sjb

In the last part of 17:13, God tells Abraham that the sign of their covenant shall be in his (Abraham's) flesh. At this moment, the Jews were set aside as God's chosen people. God had His plan then, as we well know. Now, if we have accepted Christ, we are His people. To me, to be circumcised in the heart means that we have a recognizable sign that sets us apart from other people. Of course, this isn't a physical sign--but we must see it everyday, be aware of it everyday and live it everyday. Not only that--others must see it in us and want it for themselves. A "baby Christian" is the one to have the most trouble with keeping this concept--believe me, I know! I think Satan gets angry when he sees a person who has just accepted the Christian way of life and goes out of his way to get that person off track and to forget the circumcised heart. That is why more mature Christians should be THERE as a model for others. Others must see our hearts through the way we live our lives.

Circumcision was the physical contract with God. It symbolized Abraham's part of the bargain. It had to be something that could not be forgotten or overlooked later on. When we contract with another human being, we want that contract to be binding--no wiggle room--and so we usually draw up a legal document to that effect. Paul points out in his argument to those believers that would have Gentiles be circumcised to fulfill the law of Moses that "real circumcision is a matter of the heart--it is spiritual and not literal."(Romans 2:29). We Christians must have outward symbols of our contract/covenant with God. Baptism and holy communion are the best examples I can think of. By following God's instructions immediately, Abraham showed God that he was serious about his end of the bargain. When our Heavenly Father strikes a bargain with us, we should not delay.

I LOVE this Bible Study!! I am making so many connections between the Old Testament and the New Testament I had never made before! In my particular belief system, we speak a great deal about prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace--prevenient grace being that love and wooing of us by God to accept Him--Justifying grace being that grace we receive at the time of conversion--and sanctifying grace--that kind of grace we draw on from conversion to death which makes us strive to be like Christ. Abraham had heard God's voice from the very beginning, wooing him (prevenient grace). God had already reckoned Abraham as righteous [Genesis 15:6] because Abraham believed (justifying grace). So to me, the next logical step is, because of Abraham's acceptance of God, he will now strive toward perfection(sanctifying grace). The key word here is strive. I think that is what God is asking. He's saying, "Now that you have accepted Me and understand what I'm all about, I'll expect you to work on making Me proud!! And remember, I'm back here with My eye on you!" It's sort of like parents teaching kids to ride a bike...First you have training wheels, then you take off the extra wheels and walk along beside them helping them balance, then you let them ride off by themselves...shakily at first...It doesn't mean the kid is not going to wreck...it just means you're back there to help pick him up. I think that we should have a much easier time of "walking before Him and being blameless" than Abraham because of our role model, Jesus. I don't think God has any more expectations for us than He did for Abraham. However, I certainly don't think He expects less!

One of my gifts (or curses) is to bounce into changes with a smile on my heart. It has served me well in my profession. My problem is that, here lately, I have been questioning myself: Is this God's decision--or is it my decision? I do trust God with all my heart. I know He wants what is best for me. I know that every task I am asked to do will not necessarily be pleasant 24-7. Through my faith, I can answer to God.

The lesson I learn from Hagar's experience is to finish the task and "face the music," even though that might be the most painful thing I can do. I had more choices that Hagar did in the beginning, anyway. Even with the pain and hurt, I know that God "sees" and will be there to give me comfort. Submission is foreign to most of our natures, but must be learned in our walk with God.

Hagar was amazed that God had cared enough personally to "see" her condition, speak to her, and advise her. I'm sure, being an Egyptian by birth, Hagar had known only of the Egyptian gods, not the personal God of Abraham. We are all self-centered to a degree. What if God had made us and forgotten us, as some people claim? Who could we turn to when alone, discouraged, and afraid? Isn't that why we should fall on our knees in praise for Him?? He is OUR GOD WHO SEES and answers our prayers. Knowing God could see her and that He cared for her gave Hagar the strength to go back. She now understood that God was there with her personally, even though she was a "nobody." When I get discouraged, I turn to Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

