Dear friends,
We come to the last of our series in the opening chapters of Genesis. We have certainly enjoyed rethinking the great themes that these chapters contain and hope that you have similarly enjoyed our discussions. As we’re coming towards the end of the year, we are thinking about next year’s programmes. We would love to hear of any part of the Bible you would want us to work through, or any particular issues you would like us to address. Simply drop your suggestions to respond@twm.email.
And remember also to consider giving a Two Ways News subscription as a gift; you can find the link to do so here or at the foot of this article.
Yours,
Phillip
Phillip Jensen: This week’s episode is the last in the Genesis series, where we come to Abraham, and from there, life changes. The Bible has moved from prehistory into history. But before we get into today’s topic, we’d love more advice from our listeners and readers about which part of the Bible you’d like us to expound next year. Last year, we worked our way through Romans; for next year’s series, we’d love to hear your suggestions.
But in Genesis, a new character, Abraham, has been introduced, and there is a positive hope for the future. This chapter is not just about moving from prehistory to history. It’s about moving from the sad events of creation destroyed by sin into a new event of God’s action.
Though things looked hopeful with Noah, soon afterwards it all went bad again. Now we have Abram, whom the New Testament calls Father Abraham. Abram is the father of those who have faith, Jew or Gentile alike. Whoever has faith in God is a child of Abram because he’s the father of this kind of faith. That brings two very important words for us: one is ‘father’ and the other is ‘faith’. Peter, when you think about Abram in Genesis 12:1-3, what comes to mind?
Peter Jensen: My mind is drawn to a song from the musical Chicago, in the sense that Abraham wasn’t all that important when we first met him. The song in mind is Mr. Cellophane Man, and it goes like this
Cellophane
Mister Cellophane
Shoulda been my name
Mister Cellophane
‘Cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me
And never know I’m there...
Abram is much like Mr Cellophane Man. He’s presented as a man from nowhere important, travelling to nowhere important, following his flocks around like a nomad. He was of a good line, being descended from Shem; but he was childless, which in those days meant he had no legacy, and thus no future. Abram reminds me of Mr. Cellophane Man, because he’s not regarded as a very important person. People tend to look past other people whom they regard as being unimportant.
Phillip: They do indeed. When I’ve spent time with those who are homeless and on the streets, they notice that people walk past them; they are unseen.
Peter: I’m not saying that Abram was that badly off. He was with his father and his wife, Sarai. They moved to Canaan, and they were looking after their flocks. It wasn’t that they were impoverished; it was simply that in the course of history, you wouldn’t expect that they would amount to something. Yet they stopped on their way, and then Abram moved on after the death of his father to the land of Canaan.
Phillip: Abram is originally in Ur, which is the southern part of the Euphrates Valley. He then moves to Haran, in Syria. It’s up in the far reaches of the beginnings of the Great River Euphrates, and there they stop for some time. He moves on to Canaan, and what we would know in Biblical language today as Bethel and Shem. He then moves on to the Negev, which is the desert. Genesis 11:30–12:9
Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
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. And 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 him who dishonours 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, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. And Abram journeyed on, still going towards the Negeb.
Abram is told this land is going to be his land. Having thanked God with an altar, he then wanders on into the desert. He’s a strange man, a Mr. Cellophane man; a Bedouin with no children and no settled home. He becomes Abram, who claimed that God had spoken to him about the future. In Genesis 12:1-3, God tells him that he will be a great nation and have a great name. Abram means ‘exalted father’, which is ironic as he has no children. When he does have a child, he is called Isaac, because the name ‘Isaac’ refers to laughter.
It gets more absurd as he’s told that he will be a blessing to all the families of the earth. But as a blessing and a judgement, the future of humanity is going to depend upon their attitude towards him.
Peter: When you think of the millions of people who lived in the course of history, and even then, about whom we know absolutely nothing, there’s no reason why we should have known anything about this man, except that he was the recipient of the promises of God.
Phillip: It’s about promises, which are so important and so distinctive to the Bible that Christianity and Judaism are set apart from all other religions. Most of the religions of the world, even to this day, are about experiencing God in the here and now; experiencing the divine power, the out-of-body experiences of being spiritually enlightened. But Abram received promises about the future, and he lived on the strength of those promises. That’s what we mean by faith. Faith is lived in hope.
