Category Archives: Chosen by God

ABRAHAM -CHOSEN BY GOD

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GOD CHOOSES A PEOPLE

In last week’s lesson we examined God’s good creation and Adam and Eve’s sin. As we continue to look at God’s Story, we turn our attention to God’s plan to address human sin and the death and devastation it brought. Genesis 4-11 contains several stories demonstrating how sin continued to worsen and spread in the generations following Adam and Eve. The Lord reached a moment of regret for making humans when He observed their corrupted thoughts and unbridled sin (Gen 6:5-6). The pinnacle of human depravity surfaced in the tower of Babel (11:1-9). People thought they could obtain community, security, and identity by their own initiatives without God. God confounded their language and scattered them across the face of the earth.

This study skips the events surrounding Noah and the flood. It also skips the details concerning the tower of Babel (where people tried to build that tower to the heavens to reach God on their own), which occurred after the flood. So God had to deal with the sinful people that lead to the flood and then again with those who built the tower. How would God bring salvation to lost, scattered humanity? God could have rescued people from sin any way He wanted, but He chose to work with one man, Abram and his descendants. God decided to choose a people for Himself who would do His work of evangelism in the world. So our story of God’s plan for that one man begins in Genesis 12.

Read Genesis 12:1-3 A Plan of Blessing

God’s Story is one of divine provision for human need and people’s response to that provision. Our greatest need is to be restored to a vibrant relationship with God. This lesson can help us decide whether we are fully willing to trust and obey God. Abram, later to be renamed Abraham, had the same choice. When God called him, Abram moved out in faith from UR to Haran and finally to Canaan. God then established a covenant with Abram, telling him that he would found a great nation. Not only would this nation be blessed, God said, but the other nations of the earth would be blessed through Abram’s descendants. Israel, the nation that would come from Abram, was to follow God and influence those with whom it came in contact. Through Abram’s family tree, Jesus Christ was born to save humanity. Through Christ, people can have a personal relationship with God and be blessed beyond measure.

The concept of covenant was not new. God made a covenant with Noah before the flood, If he would trust God and come into the ark, then God would preserve his family through the flood (6:18). God made another covenant after the flood: He would never again destroy the earth and life upon it by a flood (9:11). In the first instance the covenant was conditional upon the people sharing in it. The second was an unconditional promise. God’s covenant with Abram had a new and distinctive dimension. God was seeking a faithful people through whom He could do a redemptive work in the world. God promised to bless Abram but God had one condition: Abram had to do what God wanted him to do. This meant leaving his home and friends and traveling to a new land where God promised to build a great nation from Abram’s family. At our ages, how would we respond to these conditions? (We would be very reluctant at best! It would certainly take a lot of faith.) Abram obeyed, walking away from his home for God’s promise of even greater blessings in the future.

God may be trying to lead us to a place of greater service and usefulness for Him. The challenge for anyone faced with that type of decision is to not let the comfort and security of one’s present position make one miss God’s plan for them. So God called Abram to enter into covenant with Him and to become the originator and ancestor of a nation of people who would live in covenant with God. Note that the word covenant does not appear in these verses that record the call of Abram. In Genesis 15:18, however, the relationship between God and Abram is described as a covenant relationship, and the concept of covenant became central in the Hebrew conviction about their relationship with God. The Hebrews became the “covenant people”, which was especially crucial for the Hebrews. It became a focus for their development as a people and for all their subsequent national history. God’s gifts bless most richly not when we are “possessed” but when they are permitted to flow through life like a stream of living water.

Read Genesis 12:4-7 A Response of Obedience

“So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him”.  We are told Abram was 75 when he obeyed God’s call and he lived until he was 175 (25:7). Abram’s way of life in Canaan was the way of a semi-nomad, but it was not a mere migration. Abram was on a mission! God planned to develop a nation of people He would call His own. He called Abram from the godless, self-centered city of UR to a fertile region of Canaan, where a God-centered, moral nation could be established. Though small in dimension, the land of Canaan was the focal point for most of the history of Israel as well as for the rise of Christianity. This small land given to one man, Abram, has had a tremendous impact on world history. Abram did not go alone or travel empty-handed when he left the community, security, and identity he had known in Haran. We are told Abram took Sarai, Lot and all the possessions they had accumulated with him. How are we confronted daily with the choice to trust God or ourselves to provide life’s necessities? (Choices of where we go, what we eat, on what to spend money, to read the Bible, what to watch on TV, what book to read, etc.)

The first stop Abram made in Canaan was at Shechem (means “shoulder” because it rests on the shoulders of two mountains where Joshua would later perform a covenant renewal ceremony –Josh. 24:1-25). Shechem was in the center of Canaan, where the “oak of Moreh” was located. “Moreh” means teaching and apparently this was a Canaanite religious center. More importantly than the place, is the act of worship there. Abram built an altar to the Lord who appeared to Abram and declared that this land would be given to Abram’s descendants. This promise had two significant meanings. First, it identified the land of Canaan as the land God had promised to the people of Abram for a national homeland. Second, it indicated that a new religious day was dawning. At the center of pagan religion God was declaring His sovereignty. Altars were used in many places for sacrifices but for God’s people altars symbolized communion with God and commemorated notable encounters with Him. Abram was reminded by altars that God was the center of his life. Regular worship helps us remember what God desires and motivates us to obey Him.

