Episode Transcript
Carey Griffel: Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot, where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith.
[00:00:15] My name is Carey Griffel, and today we are going to begin a study on the theme of refuge. For those of you who may be a little bit sad to move on from my previous series about atonement, this theme is actually not at all disconnected from that. Although it really is its own thing with a lot of different ideas surrounding it.
[00:00:39] So if you are in one of those places where you've kind of dismantled PSA in your own mind, or you've started to, and you're still left wondering, "What are we supposed to think about things now? How do we understand the work of God and salvation and all of these ideas? What do we do without my old ideas?". If you're in that spot, then I hope that these episodes actually are going to be very helpful to you, because we have been talking about participation a lot, and representation, and those kinds of ideas. So being in Christ is going to be a big part of what we're gonna be headed toward, although it'll take us a little while to get to that point in the theme.
[00:01:27] This is not about covering our sins so that God doesn't see them or anything like that. But there is a theme of hiddenness that we have of being in Christ, and there's some sort of overarching theme that belongs to this concept of refuge. And so I hope you're gonna enjoy this little series. There are quite a few little pieces here. And the theme of refuge, like many other themes in Scripture, is kind of double-sided. We'll see it showing up in a lot of different ways, and it does not always mean the same thing. And as Scripture tends to do, as we trace the theme, we can see a little bit of a development with it, or different angles or different facets where an author will be drawing upon an idea or a concept. And within the narrative flow of the text, the particular instance of that theme will actually be telling us something in particular. And as common as this idea of refuge might be in things like Christian devotionals and sermons and even in your own Bible study where you might be reading the Psalms and you see some of this imagery show up and poetically, it seems really comforting, right? And I don't wanna put that down at all. But I wanna show that this theme of God as my refuge is really well developed in Scripture in what I think are some really interesting ways. There's a whole range of meaning that we have here that I think you'll be able to see as we go through the different pieces of the text where it shows up.
[00:03:15] I don't want to take away the picture of a quiet devotional moment of you sitting at home with your Bible open, praying through your stress and your anxiety and your problems that you're having, and feeling reassured that God is near. That is absolutely something that we can do, and I think that is something that the theme is calling us to picture. Our devotional time and our prayer life and our understanding of God can become a refuge because it reconnects us to the God who truly does shelter us in our troubles and our afflictions. Prayer can absolutely be a refuge. Our houses and our families can become places where we experience that. And these are things that we seek God's protection in. But if that is the whole frame, then we're not seeing all of these really interesting angles that Scripture brings to us.
[00:04:13] And I say that because it really is important to see that refuge appears when there is real existential danger. I'm not saying that your afflictions that you deal with in your life might not fit that bill. But let's go ahead and look at the theme as it shows up in Scripture.
[00:04:33] As we've done before, we're gonna be using frame semantics. And frame semantics, even though it uses this scary word “semantics,” it really is not a complicated thing. Frames are just these entire conceptual ideas that are gonna be brought up in a text or a story when we hear certain words and ideas being brought up. So when Scripture gives us refuge or hiding language, there’s a few different questions we can ask when we hit one of these passages. We can ask, what is the threat? Who is vulnerable? Where do they go? Who protects them? What are they protected from? Are they seeking out the hiding place for faithful reasons or for faithless reasons? Is the refuge temporary or final? And what happens afterward? Does the hiding place lead toward God or away from God?
[00:05:38] Now, of course, no matter how long my podcast goes, we're not gonna get away from the early chapters of Genesis. That's just not gonna happen. And so, of course, it's gonna be brought to our mind that the first hiding scene in Scripture is not the claim of God as my refuge, but it is Adam and Eve hiding amongst the trees of the garden because they are afraid. And that's really quite interesting because it means that our first clear instance of hiding is actually not very positive. So hiding can be associated with fear, with alienation, and the idea of protection and preservation. And there's a whole lot of positive things that it can be part of as well, but this first instance is not a positive one.
[00:06:32] I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this section here because we've got a lot of pieces of Scripture to look at. But let's look at Eden itself as a place of refuge. It's not called by that word, but it does function as a protected, ordered space where life flourishes. It is the place of God's provision, of human vocation, of life and abundance and divine presence. And so the human is placed there to work and keep or guard it. They have food, there is a command, and there is communion with God inside this space. I've already talked about nakedness and shame and all of that. If you wanna go check that out, I believe that it's episode 114. There's a really interesting aspect where in Genesis 2:25, shame is brought up, but in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve go and hide, the word shame is not there. Now, that does not mean that the concept is not there, but primarily what they are doing is they're hiding in fear. That might involve some shame elements there, but they're not hiding from each other because they're naked to each other. They are hiding from God.
[00:07:55] So there is a definite contrast between Genesis 2 and Genesis 3. The human nakedness exposure is not experienced as a danger or a threat in Genesis 2. So exposure is not automatically shameful. Before the time with the trees, being seen is not a problem for them. Now, of course, the tree of knowledge of good and evil introduces the possibility of faithful limitation. The garden is safe, but it's not autonomous. Human life depends on trust in God's word and obedience to His command.
