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Mission statements are common for many businesses and organisations today. In this passage, Jesus reads part of Isaiah and applies it to himself to show what his mission was.
(This is a slightly longer version of the sermon preached at St. George’s on 13th March 2022. The sermon was recorded at St. Luke’s.)
Giving in to temptation leads to disaster. It is a tragedy common to us all. Yet Jesus never gives in to temptation. How does he do it? How can we become more like him?
(This is a slightly longer version of the sermon preached at St. George’s on 6th March 2022)
Why Resist Temptation?
Yesterday, I went to a prayer breakfast and someone came around with extra sausages. Can I tempt you to have another sausage he said!
Temptation these days is often associated with the temptation to eat too much. Lent is also associated with giving up eating or drinking things, chocolate, wine, coffee and possibly even sausages!
The danger is that our attitude to temptation becomes trivialised. For Jesus and the Bible temptation was a much bigger issue.
Chapter 4 of Luke comes immediately after a long genealogy of Jesus, which goes all the way back to Adam, who is referred to as ‘the Son of God’, because he was the first man created in God’s image. Yet, Adam’s legacy was that he gave into temptation. The one thing he was told not to do, he did when tempted by Satan and the results were catastrophic. He was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, away from the tree of life and death, suffering and pain became the lot of humankind.
The results of giving into temptation, do not mean just putting on a bit more weight, they can be incredibly destructive and catastrophic. You could argue that Ukraine is being destroyed now, because Putin gave into the temptation to prove his power by military means.
Yet, the new Son of God, Jesus Christ came and he never gave into temptation. It says in Hebrews:
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).
It was only because Jesus did not give into temptation that he could save us. It is only as we learn to not give into temptation that we can be increasingly useful for God.
Bible: Learning from the mistakes of others…
So how can we resist temptation? Well, we can learn from Jesus’s example in this passage. In it all he does is quote from the Bible!
We might think that all Jesus is doing here is memorising a few clever quotes. But actually, what Jesus is referring to with each quote is a lesson learnt from the experiences of God’s people. In fact all the quotes are from Deuteronomy, which records Moses’s final sermon to the people, where he outlines the lessons they have learnt as they travelled through the wilderness for 40 years.
The texts are therefore totally relevant to what Jesus is doing in spending 40 days in the wilderness. Jesus is not just quoting cleverly picked proof verses, he is referencing the lessons learnt by the people of God. He is learning from their mistakes. We too need to read the Bible as a story. It is the narrative that plays a key role in training us to resist temptation.
Listen to God not your stomach!
The first temptation is to do with Jesus’s stomach. He was fasting in the wilderness and no doubt would have been very hungry. So, the devil comes along and tempts him by saying,
“If you are the Son of God tell this stone to become bread.” (Luke 5:3)
In other words the devil wants Jesus to use his divine authority to meet his natural bodily desires.
Jesus’s response is to quote from Deuteronomy 8:3. But let me give you the whole of Deuteronomy 8:3:
“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)
Do you see how Moses is drawing on the history of Israel travelling through the wilderness to show them the lessons God was teaching them.
Actually, God used the Manna in a very particular way to teach them the importance of listening to his word, rather than their stomach!
He gave them very specific instructions about how and when to collect the manna. When they obeyed his instructions everything went well, they collected just what they needed to live on and came to see that God would provide. When however, they were driven by their hunger and tried to circumvent the instructions their efforts were wasted!
So, God sent don’t keep the manna until the next morning. Some however, worried that they would go hungry the next morning, didn’t listen to God and kept some for the next morning. The result was that it full of maggots and smelly – completely inedible. Not listening to God meant that it had all gone wrong!
Then at the end of the week, God said that they should collect twice as much on the day before the Sabbath and keep it overnight and not collect any on the Sabbath. However, this time, when it came to the Sabbath some did go out to collect some and found that their efforts were wasted and there was no manna to collect! Once again they lost out because they listened to their stomachs rather than God’s word.
Jesus gives Satan a short pithy quote, but behind the quote is a story, which much more powerfully and memorably teaches us the lesson. We live by hearing and obeying God’s word, not ignoring it and being led by our stomachs.
