Men began to call upon the name of the Lord

Read Genesis 4:26

You have to love Genesis.  It is the only book of the Torah where the Greek and Hebrew titles agree.  Bresheet means beginning as does Genesis.  The rest differ as the Greeks wanted a title and an author and based their title on a general understanding of content: however, the Hebrew people knew their books by the first few words. 

For instance, Exodus was called Shemot, meaning names.  Exodus begins with These are the names…

Viyikra, meaning and he called becomes Leviticus. Midbar, meaning in the wilderness shows up as Numbers.  Devarim which means words becomes Deuteronomy.  None  of these match the titles assigned in the Greek translation, but Genesis does.

In the beginning begins the first creation account.  At the end of which God declared all things very good.  A good start to creation, don’t you think?

This is followed by the second account of creation told with a greater focus on humankind.  So far, so good.  The creation is off to a good start.

You know what’s next.  We can’t even get three chapters into the story until it seems to go south.  The serpent makes his pitch, Eve makes her evaluation, and then she breaks the one and only commandment given to her husband, which he has surely passed on to her.  They knew his directive and Eve broke it anyway.

Afterwards Adam take a bite as well.  He was an easy sell.  So much for male leadership in the first family. 

Have you seen the pictures and meme of something totally messed up and the caption, “You had one job to do?”  I like the one where the Minnesota midfield logo is centered on the 45 yard line. “ You had one job!”

Adam and Eve had only one thing not to do.  We can look back on them and blame the fall of humanity on them, which is normally what we do.  We mitigate the blame a little bit by asking ourselves if we would have done any better.  Maybe we would have held out longer.  Maybe not.

The next thing you know, 25% of the people noted in the Bible commit murder at the same time.  The murder rate was also 25%.   Okay, Cain killed his brother, Abel.

We sometimes look at and classify Genesis as history.  Sometimes we note it as a faith statement. It is in many ways, but it is also prophetic.  We often ignore that.  The one command which brought disobedience was followed by over 600 that brought disobedience.  Disobedience continued through Noah and the flood and Moses and Joshua to the Messiah.

All were bound over to disobedience.  No one, not even the patriarchs, managed to bear the burden of obedience. 

We see that as the law increased, sin increased even more.  Disobedience increased.  Doesn’t that just mess up the whole story?

Not if the only way to be right with God was through the work of God himself. Only the Messiah could fulfill the law, live by the complete law, and only through the blood of the Messiah could we be made right with God.  Only through him could we receive the Spirit of God.

We are creatures of the flesh and if we jump forward to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus noted that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.  Even these words spoke short term prophecy.  As Jesus struggled to see his mission through to completion—which he did—his closest followers succumbed to their flesh.  They fell asleep once again.

He told them to continue in prayer so they would not give into temptation but the flesh was too strong for them.

Jesus lived in the flesh though his flesh did not conquer him, but he was the only person ever who could claim this victory.

So the story of the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament is one in which God stayed with us through our disobedience to his word, his directives, his loving guidance.  Some found favor with God but none could fulfill all of his commands, even when there was just the one.

This whole story could have ended shortly after it began.  This judgment that we believe is to come could have come and gone quickly and this whole humanity thing could have been put in the books.

But God stayed with us through it all because he is God.  He is love.  He loves us.  He has something incredible in store for us now and through eternity.  He has given us his Spirit as a deposit on our inheritance as his sons and daughters.

And all had not gone astray.  Keeping God’s directives was one thing, but seeking him even in this weak human flesh was another.

In what seems totally out of context considering the way this whole creation story was going, we find these words.

At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.  Some translations might say people began to proclaim the name of the Lord.

In this screwball story where the flesh is racking up wins, the people began to call on the name of the Lord.  But there is no revival.  There is no obedience.  There does not seem to be widespread worship of the one true God.  This, like other parts of this book and the rest of the Torah, point to future.

But people began to call on the name of the Lord.  Where does their help come from?  It comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

We see the prophet Joel talking about the Spirit of God being poured out.  Peter talks of Joel’s words in his first big sermon.  His message leads up to these words.  Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved!  Now that’s something to be excited about.