My youngest son, in his mid-thirties, tells the rest of us that he once ran away from home when he was little. He didn't get very far, evidently--just next door to his grandfather's where I found him sitting down to milk and cookies. The point he tries to get across now is that the rest of us were unaware of his anger and so inattentive, we didn't even know he had run away--that "Mom found me down at Pa-Pa's just by accident, and I got in trouble for being there without permission!" He goes over that story with his siblings anytime they mention his position of relative luxury (baby in a large family). Actually, I knew that he had run away, but preferred not to let him know that. Hagar had to have been in a very emotional state. She had gone from being a favored concubine to being beaten by her jealous mistress. And Abraham had condoned it all. I'm sure she felt totally alone and totally unloved. The angel asks the question to give Hagar the understanding that God loved and cared for her, even though her life was going to rack and ruin all around her. She was sent back because that was God's will--rather than having her die alone in the desert which is probably what would have happened. We can't run away from our troubles--even if we think at the time that it's the easy way out. What we have to do is to face them. With God's love and help.

Sarah is the biblical character that I've always had trouble dealing with--here, in her mistreatment of Hagar, later when she lies to God about laughing, and still later when she runs Hagar and Ishmael away, we see the absolute worst side of human nature. Sarah is supposed to be "the weaker sex," especially in that society. She, like women before and after, found ways to compensate and manipulate. Sarah must have been a beautiful and seductive woman in her youth. I say that because of the part she played in hers and Abrahams moves to Egypt and Gerar. Abraham obviously had trouble denying Sarah anything she wanted. She wanted a child. She had become obsessed with that desire. She thought she wanted that at all costs. The Bible does not say if Hagar actually did hold Sarah in contempt. Sometimes, people get utterly miserable in their own life and, if they have a jealous nature, don't like to see the happiness of someone else. I've seen this in my life where one family member's marriage ended in divorce--another family member was happily married with children. The one who had the unhappy marriage seemed to go out of her way to victimize her in-law, making it difficult for the in-law to have good relationships with the extended family. I think Sarah is angry at Abraham and Hagar for the same reason. They both seem too happy for Sarah's liking. And she still has the same sense of failure she had experienced before. She has put herself in this position, but it is easier to take her unhappiness and spite out on someone else and to blame them. I think she is trying to get rid of both Hagar and the baby so she can start over from Square 1. I certainly don't think Abraham is blameless in all this. He obviously thinks this is God's way for him to have the offspring promised, but for a man just deemed righteous by God Himself, Abraham is not standing up to Sarah and doing what is morally right for the mother of his unborn child.

It is our nature to be ritualistic. Besides that, as a teacher I know that we learn best when started from a concrete approach, rather than an abstract approach. God knows our nature; God knows the way we learn;God made us, so He knows us through and through. He used the ritual, instead of just telling him, to ensure Abraham's learning what He was teaching. Abraham responded to God's tutelage with faith and trust. That is why he was considered as righteous. God was preparing us for the ultimate blood sacrifice, that of His son Jesus. When we Christians partake of the Lord's Supper, we are using the ritual to show God that we REMEMBER our lesson--that we have everlasting life through His promise.

When I get discouraged or heavy-hearted, I just read Psalm 46 that tells me, among other things, that God is my very present help in trouble. That is what calling God my "shield" means to me. My great reward will be to get to heaven. God gave His only Son that I might do so. Calling God my sovereign is realizing that God is all powerful and controls all things, including my life.

It has taken a long time to grow up and learn that God's time is not my time and that God's plans are His own. The story of Abraham has enforced this truth more than any other biblical passage. Just look what happened to Abraham and Sarah when they tried to FIX things for themselves! God has closed doors that I so wanted open. God has opened doors that I didn't dream of or even particularly want. But each time, a door was closed or open, I felt that God was developing my character to the point He wanted me. It is easy to read the story of Abraham and not apply it to our own lives. We can think that Abraham was chosen special by God and that there is nothing special about us. Each one of us, however, is special to God. We are a part of His plan. And in God's time, not ours, we'll understand.

Right here in Genesis, God gives us the answer that we don't seem to "get" until Paul tells us, and some of us don't even get it then. It takes so little for us to satisfy our Heavenly Father: Just BELIEF in Him. My husband and I have been having a discussion: Was it easier for the pagan Abraham to start believing in God or us in the present age to believe in God? My husband thinks it must have been easier for Abraham, because God made His presence known and talked to him. I think that our faith should be easier to come by today because we have the history of believers set forth from Abraham to the present to inspire us--not to mention our Lord Jesus Christ as God's gift to us.

