Unanswered Questions

Anyone who reads through the book of Genesis is caught up in the story of those early patriarchs.  They are the stuff of a good novel.  But, to read Genesis is to also find many questions which have no answers.  The problem is there are questions which we think need to have answers, but, alas, there are none.  For example, we know the reason for the flood in the days of Noah.  The world was a wicked place, but was not this particular response of God a bit too much?  And, then there was the overkill at Sodom and Gomorrah.  Why did God not get upset with Jacob for stealing the birthright?  Of course, the thing that bothers a lot of folks the most is what appears to be the God sanctioned violence?

To read Genesis is to stumble into a lot of good questions.  I remember a guy who in the St. John Church back in my days as its pastor.  He was a young man who spoke of himself as an agnostic.  He came to church only because his wife delivered an ultimatum.  However, when he got there the Lord started working in his heart and before he knew it he was talking about himself as a professing Christian who wanted to be baptized.  Though a new Christian, he still carried his questions with him.  He often said, "I no longer allow my questions to keep me from faith in Christ.  I still have them, but I have put them on the back burner for the time."

As Genesis, or the Old Testament, is read we often come to a moment of wondering how to handle some of the unanswered questions that the Word throws out there for us.  Maybe not being able to figure them out simply speaks to the limited intellect we possess.  Maybe we have them because God is God and not one of us.  Maybe we have them because God wants us to have them.  Maybe my old friend had the best idea as he declared the reality of the back burner in his spiritual search.

Those Famous Words

The Joseph quote most known to so many of us is the one found in the last chapter of Genesis.  After the death of Jacob, Joseph's brother fear that now retribution will fall on their head, but instead in a moment of reconciliation the wronged brother says, "Do not be afraid.  Am I in the place of God?  Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good..."  (Genesis 50:20)  Most likely this was not the song Joseph was singing that day when his brothers pulled him out of a pit and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to some Ishmaelite traders in gum, balm, and human flesh.  On that day it is more likely that he was screaming curses at them!

 

Actually, what was happening was the beginning of something the Lord told Joseph's great grandfather Abraham, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years..." (Genesis 15:13)  Of course, Joseph could not see ahead to the day of oppression any more than he could have seen forward on the day he was sold for twenty pieces of silver.  Joseph's changed heart did not happen the first night he spent with the Ishmaelite traders, but sometime along the way between that moment and the moment his brothers came to Egypt seeking relief from the famine.

 

What is ahead we cannot know.  We are often tempted into believing that through our prudent and careful planning we can control our future, but such thinking is an illusion.  God is the One who has the future in His hands.  We will surely see this more clearly as the years and decades go by and by.  Always remember what Joseph said to his brothers was hindsight.  What it takes to face the uncertain and often difficult future is not hindsight, or foresight, but faith. 

Seeing the Face of God

When I left the Tennille United Methodist Church after a two year stint as pastor, I carried with me a lot of resentment and anger.  Things got very difficult during that second year and by the time the dust had cleared, I was eager for a fresh start.  One of those who had been an antagonist came by the parsonage as we were packing and offered an olive branch, but I was not in the mood to receive it.  So, I left angry.  It was several years out from that departure that I realized how much animosity I carried in my heart and with the realization came a breath of forgiveness for those from my past.

 

But, I was in one place and they were in another and there never was any face to face words of reconciliation.  I knew a reconciliation had taken place in my heart because I no longer desired bad things for them, but there was at that point no burning urgency to go back and try to make relationships right again.  It was about fifteen years before that actually happened.  I was invited back to preach and the occasion of the preaching provided a mutual moment of reconciliation.  Maybe earlier was not the right time.  Why it took fifteen years I still do not know.

 

All this came to mind as I was reading the Jacob and Esau moment of reconciliation.  When Jacob left home as a young man, he had stolen the blessing of his father which belonged to the first born (Esau) and resulted in Esau threatening to kill him.  For twenty years Jacob lived away from home and family.  It took a long time for reconciliation to come for those brothers, but it did.  Jacob described it as he spoke to his brother, "...for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God--since you have received me with such favor."  (Genesis 33:10)  Reconciliation is like Jacob described it.  Always it is a moment filled with grace.

The Twelve

Maybe Abraham had only one son (two counting Ishmael), and Isaac had only two, but Jacob had twelve.  Of course, Jacob had two wives who gave him sons as did their two maids.  Four women and twelve sons.  A summation of all this is found in Genesis 35:23-26.  But, what is interesting about all this is not the number of sons or the number of different women who gave him sons, but the difference in the way God viewed Abraham having a son by Hagar, a slave woman, and Jacob having two sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid, and two more  by Zilpah, Leah's maid.  All these sons are lumped together and known as fathers of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

 

I wonder why God pushed Ishmael outside the family and included the sons of Jacob who were born by maids.  Why, I wonder, did God not respond to what seems to be basically the same kind of situation in a more consistent manner?  Why honor these four sons of the maids of Jacob and make the son born of Hagar an outcast?  It seems that Ishmael got a bump rap from God. 

 

One of the things we want from God is consistency.  We want Him to do for one like he does for the other.  Of course, it does not work out that way.  He is consistent in being one who gives love and mercy, grace and goodness to all.  Expressions of His nature do not change from one person to another.  But, the reality is God is God and the way He leads and blesses different folks is up to Him and according to His individual purpose.  Our life with God is not like another person, but is one that reflects God's personal relationship with each one of us.   