This is perhaps increasingly important in a world, where advertising and our phones are set up to appeal to our bodily desires. Whether it be take aways, alcohol or even the way our phones are set up, we are constantly being manipulated to do and buy things through an appeal to our natural impulses.
So yes, it is good to train ourselves not to be controlled by them.
But, for us as Christians, Lent needs to be more than about freeing ourselves from false impulses. We need to also train ourselves to listen to God’s word and to obey it. That is what Jesus was seeking to do in the wilderness.
When it later came to obeying God’s will and facing the physical agony of the cross, Jesus proved that God’s word was more important than his bodily desires by his act of obedience. If Jesus hadn’t managed to do that then we would not be saved!
So what drives you? Your stomach or other bodily desire or the word of God? Perhaps this Lent you could commit not just to giving up something, but to taking up God’s word and seeking God’s help to live by it more fully.
Submit to God not others
The second temptation is that Satan offers Jesus full authority over all the kingdoms of the world – if only he would worship the devil!
Jesus’s response is to quote Deuteronomy 6:13. But let me quote you the verses leading up to it:
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you–a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant–then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;” (Deuteronomy 6:10-14)
The LORD their God had defeated the Egyptians. He was about to defeat the people in the land of Canaan. Israel would owe their existence, their freedom and their occupation of the land to God, because God had shown that he was really in charge of the world. He had the ultimate power. He then was the one they should fear.
The temptation, however, faced by Israel was to look to other gods to help them. Perhaps when other nations seemed to be prospering or doing better, when they seemed to be stronger and have more powerful armies, the temptation was to start worshipping those gods instead. But that was always a mistake, because it was to forget who had the ultimate authority!
Satan’s temptation to Jesus was similar. Satan claims to have the ultimate authority in the world. There is some truth in that. The Bible often talks of Satan as being ‘Prince of this world,’ because people tend to listen to him rather than God. Yet, still the ultimate truth is that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Satan’s seeming rule is only a temporary aberration. One day he will be totally destroyed and defeated.
In Jesus’s ministry, he would be critical of those who seemed to have all the authority and power. This when the people in power had just had John the Baptist arrested, then beheaded for telling the authorities they should obey God! The temptation must have been strong not to stand out against the human authorities, to accept their rule as being more important than gods. Indeed, as Jesus went to the cross, it seemed that this earthly power, with Satan behind it seemed to be victorious as Jesus died a brutal and humiliating execution mocked by all around.
Yet, Jesus refused to bow to any human or Satanic authority. Rather he kept worshipping God and doing his will. The result was God proved that his kingdom was a greater kingdom by raising Jesus from the dead and seating him at his right hand! From then on repentance and faith in Jesus has been preached in all nations and he has followers everywhere.
Jesus has ultimate authority not by worshipping Satan, but by worshipping God alone.
But the question is are we willing to worship God alone or do we bow to the pressures and forces around us. Do we seek to fit in with one cultural opinion or other in our world, bowing to the prevailing views or do we constantly seek to test all views and opinions against God’s will, worshipping him alone.
Trust God don’t Test Him
In the last temptation, Satan tries to use Scripture to push Jesus into doing something wrong.
He takes Jesus to the high point of the temple and suggests that he throw himself down, because God has promised he will rescue him with angels. The quote comes from Psalm 91 that we read earlier.
Jesus’s response is to quote again from Deuteronomy.
Let me give you the full verse again:
“Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah.” (Deteronomy 6:16).
Once again there is a story behind all this. Israel have just come out of Egypt and gone into the wilderness. They have seen God do amazing things in sending plagues on the Egyptians, leading them through the Red Sea and destroying the pursuing Egyptian army.
Now, however, they are in the desert and there is not much water. They start complaining to Moses. They wonder what God is up to. Has he just led them out to die? Is he really with them?
Of course he is – and proves it by telling Moses to strike a rock. The result is water comes from the rock and they have plenty to drink.
The problem is that they were demanding proof that God was able and willing to support and look after them – even after all he had done.
The devil is seeking to get Jesus to want God to prove his trustworthiness to him by performing an amazing miracle. Yet, such a desire to test God in this way, shows a lack of trust in God’s care and provision.
When Jesus went to the cross, he would have to trust that God would bring him out the other side of death. That he would be resurrected. There was no way to test that before hand!