Okay, that makes for a nice sermon but consider today’s world.  Disobedience to and even contempt for God are commonplace.  I don’t know that I see much future for our nation other than some fire and brimstone.

The creation story was on that same track but somehow men began to call upon the name of the Lord.  This did not abate the problems of humanity but some called upon the name of the Lord.

Some began to call upon the name of the Lord.  My prayer is that we will see this again in our country and in our time.  People will begin to call upon the name of the Lord .

The big catalyst here is that one day soon the Spirit of God will be poured out and those who are not anchored in rebellion will call upon the name of the Lord.

Those who are struggling in the flesh will call upon the name of the Lord.

But we have salvation.  Must we continue to call upon the name of the Lord?

Let’s consider this.  Do we obey all of God’s commands?  No, but if I live a life of love, I have fulfilled them.

Are we consistent in living our lives in love?  Not exactly.  I have good moments and bad.

Even with salvation, we wrestle with the flesh.  We get angry.  We have to be right.  We make our desires the center of our world and seeking God gets bumped down a notch or two.  Love gets some time in our hearts then gets evicted and invited back and then stuck in a corner.

We still wrestle with the flesh.  Paul would call it the old man, the old creature.  Even as redeemed men and women we must continue to call upon the name of the Lord.  Where does my help come from?  It comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

We likely won’t be able to fully obey God until we live continually in God’s presence.  The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.  One day we won’t contend with sinful flesh. The Spirit wins.  God wins.  We win.

But in this day, we must continue to call upon the name of the Lord.  This is more than prayer.  This is a lifestyle.  This is in all your ways acknowledge him.  Let’s call upon the name of the Lord.

One way that we often forget to call upon the name of the Lord is in Thanksgiving.  Our requests are lined up and ready to go but sometimes we get so wrapped up in our needs that our thankfulness is consumed by our flesh.

We are a thankful and grateful people even if the world is not.  Even as we struggle with the flesh and even as we struggle with disobedience and even as we struggle getting ourselves out of the judgment seat and into the arena, out of the bleachers and on the playing field, out of philosophy and into practice—even as we struggle with our modern-day trials of the flesh—we are to be thankful.

Thank you, Lord, that you are God.

Thank you that you are love.

Thank you that you love us.

Thank you for your directions given for our own good.

Thank you for the Spirit that lives within us and who is a deposit on things to come.

Thank you for your command to love one another and that we may fully live.

Thank you that you hear us when we call out to you.

Thank you that the spirit that you placed inside us when you made us a living being can converse with the Spirit you placed inside of us when we received Jesus.

Thank you that they can talk directly and I don’t have to compose a prayer.

Thank you that you will finish the good work that you began in us.

Thank you that you did not abandon us in our disobedience.

Thank you that you have things in store for us that are beyond our imagination.

Thank you that you have called me friend.

Thank you that our present suffering is nothing compared to what you have in store for us.

Thank you that you trusted me enough to commission me to take your gospel to the world.

Thank you for the trials I experience that I might grow in your grace.

Thank you that sometimes your answer to my prayer is no.

Thank you that I may understand that your grace is sufficient for me.

Thank you for the things of this world that make me rich as compared to the rest of the world.

Thank you that those things have not become my god.

Thank you for the body of Christ so I need not navigate this life alone.

Thank you for your holy word that was preserved as it was passed down orally generation to generation, written and translated with great fidelity and available to anyone who wants it, and that sometime soon will be written on my heart.

Thank you that I proclaim Jesus is Lord and know this to be true without any doubt.

Thank you that your grace goes beyond my sin.

Thank you that you have called me to live in such a way that I will be known by my love.

Thank you that your mercy and grace have not expired even in this twisted and perverse generation.

Thank you that we know you best through your Son who died as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Thank you that by knowing him we know you.

Thank you that we know you by the Spirit who lives within us.

Thank you that we may call upon your name.

Amen.

