Lesson 22: The Roots of the Nations (Genesis 10:1-32)

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In his commentary on Genesis, Dr. H. C. Leupold, includes a section with hints for preaching the passage under consideration. With great hope I turned to see what he would say about Genesis 10, only to read: “It may very well be questioned whether a man should ever preach on a chapter such as this” (Baker Books, p. 380). Yet Dr. James Boice calls it “a chapter that is surely one of the most interesting and important in the entire Word of God” (Genesis [Zondervan], p. 337)! After studying it for a few hours, I confess that I was more inclined to side with Dr. Leupold than with Dr. Boice! If I could choose one chapter from the Bible to take with me to a desert island, it would not be Genesis 10. It is history at its most bare; it lists names and people whom we no longer know or care about.

And yet it is a part of the Word of God, which is all profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). So although this may not be one of the most crucial passages for us today, it does provide us with some important insights into the history of the human race. It is the most ancient record we possess of the roots of the nations. It is a bridge between the period we could call “pre-history” (from Adam to Abraham) and the historical times of Abraham and his descendants. And in spite of the pot shots of numerous critics in the past, most Bible scholars have become convinced of the accuracy of Genesis 10. William F. Albright (not a conservative) said that this chapter “stands absolutely alone in ancient literature, without a remote parallel, even among the Greeks, where we find the closest approach to a distribution of peoples in genealogical framework.... The Table of Nations remains an astonishingly accurate document” (supplement to Robert Young, Analytical Concordance to the Bible [Eerdmans], p. 30).

The chapter is a genealogy, but not in the sense of Genesis 5 and 11, which trace lineage from father to son (or grandson). Rather, it contains individual names, place names, and many names of tribes or people groups, some of which may be derived from the patriarch of that group. Thus it is not just tracing individual histories, but the development of nations, especially as they related to Israel at the time of the conquest of Canaan. It isn’t a complete catalog of all nations, but rather a list that would help Israel understand the origins of the people they would encounter during the conquest, especially in light of the blessings and cursings of Noah’s oracle (9:25-27).

The chapter is divided between the descendants of Japheth (10:1-5), Ham (10:6-20), and Shem (10:21-32). There is debate among scholars as to the birth order of Noah’s sons. Some translate verse 21 so that Shem is the older brother of Japheth (NASB), whereas others understand Japheth to be the eldest (NIV, NKJV). There is also debate as to whether Ham was the middle son (he is always listed second) or the youngest (see 9:24). We probably cannot know for certain, but I’m inclined toward the view of Keil & Delitzsch (Commentary on the Old Testament [Eerdmans], 1:156) that the birth order is Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In chapter 10, Japheth’s descendants are probably listed first because they were the most remote and thus the least important to Israel (which is Moses’ common pattern in Genesis, to dispose of the least important matters first). Since the line of Shem will occupy the rest of the book, it comes last.

I’m not going to attempt to work through every name in the chapter. There is a lot of speculation involved in trying to trace every name to a particular group of people, since names change in spelling over the years and from language to language. But we can be fairly certain about some of the broad trends and people movements.

We who are of European heritage are descended from Japheth. His descendants fanned out to the east and west from the probable landing site of the ark in eastern Turkey. It is generally agreed that Gomer’s, Javan’s and Tiras’s descendants moved into what is now Europe; Magog, Tubal, and Meschech moved north into what is now Russia; and Madai was the ancestor of the Medes and Persians, who eventually migrated into India. Thus the Indo-European languages are related, stemming from a common ancestor. The relationship of the languages of India and of western Europe was largely unknown until the 19th century, when comparative and historical study established their descent from a common language ancestor somewhere in eastern Europe. Yet Genesis 10 establishes this linkage.

The sons of Ham spread out primarily toward Africa. Cush is mentioned often in Scripture, and refers to Ethiopia. One notorious son of Cush, Nimrod, is listed. He moved east into the area of Babylon and Ninevah. (I’ll say more about him later.) Mizraim is Egypt, Put probably refers to Libya, and Canaan, of course, to the many peoples inhabiting the land of Palestine during the conquest.

One obvious question from this table of the nations is, Where are the Oriental races? They may be omitted, since the list is not necessarily comprehensive. But they may be related to the Sinites (10:17), which name is still preserved in the word “Sino-” in reference to China (such as Sino-American relations). Another possibility is that some of the Hittites (called Heth in 10:15), when their empire fell, fled eastward into China. The word Hittite has also been spelled “Khittae,” from which may come the word “Cathay,” another designation of China.

The boundaries of Canaan’s territory are described (10:19) because that is the particular region Israel was to conquer. Many of these lesser-known tribes bordered the land of Palestine. Moses wrote this so that Israel would know who these peoples were in relation to God’s promises of blessing and cursing on the descendants of Noah.

Of the sons of Shem, Eber is named at the head of the list (10:21) and again later (10:24) because the word “Hebrew” probably comes from his name. Elam was the ancestor of the Elamites, who lived in southeast Mesopotamia. Asshur was apparently the founder of the Assyrians, although nothing is known of him. Arpachshad was in the line leading to Abraham (11:10-26). Lud was probably the Ludbu of the Assyrians, situated on the Tigris River. Aram is the name of the Aramean tribes which lived on the steppes of Mesopotamia (from Allen P. Ross, “The Table of the Nations in Genesis 10--Its Content,” Bibliotheca Sacra [Jan.-Mar., 1981], pp. 22-34).

A mysterious note is attached to the name of Peleg (10:25, whose name in Hebrew means “divided”), that “in his days the earth was divided.” Most likely this refers to the dividing of the nations at Babel. Thus chronologically, Genesis 11 fits in here, which may be during Nimrod’s time (three or four generations after the flood). If Nimrod built Babylon, then God could have scattered the nations in his time, after which he moved north to conquer Ninevah.

Some have suggested that this division of the earth is a reference to continental drift, the idea that the continents were once together in one great land mass, but have drifted apart. There is scientific evidence to support that theory, although most would date it far earlier than this. But even in the last century, before scientists advanced that idea, some suggested this interpretation. It’s interesting that in Greek the word for sea is pelagos (we get “archipelago” from this). If there was a catastrophic upheaval in Peleg’s day, in which the continents moved apart and the seas broke in on the land, both the Greek and Hebrew meaning of Peleg’s name would make sense. But we can only be very speculative on the point.

With that as an overview of these verses, what can we learn from them spiritually? Three lessons:

1. People are quick to forget the one true God.

Verses 1 and 32 both contain the phrase, “after the flood.” You would think that a judgment as catastrophic as the flood would cause people to fear God for many generations after. They should have realized that they could not defy God with impunity. And yet here we have a table of the nations, with no hint that any of them followed the one true God.

It’s overwhelming to think of all these names and to realize that they represent whole groups of people, whole nations, who lived and died, for the most part, without God. Perhaps there was more knowledge of God than we are aware of, but what we know of these nations from later history would not indicate that any of them worshiped the one true God.

Nimrod is a case in point. Apparently his name was proverbial in Moses’ day, so that people compared a powerful man to Nimrod (10:9), much as we may say, “a dictator like Stalin.” At first glance, you might think that Nimrod was a good guy, since he is called a mighty hunter “before the Lord.” But the point is rather that Nimrod asserted himself against the Lord.

There are several clues which point us in this direction. First, the term “mighty one,” (used three times of Nimrod, 10:8, 9), recalls the powerful, but wicked Nephilim (Gen. 6:4). Nimrod was like them, mighty in their own exploits, but not mighty in godliness. Second, Nimrod was the founder of both Babylon and Ninevah, which later became enemies and conquerors of Israel. If you trace the word Babylon through the Bible, you find that it was first a city and later a symbolic word for a system that exalts man in opposition to God and oppresses man under tyranny.

In Genesis 11:4 the builders of the tower of Babel boasted that their tower would reach into heaven and that they would make a name for themselves. Centuries later, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, boasted in his own great power. He set up a gold statue as a symbol of his glory and power and forced everyone to bow down to it. Later he boasted as he walked on the roof of his palace, “Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30). He exalted himself against God who is the ruler over mankind, who bestows human sovereignty to whomever He wishes (Dan. 4:32). And he used his power to force people to bow before false gods.

Later, in Revelation 17 & 18, we encounter both religious and political Babylon, the great harlot, who exalts herself against God and slaughters the people of God. She is said to sit on many waters, which are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues (Rev. 17:15). The wording reminds us of the families, languages, lands, and nations of Genesis 10:5, 20, and 31. Babylon oppresses the nations and turns them away from God.

For this reason, many commentators suggest that when the text says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter, it should be taken to mean not that he was a hunter of game, but a hunter of men. The Hebrew word is used elsewhere in reference to “a violent invasion of the persons and rights of men” (George Bush, Notes on Genesis [Klock & Klock] 1:171). Nimrod used his skill and force in warfare to build a kingdom for himself at others’ expense. Josephus wrote, “[Nimrod] was a bold man, and of great strength of hand; and he gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them to a constant dependence on his own power” (cited by Bush, p. 172).

Thus when it says that Nimrod was a mighty hunter “before the Lord,” the Hebrew is, “in the face of the Lord,” or “against the Lord” (as the Septuagint translates it). Moses is reminding his readers that Nimrod’s tyranny did not go unnoticed by God. His name itself comes from a word meaning “we will revolt.” He established his kingdom in defiance of God.

Note also that Nimrod was a nephew of Canaan, who was cursed by Noah. James Boice imagines Nimrod, who would have been aware of this curse, saying, “I don’t know about the others, but I regard this matter of the curse of God on Canaan as a major disgrace on my family, one that needs to be erased. Did God say that my uncle Canaan would be a slave? I’ll fight that judgment. I’ll never be a slave! What’s more, I’ll be the exact opposite. I’ll be so strong that others will become slaves to me. Instead of ‘slave,’ I’ll make them say, ‘Here comes Nimrod, the mightiest man on earth’” (ibid., 1:332).

An Italian proverb states, “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.” What good is it to become the founder of a mighty kingdom if you do not know the living and true God? Fame and power are fleeting in light of eternity. I have read that Mao Zedong, the powerful Chinese dictator, viewed by many of his people as divine, shortly before his death, said on several occasions, “I am soon going to meet God.” Afredo Stroessner ruled Paraguay as dictator for 34 years. He had named over 10,000 streets and public places after himself. But in February, 1989, he was deposed. The day after the coup, crews were already at work changing all of these names.

