Still enjoying my daily reading in the first book in the Bible, I was reflecting last week on that well known account in Genesis 22, where Abraham is on the point of sacrificing his young son, Isaac. It’s a disturbing story for many, as the cultural backdrop to those events is completely unfamiliar to us today. We’re horrified that a father could even contemplate giving up his own child... because we don’t remember that such an action was a common occurence among the heathen tribes of Canaan, and not shocking at all to people who didn't know the God of Israel. But we do know that God, and perhaps we’re aghast that a God of love would even ask such a thing of Abraham. Of course, it’s true that it was never God’s intention for any harm to come to the boy, and that the whole episode, according to Genesis 22 vs 1 was simply a way of testing and strengthening Abraham’s faith.... Perhaps, though, our minds can’t fathom what this horrendous experience had to do with faith.
Sometimes we interpret these events to mean that God was testing whether Abraham was willing to give up what was most precious to him; checking whether the Lord was more important to him than his son was. This might have been true and included in the test, but I don’t believe that this in itself is necessarily about faith; this would have been more about testing Abraham’s commitment, or allegiance, or even simple obedience. If Abraham had been willing to lose his son for God’s sake, it would have proved his loyalty to God, but not necessarily his faith. You can be loyal without having or exercising real faith. There are people who go to church every Sunday, yet they have serious doubts about whether God is good and kind and loving. Loyalty is about following someone, no matter what the cost. Faith, on the other hand, is about believing in who God is, in His good and loving character, and holding on to what He has said or promised to do for us. As the writer to the Hebrews so clearly discerned it (Hebrews 11: 17 - 19), the point of faith here is that Abraham knew God had promised to give him many descendants through Isaac.
As I read the story again, I’m tempted to think that it was never really about losing Isaac, and I suspect that Abraham knew that too. I wonder if the true evidence of Abraham’s faith, in this story, was not the part where he raised the knife above the altar, but was actually even before that: in verse 5, when he tells his servants that he and the boy will both come back after they have worshipped; and in verse 8, when he tells his son that God will provide an animal for the sacrifice. The proof of Abraham’s faith was that he was convinced nothing would stop God from doing what He had said He would do.... and God had promised that Isaac would be an integral part of that. Does it make Abraham’s faith less, if he believed that he wouldn’t really lose his son? No! Perhaps it makes it even more obvious that he was really trusting in what God had promised.
When it came to the crunch, when he raised his knife in the air, he was not only proving his allegiance (“Okay, maybe there’s going to be no last minute lamb, after all.”), he’s also proving his faith, because suddenly he’s brought to a place of having to trust God for something that had never before happened in the history of mankind; something that no one had ever even dared to imagine: that a person could be raised to life again after death, and that our God is a God of resurrection. Not only was that prophetic, it was also true faith in action.
So it's interesting, in verse 12, that when God intervenes and stops Abraham's hand, He doesn't say, "Now I know you have faith, Abraham." He says, "Now I know that you have respect for the Lord." It seems to point to the fact that the real test of faith wasn't so much about giving up his son as about believing he'd get him back again. And maybe our own tests of faith are not so much about how much we're willing to give for the Lord, but more about how much we're able to receive from Him.
Sometimes we speak about missionaries or ministers as people who have a "calling" from God. While that's true, there's a danger it leads us to think that other people don't have a calling in the same way. In fact, the Bible teaches that God has a calling and destiny for everyone on planet Earth, if we are only willing to listen to Him and obey Him. It's not only certain occupations that deserve to be called a "vocation." Any job or task that God calls us to do is a worthy vocation for the kingdom of God.
So here's a question for you: what was Abraham's calling? What important task or vocation did God choose him to accomplish on earth? Yes, we know that God called him in Genesis chapter 12 to leave his own land and travel to another country. But after he arrived there, after he began to see the fulfilment of God's promises in his life…. what calling did God entrust to him for the remainder of his life on earth?
If you weren't able to answer that question confidently, the answer might well be something different from what you'd expect, but in Genesis chapter 18, a chapter that finds God sharing His most secret plans with Abraham, the way a man would share with a close friend (vs 17), we find that Abraham's calling was one of the most vital vocations known to mankind. In verse 19, God says:
I have chosen Abraham and singled him out, so that he will direct his children and their families to keep the way of the Lord, by doing what is right and just.