Read Genesis 15:5-8, 13-17 A Relationship of Faith

God called Abram and his descendants and had given them good land. The missing piece of the puzzle was God’s motivation which was “relationship”. God sought (and still does) a relationship with His people, even though they (and us) had distanced themselves from Him by sinning. The relationship God established with Abram was a major key in God’s Story. What God did, described in verse 5, clamed Abram’s fears about how Abram’s foreign-born house slave would become his heir because he had no son by Sarai (15:2-4). God said to look at the sky and “count the stars”—“your off-springs will be that numerous.”  Maybe we need reminders of our own journey of faith with God. What could we establish as physical reminders of our journey with God? (Maybe we could look to the sky, maybe we need to look at the beauty of nature, maybe we need to see our families grow, maybe we must be at church regularly!) Abram wasn’t promised wealth or fame; he already had that. Instead, God promised descendants like the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore (22:17 too numerous to count. When God said “if you are able to count them”, God was indicating the enormous task He had given Abram and indicating that Abram needs to get away from distractions. There are times when that is true for us as well! What Abram did not yet fully understand was that God was planning all along to give him a son by Sarai. God’s blessings are beyond imagination!

Although Abram had been demonstrating his faith through his actions, it was his belief in the Lord, not his actions that made Abram right with God (Romans 4:1-5). We, too, can have a right relationship with God by trusting Him. Our outward actions- church attendance, prayer, good deeds- will not by themselves make us right with God. A right relationship is based on faith- the heartfelt inner confidence that God is who He says He is and does what He says He will do. Right actions will follow naturally as by-products.

Then God gave Abram some insight to the future. Possession of the land by the Israelites would not take place for 400 years. During this time Abram’s descendants would be enslaved and oppressed in a land that did not belong to them. God gave Abram yet another promise in this prophecy- God would judge the nations they served (meaning Babylon, Assysia, etc.) While verse 17 seems difficult to understand, it put the seal of God’s commitment upon the covenant. In the darkness at the end of the day, Abram saw “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch” pass between the divided part of the covenant sacrifice. God affirmed His covenant with Abram by giving Abram a sign. The fire and smoke suggest God’s holiness, His zeal for righteousness, and His judgment on all the nations. God took the initiative, gave the confirmation, and followed through on His promise. God’s passing through the pieces was a visible assurance to Abram that the covenant God had made was real. Unity would come again across the face of the earth. The tragic fragmenting effects of Babel would be overcome at last. God had a purpose for Abram descendants greater than their most expanded imaginations could conceive. God’s thoughts are indeed higher than our thoughts (Isa. 55:9). He would finally make the world one again and He is always ahead of mankind in His wise and gracious purpose. As in the days of Abram, God continues to choose a people to be His witness in this world—to continue God’s Story.

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GOD’S BIG PICTURE

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THE BIG PICTURE

SO YOU THOUGHT BIBLE STORIES HAPPENED BY ACCIDENT!! FOLLOW THIS STORY FROM GENESIS AND SEE HOW GOD WORKS EVEN IN THE SMALLEST OF ISSUES.

We know that God is at work even in the midst of conflict. However, all conflict can feel like it is keeping us from more meaningful issues or activities. God can use whatever conflict we are facing though, to bring meaningful results to our lives. Sometimes resolution can be found in conflict where this resolution can lead us to a far stronger relationship with others. God can strengthen our faith and endurance through conflict. Today we will consider the favoritism, hatred and envy involved with the family of Jacob. The older sons of Jacob so hated Joseph that they wanted to kill him. You probably remember why Joseph’s brothers hated him so much, but turn to Genesis for a reminder.

Read Genesis 37:5-8

Jacob (Israel v.3) and his 12 sons lived in Canaan. Joseph was only 17 years old and worked with his brothers tending sheep. One occasion, he brought an unfavorable report concerning some of his brother’s behavior. We are also told that Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph had been born to Jacob when he was in old age (v.3). Can you think of another reason Jacob may have favored Joseph? (Joseph was the first born by Rachel, who Jacob loved more than Leah.) This was part of the unwholesome environment in the family (v.3-4). One day Jacob gave Joseph a special multicolored robe. This all added up to this conflict between the other eleven brothers and added up to this conflict between the other eleven brothers and Joseph, but that was not all. Verse 5 tells us about Joseph’s dream and that he demonstrated immaturity by describing it to his brothers.

