Father Abraham had Many Sons

 Read Genesis 25

The Father of Many Nations died at the age of 175.  That’s a good run.  He lived 48 years after his wife died.

He didn’t just go hang out at the senior center or play dominos all day.  He got himself another wife and had some more kids—6 are listed in this chapter.  While the text does not say sons, it is most likely that these are all male children.  The girls usually are not listed, so there could have been other children that are not listed.

The line that we will follow going forward is the one that goes through Isaac, but Abraham had other children and they had children. We will talk more about Isaac’s children in the next service.

Don’t forget that Abraham jumped the gun on this Father of Many Nations business.  I guess that would make him a Sooner? He had a son with Hagar.  That son, Ishmael, had many sons who became tribes—12 in fact are listed in this chapter.

Abraham gave substantial gifts to all of the sons that he had by Keturah—his second wife, but his estate went to Isaac. He sent the other kids packing but not without material blessing. Abraham had been blessed by God and he blessed his children.

What other children did Abraham have?  Were there other women?  How many side chicks does an old guy need?

What other children did Abraham have?  He probably didn’t even know about them.

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

We who have professed Jesus—the promised seed of Abraham—have been grafted into his family.  This is the man that God chose to be the father of many nations.  He promised that kings would come from his line.  He promised that the world would be blessed through him.

The blessing that would come to us came through Abraham, Isaac, and if we keep reading--Jacob. 

We are Abraham’s seed.  Read Romans 11 if you want the whole story of being grafted into the line of Abraham.  It’s a discussion that can’t be had in this chapter of Genesis as the Chosen People have not been fully manifested.  Romans 11 is about Jews and Gentiles both belonging to Abraham in Christ Jesus.

While there were plenty of Gentiles—that’s not what they were called in Genesis—but there were plenty of pagans in the land.  There were so many pagans that Abraham’s son and one grandson had to get their wives from back east.

But there are no Jews yet.  That story is just beginning and is now in the hands of Isaac and then Jacob.

There is one more thing in Romans 11 that I ask you to consider when we think about being children of Father Abraham. We all come into this family out of disobedience.

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

So here is the lesson for today. 

Abraham had children who had children through Hagar. We get a list in this chapter.

Abraham had children who had children through Sarah. This is the line through which God’s promises are fulfilled—nations and kingdoms, a Promised Land, and a descendant—Christ Jesus—through whom the entire world will be blessed.

And Abraham had children through your professions of faith.  Some of you got birth certificates.  We give them out here with your baptism.

You can now genuinely call Abraham your earthly father. It’s through your relationship with your heavenly Father through Christ Jesus, but that gets you into the family.

So, when we get to that part in the song, I am one of them and so are you, you can sing along with the kids because you know what it’s all about.

Father Abraham had many sons and daughters.

I am one of them and so are you

 

Amen.

But My Sister is My Wife

 Read Genesis 20

Be faithful.  Walk blamelessly before the Lord.  This was the counsel of God to Abraham.

We know that it is not possible for us to truly be blameless on our own.  We need the atonement of Christ Jesus to put us in right standing—blameless—in our relationship with God.

We really couldn’t expect Abraham to live a life without transgression, but really, trying to pass your wife off as your sister again should have been a lesson that Abraham already learned.

But we see this behavior repeated.  Abraham moved to the southwest to an area called the Negev.  It was between Kadesh and Shur.  It was also north of Paran.  Paran was where Moses stopped and sent 12 spies into the Promised Land centuries later.

This was also the land of the Philistines, though the animosity between the Philistines and Israel was centuries down the road.

Essentially, Abraham had moved closer to Egypt. When Abraham settled into a place called Gerar, he informed people that Sarah was his sister. The king of that area—Abimelech—took Sarah for his own household.

This must attest to Sarah’s good looks.  The king took a 90-year-old woman into his own household.  Essentially, she would be another wife or a concubine. If we think about this and this account is chronological, it must have happened very soon after the destruction of Sodom.

Had Sarah been showing that she was with child, Abraham would have had to come up with a cover story as to why his sister was pregnant.  Really, what king rounds up pregnant women for his palace?

Abimelech did not have sexual relations with Sarah.  God prevented this, but there were consequences for bringing her into his household. All of the women in Abimelech’s household were prevented from conceiving children.

