Genesis 12:1

2006.Dec.23 17:59

Read Genesis 12

My apologies. This is going to one of those cheesy have-faith just because, yadda, yadda articles.

The LORD said to Abram:

Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1, NASB)

Yes, this verse and it alone is going to be the subject of this entry. Here goes.

I’m a security and stability kind of guy. I know some folks (yes, I’m from Oklahoma, and I actually use the word “folks”) who at least don’t act security-and-stability. They’re out looking for changes in their lives. The thing they most don’t want to hear from God is “Stay.” I like the word stay, to an extent. That is, if I more or less like where I’m at, I’m okay with staying. Now, since I tend to stay, my feelings reagarding a bad situation are exagerrated somewhat. That is, I then have an inner struggle between my desire for stability and the present dissatisfaction.

I don’t have a real good idea for which way Abraham leans. I tend to find myself identifying with Lot more than with Abraham (and I will probably spend a good deal of time discussing Lot). That’s not meant to imply I have many good things to say about Lot. Hopefully, as I blog through Abraham’s life over the next, oh, six months if I have to guess, I’ll get a better feel for his personality, but I’m not ready to hazard a guess as to his emotional reaction to God’s saying, “Leave what you know and go.” I know my reaction:

“Please no.”

So, when I see later how Abraham is blessed, and how God uses him, and I want to be blessed and used like that, I have to confront my natural reaction. There’s two issues here, personality and faith. I must confront both. My personality doesn’t want to go, and my faith can be weakened by those emotions. The first is okay. Emotions are okay. Letting those emotions dictate my faith is another story. And this goes both ways. What if God tells me to stay? Okay, good, my emotions may be good with that–depending on the situation. But that’s not faith. That’s relief. If I only listen to my emotions response, my action of staying is without faith, and thus is not imbdued with God’s blessing and power. I can have the emotion, but then the decision must be one of God has told me to do this and I choose to have faith and follow him.

Oh, yeah, this entry was rambling to.

Some thoughts, anyway.

Genesis 13:14-18

2007.Feb.11 21:02

Abram gets a cookie

Read Genesis 13

The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” (Genesis 13:14-17, NIV)

In Chapter 12, Jehovah promised to make Abram a great nation (Genesis 12:2), and at Shechem, he tells Abram, “I will give this land to your posterity” (Genesis 12:7, AMP). There’s references to Canaan, but here is the first time I know of that Jehovah really defines for Abram what exactly the given land will be. Not that we as the readers really gain an understanding from this description, but assumedly Abram now has a clear idea. So a few points I’d like to consider:

1. This happens after the departure of Lot. This land is not to be inherited by Lot’s descendants, but by Abram’s, and God seems to be pretty specific about that.
2. God is giving the land to Abram. He does not tell Abram to conquer it, or to, well, do anything really. It’s a gift.
3. The land of Canaan is given to Abram’s descendants permanently. That’s a big thing to me, in that God is not placing conditions on this gift. He does place conditions later on the prosperity of the Israelites, and occasionally removes them from the land, but I don’t think God has ever revoked the Israelites possession of the land. He does, though, make it very clear that this is no excuse for mistreating foreigners (with the exceptions of those that God tells Israel to kill. But I am getting off topic here).
4. Jehovah promises Abram a lot of descendants. About which I have nothing interesting to say at the moment.

Then Jehovah tells Abram to walk through the land, in essence to physically (if symbolically for now) take possession of it. Abram could have rejected the gift. In this way, again in my interpretation, Abram takes possession of the promise. I’ll sort of tangent here and mention that if you have trouble believing God’s promises for you (and there are many throughout the Bible), finding a physical act that lets you show yourself taking possession of the promise can encourage you greatly. So, what does Abram do?

So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD. (Genesis 13:18, NIV)

He starts walking! Yay! And he settles for now, at Hebron. There he builds an altar to Jehovah. So, Abram listens to God, receives the promise of God, and worships God. That’s cool. That’s a process I need to work on much more; Jehovah does his part.