Yes, that's it. Whether you're a mum or a dad, this is the most crucial calling you'll ever know. It was Abraham's main task and vocation in life: to teach his children who God is and how we can can live fruitful lives by walking in His ways. In fact, it was so important, that God made it a condition of Abraham's receiving God's promises, as you can read right at the end of verse 19.
Even if you're not a biological parent; if you relate to children or teenagers because you're their grandparent, their school teacher or their Sunday school teacher, you will quite possibly never do anything more important in life than teaching the emerging generation how to know and obey God. You may do many other things in life, and you may fulfil other God-given callings that seem more noteworthy in the world's eyes… but perhaps none of those achievements will have quite the same long-lasting impact as that of teaching your children to know and love God.
Even if it happens sometimes that those children or grandchildren or students don't chose to follow God for themselves right away, our prayers can also play a powerful role in granting them more time and saving them from disaster. And so it happened that, as Abraham gazed out over the plain to the place where he had dialogued with God in prayer (Genesis 18: 20 - 33), as he gazed in the early morning light at the columns of smoke rising from Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19: 27 - 28), the Bible makes a short commentary on the power of Abraham's calling: vs 28 - God had listened to Abraham's request and kept Lot safe, removing him from disaster.
Never underestimate your vocation. Teaching children the ways of God, and crying out faithfully for them in prayer, may well be the most important things we ever do.
Earlier this month, I reflected on how Abraham allowed his nephew, Lot, to have first choice of land to settle in. (Read here.) Lot took a long look over the fertile Jordan valley in the direction of Zoar, and it's a sobering thought that the prosperous land he chose was "a place near Sodom" (Gen 13: 10 & 12) This choice was what paved the way for the troubling and perplexing events we read about in Genesis chapter nineteen, by which time Lot is not only living near Sodom, but has actually made his home within the wicked and immoral city. It's an illustration of how easy it is for us to "slide" further into sin, once we've allowed ourselves to draw near and skirt the edges of it.
Abraham's prayer at the end of Genesis 18, and the rather horrific and sordid account in Genesis 19 may well raise more questions than they answer for some people. Chapter nineteen begins in good Biblical fashion with a story of angelic visitation, and a man who expressed the scriptural value of hospitality towards strangers. But things degenerate from there: a homosexual mob at the front door, a father who offers his own virgin daughters for a gang rape, sons in law who refuse to take God's warning seriously, and a family that actually hesitates to flee the depravation and destruction of their ungodly city. Can it get any worse than that?
Yes, despite the urgent warning and coaxing of the angels, despite just being threatened by a violent mob, we find that Lot is still hesitating to leave and take his family far away from that place of compromise and corruption. Genesis 19: 16 - 17 tells us that the angels had to grab Lot and his wife by the hands and practically drag them out of the city in order to rescue them. "Run for your lives, " the angels told them. "Go far away and don't look back. Escape to the mountains." And that's when something rather interesting happens. Lot thanks the angels for their kindness in saving his life…. and in the very same breath he begs them to allow him to stay nearby, instead of fleeing far away from the depravation and destruction of Sodom. He points out a small, nearby village, and asks if he can settle there instead.
The story of Lot's wife looking back at Sodom is legendary, but perhaps the real tragedy in the story is the fact that Lot and his daughters chose to stay fairly close by, instead of fleeing far away to the safer ground that the angels recommended. The last eight verses of the chapter give us just a small glimpse into life in Zoar: drunkenness and incest that ultimately lead to the birthing of Israel's long-time enemies, the Moabites and Ammonites.
It's not pleasant reading; definitely not one of the most inspiring or encouraging chapters of the Bible. But the warnings in this chapter are uncomfortably relevant to our lives in the twenty first century.
Distorted values
If we tolerate compromise, if we don't think it's important enough to speak out or take a stand against it, we may end up living in a society where things that were once considered immoral are now honoured and embraced as normal.
(verses 4 - 8)
Not taking God's word seriously
Lot's daughters both had fiancés, and those young men were also told about the angels' warning, and given the opportunity to escape from Sodom. But the young guys didn't take the warning seriously; they thought that it was all a big joke. (verse 14) There are many unbelievers in our world today who don't take God seriously, and who mock the instructions and warnings He gives us in His Word.
Hesitating to give up what is bad for us
And it's not only non-believers who fail to take God seriously. Some people, even though they call themselves Christians, refuse to give up the things that are damaging their lives or their relationship with God. (verse 16) Like the alcoholic who thinks that "just one drink" won't do any harm, and refuses to give it up completely, there are believers who hesitate to flee from the bad habits and wrong relationships that are slowly, insidiously, destroying their lives.
