-Have you ever been a part of a club that had a secret sign? In my early 20s, I found out I accidentally had joined a club that had a specific sign, but no one told me what that sign was, so I kept getting dirty looks when I was participating in it and didn’t realize. Shortly after I graduated from college I bought a motorcycle, and no, my mom was NOT happy about it!

-But I soon discovered that there is this thing called a “motorcycle wave” but it’s not at all like a normal wave, there’s a very specific way of waving whilst driving the motorcycle (and keep in mind how many things you’re also trying to manage: throttle in the right hand, brake with the left hand, shifting with your foot, another brake with your other foot), the motorcycle was is 2 fingers angled down at 45 degrees, like this. Once I learned the “code” I was off to the races, and an official motorcycle driver! Since then, I’ve learned that Jeeps have wave, VW Bugs have little flowers in their cars, and Texas Tech Red Raiders like to shoot em up.

-Today’s text is like learning the code to enter a club, but this club is being a part of God’s chosen covenant people. Let’s read:

READ/PRAY

1. God’s Commitment (1-8)

-Left off last week with Abram being 86 when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, now we’re jumping ahead 13 years to another pivotal moment in Abram’s life. But once again, don’t forget that we’re reading a condensed account of his life. We moved 1 verse and jumped ahead 13 years!

-And based on what we read last week, I’m guessing they weren’t the easiest 13 years of Abram’s life: contention between Hagar and Sarai, trying to care for and raise his son, who’s not related to his wife. Yikes!

-So Abram’s closing in on his centennial birthday, and God once again appears to him. Some weird phrasing:

-Begins with who He is (God Almighty) proceeds to an ethical command for Abram, literally tells Abram to walk before Him and be blameless. This phrasing has been used before to describe someone else in the Genesis story:

-Noah was described the same way, so Abram is following in the line of God’s chosen people: being called by God, declared righteous, blameless in character, and walking with God. 

-I want to take some time to think about that reality, because I think it’s a piece that has been glossed over or dismissed in our world today, and that is the imperatives of the gospel. I would argue that we’ve nailed the indicatives, but to the neglect of the imperatives. And if you didn’t realize you were coming to an English lesson today, just wait and it will make sense!

-An indicative is a fact, imperative is a command, and the Bible has both. An example of an imperative is: Jesus died for you, or Noah was a righteous man. The imperative is seen with Abram: walk in front of me and be blameless. And that’s also true of us today, because if we are saved, then we are declared righteous, we are made holy, but then we also are commanded to live differently, to live lives that are marked by that righteousness. I love the way Paul talks about this in Gal. 5: Do you see the indicatives and imperatives here? Just as there are some truths given to Abram, there are some truths given to us: those who have been saved belong to Christ Jesus, we have crucified the flesh, but the imperative is: walk by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit.

-I don’t know about you, but when I hear that, I think of my kids whose steps are significantly shorter than mine. When I take them shopping with me I regularly need to look back and encourage them to keep up! That’s not at all what is intended by Paul here, the imagery isn’t us running to keep up, a better picture would be when I go on walks with just Cara and don’t have to try to prod our kids to hurry up! We are able to keep in step with each other, enjoying the company, the time, the conversation. That’s what Paul means here: working together for the same goal, which in the case of the Spirit is becoming more like Jesus. I think you even see that with Abram here, God tells Abram to walk in front of God, which means God has his back, Abram can’t get away from Him, but there’s also the imperative to Abram: be blameless. Live a holy and set apart life. The indicative LEADS to the imperative, but the imperative will never get you to the indicative. Friends, we are all called to live a blameless life, but if you try doing it in your own power and strength apart from the Spirit you’ll constantly be falling short. Live a holy life, but do it by relying on God. This is why the outline to this sermon is so important: it begins with God’s commitment, but then moves to see what He commands His people to do. You can’t separate those 2 things, if we are saved it must lead to holy living.

-Why does God then go on to say He will set up His covenant, hasn’t He already done that? Yes, but He continues to reiterate and further explain the implications of the covenant. And Abram responds correctly: falling facedown in worship (this time), and God promises Abram that he will become the father of many nations, which requires a name change.

-Abram means exalted father, Abraham means father of a multitude. His first name looks back to his past, most likely the exalted father was Abram’s father Terah, but now God has picked him out from all the other peoples of the earth and is shifting the focus from his past to his future as now every time someone calls out his name it’s a reminder of God’s promise to him.