[00:08:36] But then the humans eat, their eyes are opened, they know they are naked. They go and sew themselves some fig leaves. Then they hear the sound of Yahweh God, and they hide amongst the trees. Now, an interesting point that I saw brought out in the Divine Council Worldview Group this week, was this connection with the clothes that they made themselves out of the fig leaves. This word that is used for the clothing, the loincloth or the apron, depends on the translation that you're reading. In other places in Scripture, it is used for battle gear. Now, I don't think that means we are to understand Adam and Eve as making battle gear necessarily, because the word can also just mean some sort of covering or clothing. So it does not necessarily have battle connotation But there is a vulnerability that they're trying to protect.
[00:09:37] Now clearly, the first hiding place is a failed refuge because they get found by God. I'm sure we are also meant to see that they are hiding from the wrong person. They're not supposed to be hiding from God. Notice they're not hiding from each other, and they're not even hiding from the serpent.
[00:09:57] As we go through the theme of refuge in Scripture, we're gonna see that we are meant to flee to Yahweh. But here, Adam and Eve are fleeing from Him. Even though they took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it doesn't seem like they're aware of the true threat. And of course, it produces blame and not real confession. They are very evasive. They shift blame. And so their actions are not leading to restoration, but away from it.
[00:10:30] But God doesn't seem particularly angry. He's asking them questions, and he's seeking them out. So even though they are hiding from him, God still comes seeking them. And so the divine response to human hiding, even though it's really not a great idea and they shouldn't be doing it, God does not abandon them to that. Not only does God not abandon them to the refuge that they have self-chosen, but He doesn't abandon them to their own choice of clothing either.
[00:11:03] Now, we've mentioned this before, but I will mention it here again just because we got off of a whole series on atonement. God giving them skins has nothing to do with atoning sacrifice in the form of death, okay? We don't have any sacrifice words. We don't have any words that involve death. And so if we see this as a sacrificial death moment, we're just misreading the frame. But that is what happens when we flatten everything down into one picture. We're not gonna do that with the theme of refuge. And indeed, we really can't because we see that the very first instance of hiding and humans working to find a refuge is not a good one.
[00:11:51] So not only does God draw them out of the trees, but he casts them out of Eden itself. So Eden as a protected space is no longer accessible refuge to them. The guarding of the cherubim with the swords, that is a judgment, but the text clearly tells us that it is a judgment because God doesn't want them to access the tree of life in the state they're in. So again, we're gonna picture the judgment as both retribution as well as mercy. They are cast out of sacred space, and that's not a good thing, but they are also provided mercy in that because they could have been kept there, which would mean that they would remain in the state that they were in. And God doesn't want that because that's clearly not a good thing.
[00:12:44] Our next picture of refuge in Scripture and protection actually happens with the story of Cain after his murder of his brother. So the threat is no longer just exposure before God, but we have violence between humans plus the fear of retaliatory violence. The protection that we see in Genesis 4 is that God works to restrain human vengeance. Cain is protected, and even though he's protected from that, he's not restored to relationship, and all of his consequences are not erased. He is still further exiled from Eden.
[00:13:27] Now, it is really easy to get kind of sidetracked into speculation about what the mark of Cain was and wasn't. But clearly the function of it in the text is protective. It is to communicate that Cain is not to be killed. The narrative does not really invite curiosity about the mark's appearance as much as it invites attention to God's restraint of vengeance.
[00:13:54] And it's actually quite fascinating because Cain is also associated with a city. And what do we have later in the Torah? Well, we have cities of refuge And the cities of refuge function a little bit similarly to the mark of Cain Because blood vengeance must not outrun proper judgment. Now, I'm not saying that Cain is the same as an accidental manslaughter, but the thematic concern begins here, where God will not let vengeance become the final moral order of things. It's also quite likely that we are to see the city that Cain is associated with as a place of security for him, as another type of refuge.
[00:14:42] Remember that Cain was told he would be a fugitive and a wanderer. But then there's a city. And this seems to be an attempt to stabilize life under the condition of exile, kind of contrary to what God is judging him for. But that judgment still gets fulfilled, especially since the culture of violence actually escalates in Cain's line. So with Lamech, refuge is needed because vengeance is going to spread.
[00:15:12] I want you to think of these stories in Genesis as kind of building our picture of refuge. So first we have the picture of Eden as a protected space. But that protected space was still meant to be guarded. It was not properly guarded apparently because we have the incident with the serpent who was listened to instead of cast out. And that incident led to the humans trying to find their own refuge. Then we have the situation escalating with Cain. It escalates with the city. It escalates with Lamech. And so with all of these pictures just in the first four chapters of Genesis, we see that people are afraid before God, but they're also afraid of other humans. We see protection can be given to the guilty, which really complicates our expectations, doesn't it? We can see that refuge can be partial. Just because somebody is protected or finds partial refuge does not mean they're fully within a good situation, right? We have the restraint of vengeance. And we have human security projects arising east of Eden, so human forms of refuge.
