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English Blog Serch

06 23

1. Abraham¡Çs decision on the faith

We keep reading the Book of Genesis and finished lectures on chapter 1 to 11, which constitute the Primeval history. The history shows that humans, though created by God, committed sin and dropped from God. Nonetheless God did not abandon sinful creatures. Instead, He had chosen a man through whom a new people should be formed and all of humans would be saved. That was the very plan of God. The writer of Genesis tells that everything started with the calling of Abraham, originally Abram. Today, we will learn how the story of Abraham can be relevant to our own life. Genesis 12:1 reads that ; - The Lord had said to Abram, ¡ÈGo from your country, your people and your father¡Çs household to the land I will show you.

Abraham was one of nomads living in Mesopotamia. Those people traveled from place to place to find fresh pasture for their livestock. They moved over lands only where they found water and grasses. And, following God¡Çs words, Abraham set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan with his father Terah and his family. (see Genesis 11:31)

Ur was the crossing point of the Euphrates River and the Tigris River and is now considered to be the cradle of the Mesopotamian civilization. The inhabitants worshiped the moon as a divinity. Though the moon and sun are mere creatures of God, the people considered them to be gods and ignored God¡Çs act of the Creation. So much so, God chose Abraham and ordered him to leave the idolatrous city to seek the land. He must restore there the faith in God. They went up toward the north along with the Euphrates River and arrived at the region called Haran. Terah died there. Then God ordered Abraham to leave again Haran to aim at the land ultimately chosen by God.

The distance between Ur and Haran is about 1000 kilometers. However nomads could travel along the riverside of the Euphrates River without worries about living needs. Flocks of sheep or goats could find easily water and herbages during journey. But this time God said to Abraham to go to Canaan which was on the other side of the desert. Abraham must leave the riverside of the Euphrates. That region was not at all familiar to Mesopotamian people. The journey must be filled with danger of robbers and savage animals. Besides supply of water and grass was not assured throughout the journey. But God said to Abraham to trust Him totally and go to such an unknown place. God promised him then, ; - ¡ÈI will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, … all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.¡É(Genesis 12:2-3)

Abraham was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He had lived almost the half of his life time. Furthermore his wife Sarah, originally Sarai, was childless and not able to conceive. (see Genesis 12:4, 11:30, 25:7) It means that God called Abraham almost at the end of the active period of man¡Çs life.

Nonetheless Abraham, showing his total obedience, started for Canaan. That first step of Abraham determined the world history. If he didn¡Çt listened to God¡Çs words, the Jewish people should not have lived in Canaan and formed the nation. The birth of Jesus should have been in another way. And even the Church might not have existed. Consequently, we could not have gathered here now. The act of Abraham had such an importance. So much so, Abraham is called, ¡ÈThe father of the faith,¡É not only by Jewish people and Christians but also by Muslims. Therefore the author of the book of Hebrews praised him highly; - By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.(Hebrews 11:8-10)

2. Abraham¡Çs faith stumbled

Abraham left the homeland with his family to go to Canaan. Though he arrived at Shechem after a long journey, Canaanites already lived there. They had built the fortress to protect themselves. God said to Abraham, ; - ¡ÈTo your offspring I will give this land.¡É Thought had no child nor armed forces to conquer Canaanites, Abraham believed in the promise of God. ; - So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.(Genesis 12:7b) Nevertheless it was still impossible for Abraham to defeat inhabitants of Shechem due to their strong army and fortress. Therefore he left Shechem and ; - he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.(Genesis 12:8)

Abraham thought that he could find his own land in the south. But no place was for him there either. It was too difficult for a stranger to settle in lands occupied by other peopled. So, ; - Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.(Genesis 12:9)

Negev was a desert in which almost nobody lived. Abraham might doubt about God¡Çs promise, ¡ÈTo your offspring I will give this land.¡É Today¡Çs given passage is Genesis 12:1-7, however we will continue reading further. Because the message of chapter 12 is not completed yet. Abraham had to face another problem in Canaan, the famine. A drought devastated the region and he couldn¡Çt find water and pastures for the flock. His skepticism became serious. He might wonder why God sent him to such a hostile region filled with harsh problems. Abraham, then, couldn¡Çt trust in God who must feed him. Thus he decided to go to Egypt to find food. ; - Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.(Genesis 12:10)

Till then, Abraham built alters at every stopovers and worshiped God. But during the journey to Egypt, any city name wasn¡Çt mentioned as the place of worship. He should take the decision to go Egypt by himself without receiving God¡Çs order. Abraham had something wrong in his mind. It seems that he didn¡Çt trust God any longer. And those who cannot trust in God¡Çs protection get fearful. On the way to Egypt, he thought that the beauty of wife Sarah might cause him a danger. (Don¡Çt care about her age because age calculation of ancient people must be different from us. Yet, we may suppose that Abraham was in his 40s and Sarah in 30s in modern term.)