But who are we to test God. Such an action is a failure of trust, the antithesis of faith. We need to learn to trust that God will see us through even in the most difficult and challenging of times. That he will not let us down.
Only that kind of non-testing faith will really see us through, as it saw Jesus through.
Resisting Temptation
So can you also learn to resist temptation? We need to learn the lessons from the Bible. Not just punchy memory verses, but the lessons of God’s relationship with his people. The story of the Bible.
When we do that like Jesus, we see the importance of keeping God as number one in our lives.
Learning to listen and follow his word more than our natural bodily desires.
Seeking to keep him as our worship and focus and not any ideologies, cultures or rulers of this world.
Trusting him without feeling we need to make him pass a test. Rather trusting that he is with us and will be with us even through the toughest of times.
That is what Jesus did and that is what Jesus calls us to seek to do as well, with his help.
Following on from the performance of I AM MARK on March 5th, we are going to be running a number of small groups studying Christianity Explored. This course takes you through Mark’s gospel together and has videos that use Mark’s gospel to teach the Christian faith. They are safe and friendly groups, that give you the opportunity to ask whatever questions you like about what you read in Mark or about the Christian faith itself. They are also a good place to meet and get to know others better.
The main group for St. George’s will be meeting on Wednesdays at 2pm, starting on 9th March. However, if you cannot make that time you are welcome to join a group at one of the other churches.
You are free to attend the first or second session of the course, with no commitment to attend the rest. The course lasts for 7 weeks. We plan to have 5 weeks before Easter a break for a couple of weeks and 2 weeks after Easter.
Please click the button below to register an interest in the course and to say which group you would like to attend.
I AM MARK is Stefan Smart’s solo word-for-word dramatisation of Mark’s Gospel. Its uniquely dramatic qualities make it both thoroughly entertaining and extremely thought-provoking.
Stefan has performed this piece to great acclaim in churches, cathedrals, conferences and schools across the UK and abroad, and has recently played before sell-out audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This year a film version of the show came out for US Global TV network, CMaxTV. Stefan’s heart is to reproduce what it must have been like to for a first century audience to listen to this story at first hand. In doing so he makes the Bible come alive again for 21st century people everywhere.
Stefan follows the performance with a short Q & A with the audience, offering them a unique opportunity to respond personally to what they’ve seen and to ask questions about the faith.
In recent months we have been exploring how to provide opportunities for the youth associated with both St. George’s and St. Luke’s churches to grow in friendship with each other and to explore their own faith in God, through their own bible study and in planning and leading occasional evening services.
Starting on 13th March the plan, during term time, will be to gather weekly on Sundays in the early evening. There will be three parts to the evening, facilitated by myself and a small team of volunteers (if you want to be a volunteer let me know)
The idea is to meet in the lounge area in St. Luke’s church to begin with. We would hope to trial this for a few terms and review whether the location, pattern and timings work for as many of our youth as possible.
Each term (roughly 6-8 weeks apart) we will be holding a youth-led service for all ages to attend. The youth will plan these during part of the bible study portion of the evening.
Any youth at Secondary school aged 11 or over is very welcome to be part of these Sunday evenings. Volunteers for any part of the evening would be really helpful.
Please contact me on 01843 316656 or curate@stlukesramsgate.org for more information or to register interest.
Claire Coleman.
We are grateful to the help of Peter Cornell, an old friend of Paul Worledge for his help in setting up the sound system at St. George’s. We now have an effective lectern microphone and one radio lapel microphone, which Peter has let us have on permanent loan. Both of these seemed to work very well at our service last Sunday.
Unfortunately, the loop system does not seem to be working, but Peter has offered to look at seeing if we can fix that on a future date.
During February and March we will be using some new orders of service booklets. We are going to vary it a bit.
The beige colour booklet is very similar to the service we have been using in recent years. The blue colour booklet is the traditional Book of Common Prayer service in traditional language and the green colour booklet is a Eucharist, but with some alternative prayers to what we normally use and is overall a shorter service.
All three booklets follow what is authorised by the Church of England. At the end of March we will carry out a survey to gather your views on the different styles of service in order to decide what kind of service we should have going forward.