No matter how great we become in the eyes of men, the day comes quickly for us all when we must go to meet God. That fact should help us to remember Him all our days and to order our lives rightly before Him. We dare not forget, as Nimrod and all of these nations were so quick to do, that we must stand before Him. There’s a second lesson for us in Genesis 10:

2. People are quick to forget the oneness of the human race.

There is one true and living God; there is also one human race which He has created in His image. We all are descended from the same family. We who are theologically conservative sometimes hesitate to talk about the brotherhood of man, because the liberals use it to imply that everyone is in the family of God, apart from personal salvation. But there is a true biblical doctrine of the brotherhood of all men. Paul referred to it in his sermon at Athens when he said that God “made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation” (Acts 17:26). In that same sermon he calls us all “the offspring of God” (Acts 17:29).

If Christians would stop to ponder the implications of this rather dry tenth chapter of Genesis, racial prejudice would be dissolved. I have often been shocked to hear racist comments from Christians. Sad to say, many chapters of the Ku Klux Klan have Christian pastors serving as chaplains! But the Bible is clear that whatever your skin color, you can trace your ancestry back to one of the three sons of Noah. We’re all brothers and sisters!

Why then are we so quick to divide from one another and to oppress one another? The history of the human race has been one of power struggles in every level of society and among the various nations. Why? Because the one human race has one basic need: “... there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22b-23). As God said to Noah after the flood, “the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21). That’s your need and mine: to repent of our sin, pride, and prejudice, and to know God’s forgiveness, so that His gospel of reconciliation can flow through us to those who have not heard. That’s the third lesson here:

3. God wants all people to hear of His one means of salvation.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross is God’s one means of salvation. He wants all to hear.

Perhaps you’re wondering, “But what about all these nations before Abraham? They never heard about salvation through Christ.” Paul gives an answer in his sermon at Lystra when he says, “And in the generations gone by [God] permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:16-17). God’s witness was around them; if men will seek Him, He is not far from each one (Acts 17:27).

Although I admit that it’s a difficult problem, we know that God will be fair and just with every person. But the real question we need to face is, what about us who have heard? What are we to do? First, we must come to Christ, repent of our own sins, and receive His pardon. Then we are responsible to tell others. His plan is to use His people to tell the message of salvation to every family, language, land, and nation.

We will see in Genesis 12 how God chose Abraham and promised to bless all nations through him and his descendants. From Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, in the fulness of time, the promised Savior was born. His own people did not receive Him, and so the Gentiles were grafted into the promise; as Noah prophesied, Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem (Gen. 9:27). Christ has purchased with His blood men “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). Now we, who have received the blessings of God through Abraham, are commissioned to tell the good news of salvation and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ to those who haven’t heard.

Though people are quick to forget God and the oneness of the human race, God wants all people to hear of His one means of salvation.

Conclusion

You can count the number of nations in Genesis 10 in different ways and come up with slightly different figures. Jewish scholars counted 70 (26 from Shem, 30 from Ham [not including the Philistines, mentioned in passing; 10:14], and 14 from Japheth). Perhaps when our Lord chose 70 to go out to preach the gospel (Luke 10:1), He was saying, “I want a worker for every nation.” His Great Commission makes it clear that we are to go to every nation (people group). That is the thrust of the missions movement in our day, to see a church for every people by the year 2000.

Robert Woodruff was a man of vision. At the end of World War II, he said, “In my generation it is my desire that everyone in the world have a taste of Coca-Cola.” As president of Coca-Cola from 1923 to 1955, Woodruff motivated his colleagues to reach their generation around the world for Coke. It is no accident that Coke is now sold from the deserts of Africa to the interior of China.

If they can do it with Coke, can’t we do it with Christ? I want to leave you with two questions to ask yourself soberly before God:

Am I doing all I can to reach as many for Christ as I can? If not, what am I going to change in order to do something about it? God wants all the nations to hear the good news about the Savior.

Discussion Questions

What are some practical ways most of us could be more involved in the Great Commission?
Which is more difficult: To give money to missionaries or to tell your neighbor about Christ?
How do we know how much we should give to world missions? What guidelines can help us to be faithful in this matter?
How would you answer a critic’s question, “What about those who have never heard the gospel?”

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: History, Soteriology (Salvation)

Lesson 23: Man Versus God: God Wins (Genesis 11:1-9)

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Several years ago, during the nuclear arms race, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops drafted a pastoral letter condemning the U.S policy. One sentence read: “Today the destructive potential of the nuclear powers threatens the sovereignty of God over the world he has brought into being” (Newsweek, 11/8/82).

Imagine! God’s sovereignty over His creation threatened by the plans and programs of world leaders, as if God were sitting in heaven, wringing His hands, crying, “What can I do! I never knew they’d build the bomb!” The bottom line is that if God’s sovereignty is threatened by what man does, then man, not God, is sovereign.

For centuries, men have deluded themselves by thinking they could determine their destinies apart from God. As William Ernest Henley boasted in his poem, “Invictus,” “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Proud men think that they can call the shots. What they forget is that one little virus, one drunk driver, one “freak” accident, is all it takes to end their proud plans.

The Bible declares, “There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord” (Prov. 21:30). Concerning world rulers, a later king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was humbled by God until he learned that “the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes” (Dan. 4:17, 25). As the psalmist expressed God’s response to proud kings who challenge His rule, “He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them” (Ps. 2:4). Concerning the plans of proud man, the Bible declares, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand” (Prov. 19:21).

These verses are a commentary on Genesis 11:1-9, where we find proud man planning to thwart the purpose of God. But God effortlessly confuses their language, and their ambitious plans are laid waste. It teaches us that ...

When proud men set themselves against the Sovereign God, God always wins.

It’s like saying, When a deluded man sets himself against a speeding locomotive, the train always wins. Unless you want to spend your life in futility, you must submit to the Sovereign God.

The story is skillfully placed in the middle of two lists tracing the descendants of Shem (10:21-31; 11:10-32). In chapter 10:8-11, we learned that Nimrod, a rebellious, aggressive descendant of Ham, founded Babel. A dominant theme in the Babel story is that these settlers wanted to make a name for themselves; but in line with their rebellious leader, Nimrod, they are doing it in defiance of God. In Hebrew, Shem means “name.” Moses is saying that if we proudly seek to make a name for ourselves by our achievements, God will scatter us. If we want His blessing, we must, like Shem, obey Him. From Shem’s line will come Abraham and God’s covenant of blessing.

The story serves as a sequel to the table of the nations, explaining why the nations were scattered and why they spoke different languages. It also shows that their root problem was their rebellious pride toward God. Thus it serves as a warning to Moses’ readers to submit themselves under God’s mighty hand and not be deluded into thinking that they will prosper if they rebel against Him.

The story is written with delightful literary skill. The Hebrew text is full of wordplays and poetic devices. The ultimate wordplay is in verse 9, where Babel is played off the Hebrew balel, meaning “confusion.” Babylonian accounts tell how their city was built in heaven by the gods, proudly referring to it as “Babili” (“the gate of God”). But God says, “So you want to make a name for yourselves, do you? You call your city the gate of God? How about ‘confusion’ instead?”

The narrative uses antithetic parallelism to contrast and balance the ideas. Verse 1 is set off against verse 9, verse 2 against verse 8, and verse 3 against verse 7, with verse 5 being the hinge of the story. Verse 1 mentions “the whole earth” and emphasizes the unity of the language; verse 9 also mentions “the whole earth” (twice), but contrasts God’s confusion of the languages with the unity of verse 1. Verse 2 shows the people settling in one location; verse 8 contrasts that with the Lord’s scattering them abroad. Verses 3 & 4 show the people boasting in their plans to build a city and a tower, with the words, “Come, let us build ...”; verse 7 and part of verse 8 provide the contrast with the Lord stopping their plans, using the same form, “Come, let us confuse ....” In verse 4, the people plan to build a tower to reach up to heaven; but in verses 5 & 7, the Lord has to come down in order to view this supposedly great project that man is attempting to build. In verse 4 men fear that they will be scattered over the earth; in verses 8 & 9, what they fear comes upon them through the punishing--and yet protecting--hand of God. (I’m indebted to Allen P. Ross, “The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9,” Bibliotheca Sacra [Apr.-June, 1981], pp. 119-138, for most of these insights.)

Some have been bothered by verse 5, which seems to imply that God didn’t know what was happening on earth, as if He were feeble or near-sighted. So He comes down for a closer look. While the verse is anthropomorphic (using human language to describe God), its point is satirical. Here proud men build a tower whose top (they think) will reach into heaven; but God, who is high and lifted up, must come down in order to view it. It’s just a speck from His vantage point. The satire is heightened by referring to the builders as “the sons of men” (11:5). They are not gods; they were mere, puny men. It is a clever satire on the feebleness of men who vainly think they can penetrate God’s realm. Man may plan and build in defiance of God, but God will accomplish His purpose in spite of man’s rebellion.

1. Men proudly set themselves against the sovereign God (11:1-4).

Derek Kidner (Genesis [IVP], p. 109) observes,

The primeval history reaches its fruitless climax as man, conscious of new abilities, prepares to glorify and fortify himself by collective effort. The elements of the story are timelessly characteristic of the spirit of the world. The project is typically grandiose; men describe it excitedly to one another as if it were the ultimate achievement .... At the same time they betray their insecurity as they crowd together to preserve their identity and control their fortunes.

We can see the spirit of Babel in the worldly reaction to the AIDS epidemic. No one outside the church (and few in it) is saying, “This is the judgment of a holy God on our sexual immorality. We must repent.” Rather, the attitude is, “Let’s not condemn anybody. It’s not their fault they’ve contracted this disease. We’ll find a cure and fix this terrible problem. Meanwhile, make sure you have safe sex.” It is man seeking to overcome his problems apart from submitting to the Sovereign God.

