Our pastor, Steve, has challenged the congregation to read either the whole bible or just the New Testament. Jason and I have signed up for the whole bible. I am so glad that I have a direction to follow. I so often get lost in, "what do I read now." I love for someone to direct my path. In one respect I am a follower. In the other, if you give me some kind of guidance, I can lead. I love it. So anyway I am in Genesis. I have read through Genesis 30. I don't even know what to talk about the most, because there is truly so much to learn from these few chapters. I think I will start with Genesis 15:6, "And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD declared him righteous because of his faith." He was declared righteous because of his faith. Do you see that even under the old, people were declared righteous because of their faith? And yet in so many ways Abram seemed to show little faith in God by his actions later in life.
God knew Abrams heart. He knew he would sin and yet he was still willing to make a covenant with him. Vs 9-18, "Abram saw a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the LORD made a covenant with Abram that day..." In the customs of the past, this was a tradition in weddings. Let me explain. At weddings the fathers of the bride and groom would pass through the blood of a slain animal signifying that if their child did not keep their end of the marriage agreement, the father would pay the price with his life. By walking in the blood he was saying, "If my son/daughter does not live their role as they should, you can do this to me. I will take the punishment for their shortcomings." Notice that Abram did not pass through the blood, but God did. He kept Abram from passing through, because He knew that he would fail. The Father is the one that is responsible. God knew He was the only one who could redeem. He knew Abram and his children would not keep their part of the agreement. Christ is the one who paid. God became flesh and His blood was shed. How humbling this truly is.
After Abram's named was changed to Abraham; after he had another covenant with God; after God had personally spoken with him; after all of this, Abraham still demonstrated how truly small his faith really was. Yet he is known as a man with faith. One of the ways that he demonstrated his lack of faith is when he lied about Sarah and said she was his sister. Okay, it was partially true, but he was trying to deceived, so this made it a lie. Twice we are told of him fearing that he would be killed so that she could be taken as someone else's wife. Twice we are shown that he did not trust God fully with every aspect of his life. He was in a learning time of his relationship development with God.
Genesis 20, God talked to Abimelech in a dream. God saved Sarah and He spared Abraham's life, but it was not because of Abraham's lie that he was spared. God could have spared his life and saved him without Abraham trying to control the situation. God can talk to anyone He desires. He can do it all. What He wants from us, is to have faith and trust in Him to take care of us in every situation. Abraham was not showing good faith. I think that one of the reasons he had not yet been blessed with a son was because he still had lessons to learn. His faith was not yet ready and God wanted to show him who He really was. He had to have these situations so that he would finally learn to trust in God.
How many mistakes and lack of trust in God can we see from Abraham and Sarah's life? How many bad decisions could have they avoided, had they just trusted in God sooner? When I look at my life, the biggest mistakes that I have made were because of my lack in faith. I have believed in God my entire life, but I did not have faith. My actions demonstrated my lack of faith, but as I look at Abraham, I am given hope. God knew that he was a man of faith. He was declared righteous because of his faith, even though he was fallen, God made a covenant with him. I thank my LORD for saving me, even though I would fail Him. God knew that I would not be perfect, yet He saved me while I was still sinning. He died the death that I deserved. He knew me, and still chose me. Have you accepted your gift? Or do you still feel you should pay a dept you can never pay.
1 comment:
Wonderful post! How freeing it is to look at the lives of our biblical heroes. Some talk about them as though they were superhuman, when, as you have shown, they were desperately sinful. The true story is the Grace of God. That's awesome, because I am desperately sinful, and God's grace is all I have!
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