Dreaming

The Bible is full of dreamers and dream stories.  To remember them is to remember Joseph in Egypt, Daniel, Joseph of Nazareth, and, of course, Jacob.  After Jacob tricked his father into giving him the blessing which belonged to the first born son, he took  his mother's advice and fled in fear of the wrath of his brother, Esau.  On the way to where he was going, he had the ladder dream that was filled with angels. In that dream he experienced the Lord standing beside him saying, "...Know that I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land..."(Genesis 28:15)  When Jacob awoke from the dream, he took the rock he had used for a pillow and created a shrine to the moment of God appearing to him in the dream.

 

All of us have had our share of dreams.  Perhaps, not all of us have had dreams like the one Jacob had at the place he called Bethel.  It may also be true that many of us do not really consider the possibility that God might choose to use our dream life to speak to us, lead us, or help us make a decision.  But, as we stop to think about it, we realize that when we sleep and when we dream, our conscious mind which we use to direct our life is replaced by the sub-conscious part of us which dares in the absence of the conscious to work overtly in our behalf.  If God can use conscious thoughts during the day to guide, why is it difficult for us to believe that He can do the same in the night when our sub-conscious sits on the throne?

 

Of course, there is some wisdom in moving slowly into embracing this dimension of our inner life.  It is often the case that dreams are not to be taken literally, but simply open up some sub-texts to us.  Our dreams may be giving us another voice to hear.  It may not be as obvious as we think it is.  Instead, we are likely to discover that we have to learn how to listen to the voice of our dreams.  If we are listening for the voice of God, we need to make sure it is His voice we are hearing and not our own.  It may take some practice to distinguish between the two.  

A Formula for Disaster

When we read that simple statement saying that Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob, we know trouble is brewing.  It has always seemed amazing the way the Scripture makes no attempts to paint over the flawed family life of the Genesis patriarchs.  I have often thought a good sub-title for Genesis would be "How not to rear children."  Abraham never would have sent Hagar and Ishmael away had it not been for Sarah's insistence.  He simply had no backbone for his own convictions when she spoke.  It always seemed that he was looking over his shoulder once Ishmael was gone.

 

And while Isaac and Rebekah may have loved each other deeply, they were miles apart on how to rear sons.  In the end we see where Jacob learned his deceptive ways.  Rebekah, too, was a master at deception and manipulation. Still, we see God moving His plan along through each generation.  He is never chained to a hurried time schedule as we are.  His movements toward what He seeks to accomplish may be slow, but they are always steady,

 

When we find ourselves in what we know is an imperfect set of circumstances, we might think that others whose lives look more orderly and together are being used by God to accomplish great things, but such is not necessarily the case.  God has proven again and again that He can use chaos in such a way as to bring order.  He can use our messes to do unimaginable things.  If it takes several generations to bring His plan to fruition, it does not diminish the reality of His work.  Like those imperfect Genesis parents of the twins, we can simply be grateful that God can use us and our family to move along His plan even though we may not live to see it. 

Not Our Way

Anyone ever tried to second guess God?  Or, have you ever tried to figure Him out?  Most likely all of us have at one time or another wondered why He did something the way He did it.  When I indulge in such musings, it usually means I think I can see a better way.  For example, if God wanted to make Jacob the recipient of His blessing instead of Esau, would it not have been an easier thing to have had him be the first twin born?  If such had been done, there would have been no need for Jacob to be involved in such deception and neither would his mother felt a need to push her favorite son into a position that did not rightfully belong to him.

 

What happened certainly makes for a better and more intriguing story, but surely God had more in mind than an entertaining and riveting story of a dysfunctional family.  Most of us can look back at the story of our life and see those kinds of moments when it could have been written a different way.  If we could choose to leave out some of the really hard and difficult moments of our life, we would likely quickly grab the opportunity.  But, such is apparently not the way of God.  He does not engineer our life so that it is empty of troubling moments, but He does always promise to get us through them.

 

As we read the story of Jacob, we see him coming to a place in his walk with God that we could not have imagined in the beginning.  His place of being the blessed one should have gone to Esau, but God had another way.  He had a something He wanted accomplished through Jacob and He found a way to do it despite what seemed to be impossible circumstances.  It is and will be no different with anyone of us.

Two Brothers

As we come to the end of the Abraham saga, we find a word that surprises us.  Found in Genesis 25:8-9 the Word says, "Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age...His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him..."  It is impossible not to wonder if the two sons had a relationship through the years and how their adult lives were impacted by their Father.  Genesis 21:14 speaks of Hagar and his mother living in the region of Beersheba and after Abraham and Isaac came down from Mt Moriah, the Word speaks of them living in the same region.  (Genesis 22:19)  Though forced from the tent of Abraham, Ishmael was not in another world, but in an accessible region.

Though Isaac and Ishmael likely knew the whereabouts of the other, the influence of their father was different. One translation of the 18th verse of Genesis 25 suggests that Ishmael lived in opposition or with hostility to those around him.  If such is the case, it might be true that he lived with anger and resentment about the way he was pushed away.  Isaac, on the other hand, lived so under the influence of his father that he was not involved in selecting his own wife.  Though a great man of faith, Abraham could have been a better father.

It seems noteworthy that both these sons came together at the death of their father.  Even though pushed apart, they apparently had some kind of contact and relationship with each other through the years.  Even though their family was imperfect, as all are, they seemingly managed to stay connected.  Like these two brothers we are all put in a family.  From the very beginning, the Creator God made it clear that family was important, thus, we always need to work at being connected to those who are a part of us instead of allowing something to separate us.

