Trusting in God's Faithfulness Enough to Journey by Faith
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Trusting in God’s Faithfulness Enough to Journey by Faith
Trusting in God’s Faithfulness Enough to Journey by Faith
Introduction:
Some life lessons must be learned before we can advance. When life’s most crucial lessons have not been learned, catastrophes are inevitably repeated. Believing that we have learned the lessons does not mean that we have. It is only when we again face a similar situation that what we have learned becomes clear.
The instances of life lessons not learned and catastrophes being repeated is manifold.
Moral failures
Fraud and misuse or misappropriation of funds
Resident care in nursing home and applying lessons “learned” in the first COVID wave. In multiple instances lessons affirmed and short falls noted in inspections have not been applied during the second wave.
Out of country holiday travel by a few government and healthcare leaders and policy makers.
Spanish philosopher and novelist, George Santayana accurately wrote, “Those who cannot remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistake.”
We probably need to take that one step further, “Those who know that those in strategic positions cannot or choose not to remember their past and repeat their mistakes, must somehow step up so that others do not continue pay the price of those who do not learn from their past and repeat their mistakes.
The reason for this intervention is that for those most part few of us live in isolation.
My mother - early 2000’s, Leiomyosarcoma , medical aid alert bracelet, home care, sister-in-law, questionable judgment, odd fall, memory, apart from a major accident almost impossible that Mom was a danger to herself or others, Family eventually had to step in, retirement home care facility - much against Mom’s, not alone, long-time friends and 24 hour care.
On a regular basis we hear of those in leadership in various spheres of life who are allowed to move to another area and repeat their mistakes. Now to sure, we need to be affirm that our Lord can and does change people. Having affirmed that, we are justified in asking how when the same mistake has been repeated, there is still a willingness to trust leadership that has a proven lack of integrity.
The very sad reality is that the more uniquely gifted, the more charismatic, the more the victim of circumstances an individual seems to be, the more some people seem willing to put the superficially repentant fox in charge of another chicken house.
Some might argue that we are all frail and being human sometimes forget. I agree. For that reason, I would suggest that each of us should be willing pray that God would imprint on our hearts and minds the lessons that we need to take the next step.
We cannot be sure what Abraham was thinking, but as we come to Genesis 20 & 21 we see God again teaching Abraham what it meant to live by faith.
Here we see that one who lives by faith in God:
LEARNS to trust God, especially when surrounded by “no fear of God” - Gen 20
Or, to phrase it more accurately, those who live by must learn to live by faith even when surrounded and threatened by those who seem to have no fear of God.
Although Abraham had by faith trusted God in the midst of multiple previous situations - leaving Ur, giving Lot first choice of where to settle, rescuing lot, tenth of everything to the King/Priest Melchizedek, obedience to the Lord - laying out the animal part that were integral to God affirming His covenant with Abraham (Abrahamic Covenant, Obeying God’s command that every male within Abraham’s household be circumcised, interceded for Sodom that it not be destroyed because of the righteous people whom he assumed lived there, it would seem that he had not learned all that was involved in living by faith.
That should be encouraging to each of us, the reason being I would suppose the same is true for most of us.
Early in those steps of faith, Abraham had failed in trusting God to protect Sarah and him in Egypt - Gen 13 - asked Sarah his wife, who was in fact his 1/2 sister, to lie and telling those who asked that she was Abraham’s sister BUT choose to not tell the whole truth that she was also his wife. Sarah was about 65 years old then.
NOW about 25 years later - Abraham, who was 99 years old & Sarah 89 years old (Gen 17:17; 21:5) were living in Gerar, territory of Negeb, between Kadesh & Shur, and found themselves in a situation that was somewhat similar to what they had encountered in Egypt 25 years earlier. Although there was not a famine, there was a king, Abimelech/king of Gerar, who took Sarah, whom he understood to be Abraham’s sister into his harem. But, he did not touch her.
Dream:
God
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
Abimelech
Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”
God
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
SO ABIMELECH ROSE IN THE MORNING AND TOLD HIS SERVANTS ALL THINGS AND THEY WERE VERY AFRAID.
Abimelech to Abraham
“What have you done to us?”
“What did you see that you did this thing?”
“How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on my kingdom a great sin?
So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”
Abraham to Abimelech - EMPTY EXCUSES FOR NOT TRUSTING GOD
I thought,
There is no fear of God in this place - because no fear of God is Sodom and Gomorrah, assumed the same in other places
They will kill me because of my wife.
Besides,
She is my sister, 1/2 sister - seen as a justification for lying and hiding their marital status
God caused me to wander- blamed God rather than confessed faith
I said to her - “This is the kindness that you must do: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”
What Abimelech did, taking the initiative, with no apology from Abraham
Gave sheep & oxen and male and female servants plus a 1,000 pieces of silver to Abraham
Returned Sarah to Abraham
Abimelech said to Abraham - my land before you, dwell where you please
To Sarah - gave to your BROTHER a 1,000 pieces of silver - a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you and before all you are vindicated
THEN Abraham prayed:
God healed Abimelech and his wife and female slaves so that they bore children FOR THE LORD HAD CLOSED ALL OF THE WOMBS OF THE HOUSE OF ABIMELECH BECAUSE OF SARAH, ABRAHAM’S WIFE.