When our politicians talk about faith communities, we all know that they mean religious groups. But most religions aren’t about faith; they are about experiencing the supernatural. Whereas religions of the revelation are about God’s promises that we must have faith in. We have faith in God, that his promises are true, and that he will fulfil them because he’s faithful. Thus we live in that which we have not yet received. Today, you can look back and say that Abram did receive the promises. He has become one of the most famous men in history, revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, all of whom want to see him as their father. That is a huge population of the world today. That a man who was nowhere, who owned no possessions, who was living in tents, should be the touchstone of human history is an extraordinary outcome. It’s like a resurrection from the dead. In other words, God has kept his promises. Tell us about promises within the Bible.
Peter: God knew what he was doing in giving us his word and particularly in giving us promises. Think about promises in everyday life: we use them frequently, whether in a formal way (‘I hereby swear that…’) or in an informal way (‘I will meet you next week at such-and-such a place.’). Our lives consistently revolve around promises. but we don’t give them much thought. If you analyse what promises are, they are a method we have to give us some certainty about the uncertain future.
We live within time. Think of yourself as standing in a stream, where behind you is the past, made up of ice. The past is fixed; there’s nothing you can do about it. The rushing water where you stand passes almost at once, for the present moment is not the present moment for long. Then the future comes before you like a raging torrent. It’s chaotic; you don’t know how to control it. One of the things we do, in our attempts to control the future, is make promises. They help us to deal with time and deal with each other. Promises are made of words and always to do with the future. But they are only as good as the person making the promise. When certain people make promises, you receive them with cynicism. When other people make promises, you trust them. But even the most trustworthy of other people are sometimes unable to keep their promises. Promises cannot control the future if they come from other human beings.
The other thing about promises is that the way you use a promise, or incorporate it into your life, is by faith: trusting in the person who’s made the promises and trusting in the words of the promise. Some of the greatest promises we humans ever make are made on our wedding day when we make very solemn promises about the future, about standing with the other person in whatever happens to us. We promise it in public so that everybody knows. The wedding is not the marriage, but the wedding is the beginning of that marriage, and it has promises at its very heart. As you receive those promises, you receive them by trusting the other person.
Unsurprisingly, given the nature of time, our creation, and who we are, promises have been chosen by God as a characteristic means of relating to us. Often, promises in the Bible are called covenants. They are usually solemn promises, akin to marriage, often with a sign to remember them by and received by faith. There are therefore words of promise, giving faith always a forward impetus. With Abram, a great story has begun, a great narrative which the rest of the Bible unfolds for us.
Phillip: As the life of Abram unravels, and we see it taking place over time, God continues to relate to him on the basis of the promises. He refreshes the promises with different covenant signs to Abram. He changes his name from Abram, ‘Exalted father’, to Abraham, ‘Father of multitudes’, even while he was still childless. The first part of the narrative in chapter 12 reveals Abraham as a sinner, not trusting the promises but endangering his wife. Then the grace of God is displayed in saving and protecting them. Abram and Sarah fail several times. They can’t trust God for the promise of the child, so they organise to adopt a child, and then they organise to have a child through Hagar, named Ishmael, which creates all kinds of problems to this very day. Yet God continues to forgive, overrule, and repeat his promises, sometimes with additions such as circumcision.
Later in Genesis, God gives the same promises to Abraham’s son Isaac, and to his grandson Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel. God tests Abraham, especially with that event where he’s called upon to sacrifice his son Isaac. But the key is that he receives the promises by faith, and that is how God credits to him righteousness. It’s not that Abraham is a righteous man other than God’s declaration of his righteousness, which he receives by faith. That is, he’s a sinner living by faith and living by hope, all based on a trustworthy and faithful God, in whom he has faith. That’s what we mean when we talk about a relationship with God. You don’t have a relationship with a spirit, a force or an experience. You have a relationship with God because he personally gives his promises, and we trust his promises because we trust him who gives the promises. But this fulfilling of the promises to Abraham is the opening example for us of something much bigger.
Peter: Another thing about faith is that when you have faith in someone, you are praising that person. When we have faith in God, it is the first act of worship to trust him. So bear that in mind because from faith then comes the Christian life, the life of obedience.
Phillip: What do you mean by saying, ‘When you have faith in a person, you praise them’?
Peter: If a person makes a promise to you, for example on the wedding day, and you accept the promise, you’re not praising yourself. Your trust in them is not somehow something good that you do. It is saying that this person is trustworthy. Therefore, you are praising the other person, calling them a trustworthy person whose promises can be relied upon. That’s quite significant.