-Not only that, but God will fulfill His promises: Abraham will be fruitful, nations and kings will come, and this covenant will be passed down to the generations that come from Abraham, nothing can change that! Abraham’s blessing will happen: land, seed, and blessing. Just like what Adam & Eve were given back in the beginning: a perfect garden to care for, offspring to help them fill the earth, and the blessing of everything they could need in perfect relationship with God and each other. Abraham is supposed to be a new Adam, starting over with a new people in a new place to be God’s representatives on earth.

-But just as in Eden, there are stipulations, requirements that God has for Abraham:

• God’s Commands (9-16)

-Here the stipulation isn’t to avoid eating from 1 tree, it’s to practice circumcision. If you don’t know what circumcision is, I’ll let you ask someone sitting nearby you!

-Circumcision is meant to be the marker of God’s people here. Every male is commanded to go through the process, and there’s even a time stipulated: 8 days. This is meant to point us back to creation because what happens on the 8^th day? Correct, nothing! It’s meant to signify a new creation (which is also why Jesus is raised on the 8^th day, reinterpreting even this act). And it’s supposed to be an act that everyone does who is brought into this people, slaves, family members, no one is left out.

-And the Lord goes on to say why this is significant. Yes, it’s a physical act, but that physical act signifies a spiritual reality. Just as God’s covenant with Abraham is permanent, so the sign of the covenant is permanent. 

-And there’s also negative implications to anyone who doesn’t obey these markers: just as the foreskin is cut of in the act of circumcision, so anyone who does not obey this sign of the covenant will be cut off from his people. If someone refuses to identify themselves with God, God will refuse to identify Himself with them. The marker that you belong to God is circumcision.

-And just as Abram’s name was changed, now it’s time for his wife: Sarai to Sarah, not a major change and both words mean the same thing: princess or queen. What is unique is there is some evidence that Sarai would have been the spelling in Ur, Sarah would have been the spelling in Canaan, shifting their focus from the past to the future. God is changing their primary allegiances and planting them in a new land so that they can have their children and be blessed.

-And remember, the most important thing we’ve learned about Sarah so far is that she’s barren, but now God says specifically that she will give birth to a son.

-How does Abraham respond? This is where we go back to God’s commitment to Abraham:

• God’s Commitment, Part 2 (17-22)

-Once again, Abraham falls facedown, but this time he laughs, and that laughing idea is going to be a minor theme to pay attention to for the next couple of chapters, so find some way to make a note in your mind about laughing for the next few weeks. 

-This time, Abraham laughs and mutters under his breath instead of talking to God, because Abraham is looking at his life and realizing that what God’s promised here seems impossible. Abraham is almost 100, his wife is a young and spry 90.

-Let me tell you how absolutely miserable that sounds! After surviving the sleepless nights of babies, I have zero desire to go back to the infant days, and I can only imagine that will be even more true the older I get! Having babies is a young man’s game. And I can only imagine how Abraham felt about that idea! So then Abraham says to God: what about my son?

-And God answers that taking matters into his own hands isn’t the correct way to receive God’s blessing. Not only will Sarah have a son, but his name is also supposed to be Isaac, which means “he laughs,” so where Abraham laughs in disbelief, his son will be a constant reminder of God’s provision. And the laughing son is the one who will continue the covenant line, not Ishmael. Ishmael will still be blessed by God, but only materially.

-And that’s an alarming place to be, and something that God threatens throughout the rest of the OT: His people can have His blessing, but He won’t go with them. And friends, is that ever true of you too?

-How often do we only consider our Christianity in comparison to all the other things people could try? That’s some of where our evangelism is difficult today because we’re just 1 in a myriad of competing options. The way people often respond is “I’m glad that worked for you, but here’s what’s working for me.” And how often do we just fall into that same temptation? We’re following Jesus because it seems to just work for us. But what do you do then when things get difficult, or following Jesus no longer seems to be working? Don’t forget that Jesus is the King, we spent an entire year last year looking at that reality in Revelation, where we see the point of this story, what it’s ultimately pointing to is a child coming from Abraham who will be a blessing to the entire world because He provides a way for people to be reconciled to the one true and living God! But that doesn’t come about through our efforts or work, it’s only by being obedient to Him. Ishmael serves as an example of God’s blessing apart from His presence, which isn’t worth anything in eternity, and is a reminder that what the world chases after isn’t the same as the things God wants for His people. And then God leaves after this promise.

• God’s Commands, Part 2 (23-27)

-And Abraham obeys, at least this time! And one thing to note about this process is that Abraham is completely entrusting himself to God for this to work out. The very means by which Abraham will be able to have descendants is at risk of being cut off with an errant stroke of a knife, but he’s slowly learning to trust God.