Babel was Nimrod’s project. He wanted to build his empire in defiance of God. But you can tell from verse 4 that he promoted it under the guise of human betterment. “We’ll make a better world, a world that is safe for us all. Why be scattered over the face of the earth? Settle in Babel!” It sounded attractive, but there was one major problem: God was not consulted or trusted. When man can do it by himself, he doesn’t doesn’t need a Savior. This was arrogance and open rebellion against the Lord. God had said to fill the earth (9:1), but these people said, “Let’s build a city so that we won’t be scattered.” They wanted the good life, but on their own terms and in their own way, without submitting to God. Babel was the epitome of human effort and achievement to solve the problems of this world, but to solve them without admitting sin and without coming to God, who alone has the remedy for human sin.

Apparently there were no stones in the area to use in building their city and tower. So they developed kiln-dried bricks and used pitch for mortar. Making bricks when there was no stone bolstered their pride and confidence in themselves. “We can do anything, overcome any hardship. The only limit on what we can do is our own imagination. Let’s go forward.” As in Genesis 4, it was progress; but it was progress without God.

Yet in spite of this bravado, these pioneers had an underlying sense of anxiety. They feared that they would be scattered over the face of the earth and die unknown, without a name for themselves. Isn’t that just like proud man? Like a little boy, he puts on a brave front, but deep down inside, he’s afraid.

The tower figures in the story here. I believe it had religious significance. Archaeologists have uncovered in this region a number of ziggurats, or religious towers, made of kiln-dried bricks and pitch. These may be modeled after this original tower. We know that astrology originated in Babylon, so this tower may have been designed so that the top contained a representation of the heavens (the signs of the zodiac) on it. Astrology replaces submission to the Sovereign God with submission to fate as seen in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars. Thus it is a form of idolatry and is satanic in origin.

All false religion is a scheme of making God available to man for man’s glory and plans. Sometimes it is very subtle, because it uses the name of the true God, and all the right words, but it’s a cover for a man-centered system that dethrones God and robs Him of glory. Many people in Christian churches “received Christ” so that He could help them be happy or solve their problems or succeed in life. But self was never dethroned. Pride was never humbled. They never bowed before the Sovereign God and confessed their sinfulness and yielded to His rightful lordship. Just like the residents of Babel, they’re using God and religion for their own benefit, rather than submitting to Him and judging their proud, sinful rebellion. But such people actually are opposed to God. What they need to understand is,

2. The Sovereign God always wins (11:5-9).

The hinge of the passage is, “the Lord came down” (11:5). He sovereignly acts to bring about His own purpose in spite of man’s rebellion. The Lord acknowledges man’s possibilities: “now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them” (11:6). But note that God did not approve man’s possibilities; He thwarted them, in order to establish His own sovereignty. God is not Aladdin’s Genie to help us reach our goals. We must submit to His will.

God is exalted by the manner in which He so easily disposes of proud man’s efforts: He confuses their languages. Don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor! It must have been hilarious to watch the workers the morning this happened. The boss is trying to tell a crew to do something, and they look at him like he’s from outer space. Then they start talking and every one of them is speaking a different language. Each person must have thought the others had flipped out! Whenever you see the people at the United Nations with their headsets on, so that they can understand the translation, remember Babel, and know that God is exalted over proud man.

God’s action in scattering the people was both a punishment and a preventative, to keep man’s pride from going too far. Man’s plans for unity and strength ultimately would have resulted in great evil, because it was done in human wisdom apart from the Lord. It would have resulted in what God will one day permit, the one world government and one world religion under the total domination of the antichrist. And so God met the unity on earth with disunity from heaven.

As I wrote in the recent church newsletter, there is a great push in our day for unity among the churches. Part of the rallying cry is for the churches to come together for prayer. That sounds good on the surface. How can anyone be opposed to prayer? But when it means God’s people joining with those who pray the rosary or pray to the virgin Mary, it is not true Christian unity. God wants Christians unified, but not at the cost of fundamental truth. Derek Kidner writes, “... unity and peace are not ultimate goods: better division than collective apostasy” (p. 110). Satan is always trying to counterfeit the work of God. Here he was building a false unity which did not honor the Lord. God one day will unify His people, but it will be under His sovereignty, not under the banner of proud man. In Zephaniah 3:9-12, the Lord says,

For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder.... In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me; for then I will remove from your midst your proud, exulting ones, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain. But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.

Those who truly belong to the Lord are lowly people who take refuge in the name of the Lord, who bow under His sovereignty.

Let me nail down this passage with three applications:

Conclusion

1. If you’re not growing in humility, you’re not growing as a Christian. Since pride is the root sin of all sins, humility is the chief virtue of the Christian life. Since the original temptation in the garden, Satan has been active in trying to get man to exalt himself against God. It has flooded into the church in our day under the banner of building your self-esteem. But the Bible is clear that we all esteem ourselves too highly. Even the person who goes around dumping on himself is self-focused. I used to teach the popular views on self-esteem. But in reading Calvin’s Institutes I came to realize how far I had drifted from the clear teaching of Scripture, and I had to repent. He writes,

A saying of Chrysostom’s has always pleased me very much, that the foundation of our philosophy is humility. But that of Augustine pleases me even more: “When a certain rhetorician was asked what was the chief rule in eloquence, he replied, ‘Delivery’; what was the second rule, ‘Delivery’; what was the third rule, ‘Delivery’; so if you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second, third, and always I would answer, ‘Humility.’” (II:II:11).

Calvin not only taught humility, he modeled it. On one occasion, the Roman Catholic Cardinal Sadolet passed incognito through Geneva. He wanted to have a look at the famous reformer. He found the simple house on Canon Street and stood there amazed. Could the great Calvin live in this little place? He knocked. Calvin himself, in a plain black robe, answered the door. Sadolet was dumbfounded. Where were the servants who should have been scurrying about to do their master’s bidding? Even the bishops of Rome lived in mansions, surrounded by wealth and servants. Archbishops and cardinals lived in palaces like kings. And here was the most famous man in the whole Protestant church, in a little house, answering his own door! (Thea B. Van Halsema, This Was John Calvin [Baker], pp. 164-175.)

If you ask, How do I grow in humility? the biblical answer is: Get a clearer picture of the greatness of God in His holiness; and, get a more accurate view of the depth of your own sinfulness. C. S. Lewis wrote (Mere Christianity [Macmillan], p. 111),

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that--and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison--you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

In 1715 Louis XIV of France died. He had called himself “Louis the Great,” and was famous for his brash statement, “I am the State!” His court was the most lavish in Europe and his funeral the most spectacular. His body lay in a golden coffin. To dramatize his greatness, orders had been given that the cathedral would be dimly lit, with a special candle set above the coffin. Thousands waited in hushed silence. Then Bishop Massilon began to speak. Slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle, saying, “Only God is great.”

2. Take care how you build because God will inspect it. “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” (11:5). He inspected their work. He will inspect our work as well. We had better build with that in view. I’m talking about the motive behind your service for the Lord. God looks on our hearts. He’s concerned about why you do what you do. Is it to gain the praise of men? Is it to meet your own needs? Or is it to honor and glorify Him? The question is not, What does your work look like from the outside? I’m sure the city and tower were the most impressive thing on the face of the earth in that day. There are many works for God in our day that seem quite impressive. The question is, What does God see? Calvin writes, “We never truly glory in him [God] unless we have utterly put off our own glory. On the other hand, we must hold this as a universal principle: whoever glories in himself, glories against God” (III:XIII:2).

3. Make sure that your hope for heaven is based only on God’s grace through the cross of Christ, not on anything in yourself. Man’s religions always seek to reach God through human effort. Thus man can boast in his standing before God, because he had a part in it. But biblical Christianity says, “May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). The cross strips us of our pride and puts all our hope in the merits of the Savior.

Dr. Harry Ironside told the story of a new convert who gave his testimony at a church service. With great joy he told how he had been delivered from a life of sin. He gave all the glory to God, saying nothing about his own merits or anything he had done to deserve his salvation. The man in charge of the service was a legalistic man who did not appreciate the reality of salvation by grace through faith apart from human works. So he responded to the young man’s testimony by saying, “You seem to indicate that God did everything when He saved you. Didn’t you do your part before God did His?”

The new Christian jumped to his feet and said, “Oh, yes, I did. For more than 30 years I ran away from God as fast as my sins could carry me. That was my part. But God took out after me and ran me down. That was His part.” Ironside observed, “It was well put and tells a story that every redeemed sinner understands” (from “Our Daily Bread”).

Scripture is clear: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). If you don’t want God as your enemy, humble yourself under His mighty hand, confessing your sin. Forsaking all trust in yourself or your efforts, trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Remember, if you set yourself against the Sovereign God, God always wins!

Discussion Questions

How can believers fight pride and grow in humility?
How can Christians know when it’s right to divide from professing Christians? How much impurity should we tolerate?
Should Christians aim for success in their jobs? How does humility fit in with striving for success?
Why is the cross central to Christianity?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson 24: The God of History and You (Genesis 11:10-32)

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History was never my favorite course in college. It seemed like it just involved memorizing a bunch of irrelevant names and dates and facts so that I could spit them back on the test. What was the point?

But then I took church history at Dallas Seminary with Dr. John Hannah. He was able to take the various men and ideas and events from the past and show how it all explains where we’re at in the present. His courses gave me a lot of understanding not only about where American Christianity is at, but also about the various men and ideas that had shaped my thinking, even though I had not previously known where they were at on the theological spectrum. And, he also helped open my eyes to other great men of God who, since then, have greatly shaped my life as I have studied their lives and writings.

Someone has said that history is actually “His story”--God’s story--because He is sovereignly moving men and nations according to His purposes. Thus it is important to understand history, especially biblical history, because it helps us understand what God is doing and how our lives can fit into His purpose.

I must admit that our text, which traces the genealogy from Shem to Abraham, doesn’t make for the most exciting reading. We may wonder why God takes up the pages of Scripture with this kind of thing. But the point of the text is to show us that God is the God of history who is working out His eternal plan through the lives of His people. His movements sometimes seem slow by our standards. But He is steadily at work. And this God of history is our God. He has called us to Himself and will use us in His eternal plan. Knowing this gives meaning to our lives. So our text shows that ...

God is steadily moving in history to accomplish His plan of salvation.

As I said in our first study, Genesis is divided in the Hebrew text by the word toledot, translated “generations” or “history.” The last section began in 6:9, with the generations of Noah. Genesis 11:10 begins the section dealing with the generations of Shem; 11:27 begins a section which runs through 25:11, dealing with the generations of Terah, the father of Abraham, or Abram, as he was first named.

