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Abraham. Everybody knows old Abe. I doubt that any
individual in history is more widely recognized and revered.
Abraham is patriarch to history's three great monotheistic
religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the Bible, of
all the incredible people of faith we find there, the only one
called the "friend of God" is Abraham.
You learned great stories about Abraham from your earliest
days in Sunday School. You met him as ABRAM - the name would be
changed to Abraham later. You heard about God calling him from
his ancestral home:
Abram pulls up stakes and begins a journey which takes him
from one end of the known world to the other, and for no other
reason than his God told him to do it. Fabulous faith.
You learned that Abram was a generous fellow - when there
was a land dispute between his family and the family of his
nephew Lot, Abe gave Lot first choice and was content to take the
leftovers. You learned that Abram was a compassionate fellow:
when he learned that God planned to destroy Lot's new hometown,
Sodom, Abe interceded on the city's behalf - he actually argued
with God in an attempt to save Lot's neighbors, sinful though
they might be.
But God was not done with our boy. No doubt, you learned
that his son Isaac came along miraculously late in Abraham's and
Sarah's life - Abraham 100, Sarah 90. That was in fulfillment of
God's promise that Abraham's offspring would be as numerous as
the stars in the sky or the sand by the sea.
You probably even learned that strange story in which God
calls on Abraham to take the teenage Isaac to a mountain and
offer him as a sacrifice. Now, I know that some fathers of
teenagers might welcome such a request, but there is no
indication that Abraham did - after all, it was through Isaac
that all these grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren were supposed to come. But faithful Abraham
did as he was told, took Isaac, prepared to sacrifice him, had
the knife poised and ready to strike, when suddenly God stopped
him. Abraham had passed this strange test. The boy was spared,
a ram which had been caught in a nearby thicket was sacrificed
instead. And all lived happily ever after.
Really? No, not really. Nor had things been all that
peachy-keen before. You see, there are other stories about
Abraham in our Bible that probably were not covered in Sunday
School.
For example, not long into this family journey, a famine
arose in Canaan. But Abram, despite all his vaunted faith, was
not so sure now, and in danger of starvation, he-and-his headed
for Egypt and hoped-for relief. As they came near the border,
Abe said to Sarai (which was her name before it too was changed),
"Listen, you are one good-looking lady. If these Egyptians
figure we are husband and wife, after seeing you, and wanting
you, they will kill me to get to you." As Genesis has it, "Say
you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you,
and that my life may be spared on your account."(2) So that is
what they did: word comes to Pharaoh about this foxy newcomer, he
buys her from her so-called brother for his harem, Abe not only
is spared but makes a huge profit - as the scripture says,
"sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female
donkeys, and camels." BUT, Pharaoh and his household suddenly
began to experience one disaster after another. He traced their
onset back to the arrival of Sarai, investigated, found out the
deception, and confronted "Brother" Abram: "What is this you have
done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why
did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife?
Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone."
So Abram and Sarai and company made their exit, not only
with their lives, but with all that booty as well, including one
slave girl about whom we hear a good deal later. Genesis now
calls him "very rich."(3) But God was not done with Abram yet.
The next story you probably did not hear in Sunday School
was of Abram the conquering warrior(4) - not because there is
anything wrong with being a conquering warrior, but this is just
not a big deal in the midst of all the other material about this
famous family. It seems that some of the local kings put
together a military alliance to subdue their neighbors (probably
over mineral rights); in the process of the skirmish, Abe's
nephew Lot was captured. Word came to Abram about the situation,
he hastily put together a mini-army, dashed off to do battle, and
quickly routed the enemy and rescued Lot and everyone else.
Desert Storm #1, I guess. But God was not done with Abram yet.
After things settle down again, our hero's heavy-duty faith
begins to waver a bit, and he commences wondering about this
great guarantee of beaucoodles of descendants considering the
fact that, at this point, he has not even ONE. God speaks to him
in a vision, the promise is reaffirmed...strangely.(5) God says,
"Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years
old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. He
brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over
against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two." Then
buzzards tried to get at the fresh meat, but Abram shooed them
off. Finally, our hero falls asleep and, as he does, God speaks
to him promising that his descendants would be given this land.
As a guarantee, we have the account of an ancient ritual which
would be an equivalent of "cross my heart and hope to die" - a
flaming pot and a lighted torch (God is often depicted as fire)
make their way between these dead animals which have been laid
out and lined up. The symbolism apparently is, "May I be cut in
two like all this if I fail to keep my promise!" Kind of a
bloody, gory story, which may explain why Mrs. Biggerstaff did
not dwell on it much when you were in Sunday School as a seven-year-old. Anyway, God is not done with Abram yet.