Bound over to disobedience so that all come to know God by his mercy

Read Romans 11

Next to the election and college football, it is the most talked about subject in 21^st century America.  You guessed it—Jews and Gentiles. 

Workspaces, coffee shops, up and down the halls in the high school it is all that people are talking about, right?

I’m sure that in the next and thankfully final presidential debate the topic will surely occupy at least half of the time.  How is God dealing with the Jews and the Gentiles?

I will concede that Israel does come up in the news on a regular basis but the conversation about Jew and Gentile is mostly confined to Bible studies and sermons.  Can’t we just skip this chapter and get on to more relevant stuff?  This is 2016, almost 2017!

I would think that there were many Roman believers that initially lost interest or may have even been offended at this point.  Jew and Gentile were a Jewish perspective of the world.  Paul was writing to believers at the seat of power in that day’s empire.

There was Rome.  There were Roman colonies.  Everyone else was just a conquered nation.  Paul was writing to a people whose thinking was or at least had been that there was Rome and there was everyone else and everyone else didn’t matter so much.

In fact, to say Jew and Gentile might even be a little offensive to the Hebrew people as well.  These people were not really called Jews until Babylon and thereafter.  The Hebrew people taken from Jerusalem were second or third class citizens to the Babylonians.  Many of these people rose to high positons in Babylon and remained faithful to the one true God, but they were generally despised.

So what’s up with this Jew and Gentile stuff?  Why does it matter to me?

Jesus is Lord.  I have decided to follow Jesus.  I have professed with my mouth and believe in my heart.  I want to love one another.  Yes, I know that Jesus was born into this world as a Jew to parents who lived by the law.  Do I really need to know the whole Jewish kit and caboodle?  Let’s just take the New Testament and run with it.

I agree!  Let’s take the New Testament and run with it, but let’s do it fully equipped for every good work.  We who live in this age where we don’t read a Facebook post longer than a paragraph or watch a video if it takes more than 15 seconds to load need to understand that we are part of a very big story.

Some hear the word story and think fiction, but the story is just one way to communicate.  Only some stories are fiction.  Jesus used stories, many are called parables.  God has been telling a story since the creation of the world.

We are grafted in to His Story that he has told since he spoke everything into existence.  God created then God chose.  

Adam and Eve were not Hebrews.  They were people, creatures made in a divine image.  Out of this human race he chose a people to know more closely and through which to tell his story.

Israel was chosen by God to receive an identity as a special people—a treasured people if you will.  The men were chosen to receive a sign in the flesh.  The entire nation was chosen to receive God’s law.  Paul even called it a trust.  These same people were chosen to receive a land promised long ago to them.

And they were the people chosen to deliver the Savior of the world to the world.

For God so loved the Jews that he sent his one and only Son that whichever of his chosen people would believe in him….   Wait one minute!  That’s not the way the verse reads.

Why not?  Was Jesus not sent to the lost sheep of Israel?

Yes!  And he was sent to save all who would call upon his name and believe in him!

God’s desire is that none perish and all come to salvation in Christ Jesus.  This is a love story—the greatest love story if you will.  Now in this great love story there may be some tragedy, and hurt, and pain as we often find even in love stories authored by men, but God’s love and his salvation are extended to all.

We have been grafted into this tree.  We were a wild branch and now have been grafted into this tree and we find that it’s a good thing. 

But unlike an actual branch, we want to know where the goodness comes from.  We want to know where our life sustaining fullness comes from.  We want to know how deep the roots go.

We who do not have the human blood of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob want to know that we truly belong in God’s family.  We want to know that we are connected all the way to the roots.

Jesus said that he was the vine and we are the branches.  Without him we can do nothing.  Paul used an olive tree to illustrate our connection to God.

But to get His Story from one chosen people to the world, it would take a hardening of his own people and an atoning sacrifice of divine blood.

The Savior came from these chosen people but most would not know him.  They were drunk, in a stupor, blind to the salvation to the world.  Prophecy foretold this with words such as stumbling block and cornerstone.

We may wonder why it had to be this way but we must not doubt that God is the author of this story—of His Story.  He wrote it start to finish.

