As we were doing our partner work and reading through the chumash, I wondered to myself. Why did G-d appear to Avraham so many times, and seemingly say the same thing to him each time. First of all, shouldn't G-d have just come to Avraham and the first time, G-d could have told him evertyhing- about the land, about his children becoming a nation, so on and so forth. Then G-d keeps appearing to Avraham and says the same thing! "You're descendants will become a great nation, they will be many, I will bless them, I will bless you, etc..."
Questions to Ponder:
1. What's the point of G-d appearing so many times?
2. Did G-d appear when He did for specific reasons? (Meaning, G-d appeared at time x because of y)
3. Why does G-d say the same things?
4. G-d promised Avraham his people would be great, but the Jews were only sovereign for a little bit and the whole world kind of dislikes the Jews now, and before that people abused the Jews... they weren't/aren't so great... Or do you disagree?
Questions to Ponder:
1. What's the point of G-d appearing so many times?
2. Did G-d appear when He did for specific reasons? (Meaning, G-d appeared at time x because of y)
3. Why does G-d say the same things?
4. G-d promised Avraham his people would be great, but the Jews were only sovereign for a little bit and the whole world kind of dislikes the Jews now, and before that people abused the Jews... they weren't/aren't so great... Or do you disagree?
Wow Zahava. It's like you're a prophetess or something! This post was written a day before we began to address these very questions. I know you're dying to hear the answer, so let me get to it.
ReplyDelete1. G-d appeared because Avraham needed to be reassured. G-d didn't just appear for no reason. One time, G-d appeared for an initial promise of zera and eretz. Avraham assumed that Lot was his zera, and when lot went mikedem, away from G-d, Avraham was worried about having descendants. So G-d appeared to let him know it wasn't Lot. Then G-d appeared to reassure Avraham that even though he didn't get the land during the war, he will get it after his descendants are slaves for 400 years.
2. Yes, see above answer.
3. Because He is reassuring Avraham about the things promised to him earlier. It's not a repetition of the promises.
4. We have great religious principles, and now that we have Israel, we can start to impact the world again.