Abraham is the central figure of Genesis. In fact, apart from Jesus Christ, it could be argued that he is the most important figure in the Bible. While 11 chapters in Genesis cover the period from creation to Abraham (at least 2,000 years), 14 chapters are devoted to the life of Abraham. He is the father of all believers. In several places the New Testament uses Abraham as the prime example to explain the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith apart from works. God often refers to Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham stands as the father of the Jewish nation, directly in the ancestry of Jesus Christ. He even holds an important place in heaven, which Jesus referred to as “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22). Our text gives us the lineage from Shem to this important biblical figure, Abraham.

What can we learn from this genealogy? Three factors are seen here in how God is at work in history to accomplish His plan of salvation:

1. God’s plan of salvation in history involves His choice.

A narrowing process is at work here. Chapter 10 lists the three sons of Noah. God chose Shem as the line through which He would bring blessing to the world. Of Shem’s five sons (10:22), God chose Arpachshad. In each case we read, “he had other sons and daughters,” but only one of those offspring was chosen in the ancestry leading from Noah through Shem to Abraham and eventually to Christ. God’s choice lies behind the history.

You may wonder why God chooses certain individuals. Maybe He looked down through history and saw somebody who would have faith or live a decent life, and said, “There’s My man! I’ll choose him.” But that isn’t the way it works.

A. God’s choice is according to grace, not merit.

We don’t know much about most of Shem’s descendants listed here. But we do know something about Terah, Abraham’s father, and a few generations before him. In Joshua 24:2 the Lord says, “From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods” (also Josh. 24:14-15). Abraham came from a pagan family, and was probably an idolater himself when God called him. In fact, even three generations later, when Rachel stole her father’s household gods, the family was still into idolatry (Gen. 31:30-35).

God’s sovereign choice never depends on human merit. He didn’t look down from heaven and say, “There’s a good man; I’ll choose him.” Rather, God only chooses and calls sinners to Himself. Abraham was a sinner. God chose him simply because of grace, apart from anything God foresaw in Abraham. If God chose Abraham because He foresaw that Abraham would believe, then Abraham could boast in his faith as the reason God chose him. But salvation, from start to finish, is all from God, not at all from man.

C. H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher of the past century, was once preaching to a Methodist congregation. During the first part of his sermon, the people were nodding in agreement and saying, “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!” Then Spurgeon came to the doctrine of election and noticed a distinct change in the mood of his audience. (Methodists do not accept that doctrine.) So he proceeded to put it to them this way. He asked, “Is there any difference between you and others who have not been converted?” They responded, “Yes, glory to God! There is a difference.” Then Spurgeon asked, “Who has made the difference, yourself or God?” “The Lord,” they said. Spurgeon shot back, “Yes, and that is the doctrine of election; that if there be a difference, the Lord made the difference.” (The New Park Street Pulpit [Baker], 6:138.)

One reason that people don’t like this doctrine is that they think that it’s not fair of God to choose some and not all. But to contend that God is not fair to show mercy to some and not to others is to usurp God’s sovereignty and to impugn His character, as Paul argues in Romans 9. God would be fair if He condemned everyone. All of these men and their descendants had known about God through their ancestor, Noah, and the flood. But, as Paul puts it in Romans 1:18, they had “suppressed the truth in unrighteousness,” rejecting God’s revelation of His attributes and power through creation. Thus they, not God, were responsible for their spiritual condition. Genesis 10 and 11, which shows us the course of the nations going their own way after the flood, is the Old Testament’s way of saying what Paul says, that God gave them up to their sin; He permitted them to go their own ways (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28; Acts 14:16).

The point is, God didn’t choose Abraham because he was a good man. He chose Abraham to demonstrate His grace. He doesn’t choose anyone because they deserve it. He only chooses sinners who deserve His judgment. And while that’s a blow to our sinful pride, it is actually very good news. It means that you cannot do anything to qualify yourself for God’s salvation. You can only come to God confessing your sin and asking for His mercy, and He will grant it because He is a merciful God. God’s plan of salvation involves His choice according to His grace.

B. God’s choice of a life is what matters.

The thing which separated Abraham from all his contemporaries was that God chose him. It is God’s hand on a life that matters. If God does not choose, if He does not call a person to Himself, you’ve just got human religion. But when God is in it, you’ve got His power unto salvation.

Some people stumble over the doctrine of election. But the heart of election is that salvation is of God. He originates it, He moves in our lives before we ever seek Him. So we can take no credit for our salvation; it all comes from Him (see 1 Cor. 1:26-31). That humbles your pride, but it’s a source of great joy and blessing when it dawns on you.

Abraham’s life shows us that God has His hand on a life even before the person is aware of it. He places each person in a particular family. Sometimes, even though that family serves idols, God will take one member and use him to turn the family and even whole nations toward God for generations afterward. Every person who has been used of God will testify that it is God’s choice of him that has made all the difference in his life. Jeremiah the prophet said that God knew him, consecrated him, and appointed him before he was formed in the womb (Jer. 1:5). Paul said that God set him apart even from his mother’s womb (Gal. 1:15). By nature they all were sinners. But by God’s grace, they were chosen to know Him and serve Him. That’s what mattered.

The apostle Peter commands us, “Be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you” (2 Pet. 1:10). How can we do this? First, have you believed in Christ as Savior and Lord? This is the prime evidence that He has chosen you. You did not believe because of your will (John 1:13). The fallen human will is bound in sin. You believed because God imparted faith to you (Phil 1:29). Then, to your faith, Peter urges you to supply various godly character qualities (2 Pet. 1:5-9). In other words, growth in godliness will help you to be more certain about God’s calling and choosing you (1:11). It is a source of great comfort when God reveals to you that He chose you by His grace and that because of His choice your life can be greatly used by Him in His eternal plan of salvation.

2. God’s plan of salvation in history involves time.

This genealogy shows God’s time, both with the nations and with individuals.

A. God’s plan involves time with the nations.

We don’t know exactly how much time elapsed from Shem to Abraham. If you add up the totals here, you get about 350 years from the birth of Arpachshad to the birth of Abraham. But it was common in that day, when tracing ancestry, to be selective and to leave gaps. So when it says that Arpachshad lived 35 years and became the father of Shelah (11:12), it may be a direct link; or it may mean that he became the father of an unnamed man who was the ancestor of Shelah. To the Hebrews and others of that time, this was not misleading. It was just a different way of thinking than we’re used to. In fact, Luke 3:36 adds Cainan between Arpachshad and Shelah.

But at any rate, there was a fair amount of time between Noah and when God chose Abraham and began to call a people unto Himself. Many people were born and died during those years. The nations spread out over the earth. Most of those nations had strayed from the truth about God. And yet, for reasons known only to Him, God waited over 350 years until Abraham to issue His covenant to bless all nations through him.

Again, this bothers some people. What about all those people who never heard? They were not without a witness through creation of God’s goodness and power (Rom. 1:18; Acts 14:17). As we’ve seen, they were not innocent people. They suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. But it ought to make us grateful for the fact that we live in a time and place where God has made known His salvation in a clear and definite way. We have God’s Word in front of us. We have abundant opportunities to hear His truth preached. What if you had been born in America 500 years ago? God was not moving in this land at that time as He is now. Be thankful that you are privileged to know Him!

B. God’s plan involves time with individuals.

We read in Genesis 12:4 that Abraham was 75 when he left Haran for Canaan. Even though people were living longer at that time, he was no youth. Why didn’t God call Abraham when he was 20 and give him Isaac when he was 30? I can’t answer that question, except to say that God’s timing is often not in line with ours. Even after God called Abraham, he grew slowly. God had originally called him when he was in Ur. He got as far as Haran and settled there until his father died (Acts 7:2-4). From God’s perspective, that was wasted time. Yet God still used him.

There is a chronological problem I should mention. In 11:32 it says that Terah, Abraham’s father, was 205 when he died. Abraham didn’t leave Haran until then (Acts 7:4), when he was 75. That would make Terah 130 when Abraham was born. But 11:27 says that when Terah was 70 he became the father of Abraham, Nahor and Haran. The most likely answer is that at 70 Terah had his first son. Abraham is mentioned first in 11:27 because he was the most important son in the story. But Abraham wasn’t born until 60 years after his oldest brother. The problem with this solution is that later, Abraham is surprised to learn that he will be a father at 100, which is hard to understand if his own father had been 130 at Abraham’s birth. But perhaps with the shortening life spans, Abraham knew at 100 that he was pushing the limit for fathering a child.

But to return to the point, God worked slowly with Abraham. As we’ll see in future weeks, after he got to Canaan, he didn’t stay, but moved on to Egypt, where he tried to pawn off Sarah as his sister. You know how he later tried to hurry God’s promise by fathering a son through Hagar. But in spite of his rough edges, in spite of the time it took, God used Abraham.

That’s an encouragement to me. It usually seems like it’s taking me so long to learn what God is trying to teach me. I’ve wasted so much time and gone off on so many side trails. I would despair if I thought it was up to me. But seeing how God worked slowly but surely with Abraham encourages me that there is hope even for me.

So these genealogies teach us that God is steadily moving in history to accomplish His plan of salvation, and that His plan involves His choice and time.

3. God’s plan of salvation in history involves individuals.

A. God’s plan involved Abraham.

Why not Arpachshad or Terah? We don’t know. But we do know that God used Abraham in His plan of salvation in the history of the human race. And Abraham responded to God’s call in faith and obedience. He was only one man out of millions on the earth in his day. But his life, obedient to God, made a difference.

An individual life yielded to God’s purpose can make a tremendous impact on the course of human events. Perhaps none of us will be used to shape history to the extent that Abraham did. But we can know that God is weaving our lives into the tapestry of history if we are obedient to His call. We may not see the final results even in our lifetime. But we can know that our lives are not in vain if we walk with God.

I enjoyed Edith Schaeffer’s, The Tapestry, which tells the story of her and Francis and their life together. The title reflects the point that she makes repeatedly throughout the story, that God is weaving the events of our lives into His divine tapestry. We seldom are aware of how He is working at the time. She says that she and Fran did not sit down and plan out their ministry at L’Abri, and how it would have a worldwide impact. Rather they were faithful in doing what God gave them to do, responding to the opportunities He set before them, and He blessed their ministry.