[00:16:37] Okay, now I know you're gonna expect me to jump into the story with Noah, but I've already talked quite a bit about Noah and the ark as a refuge, so instead, we are gonna jump to the story with Hagar. Hagar is really indispensable for this, even though she might not be all that obvious as part of the theme. With Hagar, the theme is kind of flipped on its head in some ways because we have God who finds the vulnerable person in an exposed place, and then he provides protection and oversight to her.
[00:17:15] In Genesis 16, Hagar flees into the wilderness and she is found by the angel of the Lord near water. Then in Genesis 21, instead of fleeing into the wilderness, she is sent away into the wilderness with Ishmael, her son. And instead of being found near water, she runs out of water, and God hears the boy. The story of Hagar teaches us that refuge can begin when God sees and hears the person that no one else is protecting or that others have cast aside. For Hagar, refuge is not found within walls. It is found within the God who finds the vulnerable in the wilderness and opens their eyes to life. We have quite a few different motifs that are layered here. We have wilderness, we have flight, we have mistreatment, vulnerability, the presence or absence of water. We have God seeing and hearing. We have a child who's endangered. We have an angelic encounter. Of course, the Angel of the Lord is God Himself, but that is still in the realm of an angelic encounter. We have promise, we have opened eyes, and we have preservation outside of the main household. So there is inheritance and offspring. This is a whole package of information and ideas that are being brought up in this story.
[00:18:56] Another interesting thing about this is how Hagar is an Egyptian woman. So we have so many places in the Old Testament where the Egyptians are the oppressors. And here the story is flipped. And this is why when we're tracing themes and we're really looking at the different details that are provided in individual stories within that theme, we cannot just presume that the idea of the theme is the same across every story. Because in many of the stories we'll be looking at in this series, it involves places, it involves households, and yet here, again, it's flipped on its head. The household is not a place of safety for Hagar. The promised family is not a place of safety for her. Abram and Sarai are trying to secure the promise of God in their own way, which that itself reflects what Adam and Eve were doing with the tree in the garden, trying to secure a blessing through wrong means because they see something good themselves.
[00:20:08] This is also a hint to a broader theme that I want to talk about here because when we're thinking about refuge and we're thinking about hiddenness, We're often thinking about places that are inside, like inside the house, inside the temple, inside the city, inside the walls. And people who are familiar with the Bible's themes will understand the wilderness as a place of danger, as a place that is without life, as a place that is really entirely negative And in reality, what we have when we trace the theme of wilderness and we trace the theme of refuge, we often have those two things brought together in the text. So in Genesis 16, Hagar was found by the spring, but in Genesis 21, the water is gone. So the wilderness is certainly a place of death.
[00:21:07] And we have Hagar placing Ishmael under a bush. And so That is probably the best refuge she could find to put him. It gives a little shade at least. But this also echoes the garden where Adam and Eve are hiding in the trees, and that's just not gonna be enough.
[00:21:25] This is anticipating the story of the Exodus children, the story of Jesus when he was a baby, and other places where we have endangered children, and that's going to imply the death of the family line and the failure, too, of God's promises because these are children that God has promised. But then we have God hearing the boy, and this is calling to Ishmael's name because his name means God hears. The name that he was given as a promise becomes enacted in this moment of crisis. Hagar is crying out, and yet God hears the child. And so the endangered child is not just part of Hagar's story, but he is part of the wider promise of what's going on.
[00:22:19] Another thing that you will see is the language of not fearing. Do not fear often comes when divine protection and promise is being reaffirmed. Now, of course, it's a really big meme about angels coming and saying, "Do not fear," and then the angels look all scary. Well, first of all, angels in the Bible generally are pretty normal looking, so it's a funny meme, but it doesn't really map onto a lot of the stories. The second point is that the idea of fear can be also to respect. And so to fear God does not mean to be afraid of Him, but it means to respect or honor Him. But I do think the language is also calling back to the situation in the garden. The problem again was not shame. It wasn't about feeling shameful. It was about being fearful. And fear is not a bad thing when it is in the realm of honor and respect and those kinds of fear ideas.
[00:23:27] But you'll see in these moments in Genesis that there is a real fear of death. And so in the story of Hagar, what God does not do is lift Hagar and the boy up and carry them somewhere else. Certainly that is something that would be possible for God to do. We have that happening with people in Scripture. But instead, God opens Hagar's eyes and she sees the well. The text does not say that God creates the well in that moment. And so it doesn't seem that God is inventing provision from nothing, but he is enabling Hagar, this vulnerable mother, to see the provision that was hidden from her that she could not see. I don't wanna make it too overly psychological here because I think there is still a divine action that happens. But it's a fascinating form of the opening eyes idea. And this is, again, contrasted with Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, their eyes are opened and they see nakedness and exposure. In Genesis 21, Hagar's eyes are opened and she sees water and life. So the water becomes the concrete form of the refuge in the wilderness.
