Read Genesis 12-14 & Matthew 5v1-26
To discover:
To ponder:
In our youth obsessed culture it’s encouraging to see God working
with someone of 75! Finally there is hope: From five curses (chapters 3-11) to
five blessings (12v1-3). And these are words of grace. Abram probably
worshipped the moon God of Ur and Haran
(Jos 24v2). Yet God chose him.
At Babel
humanity sought to be a great people with a great name. But these things come
only by God’s action and purpose (12v2). He will grant joy and protection to
Abram, and the whole earth is somehow to be blessed “through” him. All this is
going to be worked out in a “land” – Canaan, promised to
his offspring (v7). 9v26 is being fulfilled.
History to
this point has proved the world deserves curse not blessing. So this promise
implies God will provide a way for his justice to be satisfied and for sinners
to be counted acceptable to him. Paul tells us Christ is the “offspring” of v7. When (like Abram) those of all nations trust God’s promise fulfilled in this
offspring, they receive blessing that has therefore come “through” Abram. They then become God’s means of bringing that
blessing to others (Gal 3v6-18).
However
Abram is fickle of faith. Despite the huge cost he obeys God, persevering
where Terah didn’t (11v31-32, Acts 7v2-4). But when famine hits he leaves the
land and lies about Sarai out of fear for his own safety. He should have
trusted God’s provision and protection. But consider God’s grace. He blesses
Abram nevertheless – protecting him and Sarai, and providing them with wealth
from Pharoah’s coffers! 12v7-20 pattern God’s later deliverance of Israel,
reminding them this fulfilled his promise too.
Abram seems
to learn the lesson. In what follows he trusts God’s provision enough to offer Lot
the best of the land and God’s protection enough to rescue Lot
from captivity. He even refuses booty so that God alone will be glorified for
his wealth. Crowning this, he is mysteriously blessed by the Priest-King of Salem
(Jerusalem) – a pattern of the one
to come.
In Christ God calls us, whatever the cost, to
journey to the “land” he has promised, serving his purposes and not giving up
(Heb 11v8-16). And we need not fear or compromise, for God will
meet all our needs “according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil
4v19).
Praying it home:
Thank God that he continues to bless us despite our sin and
often fickle faith. Ask him to strengthen your faith so that you will honour,
obey and take risks for him, and especially in order to bring the blessings of the gospel to
others. Pray that you would be able to do this no matter what the cost, trusting him to provide and protect.
Thinking further:
It seems unfair for Pharoah and his household to be
inflicted with diseases when Abram is the one who has done wrong. We should
remember the Egyptians were not without sin, and that this would have brought
home to them Abram’s importance and the reality of his God. However, the truth
is that grace often seems unfair because it is not dispensed according to
merit. We receive much when so many don’t. Yet to those who are given much, much
will be asked.
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