Even the trials God brings into our lives are part of the tapestry. Often they become the source of His greatest blessings. Verse 30 mentions that Sarah was barren. As you know, that will figure importantly in the story as it unfolds. If you had asked Abraham at this point, he probably would have complained, “I don’t understand why God doesn’t give us any children.” He would especially have complained after God promised to give him more descendants than the sand of the seashore, but he still didn’t have any children. But you know how God turned that trial into the greatest blessing in Abraham’s life. He often does that with us. We don’t understand why He isn’t doing things as we would choose. But like Abraham, we must learn to trust Him even when we don’t understand.

But God’s plan of salvation doesn’t just involve famous individuals like Abraham.

B. God’s plan involves you.

Even as God’s hand was upon Abraham, so His hand is on you. The very fact that you’re hearing this message is proof that God has intersected your life, even if you’re not yet a believer. Like Abraham at the first, you may still be in Ur of the Chaldees. That is to say, you have not yet come to know God in a personal way. Probably, like Abraham at this stage in his life, you are serving idols, gods of your own making. Perhaps you serve the god of money or success or pleasure. You probably serve the god of self. But today you have heard the living and true God calling your name and saying, “I want you to turn from your sin and to follow Me.” If you will say yes to God, like Abraham, your life will never be the same.

Some of you may be at Haran. This was Abraham’s half-way station. He began to follow God’s call when he left Ur and moved to Haran, several hundred miles closer to Canaan. But he got sidetracked. It took another call from God to get him out of Haran. The call in chapter 12 is probably the second call God issued to Abraham.

Thankfully, God often issues second calls to those He uses in His plan of salvation. God called Moses; Moses blew it by killing the Egyptian and fleeing into the wilderness for 40 years. But God called Moses again. God called Jonah; Jonah took off in the opposite direction. But the word of the Lord came unto Jonah a second time. God called Peter; Peter denied the Lord three times. But the Lord restored Peter with the threefold command, “Feed My sheep.” If you’ve begun to follow the Lord, but you’ve gotten side-tracked along the way, today He’s telling you, “Come on, I want you to go on with Me.”

Conclusion

The important thing is, wherever you’re at, to yield yourself to the Lord. A journalist was elected to the world-famous Adventurers’ Club. He didn’t know the amount of the dues, so he sent in a signed blank check. The Adventurers promptly elected him Adventurer of the Year! God wants you to sign your life over as a blank check to Him. Yes, it’s an adventure! But you can trust Him not to take advantage of you. If you will yield your life to Him and walk with Him every day, He will use you in His movement in history to bring about His great plan of salvation for the nations. There is no more significant way to spend your life!

Discussion Questions

How do you answer the charge that election robs man of free will and makes God unfair (see Rom. 9:8-24)?
Where is the biblical balance between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man? How can we tell when we’re out of balance?
The doctrine of God’s sovereign election gives me: A. Comfort B. Doubts (Pick one). Discuss.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: History, Soteriology (Salvation)

Lesson 25: Great Privilege, Great Responsibility (Genesis 12:1-3)

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We live in a day of rampant selfism. In his book, Habits of the Heart, sociologist Robert Bellah and his associates interviewed a broad range of middle-class Americans to discover how they make sense of their lives. One young nurse, Sheila Larson, described her personal philosophy as “Sheilaism,” explaining, “It’s just try to love yourself and be gentle with yourself.” (Newsweek [9/30/91], p. 64.) Melody Beattie, author of the best seller, Co-Dependent No More, sums up her philosophy in her dedication: “I dedicate this book to me.” Self-help guru, John Bradshaw, says that you should say out loud and often, “I love myself. I will accept myself unconditionally” (Healing the Shame That Binds You [Health Communications, Inc.], p. 158).

It would be one thing if all this selfism was outside the church and stayed there. But, as you know, it has flooded into the church. Even though Melody Beattie is not a Christian, her book is sold by Christian book stores and catalogs. Many Christians view their faith as the means to personal fulfillment and happiness. The ultimate test of truth for many in the church is, “Does it bring me the good feelings and happy life I’m after? If it does, it must be true. If it results in long-term pain or hardship, forget it!” We’re in the market for whatever will make self happy.

A healthy antidote to this trend is to study the calling and life of this godly man, Abram. He was living as a pagan idolater in a pagan city, Ur of the Chaldees, when God called him and made a covenant with him. Abram left familiar surroundings, family, and friends and went out by faith to an unknown destination and future. Believing the promise of God, he became the father of all who follow God. He died in faith, not having received all that God had promised, but believing that it would be so. Abram’s life, and especially God’s calling him, teach us that ...

God calls us to bless us and to make us a blessing to all the nations.

Yes, thank God, His calling us involves His blessing us (although that blessing sometimes includes difficult trials). But that’s only half the story. If we bottle up God’s blessings for ourselves, we’re missing the reason He calls us: He has called us and blessed us so that we will become His channel for blessing all the nations. As God’s chosen people, we have a great privilege--God’s blessing; and, a great responsibility--to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

Verses 1-3 are symmetrical: There is a command from the Lord (“Go forth”) followed by three promises: “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great.” Then there is a second command, rendered as a future tense in most versions: “Be a blessing” (NASB margin), followed by three more promises: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Abram’s obedience to the first command would start a chain reaction in which God would bless him so that he could fulfill the second command to be a blessing, which would result in God’s further blessing.

1. Our great privilege: God calls us to bless us.

Derek Kidner observes, “The history of redemption, like that of creation, begins with God speaking: this, in a nutshell, differentiates Abram’s story from his father’s” (Genesis [IVP], p. 113). As I emphasized last week, salvation is from the Lord, not from man. Here was Abram, going about his pagan life in Ur, when God called him to a completely new way of life. God’s call set Abram apart. It is God’s call to us that sets us apart from our wicked world. Note three things about:

A. God’s Call

(1) God’s call comes with authority. God is the sovereign God who calls men to Himself with authority. He didn’t suggest, “Abram, if you’d like a happier life, you might try moving to Canaan.” He commanded, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.” It was a command that demanded a response. Abram would have been in disobedience to the sovereign God if he had not obeyed.

In the New Testament, the word “call” or “calling” is most often used of God’s call to salvation. It is not a helpful hint for happier living. It is the authoritative command of God. When Jesus began to preach the gospel, Mark 1:15 sums up His message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” It was the word of the King calling rebellious subjects to quit their rebellion and bow before His rightful sovereignty.

It is a command with serious consequences. If we disobey, the day is coming when the King with force will squash all rebellion and punish those who have refused to yield to Him. The gospel call isn’t a nice option if you decide that maybe Jesus can help you be happy. It is the authoritative command of the King, calling you to stop going your own way and to come under His rightful sovereignty. Once you have heard that call, as you have today, you must obey or you are in rebellion against the sovereign God.

(2) God’s call often requires difficulty. God’s call to Abram was not easy for Abram to follow. He was 75 years old, established in his community, and tied in closely with his extended family. God could have said, “I’ll be your God and you can stay in Ur. You have contacts here, and we’ll use those to further My purpose.” No, God told him to leave his familiar surroundings and his extended family and head off to some unknown destination. God did not even reveal at first where Abram would be going. He didn’t show him color brochures of the swimming pools and golf courses in Canaan. There’s a hint that he would face hostility: some would curse him (12:3). Travel wasn’t easy in those days. There weren’t motels and fast food restaurants along the Interstate highway. No U-Haul trucks. Abram couldn’t call home and let everyone know how life was in the new place. He had to say good-bye once and for all to his country and relatives and set out to follow God.

While God may not ask you or me literally to leave our country or our families, He does call us to separate ourselves from all that would hinder our complete commitment to Him. The word “holy” comes from a word meaning to be separate or set apart. To be holy is to be separate from sin and set apart unto God. The core of holiness, or separation, is not outward, but inward. We must break from our culture’s sinful ways of thinking. We must become biblical thinkers who are able to evaluate our culture by the standard of God’s Word.

We should evaluate the greed of our culture by what the Bible says about contentment and generosity. We should evaluate the sensuality of our culture by what the Bible says about purity and the sanctity of sex in marriage. We should evaluate our culture’s obsession with pleasure and self-centeredness by what the Bible says about service and self-denial. Only when we think biblically about life will we act biblically and be holy people.

Sometimes a person must make a break with family, as painful as that is. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). He did not mean that we should despise or needlessly alienate our families. The Bible is clear that we are to honor our parents and love our families. New Christians especially need to be sensitive and respectful toward family members who oppose Christianity. But Jesus did mean that if our closest loved ones stand between us and Him, our choice is clear: We must follow Christ.

Several years ago a young man from a Sikh background, Sukh-want Singh Bhatia, attended Dallas Seminary. He was the first Sikh ever to attend that school. He came from the Punjab in India. After his conversion, he knew he needed to give up his Sikh identity by cutting his hair and beard, which had never been cut since his birth. After it was cut he says, “I was so afraid of the consequences because everyone would know what was in my heart.”

Sukhwant’s village expelled him. His father allowed him to visit the family twice a year with the oath that he would not mention his faith. Because of his conversion, his family is considered cursed by the community and has been cut off even from relatives. Two of his sisters converted to Christianity when they saw the change in Sukhwant. They were allowed to remain at home, but Sukhwant had to pay for their education. Today he is a pastor in New Delhi.

Most of us will not face that kind of family opposition to follow Christ. But even those from Christian homes sometimes face subtle or not-so-subtle pressure not to follow Christ fully. Sometimes parents want their children to get well-paying jobs (which excludes most Christian service). Some parents don’t want their children to go to the mission field, because they want them and the grandchildren nearby. But the Lord makes it clear: If it comes to love for Him versus love for family, we must follow Him.

God’s call often entails other difficulties. Remember, by God’s call, I’m not referring to some special call for service that comes only to a few. I’m referring to God’s call to salvation which comes to every believer. It may result in rejection or persecution. It will involve bringing all your possessions and money under His lordship. It requires obeying God’s Word when it’s much easier and brings more immediate pleasure to disobey. It means seeking God’s will rather than your own will in every decision.

