The Righteous Philistine--Gen 20, 26

Assumptions can be oh so wrong.  Especially when it comes to people that we believe are not like us.    How many of us would assume that if we went to certain parts of the world marked by violence and religions of violence that we would find respect for the Lord?  What would you do if you moved there?

We read about this situation in Scripture.  The man of God, Abraham moved to a "bad" area.  He made a judgment about the heart of the people of the land (especially it's government), he fostered fear in his thoughts and the fruit of these actions was that he began to lie.  

One night Abimelech, the King of Gerar had a dream in which he was told that Sarah was married to Abraham.  Abraham had lied and said Sarah was his sister.  Abimelech, the "ungodly one" told the Lord that he had acted with a clear conscience.  The Lord replied saying that this is why he had prevented Abimelech from acting inappropriately towards Sarah.  Abimelech rose early the next morning, called his official then immediately made it right with Abraham and Sarah.  He then asked Abraham why.  Why did you lie?  Why did you this?

The man of God, Abraham, responded.  "'I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.' " (20:11).

The reality was quite the opposite.  While Abraham was caring about himself instead of his wife, passing judgment on what he saw, walking in fear, lying to leadership and generally going against God, Abimelech showed the opposite.  He valued a clean conscience, responded immediately to the Word of God, he made it right by Sarah giving 1000 shekels and then sent them on their way.  Then he later made a treaty of peace with them and did right by them.  No fear of God, thought Abraham?  Actually quite the opposite.  Maybe Abimelech didn't know the specifics of righteousness, but he knew fear of the Lord.  Where as Abraham?  He had some growth opportunities yet ahead.

As if this were not enough, a number of years later it happened again.  This time it was Isaac who lied about his wife.  And once again it was Abimelech who took the initiative to make it right.

Abraham (and Isaac) assumed that there was no fear of the Lord in a Philistine king's heart.  But we never know what is in the heart of man.  Sometimes it's the people we least expect that actually have the stirring of God deep within.

Double-Take--Gen 1

It's hard to imagine that there was light and even evening and morning before there was the sun, moon and starts, but it's true.  On the first day, God said,

"Let there be light...God called the light "day," and darkness he called "night."  And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day."

But it wasn't until the fourth day that God said

"Let there be lights....God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night."

It's hard to think of evening and morning with light but not with the lights.  Perhaps it was the light coming from the throne.  Perhaps it was light itself. 

I have no answers.  I just have a pondering.

The Blank Canvas--Gen 1

For some their lives are always hoping for the next thing.  Hoping their kids gets out of diapers, hoping for the time when they can play sports, hoping for when they graduate, hoping for when they get a job and make money on their own, hoping for the time they marry, hoping for grandchildren, etc...   There's always a hope for the next thing.  But for those who haven't had the opportunity of children, they face something entirely different.  A blank canvas.   For many years that canvas can and is filled with work to replace the unexpected emptiness of familial fulfillment.  But even that doesn't hold the same magic over the years.  And then there are the times you are in transition.  And the canvas looks really, really blank.  The things you wanted to paint there did not turn up.  It could be a temptation to discouragement... that is until you discover God again.

A God that you cry out to one week in tears wondering how you can pay your medical bills so that you end up in the black and not carrying debt.  The income sources you see are blank and empty.  And the next week receiving an unexpected check from a church you don't attend and they really aren't sure why the check was sent.  They didn't keep good minutes as to the reason they authorized the money and no one remembers as it was months ago.  They just now sent the check because they just now got your address.  So keep it.

It is also the God that sends someone you don't know well who calls to meet up with you.  She tells you they don't buy Christmas presents.  They pool the money they would've spent and pray to give it someone.  That someone this year is you.  Their gift will pay off your credit card debt from medical bills that are a burden to your very being.

He is the God who took a blank canvas and painted something out of nothing.

The God whose Spirit hovered over the waters of the deep and when He spoke, the blank nothingness was turned into the glorious something--creation.

So good-bye 2014.  You were a year of unexpected sickness and at the same time a picture of God's Almighty hand to rescue and position His people.  

And I welcome you 2015.  You are almost an all-white canvas.  I was fearing you for the first time in my life but not anymore.  I don't know what will be painted but if God took a blank canvas and made creation, He most certainly can make 2015 into something glorious.  I wonder if the angels are excited.