-Now I’m not sure how this conversation would go with the rest of his people, but Abraham convinces them all to be obedient, I can just picture every guy going “you want us to do WHAT?!” But they’re all obedient to Abraham, and ultimately to God’s commands which is a good example for us to follow too: we should look to obey what God commands us to do, even if it doesn’t make sense.

-But that gets us to 2 primary responses for us from this text: the first is that you can do all the things God commands without being a part of God’s covenant people, and the second is the command for all to be circumcised, just not a physical circumcision. We’ll look at both of those ideas in turn

-First, the need to obey God as a fruit and not as the root.

-The temptation for every human is to obey God to try to get something from him. We look at the rules as a burden instead of a gift, as the means by which we stay as God’s covenant people, but that’s not the intent. The rules are the way God has ordered the world so it’s His gift to us to help us understand how to function and flourish as God intended the world to operate, and the reality is until our hearts are transformed it’s going to feel like a heavy burden. But when Jesus comes, He tell us that His yolk is easy and His burden is light, and it is, but only when you’ve been brought spiritually from death to life. Then those rules that felt like an unfair burden suddenly become our desires, meaning they’re the fruit of a transformed life. And that’s what we see in Ishmael: his obedience doesn’t make him a part of God’s covenant people, nor does it lead to a transformed heart.

-The second is the command for all of us to be circumcised, but not in the way this passage talks about!

-The point of circumcision wasn’t just the physical act, because just a few books later, look at what God commands His people: Deut. 10

-Again, we see God’s commands to be holy and walk in the ways of the Lord, and the way to do that is by obeying God’s commands. But then notice what God says about circumcision: don’t circumcise your body, circumcise your hearts! This tells us the point of circumcision has always been to have a transformed heart (in the OT that’s referring to your inner most being). That is being sensitive to following and obeying God.

-And Paul picks up this idea in Rom. 4 when he talks about righteousness not coming through external observance of the law, but through faith! Notice that Paul makes an explicit connection to the timing of Abraham being declared righteous and circumcision, and the reason Paul states this is because of the division in the early church. The early church became fixated on circumcision as the sign of the covenant, to the point that unless a male was circumcised he was viewed as not truly being a part of God’s people.

-Which leads to Paul getting so frustrated in Galatians that he says this: Gal. 5. Friends, at this point in salvation history, circumcision has no bearing on anything. What matters now, and what Paul says is “faith working through love” other translations state this as “faith expressing itself through love.” 

-When we’re tempted to look to our external obedience, or add markers to be “better” this is a reminder than nothing we do adds to our holiness, what we’re called to be is circumcised in the heart, and just as this was meant to be a permanent marker, so is our salvation meant to be a permanent marker where we now live differently because of the faith we now have.

-Because circumcision doesn’t matter anymore, we now have new markers of God’s people, which Paul summarized here as faith expressing itself through love. But God has also given us new habits that mark us out: baptism and communion.

-One of the amazing things about having kids is realizing that they are born sinners! It’s not something I teach them, apart from my own sinful struggles! And you start to see the way they each have their own unique temptations from a young age.

-For example, my twins are currently learning how to disobey at 16 months! It’s been slowly building up in them, but as of now, Thomas is GREAT at throwing fits when he doesn’t get exactly what he wants, and what he wanted all weekend was to be downstairs where I’m still trying to finish it, so if the downstairs door closed with him on the other side of it he went ballistic! Throwing himself on the floor, screaming, crying.

-Charlie is our adventurous twin who loves climbing up on everything, the problem is he also often falls down from where he climbed, or gets stuck between two things (like the chair and the table) because he can’t think further ahead than right now. Where it gets hard is when we repeatedly tell him NO and he continues doing whatever he wants! All of this means that in addition to learning how to disobey, they’re also starting to learn Newton’s third law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction! Climbing means you may get stuck, disobeying means there will be discipline.

-And the hard thing to communicate to children is that it continues even for adults! There are consequences to everything we do, some of the consequences are positive while others are negative. Each decision brings us either closer to the Lord or further away from Him. Today’s text demonstrates for us the means by which God saves His people: by taking all the negative consequences on Himself.

READ/PRAY

-If you haven’t been here for this series, here’s what we’ve learned of Abram so far:

-Grew up as an idol worshipper, yet was called out by God to begin a new people, which started with Abram leaving his friends, family, and lands, and going to a new place

-God promises to bless Abram with land, seed, and blessing, and that through Abram the entire world would be blessed. So far we’ve seen the land become barren, his wife is barren, and the blessing is supposed to come through seed.