Genesis 14:21-24

2007.Mar.15 03:00

Spoils of War

Read Genesis 14

The king of Sodom said to Abram, “All I want are my people. You can keep everything else.” Abram answered: The LORD God Most High made the heavens and the earth. And I have promised him that I won’t keep anything of yours, not even a sandal strap or a piece of thread. Then you can never say that you are the one who made me rich. (Genesis 14:21-23, CEV)

It is now the king of Sodom’s chance to talk to Abram. This situation adds some complexities not apparent in the interaction between Abram and Melchizedek. Recall that Abram fought Chedorlaomer, et al, to rescue his relatives, Lot and his family (v. 14) after king Bera and his allies had fought against and lost to Chedorlaomer’s alliance. That is to say, this should not have been Abram’s war, and he had no reason to fight in it, except to rescue his relatives. Sodom and Gommarah benefitted from the attack by Abram’s small force, but they had no right to claim the spoils. Indeed, I would guess that Abram probably had rights to claim those cities under his own authority and to keep all the spoils. So when the king of Sodom offers less than that, to give Abram the spoils, but not the rule of the city, he in fact may be insulting Abram.

Abram refuses this offer, but for reasons not having to do with the extent of his “entitlement”. His issue is that others might give Bera, instead of Jehovah, credit for Abram’s success. That Abram is willing to refuse on these grounds means that he is either proud and uses Jehovah as an excuse (a possiblity which seems discredited by his interaction with Melchizedek) or that he has faith that God will continue to bless him abundantly (or any of thousands of other options, but admitting those makes my argument less convincing, unless I actually take the time to examine several more of those options, which sounds like a lot of work, so I’m going to artificially limit the axioms here–and elsewhere.). Although Abram deserved the spoils, at least according to custom, he valued more his promises to God and let his faith, rather than immediate worldly concerns, determine his answer.

Let my share be the food that my men have eaten. But Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre went with me, so give them their share of what we brought back. (Genesis 14:24, CEV)

Abram continues with a few qualifications. His men have eaten, probably of the spoils, and Abram notes that this can be his share. After all, they who fought deserve at least to be fed by the king whose kingdom they rescued (fat lot of good it will do king Bera). In addition, Abram notes that Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre who fought alongside him, should receive their portion. This appears to me a righteous and appropriate decision, although it may seem hypocritical in a quick reading. Abram’s decision does not imply that the taking of spoils in itself would have been wrong, but rather that it would have misappropriated the glory for Abram’s success from Jehovah to the king of Sodom. To deny those who fought beside him their portion would have dishonored them.

And, thus, I find myself coming back to the issue of balance. One can get obsessed with receiving or giving, with having no appearances of hypocrisy or with being more concerned with “doing right by others” as to forget God’s laws. God’s law and Word is not too complicated to be useful, but it is more than two or three rules that can be applied obsessively. That we Christians often obsess over two or three things at the expense of others is a good example of why we need God’s full Word that does address the complexities of human society, as well as our counselor, the Holy Spirit, to direct us to what we most need of God’s Word and to clarify it. And, that, my friends, is a last-paragraph tangent.

Genesis 15:1-6

2007.Mar.17 17:47

Faith/Hope

Read Genesis 15

Later the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision, “Abram, don’t be afraid! I will protect you and reward you greatly.”

But Abram answered, “LORD All-Powerful, you have given me everything I could ask for, except children. And when I die, Eliezer of Damascus will get all I own. You have not given me any children, and this servant of mine will inherit everything.” (Genesis 15:1-3, CEV)

My first thought upon reading this is that perhaps Abram is getting a bit persnickety. The, “You’ve given me everything I could ask for, except”, gives me that idea. Then again, the except here is more significant than, say, a yacht, or one of those new-fangled Hybrid Camels. He’d like to have a child. That’s a reasonable request, unless you’re, say, in your nineties. Based on my understanding of the chronology (and I don’t have anything clear to back this up), Abram may have been in his nineties or so at this point.

