Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
We come in this passage to the Priestly version of God's promise to Abraham of a son. Just as we have four different accounts in the Gospels of the life of Jesus, so in the Old Testament we sometimes have differing accounts of the lives of some of the leading Old Testament characters. And usually there are several accounts given because the person or event is so important in Israel's history. Such is the case of a promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah, the forbears of Israel. Genesis 12 and 18 record the J account of the promise. Genesis 15 comes from E, the Elohist.