Abraham did not want to be "beholden" to the King of Sodom. The king's moral values were suspect, and if Abraham had taken from him, it would have put him into a relationship with the king that Abraham did not want. The King of Sodom had benfited from Abraham's military expertise as a neighbor, but more importantly, through his relationship with Abraham's nephew Lot. There is often a fine line between "inclusiveness," and "exclusiveness." My pastor preached a sermon not too long ago in which he told us that we had to keep ourselves separate. All during that sermon, I wanted to scream: "That is not what Jesus taught." Jesus said of his treatment of people like Matthew and Zacchaeus that it is the people who are sick who need the physician. Perhaps the King of Sodom was not convicted of a stricter code of morals or claim Abraham's God as his own after their encounter, but Abraham had treated him with dignity. I think that is the lesson that we all should learn. There are people who have different values than I. I do not have to like those values, but they are my neighbors, and I must love them.

I have always been so curious about Melchizedek and have read everything I could about him. In the process I've come up with as many viewpoints on who he was as I have theories about the book of Revelation. From what the Bible says here, I must believe that he is God's man and, in such a position, commands the awe and respect of Abraham. Abraham tithes to God through Mechizedek. Tithing today should represent the same worship as it did in biblical times. God expects our best, our first fruits. We have seen that throughout the Bible, beginning with Cain and Abel. I mentioned in answering another question that I always have enough when I give God His part first. In the past, where I've gotten in trouble is when I decided to give God what I had left. Then I don't have enough.

Here we have been thinking for the past week that Abraham is cowardly to the point of dishonesty. Now, look at this: a brand-new Abraham--one who shows loyalty to family and friends. He willingly helps the king of Sodom--someone for whom he obviously has no moral respect, but sees as a neighbor. The military strategist that we see here is brand-new as well. It comes as a surprise for us to see someone we thought of a a simple nomadic herdsman with such a trained army. What is here for us to emulate? Helping the downtrodden. Abraham helped his neighbor. Jesus taught us through the story of the Samaritan, that everyone is our neighbor.

As I studied last week's lesson, I was awed by how often God had to go and save Abraham from himself, as well as from others...that abundant grace again...that fulfilling of a promise, and I know that even more is yet to come. I also thought back to how God was so pleased that Solomon asked for wisdom instead of material gifts, that He gave Solomon everything. Material wealth is not a blessing for many. And neither is poverty a curse. I just read a devotional this morning about how some of us still worry that we aren't going to receive enough. I believe that to be a great sin, and one that I have to fight against. I have learned over many years that when I worry about money and decide to give God's tenth to my earthly creditors, that's when I really get into trouble and actually don't have enough. So I continue in my later years to rely on God to give me what I need--even though He has to bale me out of precarious bookkeeping at the end of some months. Jesus is the best example I can think of as a person who lived in poverty and yet never wanted.

God reveals Himself here as One who can be trusted to stand by His word. He told Abraham that He would bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him. I feel personally that Abraham had not been listening for God through this trip to Gerar any more than he had listened on his trip down to Egypt. Alas, who can cast the first stone? Our God is a faithful God.

My first reaction is to judge Abraham and Sarah harshly by today's Christian standards. But then, I get to realizing that Abraham and Sarah had been pagans with different ethics and morals for many more years than they had experienced their faith journey with God. They were "babies" in the faith. We Christians can see the same thing in the New Testament when Paul and the other apostles had to work so hard to establish the early Church and keep the people on the narrow track. Our loving, protective, caring God was there in both cases, even though it seems to me that Abraham and Sarah had strayed. I believe that the Scripture does intend for their actions to show a lack of faith. Nowhere in the story does it say that Abraham consulted God before he made his decisions. This can be an object lesson to us all. We are all prone to jump in and make our own decisions in a crisis situation instead of waiting on an answer from God.

Is there ever an account in the Bible where God looked the other way when it came to adultery? I think not. According to Mosaic Law, adultery was punishable by death. Jesus was quite clear on what He thought about adultery in the gospels. He says in Matthew 5: 28, that adultery includes looking at a woman with **** in your heart. How have we gotten so far away from the Word? It breaks my heart! Can we be forgiven the sin of adultery? Yes, as with any other sin -- with repentence.