'Tis Another Thing

It is one thing to hear Jesus saying, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me..."  (Matthew 10:37) and another thing to see Abraham on the verge of killing his son on an altar.  We mull over the words of Jesus.  We think about what Jesus meant or might have meant.  But, when our eyes are captured by the knife raised in the air over the innocent young boy, everything within us  is repulsed by what is happening.  It is one thing to talk about not loving son or daughter more than God, but another thing to consider doing what Abraham was about to do.

And, of course, this picture of God is nothing like any other picture we have in our mind about God.  The God we worship is loving and merciful, kind and good.  He is not One who would ask a father to kill a son, or anyone to kill another.  Here is a story which is hard to reconcile with our understanding of God.  Maybe hard is too soft a word.  It is actually impossible to reconcile what we see about to take place on Mt. Moriah with God as we have come to know Him.

One thing we often forget is that the call to follow Jesus is costly.  Bonhoeffer is well known for his words, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die."  The call of God is always about radical abandonment.  We have created a God who is less demanding, who is eager for us to be pleased, and who does not ask us to do anything which is uncomfortable, dangerous, or risky.  The God of the Scripture is different than the one created in our own image.  He is the God who will not hesitate to ask us to put everything and everyone at risk in order to live in faithfulness to Him.  Such is what Abraham learned on Mt. Moriah and such is likely to be learned by each of us before our journey on this earth is done. 

The Unwanted

We do not have to wait until our reading of the New Testament and the narrative about Jesus to know that God cares for the unwanted.  Actually, we find such a concern being conveyed in the early pages of the book of Genesis.  As we remember the story of Cain killing Abel, we also remember the manner in which Cain was sent forth as a fugitive and wanderer on the earth.  The Lord put a mark on him, not so that he would be identified as a murderer, but as a sign of divine protection.  Even in the punishment, there was mercy.  One who surely felt unwanted was still wanted and under the mercy of God.

When we come to the story of Hagar's son, Ishmael, we see someone who surely must have felt unwanted.  He lived his whole childhood under the stigma of not being the wanted son.  When his half-brother, Isaac, was born this boy born to a slave woman was sent out with his mother into the wilderness.  There was no longer any room for him in the tent of his father, Abraham.  Out there in the desert God came to Hagar and told her, "...I will make a great nation of him."  (Genesis 21:18)  The unwanted child was not forgotten by God.  There was a plan for him even as there was a plan for Isaac. 

There are people all around us who live under the stigma of being the unwanted.  The unwanted are the homeless people of the streets, those old and unproductive, the chronic sufferer who reminds us of the fragile nature of life, and a host of others who fight to be seen and accepted and loved.  Unfortunately, some of us live quietly in places where we are made to feel unwanted.  But, the truth is that we are never unwanted by God.  His mercy always overshadows us. 
 

A Snow Day Prayer

Last week during the snow and ice event, it was necessary for us to drive up to Fayetteville, Georgia.  The first three hours of the trip were absolutely no problem, but when we left the expressway for the last 18 miles, it was another story.  A thirty minute drive took almost two hours.  As I was crawling along over snow and ice patches, I came to a sign saying a bridge over a railroad was closed.  Not knowing which way to go, I got out and asked the woman in the car behind me for help.  She said, "Follow me," and she led me in a round about way to the other side of the bridge.  Then she turned around and went back on her own journey.  A few miles further I met a truck coming down a hill with a guy hanging out the window telling me the hill ahead was impassable.  He stopped and told me how to go back a different way so that I would eventually end up on the other side of the hill and from there, I made it slowly but safely to my destination.

 

Before we travel my wife and I have prayer in the car for a safe journey.  The prayer usually goes something like, "Lord, we ask You to keep us safe today as we travel.  Please keep us in a safe place. Keep us away from danger and harm.  Keep us alert, aware of things around us, and aware of each other.  Go before us and with us and make the way safe for us to come.  Slow us down or speed us up, but keep us where it is safe.  Give us patience as You do.  Thank You for Your care in the past and Your care today.  Amen"  This prayer has been prayed so often, it almost seems like a ritual that must surely be written in some book of prayer, but, of course, it is simply a part of our traveling ritual.

When the snow and ice driving event was behind us, I remember the morning prayer and prayed another one.  The evening prayer was one of thanksgiving.  And as I prayed, I thought about those two strangers along the way.  Helpers.  Messengers.  Some might even say angels.  Whatever their name, it seems clear to me they were a part of God's response to the morning prayer for safe passage through a storm. 

The Waffle House

I have always said that the church could take a lesson from the Waffle House.  It does one thing and does it well.  You know what you are going to get when you walk in the door.  The first thing I got the other morning when I entered was a loud and enthusiastic "Good Morning!" from several behind the counter folks.  But, it was not just me.  Everyone got the same warm greeting on that very cold morning.  Then, came the hot coffee and food served by friendly folks.  And when I got to the door to leave, I heard several calling out, "Come back again!" 

The Waffle House serves food.  There is nothing hidden.  The center of the place is the grill that is open and surrounded by customers sitting around the counter and in the simple booths around the open room.  You can watch the cooking and hear the banter between cooks and servers and even join in if you wish.  It is the kind of place that makes you want to come back when you leave.  You get what you came to get and more and you feel like you are someone special while it is happening.

