Funeral Arrangements

 Read Genesis 23

What do you do when the scripture for the week seems to belong more on the History Channel than in the pulpit where we preach good news?

How many of you get excited when it’s time to have a funeral? OBTW—we have exceeded our quota of funerals over the past few years.  It’s time to flatten the curve.

From now on, all deaths for members must be approved 5 years in advance.  You must be at least 85 years old to apply and have the consent of 2 session members.

Yes, today we are going to talk about Abraham burying his wife.  She was only 127 years old.  It must have caught him off guard to lose her so young.

Before the flood, people lived for hundreds of years.  In the postdiluvian era, people didn’t live quite so long.  Today, people enjoy the miracles of modern medicine while we turn our food into non-food products and then eat them.

What does the Bible say about that?  Tomorrow is not promised.  Take care what you put into your holy temple.

Let’s get to the chapter.

Abraham was rich in material things.  Silver, flocks, servants, and surely more.

He was rich in faith.  God had tested Abraham’s faith and saw that he feared God, obeyed God, trusted God, and was the man of faith that God had seen from the beginning.  We had to follow the story to Mount Moriah to witness the full measure of faith that God knew was there.

Abraham had a son.  This Father of many Nations thing was finally underway.

God had blessed Abraham in so many ways but he had no land of his own.  He had the promise of the land all around him for his descendants but by most measures, he was still nomadic.

Abraham’s experience with God’s promises assured him that God does fulfill his promises.  God would deliver this land to his descendants.  Abraham’s faith—the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen—told him that this Promised Land business was a done deal. But for the time, Abraham was still a nomad and didn’t own anything as far as land was concerned.

He had stayed in this region for an extended time.  Abimelech the king knew him.  Not all encounters between these two men were good encounters, but there was mutual respect.

Abraham knew the Hittites and the Philistines.  He was at home where he lived but he owned no land.

And then his wife died.  She lived to be 127 years old.  That is maxing out your social security payments right there.

Abraham mourned the loss of his long-time spouse, but Abraham had some logistics to work out. He needed a place to bury his wife.  As we see from the encounter with the local people, any of them would have willingly given Abraham a place to bury his wife.

Abraham was like royalty.  He was respected and surely revered. Absent the times when he was passings of his now-deceased wife as his sister, he had been forthright and generous in his dealings with those around him.

And Abraham was a witness to the destruction of Sodom.  There had to be some stories to tell from that.

Abraham came from Ur in the land of the Chaldeans.  He was unique, perhaps an enigma among his present company.

Abraham was undefeated in battle.  He and 318 men defeated 4 major armies in the rescue of his nephew.

Sure, Abraham did some knuckleheaded things, but his wealth, accomplishments, and victories sort of gave him the halo effect. 

But Abraham had no land and he needed to bury his wife. The thought of this eventuality had surely crossed Abraham’s mind.  He already knew where he wanted to bury Sarah.  We don’t see that Abraham frantically searched the land far and wide and finally found just the right place.

Abraham already knew what he wanted.  He had obviously done some advanced work on this. That place belonged to Ephron son of Zohar.  Abraham sought the cave of Machpelah, but in the course of conversation, the cave expanded to the land around it.  Ephron was willing to give Abraham the land and the cave.  It was worth about 400 shekels of silver.

How much is that?  Let’s say half of a king’s ransom.  Remember, that Abimelech had made Abraham whole by the gifts of many things, among them 1000 shekels of silver for the wrong that he had not done to Sarah.

Abraham agreed to the price even though Ephron was willing to give it to Abraham.  What’s a king’s ransom between men like us?

But it seems that Abraham would be beholden to no one but God.

It also appears that Abraham did not abuse his status.  We see some of that today in our ethics, laws, and regulations.

Who gets preferential treatment?  Those who need it least—the rich and famous.

On independent duty, I was sometimes offered things being the commanding officer of the few Marines stationed in the heartland of America.  I knew to ask, “Do you offer this to all Marines?”

If the answer was in the affirmative, I could accept what was being offered.  If it was just for me, that one fell into the thanks but no thanks category.

As we look at many of our elected officials today, we see them beholden to so many individuals and groups that have enticed them from statesmanship to self-service at our expense.

Was this in Abrahams's thinking?  We saw something similar with the king of Sodom.  There would be no deal between Abraham and this king.

Abraham obviously had a dislike for the king of Sodom but we don’t see that with Ephron of Zohar.  So maybe Abraham just wanted no special treatment from men.  Abraham had been blessed by God.  He would do his best to walk blamelessly before the Lord.