I really believe that Abraham (and Sarah) had screwed up and taken matters into their own hands throughout this whole episode. Notice that the Bible never says that God told Abraham to avoid the famine by going into Egypt. This will not be the last time that Abraham and Sarah start "fixin' things." Remember the Hagar/Ishmael story? We all tend to do that. We reach some sort of crisis. We pray for God's guidance. Then, a lot of times, we just haul off and do what seems easiest without waiting for God to answer. Most of the time, God ends up having to save us from ourselves. That's what He had to do here. He had to act. Remember how important it was to God that He have a pure lineage from Abraham and Sarah down through to the birth of Jesus? The desired effect was achieved. Pharaoh did turn Sarah loose undefiled.

It still amazes me how God speaks to me! Just before I clicked on this question, I began my daily devotional by reading Psalm 39. My husband passed by as I began to read, and I looked up at him and said, "Why am I not familiar with this Psalm? I thought I knew them all, inside and out." Then I got to V. 12 where the psalmist says, "For I am your passing guest, an alien like my forbears." Is this not what we forget? That we are just visiting here on earth--our home is really in heaven? We are all faced with Abraham's problems as a sojourner. Our ways are not the ways of this world, but we can get caught up in the culture of our "hosts." It is all around us. Will we take on these ways? Only God's strength can see us through. To really answer the question: When my oldest son graduated from the high school where I taught for many years, the school population was made up of 90% white, 10% black...well we did have one Vietnamese student and an occasional exchange student. When my youngest son graduated 8 years later, the population had changed. There were almost as many Hispanics as whites. The parents of these children had been recruited by a local chicken processor for cheap labor. Many were illegal aliens. The children streamed into the schools. I have always lived professionally by an oath of my on device, almost like the Hypocratic Oath: If a student is in my class, it is my duty to teach that child to the best of my ability. I do not ask who the parents are, or what circumstances surround the presence of the child. How disappointing to find out that so many of my co-workers did not share this feeling. Students were treated with bitterness and resentment in many classes. Teachers complained that the language barrier was too much to handle--that their time was being taken away from the children they were supposed to be teaching--that our tax dollars were going to pay for the education of the undeserving. I went back to school. I learned strategies to help me past the language barrier. I loved my Hispanic students who tried so hard. Later, I used many of the same stategies to teach algebra to at-risk students in a larger school. It has always made me sad to see the reactions of the teachers who missed out on teaching these students because of their resentment for the different, the "alien." Most of these teachers would say they are Christian with Christian ethics. Are they? I cannot judge. But I feel that perhaps I should have read them the story of Abraham or Psalm 39. Perhaps then, they would have made a connection.

I think the significance of Abraham's calling on the name of the Lord is that it proved that Abraham had absolute faith and trust in Him to be able to do what Abraham could not do for himself. Isn't that what we do now when we "call on the name of the Lord" in small things and large? I know that I called to God yesterday when I almost ran over a deer with my vehicle. I said, "Oh, Lord! Don't let me hit him!" It seems as though I call upon the name of the Lord a great deal like that--the first words out of my mouth when I experience a jolt. But my most heart-felt calling on the name of the Lord has to do with my relationship with others: my family, friends, church--"Oh Lord, please guide me. Put the right words in my mouth to witness for You and for Your glory, Lord!"

Of course, the way I feel the most blessed through Abraham is through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, I always feel strengthened in my own faith after re-reading Abraham's faith story. I once taught a Sunday school lesson on Abraham's faith. Being a mathematics teacher by profession made me bring out a big huge graph grid where we charted Abraham's faith through these chapters of Genesis we are studying now...Abraham of course, received the highest mark when he carried Isaac to be sacrificed--and the lowest mark when he took matters in his own hands and tried to pass Sarah off as his sister instead of his wife. One of the students remarked, on seeing the completed graph with its dips and dives, that it made her somehow feel better to see that even Abraham didn't stay on the mountain top all his life. Even with that in mind, I must continue to marvel at Abraham's faith. How many of us would have recognized God's call--the one true God--and not have credited it to one of the gods of our friends, family, or neighbors--or worse yet, decided we were crazy ?

I have been pondering this question a great deal for over a year now. God has given me boundless energy to work in His behalf. I THOUGHT that calling was through my church, and I worked as hard as I could. Sometimes "boundless energy" can be wrongly translated as "pushy," and I felt a growing resentment of a few church members. So--for a year now, I have spent my extra energy working for a local hospice and our state Walk to Emmaus organization. Down deep, however, I feel God telling me to stay the course with my local church. I am praying.