Abimelech might have been oblivious to what was going on and why except for the fact that God came to him in a dream.  God was very direct.

“You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.”

Abimelech appealed to God.  I didn’t know. Abraham said she was his siter.  Sarah said he was her brother.  I didn’t knowingly do anything wrong.  In fact, I never touched her.

God replied in the dream.

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”

Sometime after the king’s dream ended, he advised his officials of what had happened and summoned Abraham.  What were you thinking? What did I even do to deserve this sort of treatment? Why, just why?

Abraham had an answer, though upon examination it doesn’t really speak well of the Father of Many Nations.

Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

So what was Abraham thinking?

·       Let’s start with there is no fear of God in this place.  I think Abraham had bad intel as the king seemed to know who came to him in his dream and started explaining himself to the God who appeared in his dream.  The fear of the Lord was present at least in that moment.

·       Abraham next tried a technicality.  She really is my sister.  She is my father’s daughter by another mother.  I took her to be my wife.

·       And it’s sort of God’s fault.  He told me to leave my father’s household and go to a land that he would promise to my descendants, but that I would surely be a stranger in now, and then after I got there, there was a famine.  I concocted this plan with my wife because I figured that I was a dead man if anyone knew Sarah was my wife.  She is a looker, you know. I told her that she would need to tell people that I was her brother.

Here’s Tom’s thinking.  This was not the era to be a woman. Lot was ready to throw his daughters to an angry mob of men. Abraham has now twice passed his wife off as his sister thinking it would save his own skin and been caught in his deception.  Yes, she was a half-sister, but when you leave out the part that she also happened to be your wife, it taints the whole story.

So, God punished Abraham… Not exactly.

Once again, we see Abraham profiting from his deception.  Silver, flocks, slaves, and freedom to settle anywhere in the king’s land were given to atone for the perceived sin that Abimelech never committed.

Abraham made out like a bandit.  Where is the moral lesson in this? What can we apply in our lives?

·       If you are the king, be careful about bringing 90-year-old women into your household with hopes of adding them to your harem.  I guess that could be a lesson learned.

·       If you got rich once before playing your wife off as your sister, it might be worth another go.

·       If you are a woman and someone invents a time machine, don’t go back to this time.

Those can’t be our lessons from this chapter.  No!  That just can’t be it.  So what?

God had chosen Abraham for his purpose.  Abraham with all of his flaws was still chosen by God to be the Father of Many Nations.  Abraham did not qualify for this role.  God chose him.

It seems that sometimes God chooses a real screwball.  God told Abraham to keep the faith and walk blamelessly before him.  Abraham was not the model for either charge.

Now, Abraham did do what God told Abimelech that he would do.  He prayed for Abimelech and his household and they were healed.

As we look at this chapter, we might think that the editors could have just left this one out.  What does it add to the story?

Abraham and his wife are in this year of waiting for the promised son.  Apparently, Sarah has not shown any signs of being pregnant.  Abraham decided to move. We don’t see any signs of Abraham setting up the nursery.  It seems that Abraham and Sarah are just going about their lives as usual.

The promised son doesn’t seem to be the central theme in the story.  Didn’t God just visit them?

Abraham will be the Father of Many Nations because God chose him to be the Father of Many Nations.  It was not because Abraham made the best decisions ever.  It was not because Abraham was known for his integrity.  If we read ahead just a little, we see Abraham and King Abimelech making a treaty but Abimelech wants to know that Abraham isn’t going to pull a fast one on him.

Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.

King Abimelech knew that God was with Abraham in everything he did, but Abimelech was very cautious about having dealings with this man named Abraham. 

So God was with Abraham, but Abraham didn’t have much to his personal credit.  His wealth, his military victory, and the son promised to him are all from God.

God credited Abraham with righteousness because of his faith but we don’t see that faith manifested in Abraham’s life for a couple more chapters.

We have talked previously about God doing the impossible so we can know it could only be God.

Now, look at Abraham’s life.  On his own, Abraham was a total mess. Without God, he was just a screwball.  He passed his wife off as his sister twice, had a child with Hagar, and asked God to bless Ishmael thinking God couldn’t give Sarah a child, and yet he still has silver, servants, flocks, and is generally wealthy.

