FIRST WORDS
To My Friends, Colleagues, Church Fellowship, Curious People everywhere and especially my Grandchildren,
Always know that you are fully loved by God and you are loved by me. I pray that you remember our purpose is to reflect the entire Glory of God.
OBEDIENCE TO GOD
God in Christ, calling Abraham (Abram), marks the beginning of a conversation we can have about obedience and faithfulness. Abraham leaves his home with his family and travels to a land God has promised to give him. With this land comes the promise of descendants and a family that will fill the land. From that area Abraham will bless the entire world. There are, however, a few "if's" in this promise.
Abraham actually had to go where God called him to go and do what God called him to do. The mark of obedience will be circumcision. (Gen. 17) By this act, God (and the world) will know that Abraham and his family were active participants in a covenant that would bless them and bless the world. Circumcision will become for future generations the mark of the covenant. This covenant will not end when God comes into the world as Jesus Christ (God Incarnate). The promise of all God says He will do for Abraham is linked to the new testament through our baptism. No longer are the people of God required to observe the covenant by circumcision but rather they were to be baptized. Even in baptism Christ Jesus Himself submits to John so that the sign of the covenant can be fulfilled in the humanity of the Incarnate God (Jesus Christ).
I believe an interesting place to begin a discussion on obedience comes from watching Abraham interact with the world as he tries to be faithful to the covenant of God. Normal situations in the world happen and Abraham must decide how to handle them. A Famine occurs in the area God has called Abraham to live. What is he to do? Here is a quandary. Abraham is where God has called him to be and doing what God has called him to do and yet bad things are happening to him. Is there not a thought in our lives that if we will be faithful to what God has called us to do and where God has called us to be that bad and hurtful things won't happen to us. That does not seem to be the case for Abraham. I think he responds the way I might. He moves to Egypt where they have plenty of food. Sounds reasonable to me and God actually seems to watch over him. Abraham is frightened of Pharaoh because Sarah his wife is beautiful. God warms Pharaoh to behave himself and things work out well for Abraham. He returns after the famine to his own land a very wealthy man. Here's the catch for me. It seems that Abraham is learning a lesson that goes something like this. I will follow God but when it gets right down to it I will find food and shelter and security in the things of this world. It is one thing to use common sense and go where it seems prudent to get help. I would always recommend when you are sick to go to a doctor and let him or her help you recover health. It is quite another to replace our trust and obedience to God with an assurance that the doctor is the answer. There is a reckoning for this type of thinking for us and there certainly is a reckoning for Abraham.
In the greatest "test" of obedience I can imagine, God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac his "son of the promise". It is through Isaac that God will give Abraham the descendants and blessing that are promised in the covenant. Does Abraham trust God enough to surrender what seemed in this world to be the obvious answer to his very real world problem? The problem was how was Abraham to be blessed with all these generations of children who were to come after him if he couldn't even have one child with Sarah. God did give him the one child. Could Abraham now turn around and give that child back to God? The Test. Do you trust God or do you trust what the world can give you? Of course we read that Abraham did not hold even his only son from God and we learn at the same time that God would never even consider asking that of His children.
The issue becomes that this is a back and forth struggle for Abraham and his descendants. Famine in the land..."run to Egypt". Isaac is going to have the same challenge and it is going to turn out the same as it did for Abraham. Here is the catch. By the time we get to Jacob (who has trouble trusting God himself) we see a resolution. At the end of Jacob's life he has just been told that Joseph who he thought had been killed years before was still alive. But we have a problem! Joseph is living in Egypt and is actually a powerful man being second only to Pharaoh himself. To top it all off you might guess...there is a famine once again in the land God has given to Jacob as a descendent of Abraham. Jacob by the time he is an old man has learned his lesson. Egypt is not the answer. You no longer move to Egypt if there is a famine you simply send money and trade with Egypt until the famine is ended. But...if he wants to see his son Joseph he is going to have to go to Egypt. What are you going to do now? In his excitement to see his son he begins the journey but in Beersheba he seems to have second thoughts. He stops and offers sacrifice to God. In modern day terms, He stops to pray. He stops and says...what am I thinking. What does God want? This has never worked out well for us. I'm not sure I should be going to Egypt. Now that is faith. Hard earned wisdom. Is this really what God wants me to do. Jacob is rewarded!! In Genesis 46:2 God speaks to Jacob.
"I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again."
OBEDIENCE IS HONORED!!!
If I can leave you with one word of encouragement this week, let it be this. It may take a lot of trial and error to figure out the things and places of the world that we tend to trust more than Christ, but the battle to learn is worth the pain of the fight. I pray that we like Jacob will all reach a point, even as we begin that journey to Egypt or we begin that process of looking to the world for answers, that we stop and in prayer to turn our hearts to Christ. Why? Not because we are so wise and faithful but rather because we have witnessed time and again in our lives the difference it makes when Christ is with us on the journey. The difference between the faithfulness of Abraham and the faithfulness of Jacob is that Abraham learns no matter where he goes Christ will show up and Jacob learns it is much better to have Christ with you where you are going. Never forget that the expression of God that Abraham encountered is no less than Christ before He became incarnate in this world. The same God in Christ that walked with Jacob is the same God in Jesus Christ that walks with us.
Yol Bolsun,
Tim
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