7 Images: The Knowledge of God

 

Salvador Dali "Abraham, Pater Multarem Gentium" (1964) 

Scripture recounts that God chose a man, Abram, from whom to create a people through whom "all the families of the earth" would be blessed. 

Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3) 

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.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 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 offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6) 

Canaan in the days of Abram was in transition from a religion devoted to El (God) to a religion devoted to Baal (Lord of the Storm) who represented Justice and Fertility. Baal (whose actual name was Haddad) was equivalent to Enil of Sumer and Zeus of the Greeks. He had displaced El already in Abram's day and even appropriated the long white hair and beard of El, who as Creator and the God of Time was known as the Ancient of Days. Only in the hinterlands such as Jerusalem, of which Melchizedek was king, was El still revered. Abram devoted himself exclusively to El, which in practical terms amounted to monotheism, and God blessed him. 

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am [El Shaddai]; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:1-8) 

And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. (Genesis 17:9-14) 

But though the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and Esau were circumcised as part of this covenant, the only the descendants of Jacob would become a people set apart for a sacred purpose as part of an additional covenant. God would create from Jacob a new people, sacred to himself, to serve as his representative to the nations.