It seems that God chose an impossible candidate to be the Father of Many Nations.  Just as Sarah was beyond child-bearing years, so too was Abraham at the very bottom of the list as far as being qualified for such a selection as being the Father of Many Nations.

Perhaps that is so we can see it is God at work.  There were surely more qualified men somewhere on the planet, but God chose Abraham and God did the impossible through him.

There will come a people through whom God will work and reveal himself to the world.

There will come a Savior for a lost world and we know today that he came from the line of Abraham.

They will come through the line of Abraham, a man who is not much to talk about on his own.

So how do we apply this to our lives?

Consider Abraham and consider Paul’s words to the church in Corinth.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses.  What a crazy statement, at least in the world’s model.

But the second part of it is what we see in Abraham—God’s power resting on him.  Paul described it as Christ’s power, but it was the power of God being manifest in his weakness.

Let’s not throw in the towel just because we find ourselves numbered among the screwballs of the world.  Let’s be glad that in our weakness, our shortcomings, and even our transgressions, we can know God’s strength.

Don’t go having kids on the side or try to pass your wife off as your sister to save your own hide, but consider all the things in which we just miss the mark and know that is where God’s strength carries us through.

As we have made our way through this story of Abraham, I have reminded you before of some of Paul’s words from his letter to the Romans.

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

God chose Abraham for his purpose.  Abraham received the mercy of God time and time again.  Abraham lived in the favor of God.

Despite his shortcomings, Abraham knew and lived in the favor of God.

Let us never lose sight that we too live in the favor of God. We see the mercy, forgiveness, grace, and favor of God even in this first book of the Bible.

Thank God for his favor, for without it we would be lost and alone.

Amen.

Our First Glimpse of Mercy

 Read Genesis 17

Have we ever seen this sort of language from God before?

Adam and Eve were created good, very good.

There were consequences for disobedience.

Cain killed Abel.  There were consequences for disobedience but also protection from harm.

Noah found favor with the Lord.  We don’t get all the details, but Noah and his family were saved from the judgment that came upon the earth.

Abram has been promised many descendants and a land for them to live in.  There were other people living in the land at the time of this promise and Abram and Sarai were childless.  Abram did have a son by his maidservant, but this son is not the one through whom God would deliver on his promises.

So we come to chapter 17 and God reaffirms his promises to Abram—descendants and a Promised Land, but this time is different.

Yes, God will change Abram’s name to Abraham and he will command that Abraham and all males in his household and in his promised lineage be circumcised—that they receive a sign of this covenant in the flesh.

But God did something else.  He commanded Abram, who by the end of this chapter we will call Abraham—to walk faithfully before him and be blameless.

God said to live in faith and be blameless. Realize that God has already credited Abram with righteousness because of his belief—his faith—but Abram has not always lived in accordance with what he believed.

He has been obedient to what God told him to do, but he has had some difficulty believing that God will follow through on his promises.

There was a kid named Ishmael running around to prove it.

So, God has finally told Abram—told someone—to live a life that brings glory to God.  Live faithfully and be blameless.

God commanded Abram to do what no human flesh could ever do—be blameless.  We all fall short and this is not just a modern-day thing.

Only Jesus who was God in the flesh could live a blameless—and unblemished life.  He did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it and he did.

Neither Abraham nor Moses did this.  They were not blameless before the Lord.  No one was!

Now, we know there will come a time when we will be blameless, where the good work that God began in us will be complete. But we are not there yet?

We also know that we cannot stray so much that God’s grace will not cover those sins as well.

So should we even try knowing that we can never fully succeed?

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound even more?

We know the answer is no, by no means, but what’s the point of trying if we know that we cannot never achieve walking blamelessly before the Lord?

Why don’t we just say whatever and chill out in this righteousness that we have been given?

C’mon.  We will never score 100%.  We will always fall short. And if we don’t keep the whole law then we are guilty of breaking all of it.

We are studying Abram.  We haven’t even got to the law yet.  We have not yet studied be holy as I am holy.  We are just to walk blamelessly before God.

But it can’t be done, so why try?

You may or may not like this answer, but don’t argue with me.  Argue with God.

