The Genesis of Justice

A Book Review

Book – The Genesis of Justice

Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law

By Alan M. Dershowitz

Please note - Since Mr. Dershowitz wrote this book, he has become more involved in politics. I am not excusing or justifying anything in this area of his life. I am using this book based on the good points in its covers that are relevant to this site’s topic.

Mr. Dershowitz’s book conveys great insights into the nature of law and how God uniquely created Israel to function with Him. It shows how God used the stories in Genesis as preparation for the Ten Commandments. I include my explanations of how the Commandments parallel the appropriate Genesis story, in bold.

“The characters in the Jewish Bible are all flawed human beings. The Jewish Bible teaches about justice largely through examples of injustice and imperfection.”

We have different categories of law. Those that are to be blindly followed are because God issued them, are known as the ‘chukim’. Laws based on reason and experience are in Hebrew called ‘mishpatim’. This word has the same root as the words ‘justice’ and ‘judge’. While mishpatim are based on the principles of justice; chukim did not need justification.

Chukim was the typical approach in the Ancient Near East outside of Israel, our current Middle East.

In the Bible we see the development of law moves from unjustified chukim to justified mishpatim. This clearly shows in Abraham’s discussion with God over the judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 18:16-33. A man challenged God to be reasonably just – and won! God must have been glad that the founder of His family ‘got’ God’s rationale for justice so well.

‘Employing one’s own experience to expand knowledge is, after all, a central message of Genesis. Characters make mistakes, challenge, and are challenged by God.’ This is how God matures His family.

‘The Biblical narratives, especially in Genesis, are as fresh, as relevant, as provocative, and as difficult as they were in ancient times. They also provide context and give life to the rules that derive from them.’

It is eye-opening to approach Genesis as the backstory to the Ten Commandments. The narratives are the ‘cause’ behind the ‘effect’, the Ten Commandments. We need to read them together to better apply the Ten Commandments.

Genesis shows us how the early human race lived in the wild, in the ‘raw’. This was before God did His second act of creation - of the nation of Israel. Israel was governed by His law, as much as nature is governed by the laws of physics. Western civilization’s legal system's heritage was heavily influenced by these Biblical principles.

The Genesis of Justice in the Injustice of Genesis

The book of Genesis can be read as reflecting the back-and-forth development of the stages of the legal system as it traveled the rocky road of humanity’s growing up.

‘What we derive from the stories of Genesis is the need for an agreed upon and enforceable code of conduct with procedural safeguards against arbitrary enforcement and unfair application.’ The themes of justice that permeate God’s law are all suggested in Genesis thru the narrative, rather than rules.

Genesis people developed a sense of justice by trial and error. In Eden justice was neither possible nor necessary. Since Adam and Eve had not yet tasted the Fruit of Knowledge, they had no more need for justice than they had for shame. Shame is the acknowledgement of wrongdoing, a prerequisite to justice.

The Flood was the time for law and order. In the wake of the Flood God set out the first rule of law: if a person sheds human blood and his blood will be shed by humans. Genesis 9:1-7.

‘Because Torah is a law book it should include stories that illustrate the need for laws and rules. The narrative prelude to the Ten Commandments and the laws follows the revelation at Sinia. Even after the laws were given the narrative continued, the experiences changed, and the law continued to develop. Just as experience must precede law, so too must narrative precede codification.’ Scripture uses narrative, rules, and memory to bring out the moral component of the laws. Indeed, it appears that God is treating Israel as a partner in the design of the Hebraic culture. He is treating the whole nation as a noble’s family, His court counselors. They need to know His inner thoughts behind how He rules, to support and make decisive decisions in line with His universe's order.

‘Do not oppress the stranger, since you understand the soul of the stranger, because you were strangers in Egypt.’

This is a very often used rationale in God’s presentation of law sections in Scripture. It’s almost as if one of the reasons God took Israel into Egypt was to have this ‘stranger’ experience, so He could link the purpose to the law to His true heart’s foundation. They were a special priestly nation, demonstrating to their neighbors how to live constructively, in a “love your neighbor” culture rather than “the strong exploit the weak” culture of the surrounding pagan nations.

Deuteronomy 4:5-8

“See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to Him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?" - Moses

The Torah is the first law book to integrate narrative and law. Most of the laws of the Bible develop organically out of the narratives and are justified by reference to the experiences of the story’s protagonists. The God of Scripture justifies most of His laws. After all, He is the God who enters covenant with all the people, not just kings, as the Gentile kingdoms did. He is the God who allows people to argue with Him, and sometimes even change His mind. He is a constitutional monarch rather than an autocrat: His subjects are entitled to seek reasons for the laws they obey. There are over 100 ‘motive clauses’ in the law explaining why that specific law exists.