The crypt has now been made safe from asbestos. All the asbestos has been either removed or sealed away safely and the crypt thoroughly cleaned of dust. It is now safe for people to work in, which should allow us to do further work such as potentially installing a new boiler to improve our heating.
A big thank you to Medway Insulations for their professional work on this venture.
Abraham and Lot faced important choices when arguments broke out. Yet, what motivated Abraham to make the choices he did?
Read more below or watch the video recording of this sermon at St. Luke’s.
Introduction- faith is a journey
From the moment God called Abram, and Abram chose to listen, follow and obey, he was on a journey not just a physical one moving from Ur to Haran, Shechem and on into Canaan but a spiritual one too. He had been called by God who he didn’t know before – hadn’t worshiped before – his physical journey was echoing a spiritual one – he was getting to know God.
Abraham, this man of faith that is remembered in the New Testament began where we all do not knowing God and then he went on an epic journey! He had received promises from God. He was following God’s instructions and he was growing in his faith journey. Alongside his physical journey At each place they settled Abram built an altar to the Lord. An altar was a place of sacrifice of worship. Abram spent time in an attitude of humility and prayer giving the God who called him praise and honour. As Abram got to know God he would get to know that God was a god he could trust that he would fulfill his promises but like any relationship that took time being together on that journey physically and spiritually.
Around Ten years ago I went on an adventurous journey. I went to New Zealand with the mission organization OM on a three month discipleship and evangelism programme. There were seven of us in our twenties that had signed up for this programme. At the start of the programme we didn’t know each other at all. We travelled from place to place across both islands, hiked mountains, swam in frozen lakes, camped in remote spots, and when you travel together, cook together, do your laundry together you do get to know each other real well. But it wasn’t just getting to know the other participants – through daily bible studies and worship, evangelism training I got to grow deeper in faith and in love with Jesus, to be stretched out of my comfort zone of what was familiar and trust and know Jesus more, digging deeper into God’s word. God opened up my eyes to the vastness of his world to the beauty of it, to his work in it and that he was always faithful. Going on that adventure journey developed my understanding of God further.
What can Abrams journey teach us about our own journeys with God? Abram chose this journey. On this journey Abram was learning more and more about God. About how he could choose to truly trust God and believe the promises he’d been given.
Choose God
In our passage from Genesis 13 we see choices that Abram made – he chose to call on the name of the Lord, he chose to be generous and let his nephew choose the best land, and he chose to continue trusting in God to fulfill his promises. His choices were influenced by his knowledge of and relationship with God. How are our choices influenced by God? How can they be? Do we allow them to be? What can the journey and choices of Abram teach us?
Abrams journey with God begins in the previous chapter (ch. 12) – Abram encounters God for the first time (v1). He makes a choice to follow God (v4), he encounters God again at Shechem and builds an altar there and worships God (v7) , Abram continues the journey, where he builds another altar between Bethel and Ai and worships God again – calling on the name of the Lord (v8), before traveling to Negev – then (v10) a famine hits that region so they travel on to Egypt.
This is where Abram makes a choice to lie to Pharaoh about the identity of his wife – he’s like no that’s not my wife! That’s my sister! The reason he did that was because he was fearful of his own life. Because his wife was so beautiful He thought if they knew he was married to Sarah they would kill him so that then they could marry her. So he lied – and he actually did okay from the lie – v16, he acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkey, male and female servants and camels. You might think, well that can’t have been a bad choice really…. But then we get to v17 But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So the Egyptians kick them out of the Egypt sending them on their way.
Abram had received a promise that God would make him into a great nation (12:2). That, would involve Abram being alive to have children, he’s promised again in 12:7 that his offspring will be given the land. Instead of trusting that in order for that to be fulfilled God would keep him safe, he chose to lie and deceive.
It’s after this event that we have our passage for today. Where Abram once again chooses to call on the name of the Lord. And I think it’s necessary to know what happened in Egypt in order for us to fully grasp what it might mean for Abram to be calling on the name of the Lord here.
After the events in Egypt we trace his journey from Egypt back to the Negev and then back to the altar he had built between Bethel and Ai. There is a parallel here between Abram retracing his physical steps to go back to where he had encounters with God. And retracing his spiritual steps – He again calls on the name of the Lord. By Calling on the name of the Lord, there’s a sense that he’s seeking forgiveness, he feels a need to recalibrate, to acknowledge he’d made a mistake and not trusted God to keep him safe. He’s choosing to reconnect with God to reboot. Its almost like there’s a desparate need in him to call on God’s name, its a priority, he wants to put things right with God. He chooses God again.