[00:24:45] I don't wanna get too deep into the concept here, but because we're talking about refuge and hiddenness, I want to open up the idea of the hiddenness of God. This is one of those really difficult questions that a lot of people struggle with. And there's a lot of apologetics answers to this question, like why don't we hear more from God? Why doesn't God show himself to me if I'm seeking him? And those kinds of questions where it really seems like God is hidden, or he's quiet, or you just can't see his action around you, right? You want God to reveal himself personally to you so that you know that he's there, so that you can trust in him, so that you can believe in him, and so on. This is a real problem for a lot of people. Now, I'm not gonna answer that question in this episode or probably future episodes, And the theme of refuge and hiddenness in the way that I'm approaching it is more from the perspective of people than it is about the hiddenness of God. But I don't think that it is unrelated to this idea of the hiddenness of God, because Hagar's story in particular does not present God as obvious to everyone in the household situation. Abram and Sarai do not seem to perceive the problem with Hagar and her plight the way that God does. And God is appearing in the wilderness to Hagar, not to Abram and Sarai, But God appears to Hagar in her moment of need. He could have appeared to her before she got to that moment of crisis. But this seems to suggest something about this idea of hiddenness in relation to God. So sometimes God seems absent in places where He becomes visible later. And it is often in these moments of crisis. But I'm just placing this in your mind as we talk about this theme of refuge and hiddenness.
[00:27:00] All right, so let's get into another story we haven't touched on a whole lot here in the podcast. And that is the story with Lot. Lot's story gives us a really important warning inside the refuge theme. Because Lot is certainly rescued. He certainly finds some form of refuge, But he doesn't end up in the very best place at the end. So God might rescue someone from destruction, but that rescued life may still be disordered, fearful, and unreformed in ways that don't lead to a full coming back to God moment, right? I also think the story with Lot gives us a lot of the wilderness pattern, the pattern of Egypt, the city as a false refuge. We have more flight going on. We have more angels as rescuers. And a whole host of really interesting little pieces to the story here.
[00:28:05] So let's go ahead and set up the story of Lot. In Genesis 13, we have Abram and Lot together. And because they have so many herds, they need to separate. And Abram gives him the choice, and Lot sees that the plain of the Jordan is well-watered like the Garden of Yahweh and like Egypt. So we have connections not just with Egypt as a place of provision, but also connections back to the garden. Lot chooses by sight and he moves his tents over near Sodom and he eventually appears in Sodom's gate. So we already have the theme of refuge appearing right here at the beginning of Lot's real story. And at first, Lot is there with his herds and his tents. But in Genesis 19, we see him sitting in the gate, which suggests some settled civic role or at least integration into the city.
[00:29:10] Now, as we will see, cities can be places of protection and order and law and hospitality. But Sodom is a disordered picture of a city, a city where strangers are threatened instead of given hospitality. And instead of the rule of law, we have justice that is corrupted. And that is very important for our cities of refuge theme. And I really want you to kind of focus on the idea of justice, Because as Christians, when we hear the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, There's usually a lot of emphasis on the sexual sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, but Genesis 18 is framing the judgment in terms of outcry, righteousness, wickedness, and justice. Of course, we have the intercession with Abraham, who isn't just asking God to save Lot, but all of the righteous people in the city, and indeed the whole city on account of those righteous people.
[00:30:14] It really seems a little bit strange to us, doesn't it, that we have such an emphasis on Abraham? Like, what is Lot's relationship to God? Why doesn't Lot himself have some form of direct relationship to God, or so it seems. We don't have Lot himself crying out or asking for justice, but his refuge is bound to another person's intercession and covenantal relationship. In spite of that, God seems perfectly happy to provide his divine mercy.
[00:30:49] So when we come to Lot in Genesis 19, and he is sitting in the gate. A thing that we might gloss over in our English texts is this importance of the gate of the city. It is not simply a doorway. The gate of the city should be a place of order and justice. It is a place of judgment where elders would be sitting, and they would be dealing with things publicly in civic life. And so the fact that Lot is sitting there suggests he's part of this leadership of the city, and if he's not part of the leadership itself, then he is at least listening to the judgment and the things going on in public for the city's public good.
[00:31:34] As I said, we have an outcry of the city against injustice and things. But Lot is a person who provides a level of hospitality. And that hospitality is attacked by the city. Sodom is an anti-refuge city because it threatens the vulnerable stranger. And it violates the basic moral obligation to protect guests. And that's really important for the theme of refuge because refuge often involves hospitality where the vulnerable person is meant to be received, to be sheltered, and to be protected. But that is the opposite of what's going on in Sodom.
