Lech Lecha/Go forth!
Genesis 12:1-17:27
Isaiah 40:27 – 41:16
This week’s reading is filled with great promises made to whom we call “our father of faith” and to our great fortune; this great man of faith is much like us. God visits him and says, Genesis 12:
2”I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Drink deeply oh Abram, the promises of God ‘go in’ so easily; let’s see how you walk in them. The first stop on Abe’s ‘great journey of faith’ is helped along by a famine. His ‘great faith’ solution is to go to Egypt and essentially sacrifice his wife’s safety and morality: fail number one!
Next is what you might call a “conflict because of abundance” that Abram had with his nephew Lot. Next was a chance to function in the promises of God to our “father of faith” and help direct his uncle within those promises, toward God’s ends. In what on the surface seems like humility, he actually gives up his responsibilities and let’s nephew Lot make the call (which of course has a bad outcome in Sodom): fail number two! A little note here would be to consider when we are given promises from the Living God; we might consider how He meant them to impact our daily lives. Then God comes to Abram’s rescue and blesses his ‘choice’;
Genesis 1314 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; 15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your [c]descendants forever. 16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. 17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
Oh how thankful we can be for the sovereignty of God!
Next up is Lot living in Sodom (it’s not clear if much is known yet about how dark Sodom was at that time; but we can assume it’s not a great place for Lot to grow in the knowledge of the One True Living God of his uncle Abram). War ensues in that region; Lot and his household and all their goods get taken. Abe comes to the rescue with his personal army; so, he is looking pretty good, after his latest encounter with God. Isn’t it amazing how much we can all benefit from a little personal ‘God-time’ (even if you don’t have your own personal army)? To add either a little depth or confusion to this section: Melchizedek (score 10 extra points for spelling his name without looking). We have a friend that has at least 13 sessions he teaches on Melchizedek and we aren’t sure if he just has an active imagination or a great deal of revelation, which seems to somehow have passed me and others by. This guy Mel however leaves Abram blessed and encouraged along the way, after his good deed in rescuing his nephew.
Now time and the ‘delay’ in the fulfillment of God’s earlier promises take their toll on Abram. He starts leaning on his own understanding to help God bless him as the father of many nations, since he has no offspring of his own…can you really blame him? God even speaks to him to help our father of faith’s unbelief:
15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
I know how much we would all like to get an audible word from God, but Abram is in the ‘school’ of developing father-like faith, so his response is still ‘relatable’ for us:
2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless…
At this point, Abe is ready to claim an heir; Eliezer of Damascus as a possible candidate; we don’t even know if this is a blood relative; he is really going down the tubes here (even as we are all so prone to). God to the rescue:
4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 15:4 “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”
The God we serve and know is so much bigger and better than we can even imagine; He doesn’t stop with that part of the promise; but adds technicolor to it; even 3D:
5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
This helps Abram move his piece a little further on his checkerboard of life:
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Finally, some ‘faith’ progress! Yet followed by:
8 And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
He is trying so hard to be like the rest of us; maybe he is…!
Next God realizes that this guy needs more help; so, He puts him to sleep and makes an incredible covenant with him. God makes Himself responsible to fulfill it; but let’s not party yet. The ink is barely dry on this covenant thing and Abram looks at his past child-bearing aged wife and the two decide to use the younger, fertile maidservant as the solution…I don’t think I need to mention the heart ache and upheaval this choice has caused much of the world. Could we be this dull ourselves? I don’t want to point any fingers, but maybe so.
I’m not trying to write a book here, so I better cut to the chase; the Living God needs to ‘move into’ Abe and Sarai’s lives at another whole level!
Genesis 17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” and 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
But now the ‘cavalry’ arrives:
5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. And 15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.”
Do you see what happened here? God didn’t just change the spelling of their names; He added His breath; His Holy Spirit to their very being and nature to accomplish His promises! I hope this sounds familiar to all of us who name the Name of Jesus our Lord! We all have promises that are as big as Abram’s were to him; and we are as prone to wander and not walk in faith as he; but the Lord God Almighty knows Whom; not what, we need and He always delivers! He has given us Holy Spirit when we believed in Jesus, as a Helper to believe in the rest of His plans and purposes for us. So be encouraged today, oh great man or woman of faith; we are His and He is pleased with us; probably even brags about us to the angels; but knows our weaknesses and has granted us the very One we needed to be able to walk in faith. Walk on! by john eisner
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