-Last week was Abram’s Aragorn moment: let’s go hunt some giants! Rescued Lot and his family from destruction, is blessed by Melchizedek (Christ-like figure)

1. The Reward of the Lord (1-6)

-After these events: doesn’t say how long after, we know from Gen. 12 that Abram was 75 when the first call came, then in 17:4 he’s 99, so these events are occurring sometime over a 24-year period. 

-Friends, have you ever wavered in your faith or confidence in God over the last 24 years? 24 years ago I was living in ND, unaware that I’d be moving to MN in a year and have my entire life upended! (I was 12, so it didn’t take much to upend my life) But I say that to keep in mind that we’re seeing decades of life over the course of just a couple chapters here, it’s good to see the ups and downs of his life, but don’t jump to judging him (at least too quickly, next week is a pretty dark moment in his life)

-The word of the Lord came: this becomes a theme in the rest of the OT, Abram is the first in the line of prophets who receive words from the Lord Himself! This is pointing to one of the ways we’re supposed to see themes emerging as we read Scripture where God gives His people glimpses or pictures of what’s to come. Jesus comes and fills the 3 roles necessary to approach God: prophet to speak on His behalf, priest mediate the way between God and humanity, and king to rule over God’s kingdom. Here we’re seeing Abram in the line of the priests, but we’ll also see God promise to have kings come from him, and Abram’s priestly role in just a couple chapters where the Lord tells a pagan king that Abram can interceded on behalf of this king.

-But what God says is emphasizing that God is giving Abram Himself, in light of the deliverance from the kings of last chapter (who may be tempted to come back again, which would be normal at this time!) 

-That’s why God begins with shield. God will protect and preserve Abram from even future invading forces. Abram doesn’t need to be afraid if God is on his side

-But there’s still some doubt in Abram’s mind. How would he receive a reward if he has no children?

-One thing to note is that Abram isn’t chastised for these questions. In some cases when people question God it’s called out as a negative thing, a demonstration of a lack of faith. But that’s not this case. One of the best prayers recorded in the Bible is in Mark 9:24. A father brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus and says “If you can do anything, please help us!” Jesus replies, “If you can? Everything in possible for one who believes.” The father replies: 

-Friends, what areas of your life are you struggling to believe that God is good and wants good for you in? Where do you need to cry out to the Lord and ask for Him to help your unbelief? There’s a reason God meets here with Abram to remind Him of His promises, and many times God will meet someone at whatever their deepest hurt or perceived need is.

-Abram here is worried about being childless, that’s a major issue in the 2^ndmillennia BC. No nursing homes, no social security to depend on, who’s going to take care of Abram and Sarai in their old age? It was the custom to choose an heir, in response to them caring for you, they would receive your inheritance after they died, which is what they had done! How does God respond?

-Nope! That’s not what I said! “One who comes from your own body.”

-Some debate about how many covenants are in the Bible, what events should be included, who did God make a covenant with? Adam, Noah, Abram, Moses, David. But as careful readers of the text, this language will come up again:

–2 Sam. 7:12 “come from your body,” aligning David’s covenant with Abram’s covenant, they all keep building on each other! What this tells us is God always keeps His promises. God is a covenant making, and a covenant keeping God. Whatever God says He will do! So trust Him!

-To demonstrate just how expansive his generosity to Abram will be, God invites Abram outside and tells him to count the stars.

-Last week was trying to count dust, has anyone ever tried to count stars? Quick Google search tells me that the most you can see on a dark night would be about 2,000 stars, but we so often can’t see the stars because of light pollution, but if you’ve even gone up north you’ll see some incredible views! Here’s one I took at Shamineau this Fall. If we took enough time we could count them, but that’s not what God is saying, He’s saying His plans are far greater than Abram could even imagine, and the promise to Abram even continues down to us today! We’re included in that numbering. See Abram’s only thinking about 1 generation, WAY too small! Instead he should be thinking of hundreds of generations that would come after him!

-But he believes, and I would assume asks God for help with his unbelief. And this verse becomes a key theme for the argument Paul makes in the book of Romans. Paul is working to answer the question: if we’re all sinners, how are we justified (made right) before a holy God? It can’t be through our works, because we could never do enough good works to achieve salvation. Instead it has to come from outside of us, an alien righteousness that is given to us, or as this text says “credited to him.” The means by which this righteousness is given is through belief. That’s the only way to be credited as righteous, it comes through faith, that is belief in God alone. 

-And Paul uses this example in Abram to tell us that this promise is as true for us today as it was for Abram 5,000 years ago. Being in right standing before God hasn’t ever changed, the means by which you are able to approach Him has always been by faith. All the sacrifices and rules of the OT are meant to demonstrate that no one can perfectly obey God through their own works, it demands someone else obeying perfectly for us, then taking the penalty for our inability to obey on Himself so that His righteousness could be given to us. But there is a hinge point: faith. 