‘We have a Bible that is unique in its justification of the laws, and we have a people who are unusual in their reluctance to accept laws without reason. These are the seeds of democracy.’

A legal system that justifies itself by reference to the experiences of the people, ‘signifies that it reckons with the will of the people to whom the laws are directed; it seeks their approval, solicits their consent, thereby manifesting that it is not indifferent to man.’ (Halivini) Gentile kings imposed law without justification – just do it or else! The uniqueness of the Bible lies in its invitation to dialogue. People are to grasp the law’s benefits; thereby bestowing dignity and giving the nation a sense that it is a partner in the law. One could go so far as to say that this unique feature of a god’s relationship with his people tells us who is the true God: He uniquely treats people with the dignity of partnering with Him in their own creation!

The Biblical narratives are not blueprints. They provoke, challenge, and confront orthodoxy. We can confidently say: God is saying – look at these stories. This is how people really are! I am writing law that addresses human nature.

Let’s dig into the ten Genesis stories and see how they match with the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Genesis Stories

First story – the Tree of Knowledge. Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-24

First Commandment – You shall have no other gods before Me.

At the Tree of Knowledge Adam and Eve were lied to by the serpent. They believed two lies: you won’t die if you eat this fruit and you will be as God, knowing good and evil. With their decision to disobey God, they elevated themselves to a position of authority greater than God. They violated, ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.’

Genesis 2:16-17

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;

17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 3

1 Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.

5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.”

23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Second story – Cain murders Abel. Genesis 4:3-17

Second Commandment - You shall not make for yourself a carved image.

The root cause of Cain’s resentment towards Abel was from a worship service. Abel offered a sacrifice that was pleasing to God while Abel’s sacrifice was not acceptable. We know from later in Scripture that sacrifice is only rejected if there was a flaw in the offering – the detailed instructions were not followed, showing a disregard for God, tainting the purity of the offering. We are misrepresenting the basis of our relationship with God!

We are assuming that God continued to meet with them and instruct them in how to live (since He was talking with them and provided guidance), even though they were expelled from the garden and had to work hard. Cain’s not following the instructions provided showed a different preferred version of God then what He was experiencing. Cain had carved a mental image of God that was not accurate, polluting his relationship with Him.

Genesis 4:3-17

3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD.

4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

6 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?

7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.

11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

13 Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is more than I can bear.

14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

15 But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

16 So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.

Third story – The Flood. Genesis 6:1-8, 9:1-11

Third Commandment – Do not God’s name (in Hebrew also known as ‘image’) in vain.

Humanity was made in God’s image. They were not to take being created in God’s likeness as vain and treat it as emptiness. They had the ‘image of God’ to grow into, to mature in.

Yet when the ‘sons of God’ intermarried with ‘the daughters of humans’ it altered humanity’s nature to the extent that it greatly increased humanity’s wickedness. The nature of God’s image in humanity was irreparably compromised. It seems like God brought the Flood to erase this deviation in humanity’s nature so we could get back on track with developing God’s image.

Genesis 6:1-8

1 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,

2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of humans had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

6 The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.

7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Genesis 9:1-11

1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.

2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands.

3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.

7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you

10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.

11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Fourth story – Abraham negotiates God for justice. Genesis 18:17-33

Fourth Commandment – The Sabbath rest for creation and liberation.

This story of Abraham’s negotiation with God for justice starts off with God and 2 angels walking into Abraham’s campground. After they are hospitable and serve their guests a meal, God informs Abraham that in a year they will have their long-awaited son. Then Abraham walks them out, overlooking the wide expanse of the area, and Abraham begins the negotiation, asking if God will destroy these cities if there are enough righteous people in them. The negotiation proceeds as they clarify what number is ‘enough’. As low as it gets it is not ‘enough’ and the story shifts to the cities where the angels went, to rescue Lot’s family, the only remaining righteous ones.

Justice is a concept that is very rich to God and He spent quite a bit of time getting Israel to understand it. Justice represents the proper balance of the multiplicity of needs, resources, and desires in a community. The people with the problem would approach the group of elders that posted themselves at the entrance to the town who would exercise their collective wisdom to resolve the problem, make a ruling, and establish justice in the community.