We see some self-actualization in Abraham after having his faith tested on Mount Moriah.  Abraham is living the full measure of faith that God saw in him, most likely in the womb.

One other possible motive here was that this tomb was not just for Sarah.  It would be a place for Abraham to be buried as well as his son and grandson and their wives.  The tomb was thought to be a double, but as we read the history of the time, we don’t see any complaints from the occupants when a few more were added at later dates.

Hey, throw a couple air mattresses on the floor.

This is also the first ownership by Abraham and his descendants.  The land all around was promised to Abraham’s descendants, but this was the first land that Abraham owned.  The land was deeded to him.

I don’t know what that looked like that long ago, but it was official.

So, other than the history lesson, what do we take away from this chapter. 

Here is my tongue-in-cheek answer that isn’t really tongue-in-cheek.  Do some funeral planning.  Other than the handful of people who will meet Jesus in the clouds, we are all going to die a physical death and you have to do something with the body.

Some of you have watched enough CSI, that you don’t think you will even need a funeral home.  You know how to get rid of a body.

The not-so-arid lesson might be, be careful to whom you owe anything.  The proverbs warn us against debt but we should also be on the lookout for relationships that make us beholden to another.

Paul wrote that the only debt we should have is to love one another.

There is another thought here about being beholden to someone else.  What if you had to take a mark of loyalty to buy or sell or trade—to just get what you needed to survive?

Would you take the mark?

There isn’t much of a tie with that eschatological thought, but it’s enough to chew on every now and then. Consider what debts or obligations or perceived obligations we might incur in our relationships.

The chapter is the history of Abraham buying a field with a nice tomb, paying full price, and burying his wife.  Know the history, but think about being beholden to none but God.

Seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness first.

Know the history.  Seek the Lord.

Amen.

 

Covenants

 Read Genesis 11-23

This week’s chapter is mostly about buying land and funeral arrangements, so for this service, we will look at the 3 covenants between God and Abraham.

What exactly is a covenant?  Let’s try this on for size.

When the Bible mentions a covenant, it’s referring to a strong, solemn agreement between two parties, but agreements seen in biblical times are somewhat different from what we know now. The biblical covenants make two into one. When two parties make a covenant in the Bible, they are joined together and identified with each other.

The parties don’t just have a business relationship.  They are joined.

Today, we believe that marriage is a covenant relationship.  Two—specifically a man and a woman commit to each other before God and become one.  That’s the covenant of biblical marriage.  Marriage means something entirely different to our modern world.

Give it a shot.  If it doesn’t work, move on.

The important thing in a biblical covenant is that two parties are joined together.  That’s a big bite to swallow when God says, I am joining with you.  It may explain a few things as to why God stuck with this knucklehead named Abraham. 

God joined himself to Abraham to accomplish his purpose.  He would form nations and kingdoms and bless the world through Abraham and his descendants.

The first begins with God speaking to Abram in a vision.

Do not be afraid, Abram.

    I am your shield,

    your very great reward.

You will recognize this as coming from chapter 15.  Abram is afraid that what he has will go to his servant Eliezer of Damascus because Abraham and Sarah have no children.  God assures him that this is not the case. His descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Abram believed him and it was credited to him as righteousness.  That faith seemed a little suspect at times, but we saw it fully manifested in chapter 22

And then Abram asked God, but how will I know? 

God prescribed the animals for sacrifice and Abraham arranged them and then as fire passed between the pieces of the animals, the covenant between God and Abram was formalized. OBTW—Abraham slept through the whole thing.  I think it was more like he was in a trance instead of catching some Zs.

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

I left out the Gigabytes and Terabytes, but they are addressed in the Book of Second Opinions.

But here we have the first covenant.

Over the course of the Torah, we see that covenant fulfilled.  Jacob is renamed Israel and the people come to know God before they enter the promised land. We see much of Israel being established as a nation in Exodus 24. 

We see God working with Israel as a nation of his people.  They are given direction and promises, but they are more than a collection of tribes, they are a nation.

Within this covenant, a land is promised to Abram’s descendants.  Let’s call it the Promised Land.

Now, on to the next covenant that we find in chapter 17.

As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.  No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.  I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

That sounds a lot like the first covenant, and it is very similar.  It could just be God expounding more on the first covenant, but we get a little more than being the Father of Many Nations.

Kings and Kingdoms will come from the line of Abraham.  They will not just be a group of tribes with genetic affinity.  They will be more than just a nation.  Kings will come from Abraham’s descendants.

God will make Abram—Abraham into a great kingdom—great kingdoms, but there is specifically one that gets our attention.