[00:32:16] Nonetheless, even though Lot is attempting to protect his guests, that protection that he offers is quite morally compromised because he offers his daughters up instead. Here's another one of our instead of themes, and it's not a positive one. It is horrifying that Lot tries to protect his guests by giving his daughters instead. So while his home is a shelter or a refuge to the strangers, it is the opposite of that for his own household. And in spite of Lot's hospitality, it is actually the angelic visitors who pull Lot back inside bodily and strike the men with blindness and confusion. And then of course, we have the story continue on. The refuge requires leaving the place of shelter. And Lot does try to warn others, but they don't believe his warning. And it causes delay, it causes disbelief and an increase of danger.
[00:33:25] And once again, it is the angelic visitors who force Lot to leave. The strangers are the ones who bring them out because of Yahweh's mercy and compassion toward them. We aren't given any reason why Lot is slow to leave, but they take so long to get out that it ends up that their escape is very urgent. And they're not supposed to stop. They're not supposed to look back. And we have the famous story of Lot's wife who does look back, and she gets turned into the pillar of salt.
[00:33:56] And the irony of Lot choosing the plain because it looks well-watered now can't stop in that very plain. He has to go up into the hills to escape. And so here we have the theme of refuge in hills and mountains. Lot doesn't really wanna do that, and he negotiates his place of refuge. Lot says he can't escape to the hills because he thinks that the disaster is going to overtake him. But this is another moment of mercy because Lot is fearing the commanded refuge. The hills are God's instruction, but Lot is afraid that he can't make it that far. And so he asks for a smaller, nearer refuge. God does grant it, but it's temporary, because Lot later becomes afraid to live there, and then he moves to a cave. So even though Lot did not want to go into the hills at first, he's eventually forced there by his fear. So Lot goes from one place to another. He finds no real refuge and no real security.
[00:35:07] Until he reaches this cave, and the cave becomes his new shelter. This is the first major cave refuge moment in Scripture. But it's not a really great cave to be in. Lot is there because he's afraid. He's isolated. His daughters are concerned about continuing the family line, so of course there is that terrible situation. And as with all of the stories in Genesis, these things will have consequences for the family as they go on, not because the children of the father are punished because of the father, but because they're going to live into the pattern of the father. We have another story similar to the story with Noah drinking wine, only this one is much more explicit and it's very disturbing to us from our modern perspective, and I'm pretty sure it was disturbing to the ancient person as well.
[00:36:05] Here we have a picture of isolation that produces distorted survival strategies, but it's an isolation that was self-chosen. They are there because they were afraid. They are cut off from community. They are fearful. This is post-catastrophe, so you would think that after everything that Lot had gone through, that he might trust God to preserve him. But obviously that's not the case. And he isn't even the one who is concerned about preserving the line. But it is his daughters who are concerned. So again, daughters acting fearfully in the way that their father also acted.
[00:36:49] Lot is entirely passive. And it's an interesting fall for Lot because he went from sitting in the gate of Sodom and he's now drunk in a cave, acted upon by his daughters. And Moab and Ammon are nations that arise from this union. That doesn't mean that everybody from Moab or Ammon is wicked, because Ruth the Moabite later becomes part of the Messianic line. So this isn't about corrupted bloodlines or anything like that.
[00:37:20] God's work can still move through morally complicated origins and places where people are seeking refuge in false ways. We do get Ruth who later seeks refuge under Yahweh's wings. That's another picture of refuge we'll have to talk about as we go through these themes. All right, so clearly at this point, we have refuge as a sacred space. We have refuge as protected marks. We have refuge as protection against vengeance. We have refuge as cities, refuge as caves, refuge as an ark.
[00:38:01] let's take a moment here to compare these different pictures. I think it's useful to compare the story of Lot with other refuge stories because they are involving judgment and rescue, but not all of the outcomes are the same. So if we compare Lot with Noah, both of them involve judgment on wickedness. Both of those stories involve a righteous or relatively righteous figure who is spared. Both of them involve household preservation. Both involve urgent divine instruction. Both involved entering and leaving a threatened world. Something I didn't mention is that both of them involve God remembering. In the case of Lot, it's not God remembering Lot, but God remembering Abraham.
[00:38:55] And both the stories of Lot and the story of Noah involve post-judgment family trouble involving wine, nakedness, and sexual shame But there are, of course, differences between the story of Noah and the story of Lot. Noah builds according to divine instruction, and he follows those commands. Noah is shut in by God Himself. He is not the one who closes the door of the ark. God does that. Noah emerges to renewed creational blessing. Noah receives a covenant, and he becomes a new Adam-like figure, though he still is quite flawed. Lot, on the other hand, instead of obeying, he lingers. This is kind of a difference and a similarity, but Noah is shut in by God, and Lot had to be dragged out by the angels in mercy.
