However, by the end of this genealogy, there are (again as Keller notes) some indications that even this family may now be turning away from worshipping God to worship idols. Firstly, Terah's name means "moon," suggesting that the moon was their idol of choice! Secondly, in Gen. 11:31, we see that the whole of Terah's family started out to go to Canaan, but stopped in Haran. These suggestions that something is amiss are then confirmed in Joshua 24:2, where Joshua reminds the Israelites that even their ancestors, Terah and Abram, worshipped other gods.
And then, into this seemingly hopeless situation - where even the one family that had preserved the knowledge of God seems to be turning away from him - God makes a call! He calls one man - Abram - to leave his now idolatrous family and set out for the land God would show him.
Now, it perhaps seems a bit strange that God just calls one man! In the creation account we saw something of the incredible power of God, whereby he just speaks and all things come into being. So why doesn't he just boom down in a loud voice - "STOP WORSHIPPING THOSE IDOLS, I'M THE ONE TRUE CREATOR GOD, COME AND WORSHIP ME!" Surely if he did then everyone would have listened and obeyed, they'd have been far too scared not to!
However, the creation account also revealed to us that God is not only powerful, but that he is also loving and that out of his love he grants people the freedom to either follow him or reject him. You see, the snake has no qualms about trying to extend his limited power through deceit and manipulation; but God will do no such thing! In fact, here in Gen. 12:1 we see quite the opposite as God withholds his limitless power in order to allow people the freedom to carry on rejecting him - and so God calls; he does not control.
God then makes a whole load of amazing promises - that Abram would be a great nation, that he'd get a land, that he'd be blessed and that he'd be a blessing to others. These are promises that God reiterates and expands on throughout the following chapters: promising to be Abram's shield and reward; promising him and heir and, most importantly, promising to be God to him and his descendants! God also changes Abram's name to Abraham to indicate that he will be the father of many nations. Moreover, God seals up all of these promises by a ritual that seems bizarre to us, but that was a common covenant making method in those days! God asks Abraham to cut a cow, a ram and a goat in half and then, as darkness fall, a burning pot passes through the middle of them; Abraham, however, does not go through. And so, God makes a covenant with Abraham that only he commits to! Thus God literally swears on his life that these promises will be fulfilled but Abraham doesn't have to swear to anything.
Through this covenant we see that just as God does not control, so too will he not be controlled! Now this may seem like an obvious statement, but in comparison to the surrounding nations it was actually quite radical. You see, in these nations, although the gods were unpredictable, there was also the belief that – by performing certain rituals and rites – they could be induced to do human beings bidding; thus, to an extent, controlled. For example within Canaanite religion it was thought that if a farmer had sex with a temple prostitute it would induce the gods to have sex and so produce more fruitful crops! (Drane, 83) The God of Abraham, however, will not be controlled by human beings – he is not induced by some magical rite or moral act to initiate this covenant with Abraham; he chooses to do so out of his own initiative and freedom. Further, he sets the terms and is the only one to commit to its fulfilment!
Nearly 25 years have gone past since God first called Abraham, and no heir has appeared! Abraham has, in the meantime, taken the matter into his own hands and produced an heir through his maid Hagar (so God had to come again and make it explicit that the heir would be through Sarai - or Sarah as God now calls her!). He has also told half-truths (thus half-lies) on two occasions about his wife Sarai being his sister because he was afraid he'd be killed if people knew she was his wife.
Then, finally, Sarah does become pregnant and gives birth to Isaac whereupon, some time later, God asks Abraham to sacrifice him!
Now, this can be a stumbling block for many of us in our reading of the Bible as it seems such an outrageous thing for God to ask someone to do. What we have to bear in mind, however, is that child sacrifice was a common practice in those days - and something God later reveals that he hates passionately. And so God doesn't ask Abraham to do something completely outside of his realm of experience, as it would seem to us. Rather, he uses what was commonly thought of as being the greatest sacrifice you could make to a god and asks Abraham to do that. What is therefore shocking about this story (from the point of view of someone living in Abraham's day), is the fact that Isaac isn't actually sacrificed; that there is a substitute, in the form of a ram, which is sacrificed instead.
Within all of this, we learn a lot about faith. Abraham is viewed by the NT as having legendary faith; he is the ultimate icon and example of faith! And we see through his willingness to leave the security of his family (literal security - there was no police force at that time to keep law and order, your clan was your protection!) that he had a faith that was active and which transformed the whole course of his life.
Further, however, we see on a number of occasions that his faith wasn't perfect. In Gen. 12 we see him go from meeting with God and receiving great promises to fleeing to Egypt to escape a famine and then lying by implying that Sarai wasn't his wife! And yet his imperfect faith was still counted as faith in that his overall orientation was towards God; ultimately, that's where his security and hope lay.
Thirdly, by the time we get to the end of Abraham's life, we see that not many of these promises have, as yet, been fulfilled! He has an heir - Isaac - and, in Gen. 23, buys a field with a cave in it, within which to bury Sarah. So out of the whole of Canaan, which God had promised him, he owns a field and a cave! And so we see that faith is intrinsically connected to hope. Or as the writer of Hebrews puts it:
"Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for."
From: http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/bible/Bible/Bible%20Atlas/021.jpg
For a copy of the talk for this week click here!
For a copy of the talk for this week click here!
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