-I never want to assume that everyone in here has taken that step and put their faith in Jesus, AND this gospel message is just as needed for those who believe as those who don’t yet believe. For those who don’t yet believe, what are you waiting for? This text is showing us the way to become righteous, the way to find comfort and peace in a broken and chaotic world, take that step! And for those who believe, Paul tells us this truth in Gal. 3:

-And this is something I’ve been praying for us: to realize that we can do nothing to save ourselves or keep ourselves saved. We begin and end by the grace of God. Even our spiritual disciplines won’t by themselves change us, the Spirit is the one who grows us. Now, as I shared a couple weeks ago, we’re commanded to work out our own salvation, but recognize that it is God who wills and works in you.

-Friends: pray daily that you would believe and that God would help your unbelief! That’s how you can be counted among the righteous.

-Because the Lord is kind and gracious, He goes on to solidify this promise with Abram:

• The Evidence of Things Unseen (7-21)

-As careful readers of the Bible, this first phrase should have special significance for us, can you think of another place where the Lord says something eerily similar? After delivering His people out from Egypt in Ex. 20. Abram is serving as the prototype of what’s to come for God’s people, we’re seeing glimpses of a divine design, an intent behind all the events that take place in this story. Because of the divine author of this text, we should expect to find repetition, glimpses of the story coming together throughout it, themes emerging, and we do! But at times I worry that we miss the bigger story for the individual little stories, we become far too granular in our approach, which is why I always try to show us where we see God’s story unfolding in the text.

-While the nation of Israel is in physical slavery, Abram was in spiritual slavery: worshipping false gods, then God saves Abram and delivers him out of bondage. Similarly for us, we were once slaves to sin, but through faith we can become slaves to righteousness (which is the way to find life). This isn’t a story about being a better person, or a list of 5 ways to grow your faith, it’s a story about God’s good plan to redeem a people for Himself and then using those people as His ambassadors of reconciliation – healing in a broken and divided world.

-And just as Abram was unconvinced about the promise to provide an heir, he’s also unconvinced by this promise to possess the land. So he asks the Lord how he’ll know. And the Lord accommodates Himself to something Abram would understand.

-This whole thing sounds like a bloody spectacle to us. Why is Abram cutting all these animals in half? What’s the point of any of it? When’s the last time you even saw an animal butchered? For me it was when I was about 10, and that was enough to last me the rest of my life.

-Number of ANE documents that talk about it, but this idea comes up again in Jer. 34:18. The way covenants would be enacted is you make a verbal agreement, then cut apart animals and both parties walk through the bloody middle of the carcasses, as a symbol of the curse you’re calling up on yourself if you break the covenant. Essentially, it’s saying that you’re agreeing to follow through on everything you’ve agreed to, or else you forfeit your right to life. This feels so foreign to us because we have ways of breaking out of everything! The closest parallel we have is marriage, but even in marriage with the rise of no-fault divorce that doesn’t come close to the way covenants were held to here!

-And I think the accommodation piece is something we miss: God could have just told Abram what He tells Moses “I am who I am” that’s sufficient for people to trust in Him, but He doesn’t. He uses the typical method people used to make a covenant, a promise with each other. He meets Abram just where he is instead of forcing him to adopt to something completely new, which is what God does for all of us! He meets us where we’re at, but doesn’t leave us there. He moves us (often far more slowly than we want) closer to Him, step by step. 

-After Abram takes care of the animals, he has to ensure they’re not eaten! Birds of prey are used throughout the rest of the OT to refer to other foreign nations, potentially signifying the way God would protect Israel in the future. A deep sleep descends.

-This has been used previously in Genesis, back when God created Eve for Adam and then brings them together in the covenant of marriage. This time the covenant is between Abram and the Lord, but the idea of marriage permeates the rest of the OT as God is pursuing His people, His bride. 

-Something unique about this experience with the Lord, because it’s the first time Abram is seen as being scared to be in the presence of God. Adam was scared, Jacob gets scared, Moses gets scared, the nation of Israel is scared, but Abram hadn’t been until now. Doesn’t say why, but it could be connected to what God proceeds to say:

-The land will most certainly belong to Abram’s descendants, but it’s going to take a while. A few things to note:

-Resident aliens where they will be slaves. This is setting us up for the Exodus account, where this book will end with Israel in Egypt, just like Abram’s journey. And just as Abram came out wealthy, they too will come out wealthy.