(3) God’s call requires faith in God and His Word. The only way you can follow God’s call is by taking God at His Word. We’ll look more at this in our study of 12:4-9, but it is summed up in verse 4: “So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him.” Abram believed what God said and acted on it. And, of course, God is always faithful to His Word of promise to those who believe and obey Him.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “It’s kind of scary to make a radical break from the world and to step out in faith, especially when you know you might encounter trials and hardships. How do you get such faith?”

The crucial thing with faith is not your faith, but the object of your faith. Note in our text, it was the Lord who called Abram. Note all the “I will’s” that the Lord affirms to Abram: “I will show you the land; I will make you a great nation; I will bless you; I will bless those who bless you; I will curse those who curse you.” This is the word of the eternal, living God, the Creator of heaven and earth! Can’t you trust Him?

The apostle John wrote (1 John 5:9-12),

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

John is pointing out the obvious: We put our faith in sinful men every day. When you ate breakfast this morning, you trusted that the people who processed your food didn’t inject poison into it. When you drove your car, you trusted that the mechanic fixed the brakes properly. When you go to the bank and deposit your check, you trust that the teller isn’t going to take your money and abscond to Tahiti.

If you can trust such sinful people every day on things that greatly affect your life, can’t you trust in the word of the living God, who has borne faithful witness concerning His Son? For over 4,000 years since Abram, God has been faithful to His covenant promises. So when He commands you to repent and believe the gospel, in spite of the difficulties you will encounter, you can trust Him because He promises repeatedly, “I will be with you.” God’s call is always accompanied by ...

B. God’s Blessings.

When God calls us to Himself, He always supplies the grace we need to obey His call. As I said, with Abram’s call there are two commands, but there are six promises of blessings.

God’s first command is accompanied by three promises. First, God promised to make Abram into a great nation. That promise has been fulfilled (although not in Abram’s lifetime) in the Jewish nation, of which Abram is the father. Along with this, God told Abram (12:7) that He would give the land of Canaan to his descendants. Second, God promised to bless Abram. This refers both to temporal and spiritual well-being. Third, God promised to make Abram’s name great. That has certainly been fulfilled, in that Jews, Christians, and Moslems all look to Abraham as the father of their faith. His name is known worldwide to millions of people 4,000 years after he lived.

The second command is that Abram is to be a blessing. With this command are three more promises: First, God promises to bless those who bless Abram; and, second, to curse those who curse him. This refers not only to Abram, of course, but to Abram’s descendants. Anti-Semitism is dangerous business, because the person or nation which is against the Jews incurs God’s judgment. While God does not approve of any form of racial prejudice, He is especially against those who are against His chosen people, and He is especially favorable to those who favor His people. Both biblical and post-biblical history bear abundant witness to this fact.

God’s third promise connected with His second command is that in Abram, all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is a tremendous promise, fulfilled in the Savior, born of Abram’s lineage, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the greatest promises in the Bible--God’s promise of a Savior for all nations (or people-groups). Apart from Abram and his seed (Christ), we who are Gentiles would have no hope. The apostle Paul referred to this verse in Galatians 3:8: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel before-hand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you.’” And so here we have the good news, that Jesus Christ would be born to Abraham’s descendants, and that He would save us from our sins through faith.

When God calls a person, He always gives far more than He requires. God required Abram to go forth from his country and family, but He repeatedly affirms His promises to Abram with the words, “I will ... I will ....” If the command is to leave everything to follow Jesus, the promise is, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30). All you spend in responding to God’s call, He will repay and then some.

Remember, while God gives us many blessings in this life, the main blessing is in eternity. Abram died without seeing most of these promises fulfilled. But he knew that God would make good on His Word. Abram was living for eternity, “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). If you’re living for this fleeting life alone, you should not become a Christian. As Paul put it, “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). But if God is the eternal God, then the hardships we encounter in following Him cannot compare to the glory that will follow (2 Cor. 4:17). So that is our great privilege, that God calls us to salvation in order to bless us. But we must not stop there:

2. Our great responsibility: God calls us to make us a blessing to all the nations.

“I will bless you ... and so you shall be a blessing.” As I said, this is ultimately fulfilled in Abram’s descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, Abram becomes the greatest blessing anyone could be to this lost world. Since, by faith in Christ, we are Abraham’s heirs, blessed with Abraham the believer (Gal. 3:7, 9), we are under obligation not to bottle up the promise, but to take it to every people group on this earth. This is our Lord’s Great Commission, to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). If you have received the blessings of God’s salvation, you are under the responsibility to do all you can to be the channel of that blessing to those who have not heard.

The Book of 2 Kings records how Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, was under siege from Benhadad, the king of Aram. Things were so bad in the city that two women had to resort to eating one of their sons to survive. There were four lepers who sat at the city gate, begging for their food. Hard times are especially hard for beggars, and they were about to die. They finally concluded, “If we stay here, we’ll die of famine. If we go over to the enemy camp, maybe they’ll spare us. If not, we’ll just die anyway.” So they went over to the enemy camp.

To their surprise they discovered the camp deserted. God had struck fear in the soldiers’ hearts that made them run for their lives, leaving all their belongings behind. These beggars were suddenly rich. They ate the good food, they put on the nice clothes they found, they filled their pockets and their bags with all the gold and silver they could carry. But then they were struck with guilt. They said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent” (2 Kings 7:9). So they went and reported it in Samaria and shared their blessings with them.

Conclusion

God has called us to Himself and given us abundant blessings. But if we keep it to ourselves, we are not doing right. To bottle up God’s blessings for ourselves is to fall into the rampant selfism of our sinful culture. If your heart is not in evangelism and missions, if you’re not burdened for the lost, if you’re not investing the material blessings God has entrusted to you in the work of His kingdom, then you’ve gotten caught up with American selfism. God calls us in salvation and blesses us so that we can be a blessing. We must set our focus on taking the good news of His salvation to all the nations.

Discussion Questions

Are evangelism and missions only for those so gifted, or are they the responsibility of every believer?
Is it wrong to present the gospel from the standpoint of, “What’s in it for you?” Why/why not?
Agree/disagree: If you’re into this life only, you should not become a Christian. Give supporting Scripture.
How can we reconcile a life of hardship and trials with God’s blessing? Can the two co-exist? (See 2 Cor. 11:22-33.)

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Reversing Talionic Ethics: Personal Ethics for the Public Square (Matthew 5:38-42)

Introduction

One night our family was sitting at the dinner table and my then six year old daughter Keilah asked a thought-provoking question. She said, “If my brother hits me, is it okay if I hit him back?” The personal ethics of potential retaliation confront all of us from the earliest ages. Too much of the world’s ethic is to: 1) strike back; 2) get even; 3) do unto others like they do to you. Many times the justification for retaliation is that ancient law, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” One has to admit that this retaliatory ethic to right an injustice is appealing especially initially when one feels they have been wronged. But Jesus says “No” to using “an eye for an eye” as justification for personal revenge. Instead, He says “turn the other cheek,” “go the extra mile,” “turn over two garments if sued for one,” and “give to the one who asks from you.” Jesus’ teaching is not merely legal and technical, but extends deeply and profoundly into the practical situations of conflict, oppression, and the needs of everyday life.

Matthew 5:38-42 reads: 38 “You have heard that it was said: ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, ‘Do not resist the evil person.² But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And to the one who wants to sue you and take your tunic, give him your cloak also. 41 And whoever forces you to go one mile, go two with him. 42 Give to the one who asks from you and do not reject the one who wants to borrow.” These verses have been described in the following ways: the hard sayings of Jesus; the most difficult verses in the Bible; hyperbole and impossible; or commands for another world. Jesus’ teaching here is confronting the popular misuse and abuse of the Old Testament law, known as the law of retaliation, in Latin, the Lex Talionis.³ The law of “life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” etc.

The desire of this paper is twofold. First is to present the case that Jesus’ teaching applies to personal ethics when one has been seriously or even modestly offended but is not addressed to change governmental laws and policy. It is a personal ethic for the disciple of Christ and not a governmental one. Secondly, that the practice of this ethic is not confined to the synagogue or believing community of Jesus’ disciples (by later application the church) but is intended also for the public square. In other words Jesus’ teaching is to be personally applied by the disciple of Jesus in a practical way in the public square resulting in a powerful testimony of Christ-like discipleship. The most pertinent illustration of these points is in fact Jesus himself who practiced his own ethic in the public square.

The Nature Of The OT Law

Imagine yourself for a moment in an ancient situation where you and your family lived in a place with no police force, no courts, no local, state, or federal government – no king or other authority ruling over you or the people around you. Then one day as you are going about your business, you are shocked with the news that one of your neighbors had intentionally and maliciously hit your daughter so hard that four of her teeth are permanently knocked out. What would you do? There is no authority to report it to – to seek justice. What if the situation was worse, and your child was intentionally killed? You would probably want to take the matter into your own hands and seek retribution, maybe even to the point of blood revenge. Perhaps you would try to impose the same type of injury on the attacker that he imposed. Maybe you would even want to punish him in greater degree than his offense. After you take revenge, the attacker’s family may feel that they have been mistreated and may want to respond, setting up a cycle of retaliation and revenge between you and them – the Hatfields and the McCoys so to speak.⁴ So the institution of the lex talionis into the Mosaic law for the nation of Israel and the ruling authorities was in this writer’s view a real advancement for the cause of justice designed to prevent personal actions of retaliation and revenge. The injured person or relative of the injured person could go to the governing judicial authority in Israel to seek justice. But what should the appropriate punishment be in the case of murder or maiming? This is where the law comes into play: “a life for a life,” “an eye for an eye,” “a tooth for a tooth.” The punishment must fit the crime – no more than the crime but also no less. It was strict but fair. It was also designed to prevent and deter such crimes. It was there to remove punitive actions for crimes from the hands of the victim and his family and put them into the hands of the governing judicial system. It was designed as a principle of proportional justice. It was also designed to appropriately punish the offender.

