Last
Sunday, we began our little journey through the Old Testament, following the
old stories we remember from Sunday School and seeing
within them God’s plan of salvation for the whole world. Last week, we began
with Noah and God’s promise to him and to us that He would never again destroy
the world in order to deal with human sin and evil. God pledges himself in the
promise to find another way. Today, we see the beginning of that path of
redemption.
God decides
that what he needs in order to carry out his plan is a people,
a nation, through which he can spread his blessing to the whole world. A people that would be a conduit of his grace, as it were.
Now looking down upon all the ancient civilizations of the world, God
apparently decides none of them are suitable for his purposes. We don’t know
why, since we do not know the mind of God fully, but it’s obvious from the book
of Genesis that God decides to basically start from scratch. Enter a man named
Abram. Now Abram and his family had journeyed out of the city of
Now there’s
a slight problem with making Abram the progenitor of this new nation. He’s
childless. But God doesn’t let that stop him. He comes to Abram and says to
him, “I’m going to make you the father of many nations, and through you and
your offspring you will bring blessing upon all the families of the world. I
will give you land and I will give you children.” It is a promise of land and
legacy. And Abram trusts in the promise of God and sets out to this new land
that God has promised to him, the
Now along
the way, Abram has a series of adventures. He goes to war, he visits with
kings, he argues with God over the fate of
God has to
repeat the terms of the covenant along the way, because while it’s obvious that
while Abraham trusts God’s word, he also only trusts it up to a point. When his
trust fails him, Abraham has a tendency to do some less-than-nice things. For
example, on his adventures, it is somewhat common that Abraham has to enter
into the lands of various kings and empires. Now there is a protocol to follow
when one does this in the ancient world. You go before the king and say, “hey
I’m visiting your land and here’s a gift of tribute that proves my good
intentions.” Abraham gets nervous every time he has to do this, because he
knows his wife is beautiful and he becomes convinced that every king is going
to kill him to claim her. So he says, Sarah, his wife, is really his sister and
as a result she often becomes part of the tribute. Yeah,
wonderful way to treat your beloved there, Abraham. Ship her off to the
king’s harem. He does this to her at least twice, according to Genesis.
And then
there’s this question of a son. Abraham and Sarah don’t have a whole lot of
patience with God over that not-so-little piece of the covenant, so they decide
to help God out. They conspire to have Abraham conceive a son by Sarah’s slave,
Hagar. Which he does, a boy named Ishmael.
God comes
and says, “That’s not what I had in mind. Your son will be by your wife, not
your concubine.” Abraham and Sarah, on two separate occasions, laugh at God
over this promise. How can that happen? The Bible tells us that by this point,
Abraham and Sarah are both around 100 years old. Now that’s likely a bit of
hyperbole, but it’s clear they’re up there in years by now and this is long
before Viagra, fertility treatments, and all the other wonders of modern
medicine. God says to them, you just watch. And to their credit, they once
again trust in God and lo and behold, their son Isaac is born. (Isaac’s name,
incidentally, means “laughter.”)
God proves
faithful. About everything. He gives them land. He
protects them through all their trials and adventures. And he gives them the
legacy that he promises. He gives them a son, Isaac.
God proves
faithful, even in that dramatic third lesson. God sends a messenger to Abraham
and asks him to sacrifice his son. What a cruel thing for God to ask of
someone. But Abraham sets out to do this, because by now, he’s learned his
lesson. He knows God will find a way to keep his promise. Abraham knows that
his legacy is safe, because God will not break a promise to him. When he tells
Isaac that God will provide a ram for the sacrifice, he’s not lying to his son
to keep this terrible task from him. I think that’s what Abraham truly
believes. His faith is not misplaced. Even as the dagger is in his hand, God
stays Abraham’s hand. Ok, you trust me even this far, God says. Your legacy
will not die upon this altar, but will go forth to bless all
the world.
God proves
faithful. Father of many nations? By
blood. Isaac later begats Jacob, Jacob begats Joseph and the other 11
brothers who themselves begat the tribes of the Hebrew people, who then begat
the people we know today as the Jews. Ishmael, interestingly enough, the son of
the concubine, also becomes part of this blood legacy, for according to ancient
traditions, he is the father of the Arab people.
But it is
not just Abraham’s bloodlines that are the fulfillment of the covenant promise.
Abraham has other children too, children of a more spiritual nature, children
who share with him his faith in God’s promises. Children drawn to God through
the lives and work of that nation of blessing that God creates through him. Us for instance. We are children of Abraham also. We have
been drawn to God and his blessings by the Hebrews, specifically by one Hebrew:
Yeshua bar Yosef of Nazareth. We know him better by his Greek name: Jesus.
God creates
a new nation, a covenant people, through which he can shower the world with his
blessings. Out of Abraham and Sarah, he creates the Hebrews, and they become
for God a conduit and a beacon. A beacon to draw all the
people of the world to Him. A conduit for his
blessings. And from among that covenant people comes the greatest
blessing of all: Jesus Christ. The Son of God, the one who lives, dies, and
then rises again to save all the nations of the world. This is Abraham’s
legacy. This is God’s plan of salvation. Amen.