-But this doesn’t apply to Abram: he’ll have a long and healthy life. And why this time of waiting? Because the sin of the Amorites. They’re the people who are currently living in Canaan. And this verse is incredibly important! Because there’s all sorts of accusations today that God is genocidal! The book of Joshua tells the story of Israel destroying all the inhabitants of the promised land. And this verse tells us exactly why: they were a sinful people! Which means the destruction is just. It’s not like they were completely innocent bystanders who get stuck in crossfire, these are a brutal people! On my trip this summer, I got to go to the British Museum, here’s a glimpse of the Assyrians victory: the slaughter of children. And they put these on the gates to “welcome” people in. Amorites would have done the same thing! It’s a brutal world! So when we read about the conquest of Israel, these are the kind of people they’re defeating.

-And as Abram continues sleeping deeply, a theophany (appearance of God) walks through the divided animals, but not with Abram. That is incredibly important! This is why we spent so much time on the faith part at the beginning.

-A covenant is an agreement between 2 people that says if they break it they will be just like the animals, but if God made a covenant with Abram (or any human) it would never work. We’re sinners all the way down so we would never be able to uphold our end of the deal, and God knows that! So he makes the covenant by Himself, and tells Abram the length of his promised land, but the point is the covenant is dependent only on God keeping His word.

-Just as we’ve seen in many previous weeks, the author of Hebrews picks up on this idea in Heb. 6. Who else could God make a covenant with? No one else has more power, no one else will completely obey every component, no one else will do except God Himself.

-Which means when the consequences of breaking this covenant are inflected, God Himself will be torn apart like the carcasses. Do we see that happen anywhere in Scripture? When Jesus’ body was ripped apart and hung on a cross. If you didn’t know, this year is the 1700^th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, a statement of what all Christians throughout history have believed, and I love the way they summarized what Jesus did:

-Friends, Jesus bore the consequences for humanity’s repeated breaking of God’s covenant. But because of Jesus, we now have hope, which the author of Hebrews goes on to summarize:

-Friends, our freedom from sin is as guaranteed as the tomb is empty. Jesus is right now in heaven interceding for us, preparing a place for us, and the means by which we access it is faith. Either saving faith, or continual faith that prays “I believe, help my unbelief.”

-Aesop’s fables, one of the ones that stood out to me growing up was the boy who cried wolf. Shepherd boy is a big jokester, and thinks it’s hilarious to alarm the town that a wolf is coming after the sheep and each time they come running they find this boy laughing at them. After repeatedly being warned to not do it, he continues until one day a wolf actually does come! But because of what had happened in the past, no one comes to help, and the boy is eaten by the wolf too.

-As an adult, it’s alarming just how many of Aesop’s fables end up with children being eaten! But the point remains: the consequences of lying are terrible!

-Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that with God! God always keeps His word, will never trick someone or lie, the question is how do we respond to a God who is always faithful? Do we obey His word or not?

READ/PRAY

1. Promise (1-3)

-Remember last week: people, place, possession (land, seed, blessing)

-God’s design is for His people to be living in a specific land, to receive His promised blessing, that’s going to be a running theme throughout Abram’s life, and how frequently all those promises are threatened.

-Requirement is: go! Leave everything behind. If Abram obeys, then the blessings from God come. Doesn’t say where, just says to go.

-Think about how difficult that would be, and keep in mind what I said last week about this world where violence was the norm. The way you had protection was through aligning yourself in a family/clan unit, so if you leave your family you run the risk of almost certain death. What God calls Abram to is leaving his earthly family to align himself to the family of God, and that invitation continues down to us today. Think of what Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3: in order to be saved you must be born again, which Nicodemus thinks is a weird phrase, how could he enter into his mother’s womb as an adult? He needs to be born into a new family, which is the message for us today! Are you a part of the family of God, or are you a part of the family of the serpent?

-There are 2 sections to this call from the Lord – 1 call to Abram (which we just looked at), and a second section on the consequences that come from God.

-Consequences are plentiful, but begins with “great nation,” but how is that possible when what we know about Abram so far is that his wife was barren? Remember that from last week? This already sounds impossible to Abraham, if you look down a few verses you’ll see how old Abraham is here: 75. So the first thing the Lord promises to Abram is that he will be a great nation, but that requires children, so we’re already in a difficult place with this first consequence, God’s going to need to do something miraculous in Abram’s life to make this first one happen.

-But then it’s a blessing and a great name. Contrast this language with the tower of Babel(on). God had just prevented a people from creating a great name for themselves, but here we see Him promising to bestow a great name on Abram, but Abram didn’t seek it out, it comes from being obedient to the Lord.