This is the irony and abuse of how people misunderstand this law. It is misapplied now the same way it was at the time of Jesus. A law that was designed to prevent actions of personal retaliatory revenge is used to justify it! The misapplication of the law would say if someone slaps you on the cheek, slap him back (after all “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”). If someone sues you, sue him back. If you are forced to go a mile by a Roman soldier, resist and fight back. Jesus is trying to confront that type of teaching and mindset. The lex talionis is stated explicitly three times in the Old Testament. First, in Exodus 21:22-25, it is cited in a way that protected a pregnant woman and her child from death or injury that might occur if two men were in a fight. Second, in Leviticus 24:17-22, it is applied generally to any case where a crime of murder or intentional maiming occurred. This text is the most clear that for the judicial authorities, the law applied to both capital punishment and maiming punishments to be carried out in kind.⁵ Third, in Deuteronomy 19:15-21, it occurs in a passage to prevent perjury and using the court to execute or punish an otherwise innocent individual.⁶ It is this latter passage that Jesus specifically seems to have in mind as background for his teaching.⁷

Non-Retaliation: A Personal Ethic

The audience of the Sermon on the Mount relates to a proper application of Jesus’ teaching on the lex talionis. Certainly, Jesus is speaking to the disciples and in a more general sense the crowds (Matt 5:1),⁸ but are the exhortations, such as teaching on the lex talionis, to be applied on an individualistic basis only or is the believing community also to implement them on a societal or governmental level? Related to this issue is the larger question of the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount.

The message of John the Baptist and Jesus was the same, that one must repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand (Matt 3:2; 4:17). Entrance and participation in that kingdom was a major concern (Matt 5:20; 7:21). The Sermon on the Mount is the first of five large discourse units in the book of Matthew, each of which ends with the structural marker, “When Jesus had finished . . . “(Matt 7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1).⁹ Leading up to and including the Sermon on the Mount, there is a significant emphasis on righteousness (Matt 3:15; 5:6, 10, 20; 6:1, 33) and the kingdom of heaven (or kingdom of God) (Matt 3:2; 4:17; 5:3, 10, 19, 20, 21; 6:33; 7:21). After the Beatitudes and some additional instruction, a discourse unit on the law is introduced (Matt 5:17-20). In Matthew 5:17 Jesus states that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. In Matthew 5:20 Jesus states that “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. This unit sets up the six antithetical statements.

Matthew describes six antithetical statements characterized by the language, “you have heard that it was said . . . . but I tell you” (Matt 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, and 43-44). The teaching on the lex talionis comprises the fifth antithesis. In the first portion of the antithesis (“you have heard that it was said”) a citation of the law is given, and in some cases additional sayings. The first is murder (Matt 5:21; Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17), the second adultery (Matt 5:27; Exod 20:14; Deut 5:18), the third divorce (Matt 5:31; Deut 24:1-3), the fourth oaths (Matt 5:33; Lev 19:12; Num 30:2; Deut 23:21), the fifth the lex talionis, and the sixth loving your neighbor (Matt 5:43; Lev 19:18). In addition to Matthew 5:20, the first portion of the antitheses also provide indication that Jesus is not merely giving his interpretation of the OT but also addressing Pharisaic and scribal interpretation and practice. In regard to the prohibition to murder on the first antithesis, the statement is added, “Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court (Matt 5:21).” In regard to loving your neighbor on the sixth antithesis the statement is added “and hate your enemy (Matt 5:43).” These two statements are not found directly in the OT law and strongly suggest Jesus is not only addressing the OT, but the teaching of Jewish leadership and/or mindset of the populace. The second portion of the antitheses should be seen as Jesus’ establishment of his standard of righteousness for his kingdom program.

Based on the OT context it seems that OT lex talionis was to be implemented on a societal and governmental level in a judicial process for the nation of Israel. The commands were directed to the nation’s leadership in the matters of law and justice on how to punish violators of the law in regard to killing and maiming. In the Matthean context, however, Jesus has changed the focus and perspective. Certainly it is addressed to the “community” of disciples but only from the perspective of the victim or person offended. It is what one does when slapped, or sued to take a shirt, or forced to go one mile, or asked for money. It is not directed specifically to the government, courts, or judges on how to punish offenders or carry out the law on a societal level. However, as a community would begin implementing such gracious conduct, the legal system would certainly be affected in that there would less need for it. Offenses are handled, diffused and reconciled on a personal level, although with personal sacrifice on the part of the offended, without resorting to the court or other forms of personal retaliation. It is designed to diffuse conflict from the bottom up as part of Jesus’ encouragement to be a peacemaker (Matt 5:9).

Non-Retaliation: An Ethic For The Public Square

Matt 5:38 begins with the first portion of the antithesis. The audience of the disciples in the inner circle and surrounding crowd had often heard the talionic formula an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. They had not just read it but heard it said; they knew it; it was in three prominent passages of the Torah; it was an easily memorable OT ethic and likely under well known discussion and debate (See attached Table for summary of the primary passage in the Babylonian Talmud as illustrative of a possible first century type of a debate (B. Baba Qamma 83b-84a)).

The formula itself is stated without the first OT element “life for life” as it had already been separated from the entire formula in the Jewish exegesis and debate.¹⁰ The next two elements in line, “eye” and “tooth,” are then given prominence in the equation. They represent an ethic of proportional and retaliatory justice. The formula itself is expressed in elliptical form and proverbial fashion without the verb give (e.g., δώσει Exod 21:23 (LXX)).¹¹ The use of the Greek preposition ἀντι further supports the OT replacement and substitutionary motif of תַּחַת. The preposition can be used in a replacement or equivalent sense. According to BAGD it means, “to indicate that one person or thing is, or is to be, replaced by another instead of, in place of, . . . [or] in order to indicate that one thing is equiv. to another for, as, in the place of . . . .”¹² A valid interpretation then is: an eye as a replacement in equivalatory justice for an eye, and a tooth as a replacement in equivalatory justice for a tooth.

Verse 39 introduces the teaching of Jesus on the matter (ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν). The use of the pronoun ἐγω. in the clause appears to indicate emphasis while the δὲ points to at least a mild contrast.¹³ At this point Jesus sets forth his general principle on the talionic ethic, “Do not resist the evil person (μὴ ἀντιστῆναι τῷ πονηρῷ).” The principle will be followed by four concrete applications. In the general principle, the use of the negative particle μη introduces a prohibition in an independent clause. It is followed by the aorist active infinitive ἀντιστῆναι and as such the action is being viewed as a whole. In several background texts lexically ἀντιστῆναι ¹⁴ is appropriate for resisting or opposing in the context of court (Deut 19:18), resisting in context of Roman rulership (Jos. War 2.357)¹⁵ and in general resisting the evil man (Philo Migr. Abr. 61).¹⁶ The illustrations that follow require that a broader understanding of the verb be applied in this context than limiting it to resistance in court or toward insurrection. Used in connection with the talionic formula one must also see an overlapping semantic concept of retaliation included, the exercise of retaliatory justice through the courts or worse, taken into one’s own hands. This aspect of understanding could be somewhat lost through the English translation of “resist” which can communicate a passive idea, but the verb in Greek is active. The prohibition then is not to actively resist (or retaliate). But can one just passively resist? No, the converse side of the instruction makes it clear that positive, not passive, actions will be required in Jesus’ program of righteousness.

The general principle calls not to resist τῷ πονηρῷ. Three major options exist for the meaning of τῷ πονηρῷ: Satan, evil in general (cf. KJV), or the evil person. Πονηρός is found seventy-eight times in the NT, including twenty-six times in Matthew. With the article, πονηρός is found 30 times in the NT including eight times in Matthew (Matt 5:37, 39; 6:13; 12:35. 45; 13:19. 38, 49).¹⁷ It is clear that depending on the context, it can refer to the devil (e.g., Matt 13:19), evil in general (e.g., Mark 7:23) or the evil man (e.g., Matt 12:35a). Sometimes if a masculine or neuter form is clear from the morphology it is an aid in interpretation, however in this case (i.e., Matt 5:39) the masculine and neuter form of the dative case are identical.

So what is the best understanding of Matthew 5:39? From the outset it is difficult to understand how Jesus could be teaching not to resist Satan. In using the same verb, James and Peter inform us we are to resist him (Jms 4:7; 1 Pet 5:9). It is not possible that both of their teaching could be so disconnected from that of Jesus. It is true that the terminology is used of Satan elsewhere, but the immediate context must be determinative.¹⁸ Evil in general (e.g., KJV)¹⁹ also seems unlikely since elsewhere in the NT we are to abstain from evil that may come into our personal lives (e.g., Mark 7:23). Instead, the primary background OT text passage of Deuteronomy 19:19 (LXX) teaches that the τὸν πονηρὸν is the person who is a false witness. The applications that Jesus gives following the general principle strongly argue that Jesus has the “evil person” in mind. The semantic generic category of an evil person (Matt 5:39), a false witness in Deuteronomy, becomes an expanded set of referents to follow (Matt 5:39-42). The negative command stated as a prohibition, turns a corner with the sharp contrasting conjunction ἀλλά. This reverses the context from prohibition to positive command. Jesus first states what not to do in principle; next he will follow with what to do in specific.

While one could make a good case that all the examples that Jesus gives on when not to retaliate is for the public square perhaps the clearest example is the command to go the extra mile in verse 41. The Greek word ἀγγαρεύω (Latin form is angariare) derives from a Persian loanword.²⁰ Commandeering was an ancient practice imposed by ruling governments that required public service by a subservient people.²¹ Not surprisingly it was abused and viewed as a heavy burden on the subjected populations.²² It was employed by Solomon in the building of the Millo and repairs to the city (1 Kgs 11:28). It was also used in Israel during the reign of Asa in which no one was exempt from carrying away stones and timber to deplete Baasha’s building supplies (1 Kgs 15:22).²³ The Greek word ἀγγαρεύω is rare in the biblical writings with the only other occurrence of it found in Matthew 27:32 and a parallel passage in Mark 15:21. This is the case of Simon of Cyrene, who is forced into service by the Romans to carry Jesus’ cross.