Is that true for any of us here today – do we feel a real need within us to reconnect with God – to get back on track and retrace our steps. Do we choose God?
I also wonder that this desire of Abram to call on God’s name – to worship him, is not only due to a need to recalibrate but also to acknowledge God’s power – he’d seen it at work in Egypt. He understands better who God is and wants to go back to calling on the name of the Lord and trusting in him.
Do we choose to get to know God better by calling on his name? Being here today I am making an assumption that you have made a choice to worship God, to acknowledge like Ab we don’t always get it right, but are seeking out God, to know him better and worship him.
Choose to be transformed
It is a choice to worship God, acknowledge him, call on his name
And that choice then leads to a transformation. When you spend time with someone you can often become more like them.
In the New Testament there is this sense that through choosing to know God through Jesus a transformation occurs – in Romans 12:1-2 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Worship leads to transformation. And in Ephesians we read ‘when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.’
By spending time with God, getting to know God better, I believe Abram is changing and transforming.
I believe this is what we are seeing in the way Abram deals with the situation that arises in our reading. Abram is faced with a dilemma. Arguments have broken out amongst his herders and those of his nephews. It is not Abram alone that is wealthy, Lot his nephew has also gained his own flocks and herd and servants. They have become too many to be together in one place. The commentaries explain that it is highly likely that it was not sustainable to stay where they were together, there wasn’t enough pasture for all the cattle and livestock to feed – it was inevitable that they would divide. But how would Abram deal with this situation?
As the elder in the relationship he had every right to choose the best land for himself, and yet he forfeits that right, allowing Lot to choose – and unsurprisingly Lot chooses the most fertile land.
There is a sense here that Abram has been renewing his mind, changing his moral compass, choosing to be in line with God who called him – to live a life trusting Him. God has generously promised Abram that he will make him a great nation. As he spends time with God he transforms in his choices, and chooses to be selfless and generous rather than greedy and looking out for his own benefit and gain.
Ab is choosing in this encounter with his nephew to be generous, just as God is generous and he does not conform to greedy self centered ways. His worship has led to his choices being transformed. He’s called on the name of the Lord, spent time with Him and in doing so is changed from what would have been expected. He is becoming more godly in his behaviours.
Do we choose to spend time getting to know God, to know what he is like (through prayer, worship and reading God’s word) both with other Christians but also on our own? Are our choices changing as we know God better? Do we make choices because of God’s generosity? That reflects his generosity and love?
Abrams blessed again
Abram’s choice motivated by his relationship with God appeared to lead to the loss of well watered ground – he let Lot choose, and Lot chose what seemed to be the best land. As I was preparing this message I wondered whether Abram felt a moments pang of disappointment – that he was left with land that didn’t look as good as the land Lot had chosen. It made me think How do we respond in times of disappointment?
Abram could have dwelt on ‘missing out’ on the land on the plains – been disappointed – we don’t know. But when they part ways Abram encounters God again. He might of been disappointed but if he was that didn’t last for long – His choice of generosity and selflessness led to another encounter with God where his promises are further expanded – promises that his offspring will be so numerous that like dust it cannot be counted, that as far as the eye could see the land would be his and his offsprings forever and was instructed to lay claim to the land by walking the length and breadth of it.
God was blessing Abram with the whole land and wants Abram to enjoy all the blessings that the whole land has to offer. Which again led to Abram obeyong, worshiping God – building an altar to him again and journeying around the land he had been promised.
In the New Testament we are promised and told that because of God’s love for his world Jesus was sent into the world that whoever believes in Jesus would not die but have eternal life – that is the ultimate blessing, the ultimate promised land.
Do we take pleasure in and enjoy all that we have been given in our lives? Do we take seriously the promise of eternal life. Enjoying our life now, living a life knowing God and obey his call and seeing the blessings we have now and those to come?
Conclusion
Abram chose to follow God – his faith grew. He went on both a physical and spiritual journey with God.
