创世记

Meditative Reflection
Slowness of Faith

Often as we read about Abraham’s betrayal of his wife to save his own life not once but twice, we are puzzled as to why the “father of faith” could commit such a cowardice act. This is because we have forgotten that even Abraham had to grow in faith and that was a long process, just like yours and mine.

As much as his immediate and absolute obedience to God’s call to move from his homeland even to a destination he was not told was indeed very precious and amazing, his knowledge of God, especially in terms of experiencing God, was still in a formative stage prior to his move to Egypt. It would take years, and literally decades and through many failures that he would grow eventually into the “father of faith”. In fact, some of his failures were in areas that we “might” be stronger — the lies about his wife for fear for his life, and the taking of a concubine. But such failures had not prevented him from bouncing back and growing not only in faith, but in his relationship with God.

Shouldn’t we be thankful that we have a God who is absolutely long-suffering, and that we, too, can bounce back from the most horrible mistakes in life and become somebody who can be a blessing to God’s kingdom?

Meditative Reflection
Progression versus Digression

Yesterday, we were reflecting on Abram’s faith, the growth of which appeared to be slow, as it was a process that spanned decades. Nonetheless, it was a process of progression.

The same opportunity was in fact available to Lot. He too followed Abram’s journey, leaving also his own home land. He was with Abram every step, witnessing both his failures and his growth in faith. And he also saw the reward of faith in the life of Abram, as his uncle grew in wealth. In fact, he too grew in wealth. But Abram did not allow his wealth to be a distraction to his journey of faith, Lot did.

Whether it was out of his junior position as the nephew of Abram or the obvious fact that he owed his wealth to Abram, he should have deferred the choice of land to Abram. But his growth in wealth and prosperity had blinded him to his cultural etiquette and the danger lurking in his move towards the immoral city of Sodom. His progression toward temptation was marked by seeing the rich soil around the city, moving closer to the city, and eventually living in the city of Sodom.

In other words, he had chosen to live by sight and not by faith. I wonder, what if Lot said to Abram, “Uncle, I can see that you have been greatly blessed by God because of your faith in Him, and my wealth has grown purely because you. So, why don’t you choose, and I’ll continue to tag along you and your blessings.”

Meditative Reflection
Who is King?

In Genesis 14, if you care to count, there are more than 20 times that the title, king, appears. It was the first time that a full scale war was mentioned in the Bible, and it covered a wide area and involved quite a number of nations. It was an international warfare.

Caught up in the middle was Abraham who did not really want to be a part of this conflict. He was reluctantly drawn into it because of the poor decision of Lot. Had Lot stayed with Abraham, he would not have had to face such a disaster.

But, the amazing result of Abraham’s reluctant involvement was that he stood out to be the real and ultimate victor in the conflict. He who was not a king defeated all kings.

No matter how great a genius he was, when it came to military experience, training and equipment, he was no match to any of the kings, let alone an ally of several powerful kings. So, this ought to be great news to the people and powers of the time. The blessings pronounced on Abraham by Melchizedek and the tithing offered to Melchizedek by Abraham sent an unmistakable message to the people in the region about who really is King — the God of Abraham.

Meditative Reflection
The God of Abraham Praise

As we reflect on the faith of Abraham and his friendship with God, I invite you to reflect on the lyrics of this hymn by Thomas Olivers:

The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days, and God of Love;
Jehovah, great I AM! by earth and Heav’n confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred Name forever blessed.

The God of Abraham praise, at Whose supreme command
From earth I rise—and seek the joys at His right hand;
I all on earth forsake, its wisdom, fame, and power;
And Him my only Portion make, my Shield and Tower.

The God of Abraham praise, whose all sufficient grace
Shall guide me all my happy days, in all my ways.
He calls a worm His friend, He calls Himself my God!
And He shall save me to the end, thro’ Jesus’ blood.

He by Himself has sworn; I on His oath depend,
I shall, on eagle wings upborne, to Heav’n ascend.
I shall behold His face; I shall His power adore,
And sing the wonders of His grace forevermore.

Tho’ nature’s strength decay, and earth and hell withstand,
To Canaan’s bounds I urge my way, at His command.
The wat’ry deep I pass, with Jesus in my view;
And thro’ the howling wilderness my way pursue.

The goodly land I see, with peace and plenty bless’d;
A land of sacred liberty, and endless rest.
There milk and honey flow, and oil and wine abound,
And trees of life forever grow with mercy crowned.

There dwells the Lord our King, the Lord our righteousness,
Triumphant o’er the world and sin, the Prince of peace;
On Sion’s sacred height His kingdom still maintains,
And glorious with His saints in light forever reigns.

He keeps His own secure, He guards them by His side,
Arrays in garments, white and pure, His spotless bride:
With streams of sacred bliss, with groves of living joys—
With all the fruits of Paradise, He still supplies.