In 1 Samuel 16, we see the beginning of this Kingdom.  Yes, Saul was the first king, but David was the man after God’s own heart.

Saul became a footnote.  David was the beginning of the kingdom that God spoke of in his covenant with Abraham.

Let’s take on one more covenant.  This one is from chapter 22.

But I thought that was about God testing Abraham’s faith?  It is but consider what God told Abraham once Abraham proved his faith through his obedience.

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Here we have the universal blessing.  Through your offspring, all the nations of the world will be blessed.  While Israel was blessed to be a blessing, the ultimate blessing was and is Jesus Christ.

We are living in this age now.  We have a part in this blessing in that we are commissioned to take the good news of life in Jesus Christ to the world.

We use the word covenant more than the world does and especially in the study of Abraham.  I thought maybe you should know a little more than the world does.

Amen.

Already Dead

 Read John 3:36

John 5:24

Most of the time when you hear me talk, I talk about God’s love.  We are to love God and love one another as the mainstay of our discipleship. God is love.

Sure, there are other things that we should do.  You will find most to be rooted in love.

Jesus told us that we are wise to put his words into practice.  In fact, he compared those who practice what he taught as to one who built their house on solid rock instead of shifting sand, the latter would wash away in the storm.

Today, I want to talk to you about life and death.  It’s sort of a heavy subject—life and death.  It’s an important topic.

We know life, though few live it fully.  We sometimes sleep through much of life.  I’m not talking about restful sleep that we all need.  I mean being in a slumber when we should be fully awake. I didn’t say woke.

Being woke—and that’s not what we are here to talk about is like building your house on shifting and sinking sand.  It seems right for a while, but then it comes crashing down.  Again, that’s not our topic for right now.

We are talking about life and death. 

You know what death is too.  Most of you have lost a loved one at some point.  Maybe you were too young to remember much.

Most of you have lost a pet to death.  You live in Oklahoma.  You have seen road kill.  I would bet to say that you have seen more dead armadillos than live ones.

I had to go see the doctor in Elk City last Thursday.  That was a three-skunk Thursday. That drive took on an atmosphere of its own.

We have seen death.  Do you know what the Bible says?

It says that you are already dead.  How can that be?  I’m sitting here breathing and wanting to be on my phone.  I can’t be dead.  Listen to the words of Jesus

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

If you truly believe in the Son—that’s Jesus—then you have life now and for eternity.  But if you don’t believe, you are already dead. When your body wears out or you get struck by lightning or snake bit and die, it’s GAME OVER!

And you have no reset button.

Who has heard that the wages of sin is death? You were dead in your sin and all have sinned.

Do you know the second half of that verse?

But the gift of God is eternal life.

There is a discussion to be had about the innocence of the young, but we must know that sin has touched us all, even the child.  Why do you think the counsel to parents is to bring up a child in the way he should go?

If you can understand what I am saying, the innocence excuse is not valid for you.  We have all missed the target at some point. You are accountable for your life.

So what am I getting at?  Life and death.  They are real.  You have seen death.  While we can celebrate the death of a believer for only this physical body has perished; the same cannot be said of the one who rejects God.

They are dead already!

In some congregations, maybe you have gone to some of them, the preacher wants to scare you into walking the aisle and professing Jesus as Lord out of fear.

There is nothing wrong with the fear of the Lord.  In fact we are counseled that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. It’s a good place to start.

What I am talking about is the fear of hell.  Hell is real.  You don’t want to go there.  It’s not where God designed you to go.  It is not your predestination, but you can get there by rejecting God.

Don’t profess Jesus is Lord because you fear hell.  Profess Jesus is Lord because you seek God.  You want to know God.  You want to know the life and eternal life that God has in store for you.

Profess Jesus is Lord because you believe that God is love.  It’s ok to fear the Lord.  You can fear hell if you want to, but if that is how you live your life, you are missing out on the living part.

You might think that there is no difference in professing Jesus is Lord out of fear and out of love.  There is!

For those who profess Jesus is Lord out of the fear of hell, you think that you reached the finish line.  You think, I’ve won.  I’m not going to hell.

You think it’s game over and you have won.  You just have to wait out the rest of your life to get to heaven.

For the one who receives Jesus as Lord out of the love of God over the love of the world, you realize that you are just in the starting blocks.

Life—real life, abundant life—begins now.  It’s time to really live.  What does the Bible say?

Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

When does eternal life begin?  It begins now when you have professed Jesus is Lord.  There is a better part to come, but eternal life begins in the moment you truly believe in God through his son Christ Jesus.