I have been in some local churches that could take a page from the Waffle House how-to-do-it manual.  Too many times it tries to do too many things.  The one thing it has to offer is a spiritual connection to Jesus that is life nurturing.  No one else out there is doing this God thing.  The mistake the church often makes is forgetting who it is and what it out there offering.  If we offered Christ as the Waffle House offers breakfast, people would be glad they showed up and would be eager to return again for more. 

The Real Issue

When we remember that Abraham was willing to pass off his wife as his sister on two occasions, it should not come as a surprise that he would allow himself to be persuaded by his wife to have a child by her Egyptian slave girl.   He was a proven seeker of the expedient way!  Even though God had promised him a son through Sarah, his wife, it obviously was not going to happen.  Verse 2 of chapter 16 points us to the moment of decision, "And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai."  The man who was promised more descendants than the stars decided he needed to get started even if it meant doing it his own way.

 

Now some folks read this 16th chapter of Genesis and go off on all sorts of tangents.  After all, here is an opportunity to speak against a terrible injustice like slavery.  Or, it could be seen as a time to address the economic disparity between the wealthy and the very poor.  And most assuredly, there is plenty of fodder here to deal with the issue of sexual exploitation of women.  There are plenty of soap boxes one could climb in the midst of a reading of this particular passage in Genesis. 

 

But, to do so would be at the risk of missing the real issue.  And what is that issue that would take precedent over all these pressing issues of our current social agenda?  The real issue is trusting God to keep His Word.  Abraham listened to the voice of Sarah, his wife, instead of the voice of God which had been promising him a son for a long, long time.  Abraham's issue at this point in the story is our issue.  Are we one of those who lives trusting and believing that God is dependable?  Do we live trusting Him to keep His word?  Or, are we listening to some other voice which tells us to hedge our bets, to have a Plan B, and to do whatever it takes to be sure we get what we want? 

Divine Reckoning

Abraham is regarded as one of the spiritual giants of the Biblical story.  Over twelve chapters of Genesis tell his story and he is remembered often by those who wrote the pages of the New Testament.  No one who stands on the stage of Biblical history stands as tall as Abraham, but if we are looking for a perfect man, we must surely look elsewhere.  The old patriarch was not perfect.  Twice he tried passing off his wife as his sister to protect himself.  Though promised a son by the Lord, he took matters in his own hands, had a son by a slave woman, and would have passed the child off as the one promised.

 

When God looked at Abraham, he did not note his perfections or his imperfections, but his faith.  In the 15th chapter of Genesis we read in verse 6, "And he (Abraham) believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness."  When Paul was writing his letters to the church, he remembered this word about the father of the Hebrews.  Several times in the New Testament, Abraham is lifted up because of his faith.  Long before people were believing in Jesus, God reckoned Abraham as a righteous man because he believed in Him and what He was saying.

 

Abraham was a wealthy and powerful man, but it was his faith which was seen by God.  It still works the same way.  Nothing has changed.  When God looks in our direction, He looks for an Abraham like faith.  He looks for one who believes, who depends, who regards nothing more important than being in a right relationship with Him.  Surely there is nothing greater for us to know than the fact that we have been reckoned as righteous by God. 

A Glimpse Ahead

Abraham was given something most of us never see.  God gave him a glimpse of the future.  This part of the narrative begins in the middle of the 15th chapter with Abraham falling into a deep sleep.  As the darkness overcomes him, the Lord speaks, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and they shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation they serve, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions."   What God described to Abraham was many generations away, but as surely as the sun in the morning, it was coming. 

 

Of course, there are some who discount this kind of Word in the Bible as something that was surely added after the Exodus was history.  Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Abraham to have such knowledge.  Such folks who wear the hat of Biblical scholar think it impossible that such would be revealed with such accuracy so long before it actually happened.  For them, later makes more sense.  One of the problems with such a conclusion is that God is not required to make sense according to our definition of making sense.  God is not bound by common sense activities.  He is only bound by His own plan. 

To read the Scriptures without the primary lens being the lens of faith puts the reader in a prone-to-error place.  It is not necessary to read without using our brain, but the Word is a Word from God which seeks a faith response not an intellectual one.  To say that God cannot reveal to some what He has not yet done, but plans to do is to declare self in a greater and more knowing position than the One who brought the inspired Word into being.  To say that one must read with faith may be seen as a cop out by the Biblical critic, but over and over it seems to speak of the response God desires from those who seek to live in obedience. 

The Journey There

Getting from where we are to where God wants us to be is not always an eagerly taken journey.   When we think about Abraham going from where he was to where God wanted him to be we are looking at more than a physical journey from Haran to Canaan.  The other journey was a spiritual journey.  The physical part of the journey ended in Canaan.   The spiritual part of the journey ended on a mountain top where Abraham declared that nothing was more important to him than God.  Where Abraham was in his relationship with God back in Haran was not the place he was when he was prepared to sacrifice his son on Mt. Moriah as a sign of the strength of his faith.

 

No matter where we are in our faith journey, God is surely leading us to a place where we are willing to keep nothing for ourselves and abandon everything for Him.  While it is easy to sit in some comfortable chair and contemplate such an abandoned life, it is another thing to live with the single intent to flesh it out.  It is the hard way.  It is the way of declaring that what we want to do with our life does not count for consideration alongside of what God wants to do with it.  It is the way of sacrificing right to self so that God has all rights to our self.  It is the way of wanting nothing but what God wants.