Before the great Three-One they all exulting stand;
And tell the wonders He hath done, through all their land:
The list’ning spheres attend, and swell the growing fame;
And sing, in songs which never end, the wondrous Name.

The God Who reigns on high the great archangels sing,
And “Holy, holy, holy!” cry, “Almighty King!
Who was, and is, the same, and evermore shall be:
Jehovah—Father—great I AM, we worship Thee!”

Before the Savior’s face the ransomed nations bow;
O’erwhelmed at His almighty grace, forever new:
He shows His prints of love—they kindle to a flame!
And sound thro’ all the worlds above the slaughtered Lamb.

The whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high;
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” they ever cry.
Hail, Abraham’s God, and mine! (I join the heav’nly lays,)
All might and majesty are Thine, and endless praise.

Note:

One night in Lon­don, Ol­iv­ers was at­tract­ed to a ser­vice in a Jew­ish syn­a­gogue, where he heard a great sing­er, Le­o­ni, sing an an­cient He­brew mel­o­dy in the sol­emn, plaint­ive mode and he be­came im­pressed with a de­sire to write a hymn to that tune. The re­sult was our hymn, “The God of Abra­ham Praise,” which in a sense is a par­a­phrase of the an­cient He­brew Yig­dal, or dox­ol­o­gy, though Olivers gave to it a dis­tinct­ly Christ­ian fla­vor.

The sto­ry told of a young Jew­ess who had been bap­tized into the Christ­ian faith, and con­se­quently was aban­doned by her fam­i­ly. She fled to the home of the min­is­ter, poured out her heart to him, and as if to show that, af­ter all, her joy in her new-found Sav­iour was great­er than all her loss of home and fam­i­ly, she sang, “The God of Abra­ham Praise.”

Meditative Reflection
The Interesting Side of Faith

Genesis 15 is a pivotal chapter in the history of salvation, because it establishes beyond a doubt that salvation is by faith, not by work (Rom. 4:1-5). But I find Abraham’s expression of faith in God most interesting.

As God reiterated His promise to him which included the giving of land and a nation, Abraham’s reaction was rather interesting: “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me (really?), since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is…a servant of my household.” In other words, he was telling God that he didn’t care if he would have land or not, as long as he had no son of his own.

Then God took him outside his tent, and showed him the amazing heavenly sky with unnumbered stars, and the Bible says, “Abraham believed.” He believed that God would definitely give him a son, against all odds! But how did he demonstrate that his faith in God’s promise of a son was genuine? He immediately became extremely anxious about the promised land that he did not care about before: “How can I know that I will gain possession of it (i.e. the land)?” he asked.

Was this a question of faith or a lack thereof? I leave you to decide.

Meditative Reflection
Friends Confide in One Another

With crediting righteousness to Abraham because of his faith, it signifies not only a new phase in Abraham’s journey of faith, it also establishes an eternal relationship between Abraham and the Lord. This eternal relationship is eternal life. Abraham is our father of faith, not only because of his great faith, but also because we can all attain the same righteousness through our faith in God, through Jesus Christ. But more than righteousness and eternal life, his righteous relationship with God has also ushered him into a friendship with God that is testified in Psalms 25:14: “The Lord confides in those who fear Him.”

This was played out throughout the rest of the life of Abraham. As God was about to inflict His punishment on Sodom and Gomorrah, we read in Genesis 18:17 these amazing words from the mouth of God, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”

And here in Genesis 15:13-16, we read that God confided in him about the future of his descendants, which, in reality, was totally unnecessary, except that there shouldn’t be any secrets between good friends, very good friends indeed.

Meditative Reflection
God Does not Play Favoritism

When I was consulting some of the commentaries on Genesis, I was touched to know that none of the ancient Near East literature mentions about a deity who would address a woman by name. Our God is indeed different, He called out to Hagar by name.

As much as Hagar was guilty of more than ingratitude to her mistress who trusted her enough to give her to her husband, she really had no choice or control over her fate. To be used simply as a tool was too much for anyone to take. In other words, she was a victim in Sarai’s faithless action to usher in the fulfillment of God’s promise. As she fled, likely towards her homeland Egypt, with a baby in her womb and in great danger traveling alone as a woman, she probably did not expect the God of Sarai to intervene. But God demonstrated to her that He is not a tribal god, but the God of all peoples; He is not a God who plays favoritism either. He cares and He hears (which is the meaning of the name, Ishmael) everyone who would turn to Him.

Now, as much as Abraham was also wrong in his action, God remained faithful. Even in his mistake, God extended His blessing to Hagar because of him, by not only blessing her descendants, but also by allowing her to know Him personally as the God who sees (Gen. 16:13).