Summary: Abraham was asked to do a lot. The English gets you here ('to a land I will show you' isn't very much to go on); the Hebrew intensifies this. As I continue to read this story, I am also reflecting a lot on what "bless" means. I do not think one can walk away, in this or other stories, from the material nature of blessings in the Bible. However, the Bible already shows the direction of God's blessing, namely, our neighbor. Perhaps if we wanted to be most Lutheran, we would argue that the true blessing is the promise that allows one to live by faith.
Key words
לך-לך ("lake - la - kah", "go immediately," vs 1) This is often translated simply as "go." It literally means "go-go" or "get up and go." In Hebrew, when you have two verbs in a row, the first verb is often adverbial, as in "in a 'getting up' kind of way, go." Or, more poetically: "Immediatedly go." The whole section in the Hebrew Bible is called "Lake-la-kah." (The Hebrew Bible didn't use chapters; instead it divided up scrolls into sections, naming them after a key word near the beginning of the section) Also, Abraham will be given this same command in Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac.
One wonders if the angel's commands to Paul (then Saul) in chapter 9 of Acts are the same -- "Get up and go" in the sense of "go immediately."
Grammatically: Keep an eye out for dual verb commands in the Bible; they may reflect a Hebrew way of speaking whereby one verb functions as an adverb.
Theologically: God isn't about discernment in this passage, but about decision. There is a sense of immediacy!
בת-אב ("bet av", "father's house," vs 1) This term means way more than simply "dad's house." It was the fundamental social unit and reality of a person's life. Here is a website with pictures:
http://www.penn.museum/sites/Canaan/Home%26Family.html
I think for us in the West today, it is impossible to understand the impact of traditional and family on a person's psyche and worldview, and thus the significance of God's command.
ברך ("baruch", "bless", vs 2,3) The first point I want to address is the meaning of the word baruch. In Genesis, blessing can often be assoicated with material prosperity:
* Genesis 39:5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field.
* Genesis 26:3 Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
* See also Genesis 30:27
It also refers to children and descendents:
* Genesis 1:22 God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
* Genesis 17:16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
* Genesis 22:17 I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies,
I would argue though, if you press the Bible harder, you discover that blessing means something more than a big house and big family.
It also means fundamental human relationships based on complentary differences (yes family, but not necessarily size!)
* Genesis 5:2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them "Humankind" when they were created
Rest
* Genesis 2:3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
God's peace and presence
* Numbers 6:23-27 23 Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, 24 The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. 27 So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.
Ultimately though, I do not think one can de-materialize the nature of blessings. I think what good pastors and theologians can do is direct this blessing back to the neighbor:
* Deuteronomy 14:28-29 28 Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; 29 the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.
Or simply as God says here in Genesis 12 -- the whole world is to be blessed by Abraham!
Lastly, there is a rather technical point here about the translation here having to do with verb forms in Hebrew. The question is whether to treat the verb bless as a passive (the nations will be blessed by Abraham) or reflexive, "in Abraham (or his name) all the nations will bless themselves." The Greek goes with the passive here and that is how this passage is traditionally translated. That seems fair and good, but perhaps it is also worth asking: How do we actively bless ourselves through Abraham and his legacy?
NET Bible notes:
Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of "bless" is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation "will bless [i.e., "pronounce blessings on"] themselves [or "one another"]." The Hitpael of "bless" is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.
קלל and אאר ("qalal" and "arar", "curse", vs 2) These words, although both translated similarly in English as "curse", are different. The first, qalal, means "treat lightly" in the sense of "disrespect" or "disgrace." The second, arar, means remove from blessing. Rather than think of this verse than as those who swear mean things at Abraham will have bad things happen to them, its probably better to think of it this way: Because Abraham is a blessing, and an agent of blessing, from God, to disregard Abraham is to remove oneself from God's potential blessings. The question is whether the Bible (God really) means all the blessings in the world, or the blessings from Abraham. I'd be inclined to the latter. In short, the Bible does not seem to be indicating quite as harsh as a sentence as "curse those who curse you" suggests, but it does offer a warning.
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