In this week's text, we see that Abram gathers his trained men to rescue his nephew, Lot, who was captured by foreign forces. Lot's decision to live in Sodom had reaped its reward, and this would not be the last time he would need rescuing.
After the successful rescue, Abram was met by two kings, the King of Sodom, and Melchizedek, King of Salem. These two kings offered Abram quite different rewards, from quite different motives. The King of Sodom offered Abram material goods, while Melchizedek bestowed a blessing on Abram on behalf of God as His priest. Abram rejected the material posessions, and in gratitude for God's blessing, he gave ten percent of all that he had to Melchizedek. Abram's faith enabled him to trust God's provision and not his own or any other's.
Hebrews 7 speaks of the Levitical (Old Testament) priesthood submitting to a superior priesthood, through Abram's submission to Melchizedek. The writer of Hebrews goes on to state that the Levitical priesthood was inferior to the priesthood of Melchizedek, in that there was necessarily a continuous succession of priests because death prevented them from continuing in their office as priests. However, Jesus Christ, as a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
The outworking of the promised inheritance God made to Abram was fulfilled in Christ, and we are the recipients of that eternal inheritance through our union with Christ. How then should we respond when tempted to take a shortcut around the promises of God? When we are offered the "riches" of this world in their various forms? Like Abram, we should submit to our High Priest, recognizing that only through Christ will we be presented to God as righteous and acceptable.
Redeemer Logo2
Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Chapter 3-Take the Money or Open the Box (Genesis 13)
“And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.” Genesis 13:3,4.
As we saw in our last lesson, Abram had journeyed to Egypt during a famine, and subsequently lied about his wife in order to save his own skin. Abram failed to fully rely upon the promises that God had made.
However, God has plans even for our failures, and we see from the passage above that Abram responded to his failure by going back where he began, and there he called upon the name of the Lord.
What do we do when we fail? How do we respond when we realize that we have not relied upon the promises of God? Do we understand that God will work through our circumstances--no matter how desperate the situation may seem, no matter how we may have botched it--to accomplish His purposes? He works all things together for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). All means all. As a very dear and godly friend of mine says, “God is not on coffee break.”
Because of the great love of God, He has made us alive in Christ Jesus. We are His children, and as His children, we live by faith and not by sight. But our faith is not blind, it is well-attested by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. When we fail--and we will--we can "go back" and call upon the name of the Lord, resting assured in the fact of our salvation by grace through faith, which was purchased by the very wrath of the Father poured out on the Son, so that we would be forgiven and united to Christ.
“The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
when he delights in his way;
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord upholds his hand.”
--Psalm 37:23,24.
As we saw in our last lesson, Abram had journeyed to Egypt during a famine, and subsequently lied about his wife in order to save his own skin. Abram failed to fully rely upon the promises that God had made.
However, God has plans even for our failures, and we see from the passage above that Abram responded to his failure by going back where he began, and there he called upon the name of the Lord.
What do we do when we fail? How do we respond when we realize that we have not relied upon the promises of God? Do we understand that God will work through our circumstances--no matter how desperate the situation may seem, no matter how we may have botched it--to accomplish His purposes? He works all things together for good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). All means all. As a very dear and godly friend of mine says, “God is not on coffee break.”
Because of the great love of God, He has made us alive in Christ Jesus. We are His children, and as His children, we live by faith and not by sight. But our faith is not blind, it is well-attested by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. When we fail--and we will--we can "go back" and call upon the name of the Lord, resting assured in the fact of our salvation by grace through faith, which was purchased by the very wrath of the Father poured out on the Son, so that we would be forgiven and united to Christ.
“The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
when he delights in his way;
though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord upholds his hand.”
--Psalm 37:23,24.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Chapter 2-Believing the Unbelievable (Genesis 12)
"Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you'...So Abram went, as the Lord had told him." (Gen 12:1, 4a)
In our text, we see that God told Abram not only would his offspring possess a vast area of currently occupied land, but that through him, all families of the earth would be blessed. Upon arriving at Shechem, Abram built an altar to God and called upon His name, as other godly men in his line had done before him.
God called Abram, and he heeded the call without question, and without knowledge of how God would accomplish His purposes. But Abram had the promises of God upon which to cling. Of course, we see shortly thereafter that fear and doubt caused him to loosen his grip upon those promises, as so many of us have done. Nevertheless, how does Paul refer to Abraham in Galatians 3:9? The man of faith. Praise God that our very faith is a gift given to us by the Father, at the highest price of the death of His Son, and applied by the Holy Spirit, so that--though still imperfect and prone to wander off to our own 'Egypt'--we could be forgiven and become the righteousness of God.
How then should we respond to our own trials and tribulations, our fears and 'famines'? We should believe the unbelievable, thanking God that all of His promises find their 'Yes' in Christ. And because of the finished work of Christ and our union with Him, we can assuredly state with Paul, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Cor 4:16-18)
In our text, we see that God told Abram not only would his offspring possess a vast area of currently occupied land, but that through him, all families of the earth would be blessed. Upon arriving at Shechem, Abram built an altar to God and called upon His name, as other godly men in his line had done before him.
God called Abram, and he heeded the call without question, and without knowledge of how God would accomplish His purposes. But Abram had the promises of God upon which to cling. Of course, we see shortly thereafter that fear and doubt caused him to loosen his grip upon those promises, as so many of us have done. Nevertheless, how does Paul refer to Abraham in Galatians 3:9? The man of faith. Praise God that our very faith is a gift given to us by the Father, at the highest price of the death of His Son, and applied by the Holy Spirit, so that--though still imperfect and prone to wander off to our own 'Egypt'--we could be forgiven and become the righteousness of God.
How then should we respond to our own trials and tribulations, our fears and 'famines'? We should believe the unbelievable, thanking God that all of His promises find their 'Yes' in Christ. And because of the finished work of Christ and our union with Him, we can assuredly state with Paul, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Cor 4:16-18)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)