Phillip: Praise is speaking well of the other person.
Peter: It is, and you can speak well of the other person in a number of ways. One of those ways is in trusting their promises.
Phillip: You cannot trust someone’s promise without trusting the person. Likewise, you can’t trust the person without trusting their promises. Putting your trust in God means putting your trust in God’s promises. In turn, putting your trust in God’s promises is trusting God, which is praising him.
Peter: You made the point about the structure of the whole Bible, beginning with Genesis 12:1-3. I would say that Genesis 12:1-3 is central to an understanding of the Bible. The Bible is not just a book of stories, proverbs, parables, etc., intending to tell us how to do good works. While we do learn moral lessons from those stories, they also must be put into the context of the flow of what this is all aiming at. It has a greater thing, namely the story of the unfolding grace of God, that he takes someone like Abram and makes him the father of the nations. Please tell us how the story unfolds.
Phillip: The promises themselves are long-term future promises, ‘I’m going to make you the great father of nations.’ The Bible recounts the fulfilment of the promises in the long-term future: how this man and his wife had one son, who had 12 sons, and in turn had many, many grandchildren, etc. But it follows through the line of the salvation of the world. The promise comes back from Genesis 3, where the seed of the woman is going to crush the serpent’s head. From Genesis 3, we’ve been looking for who this one is, the one who will bring salvation.
We know the Saviour will be from Abraham’s offspring. From Abraham comes Isaac, but Isaac is not the Saviour. Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau. The line continues with Jacob’s 12 sons; of these, Genesis 49 tells us that the Saviour will come from Judah. But the Saviour is still anticipated for some time as the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt. It is not until Samuel, hundreds of years later, that we find out that, from the family of Judah, comes Jesse and his son David, who becomes the king of Israel. Thus, over centuries, the promises are worked out in the expansion of Abraham’s family, and the line within which will lead us to the Saviour.
The promises are fulfilled in Abraham’s lifetime in that he lives his life in the land and has children. But it unfolds over a long period of history with Jacob and Joseph, Moses and David. It goes on after David, because David lived around 1000 BC. 1000 years later, the Saviour Jesus is born. So the promises are fulfilled in the coming of that particular descendant, Jesus. The New Testament opens in Matthew 1:1, explaining the genealogy of Jesus, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
To understand what the New Testament is saying to us, we need to see God’s promise to Abraham about the future, which is found to be satisfied in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter: In other words, the Bible is not moralism or an instruction book on how to live. It is God’s great plan of the salvation of a sinful human race. This is a huge, dramatic, wonderful, and true story that we all need to know. As the New Testament points out clearly, Abraham is a sinner saved by grace. In other words, God says to him in Genesis, ‘Your faith is counted to you for righteousness.’ He was not without sin, but his trust in God meant that God counted him as righteous. This is the point taken up by the Apostle Paul in Romans, where he quotes these very words and tells us that this is true for all of us who put our faith in Jesus Christ: that we are counted righteous, not because of works done, but simply from the mercy of God and the cross of Christ.
Phillip: That sounds like moralism. It sounds like it is saying, ‘This is what Abraham did, and so he’s right; if you do this, you too will be right.’ But it’s not that. It’s about the promise that made him right. That is, Abraham looked forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and rejoiced to see Jesus’ day, because it’s in Jesus that he was credited for righteousness, even though Jesus wasn’t born for thousands of years. He is the one who trusted the promises for the future and therefore received this crediting. It’s in Hebrews as well; by faith he was looking for a city, not of this world, but of the next, because although God had promised him the land and the family, God had also promised that he would be the touchstone for the world. It’s in Jesus that he receives these promises, and the promises that God was giving to him were not for his lifetime in Palestine. The promises of God were given to him for eternity in the person of his own son, his offspring, who would be Jesus, by his death and resurrection. That’s why the Bible kicks off a new episode with Abram, which is not found fulfilled until you come to Jesus.
Peter: That’s precisely what is said in 2 Corinthians 1:20
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
Jesus is ‘yes’ to all the promises of God. If you wish to benefit from the promises of God, you will benefit in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it because you’re a good person? No; it is simply by the grace of God, his mercy, and his kindness that that’s the case.
Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Links & Recommendations
For more on this topic, check out this talk called Abraham: Father Of All Believers.
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