Musing 122
It’s always fun to come across a question that you haven’t thought of before.
Because I’m an overthinker, the process of learning something new that challenges me to examine what I know through a new lens (even partially) is something I enjoy way more than I probably should.
Combined with an obsessive personality, and I sometimes have to be careful about how much I allow myself to do certain things.
But it is through those challenges that real growth is found.
All that to say - I found such a question this week relating to the status of Abraham’s justification in Genesis 12-14 and God’s justification in Genesis 15.
ie - was Abraham saved in Gen 12-14, and if so, did he experience initial justification in Gen 15?
Which, because of how Romans 4 looks at Gen 15, seems like quite the question.
But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I think that’s really not the case beyond the surface level. While yes, Abraham’s justification is commented on at a weird time chronologically, I think it makes perfect sense narratively.
In Gen. 15, Abram has spent decades following God. He has been given the promise that his family will bless all the nations. And it was on this promise that he left home. And yet, Sarai has yet to conceive. He has no heir.
At least if I were Abram, I know I’d be feeling like “hey, God, what’s going on?” And in this light, it becomes clear why the commentary on Abraham’s justification occurs here, instead of at an earlier point. It’s a place where Abraham is trusting God on the deepest part of his fears. And we see how that is tested in James 22.
And so the declaration is, in context, primarily a qualitative statement, not necessarily a temporal one.
Even in Romans 4, Paul’s concern about the temporality of Gen 15:6 isn’t with respect to where it was in Abraham’s journeying, but that it came before the inauguration of the covenant in Genesis 17 when circumcision is introduced.
And that’s where I’m gonna the ramblings tonight, as I’m exhausted from the day and need to wake early.