From here, the story may be a bit more familiar but it is
still pretty sticky. As you may recall, Abram's childless wife,
Sarai, in an effort to fulfill her conjugal responsibility to
provide offspring, does the next best thing - she offers her
husband the recreational and procreational services of her
aforementioned Egyptian maid, Hagar (which might make US blanch,
but was a perfectly acceptable practice in that culture). You
see, children were the Social Security system of the day - when
you got old and were no longer able to manage for yourself, they
would take care of you; it was their solemn duty. Not having any
children was more than an embarrassment, it was socially and
economically dangerous. So the deed is done. Hagar gets
pregnant.
Now things get even stickier. Hagar thumbs her nose at
Sarai and her barrenness, Sarai hates that, comes to Abram,
complains that this is all HIS fault anyway, and insists that Abe
run Hagar off. But Abe wimps out and tells Sarai to handle it
herself, which she does by treating Hagar so terribly that the
young maid splits. As the story unfolds, the Angel of the Lord
sees Hagar's predicament, comes to her in her distress in the
wilderness, tells her to return to Abram and Sarai, have the
baby, and know that God will bless him. She does, and brings
forth Ishmael. But God is not done with Abram yet.
You probably remember the rest. Even though Abram has a son
and an heir now, there is still a lot of tension in the family
because the baby came from a slave girl instead of his wife. God
comes to our hero again:
OK. Ishmael is here. Then God drops a bomb:
New names? By giving new names to these two folks, God is
affirming a certain relationship with them. Something similar
occurs in marriage when wife or husband or both take a new family
name. We name our children, our pets, other things that are
precious to us. In giving names, we are accepting a special
responsibility for nurture and care. God was saying one more
time that "I am not done with either Abraham or Sarah yet."
But another baby? Really? Abraham - Mr. Rock-Solid,
Unwavering Faith - does not simply chuckle at the thought; he
falls on his face laughing at such a prospect. After all, he is
99 years old; Sarah is 89. But we know what happens. Isaac was
born. Sadly, Abe allows Ishmael and his mom to get run off by
the jealous Sarah once more. As the Genesis story has it, Sarah
finally dies at the age of 127; Abraham marries again (at around
140 years of age) and has another half-dozen kids. An ACTIVE
senior citizen, eh? Amazing. He finally dies at the age of 175,
"old and full of years."
I love the story of Abraham because I learn some incredibly
important truths from it. First, I learn that God chooses and
uses real people, imperfect people. Sell your wife to the
Pharaoh? Please! But God was not done with him yet.
Second, I see the unconditional nature of God's covenant.
The promise of land, descendants and a blessed heritage never
changed from Day One back in Haran - it was FIRM, no matter what.
There is no "If you do this, I will do that." No quid pro quo.
There is no moral to the story. There was a lot of growth and
development that would occur, because God was not done with
Abraham yet. But the covenant is as secure today as the day it
was uttered. That is the nature of our God.
Third, I see that people of faith go through their ups and
downs. Centuries later Paul would write to the Romans concerning
this man, "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of
God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had
promised."(7) Perhaps. But Abe had his moments. How many other
times do we read of someone falling on the ground and derisively
laughing at what God has to say? But, of course, God was not
done with him yet.
And that is the big lesson I get from this wonderful saga.
No matter where Abraham was in his life, God was not done with
him. God is STILL not done with him - just the fact that we are
reading the story, learning from it, being inspired and guided by
it proves that. Abraham and Sarah may have thought they were
done...others may have thought so too...but not God.(8)
The Good News this morning is that, just as surely as God
was not done with Abraham and Sarah, God is not done with you and
me. God can still bring things to "birth," to new life, through
us.
God is never done with us. Why? Because of God's
unconditional covenant love that we begin to see in Abraham but
come to know in a special way in Jesus Christ. It is a love that
will never let us go...regardless of our failures, regardless of
our fumbles, regardless of our falls, regardless of our fears.
God is never done with us.
So, please don't give up on me, and I won't give up on you.
Remember, God is not done with us yet!
1. Genesis 12:1-4a 2. The story is found in Gen. 12:13-20. 3. Gen. 13:2 4. Gen. 14:1-24 5. Gen. 15:7-21 6. Tom Henderson via Ecunet, "Old Testament Notes for Next Sunday," #180, 2/20/97 7. Romans 4:20-21 8. Bass Mitchell, Hot Springs, VA, via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1997 02 23," #14, 2/17/97 which inspired the thinking which produced this sermon. Thanks, Bass.
"Go from your country and your kindred and your
father's house to the land that I will show you. I
will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you,
and make your name great, so that you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the
one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram
went, as the LORD had told him...(1)
This is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor
of a multitude of nations...No longer shall your name
be Abram [which means Exalted Father], but your name
shall be Abraham ["Father of many nations"]; for I have
made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I
will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make
nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will
establish my covenant between me and you, and your
offspring after you throughout their generations, for
an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your
offspring after you.
"As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai,
but Sarah shall be her name. [Both names come from a
root meaning Princess. Sarah would have been
understood as "great princess" or "princess of many."(6)]
I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by
her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to
nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."
Amen!
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