We can see justice was an application of Sabbath living. The Sabbath is a weekly work-in-progress, building to meet the multiplicity of needs, resources, and desires in the community. People enter Sabbath opening up to God, seeking a deeper understanding of life’s wisdom, probably from this week’s issues. They would meet as a Sabbath community in testimony, prayer, and instruction. The apostle Paul pointed out that if there was a legal problem between believers, they would need to work it out themselves. (Romans 15:14, 1 Corinthians 6:1-4).

Sabbath and justice are very similar, processes of ‘laboring to enter into rest’ (Hebrews 4). Abraham’s negotiation for justice was a process of communicating with God in a way that clarified truth, a clarion dynamic of Sabbath observance. It’s interesting that God was validating Abraham’s divinely instilled needs of familial love, while Abraham respected God’s need to draw lines and determine righteousness standards. Both came to terms with their needs that respected and accepted the other’s needs as valid partners in a joint venture they both had a stake in. They developed rest together in unity, a true Sabbath event.

Genesis 18:17-33

17 Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?

18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.

19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

20 Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous

21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.

23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?

25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

26 The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,

28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

Fifth story – Lot’s daughters get him drunk and rape their father. Other stories show the dishonor of Genesis’s parents. Jacob deceived his father. Simon and Levi trick and murder the men of Shechem, dishonoring their father. Joseph dishonors his father by requiring Benjamin to appear in Egypt. Rachel dishonors her father by stealing his idols, leaving him without his sense of divine protection. Cain dishonors his parents by killing their other son. Noah’s son dishonors his father’s nakedness, and brags about it. Clearly a commandment to honor parents is sorely needed. Genesis 19:4-36

Fifth Commandment - Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

It is amazing how ignorant children are when they think they are wiser than their parents. Lot’s daughters did not bring their concern to their father. They did not think he could see something more than they did about their dilemma. Genesis shows us every generation had this problem. The disrespect for the parents’ abilities might have seemed as an obvious need to the kids, but it disregarded their parents’ superior experience and developed ability to hear God better than their kids. This lack of honor brought significant problems to them. This practical commandment was really needed to restore God’s intended order to families.

Genesis 19:4-36

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house.

5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him

7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.

8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept putting pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.

11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,

13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”

16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.

17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please!

19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.

20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”

21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.

24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.

25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and the vegetation in the land.

26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.

31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth.

32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”

33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.”

35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again, he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.

Sixth story – For the first 2,000 years of humanity’s existence, murder is the only sin recorded. Genesis 22:1-12

Sixth Commandment - You shall not murder.

The abundance of murder in humanity must have been an issue before the Flood. It is the only law God provides when He renews His covenant with humanity after the Flood ends. It is interesting that God sets up a situation for Abraham to see that no matter how pious, murder is never excused.

God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, a ritual used by pagans to appease gods and increase fertility. Abraham obeys and sets the sacrifice in motion. Just as he is about to fulfill it God stops him and provides a lamb instead, to complete the sacrifice.

We draw a lot of metaphorical imagery as to Christ’s sacrifice from this event. However, for Abraham and later Israel, the primary point of the story is that God does not require murder for sacrifice. The line is drawn here: you shall not murder. No excuse.

Genesis 22:1-12

1 Sometime later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,

7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Seventh story – Adultery is rampant. Sarah with the kings. Lot with his daughters. Tamar with her father-in-law. Reuben with his father’s mistress. Genesis 25:24-34, 27:1-24, 29:16-30, 37:23-33

Seventh Commandment - You shall not commit adultery.

Adultery shatters trust, it destroys the peace in the relationship. It screams that you are not committed to anyone but yourself. It’s the destruction of civilization’s foundation. You stomped on the other’s heart and the response is unimaginable. You broke the cycle of life.

This is also the context in which God experiences our unfaithfulness with Him as spiritual adultery. The Prophets’ writings are full of this allusion, exploring its nature in depth. It’s hard to miss the point that religious adultery is hard on God’s heart. He sends His Prophets with profound dramatic messages to get us out of our hardness and back to tenderness. Generation after generation of calling Israel home. Grace was exercised prolifically. How sad Israel could not see it, could not hear it. This failure destroyed them.

Genesis 25:24-34

24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau.

26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.

28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.

30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom. )

31 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

Eight story – Dinah’s rape and brothers’ revenge. Genesis 34

Eighth Commandment - You shall not steal.