Settling in Zoar
And then there are those who did escape tragedy and think that they're safe now. But the reality is that they didn't really flee very far. They apparently left behind what was destructive, but the truth is that they stayed pretty close by and they still have little places in their lives (Zoar literally means "little place" in Hebrew) where God is not Lord, and where they are living dangerously close to the things that could destroy and damage them.
Is there a Zoar in your life? It may not be an obvious area of blatant sin or addictive habit; it's more likely to be something in a "grey area" - something where you hover hazardously close to what is unrighteous, but manage to kid yourself that it's really not such a big deal. It might be one of those "acceptable" vices, like selfishness or gossip or telling lies. But the Holy Spirit will be able to let you know if it's a "Zoar" in your life - a little place that's too close for comfort to the things that God says will hurt us and damage our lives.
In recent blog postings, I’ve reflected on Hagar’s situation in Genesis chapters 16 and 21. Alongside this, however, another drama was unfolding, and another woman was feeling her faith sorely tested. Knowing the specifics of the culture that Sarah lived in - where a woman was defined by her sons, and there was shame in being childless - Sarah must have held on to her dream of motherhood for many years before she finally gave up on it. And what made her give up? Probably the feeling of being too old, of being past it. She was already over 65 when God called her husband to journey to a foreign land. For 24 years, God’s promises to Abraham had been repeated and expanded on at various intervals, but there had never been a specific mention of Sarah, not one single time. Perhaps that’s what led her to instigate the unfortunate surrogacy with Hagar, The promised son was to be Abraham’s own flesh and blood, but Sarah simply couldn’t imagine the child coming from her by then 75 or 76 year old body.
By the time we get to Genesis chapter 18, Sarah is 90 years old and, eavesdropping from within her tent, she hears a mysterious stranger tell Abraham that she, Sarah, will have a son within the year. No wonder she laughed in disbelief. Abraham had laughed too when God told him, and it seems that he hadn’t told Sarah about what God said. The two of them were old enough to be great grandparents, and the idea of becoming first time parents probably seemed absurd.
These dear people illustrate for us an attitude that can all too easily creep into our own lives: that it’s possible to believe in the power of an almighty God, and yet find ourselves not taking a promise seriously because of our own perceived limitations. Sarah felt past it; she felt she was too old to be the one through whom God’s promises could be fulfilled. I find myself hovering dangerously close to that same mindset at times. I contemplate the level of physical strength that is needed for a Planting Together outreach in Africa, and everything within me tells me that my arthritis and fibromyalgia disqualify me from being part of something like that. My body feels too weak; I feel past it!
Of course, often there’s great wisdom in adjusting our schedule and involvement to suit our advancing age or failing health. To do otherwise would be poor stewardship of the body God has given us. The danger we need to watch out for, however, is that of allowing our own limitations to determine whether or not God’s word can really happen. We might feel too old, like Sarah, or too young, like Jeremiah. We might feel, like Moses and Gideon, that we don’t have the talent or experience needed. We might feel that we don’t have the money or we don’t have the confidence. We might feel “past it,” or we might feel that is is way beyond us.
So, we can choose to laugh, as Sarah did, or we can embrace the promise and say, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18: 14)
In yesterday's blog post, I wrote about how God met with Hagar in a desert place and asked her two important questions. Fast forward five chapters and fourteen years, and Hagar finds herself in a similarly desperate situation. Ordered to leave because of brewing rivalry between the two boys, Hagar and Ishmael are once again in the desert.
Was Hagar partly responsible for her son’s attitude towards his half brother, or was she an innocent party this time? Either way, whether you’re the victim of injustice, unkindly cast out by others, or whether you were rejected because of your own wrong attitudes, the resulting wilderness experience probably feels much the same: you’ve lost all that was familiar, you don’t know what the future holds, and perhaps, like Hagar, you feel as if you are “wandering aimlessly” (Genesis 21:14, NLT) without a clear purpose any more.
When we read the rest of this account, it’s easy to imagine a small baby, crying under a bush. In fact, Ishmael was a 14 year old boy by this time. Hagar’s tears (vs 16) were those of a mother who dreaded watching her son die. But what kind of tears (vs 17) were Ishmael’s? Tears of remorse for how he had treated his baby brother? Tears of anger and frustration at how he had messed up his life and got himself into this horrible situation? Tears of self pity and helplessness because he couldn’t do anything to improve his own lot? Tears of fear because he sensed that he was going to die?