Abraham’s empty excuses are still being used today as reasons for not living by faith:
No fear of God in this place
Fear of death excuses lack of faith
Half truths trump half lies
2. Celebrates God’s promises fulfilled and trusts God in unavoidable pain - Gen 21:1-21
In this next portion of the word of God, we see Abraham and Sarah as the ones who are celebrating, BUT in the course of their celebration, Abraham and Hagar must learn to trust God in the inevitable inseparable pain. With the birth of Isaac, the unavoidable tensions between Sarah and Hagar, Ishmael and the infant Isaac who will clearly now displace him as Abraham’s rightful, legal heir force the inevitable separation.
Sometimes, celebrations need not be seen only as the jubilant times when we invite others for a party, celebration can also be those quiet intimate times when we remember, take comfort
Genesis 21:1-8 provides a record of celebrations, a celebration that we would expect.
Celebration One:
Sarah bore Abraham a son at the time God had promised - 21:1-2
The LORD visited Sarah as He said.
The LORD did to Sarah as He promised.
Abraham named his son Isaac - as commanded by God - 21:3; 17:19
Abraham circumcised Isaac when he was 8 days old.
Great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned - usually second or third year - 21:8
Celebration Two:
Weaning feast - Sarah saw unnamed so of Hagar, the Egyptian laughing
Sarah’s request to cast out the slave woman with her son.
Someone understandable re household tension but that did not make it right:
Nuzi & Hammurabi legal codes of the day forbade putting out a handmaiden’s son if a legitimate natural heir was born.
Abraham’s pain because of His son.
Hagar & Ishmael’s coming pain.
Quiet intimate celebration with the assurance that God hears & cares
God to Abraham - do not be displeased, through Isaac shall your offspring be named, BUT I will make of Ishmael a great nation - 21:12-14
God to Hagar - What troubles you? Fear not. I will make him into a great nation - 21:15-18
God opened her eyes - well of water, drank, the boy grew … 21:19-21
3. Does justice, loves kindness and walks humbly before our God - Gen 21:22-34
Some might suggest that the record of the interaction between Abimelech, Phicol - commander of his army and Abraham was just some added detail before some years later God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. At first glance that might seem to be the case, but the events recorded here further demonstrate for us what is means to walk by faith and trust in God’s faithfulness.
The meeting described here seems to have stemmed from Abimelech’s request for a treaty/ agreement with regard to the sharing of resources - land and WATER.
This meeting and request could have been blown out of proportion:
Phicol, commander of Abimelech’s army present
Unknown to Abimelech, some of his servants had seized a well. The suggestion is there that Abraham’s servants had dug and developed this well. Grazing herds were often moved from the proximity of one well to another.
Each group of servants expanding their boundaries - 21:32
Abraham reproved - concern as well as information.
Covenant:
Abraham gave Abimelech sheep & oxen - gracious, just and kind as the alien - walked humbly not demanding - trusted God and His faithfulness
Although the well belonged to him, in a sense he humbly asked for ownership to be affirmed
Set aside 7 ewes and gave them to Abimelech - a witness gift that he/his men had dug the well.
Planted a tamarisk tree - reminder of long lasting wide arching tree like God
Treaty
Called on the name of the LORD, the everlasting/eternal God as compared to the temporal treaty with Abimelech
God is everlasting eternal. Like Abraham, we need to look beyond today and things. Even as we can on Him now, we can call on Him tomorrow and in other locations.
God is as everlasting today when we call on Him as He was when Abraham called on Him.
For I lift up my hand to heaven
and swear, As I live forever,
The eternal God is your dwelling place,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
And he thrust out the enemy before you
and said, ‘Destroy.’
Your name, O Lord, endures forever,
your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Faith journey truths that need to re-remembered and reaffirmed:
There is no excuse for not trusting God.
I don’t have to fear those who might not seem to fear God.
We have idea what is going on the hearts of other.
As foreigners, sojourners faith is essential. We have a living in a living hope. We are kept by Him in Him.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
2. God’s promises, whether fulfilled or yet to be fulfilled, warrant celebration and remembering.
Celebration in God’s promises should not depend on all of those promises being fulfilled. His promise should enough to encourage celebration.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
3. God still requires us to do justice, love kindness and to walk humbly before our God.
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
What does it mean for us to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly before our God today?
That is probably something that none of us can answer accurately with regard to ourselves.
For that reason I would suggest that we follow the pattern in SEMBEQ re character development. For that we need to ask those with whom we are close and not so close how they assess our doing justice, love for kindness and walking humbly before our God.
It is not only about asking but empowering someone to help us to learn to live by faith in those area.