For whatever reason (probably cultural), Abram particularly bemoans that his servant, Eliezer, will inherit Abram’s wealth, since he is childless. Inheritance is one of many fascinating issues to me throughout the Bible, but for the moment, I just want to note that this issue appears here, and wonder if Eliezer too could have inherited God’s promise to Abram of Canaan (Genesis 13:14-18).

The LORD replied, “No, he won’t! You will have a son of your own, and everything you have will be his.” Then the LORD took Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That’s how many descendants you will have.” Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD was pleased with him. (Genesis 15:4-6, CEV)

Jehovah replies that Eliezer won’t inherit from Abram, because Abram will have a son. And more than that, he will have many, many descendents. Now, this is a nice thought for Abram and all. His legacy will be carried on, and all that (sorry, I’m 25; I’m not old enough to talk about legacies yet without a chuckle.), but more importantly, Abram takes Jehovah at his word. Abram believes, and God is pleased with him. Want to please Jehovah, do as Abram, believe what God tells you, and be obedient.

“So from one man [Abraham],” says the author Hebrews, “though he was physically as good as dead, there have sprung descendants whose number is as the stars of heaven and as countless as the innumerable sands on the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:12, AMP). So, see, faith and obedience are my role. And God can cause that which seems hopeless to be.

Genesis 18:9-15

2007.Jun.04 01:29

Laughter

Read Genesis 18:9-15 Full Chapter

Then they said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There in the tent.” The Lord said, “I will be sure to return to you at this time next year. And your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old. They had lived many years. The way of women had stopped for Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “Will I have this joy after my husband and I have grown old?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘How can I give birth to a child when I am so old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” But Sarah said, “I did not laugh,” because she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.” (Genesis 19:9-15, NLV)

And God says, “Hey, y’all are gonna’ have a son”. And they’re like “uh, news flash, we’re geezers”. Again.

Trivia question: What percentage of the book of Genesis is about God promising Isaac to Sarah and Abraham? Because it seems like a lot. For a couple that exhibits a great deal of faith throughout their lives (and some failures), Jehovah seems to belabor this point. And Abraham and Sarah do reveal that their faith is not total, by having an increasingly hard time taking this seriously. What with prior discussions with Jehovah, Abraham seems to have accepted this promise. As far as I can tell, he simply accepts this time. Sarah, having not been around during Abraham’s most recent discussion with Jehovah, laughs. Hey, this is crazy. This is a by-no-other-means-than-God situation.

God–or a messenger of God, but I think actually God–makes the point that this is not impossible with Jehovah. Sarah, in her fear, claims she did not laugh. A moment before, she had said that having a child would be a joy, but she quickly turns to fear. Instead of being honest with God about her doubt, and her joy, she lies due to her fear. But God corrects by stating that she did laugh, whether she admit it or not.

This then is a situation of great, but incomplete faith. Sarah might have laughed and then explained her laughter instead of trying to hide it. She might then have chosen to believe regardless of the apparent absurdity. One way or another, she shortly does believe, and I think quite possibly before actually becoming pregnant. But in the immediate, she lets fear get in the way of letting her faith chase off her doubt. And for what? God does not smite her. In fact, he seems to simply leave it at ‘Yes, you did laugh’.

So, this is in part about faith overcoming fear, and specifically fear of punishment from Jehovah. How silly it seems from the outside to not act in faith just because earlier I had doubt, or even because I was disobedient, and yet I’ve done so. Letting guilt disrupt faith: not in God’s plan. But perfecting faith is in his plan, and that sometimes means taking those who are walking in a lot of faith and pushing them harder that seems right in order to grow them that next step. Something I’ll probably write a lot about when I get to Job…in say, forty years…