[00:39:55] Kind of along with the theme of not really obeying God, Lot negotiates for Zoar. He loses his wife instead of preserving her like in the story of Noah. Lot flees to the cave in fear, whereas Noah is in the ark out of obedience. Now, both the story of Lot as well as Noah end up with fractured families and morally dark stories in those families. But there's really no clear positive line for Lot like there is with Noah.
[00:40:28] And of course, last but not least, with Lot, there is no clear worship scene. In fact, Lot doesn't seem to have a relationship with God at all. He was saved on account of Abraham's intercession. Whether or not Lot had much of an opportunity to gain a really close relationship to God is not super obvious, But clearly he could have done a little bit more, because he was literally around angels. But at any rate, Noah shows refuge through judgment toward renewed vocation and worship and obedience. Lot, on the other hand, shows there is still refuge from judgment, but there's no clear restoration, no clear renewed vocation or life-giving things afterwards. I mean, his line does continue on, but there's some really bad things that go along with that.
[00:41:27] It's also really interesting to compare the story of Lot with the story of Hagar. Hagar is vulnerable and mistreated. She flees to the wilderness. She's found there by God. She receives the promise that she was promised to begin with. She names God in that experience and has her eyes opened to water. God is with her child, and the wilderness becomes a place where life is preserved. But the story with Lot is compromised within the city of Sodom. He has to flee judgment, And he is going into the wilderness, but he's kind of being dragged there And he has to negotiate for something different, but eventually flees to a cave in fear. He doesn't have a divine encounter within that cave, but rather something very different. And his survival leads into moral disorder for his people down the line. Both of these stories are wilderness and exposure stories, but Hagar's wilderness is marked by divine seeing and hearing and a positive future, whereas Lot's cave is marked by fear and distorted survival.
[00:42:40] Another thing that we could compare is, the ideas of positive refuge and false refuge. Sodom is a city. It had a lot of visible security. It was a well-watered place with prosperity, but it ended up being a place of death. If we return to the hiddenness of God theme, I think that Lot's story touches that in a kind of a dark way because God is clearly active through messengers and through judgment. But after Lot reaches the cave, divine speech disappears entirely.
[00:43:20] So the cave is a hidden space, and it might be a kind of refuge, but it's not a God-with-them refuge. So Noah's Ark is closed, but God remembers, and God is preserving it through the flood. Hagar's wilderness is exposed and a place of danger, but God sees her and provides for her and her child. Don't forget that. But then Lot's cave is one of shelter, but the narrative does not show any divine encounter there, but rather distorted and corrupted morality. And that does not mean that God is metaphysically absent or that he would not hear Lot. But narratively speaking, the cave here feels like hiddenness without restoration and life.
[00:44:14] All right. So if we back up to the wider theme of refuge and protection, Lot had a lot of that. And he really did get saved out of a lot of danger. But the picture of true refuge is not just getting out of danger, but true refuge is being brought to God himself. So we can have rescue, but escape is not really enough. Not that it's meaningless that Lot escaped, Because obviously his line lived on, and Moab and Ammon are not entirely negative in the Bible story. There is mercy here, but this is not a full biblical vision of the idea of refuge. So basically, Lot's story helps us to say two things at once. Being spared from destruction is mercy, but mercy aims at more than just survival. If refuge only means that they didn't die, then Lot has refuge. But Genesis is pushing us toward something deeper than that. So we have some really complicated refuge frames already. This is just within the first 20 chapters of Genesis.
[00:45:32] If we move into the idea of refuge with the story of Abraham, we have another important shift in the theme because so far we've seen refuge as really concrete and often very spatial. We have Eden as a garden. We have the trees as failed hiding spots. We have Cain's mark as protection from vengeance, and that is at least gotta be physical for people to see it. We have cities as refuge places. We have Noah's Ark. We have Hagar's Well as a wilderness refuge. We have Zoar and the cave in the story of Lot But with Abraham, refuge begins to move more explicitly toward God himself as the refuge place. Not just a place, although it could be part of that. Not just a sign, not just water, not just a boat But God Himself being a shield. That doesn't erase the concrete images of refuge because we still have pictures of living in the land. We still have altars. We still have houses that are refuges. We still have famine and travel and all kinds of threat But the theological center of the picture is deepening in the story of Abraham. So true refuge is not just a place, but the God whose promise makes threatened life possible.
[00:47:07] broadening out the picture of Abraham. He is a sojourner. Abraham's story begins not with settling into safety, not going into a city But with leaving a place. God calls Abram to go from his country, from his kindred, from his father's house, to the land that God will show him. So there is land, right? There is something physical here. There's also offspring and nations and blessings that are promised, not to mention a name. But it's very interesting that the promise that Abraham is given begins by removing him from ordinary sources of security. Like in the ancient world, it would be a really big deal to be leaving your kinship and your land because those are major forms of protection. But Abram leaves them because of God's promise. He does this before he has a child. He does this before he even knows what the land looks like, before he can possibly be said to be in a position to possess the land.
