Finally - Genesis 25:1-10

25:1-6 - After Sarah had died and Hagar had been banished, “Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.” It goes on to list 6 sons that Keturah had with Abraham as the father. It’s easy to view the adding of Keturah and her sons as chronological, but the lecturer from the Torah Class podcast I listen to had some very interesting insights, though I’m not sure how important they are. First he suggested that the timing doesn’t line up for Abraham to have married Keturah and have at least 6 children with her by the time he died based on when Sarah died. He says that it’s more likely that Abraham had multiple concubines but only one true, legitimate, legal wife, Sarah. As far as the children of Keturah are concerned, he also notes that it’s unlikely that she would have six sons in a row and those be her only children. He suggests that the most likely scenario is that she gave birth to many children, both boys and girls, but the six mentioned here are the only ones important to the narrative going forward. This means that while Ishmael was certainly the oldest, first born to Abraham, Isaac was probably one of the later children born. This changes the context in which Hagar is sent away with Ishmael because he picked on Isaac, it wouldn’t have been a matter of Ishmael living as the spoiled only child and suddenly be second place to this new baby, but instead an earnest effort to hassle the young boy despite there being many other children present. In this light it’s more understandable that Sarah was concerned, I still don’t like it, but it makes more sense. The interesting thing to note here is that the name of one of Keturah’s sons listed is Midian, which is the same Midian who establishes a community in the east where Moses escapes to after killing that Egyptian soldier, meaning that Moses’ wife was also a part of the Abrahamic family. This is all to say that the descendants of Abraham are far as wife throughout the world. With so many children, there surely was a problem in succession because Abraham was a very wealthy man and there would have been a lot of contention around making the middle born son the heir to his empire. As a solution, “unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.” Abraham didn’t avoid the issue by waiting until he was dead for the children to settle the issue, and legally, Abraham was under no obligation to give anything to the children of his concubines, but you can tell that he loved them all because he gave them large “gifts” instead of inheritances, and sent them to possess their own land and make their own communities. He didn’t want them to fight, but he wanted them to be successful as well and imparted with them so that they could be. And I think it’s a credit to the way that Abraham handled things that as far as I know, none of his children fought each other for possessions given by their father to their siblings. 25:7-10 - Abraham lived to be 175 years old, in whatever time table they keep here, and then died, “and his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah… which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.” This is the first time we hear about Ishmael again since he was sent away many decades previously, so this would imply that there had been more going on behind to scenes to care for the boy besides just sending him and his mother into the desert and crossing their fingers. Not only was there more involvement from Abraham but it must have been amiable enough so that when the time came, the boys were close enough that they could honor their father together. *I’m adjusting to my new work schedule, and I have a lot going on personally with my kids and stuff so I haven’t been as diligent in my scripture study as I should have. In fact, I wrote most of this two weeks ago, but there was so much I wanted to say that I learned from listening to the Torah Class that it got pretty overwhelming, plus I’ve been busy at work so that’s been a constraint as well. I think that moving forward, I need to learn what I can, but then not be paralyzed with information and just do a little bit of something every day and be more diligent. I don’t have to read and write and comprehend every single detail of this stuff to make it happen, I need to just do it and the Lord will tell me what I need to know.