You have passed from death to life!

Remember that salvation is the free gift of God, but you must receive it.  Here’s a good Bible word—Woe.  Woe to those who reject it.  Death remains upon them.  You are already dead!

But you can live now and forever in Christ Jesus.  The moment you truly believe, you pass from death to life.

But how do I know that I really believe?

That’s an excellent question.  It is an essential question.  How do you know?

You will know when you are ready to give up the sinful ways of the world and receive the ways of the Lord.

It is called repentance.  You must not only turn away from the ways of the world, but leave all of that worldly baggage behind so you are free to take the yoke of your Master—that’s Jesus—and learn from him.

You will be ready to put his words into practice.  The word is practice.  You might not get everything right the first time or the first thousand times, but you have committed to following Jesus.

You have passed from death to life.

Amen.

God Knows Logistics

 Read Genesis 22

Let’s jump back to chapter 11 for a moment and do a little genealogy.

After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Haran died.  Lot survived him.  Terah took him under his wing.  When Abraham was called by God to leave his father’s household in the area called Harran, Lot went with Abraham.

Up to this point, Nahor has been left out of the story. Now we see that he had kids.

Some time later Abraham was told, “Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor: Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram),  Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.”  Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor.  His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah.

You have to love those names.

The first time I went to Africa, I stayed with our host pastor in his home.  I have shared before that Rick and I each had a separate bed but we shared a towel.  I got one side.  He got the other.  We hung it in the room during the day and hoped it would dry by the next morning.  One day, Rick forgot to hang the towel so it would dry.  The next day was known as wet towel Thursday.

I won’t review the bathroom accommodations, but when we showed pictures, we went from 12 people interested in joining our return to Africa to – 12 people.  I’m not here to talk about that.

The pastor and his wife, who was also a pastor, had three children.  Two were girls—Angel and Blessing.  What would you expect when mom and dad were both pastors.

The couple had just had a baby boy.  They named him Bob. What’s in a name?

It’s a good thing that Abraham didn’t get this news about his brother’s kids before Isaac was born.  He would have really been discouraged.

It was a long time ago.  There was no Netflix or video on demand.  What did you do with time on your hands?  You made kids. If your wife already had a bun in the oven, you had a side chick—a concubine.

I’m interested to see if we had a Plandemic Lockdown Baby Boom in 2020 and 2021.  I think that Netflix and Prime subscriptions probably flattened that curve, but we will see.

Nahor had some sons.  It seemed that this Father of Many Nations business would have been easier with Abraham’s brother.

If you are named in the Bible, you are probably a guy.  That’s just the way the story was told.  Yes, there were women and the propagation of the species continued, but most women didn’t get any listing in the genealogies of the Bible.

There are two exceptions here.  One is Reumah the concubine.  Why is she mentioned?  She gave Nahor 4 sons.

And then there is Rebekah.  Why is she mentioned?

Abraham was 100 years old when he became a father to Isaac.  Abraham seemed to doubt this Father of Many Nations thing several times, but in today’s chapter, the other story is the faith of Abraham that God saw long before we saw it in the story.

Abraham didn’t really see beyond having this promised son.  Where would Isaac find a wife?  Hagar could just hop over to Egypt and get her son, Ishmael, a wife; but where would Isaac’s wife come from?

Later, we will see that Abraham did not want Isaac to take a wife from the people of Canaan. Even though Abraham’s father came out of Ur in the land of the Chaldeans—aka pagan country—there were still people that knew about God.  These people still had idols, but Abraham knew his son stood a better chance with the women of his father’s lineage than from the local population.

But Abraham had nothing to do with the logistics.

God rescued Lot from Sodom and Abraham had nothing to do with it. He probably thought that he was negotiating with God for the life of Lot’s family, but God had already put that rescue in place while Abraham was getting God down to sparing the city for the sake of 10 righteous men.

And God would provide wives for Abraham’s son and grandson.  God knows logistics.

The main message in this chapter is the really big faith that we finally get to see in Abraham in the first part of this chapter, but we should not neglect the fact that when God chooses us for something, he has already put the logistics in place that will equip and provision us.

Let’s trust more, obey more, and live more in accordance with our faith.  Yes, it’s okay to fear God more.

When God says he’s got this, he’s got this.

Trust, obey, believe, and fear nothing and no one but God.

Amen.

The Lord will Provide

 Read Genesis 22

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

In Genesis 15, Abraham was concerned that his servant would become his heir because Abraham didn’t have any kids and the prospects were not good.

God told him that would not be the case.  In fact, he would have more descendants than there were stars in the sky.

