The Story - Patriarchs

Years pass. Generations are born, and die, and whole new people is born out of Noah's family. 

And they are not faithful. 

The world is evil once again, and even the purifying water of the Flood cannot cleanse this evil from it. But God has mercy on his people, and he chooses one man to be His. 

This man is named Abram. Abram is ordinary, living in the world, married to his wife, though they haven't managed to have kids yet. But God chooses him, and sets him apart. It's not due to anything that Abram did—like I said, he really is perfectly ordinary, and there is nothing to commend him. God chooses him anyway. 

He makes him a promise. That Abram will become the father of a great nation of people, even though his wife is unable to have children. That that people will number so greatly that they will be as uncountable as the stars in the heavens. And that God, our God, will always be with them, and he will call them his own.
The covenant is sealed with sacrifice—foreshadowing—and Abram and Sarai's names are changed. They are God's people, now, and they will be called Abraham and Sarah. 

It's a powerful moment to us, as readers thousands of years later. And it's hard to imagine how powerful it must have been for Abraham and Sarah. But, we see some of Sarah's character traits shining through in her reaction to God's promise that she'll bear a son: she laughs at the very idea, not believing it at all. 

Well, Sarah's disbelieving laughter is turned on its head when, just a couple chapters later, she's struck by the labor pains of a child. She names him Isaac, a name meaning laughter. And God's covenant is upheld.

Isaac grows. He is instructed in the way of the Lord, and he is circumcised, a sign unique to the Abrahamic covenant. When he is a child, God tells his father to offer him as a sacrifice—a story I've gone into more detail about elsewhere, as I don't have room to delve into it here. Abraham obeys God's command, and prepares to sacrifice his son, though it will hurt him like nothing else has before. But God provides a substitute, a ram, to die in Isaac's place. 

(This is more foreshadowing, by the way. Boatloads of it. Ark-loads, if you will.) 

When Isaac is old enough to marry, Abraham sends a servant to his brother-in-law to ask for a wife. The servant finds Rebekah, a generous and honorable woman who's willing to return with him; he brings her back, and Rebekah and Isaac marry. Another step in making the Abrahamic line a great nation; God's promises are secure. 

Then, Rebekah has twins. Jacob and Esau are born to her; Esau is elder, but at their birth it's prophesied that "the older shall serve the younger." The prophecy quickly becomes true as they grow. Jacob, always a shrewd man, trades a pot of stew for Esau's birthright—all the rights that Esau, as the firstborn, would traditionally be given, Jacob is now owed. And when their father calls his firstborn in to receive his deathbed blessing, Jacob manages to trick his way into receiving the blessing instead. 

All this doesn't really lend well to a nice brotherly relationship. And indeed, Esau decides that he's about had enough of Jacob's theft, and resolves to kill him just as soon as their father Isaac dies. 

So Jacob flees. He returns to his mother's family, meets a beautiful woman and works seven years to marry her, is cheated out of her by his uncle and is forced to work seven more years for her hand, and eventually marries her. Now a doubly-married man, Jacob's fortunes have drastically reversed. "With only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps," he prays in chapter 32 of Genesis. And he recognizes that this is all due to God's provision for him, and sees that he is not worthy. 

Then he hears Esau is coming. Naturally, he fears the worst—an attack, for his life. So he divides up his goods and people, and sends them all away from him, so they would not be caught in Esau's wrath as well. He is left all alone at the Jordan. 

And here, we are given a glimpse of another promise, given to Abraham's children. 

Jacob meets a man, and he wrestles with him. They wrestle all night, and neither prevail. Finally, as day is breaking, the unknown man touches Jacob's hip, and it comes out of his socket—but Jacob still doesn't let him go, and demands a blessing. 

The blessing the man gives him consists of another name change, and a revelation. Jacob has not been wrestling with a man this whole time; he has been wrestling with God. And God names him Israel. 

So, our Abrahamic nation has a name. God's promises are continually fulfilled, and the stage is set for the next generation of Israel. 

And the images continue to point to the coming seed of the woman, who will be the climax.