Holy and Blessed--Gen 2:2-3

When something is deemed "holy" it means it is 'set apart for something special and therefore treated differently.'  'Holy matrimony' means that two people come together and others are not allowed into the picture of intimacy.  Precious and rare diamonds are treated as holy.  They are 'set apart and treated special.'  But there's something else that is holy.

But before I get to what it is we now look at "blessed."  If holy were not enough, something now "blessed" means that it is something 'good with God's favor and pleasure' on it.

So if God deems something as "holy and blessed," it probably should be treated as such.  Why?  Because it is also for our blessing.

Herein comes the Sabbath.

I've been thinking lately that the Sabbath is hardly ever on my radar.  Yes, Sunday worship.  But the Sabbath, no.  I treat the Sabbath as just another day. 

Yet the Lord is serious about the Sabbath.  From the beginning of Scripture to the very end.  In the time of Jesus the Jews had made it stressful and not restful, so Jesus broke the paradigms.   But the Sabbath still mattered.

God wants to bless us.  Our burnt out bodies may be indicators that we're not taking advantage of those blessings.  Perhaps we've gotten a little too lose with the Sabbath and it's to reclaim it.

Every Step Impossible--Genesis 15

So God blessed Abraham and said that through him (Gen 15) that all generations would be blessed and that his descendents would be as numerous as the sand of the seashore.  They were old.   She was barren.  Sarah laughed.   Ludicrous thought.  Even moreso when the years went by and she still didn't conceive.  It seemed impossible that the promise would be fulfilled through her but by a miracle, she conceived.

Isaac was her son.  His mother sent him away to Syria to find a wife and he did, Rebekah.  After working years and years he won the favor of her father to marry her.  But she too was barren.  No children.  Again the promise seemed like a night of bad pizza.  But God heard their prayer and opened up her womb.  Twins even.

Next enter Jacob.  Rachel was barren.  Would this family curse ever end?  All these beautiful women they married were barren.    Once again it seemed as if the promise would not be fulfilled.  But her sister bore children, and then so did she.

At every step the promise faced impossibilities for it to be fulfilled.  Impossible save for a miracle of God.  But nothing is impossible with God, even if his multiple miracles were needed for every generation.

The Moment of Faith

Someone was saying a few months ago that Hollywood has nothing on Scripture.  I agree.  And was inspired to make this video:

HE is the one who blessed them--Genesis 17

Bible Challenge here.  Name the person in the Bible that I'm referring to:

(Hint:  Think twelve princes.)

"I [God] have heard you [Abraham].  Behold,

I have
blessed him, and
will make him fruitful, and
will multiply him exceedingly.  He shall
beget twelve princes, and I
will make him a great nation."

Who is the "him" referring to?

a)  Isaac
b)  Ishmael
c)  Jacob (Israel)
d)  Perez


Ok do you have it?  Are you ready for it? Are you sure?

Now someone other than yourself may have thought it was c) Jacob (Israel).  Understandably so. 
Indeed he was the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.  And through Abraham it says "I have made you a father of many nations.  I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you."

But if you guessed "c" you would in fact be wrong.  The answer is b) Ishmael.  Yes, that's right.  Genesis 17:20.   It was God himself who blessed Ishmael who is the father of the Arab world.  It was the God of heaven who would bless him to become a great nation and make him have in a similar way "twelve princes."   

So what is the difference between the blessing that came through Isaac and the blessing of Ishmael?  Their blessing was alike in so many ways and yet primarily different in one.  It is this: 

"But my covenant I will establish with Isaac."

Two sons.  Both of them blessed. Yet with one God made covenant.

Sacrifice--It's not small. Gen 8:20-22

"I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."  David.  2 Sam 24:24

Noah came out of the boat and "took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burn offerings on the alter.  And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma."
Gen 8:20-21b

We read that as if it was normal and easy to do.   Yet the whole animal kingdom had just been wiped out except for what was in the boat with Noah.  There were "seven of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female, also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of the earth" (7:2-3). 

And then Noak took of every clean animal and offered burnt sacrifices on the alter.  A lot was riding on those remaining to reproduce.  There were barely any left! To say the animals were on the endangered species list is an understatement.  Sacrifice could've almost meant extinction.

