abused by the mob instead. We will see what this eventually leads to. As he leaves the city, he bakes unleavened bread- an obvious type of the exodus.

Fire is raining from heaven, and unleavened bread is cooked as Lot flees the city. But here’s the interesting part: Lot is told to flee to the mountain. While most translations render this in the plural, there is no justification for this in the text. After making his exodus, Lot was supposed to join Abraham at the holy mountain. But he’s prideful. He had chosen the land which was “well watered like the garden of the Lord” and now that land was desolate, just as Eden was “because it had not yet rained” (Genesis 2:4). Instead of fleeing to the holy mountain, Lot flees under the Earth — the opposite of the holy mountain. As mountains symbolize exaltation and new life, caves symbolize death.

Echoes to the flood story abound. Noah was exalted by the waters to the holy mountain, planted a vineyard (a New Eden) and drank Wine in Sabbath Rest. While most people tend to read Noah’s “drunkenness” as sin, the word need only mean that Noah enjoyed a couple glasses of Wine and relaxed. He had been exalted. All flesh had been given to him. And the symbol of Sabbath and exaltation is Wine. The sin in Genesis 9 is when Ham seized his father’s robe of authority, just as Adam had seized God’s authority in Genesis 3. Returning to the story of Lot, Lot is now under the Earth instead of on a mountain peak. And his daughters give him Wine to drink. But this isn’t the Wine of Sabbath, it is the Wine of anti-Sabbath. And his daughters abuse him- just as he had tossed them to be abused.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

It’s a sad note for the story of Lot to end on, but we haven’t finished the story of the holy mountain. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has more to do with Abraham than it has to do with Lot. Abraham is the one who had fallen, and the “cutting off” of all flesh in the Flood falls on Abraham in circumcision. But circumcision is merely a sign of the death and resurrection, it is not the substance of death and resurrection. The story of Genesis 17-22 comes to its climax in Genesis 22. God had protected Sarah from Satan’s attempt to prevent the birth of Isaac in Genesis 20. And now the Seed of Promise had arrived.

And where do we find ourselves? The holy mountain, and God wants an ascension (typically translated burnt) offering. When Noah arrived at the holy mountain after the Flood, Noah provided an ascension offering of all creation. Now Abraham is to do the same. He brings his seed, Isaac, to the top of the mountain, and offers him to God- except that Isaac is replaced by a ram. Isaac symbolically dies and rises from the dead. And that is why it is in Genesis 22 that God renews the covenant at last. Covenant renewals come by death and resurrection. David’s covenant was renewed when he lost the kingdom to Absalom and later had it restored to him. Israel’s covenant was renewed when Moses went into the “cleft of a rock” (remember, symbolizing death) and emerged with a glowing face. Abraham’s covenant is renewed when Isaac dies and rises from the dead. This calls is back to the story of the Flood. In Genesis 8, when Noah had been saved from the Flood and arrived on the holy mountain, he offered ascensions to make peace between God and Creation. Isaac fulfills the sacrifice of Noah.

Let’s draw a few more implications from this. First, the story of Genesis 18-22 clarifies and explores the meaning of circumcision. Circumcision was given after Abram broke the covenant, but it also signifies the seed that is coming from Abraham’s own body. The message is thus, when we read the whole story carefully and with attention to detail, that God will “raise up” (resurrect) Abraham’s seed after him and in that way renew the covenant. Circumcision is a profound type of Christ, and the circumcision of the heart is when the shape of the cross is cut into the Christian heart by suffering.

Second, it is a ram who replaces Isaac. In the system of offerings set forth in Leviticus, the ram is the animal used in the trespass offering. One “trespasses” against God when one seizes duties that are not one’s own. A typical punishment for such seizures are leprosy. When Adam trespassed, he was cursed with “garments of skin”, which, while protecting Adam from the full force of the divine glory, nevertheless is associated with leprosy in Leviticus 13-14, as the whole shape of Leviticus 11-15 follows the curses of Genesis 3. When Uzziah attempts to seize priesthood in the Lord’s Temple, priesthood reserved only for the Levites, he is struck leprous. And when Miriam attempts to rise up against Moses as prophet of the Lord, she is struck leprous.

Adam’s sin was a trespass, and a trespass incurs the curse of leprosy (associated with death). The trespass offering is a ram, associating it with Genesis 22. The seed of Abraham was to be offered to God, but God took a ram instead. The incredible thing is that all of these themes meet in Isaiah 53. Isaiah says that the Servant of the Lord became leprous for the sake of His People. He says that the Servant gave himself as a “trespass offering.” Now God has found the true Seed of Abraham, and the true Seed of Abraham is offered to God, bringing creation to its final rebirth, and finally bringing peace between God and mankind, as Noah’s ascensions had typified in Genesis 8.