It is not a way every believer in Christ chooses to walk.  In the beginning of the journey when the emotion is strong and the determination even stronger, we are sure there is nothing we would not forsake for the sake of Jesus.  But, as quickly as someone offends us do we discover that we are more interested in being right than in reconciliation at any cost.  And neither does it take long to start pulling back from extravagant giving so that there will be enough in case God does not provide for us as we figure we need.  Getting from where we are to where God wants us to be is the hard road and few there are that choose to walk it.  But, then I am not the first one to say such a thing. 

The Round About Way

While we are always in a hurry to get from Point A to Point B, God seldom seems to operate with such urgency.  There can be no doubt that God wanted to get Abraham to Canaan, but He most assuredly did not take the direct route.  Back when  Abraham was known as Abram and back when he was living under his father's roof, the Word says about Terah, Abram's father, and his extended family, "they went out from Ur...to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there." (Genesis 11:31)  While in Ur with his father, Abram heard the Lord telling him to go from where he was to the land to be shown him.  This time Abram set out for Canaan and settled there.

 

However, hardly had he got his tent pitched when a famine forced him to go to Eqypt where there was hope of food.  After some shenanigans with Pharaoh, Abram was sent from the land of refuge a much richer man.  Verse 12 of Genesis says, "Abram settled in the land of Canaan."  He finally arrived at his destination, but it was indeed a round about way of getting there.  And, as we look at the story, it becomes obvious that God was doing the leading which makes us wonder why He chose the longer route that brought delay and doubt to Abram.

 

What was true then and what remains true now is the reality that God often takes us from Point A to Point B by way of Point C, or Point Z.  Never think that the leading of God can be plotted on a straight line.  The Scripture is clear that God can be counted on to move us from where we are to where He wants us to be, but never does it happen according to what we deem to be the most expedient way.  With God it is truly true that He seems more concerned about the journey than the arrival.  To go with God does not require a road map.  Only faith is needed for the journey. 

Double Promises

The last few days have been filled with gray clouds, rain that comes and goes, and patches of sunshine which cleared away the wet weather.  Mainly, it has just been gray winter days.   But, one thing noticed in these days is an abundance of rainbows.  It seems that every day one suddenly shows up somewhere in the sky to remind us that God is a promising God.  Not only is He a promising God, but He is also a promise keeping God. 

 

This evening's rainbow was particularly spectacular.  The whole bow was brilliantly visible from earth to sky and back to earth again.  And, as amazing as it sounds, there was a second rainbow sitting just above the first one.  Not quite as bright, but every bit present, nonetheless.  It was the kind of moment which set this evening wanderer to wondering.  Does two rainbows mean that God is going to double up on His promises?  Oh, I know the 9th chapter of Genesis speaks of a special promise being associated with the rainbow, but who is to say that it cannot simply be seen as a sign that God is keeping not just one promise, but all of them.  As I watched and marveled, I could not help but think it might be sign that I should be looking for the promises of God in my life.

 

Now, I know some folks who pray and ask God for a special word as the new year begins.  They either find one or one is revealed to them and they carry it with them through the year as a special word of direction from God.  While I have never sought this discipline as do some, I have decided to take in faith the words, "the promise of God" as a word to direct my path through the days ahead.  I am going to start remembering the promises of God more intentionally and look for them to become reality in my life.  It could make for an exciting year! Who knows?  It might be a year of experiencing in a new way the abundant promises of God!

Two Promises

It must have been quite a joyous day when Noah looked out of that ark and saw that the land was drying, the water receding.  But, it was not until God said. "Go out of the ark..." (Genesis 8:15) that Noah and company vacated the big boat.  When that was done, Noah built an altar and offered a sacrifice to the Lord which prompted the Creator of the flood to say in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind..."  (Genesis 8:21)  It is the first promise made after the flood  and the one we think about every time we see a rainbow in the sky. 

 

Hardly had the first promise been spoken into existence when God made a second one.  "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."  (Genesis 8:22)  The second promise is the promise of order.  In the very beginning of the story of creation found in the earliest verses of Genesis, we see that order came out of chaos and that all of creation was established upon that orderliness.  In some ways this promise after Noah came out of the ark is a re-affirmation of what God set in place at the beginning.  If anyone wondered what God might do going forward from the flood, this word about order would certainly provide assurance that the order established would always prevail.

 

We sometimes find ourselves grumbling about the signs that speak of this order set in place by God.  In the summer, we long for winter.  When we are shivering, we look forward to sweating.  But, everything comes as it was created to come, night and darkness, seedtime and harvest.  God's plan is utterly dependable.  The changing order which we see and experience speaks to us of a God who has created and continues to sustain an order which is life giving.  It is an order which has brought us into being and an order which allows us to be blessed by the knowledge that others walk in our footsteps.  It is this unchanging and utterly dependable order within the creation which makes these blessings possible. 

Building an Ark

What God told Noah to do when He told him to build a big boat was not something which could be done in secret.  It was not the kind of project done inside the work shop.  What Noah did was seen by everyone and, surely, as the neighbors watched they laughed and ridiculed him.  Noah was obviously someone who had gone off the deep end.  Nothing about what he did spoke of logic and common sense.  Building an ark because the world was about to be flooded was the work of a fool. 

It is not likely that God is telling anyone of us to build an ark.  A promise has been made that one will never be needed as Noah needed it, but this does not mean that God will not ask us to be about some things that people around us will regard as the action of someone who is taking religion too seriously.  I remember a friend of mine who took his wife and small children to Africa because of his call to be a missionary and ended up escaping in the midst of a revolution with nothing more than his life and the life of his family.  Some no doubt thought he should have stayed home because God would never ask him to put his family in such danger, but the history of the gospel going forward is filled with folks who dared to say "yes" to a thing that defied common sense.