Remember that God’s ways are higher than our ways.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  Do you remember those words from Isaiah?

Now hear these words from the apostle Paul.

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

What?  God knew that we couldn’t score 100% and yet he told us to live blamelessly anyway, really?

Really? Yes!

We should live fully doing our best to please holy God, rejoicing when we do and shouting hallelujah when we tried but fell short, for in our shortcomings we see the mercy of Almighty God.

OK, Tom, you are just making this up as you go along, right?

Should we not try to do our best to walk blamelessly before God?  Yes we should seek to live righteously, justly, and without fault.

But when we fall short, we truly know the mercy of God.

There should be no dichotomy between seeking justice and loving mercy.

Seek justice.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly before your God.

All come to God and his salvation out of disobedience.  Our human minds think that we should score 100 on every test.  God wants us to seek to please him by doing our best to be blameless but he values mercy more than living without mistakes.

When we know his mercy, we are better equipped to show mercy. God desires mercy over judgment. He desires mercy over sacrifice. 

God called Abram to be faithful and to live blamelessly.  In this we see the beginnings of the mercy of God that we know so fully now.

Keep the faith.

Seek justice—to live rightly and blamelessly.

But love mercy.  Learn to be merciful.

Then, we can walk humbly with our God.

Amen.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

 Read Genesis 17

Thirteen years have transpired since the last chapter.  Abram—we won’t be calling him that for much longer—is now 99 years old.  His wife is almost a decade younger but surely the season for making children has passed, or not.

The scripture reads: the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty, walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

God appeared to Abram.  God was still promising descendants to Abram.  This time God directed Abram to walk in faith and to be blameless.  God has plans for Abram and God wants Abram to live up to his part.  He is about to begin the journey to becoming the Father of Many Nations.

Abram realized that this was God and he fell down before him but the words sounded all too familiar.  This time, however, God told Abram that he was getting this show on the road.  He changed his name from Abram to Abraham.

If we look to the original language, both Abram and Abraham mean the same thing—exalted father, but God said that the name Abraham meant more.  It was appropriate to this man whom he had chosen for this special purpose.  So Abraham it was.  Sarai became Sarah, and both were given a name for the child.  The name was Isaac.

This child would come soon.  The time frame gets more specific in the next chapter but for now, Abraham was told to be faithful and walk blamelessly. 

He was also told that this covenant would be formalized in Abraham’s flesh, and the flesh of every living male 8 days or older.  God had begun carving out a people for himself out of all the peoples of the world.

Circumcision would be the sign.  Every male in Abraham’s household was circumcised including his son Ishmael and himself. 

The consequence for failing to do this was that the person would be cut off from this family of God. This directive would be in effect for a very long time.

Perhaps we can understand why in New Testament times, many Hebrews who said they also followed Jesus insisted that the pagan people be circumcised.  This was a big-time deal.

This was all very formal and reverent, but Abraham who was credited with right standing with God for his belief wondered to himself just how this could be.  He was pushing 100. Sarah was 90.

C’mon God.  Let’s get real.  Could you not just bless my son Ishmael?  He is already 13.  We could gain a little time here.  My wife and I are no spring chickens. Would that not be easier?

Yes, this whole Hagar and Ishmael thing was a crazy plan, but if you were to bless it, then maybe this whole father of many nations thing might work out.

But God was not looking for easier. He would do things his way.  In fact, when God does it his way we see that it could only be God at work.

God would take care of Ishmael and make him and his line great, but the promise to Abraham would come through Isaac.

Abraham and every male in his household sealed this covenant with a sign in the flesh.  They were all circumcised. 

Abram was given a new name—Abraham.

Abraham was given a sign in the flesh that formalized this covenant.

And if we don’t stop reading here, Abraham and Sarah will be given the promised son in short order.  That time was drawing near.

We talked about believing in God and in his promises and about regressing to our own understanding as we looked at the life of Abram. We know that we struggle between what we say we believe and how we live out that belief, or sometimes don’t live out that belief.

We struggle. God knew that Abraham struggled.  God gave him 2 tangible things to help him with his struggles.

He gave him a new name.  Abram had made a lot of mistakes, yet God kept him for his purpose.  This new name would mark a time when Abram—now Abraham—might begin to walk blamelessly before the Lord. 