Abraham believed God and God credited Abraham with righteousness because of his belief—his faith.  And Abraham walked in perfect harmony with the Lord, living flawlessly before him. 

That part has to go into the not exactly category.  Abraham was a knucklehead, a screwball, and a bonehead deluxe.  If there ever was a biblical icon that said trust in your own understanding, it had to be Abraham.

But God credited Abraham with righteousness. Was God blind?  Could he not see that Abraham missed the trust in the Lord mark again and again?

What gives?

The faith with which God credited Abraham in chapter 15 is the faith that we finally come to see in chapter 22, and it is some big faith.  It is faith that most, I would venture to say all fathers find beyond comprehension.

Abraham.

Yes, Lord.

Take your son, your only son, the son that you love, and sacrifice him to me.

Who among us would just say, “Okay.  Let’s make a day of it.  Should be fun.”

Of all the occasions where Abraham might have wanted to offer up one of his screwball approaches, this would seem like the perfect opportunity.  I think I know the thinking of most fathers.

You want me to die for my son.  Done deal.

You want my wealth in exchange for my son.  I won’t even negotiate.  It’s all yours.

You want me to send my son into combat with a chance that he might die, ok, I can handle that. He’s a good kid and has some fight in him.  I can live with that.

You want me to take the life of my own son as a sacrifice to you.  God, this is not the time for joking around!!!

Abraham was a knucklehead.  He was a bonehead.  He was a screwball.

Abraham was obedient. 

For all the cockamamie plans and stupid decisions that Abraham and his wife concocted, he had always been obedient.  When God told him to do something, he did it.

This was no exception. Abraham grabbed his son, a couple of servants, prepped some wood, and conscripted some animals for a short trip to the area of Moriah.  They were off to make the sacrifice that God required.

This was about a 3-day trip.  There had to be plenty of time to think this over.  Abraham had negotiated for the lives in wicked Sodom, surely, he could come up with a good counteroffer that would satisfy God and didn’t involve his son’s life.

But there was no counter.  When the mountain was in sight, Abraham loaded the wood on the back of his son. 

Yes, there is foreshadowing here.  The wood on the back of Abraham’s one and only son surely looked forward to a trip to Golgotha with the cross carried by Jesus—God’s one and only Son.  There’s a line or two of discussion there for another time.

Now, let’s look at Abraham being obedient to God.  Abraham carried the fire and Isaac carried the wood.  Isaac must have been wondering if dad was getting forgetful in his old age.

What about the lamb?

Isaac surely wouldn’t want to have to hike uphill and then back down again when dad remembered he forgot the sacrifice.

But dad had not forgotten the sacrifice. Abraham said that God himself would provide the sacrifice.

Was this so Isaac wouldn’t beat feet to Egypt to escape his old and crazy dad?

Was this because Abraham had read ahead in the story and knew what happened?

Is this because God had indeed provided the sacrifice and his name was Isaac?

Again, food for thought at another time. We can speculate and postulate on the reasons and motivations, but the bottom line is that Abraham was obedient.

What transpired was that father and son walked up the hill.  Abraham bound his son on his altar and was fully prepared to offer him as a sacrifice.  He would kill him and present him as a burnt offering.

It was at this point that Isaac was surely thinking that it would be nice if  Ishmael had been around for this part.  Actually, we don’t see any resistance or reluctance or action of any sort that belied the will of God.

Isaac obeyed his father.

Both father and son would do as God required.  Both were obedient, even unto death.  As I father, I cannot comprehend this level of obedience, but Abraham raised the knife to kill his son.

But the angel of the Lord cried out:  Abraham, Abraham! The angel wanted to make sure that he had Abraham’s attention. Hear the message for Abraham.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham surely breathed a sigh of relief.  He surely had been expecting the worst moment of his life.  Instead, he saw a ram caught in a thicket.  God had provided the sacrifice, and as we know centuries later God once again provided the sacrifice.

What have we witnessed in this account?  Was it faith?  Was it obedience?

Was it obedience manifest in faith?

Was it faith manifest in obedience?

God had promised Abraham that he would be the Father of Many Nations; yet the son through whom this promise would come was a second away from being killed by his own father.

Did Abraham believe that God would bring Isaac back from the dead?  Did he think that somehow God would not let Isaac die?  What did he think?

Whatever he was thinking did not stand in the way of being obedient to what God had required.

So was it the fear of the Lord that caused Abraham to come a moment away from sacrificing his own son?

Was it trust in the Lord that moved him forward in this sacrifice?

Was it obedience, faith, fear of the Lord, or trust in the Lord?  The answer is yes.  YES!