Branches stripped off of his chosen people so that wild branches might be grafted in—that’s how the hook to the story on the back of the book would read.

The transgression of the chosen made way for the salvation of the many might get you to read the first chapter.  This is the story of our great and mighty God working within his own creation.

Sometimes, we who are part of that creation and part of that story wonder, why did it have to be this way?    Did his chosen people really have to stumble for us to be brought into the favor of God?  These are some interesting plot twists.

C’mon God, you could have just started with everybody.  You could have made us right with you in the beginning.  You could have given the law to everyone.  If you would have given the law before the people made the Tower of Babel we wouldn’t even have to translate it.

Time and again it seems that we as the crown of God’s creation question God’s ways.  We want to know the why.  We want some answers.  What sort of answer do we get?

We get what Jesus told Peter as he prepared to wash his feet.  “You won’t understand this now, but later you will.”

Of course when Jesus gives Peter a little bit of the explanation, Peter wants an entire bath.  We have a hard time being satisfied with the part of the story that we are given.

We want the why and some answers and we get Isaiah.

God’s ways are higher than our ways.  His thoughts are higher…

Being a Gentile, I guess I can live with that as I am the beneficiary of the way the story went.   In His Story, God’s love and salvation has come to me. 

Don’t you wish that Paul had known—that he might have had foreknowledge—that one day there would be a United States?

What?

Then he could have classified people as Jew, Gentile, and Americans.  Why should we get lumped in with the Gentiles? 

I may not quite understand His Story completely, but I am glad that God’s love was for the Gentiles and Americans, but it seems that God’s chosen people were just used and then kicked to the curb.  Bummer.

Paul reminds his readers in the 1^st and 21^st centuries that the story of God’s chosen people is still playing out.

When the number of Gentiles and Americans—I sure hope that I don’t bite my tongue while it’s stuck in my cheek—becomes complete, then God’s people will come to know the fullness of God that we know in Christ.  They are surely not left out.

Now if we who are like a wild branch grafted into a cultivated tree know the abundant love and life rooted in that cultivated tree, how much more will the original branches know that life and love and abundance when they are brought back in?

But it all seems to be a rather circuitous route.  What did God think he would accomplish by telling His Story this way?  It’s not like he couldn’t have hired a couple dozen studio consultants to polish this story of which we are now a part.  What did he accomplish by doing it this way?

That all would come to know God through his grace and mercy.  Hebrew, Gentile, and even American all have the same route to life, life abundant, and life eternal.

It is the grace, favor, and mercy that we know in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Hebrew people—Israel—would have and continue to have a special part in His Story but they would come to truly know their God as we know him, by his mercy and grace.

Paul ended this chapter with what many of your Bibles label a doxology.  Why would he do that?  It is not the end of the letter.  Why bring in this special insert of glory and praise now?

Perhaps it is because up to now he has intertwined so many things—knowing there is a God, sin, falling short, grace, salvation, discipleship, and being a part of His Story. 

If you grew up a Hebrew, this was always a part of the story that you knew.  As a Gentile coming into God’s family, this is what Paul Harvey used to call, the rest of the story.  As the apostle Paul continues, we will spend most of our time in the area of discipleship.

How are we to live in response to God’s fantastic mercy and grace?  We are going to get into some discipleship in the chapters to come.

For now, know that God continues to be directly involved in his creation working with both those he chose through Abraham’s lineage and those whom he has called out of the world by his Holy Spirit to follow Jesus and take his good news to the world.

Be thankful that the Author of all things has written us into His Story not as an extra but having very much a lead role in working out this wonderful gift that we know as our salvation so that we too may bring glory to God.

Living out our salvation to bring glory to God is our part of His Story.

Let’s finish as Paul did, with that doxology.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

    How unsearchable his judgments,

    and his paths beyond tracing out!

 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?

    Or who has been his counselor?”

 “Who has ever given to God,

    that God should repay them?”

 For from him and through him and for him are all things.

    To him be the glory forever!

Amen.