Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #32 of Genesis, chapter 22, and we are going to be reading Genesis 22:20-24:

And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor; Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother. And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.

And that completes the chapter.  We wonder why God is telling us this information and giving us the names of the children of Abraham’s brother Nahor – the names of his wife and concubine, and so forth.  I do not think I know all the spiritual reasons, but I do know that in the coming chapters Abraham will send his servant to the family of Nahor to find a wife for his son Isaac, so God is introducing that family here.  I will comment a little later regarding what the reason may be for this, once we go through this passage.

I am not going to go through each of the names.  I have tried that with some of the names, and there could be some spiritual meaning, but I do not understand it.  So I do not think that is profitable, but if anyone wants to look at the names, they could look at Strong’s  Concordance. What I means is that I do not think it is profitable because I do not understand it, so it is not helpful if I tell you the meaning of a name, but I do not have any way of laying that out in a spiritual teaching.  But you are welcome to look up each name in Strong’s Concordance.

I know one name that is interesting, which was the name “Milcah,” who was Nahor’s wife, and it is related to the word “queen,” so that was interesting.  The name “Reumah,” which was the name of his concubine,  is a name that means “to be lifted up” or “raised.”  It is from a Hebrew word that is only found in Zechariah 14:10, where it is translated that way.  But, again, I do not understand the meaning of these names.  I think there is some understanding as far as the name “Milcah,” which means “queen,” and we will look at that a little later, Lord willing.  It is important to mention that Sarah’s name is also related to “queen,” and remember that God changed her name from Sarai to Sarah.  The word “Sarah” is a different Hebrew word than the word related to “Milcah,” which is identified with “queen,” but Sarah’s name is also a Hebrew word that could be translated as “lady,” or “princess” or “queen.”

Nahor is mentioned, and we are told he is Abraham’s brother.  This is true, of course, and if we go back to Genesis 11, it says in Genesis 11:26:

And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

We spent some time looking at this when we went over Genesis 11 and into Genesis 12.  These were immediate sons of Terah, but they were not triplets – they were not all born when Terah was 70.  We know for a fact that was the case because it says in Genesis 11:32:

And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Then in the next chapter, it says in Genesis 12:4:

So Abram departed, as JEHOVAH had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

The implication is that his father died at age 205, and Abraham then began to journey.  He left Haran upon the death of his father, and that would mean that his father was 130 years old when Abraham was born, because 130 + 75 = 205, which was the death age of Terah.  So at age 70 Terah and his wife begat Nahor and Haran, or at least one of them, because I doubt that they were twins.  We do not know which one was born first.  At least it is not clear to me, but it is probable that Nahor was an older brother to Abram, and Abram would have been younger.  But because of his importance in the Biblical record, Abram is mentioned first in Genesis 11:26.

When we look at Nahor’s family, we also read of Nahor and Milcah in Genesis 24.  There are three individual verses, and the first one is Genesis 24:10:

And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.

This was Abraham’s servant who was sent to find his brother’s family in order to find a wife for his son Isaac.

Then it says in Genesis 24:15:

And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

And then it says in Genesis 24:24:

And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor.

This is exactly what we read in Genesis 22:20-24 where God listed the sons of Nahor.  We saw that Bethuel was named as the eighth son of Milcah in verse 22.  Then in were told in Genesis 22:23:

And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother.

We see the name “Bethuel” and we can see it is very similar to “Bethel,” which means “house of God,” which is interesting.  He begat Rebekah.

The servant that was sent to find a wife for Isaac after Sarah, Abraham’s wife, died, and the whole chapter of Genesis 24 has to do with that servant’s journey to Haran to find Isaac a wife.  It is really a beautiful picture of the elect of God, as typified by the servant of Abraham, being sent forth with the Gospel and Word of God that would reach the ears of the elect people of God and they would become saved.  And as they became saved, they formed the body of Christ or another figure the Bible uses is that they formed the “bride of Christ,” so Genesis 24 is really a wonderful and beautiful historical parable describing the sending forth of the Gospel into the world to find that elect “woman,” the bride of Christ, and then he brought her home to his master Isaac.  Then she went into Isaac’s tent and they were married.  Again, it is a beautiful picture of God’s salvation program, so it is significant that “Bethuel” is a name that points to “house of God.”