When God calls us to go forward in accomplishing what He has in mind, it is often the case that what God has in mind is known only to Him.  Our view of what it means to be called and to be obedient is a thing that speaks of limited vision and a faith that does not require more.  It does not have to be as big a thing as building a big boat.  It can be something as small as going to someone who has wronged us and seeking restoration even though the world says it is not our place to do so.  People may shake their head at us and call us "a weak pushover," but what those around think is nothing when God's bidding take us a different way. 

The Grief of God

There are moments described in Scripture which create such a sense of emotions that we are often overwhelmed and left speechless.  Such a moment was that moment when the Lord God walked into the Garden looking for a disobedient Adam and Eve and opened with his question, "What is this that you have done?" (Genesis 2:13) announced that a Pandora's Box had been opened.  It is surely the question of a heartbroken God.  As we reach the 6th chapter of Genesis there is another such moment.  Such wickedness and evil had come upon the earth that the Lord was sorry He had made humans to walk on the earth. 

 

About that moment the Word says, "...it grieved Him to His heart.  So the Lord said, 'I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created...for I am sorry that I have made them."  (Genesis 6:6-7)  Every now and again I hear some old timer wonder how much longer the earth can tolerate all the evil that seems to be raining down upon it.  "I don't know how much God will stand before He comes to straighten it out," is usually how the conversation ends.  Certainly, that moment before the story of Noah begins is a moment that there are limits to the evil God will tolerate before He acts.

 

But, it seems a more important truth being spoken in these words is the hate God has for sin.  When He sees it in us, it must make Him grieve beyond measure that anyone would have such disregard for the loving sacrifice of His Son on the hill called Calvary.  There have been those moments of hard and honest confession when we were sure that God regretted creating us because of the way we sinned against Him.  And, surely, there have been those times when we wondered if there was still any forgiveness left in the mercy of God for us.  This thing of God's mercy is truly something that leaves us overwhelmed and speechless.

The Dysfunctional Family

It has often seemed that the book of Genesis is about one great big dysfunctional family.  While there are many positive truths to see, it is also possible to look at Genesis and say, "This is how not to do family."  The parents of the Genesis story are not role models.  The family dynamics set forth in the stories are not to be envied.  Instead of trying to make everyone of those earlier patriarchs and their families look good, we see example after example of sibling rivalry at its worst.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the 4th chapter of Genesis where we find the story that has those memorable words, "...Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him."  (Genesis 4:8)   The moment had likely been stewing for a long time and came to a boiling point when both brothers made an offering to God.  Abel's offering was acceptable and Cain's was not.  As we read the Word, it seems that there was nothing special about the gift or the giving of Cain who "brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground."  In contrast Abel "...brought of the firstlings of his flock, the fat portions."  Cain seems to be giving out of the spirit which says, "anything will do," while Abel's gifts speaks of the spirit of "only the best will do."  Whatever the reason, Abel's gift was accepted by God and Cain's was not. 

 

The rejection was the final straw and sent the older brother into a killing rage.  He was angry at God so he killed his brother.  It is not an uncommon thing for us to act with misplaced anger.  While it is often hard to admit, we do sometimes get angry at God.  We get angry at God for what He has done and sometimes for what He has not done.  Admitting our anger at Him to Him is not something we do easily so we end up lashing out at some unsuspecting soul who has no idea what caused the rage.  But, here is the truth.  God can handle it.  He can hear our anger and it will not change His love and acceptance of us.  He will continue to provide for our future just as he did with Cain.

Clothing of Mercy

In an earlier season of my life, I remembered listening to some teaching tapes by an evangelist named Tom Skinner.  He was straightforward and humorous in what he had to say.  I always enjoyed his words and the way he presented them.  In a teaching on the Holy Spirit, he talked about the moment the Egyptian army was overwhelmed when the waters of the Red Sea poured over them.  It went something like, "Hey, Moses, remember that Egyptian you killed and buried a long time ago.  Well, look at what I can do.  Not one, but a whole army!"

 

What brought the remembrance to mind was another parallel piece of Scripture found in the garden narrative of Genesis 3.  In verse 7 the Word speaks of that moment after the deed of disobedience was done.  "...they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves."  They were ashamed of their sin, feeling guilt for the first time, and, therefore, did not want to be seen by the Lord God.  And then a little later in the narrative after the conversation of confrontation, the Word says, "And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for the woman, and clothed them."  (Genesis 3:21)  The Lord God could have left them naked and afraid,  guilty and ashamed, without any sign of hope, but instead He made them a better suit of clothing.  It was surely the clothing of mercy.

 

Even though the Garden of Eden couple sinned and separated themselves from the holy Creator, the Creator God still acted with mercy.   Oh, He did not alter the consequences.  Things changed about their lives.  But, they were not thrown away by the One who created them.  Though Adam and Eve were punished, they were forgiven.  A sign of this mercy is in the suit of clothing God made.  Adam and Eve used fig leaves, but God used garments of skin.  What they got was better than they had and more than they deserved.   Is it not that way with all of us?