-Friends, how much of our world is focused on following the ways of Babylon in trying to build a name for yourself? “Influencer,” building a platform, curating a following, or even the attempts to keep up with the Joneses in the neighborhood: 

-The pressure of trying to have the perfect family, the perfect house, the perfect yard. What we see in this text is an intentional contrast with the ways of the world (/serpent) How much posturing do we see taking place around us because we’re trying to build a name for ourselves instead of being obedient to the Lord and finding our greatness only in Him? 

-One of the things I wish that all of you could come to understand is that God loves you. God loves you today, not some future version of you. When you understand that He loves you it changes the way you see yourself. You start to worry less about what other people think of you, you find freedom and joy! But it’s only possible when you lose yourself.

-Think of what Paul says in 1 Cor. 1. God saves through foolishness, God saves through weakness. God’s story repeatedly has surprises: the younger child is chosen, the smallest clan is blessed, the least impressive one is called out by God. God’s standards don’t look impressive to us, because we’re too trained to think worldly.

-All peoples blessed through you

-What does that mean? How will ALL peoples be blessed?

-Think back to last week, as we traced the seed of the women vs. the seed of the serpent, this is continuing to trace the seed of the woman down through the line of Abram, where the gospel message that has been proclaimed to Abram will find its’ fulfilment in Abram’s later son Jesus through whom the serpent’s head is crushed. And in response to this promise from God:

• Obedience (4-9)

-We had some friends who shared with us when we became parents: “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” Abram doesn’t pursue “delayed obedience” the text says:

-So Abram went…

-Came to Haran with his father Terah, Lot is his nephew (who will play a pivotal role in the ongoing story)

-Here’s the route Abram took

-Wasn’t until Abram arrived in the land that the Lord appears to Abram. This chapter begins with the Lord speaking to him, this time it says the Lord appears to Abram.

-Regular theophanies throughout Genesis: God appearing to someone. All sorts of discussion/debate about: is it a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus? Does God appear as an angelic being? Does He appear as a human? Does He appear as a voice? Text doesn’t say, so don’t speculate beyond what the Bible say, the point remains: God appears to Abram (and He’ll appear again later)

-How does Abram respond after meeting the Lord?

-Built an altar, a way to remember where the Lord meets with Him

-Pattern throughout Genesis – meet with God, move to build an altar there as a way to denote where you meet with the Lord. I think some of what we need to recover today is a way to commemorate God’s work when He moves in our lives, we live with the tyranny of the urgent today, without enough rootedness tethering us to the past 

-I got to attend a breakout session this past week on the early heresy of Gnosticism, argues that there is a separation between the physical and spiritual, and friends, we can’t divide ourselves like that. We are embodied creatures, God intended it that way, if the Lord tarries and we’re separated from our bodies is referred to as an unnatural state. As he often does, CS Lewis summarizes this well: God likes matter, he invented it. Matter matters to God, and we would do well to view matter as Christians who are tasked with caring for the matter God made.

-And then as he continues, he builds an altar to the Lord to continue worshipping Him, and the journey continues.

• Disobedience (10-20)

-Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end on a high note.

-Think back briefly to last week as we enter this, remember that one of the things we see is God meeting with people, calling them to Himself, and then the disobedience of the people. And it all goes back to Gen. 3: did God REALLY say? The difficulty is that humans so often don’t actually trust God, or take Him at His Word, we don’t live as if what God has told us is true.

-At this point in the story, we’ve seen the failure of humanity over and over and over again. Each time we think that this might be the right seed, they fail. Abram here has met with the Lord, built an altar to Him, continued worshiping Him, and now we’re at a place where the land God has promised to Abram is barren (maybe similar to the way Abram has been promised to have many descendants but all we know of his wife is that she is barren), the question we should be asking is: will Abram trust that God will provide for Abram and His family no matter what else is going on? Because this theme will come up again, Abram is forced to face the question: do you trust God?

-And friends, how often is that true of us, too? Do you trust in God, or yourself? And I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s what God calls us to do. I got to listen to one of my favorite professors from seminary this past week, and one of the things he regularly pointed out in our class, and again this week, is one of the biggest theological questions we have to wrestle with is the chasm between God and us. God, hard line, us.  How do you fix that hard line, do you build a ladder to climb up, or does God need to come down? There’s some irony to us being in Genesis as I share that idea, because there’s some funny wordplay in the tower of Babel story in Gen. 11. Remember the previous verse we saw the people saying they were going to build a tower up into the heavens (literal), the plan was to enter the realm of the gods, and what does God need to do to see it?

