PART 2 -- Death of Character & Mission: People of the Problem, People of the Soulution

Part II

The Death of Character and Mission

People of the Problem, People of the Solution

Genesis 11-22

Sabbath School Bible Class

May 30, 2020

Larry R Evans

We began our study last week by saying, “The first book of the Bible begins with the words, “In the beginning God” (Gen. 1:1) and the last book closes with the words, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:21). This suggests that God has definite plans to finish what He has begun!” How true that is! We focused on how God was restoring both character and His mission and how His covenant with Abram was the hinge in the Old Testament for accomplishing this.

This week we will give special attention to the people with whom God wishes to accomplish His mission.  We will see that they are both the solution as well as the problem.  The good news is that God will provide, and He will prevail until the mission is accomplished and we are at home with Him!

One author concluded, well, at least “we aren’t as bad as Hitler.”  No doubt he said that facetiously, but the point is one we must not overlook. It’s not a matter of comparison.  It’s a matter of being the kind of people God needs to accomplish His mission.  This is also the root in our own personal fulfilment.  Afterall we are created in the image of God. 

Last Week

As pointed out last week, Genesis 12 serves like a hinge for the entire Bible.  In his promise to Abram, God promised 4 things:

1. To Abram God promised he would be the father of a great nation.
2. God would make the name of Abram great.
3. Through Abram God’s mission to bless others would be achieved
4.  Through the promise of Abram multiple families of the earth would be blessed.

We also saw how that promise contradicted the lifestyle and ambition of the builders of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11).

1. They were planning to build their own city. 
2. The efforts of the Babel builders were to make a name for themselves.  
3. The Babel tower builders were building for themselves.
4. The Babel tower builders sought unity through their own efforts.

We saw how God’s promise to Abram was meant to address both personal character development of His people and the accomplishment of God’s mission.

Giving Abram a call is but one step in God’s long-range plan. God needed to continue his plan by developing the character of Abram and through him to his descendants.  To get to that point Abram needed to develop an abiding trust in the One who had called him.

Genesis 15 – Abram & the “Blazing Torch”

At first read, Genesis 15 can sound very strange! Keep in mind, this is the same Abram who was told by God to leave country, family, father’s house and land.  By faith Abram did just that without even knowing where he was going (He. 11:8).  In Genesis chapter 15, Abram asks God about the promise that he would be the “father of a great nation.”  “I remain childless” he reminded God. “You have given me no children.” Of course, God knew this, but He told Abram to step outside and look up into the star-filled heavens.  “Count the stars, Abram, if you can.”  What he saw that night included you and me.  We are among the stars, the descendants of Abram. God didn’t explain.  He just said, “Count.” “So shall your offspring be.” (v.5)

The very next verse says, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Here righteousness is not based on what Abram did but rather what he believed God could and would do. To see and believe is not God’s order of working, but ours. It would be a reversal of the rule of faith, which is having confidence that ‘all things are possible to him who believes’ (Mark 9:23). Believing, trusting in God are character values God was and is seeking to develop in His children of all generations! The experience of Abram doesn’t end there, however.

God says, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” Abram then asks a very sensible question, “How can I know that I will gain possession of it?”  What God does next is very strange to us but to Abram in his culture it made absolute sense.

So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. – Gen. 15:9-11

Whatever you do, don’t stop now. Keep reading the experience of Abram.

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. – Gen. 15:12-15

Darkness seemingly blocked Abram from seeing. His faith, however, is not to rest upon what he can see at the moment.  His faith must rest upon his confidence in the God who called him. This covenant ritual was to teach him and us who he was and who we are.  It provided the backdrop for the questions, “What is the basis of identity for those who are called by God?”    

Abram lived in a time when agreements were made orally unlike ours which is based on written signatures.  To ensure that there is a 

Commitment, we sign a document.  Marriage and car licenses are modern examples of signed promises.  In the time of Abram, the seriousness of such a covenant ritual is described with the slaying of animals, dividing them in half and then walking through the center of the divided halves. Walking between was symbolically vowing perpetual obedience to the provisions that had with great solemnity been agreed to. The lives of the animals pledged the lives of those participating in the covenant.  For example, if a king and a vassal entered into an agreement, both would walk between the two halves—sometimes the king does not but the lesser or the vasal always would.  Graphically, in such rituals, the one who does not abide by the provisions of the covenant is protrayed in the death of the animal. (See also Jeremiah 34)

That may sound strange, but we aren’t through! Note v. 17

And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven (firepot) and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.

Fire in the Bible is often used to signify the presence of God.