In ancient worlds, a beautiful wife often put her husband¡Çs life in danger. Powerful men might kill him to get her. So, ; - As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ¡ÈI know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ¡ÆThis is his wife.¡Ç Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.¡É(Genesis 12:11-13)

As a matter of fact, Sarah was really his sister because she was the daughter of Abraham¡Çs father though not of his mother; and she became his wife.(see Genesis 20:12) We find many cases of that type of marriage in that era. Abraham¡Çs worry came true. The Egyptian pharaoh was delighted by Sarah¡Çs beauty and took her as one of his mistresses. And Abraham, pretending to be her brother, was given many gorgeous gifts by the pharaoh, which made him a rich man. The man who was and still praised as the father of the faith gave up his wife to make his life safe and become rich! That conduct reminds us of Adam who put the responsibility of his wrongdoing on the shoulders of his wife Eve. Adam said, ; -¡ÈThe woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.¡É(Genesis 3:12)

Adam betrayed Eve in that way. Abraham did likewise. Nevertheless, God saved Abraham and Sarah. ; - But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abraham¡Çs wife Sarah. So the king sent for Abram and said, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me Sarai was your wife?¡É(Genesis 12:17-18)

The Lord God said to Even when she ate the forbidden fruit, ¡ÈWhat is this you have done?¡É (Genesis 3:13) The Lord also said to Cain when he killed Abel, ¡ÆWhat have you done?¡Ç (Genesis 4:10) All of three are almost the same in Hebrew, ¡Æמַה-זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ (mah-zot asihta).¡Ç And God said again, ¡Æמַה-זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ¡Ç to accuse Abraham. Abraham, the man of the faith, must be ashamed of himself and look on the ground. But God didn¡Çt abandoned him and kept the promise.; - Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.(Genesis 12:20) Thus Abraham could leave Egypt without losing his wife and wealth.

3. Sinners as God¡Çs tool

Today¡Çs invocation verses are Genesis 13:3-4 ; - From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar. There Abraham called on the name of the Lord.

The verses tell that after coming back from Egypt, Abraham built an altar before all without doing any other things. Abraham lost his faith in God and went to Egypt. Besides he behaved there dishonestly. And he gat ashamed of himself and returned back to Canaan. He repented and called on God¡Çs name at first. Regardless of his sinful conduct, God didn¡Çt abandon him. Instead, God saved him. Knowing that, the second life of Abraham started as a real believer. Indeed, persons who are known as the most faithful didn¡Çt always acted perfectly. For example, David desired a beautiful wife of one of his soldiers. Then, to get her, he sent her husband to a fighting field and made him killed. Or, Peter denied the relationship with Jesus at the time of the arrest. Paul had been an oppressor of Christians before becoming a preacher. God chose them as his tools despite what they did previously. Repented sinners can understand what is sin and humans weakness. Therefore they can forgive others. Forgiveness is the leading theme of the Good news throughout the Old and New testaments.

When we have no problem in life, we think that we live by our own faculty. As a result, we won¡Çt meet God. But, once we feel broken because of failures, we call on the name of the Lord. At that very moment, we recognize what we really are. Then we meet God. Problems and difficulties might be given by God as opportunities which can lead us to the blessing. We will be saved through tears. Abraham responded to the calling from God in Haran but his faith tumbled in Canaan. Then he went to Egypt and committed sin there. He felt strongly ashamed. All of these experiences educated him on real faith. Genesis presents Abraham as a faithful man till the first half of chapter 12 then as a sinful man afterwards. Both facets present the whole picture of Abraham. We must read at least to the verse 20 to understand the total message of chapter 12.

We cannot live without committing sin. We are inevitably hurt other creatures. For example, we kill animals to eat meat. Adam and Eve were thrown out from Eden because of sin. But ; - The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them. (Genesis 3:21) God also protected Cain with a mark though he killed his own brother, . ; - So Cain went away from the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.(Genesis 4:16) Abraham¡Çs case was alike.; - Abram, his wife, and Lot left Egypt, taking everything they owned…. Abram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold. (Genesis 13:1-2) His new journey was secured in that way.

Our religious experiences are similar to their pasts. Though being baptized, we live just as before. Observing Sunday worship doesn¡Çt change our living way radically. Instead, we keep committing sins. Nonetheless, the Lord stays with us. And that recognition makes us turn back again to God. Then we become real believers. Abraham¡Çs story is the story of all of us.


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