Monthly Archives: January 2022

PATRIARCHAL FAITH

Bible Study, ,

PATRIARCHAL FAITH

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instruction concerning the burial of his bones (Heb. 11: 17-22).

As little as the patriarchs knew of God, they were men of faith. Oops! What did I say? They probably knew God far more intimately than many of us do. Who was this God whom they worshipped? He introduced Himself to Abraham as el, the one who, to the Hebrew person, was not some unique being who was holy, eternal and unknowable except through revelation, although these facts are true.  God was, to them, the one who had power and authority. When He spoke, they obeyed and when He promised, He acted.

Later on, He added another dimension to Abraham’s understanding of Him – El Shaddai – the Mighty One who nourishes. He is the one who has strength and authority and who provides for those who trust Him. These were the simple, everyday experiences of the early fathers because they trusted God and did what He told them to do, even to the near-killing of Abraham’s only son-of-his-old-age who brought him joy and laughter.

God said, ‘Go, sacrifice Isaac,’ so Abraham went without hesitating or questioning. How about that for trust! He had no Bible to check up on God. He had no history of a people who knew and followed El. He was a pioneer who had left home and kindred to go where this God had told him to go, and he went. In his going, he discovered that his God was able to exactly as He had promised. Wasn’t Isaac proof of that? Whoever heard of a ninety-year-old woman having a child, and that after she had gone through menopause?

So confident he was in God that he was willing to put Isaac’s life on the line, as much as he loved him, for the sake of obeying God, and leave the outcome to Him. The writer commented that Abraham even credited God with the power to raise Isaac back to life after he had plunged in the knife and taken his life. Why did he believe that? He knew Him. His past was spread out in front of him like a panorama of everything he had experienced, and God was in it from the moment he first heard His voice.

Abraham lived up to God’s expectation.

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about what He has promised Him (Gen. 18: 18-19).

Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Abraham’s descendants, all eventually followed the way of Yahweh because Abraham obeyed God and taught his offspring to do the same. Although the Bible does not mention his influence on his grandchildren, he was still alive long after they were born. He lived to the ripe old age of one hundred and seventy-five years.

Abraham’s son, Isaac and grandson, Jacob received the same promise that God gave to Abraham (Gen 26: 3-5; Gen 28: 13-15). Joseph, although he died in Egypt, was so sure of the fulfilment of God’s promise that he left instructions for his bones to be take back to Canaan when the people eventually left Egypt to take possession of the land of Canaan (Gen 50: 24-25; Ex 13: 19).

These were momentous days. Think of what this meant to these families. Abraham was uprooted from a stable life in Ur to spend the rest of his life as a nomad, with no land of his own, living in tents and moving from place to place, always at the mercy and goodwill of the local inhabitants.

Isaac and Jacob never knew what it was like to live in a house and have land of their own. Jacob twice had to relocate hundreds of miles from where he was born, ending up in a land where the ruler eventually turned hostile and enslaved his descendants.

Joseph was sold into slavery by jealous brothers, ripped from his beloved father’s side and carried off to a heathen land where he served for thirteen years before God promoted him to a position of power and authority. Even there, in spite of the honour he had received, he was still alone, without family and heritage until his brothers came and he was reunited with them.

What a story! And yet, God was in it and behind it all, working out His will to bless and provide for His people. How did they know that? He had promised and they trusted Him and did what He instructed. What about us? Would we have done what they did at the command of someone they could not see? That’s real faith!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

FOREIGNERS AND STRANGERS

Bible Study, ,

FOREIGNERS AND STRANGERS

And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own (Heb. 11: 11-14).

Although the heroes of faith obeyed God and received many promises while they were still on earth, the writer implied that their faith held onto something even bigger than earthly things. The promises they inherited here were only temporal and passing away.  Something better awaited them when they passed from this life.

Their salvation rested on the sacrifice of Jesus as surely as it does for those who have lived on this side of the cross but they knew that there were promises awaiting them and they died trusting that God would honour His promises beyond death.

If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them (Heb. 11: 15-16).

This was the crux of their faith in God – the long look – a sense of eternity that saw the bigger picture. They were willing to endure the hardships of this life because they knew that death was not the end. Solomon also recognised that there was something more to man than just physical life.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from the beginning (Eccl. 3: 11).

In spite of people’s desire to escape accountability to God by denying His existence or by denying an afterlife, we cannot snuff out what God has written into us from the beginning. He created Adam for eternal fellowship with Himself. Adam’s sin disrupted the unity of the human race after him with God but He was not finished with us. He had already set in motion His solution before He blew life into Adam’s inert form.

Both Abraham and Sarah came out of their pagan origins to trust in the one true God as He spoke to them and led them from Ur to Canaan. He drew out their faith by His faithfulness to them so that it became easier and easier to follow His instructions and entrust themselves and their future to Him.

But they knew that not even Canaan was their final home. Just as they lived in tents as nomads in the land of promise, so they also understood that they were nomads in this life. They had no permanent dwelling here. Their permanent home with God awaited their relocation to a better place, where the sin and suffering of this world would be no more. Had their permanent home been back in Ur, said the writer, they could have returned, but they didn’t.