[00:48:15] Now, like I said, we still have concrete images because Abram does build altars and an altar isn't quite the same refuge structure as the Ark or a city, but they do mark worship and divine encounter in a land that he doesn't possess. He doesn't own it, but he's still building the altars. And so that is a signal that Abram's life in the land is oriented around Yahweh's presence and promise. Because again, an altar is about sacrifice, and sacrifice is not about killing animals for death reasons, but it is for community with your deity and fellowship and those kinds of ideas, right?
[00:49:02] I do have to wonder about what Abram thought because he arrives in the land, and pretty soon afterwards there is a famine. So you have to kind of wonder, like, he's supposed to be given this land by God, and there's a famine. Do you think he was wondering about this promise that he's supposedly gotten? Well, it doesn't tell us what Abram was thinking, but he goes down to Egypt. We have our theme of fleeing, our connections with Egypt. And he is afraid that the Egyptians will kill him because of Sarai. So he tells Sarai to say that she is his sister. Sarai is taken into Pharaoh's house. Yahweh afflicts Pharaoh's house until Sarai is returned.
[00:49:47] Okay, remember, We are talking about refuge. Abram as the promise bearer, but again, he's fearful. Egypt is a practical refuge, but Abram's strategy endangers Sarai, and she is taken into Pharaoh's house, which you would think that for her it would be a refuge. Like, she'd kind of be living a really good protected life inside Pharaoh's house, but it's not seen as a positive thing. So in certain ways, with the famine and with the fact that if she was in Pharaoh's house and she just stayed there, she would be protected, but the promise wouldn't be. I hope you see my point in this theme of refuge and how it can be really very complicated and not obvious when we're looking at the text. We're not thinking of refuge when we're seeing these stories, right? But when we have the idea of protection, when we have the idea of life preserved in the midst of danger like a famine. We do need some form of refuge to escape that.
[00:50:58] And Egypt is a very complicated picture in Genesis. It gets less complicated when we move into Exodus and the rest of the Old Testament. And so it fascinates me that we have these really dualistic pictures of the nation of Egypt within the book of Genesis. And so we have a crisis in the Promised Land, And Egypt is the place of survival. This happens multiple times in the book of Genesis, and yet within the place of refuge, Abram is afraid, and he is actually the source of danger to Sarai—at least as far as his relationship to her and her relationship to the promise. Like if you're looking at it from different angles, this could be either a good situation for Sarai or a bad one. The question is, which perspective are we looking at this from? If we're looking at it from a human prosperity perspective, she would have plenty of clothes and safety within Pharaoh's house. But from God's perspective and the promise of God, this would be a bad situation because she would be taken away and out of that promise.
[00:52:12] all right, so Abram and Sarai go back into the promised land and this is where we get the connection with Lot. We have Abram and Lot, and they're trying to decide how to separate. And Lot lifts his eyes and sees the well-watered plain and chooses what looks like Eden or Egypt. Abram remains in Canaan, and God tells him to lift his eyes and look in all the directions, because the land will be given to his offspring So we have a contrast here between Lot choosing by sight and Abram receiving by word or promise. And as far as Abram goes, the promise becomes the refuge against loss.
[00:52:57] Then we continue on with the story of Abram, and he becomes not just a refugee in the land, but someone who actually rescues others. Because Lot is taken captive in the war with some other kings, Abram gathers his trained men from his household, pursues the captors, defeats them, rescues Lot, and everything that was with Lot. So Abram is no longer vulnerable. He is no longer just a sojourner who is wandering around aimlessly, but he is a protector and a rescuer himself. So as an agent of rescue, he becomes the form of refuge for his nephew Lot. This is really key to the larger theme of refuge because those who are sheltered by God can themselves become sheltering agents.
[00:53:52] So when Lot's chosen refuge fails, then Abram steps in, acts as a kinsman rescuer. And that rescue also extends beyond Lot. Whether or not Lot asked him to do it or was a particularly willing participant doesn't seem to have mattered a whole lot when Abram, the covenant party with God, chooses to act And then some form of success happens. It's not a full form of success because Lot has to be part of the process. If he is not actually obeying, if he is fearful, if he continues to hide from God himself, then he is not going to get the blessing that Abram gets. Right? If he had stuck with Abram and he had acted in obedient ways, his story would have certainly turned out a lot better than it did.
[00:54:49] So this theme of refuge applies to people who are in relationship to the one who has covenant with God. Why would somebody who is really rather disobedient to God still end up rescued? But again, it's only a full rescue if people are going to participate in what God is doing and obey what God is doing so to that end, then we have the story with Melchizedek and Abram. Melchizedek, of course, is the king of Salem. He is the priest of God Most High. He blesses Abram and blesses God Most High, who delivered Abram's enemies into his hand. And so again, here we have a picture of refuge and protection in a way that's a little bit less concrete. And that is going to prepare us for some other ways that this is described.