Dinah, the sister of Israel’s sons, was raped by a local king’s son. He said he loved her and offered to marry her. The family agreed, but all the men needed to be circumcised first (an Ancient Near Eastern practice that was occasionally done) to fit in with the family’s spiritual practices. Then, when they were weakened and not able to fight, due to their circumcision experience, two of the brothers slaughtered all the men. Their father berated them for making the family regional outcasts and putting them in danger of revenge.

Can we consider this action a form of stealing? They agreed to become one people and live together. Israel entered an agreement with the clan, had them act in good faith towards Israel’s clan and then killed them once they were circumcised, during their moment of weakness. Then they took all their possessions, cattle, and family members for themselves.

Dinah’s brothers exercised a high degree of deception. They murdered all the men and took all their family and property. If revenge was the motive, it was obvious that one person, a member of royalty, thought he could get what he wanted however he handled it. One of God’s principles of justice was proportionate response, called the talion: ‘an eye for an eye’ is the Scriptural example. Their response exceeded justice – blind rage destroyed a town and stole all its property and families. Theft needed a core set of laws to rectify it, with a foundational one in the central Ten Commandments.

Genesis 34

1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land.

2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her.

3 His heart was drawn to Dinah, daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.

6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob.

7 Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.

10 You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it.”

11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask.

12 Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I’ll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the young woman as my wife.”

13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.

14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us.

15 We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.

16 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you.

17 But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”

18 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.

19 The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s family, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.

20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city.

21 “These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours.

22 But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are.

23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.”

24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.

25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.

26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.

27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.

28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields.

29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

Ninth story – Deception is in the families’ blood. It was routinely practiced among God’s chosen family. Tamar’s saga. Jacob deceives and gets deceived. Abraham through Joseph, every generation has at least one deception incident. More than enough to warrant a specific prohibition against false witnessing in the Ten Commandments. Genesis 38:1-26

Ninth Commandment - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

The Hebrew root ud means to repeat, do again, return. A witness is one who by reiteration affirms his testimony. A witness who has first-hand knowledge of the event is an eyewitness. A witness is consistent: this is what I saw happen. Such a person was under obligation to testify (Proverbs 29:24).

Throughout Scripture a false witness is associated with words like false, lie, worthless, emptiness, violence. A false witness is subject to the same penalty he intended to inflict on the accused (Deuteronomy 19:16-21).

We often think of harshness like this as a hardness of heart. Look at it from God’s view. Truth matters. In the ANE, community is almost everything. People need to stand up for one another. Tell the truth, stand by those falsely accused. It’s your duty to fight to make things right. Justice MUST prevail. The fragileness of 'community' must be fought for, strived for and vindicated!

Grace must be emphatically exercised. Grace matters.

Genesis 38:1-26

1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.

2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her.

3 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.

4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan.

5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death.

8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.”

9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother.

10 What he did was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death also.

11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.

12 After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,”

14 she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.

17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said. “Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.

18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?” “Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So, he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.

19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.

20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her.

21 He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?” “There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.

22 So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”

23 Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

Tenth story – Joseph and his brothers’ conflict. Genesis 37:1-20, 39:7-20, 44:1-34, 45:1-5

Tenth Commandment - You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's.

Joseph was one of Israel’s sons. Israel favored Joseph and gave him a special coat to show his affection. His brothers became so jealous of him they wanted to kill him. They coveted his quality of life with the father but could not obtain it, Israel would have had to offer it. They were driven to kill him to rid themselves of this painful reminder of their second-class status. Instead, they sold him into slavery. Perhaps it was a moral equivalence to them: we feel we are only slaves in our family. Now it’s your turn to feel what it’s like.

God is taking a deep and broad view of the sin of coveting. A desire so deep that one would steal is not a surface issue. Communities were tight knit during Israel’s ANE time. Most people lived in towns with about 200 people. Most people lived hand-to-mouth, just above poverty. People constantly borrowed from one another, sometimes several people to handle hospitality to guests. It really was community living. In this context ‘covet’ was deeper than stealing. It was a depth of depravity that was hard to fathom. It’s the drive behind a deep community violation. It stands in opposition to all that grace accomplishes.

This final statement from God, this “DO NOT!” is a heart-felt cry to abandon the evil way and return to good. The final call to life is a look at the main culprit. Consider the motive that makes chaos destroy community. If you have a shred of decency left you will turn off this path and return to the God who builds the fullness-of-life story.

Genesis 37:1-20

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.

4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you rule us?” And they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.

9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers come and bow down to the ground before you?”

11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem,

13 and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied.

14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,

15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.

20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”