We are a people who like to analyze and sometimes to do that we like to divide.  Was it obedience?  Was it faith?  Was it fear?  Was it trust?

We see all of these things in play in this chapter.  God knew that Abraham would be obedient and faithful.  He saw the trust and fear of the Lord in him long before the trip up the mountain.

All the way back to God crediting Abraham with righteousness because he believed, God knew how great Abraham’s faith would be.  God saw the fear of the Lord in Abraham. 

God knew that this was a man who would trust him and believe him and do the impossible for God.  What man could sacrifice their own son?

Yes, sometime later, we see human sacrifices among the pagans.  Those sacrifices included children, but these were the sacrifices of godless men. These were pagans and their paradigm was that children were commodities to be leveraged with their homemade gods.

We believe that God did this for us—he sacrificed his own son for us, but he is God.  We are human, flawed, and frail.  What Abraham did was on the verge of doing was not possible for us; yet he was ready to do the impossible out of obedience, out of faith, and out of trust, and even out of fear of the Lord.

We are a work in progress but God already sees the finished product.  He who began a good work in you will finish that work. He will bring it to completion.

God sees the completion of that work now just as he saw Abraham’s faith long before the story revealed it to us.

Abraham could have been dubbed the father on all knuckleheads based on what we have studied, but God already knew the person that he made Abraham to be.

He was a man whose faith was manifest in obedience and his obedience in his faith.

He was a man who feared the Lord; yet trusted him fully.

He is the Father of Many Nations.  He should be an inspiration to us that God sees exactly what he made us to be.  God sees the finished work and it is incredible.

Let’s obey more, trust more, believe more, and yes, even fear the Lord more for he has an incredible destination for us as his child.

Let’s be the person that God has already made us to be.

Let us consider 2 words from this fantastic account:  Yahweh Yireh.

The Lord will provide.  This discipleship thing is not so insurmountable a task as we might think.  The Lord provides what we need.

Let’s obey more, trust more, believe more, and yes, even fear the Lord more for he has an incredible destination for us as his child.

Let’s be the person that God has already made us to be.

The Lord will provide.

Let’s be the person that God has already made us to be.

Amen.

Going Foward

 Read Genesis 21

We have come a long ways to get to these words.

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.

And so, 11 chapters into the story of Abraham, he and his wife have a child together.  It was just as and when the Lord had promised.  The child was named Isaac as the Lord had directed.

When the child was 8 days old, he was circumcised as the covenant directed. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.

Imagine Isaac at Little League games.  Some kid asks him which one is your father.  He answers, the one sitting next to your great, great, grandfather. OK, baseball wasn’t invented for another 3,600 years, but you get the idea.  Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born.

Isaac fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham.  It was a promise that Abraham and Sarah sometimes doubted.  Sarah even laughed to herself a year earlier when the Lord and two angels declared that Sarah would have a child in about one year.

Sarah laughed to herself and thought, will I really have a child at such an old age?

It really didn’t matter that Sarah was talking to herself, the Lord heard her.  You remember what followed.  The Lord said why did Sarah laugh?  Sarah jumped into the conversation between the Lord and her husband and said, I didn’t do that.

The Lord said, yes you did.

But now with the birth of her son, Isaac, Sarah laughs with joy and amazement that God fulfilled his promise in her.  The laughter was in response to God doing the impossible.

Everyone who would hear the story would laugh in response to this question.  Is anything too hard for the Lord?

The child grew and was weaned and, on that day, Abraham held a great feast.  God’s promise had come true and the child was growing as evidence of God’s promise.

For all the buildup we have seen to this point, this part is a short story. Do you know what’s missing from this story?

Regret, repentance, and remorse.  We will just stick with the R words for now.

We don’t see Abraham saying, I regret not really believing. How could I not trust the Lord?

We don’t see Abraham and his wife Sarah covered is sackcloth and ashes in repentance for their disbelief.  OK, we don’t even see a reference to sackcloth until much later in Genesis, but this was not a time of repentance.

We don’t see hearts saddened with remorse over having doubted the Lord.

We don’t see Abraham and Sarah looking back at their past mistakes.  We don’t see these two anchored to their pasts.  There was likely some repentance along the way.  When Sarah started showing, both Abraham and Sarah surely knew that the fulfillment of God’s promise was on the way.

When the baby moved or kicked, that probably put a lump in the throats of these parents-to-be. At that point, these two had to have some regret or remorse over their doubt.  We don’t read about it but these two if nothing else, were 100% human and subject to human emotions and reactions.