We are at different points in our journey with God. Are we going to choose to follow God, coming to him when we don’t get it right? Are we going to choose to make time to worship and know God better? Are we going to choose to live a life of transformation that reflects his love and generosity? Are we going to choose to keep walking with him even past possible disappointments, to the blessings he will bring?
My prayer is that Like Abram as we know God better we turn to him when we might get it wrong, we choose to get to know him better and grow our trust in his promises, we see transformation in our motives, attitudes and choices, and we keep walking with God, even in disappointments, so that we would see the final blessings of a life with God for all eternity.
Abraham is one of the Bible’s best known characters, but why is this man who lived 4,000 years ago so important? Find out how the promises God made to him are so important for understanding the whole Bible and why Abraham himself is a great example to us.
Below is a version of the sermon preached at St. George’s on 17th January. You can also watch a video version of the sermon preached at St. Luke’s on that day.
Why does Abraham matter?
Abraham was born in the city of Ur around 2,000BC. We live about 2,000 years after Jesus, Abraham lived around 2,000 years before Jesus.
We might imagine that his world was rather backward, but actually it was one with well established cities and cultures that extended across the middle east. After all the great pyramids of Egypt were built hundreds of years before his time and many of the cities mentioned in our reading had been around for hundreds of years – far longer than the United States has existed in our time!
The city of his birth was Ur. It was a key trading city and around 2,000BC was at the height of its power with an empire covering much of Southern Mesopatamia. The city would have had a population of about quarter of a million – about twice the size of Thanet’s population today. It’s culture was dominated by worship of the moon and even today you can visit the remains of a Ziggurat built there at this time, which was about 30m high and had a temple to the moon God, ‘Sin’ at its top.
Abraham grew up in this cosmopolitan place, but for some reason his family left Ur – possibly fleeing from a foreign invasion or possibly because of the call of God. They planned to go to Canaan, but ended up in Haran, a similar size city with another temple to Sin, the moon god, but far to the North West of Ur. Here the family settled, in what would have felt a bit like a home from home.
That is a bit of what we can glean about Abraham’s background. But why does he matter? Why is he probably the only person from that time period you have ever heard of? What was special about this man from Ur? Why does he matter for us living 4,000 years later!
To answer that question, we need to look at both the Big Picture of how Abraham fits into the story of the Bible and the Small Picture of his own life and how he is an example for us to follow. But lets start with the big picture.
Big Picture: New People of Promise – God’s Plan for History
If you have watched an action film, then you may have noticed that there is a set pattern to how the films begin.
They usually start off with an exciting action sequence that whets your appetite for the action that is to follow, sets some of the key themes and feel of the movie, but most importantly draws you into the film before you get too bored.
However, after the opening action sequence, there is usually a less exciting scene that sets up the plot or the story. This scene is really important to help you understand what is going on in the rest of the film.
So, in a James Bond film, there is usually an exciting and dramatic opening action sequence and then we have James Bond meeting with ‘M’ to talk about the mission that he needs to carry out. It’s not exciting, but it is crucial to understand what is going on.
Well, the Bible is a bit like that. The first 11 chapters of Genesis are spectacular action packed setting up some of the big themes of the whole Bible, there’s God’s creation, the dramatic fall of man from the Garden of Eden, the first murder and a flood that nearly wipes everything out. This is all big dramatic stuff.
Then we have this section about Abram. But this section is really important if we want to grasp what is going on in the rest of the Bible. It sets up the story ready for us to follow.
Let me briefly show you how.
A story of promise fulfilled
Firstly, note that God promises Abram that he is going to make him into a great nation. This is a crucial idea and much of the rest of the story of the Old Testament is how this nation that is descended from Abram is going to become great.
People:
Firstly, to be a great nation you need to have lots of people. This gets off to a slow start. Abram’s wife is barren he cannot have children! But, much of the focus of the rest of Abram’s story is about how God provides him with one son!
By the end of Genesis, the family has grown. There are now 72, but this is still a long way from being nation sized!
However, at the start of Exodus we are told that now this family has become people sized. But they are in the wrong place.
Place / Land:
Secondly, a nation needs a place to be or a land to live on.
In this passage God makes clear to Abraham that the land of Canaan would belong to his descendants. But at this point it is already full of other people. How will this be?