How important it is for us the hold on to God’s promise as well! If we only live for this life, we will wake up with a shock when we leave these mortal tents behind to find that we have made no preparation for the life to come. This life is an apprenticeship for the next. God has given us many clues regarding what He expects of us here. One of them, and we miss this one, is how we exercise our stewardship of the resources God has lent to us in this life. Jesus gives us a clear directive for this one:

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much; and whoever is dishonest with very little will be dishonest with much. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16: 10-12).

Like Abraham and Sarah, the proof of our faith is obedience to God’s instructions. When we do what He says, we declare our love for Him. We confirm our confidence in His promises and we await with anticipation the fullness of life in His kingdom forever, beyond the grave. Like Abraham, we know that God has prepared a dwelling place for us with Him that far outshines any city or mansion here on earth.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling because, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (2 Cor. 5: 1-4).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

TEMPORARY DWELLINGS

Bible Study, ,

TEMPORARY DWELLINGS

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

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 a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Heb. 11: 7-10).

Two more great heroes of faith! What did they do? Different things, obviously. There is no formula for faith and obedience.

Noah was instructed to build a boat. What? A boat in the middle of nowhere! Why? Because it’s going to rain, Noah! Rain? What is rain, God? Never mind. Just build the ark and you’ll find out soon enough.

So, Noah and his three boys got busy and began to build the boat. They had no power tools. It was a long and tedious task. They had to cut and fashion each piece and put them all together as instructed, to the exact design and dimensions given them by God. How did God give them the details? Did He put pictures in Noah’s mind? Did He write down the description and measurements on tablets of clay just like He wrote the Ten Commandments on stone? We have no idea how He did it.

How long did it take Noah and company to build the ark? The Bible gives no answer – long enough for people to repent, but they didn’t. ,

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Noah was described as a “preacher of righteousness.” He did not keep quiet while he worked. He obviously told the curious onlookers what he was doing. They scoffed at him until the rain fell, but it was too late. The ark was sealed, shut by God and they perished in the flood. Who was right and who was wrong? The ark became his home for a whole year – unstable in the wind and waves, but safe because God was there, protecting them because Noah believed God.

Abraham, another of God’s heroes! His circumstances were different from Noah’s. He didn’t need an ark. He needed a tent. God told him to get out of town. Ur was a place of idolatry – the aftermath of Nimrod’s rebellion and the false religion he set up at Babel. If he stayed there, he would perish in his idolatry and unbelief. Where, God? Never mind, Abraham. No directions; no explanations; just go!

So, Abraham packed up and went. Which way, God? Just keep going, Abraham. So, Abraham followed the river. He needed water for his household and livestock. Miles and miles of desert, wind and sand, living in tents. Day after day he had to pack up and move on, uproot his home, fasten everything securely on camels, only to do it all over again tomorrow. How much time did it take to do all that? How much travelling time did he have each day? But had kept going.

How much further, God? Just keep moving, Abraham. I’ll tell you when you have arrived. What faith to keep going! What patience to persevere! Why did he do it? Why didn’t he turn around and go home after the first few weeks? Because he believed God! Imperfect, faltering faith, but somewhere up ahead he knew that God had a permanent place for him. How did he know? Because God said so.

And God was pleased with Noah and Abraham, because they believed Him. Imagine that! They were counted as righteous before God because they believed what He said and did what He told them to do. There was no Jesus to save them, yet, but they were accounted righteous anyway, acceptable before God because they trusted Him.

Isn’t that what God requires of us? To trust Him with our eternal destiny because His word tells us that Jesus died in our place? To trust Him with our day to day lives because He is with us and will never leave or forsake us? To trust Him when He tells us what to do because He is in charge? He isn’t looking for great exploits. He’s looking for simple trust that issues in prompt ad implicit obedience – that’s all!

We are also in our temporary dwelling, but God has a permanent place for us, in His eternal home – if we believe and obey.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE FAITH HALL OF FAME

Bible Study, ,

THE FAITH HALL OF FAME

By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death, ‘He could not be found because God had taken him away.’ For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Heb. 11: 4-6).

Having given his readers a concise definition of faith, the writer proceeded to give them a resume of the great heroes of faith in the history of God’s people. Faith is only true faith when it issues in action that is based on God’s instructions or in a walk of trust in Him. To the Hebrew mind, intellectual assent to information about God that does not issue in a response to Him is pointless. To them, there was no such thing as “I believe there is a God,” but continue to live as I like, because my belief is irrelevant unless I recognise that I am accountable to Him.

Abel’s faith that issued in his act of worship by bringing an offering of “the fat portions of the firstborn of his flock” (gen 4: 4) is remarkable given that he did not have the Mosaic Covenant to follow. How did Abel know that the first of the increase of the flocks and herds and the produce of the land belonged to God? Was his love for God so strong that he instinctively worshipped Him with the best? It seems that he was of a different spirit from his brother Cain.