[00:55:43] Now, I'm not going to go into the whole question of who Melchizedek is and all of that. But I do think that Melchizedek is naming Yahweh God and he is a true priest of Yahweh God. And so Abram's security is tied to the God who rules more than one local place. And I think that is really an important part of the picture. It's important for Abram as a sojourner who is trying to obey God and follow him.
[00:56:12] and right after this little bit with Melchizedek, we have the king of Sodom who offers Abram the goods. Abram refuses, saying he has lifted his hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and he doesn't want the king of Sodom to say that he made Abram rich. And this seems to be a major moment of refuge and false refuge because Abram refuses to secure his future through Sodom's patronage. Accepting the king of Sodom's gift would actually make Abram dependent on Sodom's king. So after risking himself to rescue Lot and the others, Abram refuses the kind of reward that could create dependence, obligation, or compromised identity. And this is gonna matter very deeply to the story with Lot and the destruction of Sodom because when we get to that story, if Abram had aligned himself with the king of Sodom, then he would have a cultural obligation to Sodom. But instead, Abram remains true to his family instead of making himself subservient to a foreign king.
[00:57:27] All right, so now we get to Genesis 15. And after all the things that just happened, the word of Yahweh comes to Abram in a vision. And the word of Yahweh, who I believe is that visible Yahweh, says, "Fear not, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.". So if we're just separating out Genesis and only reading chapter by chapter, we might miss this connection between the end of chapter 14 and the beginning of chapter 15, where Abram refused the reward and now is promised one in a vision,.
[00:58:09] Now, I mentioned earlier about fearing and being connected to refuge. Here we have that directly in place in Genesis 15:1, where the word of the Lord tells Abram, "Fear not,". Because "I am your shield." That's a really big reason why I think the word of the Lord is the visible Yahweh, because only Yahweh himself would be able to say that he is Abram's shield. He is his protection. He is his true refuge. God is the reward being promised, and the word of Yahweh is the refuge.
[00:58:50] But Abraham does immediately ask his question about being childless. So God being his shield doesn't mean Abram has no unresolved questions or issues, right? The refuge of the promise includes honest conversation with God. Here we have another promise under threat, because if God is going to give him everything that he is promising Abram, how is that gonna happen without a child? Now, why does that matter for the refuge question? Well, again, thinking about the ancient world, thinking about communal and social realities that they were dealing with, what really mattered to them? Certainly I'm sure wealth was important. Your status in society was important. Military danger would be important. In fact, we just saw that in his life. But the threatened future was also the one of promise and offspring and inheritance. So refuge here becomes tied to future preservation. So if God is going to be Abram's shield, then he needs to preserve Abram's future, which is preserving his children, and that can't happen if he doesn't have them. It is in this moment that God brings Abram outside and tells him to look at heaven and to number the stars, and so shall your offspring be. We've talked about how that is both number but also quality, so we have the reference to the stars, and stars were shining, and they're bright. But then we have a shift in the story to darkness. The sun is going down.
[01:00:37] This is probably calling back to the creation of the woman with Adam, but here, Abram already has a wife, so he doesn't need a woman created, but he does get a promise of offspring. And then of course we have the strange moment of the covenant, where Abram cuts the animals in half. I know that this story here in Genesis 15 is very strange, and so I think I'm going to go ahead and push pause on this episode right here, where we're talking about God being Abram's shield.
[01:01:14] That is so crucial to the concept of refuge that I think it deserves a little more conversation than I would devote for it today. So I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up the episode here because there's a lot more that we need to see with this theme of refuge. I know I've already put a whole bunch of stuff on your plate for one episode, and there is so much more we can talk about in the theme. So we will be getting into that a little bit deeper next week, probably a few weeks after that as well, because I really want you to see and note how crucial this is in the way that the Bible is presenting what's going on and how people are to be preserved and saved.
[01:01:59] It's an idea that is very opposite the way that many of us were taught, that we needed to be saved from God, or saved on account of justice because we are sinful and evil and terrible. We have words and ideas like covering and if we approach those ideas as if we need to be hidden from God, then that is a very different thing than what these pictures seem to be showing, where the people who are gaining refuge are not being hidden away from God because God doesn't wanna see them or he can't see them because of his justice or holiness or whatever else. The refuge and the hiddenness in positive stories, rather than the more negative ones, it is about being seen by God, being preserved by God, being protected by God, and having God be the one who is our refuge. I think that that is going to be very clear as we keep going through the theme of refuge and hiddenness and all of these ideas. So, like I said, we are gonna wrap up here. And I hope you'll look forward to all of the different ways that we see this theme coming up in Scripture. Go ahead and join me in my biblical theology community at On This Rock, and I'm sure we can talk about it there as well. But as always, I thank you guys for listening, and a really big shout-out to my Patreon and PayPal supporters. You guys are absolutely awesome, and I am so grateful to you. But that is it for this week. And I wish you all a blessed week, and we will see you later.