What we see when the promise is fulfilled are a couple of happy parents.  Mom is laughing and knows that it is from God.  God has delivered on his impossible promise.

Dad is obedient, circumcising his son on day 8 of his young life. Dad is putting on the Ritz when the kid is weaned.  Dad is celebrating.

God does this incredible thing for us.  He designs our lives to be lived going forward.  Sure repentance and seeking forgiveness are big things in our lives.  They got us to the words, JESUS IS LORD!

Learning lessons from our past leads to wisdom.  God values wisdom, but he designed us to live going forward.

Abraham had pulled some boneheaded stunts.  Sarah did her part as well, but God had plans and purposes for these two and he fulfilled them in spite of all of their doubt and shortcomings.

When God fulfills his promises in you, you celebrate.  You trust him more. You learn your lessons but your focus is forward.  Your life is before you.

Not quite 2000 years later, Jesus said that the truth will set you free. Part of that truth is that God has good plans for you.  God has purpose for your life.  God will direct our steps if we trust him.

But we continually miss the mark.  We transgress. We sin.

That’s all true, but God always hits the mark.  God fulfills his promises to us.  Even when it seems like we are a bigger knucklehead than Abraham, God still fulfills his promises to us.

And when he does, it is not a time for regret, repentance, or remorse.  It is a time for another R word.  It is time to rejoice.

We rejoice that God continues to work in this world.

We rejoice that God does have good plans for us.

We rejoice that God’s mercy and grace go beyond our transgressions.

We rejoice that God does fulfill his promises.

We rejoice that he is faithful and just to forgive us.  We rejoice that we don’t have to wonder if God loves us or will forgive us.

We rejoice that God takes everything that happens to us—and some of that stuff is due to our own boneheaded mistakes—and uses it for good because we do love him and we have been called according to his purpose. 

We rejoice that God is for us.

We rejoice that we get to live going forward.  We sometimes might laugh or chuckle as we go forward. Man, did God ever get me through some stuff?  Did God ever deliver me from my own bad mistakes?  Did God not do what I thought was impossible.

We get to laugh and live in God’s promises.  We get to live going forward.

Now our human nature tells us that we need to pay the price for our mistakes.  We need to pay the price for our transgressions.  We need to pay for doubting God.

And our human nature is correct.  We need to pay for all of those mistakes.  They are listed on an invoice of our sin and we must pay with our very lives.  The penalty for sin is death and we were charged, found guilty, and sentenced to death.

And Jesus said, I will pay the price for them. He did pay the price for us.

So, we can look back at all of our mistakes, sins, transgressions, doubt, and other shortcomings with regret and repentance and remorse or we can rejoice in the life that we have been given in the blood of Jesus.

There is a time for repentance and surely we cannot live without some regret or remorse here and there.  We are human and there is a time for everything.

But when we realize that God has fulfilled a promise to us.  It is time to rejoice and celebrate.  We can rejoice in the fulfillment of the promise to take away sin and death and we can do that every day, but we should be on the lookout for those other things that God has promised us and delivered upon.

We might even laugh a little when he does what the world deems impossible. Is anything too hard for God?

We might just break out singing our God is an awesome God when our human eyes see what almighty God has done for us.

We might just want to throw a feast every time we realize that the invoice for our sin was nailed to the cross.

On the worst of our days, we might still want to wear a smile on our faces as we are blessed to live going forward.

Sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.  We rejoice that we get to live going forward.

Amen.

You didn't interview for this calling. God chose you!

  Read Genesis 21

Isaac was weaned and grew and all was well in Abraham’s family.  That is, except for Ishmael.  The text said that he mocked Isaac.  Surely there was contempt for this younger son.  Ishmael was going to be the heir and then he wasn’t.

Ishmael was big news and then he wasn’t.  Everything was focused on Isaac now and Ishmael didn’t like it.  Again, Sarah went to Abraham and insisted that he get rid of Hagar and Ismael.

This distressed Abraham.  The last time that he sent Hagar away, Ishmael was still a bun in the oven.  This time, he had come to know his son.  Ishmael was Abraham’s son.  He was not the son through whom God would fulfill his promises, but still, he was Abraham’s son.

Abraham had dissonance.  He wanted to honor his wife—who by the way instigated this whole kid by the maidservant business—and he loved his son.  His heart and mind were surely in turmoil.  How would he figure this out?

But God told Abraham not to be worried.  God would take care of Hagar and Ishmael.  God would make Ishmael into a nation.

God told Abraham to go ahead and do what Sarah asked of him.  Hagar and her son were sent packing with some provisions.  Abraham put those provisions on her shoulders, so they must have been more than what you would take for a day, but she would have to find some way of sustaining herself and her son.