Purpose:
So, these words to Abraham, are words that help us to understand the plot of the whole Bible, to see God’s great plan. A plan that worked through a n historic nation, but ultimately led to Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
But, there are two more things to say about the big picture.
A story of blessing not curse
Firstly, it is a story of blessing not curse.
In a way Genesis 1-11 has been dominated by judgement and curse:
Adam is kicked out of the garden of Eden and barred from the tree of life.
Cain is sent into exile for murdering his brother.
The world is destroyed by a flood because of the wickedness of man.
Those building the tower of Babel are scattered and divided, because of their pride.
Now, as God comes to Abraham he says his intention is to reverse the situation. Now, God wants to bring blessing not curse, life not death.
The Bible is full of God’s judgement, which is a necessary consequence of human sin, but this passage shows us that God’s plan and purpose is to bring blessing on the world not curse.
A story of divine action not human achievement
Then this big picture shows us how the Bible history is different to the way normal human history is told. Notice in these verses, Abraham is not really asked to do anything other than start a journey with God, but God says five times, “I will….” emphasising that it is all about divine action not human achievement.
God promises Abraham that he will make his name great. Well in the previous chapter, the people of the earth came together to build a tower in order to make their name great:
“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselve….” (Genesis 11:4)
God’s response to their proud ambition is to scatter them over the face of the earth. A great name does not come from achieving great things, but in trusting in God’s promises.
As you go through the Bible, again and again it tells us what God does for the sake of his people:
Joseph recognises that he was able to rescue Egypt and the world from famine, because of God’s providence.
Israel escape Egypt not because of any brilliance or strength on their own part, but because God acts to send plagues.
Jericho falls, because it is God that brings the walls crashing down.
David slays Goliath, not because he was a sharp shooter with a sling, but because he trust God to win the battle for him.
This is the gospel, for our salvation is based not on what we do, but on what God has done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
So, these verses are a crucial point in the Big Picture of the Bible story. They give us the outline of the promises that will be fulfilled as the history of Israel unfolds and show us that this story’s ultimate aim is blessing not curse brought about by divine action not human achievement.
But there is also a small picture aspect for us. This is not just about the people of promise that God would create, but about a person of promise: Abraham and how he can be an example to us.
Small Picture: New Person of Promise
Let me briefly show you three things about Abram’s life.
A life resurrected – Gen. 11:27-32
Firstly, it was a life, resurrected. At the end of chapter 11 is a quick outline of Abram’s family. It is not a pretty picture.
There is incest, with his brother Nahor marrying his other brother’s daughter. In fact we later learn that Sarai is Abram’s half-sister!
There is also an emphasis on death. His brother Haran has died and tragically before his father, Terah. And all we are told about Terah is that he too died in the city of Haran.
Then we are also told, that Abram’s wife, Sarai is barren. She is unable to have children. Abram’s family line seems to be coming to a dead end.
Yet, too this dead end, God promises abundant life.
Paul puts it like this in Romans:
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead–since he was about a hundred years old–and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.” (Romans 14:18-19)
A life abandoned – Gen. 12:4-5
So, Abram is promise a life resurrected, but he is called to set out with God and that means abandoning things from his old life.
Abram had to leave the comfortable city life of Haran, his father, his old culture and people like him and head off to a new life in Canaan.
And he did, because he knew that the blessing God had to offer was worth far more than what he was called to abandon.
For us as well, Abram is our example. To follow God today may mean abandoning things that are important to us. Jesus says:
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
A life embraced – Gen. 12:6-9
Abram has to abandon some important parts of his life, but he also embraces what God has promises. We see this in the verses about his journey through Canaan, which in itself is a celebration of what God is promising him.
He builds an altar in the midst of the Canaanites at Shechem, which was probably a religious sanctuary as a demonstration of his commitment not to the gods of the land, but to the true God of the universe.
This is a man who is embracing what God has called him to. As it says in Hebrews:
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:8-10)
Conclusion:
This passage about God’s promises to Abram is crucial if we are to understand the big picture of the Bible story.
But, it also shows us a man like us, who although he lived 4,000 years ago is still a great example to us of the faith response we are called to as we respond to God’s call.
St. George's Church Ramsgate