·      Moses met God at the burning bush. (Ex. 3:2)

·      Jeremiah describes God’s word to be “like fire” (Jer. 23:29)

·      The Lord led Israel in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. (Ex. 13:21)

·      At Pentecost tongues of fire described God’s presence (Acts 2:3)

What we see is God walking through the two halves, God making a commitment to honor his word.  Generations later, Isaiah speaks of another covenant but this time it is the Messiah who is “cut off from the land” “for the transgression of my people he was punished.” (Isa 53:8). Over and over again we are reminded just how much God is willing to pay whatever price to keep us from falling away.

Centuries later, Jesus the Messiah, while hanging on the cross, experienced a “darkness [that had come] over the whole land.” (Mark 15:33) It was the kind of darkness symbolized in Abram’s experience during the covenant ritual in Genesis 15.  Jesus could not see beyond the tomb that awaited him. The agony was terrible. In deepest agony He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The covenant with God had been broken but not by Jesus.  Instead of us paying the price for our infidelity, He paid the price. He took our place.  Such was the central teaching Abram was to learn.  It was to be passed onto his descendants. As graphic as this ritual was, there was yet to come and even more striking way of driving the point home.

The God Who Provides

Genesis 22

Most of us are aware of the story of Abraham and Isaac.  What we sometimes fail to connect with the story is the attitude and values of the builders of the Tower of Babel that preceded this experience. The defiant successors of Noah (Genesis 11) sought to establish their own city, their own name, their own identity apart from God.  They believed they could accomplish success by their own efforts and ingenuity.   All of this they tried to do apart from God. Such is the temptation of many today.  The message of Genesis 15 reveals a contrast! In this passage Abram is reminded of God’s promise to him of being the father of many nations.  He was not told how God would do the impossible.  He simply said through the covenant ritual, “You can trust Me.” What God needed in order to accomplish His mission was a new people with a new identity. God was committed to working with Abram to reveal the character values needed to be this new people.  

In Genesis 17, Abraham and Sarah in their old age received the long-awaited son. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90.  The instructions to Abraham were simple, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love” and sacrifice him. No matter how we read this it is strange and awful and that is the way we are meant to read it!  To do otherwise is to miss the whole point.  We don’t have time this morning to make any more than two important points:

1.     Isaac was the only and deeply loved son—symbolic of Jesus.

2.     God provided a substitute—again, symbolic of Jesus.

3.      

One Bible verse comes to my mind and no doubt to yours as well:

 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16,17, NKJV)

Broken promises.  Indeed, we are broken—but not only our promises. Fortunately, God has intervened by providing a way of escape and with it come a new me, a new you, and yes, a new us.  Sometimes it seems we are best led when we are in the dark, when we have no answers and have no place to turn but to God. The search for identity came that day in Eden when we broke away from the plan God had for those created in His image.  Today, centuries later the offer made to Abraham is also ours.  We can be restored. “We have this hope as an anchor for the sourl, firm and secure.” (Heb. 6:19) We have been given a new identity if we put our trust in the same One in whom Abraham did.

Concluding Challenge

Who am I? Who are we?

Behind much of the chaos in our world today is the illusive answer to the question, “Who am I?”  In the search for personal identity and meaning, it has been pointed out that there are two paths normally taken but only the third path can answer that ultimate question. Answers are sought by . . . 

1.     Looking Outward. This traditional approach is followed by those who look to their duty and role in the community to find self.  Self-worth and the value of others are believed to be in their abilities and in what they can accomplish or have accomplished.

2.     Looking Inward. These individuals create worth in their own minds by comparing themselves with others. In doing so, there are always winners and losers.  In the end there will always some who are better and there will be some who have more of the “treasurers” they wish they had. For them personal worth is motivated by comparisons—the need to be the best and to have the best and the most.

3.     Looking Upward. These individuals, like Abram, recognize they have been created by a personal God who has given them a personal mission and calling. What matters is not what society says about them, nor what they think about themselves. Rather, meaning and fulfillment is found in what God does.  For the Christian, his/her identity is not found in what one has achieved, but in what he or she has received. This moves the motivational premise for life from one of fear and uncertainty to one of grateful joy!

Those who are the real life-changers today are those who have a distinctive message of hope—a hope not built on who they are but who God is. They are the ones whose voices need to be heard in times of crisis.  They are those who realize that the antidote for being bad is not just being good. These are the ones who have had a new beginning regardless of their age. Their sense of worth or value comes through faith in the God of Abraham, the God who not only was active in the beginning but who has promised not to leave us to be orphans. He promises to come again.  Today, in unison, these voices say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”  We are called (Rev. 14:6-12) to be a people who knows where the solution can be found.  Through faith we can be the voice of God for a generation desperately asking, “Who am I?”