Sacrifice always comes with a significant price and if it doesn't, it probably isn't sacrifice.   Most often sacrifice in Scripture was the sacrifice of a living animal.  Sacrifice cost life.  Whenever life is taken from something, it is holy.

I sometimes find myself eating a burger and watch a game in the background on TV.  And on occasion I have asked am I honoring the sacrifice?  Life was taken to give me that burger.  Life that once breathed.  And how honoring is it to eat a burger that is probably the culmination of a dozen cows?  And is it honoring to watch TV and barely even notice the gift?  The gift of life given to me with barely a care?

I think of Jesus.  Sacrifice at its finest.  It cost his life.  In return we offer ourselves as "living sacrifices" that are holy and pleasing to God.  Does it cost me anything?  Not just a couple of hours on a Sunday morning or a few dollars in the offering plate.  But do I sacrifice to the Lord in a way that it costs? 

The first thing....Gen 1

The first thing God did right after He made man was to bless them.

The Holy Spirit: Conceiver of Life

I do not have to be married to be fruitful and multiply.  Anyone in Jesus has that ability--whether it is those with severe physical limitations, the mentally disabled, the elderly, the young widow, singles, etc... Why?  Because the Holy Spirit births life.  He has from the very beginning:

"In the beginning God."  Verse 1.
"The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."  Verse 2.

What happened next?  Life.

Why?

Covenant communion brings life. 

We see this also in the beginning of the New Testament.  The book of Matthew.  Chapter 1.

"Mary was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit...because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit" (Mt 1:14)

When the Holy Spirit is around, he brings conception that births radical creation. It's not just something that happened with the birth of the world, it is a necessary prerequisite for Christian "life":

John 3:

3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council...

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c] must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 
 
Whenever life happens the Holy Spirit is right there in the process of conceiving this new form of greatness, whether it be the creation of the world, the birth of God Almighty into a human baby, or the causing of someone to be "born again."  This is life.  And this is the command:  Be fruitful and multiply.  How?

By our union with God Almighty.  Our times of greatest intimacy with our God, when our spirit is united with his Holy Spirit, life is conceived, grows and is birthed.  And not just once.  Because fruitfulness is not just once.  Multiplication is not just once and one time.  Life in communion with God's Holy Spirit is life that happens over and over in an abundance with fruitfulness that cannot be contained.  It may not be as obviously seen as in one's own child but it is seen in the life of the hardened heart that becomes tender to the Lord, it is observed in the move of God that brings the rebellious sons and daughters back to the heart of the Father and the family, and we watch it happen in the life of a nation that nationally repents and commits itself to the Lord (go Uganda).  THIS is life.  Conceived and brought to fruition by the Holy Spirit.  Available to ALL.

Go.  

Be fruitful and multiply. 

Noah and Jason and Kony and Jimmy

Most of the world has seen the following video.  If not, watch it.  Not because the world has but because there is a reality that needs acknowledged and acted upon.

Enter Jason Russell, primary maker of the film.  He decided he's had enough of children getting abducted and making them to shoot their parents and if they don't the children are shot, chopped up, boiled and their parents forced to eat it or the others in the family will all die.   Or they get drafted into a nasty children's army with their first act to shoot their parents.  Or they become the child sex slaves of Joseph Kony and his cohorts.   It's been going on for 20 years.  Tens of thousands of children it has affected.  And the world has remained ignorant.  And for the most part, uninvolved.

Enter again Jason Russell post-You Tube sensation.  100 million views in 2 weeks.  Thousands of hate mail letters.  And Jason loses it.  It's bad.  And it makes Time magazine's front cover.  The reactions are all over the place.

Enter Noah.  Well, actually Shem, Ham and Japheth.  Call it PTSD from being on a boat too long with animals or having just witnessed the most drastic loss of life in recorded history.  Noah lost it. 


^{Gen 9:20} Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. ²¹ When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. 
 ²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,
   “Cursed be Canaan!
   The lowest of slaves
   will he be to his brothers.”
 ²⁶ He also said,
   “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
   May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
²⁷ May God extend Japheth’s^[b] territory;
   may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
   and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

One son saw the actions of his father, did not cover him but rather told others.  Whether it was mocking or passing poor sentiment "poor guy" we don't know.  We just know that he didn't cover his father.  Shem and Japheth on the other hand even in their father's embarrassing mistake, showed him dignity.  They did not cover it up, they covered him.  The one son was cursed.  The other two blessed.   And I fear with this issue with Jason that there are more sons of Canaan than those who are offering covering.