We might see a parallel between that time and our own and view it as being a new creation. It was an impossible task to walk blamelessly, but Abraham got a fresh start.

He gave Abraham a sign in the flesh of his promise to him.  Abraham had to put this sign there himself.  This was a very tactile and kinesthetic process and the effects continued for all of Abraham’s life.

And God would fulfill his promise of a son, who we now know will be called Isaac.

Wouldn’t it be nice, if we too had signs that reminded us of God’s promises?

Well, there is the rainbow.  God will not destroy the world by flood again.  OK, but I was thinking more along the lines of signs that might help us get through the day when it seems like the ways of the world are just racking up one victory after another.

It would be nice to have a sign from God every once in a while, wouldn’t it?

How many of you have more than 1 cross in you household?  How many have a wall or two full of crosses?  We have made the cross into a collectible.  It’s an ornament.  It’s an accessory.

The cross is a sign to us of God’s love.  If we think of the original cross, it was surely not ornate.  It was likely a rough-cut tree, neither sanded nor varnished for visual appeal. It didn’t have a light behind it.

It was an instrument of death, cruel death.  What kind of people would want such a sign as part of their faith?

People who want to remember how much God loves us.  People who want to remember the price paid for sin.  People who want to remember that the wrath that God had for sin was poured out on that cross and satisfied.

This sign which was the trademark of human brutality of an age past, is a lasting sign to us that God did everything needed to make us right with him.  Wrath against sin was satisfied.  Justice was satisfied. The wages of sin were satisfied, all in the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.

Oh, yes, we have a sign to help us through our days.

The world behind me.  The cross before me.  No turning back!

How about the bread and the cup.  How about something more than a visual sign?  How about something in which we participate?

It’s more than just words.  This is my body broken for you.

It’s more than just a visual.  This is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

It’s more than a sacrament.  It is how we are to remember Jesus and we do it not by observation but by participation.

How about the Lord’s Prayer.  We know the words so it’s just recitation, right?  No.  Again, it’s participation in a model given to us by Christ himself.

It’s not all of our prayer life, but it reminds us of how Jesus taught us to pray.

And we have God’s holy word available to us all of the time. Who has more than one Bible?  Who has a dozen?  Who reads their Bible every day?

We are told that this word is alive and active.  It can judge the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts. These words can speak directly to us even though many were spoken thousands of years ago.  Ancient words speak to modern problems and concerns. 

Words from long ago lead us to decisions for today. Sometimes we look to the heavens and ask God for a sign when we should put our noses in the book and see what he has already told us.  He is not confined to linear time.

I love to return to the words of the prophet Isaiah.

Before they call I will answer;

    while they are still speaking I will hear.

There are other words that we know well.  For God so loved the world…

But I need something that helps me live from moment-to-moment.  Seek justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God.

But I need a reminder that I have given up the ways of this world and seek God first.  I am crucified with Christ.  Christ lives in me.

But I need something for my whole family to get behind.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

We have signs.  We have affirmations.  We have reminders.  Most of us have received the sign in the Spirit which is baptism.  God lives in us.

Many of us can look at a sunrise or sunset and get a glimpse of the Creator through his creation.

We have the body of Christ and we should be signs and affirmations and reminders to each other of how much God loves us and that God does fulfill his promises.

We are not promised a trouble-free world.  We are told quite the opposite.  We will have trouble in the world but we are to take courage for Christ Jesus has overcome the world.

The body of Christ should encourage all of its members to remember this.  Christ has overcome the world.

We have ventured quite a ways from Abram’s new name and his sign in the flesh, but I think it is important to realize that we have signs and affirmations and things that help us to remember that God loves us.  He is for us. He has good plans for us. He will never stop loving us. He has overcome the world and he holds all of our tomorrows.

Receive the eyes to see and ears to hear that God has given us and know by what he has said and shown us that God will fulfill all of his promises to us.

God is always faithful.

God fulfills his promises.

Let us live in expectation of his faithfulness and fulfillment of what he has promised us.

We too have signs.

Let us live in expectation of God’s faithfulness and in anticipation of the fulfillment of what he has promised to us.

 

Amen.