In Joseph’s day, everyone had a robe or cloak. Robes were used for warmth, to bundle up belongings for a trip, to wrap babies, to sit on, or even to serve as security for a loan. Most robes were knee length, short sleeved, and plain. In contrast, Joseph’s robe was probably of the kind worn by royalty- long sleeved, ankle length, and very colorful. The robe became a symbol of Jacob’s favoritism toward Joseph, and it aggravated the already strained relations between Joseph and his brothers. Favoritism in families may be unavoidable by its divisive effects should be minimized. Parents may not be able to change their feelings toward a favorite child, but they can change their actions toward the others. (Remember the Smother’s Brothers?)

While Jacob’s favoritism with the robe was at the heart of the family’s disputes, Joseph’s dream and the way he handled it brought everything to a head. The brother’s hatred of Joseph grew because he delighted in telling them about his dream. The dream in verse 7 seems to telling his brothers that they needed to bow down to Joseph. Then Joseph had a second dream (v.9). In that dream, Joseph, said the sun, the moon, and 11 starts (catch the fact that there are 11 brothers) bowed down to him. Now even Jacob was incredulous and reprimanded Joseph. If we stop at this point and think about what was in store for Joseph, we realize what those dreams really mean. We also see God’s plans in those dreams. Clearly we know that all people have freedom of choice but everything that happened to Joseph by the hands of his brothers actually fulfilled these dreams that appear to be from God and led Joseph to be in position to save his whole family.

Read Genesis 37:26-28

Judah, who was Jacob’s fourth son and fourth by Leah, came up with a plan to make some money from Joseph’s “disappearance”!  It is difficult to determine if Judah just wanted to make money, sincerely wanted to prevent Joseph’s murder or he just wanted to satisfy his brother’s thirst for revenge with a lesser evil. Regardless, he saved Joseph’s life. As God’s plan unfolds, the buyers of Joseph, the Midianite traders, passed by the brother’s location. In previous verses 198-25, Reuben was the first to come to Joseph’s rescue. He convinced the others to put Joseph in a pit rather than to kill him. Reuben’s plan was to return later and get Joseph out of the pit so he would not die. Before Reuben could come back for Joseph, Judah’s plan was agreed to and Joseph was removed from the pit and sold for 20 pieces of silver. This began Joseph’s journey in Egypt.

Verse 28 uses two different words that appear to refer to the same group; Ishmaelites and MIdianites, but were they? However, it is likely that Ishmaelites designated the caravan as a whole; while Midianite referred to an ethnic group in the overall caravan. The Midianites had developed a connection to Potiphar, who was the captain of the palace guard for the Pharaoh of Egypt. So Joseph was re-sold to Potiphar and started a whole new chapter in his life. So even though this was not what the brothers had in main when they first thought to kill Joseph and toss him into one of the cisterns. The end result actually worked out well for them later. Joseph was alive and sold instead of being killed because the brothers developed a conscious about committing murder.  Sometimes we jump at a solution because it is the lesser of two evils but still is not the right action to take. When someone proposes a seemingly workable solution, first ask “is it right?”

Read Genesis 50:15-21

Joseph’s brothers thought they would never see him again. But God was in control of Joseph’s life and had other plans. A lot of things had happened from when Joseph first arrived in Egypt and when we find out Jacob had died.  Joseph’s position in Egypt again involved dreams. First he interpreted dreams of two prisoners to win back the approval of Pharaoh. Then Joseph understood Pharaoh’s dreams that forecast a seven year famine. This famine got Joseph and his family back together again. Joseph showed forgiveness and even love for his brothers. Joseph got the Pharaoh to settle his whole family in Goshen (43:15- 47:31).  This is where Jacob died.

Before his death, Jacob did two things. He insisted that Joseph promise not to bury him in Egypt. Jacob wanted to be buried in his homeland, in the burial ground at Hebron with his ancestors (47:29-31). Jacob also gathered his sons around him and gave to each a blessing before he dies. He showed great insight into the personal qualities of each of his sons. His words were indeed prophetic, but he also spoke of traits that had already shown up in each of their lives. What each of the sons would become could already be seen in what they were. Remember Jacob’s name had been changed by God to “Israel” (32:28). So what would the twelve sons establish? (The 12 Tribes of Israel.)

Now that Jacob was dead, the brothers feared revenge from Joseph. However, Jacob knew that Joseph had forgiven his brothers but had made the request that Joseph forgive his brothers (v.17) for the brother’s benefit. To the brother’s surprise, Joseph not only forgave them but assured them, offering to care for them and their families. Joseph’s forgiveness was complete. He demonstrated how God graciously accepts us even though we don’t deserve it. With all that Joseph went through, it shows he had great faith in God. Verse 19 asks the question “Am I in the place of God?”. This meant not only that God’s purpose prohibited Joseph from taking revenge but also that Joseph had neither the power not the right to interfere with God’s workings. Because God forgives us even when we have ignored or rejected him or think we have the right to take matters into our own hands, we should graciously forgive others.

THIS SET THE STAGE FOR MOSES’ GREAT STORY!

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