A Most Awful Question

After the snake has slithered away and after the Garden of Eden couple decide to make clothing out of itchy fig leaves, the Lord God shows up for His evening walk.  When the man and the woman hear Him coming, they hide themselves.  They know something has changed.  They carry guilt and shame, something never before experienced.  Not seeing them, the Lord God calls out, "Where are you?"  When they told Him they were naked and afraid, He ask a second question, "Who told you?  Have you eaten from the tree I told you leave alone?"  The man confessed that he had eaten from the forbidden tree, but only because the woman gave him the fruit.  And, then comes the most awful question in all of Scripture, "What is it that you have done?"  (Genesis 3:7-13)

With this question the earth and everything a part of it surely heard the heartbreak of the Lord God.  The couple in the garden had not simply chosen to do a bad thing, they chose to do the worst possible thing.  They set in motion consequences which could not be delayed or avoided.  Choosing disobedience to the Lord God changed everything that had been set in motion.  No longer was the creation empty of sin.  No longer was everything good.  No longer could the Lord God walk in the evening with these two who were the works of His hands for He was holy and they had chosen to separate themselves from Him through an act of sin and disobedience.

When we choose to live in disobedience to the plan of the Lord God, we, too, hear that awful question.  "What is it that you have done?'  is not a question anyone of us wants to hear the Lord God asking.  It is the question of a broken heart.  It is the question filled with unbearable disappointment.  It is the question which the Lord God does not want to ask us because the asking means that we have chosen a terrible way filled with consequences not of the Lord God's choosing.  It is the question that comes out of the knowledge that we have put ourselves in a perilous situation.  It is a question that recognizes that there is no safe exit for us.  It is a question which means we have chosen eternal separation from the One who truly loves us.  It is a question which set in motion a divine plan that would bring the Lord God to another place where His heart would be broken.  That place would be Calvary.

The Purpose of God

I suppose that the Lord God could have made of the first man a tree surgeon.  There seems to have been plenty of trees in Eden.  Or, maybe he could have been a forester.  It is also a possibility that Adam could have become the first river keeper.  Four rivers had their source in the Garden of Eden so there would have plenty of tending-to-the-rivers stuff to do. But, the Lord God had something else in mind.  Genesis 2:15 says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and to keep it."  Does this mean that in the beginning the Lord God purposed humankind to tending the soil?

 

After retiring from work that allowed me to walk through the world without really seeing it. or appreciating it, or experiencing it, or touching it I wonder if I allowed myself to walk the wrong road.  Especially, have I mused over this in these retirement years which are being spent on a farm where my hands are constantly in the dirt and my spirit is learning to pay attention to what is around me.  While I do not think it is necessary to be a farmer to be inside the purpose of God, it does seem that it is necessary, whatever it is that we do to earn a living, to learn to live aware of the earth which provides our sustenance.  As children we loved to play in the dirt and never thought about getting dirty, but as adults we hardly ever touch the dirt and when we wash, it is not to wash away the dirt of day's labor.

 

I wonder if in the beginning the Lord God simply put the first man in a position where being aware of how every life was connected and dependent was most likely to happen.  I fear this is what we have lost in our journey from the garden covered with dirt to the marketplace covered in red tape and paper.  Maybe the Lord God did not purpose us all to be farmers, but surely it is true that He purposes us to be aware of where we are and upon Whom we are to depend for our place in the creation. 

One More Time

After reading the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis, we are surprised to find another account of the same thing in the second chapter.  Of course, they are radically different.  The first is beautifully written with images that point to a literary master.  The second seems more like someone sitting beside a campfire who is spinning a yarn.  The second account of creation is obviously the work of a master story teller.  One of the first mistakes many make at this point is trying to reconcile the details of both accounts so that they make one telling of the creation. 

 

Actually, the second account of creation is a story.  And it bears the markings of someone who might have been asked by someone of a younger generation, "Grandpa, how did all this come to be?  Who made the stars?  And, how about us?  How did we get here?"  We sometimes fail to take into account that this written book we know as the Bible was first nothing but oral tradition passed from one person to another.  Long before anything was being written, the Word as we know it was being passed from mouth to ear, from one generation to another. 

What we have in the first two chapters of Genesis are two windows through which we can catch glimpses of the creative work of God that brought all that is into being.  One does not negate the other, but enhances the other.  Instead of trying to reconcile them into one statement about creation, it is better to understand that each one contains an important truth the Holy Spirit wanted to impart to the generations of people who would be reading the Word.  The Holy Spirit is not seeking to confuse us through the two accounts of creation, but is seeking to bring us to a greater depth of understanding.

A Third Blessing

The first two blessings recorded in the Scripture were spoken over living creatures.  This happened on the fifth and sixth day.  The third blessing took place on the seventh day.  "And on the seventh day God finished the work that He had done, and He rested...So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work He had done in creation."  (Genesis 2:2-3)  While every day is an important day, the fact that God chose to speak a blessing over the seventh day truly sets it apart as both holy and special.

 

Some can remember when laws forced the society around us to outwardly recognize and pay allegiance to the seventh day being a holy day.  At the beginning of my lifetime, very few places of business were open on Sunday.  If gas was needed for travel, it was purchased on Saturday since no gas stations would be open on Sunday.  It was a different time than now.  Of course, as my life gets closer to its 70th year,  a business being closed on Sunday is the exception instead of the norm.   The idea of Sabbath rest is largely thought of as an anachronism.

 

Still, the Word says it is a day of blessing.  It is blessed by God as no other day.  One of the real spiritual struggles for many believers is learning how to live faithfully midst a cultural that ignores Sabbath rest.  While Sabbath rest is interpreted in many ways by well intended folks, surely it is a day for more simple living.  When observed and valued it becomes a day that is indeed set apart for holy purposes.  Worship with other believers may be a part of what that means, but to stop with that one act and declare that we have honored what God has put in place may be falling short of the mark.

