READING THE WORD FOR APPLICATION
THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM
Although the focus of the Biblical narrative now is on Abraham and his sons, the Lord has the salvation of all people in view.
We see God doing a work in Abram so that he progressively begins to act in line with God’s purposes. He leaves father and mother and follows God to build a household of faith.
Acts 7:2-3 (NIV) "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.
The Lord appears to Abram and promises to his descendants the land of Canaan. There he builds an altar and calls upon the Name of the Lord.
Abraham is an example of a man called to walk by faith. He is an example for all of us.
We read the Bible for application as well as for worship. So as we read, let’s look at the SPACE-PETS questions.
Is there any:
S-Sin to Confess
P-Promise to Claim
A-Attitude to Change
C- Command to Obey
E- Example to Follow
P- Prayer to Pray
E- Error to Avoid
T- Truth to Believe
S- Something to Thank God for
Abram’s trust in God is continually tested. So is ours. He compromises his obedience to Christ. And so do we. He does not leave his family as God told him to. He brings his father and nephew. Disobedience gets us into trouble. But “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) God is faithful to His covenant. That is the message of Abraham. God’s grace is available to those who trust Him. And by grace through faith, His purposes are advanced in us and through us .
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
In the life of a believer God will test our faith and reveal His faithfulness. Are we leaning on Him? Are we trusting His character, His promise, His power? Are we committing ourselves to Him for what He has committed Himself to be and do in us for others? Are we committed to His will?
Will we let the Lord choose where we are to dwell? (Gen 13:8-9) If so, we can say with the Psalmist:
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. (Psalm 16:6)
We read the Word to worship. In the story of Abraham we do see “the Lord of glory” (Acts 7:2) and prophetic pictures of His glorious gospel. After Abram rescues his nephew Lot, he is greeted by Melchizedek, the king of Salem (literally, ‘peace’) (Gen. 14:17-24). His name means “King of Righteousness”. The New Testament leaves us no doubt that Melchizedek is a type of the Messiah, the Anointed king, priest and prophet who would bring salvation to those who believe. (Hebrews 7) There is no record in the Bible of Melchizedek’s genealogy, his beginning of days or end of days. His priesthood is before the law and outside of the law. He is king of peace because He is king of righteousness. Peace can only exist on the terms of righteousness. We see this in the cross of Christ, the only place where righteousness can pardon sinners, the only place where righteousness and peace can kiss each other (Psalm 85:10) .
Melchizedek brings an offering to Abram of bread and wine, a memorial meal, and blessed Abram with a prophetic word about what God had done for him. (Gen 14:19-20)
Abram responds to this word by refusing the spoils of victory from the king of Sodom lest Sodom’s king say, “I have made Abram rich.” Abram’s boast would be in the Lord.
God rejects all of Abram’s plans to fulfill God’s will through his own doings. He rejects Abram’s suggestion that the promise of a son be fulfilled by means of adopting Eliezer (Gen 15:2) or later, the child of Hagar, Ishmael (Genesis 16:1-4). No, God does His work, His way. The promised seed would come by the Lord’s intervention. To assure Abram, the promise of God given through the spoken word is now sealed with a covenant (Gen.15:12) a legal contract to which the parties are committed or they forfeit their lives. To emphasize that this would be of God’s doing, and not Abram’s, God puts Abram into a deep sleep. The responsibility for the fulfillment would be God’s alone. What grace!
A NEW NAME
In Genesis 17, the Lord directly appears to Abram a second time (see Gen 12:7; 17:1). Abram is now 99 years old. He had born the reproach of believing God for a promise that had not yet been fulfilled. His name, “Abram” means “exalted father” or “father of the year”. A name like that begs the question, “Just how many children do you have?”, a question that must have been a painful embarrassment to the childless couple, Abram and Sarai.
But God graciously reminds Abram that He has not forgotten him and renews his promise to make him a father of a multitude of nations and an everlasting covenant in which the Lord would be the God of these nations! (17:4).
And God gives “Abram” a new name. The fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the aspirate ‘Hey’, indicating that God would be breathing life into that which was dead. At their age, Abram and Sarai, were dead in their resources to fulfill God’s promise. But God brings resurrection life to the dead. So the fifth letter of both Abram and Sarai is replaced with the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet breathing life into the promise. How wonderful it is to have the promise of God revived in us!
The number 5 in Scripture stands for grace. So on the fifth encounter that God has with Abram, with the introduction of the 5th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Abram, the exalted father, becomes, “father of many nations”, and “Sarai” (chieftain, ruler) becomes “Sarah” (princess).
In Genesis 18
We have Abram’s 6th encounter with the Lord. This is the third time the Scriptures specifically say, “The LORD appeared” (Gen 18:1). In the next sentence we read “And Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.” Again we see how the Lord made Himself known to man in the form of man. This is known as a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of the second person of the Trinity, which we shall learn more about as we read through the Bible.
NEW TESTAMENT GLEANINGS
We are continuing to read the Sermon on the Mount. I find it interesting that the greatest sermon ever preached was not a simple one point sermon. Nor was it a three point sermon.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives a revelation of the righteousness that God requires, in heart attitude as well as outward behavior. This is the Christian life which we are purposed to live. As I have said many times, “the Christian life is not difficult, it is impossible. There is only one who ever has and whoever will live it, and that is Christ. And that is why we need to recognize Jesus as the Lord our righteousness. It is only when He, the Law-Giver, becomes the law-keeper in our hearts, that we will have peace and be able to live the Christian life.
What a blessing it is to have a revelation of right-living before God spelled out so perfectly in both the words and deeds of our Lord and Savior.
PSALM 7
The Apostle Paul speaks about exercising himself, or doing his best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men (Acts 24:16). Here is a good example of David doing the same.
Pray the psalms back to God and see if they ring true in your own heart. I like to pray them aloud putting the Lord in the second person, as the One whom I am addressing. Sometimes I change the personal singular pronoun from “I” to “we” especially when my wife and I are reading the psalms together. I find it is a helpful exercise to ignite my heart with the passion of the psalmist for meaningful intercession.