Enter Jimmy Swaggart.  Known for his financial infidelity.  He preached the gospel but he also made some serious mistakes.  Thrown in prison because of them.  Yes, they were wrong and it was bad.  But while in that prison outside of his family less people than can be counted on one hand ever came to see him.  One of those few was Billy Graham.

Covering.  Not cover up.  Grace is something we all ought to give because we just might need it one day--in abundance.

But let's not miss the point: How many tens of thousands of children must be brutalized, abducted and forced to be murderers before we care more about the suffering cries of these children than that someone made a 30 minute documentary with a few supposed problems?  Obviously not enough.  Or maybe it's not hit close enough to home.  I hope it never has to hit home.  But if it did, I bet we would be angry towards any world that didn't take action.  Especially one that was more concerned about a video than the fact that they were dying cruel deaths.   And so I say thanks Jason.  I'm praying for you.  And also for the end of Kony's brutality.  May your suffering not be in vain.

An Unfulfilled Mission--Gen 11:27-32

The original call was to Terah, not Abraham.  But ask your average Christian today who Terah was and no one really knows.  But almost everyone knows of Abraham.  It was because the mission given to Terah was unfulfilled.

Terahfor whatever reason had a call/desire to move from Ur of the Chaldeans (southern Babylon) to Canaan (Israel).   He had lost one son, Haran.  The other, Abram, could bear him no grandsons.  But there was a third son, Nahor and he did have children.  But even in that the call to go to Canaan was strong enough that Terah set out without Nahor and his 2 precious grandchildren.  No easy decision for a grandparent.  And the reason why Nahor refused to go with the family is a mystery.  But setting his face toward the call Terah headed north with Abram and his wife as well as Lot, his 1 grandson from Haran, the son he had lost. 

They took a circuitous route, traveling north along the Euphrates before planning to head back down south, but for whatever reason Terah stopped half way.  It must have been too hard of a journey.  Either that or too nice of an area because Terah stopped.  Completely.  He settled.  He set down roots.  He built a city.  And in his still left-over grief over the loss of his youngest son, he named the city "Haran."  But that's all the farther he went.  He was done.  Mission:  Unfulfilled due to settling at the halfway point.  "They settled there" reads the epitath of his life.
Approximately 50 years later God in his mercy called Abram to leave Haran and "your country, your people and your father's household and go the land I will show you" and complete the mission that his father had started.   Either Terah had passed away at that time (which is unlikely when considering the age) or he refused to go with Abraham, but we have no more record of Terah. The story ends.

While the story of Terah ends, the story of the mission continues.  Terah's son did indeed make it to the land of Canaan as God had lead them.   He became the father of many children, the patriarch of faith, and a key man in the history of Israel.   We all know and love and honor this man now called Abraham.

But all this causes me to be reminded that our decisions can abruptly short change the call of God in our lives.  We can "settle."  The burr under our saddle can be rubbed until calloused and we don't feel it anymore.   And we can bury our call in being busy, being "responsible,"  and trading our sense of security for whatever God might have given us.  God will get his work done, with our without us.  He made that clear to Esther.  But he wants to have us be a part of the journey, and there's a reason he has asked us.  I have heard several powerful Christians (Reinard Bonnke, the Heavenly Man) who they felt like God was asking them to do something and when they hesitated, the Lord told them "You're not my first choice but the others said no."  I like Reinhard Bonnke's response, "then Lord, let me be your last choice.  Ask no further.  I will do it."

The Lord is looking for the man or woman who will journey with him the whole way.  Abraham was full of blunders, shortcomings and was a flat-out liar, but God used him anyway.  Will we let him use us as well?  Will we go the full distance with Him?  Lord, let me be your last choice.  Ask no further.  I will do it.

 ---------------------------------

"This is the account of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.  And Haran became the father of Lot.  While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.  Abram and Nahor both married.  The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Isach.  Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.  But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran."  (Gen 11:27-32)