As I mentioned before, Milcah is a name that is related to “meh-lek,” the Hebrew word for “king,” but it is in the feminine form, so it is a name that identifies or relates to a “queen,” and she is married to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.  What I think God is doing here is setting up a parallel picture of the churches and the people of God, if not the church itself, of another family that is an illustration of those that have identification with God, like Israel of the Old Testament and the churches of the New Testament.  God’s elect are found within that family and typified by Rebekah. 

We can see that parallelism in the number of children Milcah had, as she bore him eight children, but notice what it says in Genesis 22:24:

And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.

So the concubine to Nahor was Reumah, and she had four children, and eight plus four is 12.  Nahor had 12 children, and what does that remind us of?  It reminds us of Jacob, another of the patriarchs.  Jacob had two main wives, Leah and Rachel, and Leah bore him six sons and Rachel bore him two sons.  But, if you remember, there was competition between the two wives and Leah gave her handmaid to Jacob to wife, and through her handmaid Leah said she had born him two more sons, giving her a total of eight sons.  Rachel also gave her handmaid to Jacob to wife, and the children born to the handmaid were counted as Rachel’s, and she had two more sons with Jacob, giving Rachel four sons.  Leah claimed eight and Rachel claimed four, and it is the same number we see here with Milcah’s eight (children) and Reumah’s four (children).  There were a total of 12 in both cases.

We know that God permitted Jacob to engage in that sinful activity (of taking multiple wives), and we should never think it was anything but sinful.  Whenever we read of someone in the Bible that does this, it does not matter who it was, it is sin.  When Abraham took Hagar to wife at Sarah’s bidding, that was sin.  When Jacob married all these women, it was sin.  Yes – I know that Laban was sinful in giving Jacob Leah when Jacob had bargained for Rebekah.  But, nonetheless, when you are married, you are married, and he certainly should not have married concubines, but he did.  It was sin, and this was a sin that David fell into, as well as other men of faith in the Bible that multiplied wives.  They could have looked at the historical example of Abraham and Jacob and tried to justify their excess in marrying more than one wife, but God will not have it.  As the Lord Jesus said, “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female…and they twain shall be one flesh.”  There were not to be additional wives. 

You know, God presents mankind in the Bible, including the people He has saved, as human beings that do sin, and sometimes God would permit a sin in the life of an individual without convicting that person (of sin).  The Lord convicted David of the sin of adultery in the matter of Bathsheba when he caused her husband to be slain and then took her as his wife.  So God could have come at any point when David was multiplying wives and said, “You have taken a second wife.”  He could have sent His prophet Nathan to convict David of the very same sin, but He did not do so.  The Lord, for His own purposes, allowed these things.

And in the case of Jacob, God wanted to set up the figure of the 12 tribes of Israel, so He allowed this sin and permitted Jacob to engage in that sin, so He would finally have these 12 sons.  Also, various women played roles in the relationships between the sons that could lead to relationship tensions between the tribes themselves. 

But, anyway, God allowed this, and the 12 tribes of Israel were formed, and the tribes of Israel typify those that were saved in the churches and congregations.  So we can see that 12 sons are very significant.  And, likewise, with Nahor (Abraham’s brother), he had 12 sons in the same ratio: eight sons with one wife and four sons with another wife.  And this is what I meant when I said that God was setting up a parallel family structure to point to the fact that Nahor’s family identified with the family of God.  This is why we read of Abraham in Genesis 24:2-4:

And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: And I will make thee swear by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

Then this servant swore to it, and the servant traveled to where he came across Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor.  In other words, by giving us this information in Genesis 22:20-24 that seems not to have any point except to give us some background and family information of Abraham, God is actually making a very big point.  God is establishing these sons of Nahor as a type and figure of the family of God.  Later, when Abraham would send his servant to find a wife, it is so Isaac will be equally yoked.  And God is very jealous on that particular point.  It was the reason that He brought the flood, because the sons of God were intermarrying with the daughters of men.  It is a very important point in the Bible.  It should not be overlooked.

Of course, the churches have not emphasized this to the degree it needed to be emphasized, so many in the churches that profess to be Christians will marry anybody.  They will marry people of other religions.  They will marry an atheist.  One professed Christian will marry another professed Christian, or a Protestant will marry a Catholic, because they have no real understanding of the seriousness of God’s people marrying (only) God’s people.  No one that is of God’s people should marry someone who is not of God’s people.  We will get into that in more detail when we get to Genesis 24.

But for now, I think that is basically the purpose why God gave this passage at the close of chapter 22.  Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will move into chapter 23, where God tells us right away of Sarah’s death.