-I’ve been spending the last 6ish months contemplating the way we talk about sanctification (growing in holiness), and how much of our spiritual growth is viewed through a Pelagian lens. (5^th century monk who argued that you could achieve salvation without God’s grace being given to us). Friends, there is NOTHING you can do to earn salvation, and your growth must begin outside yourself (Holy Spirit). There are practices that can help, but it’s completely dependent on God to work in you, which feels like a tension, but this is exactly what Paul says in Phil. 2:

-Work out your own salvation, that’s on you! You need to do something (like Abraham had to obey), but who is the who does it? God! Both to WILL and to WORK, it all comes about only by God, our job is to obey and keep in step with the Spirit, and the consequences of obedience is God’s blessing.

-Abram’s initial obedience falls apart in this section, he begins by leaving the land God had given to him. Text doesn’t explicitly say that this was wrong or bad, so don’t go too far with this, but I would argue that the first problem was Abram didn’t trust and obey God, he didn’t actually believe that God would provide for him. But more importantly (and this is in the text) the barrenness is spreading. The seed is already in doubt because Sarai is barren, but now the land has become barren so only 33% of the promise seems to remain. How can God expect Abram to be the fulfilment of these promises if all the promises continue becoming barren? The Bible doesn’t say whether this was bad or good, but it does denote the severity of the famine. But then the story gets even worse:

-“My life will be spared on your account.” How do you think this makes Sarai feel? Once again, don’t forget that these are real people! Abram’s role as the husband is to love and honor his wife, and here he is hiding behind her.

-Just like his first father: Gen. 3: Adam’s role was to raise others to join with him in extending God’s rule over the earth, but instead of working with his wife he stands idly by and lets her be tempted by the serpent. Abram is taking the same pattern as his first father and stands idly by as his wife is offered up to the seed of the serpent.

-The drift of the human heart is toward sin and selfishness, trying to be served by others instead of looking to serve, but that’s not the way of God. God’s call is to serve others, not to be served, so even Father Abraham, who eventually is lauded for his faith in Heb. 11 begins his journey by being selfish, and it seems as if God’s entire plan is in doubt.

-One thing I want you to notice in this section is the shift that has taken place. In the previous section Abram is continuing to travel and build altars to the Lord, He’s working to continue being obedient to God, but suddenly now the focus has slightly shifted from the Lord’s guidance to Abram, who no longer has the Lord appearing to him, is no longer building altars to the Lord, can we suspect that maybe his faith is waning? How do you respond when it seems as if the Lord isn’t near?

-One of the things I love about the biblical stories is they’re not sanitized or safe. They recount the ups and downs of real life! 

-Again, I don’t want to go too far into speculation here, but Abram is trading 1 bad situation for another: fleeing the famine, but running to a depraved people, and sacrificing his marriage for the sake of himself. One of the themes throughout Scripture is the way God’s people are supposed to be marked by care for the sojourner and stranger, God’s people are supposed to be hospitable. Yet Abram is worried that as a stranger and sojourner this godless people won’t care for him.

-The one redeeming thing about this is he at least admits that his wife is beautiful, because unfortunately this isn’t the only time Abram does this exact same thing, but the next time he doesn’t even say she’s beautiful. 

-So they continue on down to Egypt and things go exactly as Abram feared, Sarai is so beautiful that she’s taken into Pharoah’s household. And what’s the outcome for Abram?

-Abram becomes wealthy: flocks and herds, donkeys, slaves, and camels. One of the aspects of this story that is a bit of a spoiler alert is that this becomes a picture of the Exodus account, which becomes a theme for the rest of Scripture, and points to Jesus who also flees to Egypt. And one of the biggest themes in the Exodus is the plagues that God sends against the Egyptians (if you’ve seen The Prince of Egypt you’ve seen a beautiful musical montage of these plagues!) 

-Severe plague descends upon the house of Pharoah, and in this case the man who is supposed to be righteous, the man who is supposed to be representative of God on earth fails to be honest, and the godless idol worshiper reads the situation better than Abram.

-I’m going to cheat a little bit here and go into next week’s text, because I think it concludes the story, but the outcome of this story is the provision of God, despite the lack of faith from Abram. And the section concludes with Abram calling up on the name of the Lord. 

-So what do we do with a text like this? What should our takeaway be? I’ve got 2 things:

-First is that God always keeps His promises. Despite Abram’s lack of faith in Him, God never wavered in His commitment to Abram. So if or when you’re going through a season where it feels like God isn’t answering you or responding in the way you would like, remember that God will always keep His word.

-Second is the reminder that obedience is always better than disobedience. Even if your life feels barren, even if following God doesn’t seem to make sense to you, continue being obedient, remember that it is God who both wills and works in you according to His purposes. Continue being obedient to Him.