Genesis 15.1-6, 18-21 Luke 1.67-75
Last week Emma talked about the first chapters of Genesis, God being present at the start of everything and creating the world and us human beings and that we were created to have a relationship with God and each other. But that the first human beings, Adam and Eve, damaged that relationship with God, by falling for the lies of Satan and this had consequences which still affect us today. So the world was made to be good, and when we look at nature it is extraordinary and very beautiful, but we see wrong and evil and humanity has mostly caused that.
The following verses continue to speak of God’s interaction with humanity - never giving up, always pointing them to a reliance and trust in him. His ongoing desire for relationship with the climax of his creation - us.
Today we jump over a few chapters and move from the macro to the micro. From the overview of humanity to God’s call and relationship with one man and his family - Abram, the father of the Jewish faith, Islamic faith and indeed the Christian faith.
You will be familiar with stories, especially in a film, which locates a particular family within the wider drama. The films of James Bind, 007, always have a criminal organisation against which James must triumph. The focus is on him and how he will do that. The Bible now turns to focus on Abram and his descendants and their interaction with God.
So some background. Abram lived around 2000 BC in the Bronze Age, in Ur in present day Iraq, in a city which archaeologists have described as being a high state of civilisation with middle class families living in a house with 10-20 rooms, half for slaves, with a guest room and a toilet for visitors and a private chapel. There were schools that taught multiplication and division and extensive trade.
Abram was obviously religious because the Bible tells us that God told him to take his family, leave the city and travel through the Fertile Crescent, a well watered area, to Canaan, present day Israel. On arrival in Canaan God promises Abram three promises.
- He will make him into a great nation.
- He will give the land of Canaan to his descendants.
- Through his offspring, his descendants, every human family will be blessed.
Promises of a great nation, of extensive land and of a global blessing. In making these promises God is declaring that he has sovereignty over everything and can do what he wants to do. A lesson for us today. The whole of the rest of the Bible is the out working of these promises. They have huge significance for Jews and for us.
Abram was first given these promises when he was in his late 70s and up to then, he and his wife Sarai, despite their best efforts, do not have any children. Some years past, still no son, and then God appears to Abram again and restates his promises and these are the verses we heard this morning. The verses we missed out, verses 7- 17 are a lively description of God affirming his promises by making a covenant with Abram, a formal agreement between them. And this followed what was an established legal procedure at that time involving animal sacrifices and the shedding of blood. Three animals were killed, cut in half and their remains placed in two lines, to form a corridor through which the two people making the covenant would then walk. Abram waited all day for some sign to signify God walking between the sacrificed animals thus cementing the covenant and his patience is rewarded by a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch, symbolising God, passing through the corridor. God has ratified the covenant. It is sealed. The legal binding agreement made. The Bible does not record Abram walking along the corridor of sacrificed animals and maybe this means that God is saying that this covenant depends on me and me alone, not on Abram’s faithfulness. From then on God would align himself with them and be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is serious stuff.
Yet Sarai is still childless. More years go by and so in desperation she persuades Abram to sleep with her servant woman, Hagar. They are trying to bring about God’s promises through their own endeavours, they are not trusting God. You cannot blame them. Abram is now 85 and Sarai, only 10 years younger. Hagar conceives and Ishmael is born.
Then God steps in again and when Abram is 99 and Sarai, 90, God further affirms the covenant changing Abram’s name, meaning ‘exalted father’, to Abraham meaning ‘father of a multitude’, and Sarai’s name, meaning ‘princess - to her own family’ - to Sarah, ‘princess to many’, some Jewish scholars say to the whole world and within a year Sarah gives birth to Isaac, meaning laughter. The fulfilment of the first promise, that God would make Abraham into a great nation has begun. Abraham and Sarah had to wait over 20 years from the first time God gave the promise. How good are you at waiting? At continuing to trust? To believe God’s promise to you?
This covenant between God and Abraham is further marked by a sign that would mark Jewish men out forevermore - circumcision. A permanent sign that cannot be undone, that can be easily checked whether done or not. A sign that signifies commitment and purpose, that sets the Jewish people apart from others. That was the action that Abraham and his descendants needed to promise, in order to keep their side of this covenant, this formal agreement. And rightly so, it is still important for Jews today.
Abraham’s faith in God is then tested by God asking him to sacrifice his son, Isaac as an offering to God. This seems to go against the promises of a nation coming from Abraham through Isaac. Yet Abraham trusted that God had a purpose behind this command and made all the preparations and at the point of raising the knife to kill Isaac, an Angel stops him and tells him to sacrifice a ram that is nearby. This took place on Mount Moriah which some scholars believe is the same place as Golgotha where Jesus died on the cross. The first action points to the second, in which God goes further than he asks of us.
Further on in Genesis we see another key element of God’s s action - God’s election - God choosing which descendants of Abraham he will bless above others. Isaac has two twin sons, the younger Jacob is chosen over the elder Esau. Jacob has 12 sons through two wives and two concubines yet it is the youngest, Joseph of amazing Technicolor fame, who is chosen and becomes the Prime Minister of Egypt, in charge of the greatest economy in a time of global crisis, becoming a saviour figure, again prefiguring Jesus Christ. Then Jesus’s step father, Joseph, is the descendant of Judah, not the descendant of Jacob’s favourite son, Joseph. Judah is the fourth son of Jacob, not as you might expect the first son. Judah is not even the best behaved son he did some pretty sinful actions - yet Jesus aligned himself with him through his step father. God’s plan was always to align himself with depraved sinful human beings.
To SumUp. Genesis tells us that God made the world perfect, that he made us in his image to know him and be in relationship with him. Yet human beings chose otherwise and screwed up and we lost our original dignity and live with shame and regret. Yet God made a covenant with a man called Abram, an agreement that he would bless all nations through his descendants and it is in and through Jesus Christ, a descendant of Abraham, that we are set free, we become new creations and God begins to make the world good again, working his redemptive purposes in and through us. Amen.
Promises made to Abram:
- He will make him into a great nation.
- He will give the land of Canaan to his descendants.
- Through his offspring, his descendants, every human family will be blessed.