All of the characters in the Bible
have something to teach us. If they didn’t God wouldn’t have put their stories
in the Bible, right? Of course, much of the time they’re there to provide a
negative example, for us to point to and say “I sure don’t want to end up like
THAT guy!”
For Abraham, the main lesson his
story teaches us is all under the umbrella of “faith in God’s promises.” There’s so much to learn from him, and he
(for the most part) provides an excellent example for us to follow in this
regard. And not just an example: Paul says that in the eyes of the Lord we’re
spiritual descendants of Abraham if we place our faith in the same God he did.
That means that we have a part in the blessings of the covenant God made with
him. As Rich Mullins put it, “Sometimes I think of Abraham, how one star he saw
had been lit for me.”
Back at the first of the chapter,
Paul cited Genesis 15:6, which said that “Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness.” But in today’s passage he takes a closer
look at the circumstances surrounding that verse, and he offers a lesson
concerning faith for those of us who already believe in Christ.
What precisely was the promise that God made that Abraham believed that
caused him to be seen as righteous? The Lord told Abraham “Do not be afraid. .
. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Abraham responded respectfully but
from the heart, and basically he said “That’s wonderful Lord, and I’m certainly
grateful, but if I don’t have children, what good would anything else do for
me? I don’t have any children, so one of my servants will be my heir.” Once
again I want to remind you that it’s almost impossible to overstate just how
important children were considered in that time and culture. If you were the
equivalent of a multi-billionaire (and Abraham was one of the richest men in
the world), what good would all that do you once you died if you had no one to
leave it to? Considering any physical blessing,
Abraham would've counted any of that as far less valuable than his heart's desire, namely children.
The Lord answered by telling him
straight out that Abraham’s servant would not be his heir, but a child that
came from his own body. Then he took Abraham one step further: He pointed the
man to the stars, and told him that his heirs would be as uncountable as the
lights in the sky.
God said this, Abraham believed him,
and according to the Scriptures, “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
That’s where we—who already believe
in Christ—can further learn in Abraham’s “school of faith.”
Let’s look at his situation. He was
over a hundred years old, and his wife was around ninety. Now, it’s likely that
he was really healthy and spry for a hundred-year-old, and there have been modern
cases of men almost that old who’ve impregnated women. But Sarah was way past
the years in which she could bear children; the Scriptures explicitly say
so, so she'd experienced menopause years prior to this. Her body was no
longer producing eggs.
Here’s the point that’s so important
for us to catch. First, let me contrast Father Abraham with how a lot of people
see faith. They tend to downplay or even ignore facts which seem to contradict
it. God says something to us, and it might seem--at first--like it’s untrue. So
they deny even that there’s a problem.
That’s not Abraham. Paul
specifically says that Abraham “faced the fact that his body was as good as
dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.”
He knew good and well that hundred-year-old men and especially ninety-year-old
women--humanly speaking--do not produce children. He wasn’t blind to that.
But he wasn’t weakened in his faith.
Despite what he saw with his own eyes, “against hope. . .in hope [he]
believed.” “He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but
was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,” and here’s the key to
this—“being
fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
I’m not entirely sure, but let me
venture a hypothesis on how Abraham's thinking process on this: “I believe that the
Lord made everything around me. He created everything seen and unseen, merely
by speaking it into existence. If he did all that, then couldn’t he give me a
child, even though physically it’s impossible? Which is harder: Creating the
universe, or giving me a child?”
If that’s so, then how much more do we—on this side of the Cross--have to go
on in order to be “fully persuaded that God [has] power to do what he [has] promised”?
Our
Savior raised himself from the dead. It was attested to by hundreds of
witnesses, all of whom were willing to die to back up that claim (for evidence for the Resurrection, check here).
Paul very specifically says that
this story about Abraham has a profound effect on you and me in the here and
now: “The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but
also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him
who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”
We
have even less of an excuse to doubt God’s promises than Abraham did. So here
are the tough questions you should've known were coming: Without denying or
ignoring the facts in front of me, do I hold onto what the Lord has told me?
Am I unwavering in my belief? Am I fully persuaded that God has the power to do
what he’s promised? What about you?
Lord Jesus, like someone told you a long
time ago, I do believe. Help my unbelief. Please.
No comments:
Post a Comment