The First and Second Blessing

We never can get it all in one reading.  Of this I am convinced when it comes to reading the Sacred Word.  Maybe others get it the first time, but this reader is often slow when it comes to seeing what other folks see at first glance.  I wonder how many times I have read the Genesis account of creation.  Ten, maybe twenty, or maybe a hundred.  With the advent of this new year, I started reading it again and, as always, I am amazed at what I wonder if I ever saw before. 

 

For example, within that first account of creation contained in the first chapter, there is a record of the first and second blessing given by God.  In verse 22 after the creation of the winged creatures and the creatures of the sea, the Word says, "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase....' "  Here is the first blessing.  Then after creating male and female in His own image, we hear God saying in verse 28, "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase...' "  And, so we read the second blessing.  Many, many blessings would follow, but those were the first two times when God looked our way and gave a blessing.

 

To be blessed by God is indeed a wonderful thing.  So often these days we hear strangers saying to us, "Have a blessed day," but it comes and goes so quickly without any real sense of feeling. When God blesses, it has far more meaning.  His blessings come to us with purpose.  When God speaks blessings over us, it is not done in some trivial manner, but it carries with it a power that cannot be altered.  Divine blessings come to us, not because we are worthy of them, but because God is a compassionate and caring heavenly Father who desires good things for us and actively works to see them accomplished. 

Plan for the Future

When we read the book of Genesis, we come to understand rather quickly that in the beginning God created a lot of stuff.  Important stuff.  He created the sun, the stars, the sky, the seas, and the seeds.  Big things and little things.  One of the most important, if not the most important, big thing created was the sun.  And, when it comes to the little things, what could be more important than seeds.  Seeds are so small, we almost miss the creative power at work bringing them into being.  ""Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with seed in it."  (Genesis 1:11)  The next time you hold a tiny seed in your hand, remember that God held them first in His hands. 

 

While some may see nothing as significant as the creation of the sun in the creation of the seeds, a moment of reflection brings the importance of this creative act into a proper perspective.  The vegetation brought into being included a plan for the future.  Seed speaks of God's plan for the future.  Anyone who plants seed and grows plants or fruit trees or vegetables knows that at the end of the harvest, there is a production of seed which can be saved and planted another year to provide for another harvest.  The tomato we relish in the summer has seeds in it which can provide fruit in still another year. 

 

When God created, He not only created for the present, but for the future.  Everything put in place was put in place for a reason.  This especially includes something as small and insignificant as a seed.  But, it is not just the future for which God had a plan in the beginning, but our future.  Even before the beginning, He had in view what people like you and me would need to survive and sustain life on this planet He created.  With such a thought in mind, He brought the tiny seed into the creation.  Hold the seed in your hand.  Look at it.  Know that God has a plan for you.

Beginning

The Word starts with the words, "In the beginning God..."  (Genesis 1:1)  Of course, what follows are words that speak of God creating order out of chaos, a physical universe out of a dark void, and everything that is out of nothing.   But, if you read the Scripture as I often do, you might find yourself getting hung up and stopped dead in your tracks with those first four words.  To be truthful it is hard to get our minds around the idea being set forth with these few words.

 

One of the things to which the Word speaks is that there can be no beginning of anything without God.  There are many who would argue that God is not necessary for this beginning to take place.  There are those who offer other beginning alternatives.  The Scripture does not really seek to prove that God exists, nor does it discuss the moment of beginning in such a way as to discredit all the other possibilities.  Instead, it is spoken or written with the underlying assumption that God exists and that He is the One responsible for the created order as we know it.  He is clearly identified as the One who controls all that it is.  Both the things about creation we deem as good and those we regard as tragic are set forth in such a way as to pass through His hands.

 

In other words, everything about the creation passes first through the hands of God.  For some this is a frightening option to consider, but for others it is a source of hope.  God put what is in place and in motion.  The creation looks more like a process than a finished product.  The good news is that the One who started working with it in the beginning is still the One who is sustaining it and controlling the outcome.  And as we are reminded much later than Genesis, God is always at work to bring about good things for His children. 

2018

I sometimes wonder why I am still here.  If I live six months into this new year, I will have lived 70 years.  So many of those who started the journey with me, or joined me along the way are no longer traveling the roads of this life.  I remember high school friends who died before they ever had a chance to worry about middle age issues.  I remember so many folks who sat in the pews and listened to me preach Sunday after Sunday who died without the blessing of the years I have counted.  I know I am not the first to wonder, "Why me, and why not them?" but such is still where I find myself going from time to time.

 

All we really know for certain is that some live longer than others and that life is a most fragile thing.  Regardless of the number of years we are allotted,  what is a terrible thing is not a shorter or a longer life, but one that is wasted.  Whatever the years we are given, they are given.  They are a gift from God.  Even as we had nothing to do with when or where we were born, neither do we have anything to do with how many we have.  Oh, we may choose a healthy lifestyle which may give us some advantage, but the number still is in the hands of the Giver. 

Like any gift God gives, He does not give so that the recipient is exalted, but so that the one who receives from Him might live according to His purposes.  The bottom line is that our life counts for something in the plan of God.  It is not something to handle carelessly and certainly it is not something to waste.  The only way to live without wasting our days, the only way to make the most of the time we have is to make sure we live well and according to His plan one day at a time.  Otherwise, we are likely to come to the end and looking behind at what amounts to a wasted trip.