And what of Enoch? He loved and worshipped God in the midst of a corrupt and evil society. He was the sixth generation from Adam. By this time humankind had become so corrupt that God regretted that He had made man. He saved Noah, the only righteous person on earth, and his family, to preserve and rebuild the human race in the hopes that the flood would wipe out the evil so that He could begin again with a righteous man.

We are told that “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him.” (Gen. 6: 24). What does that mean? It is another way of saying that God removed him from the earth without dying. Wow! And that in the midst of extreme wickedness! Only one other man in the Biblical record left the earth without dying – Elijah, who went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Not even Jesus, the Son of God, escaped death.

Faith and obedience – two intertwined responses to God. Faith that does not take God seriously enough to respond in obedience is not faith – it is foolishness. It is the height of insult to any person to treat him or his words as irrelevant or inconsequential. The greatest compliment any person can pay another is to listen to him and to take him and his word seriously. Only when that person proves that his word is not to be trusted can one dismiss what he says with a pinch of salt.

God takes great pleasure in those who obey Him even if they do not understand the reason for what He requires because they trust Him and know that He knows what He is doing, even if they don’t. The religious leaders crucified Jesus because they refused to take Him seriously even when He produced proof to corroborate His claims.

‘Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.’ Again, they tried to seize Him, but He escaped their grasp. (John 10: 37-38).

God has left us in no doubt as to what pleases Him the most. Faith issuing in obedience – God’s pleasure. No faith – no obedience – no pleasure. It’s as simple as that!

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ (Acts 13: 22).

God does not only require obedience that issues from trust in Him. He also rewards those who trust Him. No response of faith and obedience goes unnoticed. He rewards those who earnestly seek Him, not always in the way we expect but always according to His will because He sees the bigger picture. This is another thing about trusting God. It’s about trusting Him, not our expectation of Him because He is God and we are not. To trust God is to allow Him to be God in our circumstances because He works according to His plan, not ours.

Trust – obey – please God – reward. This how God works with us.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

TWO MIGHTY STATEMENTS

Bible Study, ,

TWO MIGHTY STATEMENTS

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Heb. 11:1-3).

Two mighty statements! A superb definition of faith and a magnificent explanation of creation!

The writer referred to faith as the vehicle through which we enter this life in Christ, sustain this life and participate in all the benefits of Jesus’s sacrifice and high priesthood. Faith. What is faith? Two words describe faith in a nutshell – confidence and assurance. Faith reaches out from our hearts into the unseen realm and lays hold of spoken words to pull them into the natural until the unseen becomes visible. The believer puts his confidence in the trustworthiness of the one who spoke the words.

Not every word spoken into the atmosphere has weight. Many, many of the promises spoken by unreliable people vanish into oblivion as soon as they are out of their mouths. What about the empty promises made by politicians to hopeful electorate to gain their vote? Their words have not weight because they cannot fulfil them or because they have no intention of honouring their word.

What about words spoken by parents to children which are never carried out, leaving their offspring disappointed and disillusioned about the trustworthiness of their promises, spawning frustration and rebellion. How can God be trusted when His representatives don’t follow through on a simple promise? But God is reliable. That’s who He is!

Assurance! Confidence gives birth to assurance based on the credibility of the one who has promised. Although the promises of fickle humans do not always offer assurance, we can have absolute assurance that the word of our reliable God cannot be broken. His word is based on His character. He cannot deny Himself. He is God, after all.

“Look at the universe”, urges the writer. “How did it come into being?” God’s word! God spoke and stuff happened. That’s how powerful and trustworthy what God says, is. When He releases a word from His mouth, it has creative power. It can make happen in the visible world what is invisible in the atmosphere. God releases from His mouth what is already inside of Himself and it will translate into what He says because of who He is.

Faith = confidence and assurance. This is our invisible link with God’s promises and His power to do what He has said. It is His chosen way and He cannot act outside of faith. When we fail to trust Him enough to rest in what He has said, His hands are tied. There is no link between the unseen and the seen realm. Faith is the fine gossamer thread that links the temporal with the eternal.

Let’s look at the writer’s illustration. Contrary to the “ex nihilo” – out-of-nothing – explanation of the theologians, the Bible tells us what He did. God spoke into the physical what was already in existence; He made the visible out of what was invisible – atoms, energy – which is within Himself. Out of His own divine energy He formed the universe by the power of His command.

It is by the same power of His command that He brings into the visible world that which already exists in Him – His will. If He could fashion the universe out of the energy that was already within Himself, how simple it is for Him to bring into visibility the promises He has decreed by His word. The fact that His delays are connected to His timing does not negate His faithfulness in fulfilling His promise.

The issue, then, does not lie with God’s reliability but with our response. It is through faith – holding on to the gossamer thread that connects us to Him – and patience, the willingness to wait for His time that will see the promises fulfilled. Faith and hope, confidence and assurance, seeing the end result encapsulated in the promise and being confident that He who promised is faithful – reliable and secure.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.