Today, we have what’s called long-range patrol rations.  You can get several days of generally lightweight food and carry it on your back, but water is the real logistics factor.  A human can only carry so much water.

The two went as far as the water would take them and then mom was ready to throw in the towel and die.  She put her son in the shade and went a short distance away because she could not watch her son die.  Both cried.

God heard them.

God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar?”

Don’t you just love it when the angel acts like he doesn’t know what is going on?

“Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

And God sent them on their way and said, Good Luck, Kid. Well not exactly.

God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

God was with Ishmael as he grew up.  We don’t get much of that story, only that mom found him a wife from Egypt.  If you were hoping for some wild donkey-of-a-man stories, we just don’t get them.

We do read about Ishmael one more time in Genesis.  He comes for his father’s funeral.  That part rings true more often than not today.

How many people—family and friends—do you only see at funerals these days?

This is not the first time that an angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar in the wilderness.  Previously, the angel sent Hagar back to Sarah and told Hagar that she—through the son she carried—would have many descendants.

During this wilderness encounter with the angel, Hagar is again promised that the Lord will make Ishmael into a nation.  They would not die of thirst or hunger in the desert.

Why did God have mercy on these 2 people?  Why are they part of the story?  We don’t hear from Ishmael after Abraham’s funeral.

Why did the Lord give so much attention to Ishmael?

It was because he was Abraham’s son.  We have seen God bless Abraham with riches even when his behavior didn’t really bring glory to God.

We have seen God give Abraham an impossible victory over 4 undefeated armies with only 318 men, even though we have no evidence that Abraham was a brilliant military commander.

We see Mechezideck bless Abraham on behalf of the Most High God and we see God credit this knucklehead with righteousness for his faith even though we have many examples of Abraham acting in accordance with his own understanding instead of trusting God.

We have seen God bless Abraham as the Father of many nations—most of that’s still very much in the future—but he did it in spite of Abraham’s knuckleheadedness.

But God did not kick Abraham to the curb and find someone more qualified.  God chose Abraham and God’s plans would be fulfilled through Abraham.

And many blessings flowed from being associated with Abraham.  God sent a rescue team to retrieve Lot and his family from Sodom.

God rescued Abraham’s older son from dying in the desert.

God blessed Abraham’s older son and made him into a nation.

The recurring theme here is Abraham.  God chose Abraham and many blessings proceeded from Abraham. These were not because Abraham was such a stellar performer.  He was not, but he was God’s choice.

That’s good news for some of us whom God has chosen for different things.  If God has called you to something, he will bless you when you respond.

Now if God calls you to something and you make a mess of so many things, remember, God still chose you.  Don’t throw in the towel.  Let God work in your messiness.

We have all fallen short of God’s glory, and guess what?  It’s likely going to happen again, and again, but when God picks you, chooses you, calls you to his purpose, he sticks with you, even in your messiness.

So if God called you to preach or sing or teach or cook or clean or hand out gospels or greet people when they come in the building and you forgot or lost your temper or just did something really stupid, or you just thought what you were doing was not that important, remember that God called you.  He chose you.

Not everything that God chose you to do has to do with a Sunday morning or a Wednesday evening.  He planned much for you to to well before you became a new creation.  Some of that is in your home.  Some at your job.  Some is at Walmart, which for some of you may be both your home and job.

He may have even placed a spiritual gift in you and if you would trust God and quit fighting the Spirit that he placed inside of you, you might move out of your messiness into fruitful ministry.

The lesson for today is don’t ever give up if it is God who has called you or chosen you to do something.  He will stick with you even in your mistakes.  He will stay with you and you will accomplish his purpose.

If God is for us—and he is—who can be against us?

If God called you or chose you, why fight against it?  Why be God’s consultant when he already knows what you are called to do?

I have shared this Corrie ten Boom quote before, but I think it appropriate to share it again.

“Don't bother to give God instructions; just report for duty.”

If God has chosen you for a purpose, don’t argue with God.  Don’t try to convince him that someone else would be a better choice.  Don’t say you are not qualified.  Qualification is not relevant if God has picked you himself.

There’s a mantra that’s a little on the simplistic side, but is worth considering from time to time.  What that?

God does not call the qualified.

He qualifies those he calls.

Too simple, perhaps, but worth some thought.

Don’t tell God that you keep making a mess of things.  Just report for duty and then have eyes to see how God blesses so many through what he chose you to do.

God chose you.  Just report for duty.

Amen.