Saturday, January 21, 2023

 

Saturday, January 21, 2023


Psalm 50

Genesis 12

John 8:48-59


Observance: Agnes, martyr at Rome, virgin (d. 304)


“Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.”


Something very important we need to keep in mind when we are reading the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is that just because someone does something, it doesn’t mean we should too. Some of these places are obvious: we shouldn’t kill our siblings, for example. But look at how Abraham, the father of our faith, behaves as soon as things don’t go how he expects them to go.


Abraham is such a confusing figure at times. Here he is, a man of 75 (which would not have necessarily been decrepit for someone so close to the generation of Methuselah, but still old enough to have lived a life). God appears to him and tells him to pick up sticks and move to another country. The trust in God that Abraham puts on display is impressive.


God then shows Abraham the land his descendants are to eventually inhabit. There are already people living there, but Abraham trusts that God will stay true to His word, and is so excited he builds an altar of thanksgiving.


Then there is a famine, and a flight to Egypt. This won’t be the last time that God sends His people down to Egypt to wait for strife at home to pass. But for some reason, this is the point at which Abraham’s faith wavers. He cooks up this ridiculous plan with his beautiful wife, and everyone involved suffers for it.


Jesus has self-identified as the God who sealed this covenant with Abraham. Jesus is the great I Am who was there when Abraham was told that he would have many descendants who would be saved in this covenant between him and God. Jesus was there when Abraham wavered and did some really stupid things that hurt the people around him, just because he didn’t trust that God would look after everything. Yet Jesus kept up His end of the covenant: He became incarnate, suffered and bled, and through His resurrection, raised up a mighty nation of people from all tribes and languages around the world.


When God decided to make the earth and everything in it, He also decided to make me and you. He knew exactly what we would do in our lives, all the stumbles, ugliness and sin that we would get up to. But He still went through with it all. This is true love. And it reveals God’s glory in all its manifest loveliness.



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