Whatever kind of tears they might have been, the point of grace is that God heard the boy crying (vs 17) and heard Hagar’s fearful tears too. Whether our crying is the outcome of our own selfishness or not, God still hears and God still cares. He spoke first to Hagar, reminding her of His promises and telling her to comfort her son. Then God opened her eyes (vs 19) and she saw a well of water that had been there all the time. Sometimes our tears and our fears blind our eyes to God’s sovereign solutions in the wilderness we find ourselves in.
Both Hagar and Ishmael had given up hope; they saw no way out of their depressing circumstances... and yet there was a way forward for both of them. God spoke first to Hagar, showing her the well of water needed for their immediate survival. And then He was with Ishmael, helping him not only survive in the desert, but even thrive in it: he became a skillful archer who knew how to hunt for food in that sort of terrain. To this day, Ishmael’s descendants live in desert lands and have discovered how to find wealth in a seemingly hostile and unpromising environment.
Whether your desert is of your own making or was caused by things beyond your control, whatever the cause of your tears and fears, God hears, God cares, and God has a solution. Listen to Him today.
Last week, during the coaching workshop, the trainees were practising their question asking skills, and so it seemed appropriate that someone, during our after-dinner time of communion, invited us to reflect on the different questions Jesus asks in the New Testament and the way that His often life-changing questions have impacted our lives in the here and now.
It reminded me of my recent reading in Genesis chapter sixteen, when, after Abraham and Sarah's ill-fated decision to involve their servant as a surrogate mother (read here), Hagar took her son and fled into the desert. Everything seemed like a big mess, and Hagar was distraught and discouraged when God came and spoke to her, next to a spring of water. (Gen 16: 7 - 8)
God looked on her with compassion, but He also asked her two very important questions: "Where have you come from, Hagar? And where are you going?" In this first month of a new year, these are important questions for us too. Sometimes we have difficulty working out where we should be going in the future, because we've never stopped to reflect on where we have come from and what brought us to the place we find ourselves in now.
We find ourselves sometimes in difficulties of our own making - because of our own poor choices in the past. And sometimes our difficult situations are because of the sin or selfishness of others whose lives interface with ours. When God addressed this dear Egyptian servant woman, he called her, "Hagar, slave of Sarai." He recognised her as a unique individual of value, but he also saw that she found herself in circumstances over which she had no control. Sometimes it's like that in our lives too; the circumstances that place a weight on us may not be due to our own bad decisions and therefore are not a statement of our true identity... but we nonetheless find ourselves in a family or work situation that we can't simply run away from.
God asked Hagar to do something very difficult: to go back and submit to Sarah. But He also gave her and her son an amazing promise about the reward and inheritance that He would give to them in the future.
Where have you come from… and where are you going in 2016?
We've just finished a very full week with the FOCOS (foundational coaching skills) intensive onsite workshop. We had a wonderful group of 24 trainees, working with a variety of different missions (CRU, UWM, YWAM….) and representing 31 nations. How is it possible for 24 people to represent 31 nations? Because there's the nation they're working in, as well as the nation they originally come from. What a rich and diverse group it was. We've been connecting over the internet since August - for personal coaching sessions and a number of "tele-classes," so it was nice finally to meet this group of people in real life. The weather was good to us and, even though it's mid-winter here in Spain, we had four or five sunny days, and only two torrentially rainy days. Trainees were sometimes able to sit outside for their practice coaching sessions and, on the very last day, they asked if we could also hold our final classroom session outdoors.
It's always encouraging, on the last day, to hear testimonies of how the trainees have experienced the week, and to feel a sense of awe when you hear how much God has done in people's lives, even over such a short time frame. People told of "aha" moments when they suddenly got insight into how to move forward in an area where they'd felt stuck. Some told of how they'd embraced new hope when a long-dormant dream was rekindled in their hearts again. Others told of how they'd doubted their own ability to master the different coaching skills, but were encouraged at the end of the week to see that they too had grown in their ability to help and support others with this simple yet powerful tool. It's not possible, for security reasons, for me to post a photo of our wonderful group of trainees, because some of them work in closed countries such as China, Tajikistan and the Middle East. Here, however, is a picture of our team of five trainers that has been working with the programme since the beginning, and sharing out all the teaching and demos during this onsite workshop in Malaga. What an encouraging time it was for all of us!