In verse 41 the use of the indefinite relative pronoun ὅστις indicates the wide openness of the referent in an implicitly conditional sentence, though undoubtedly the one compelling transport services would have to be in a position of authority such as a political leader or a soldier. Compulsion by a gentile in occupational power could be surmised as being particularly distasteful and offensive worthy of avoidance and resistance. The Roman backdrop here is strongly indicated by the use of ἀγγαρεύσει and the Latin loan word μίλιον. Μίλιον should not be confused with the English mile. It literally means one thousand paces, but became a fixed length of eight stades=4,854 feet =1,478 meters.²⁴

The request/order is that you go one mile (ὅστις σε ἀγγαρεύσει μίλιον ἕν). The first potential response is active resistance, physical retaliation in a likely futile attempt at combat. The second potential response is more of a passive resistance, verbal denial of the request or flight when asked. The third potential response is physical compliance with the request. Meet the minimum requirement and go with him one mile, no more and no less. This response would at least allow for a negative attitude and perhaps comments of complaint and resentment. Jesus recommends none of these. Instead he commands with the present active imperative to go with him two (ὕπαγε μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ δύο).

Many of the Jews despised the Roman occupation. In 66/67 A.D., they started a futile revolt only to be crushed and killed. The temple would be destroyed. Many of them may have wanted a Messiah like Judas Maccabeus who would overthrow the Roman occupation, set up Israel as an independent nation once again, and restore their national hopes. The context of national and messianic hopes must have made Jesus’ teaching on compulsory service all the more jarring and astonishing to His audience.

If Jesus’ ethic of non-retaliation extends to the public square how might this reconcile with being a Christian soldier, or policeman or judge functioning as a representative of the governing authorities. Luz summarizes that the pre-Constantine church generally favored the rigorist line of interpretation, rejecting the entrance of a Christian into the army, the willingness to physically give up one’s clothing, and teaching literally not to strike back if hit etc.²⁵ The father of the “mitigating” interpretation for both Catholics and Protestants, Luz writes, is Augustine. In regard to Matthew 5:38f, he cites Augustine as trying to defuse the conflict between the demands of Jesus and the demands of the state, by stating that Jesus’ commands apply “more to the preparation of the heart which is internal” and that “just war,” punishment, and even capital punishment are legitimate functions of the state but should be carried out with a proper spirit without hatred. Since none of the examples that Jesus gives relate to a person carrying out duties for the State perhaps one could make a case that a legitimate State function such as directing a punishment for an offender is not really within the scope of Jesus’ teaching since the Christian is not exacting personal retaliation but executing the duties of the State. But even in these acts the Christian would have to have a clear conscience that the action is appropriate from a governmental perspective or either withdraw from the action or seek a change in the course of action.

Jesus’ Example Of Non-Retaliation In The Public Square

One of the primary issues in determining the applicability of Jesus’ teaching for today is whether or not Jesus really expected compliance with his commands. Or was it and is it beyond the realm of reasonable expectation? Was Jesus using hyperbole to make a point or as an attention getting device, or was he expecting real action of the sort he describes? The literal approach is sometimes ridiculed as being unrealistic, or being absurd such that the giving up of an inner garment would result in having to go naked in public. One place to look that might influence one’s response to this issue is the example of Jesus himself. Did he in essence follow his own instructions in a concrete fashion, which was consistent with his ethic relating to the lex talionis? In addition the context of the following examples points to Jesus practicing this ethic in the public square.

Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26

These passages show Jesus’ nonresistance to the foreign rulership of Rome in relation to taxes. As he is questioned by the Herodians on the unpopular issue of paying taxes to Rome, he states that one should give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.

Matthew 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-50; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:1-11

The initial arrest of Jesus perhaps most vividly portrays Jesus’ example of nonresistance against the “evil person.” Judas, the disciple who betrayed him, a Roman cohort (John 18:3), a multitude with swords and clubs, and the chief priests and elders all arrive to arrest Jesus. In retaliation to this arrest, Peter draws his sword to fight and cuts off the ear of Malchus (John 18:10), the slave of the high priest. Immediately, Jesus calls a cease to the action and tells his disciple to resheathe his sword. Then, expressing a talionic concept, Jesus gives the reason for his command not to fight in resistance. “For all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (᾿Απόστρεψον τὴν μάχαιράν σου εἰς τὸν τόπον αὐτῆς πάντες γὰρ οἱ λαβόντες μάχαιραν ἐν μαχαίρῃ ἀπολοῦνται)(Matt 26:52 cf. Jub. 4:31-32). It is not as though Jesus didn’t have the option of a successful resistance effort. He tells Peter that he could appeal to his Father and he would at once send “twelve legions of angels” in support (Matt 26:53). The aorist imperative, to turn the sword back (᾿Απόστρεψον), hearkens back conceptually, lexically and grammatically to the command to turn (στρέψον) the other cheek (Matt 5:39). The formulation of the one who lives by the sword will die by the sword also represents a fact of the talionic ethic that would have surely led to Peter’s death by sword, then and there, had Jesus not stepped in. However the primary tie lies in the active effort by Jesus not to resist the evil person. Indeed, true to his own system of righteousness, he goes beyond passive nonresistance to actively love his enemy by healing the ear of the high priest’s slave (Luke 22:51).

Matthew 26:57-67; Mark 14:53-65

At the trial before the high priest, false charges are brought against Jesus and he is spit on, slapped, and beaten. What is particularly relevant about this text is its tie to the primary OT text passage in Deuteronomy 19:15-20, which regards what to do with false witnesses. In this passage, the chief priests and council seek false testimony and many false witnesses come forward. As witnesses come forward, Jesus does not argue his case or resist. Instead Matthew records, “Jesus kept silent” (Matt 26:63). He does so until directly asked whether or not he is the Christ. In Matthew 26:67 during the trial scene, Jesus is insulted by the highest level of the Jewish government in most humiliating ways. He is spit on in the face, beat with fists and slapped. Τότε ἐνέπτυσαν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκολάφισαν αὐτόν, οἱ δὲ ἐράπισαν. In addition to Matthew 5:39, this is the only other place in the NT where ράπιζω is used and it references a face slap to Jesus. Again Jesus follows a standard of non-retaliation verbally and physically, though it is within his power to do so (cf. Is 50:6; Lam 3:30; Mark 14:65).²⁶

Matthew 27; Luke 23:34

The nonresistance of Jesus to “the evil person” continues from these scenes all the way to the crucifixion. He did not resist or offer a defense before Pilate, who, while recognizing his innocence, nonetheless condemns him to die (e.g., Matt 27:11-26). Before the soldiers he is scourged, stripped, mocked, and beaten only to be taken and crucified (e.g., Matt 27:27-37); he is mocked by the crowds and the robber(s) next to him (Matt 27:38-44), yet has the strength of character to not resist but beyond that to declare, “Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

John 19:23-24

In John 19:23-24, both of Jesus’ garments are given up to the Romans. It is a fulfillment text of Psalm 22:18. It reads: Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments (τὰ ἱμάτια) and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic (τὸν χιτῶνα). Now the tunic (ὁ χιτὼν) was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. 24 They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots” (John 19:23-24). What is significant about this text is that Jesus gives up both his inner and outer garments to the Romans. Of course they are taken away, but the entire gospel backdrop is that all of these events are done voluntarily by Jesus in concert with his and his Father’s will.

Conclusion

Jesus’ teaching on the lex talionis represents a new perspective, different from that of the OT lex talionis texts. It is integrally tied to his introduction of a standard of righteousness for his eschatological kingdom program. Jesus addresses the disciples and crowds concerning offending situations from the perspective of the offended, while the law on the lex talionis addressed it from the perspective of what to do with the offender.

Instead of personal retaliation either direct or through the courts based on a talionic type of ethic, Jesus prohibits in a generic way resistance against the evil person. The examples to follow include settings both in and out of a court environment. Turning the commands to the positive in a specific way, Jesus illustrates that the evil person, from the perspective of the person offended, is the person who slaps you, or sues for your garment, or forces you to go a mile or makes a financial request either for charity or loan. These situations are put in descending order as to the severity of offense. Thus, the backhanded slap would be the most offensive while the request to borrow money would be the least.

Jesus’ commands personalize and in a certain sense, put the talionic ethic into reverse. He urges going in an opposite direction than proportional retaliatory justice both in attitude and in action. He commands to turn the other cheek exposing it to a further strike; he commands giving up your second piece of clothing when only sued for one; he commands going two miles when only required to go one; he commands giving when asked and not turning away when asked to loan not on the condition of repayment. The commands Jesus gives are difficult but not impossible.²⁷ As Tannehill well put it they border “on the edge of the possible.”²⁸ They seem extreme from the average person’s perspective but not out of character in regard to other teachings of Jesus or the example he set for believers to follow. It is a personal ethic for the disciple of Jesus.

The contexts of the practice of such an ethic while appropriate and needed for the church and family (cf. 1 Pet 3:8-9) is not limited to the confines of the believing community. In addition to Jesus’ personal example, the case of practicing the ethic before a Roman soldier provides perhaps the clearest example that the ethic Jesus is discussing extends to the public square.

But someone might say “No one has ever given me a backhanded slap, sued for my clothes, forced me to carry a pack for a mile, or asked me for a loan as a really needy person.” But the point is these are just examples of offending situations. You have to plug in the particular situation that is offending you, and apply the principle of not only foregoing retaliation, but instead taking a stunning action that gives your offender a blessing.

¹ This paper was given at the 2006 National Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Washington D.C. For more information on this topic especially relating to the early views of Judaism on the lex talionis see James F. Davis, Lex Talionis in Early Judaism and the Exhortation of Jesus in Matthew 5:38-42 (JSNTSup 281; London: T & T Clark International, 2005).

² Or “Do not retaliate against the evil person.”

³ The term lex talionis itself comes from the ancient Roman law of the Twelve Tables 8.2: Si membrum rupsit, ni cum eo pacit, talio esto. Twelve Tables 8.2. E. H. Warmington, trans. and ed., Remains of Old Latin, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), 477. A translation of this text is, “when anyone breaks a member of another, and is unwilling to come to make a settlement with him, he shall be punished by the law of retaliation.” S. P. Scott, trans., The Civil Law—Including The Twelve Tables, The Institutes of Gaius, The Rules of Ulpian, The Opinions of Paulus, The Enactments of Justinian, and the Constitutions of Leo: Translated from the Original Latin, Edited, and Compared with All Accessible Systems of Jurisprudence Ancient and Modern (Cincinnati, OH: Central Trust Company Publishers, 1932), 1:70. The Roman law is dated to have been established about 451— 450 B.C. H. F. Jolowicz, Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), 4.

⁴ Genesis 34 records an actual incident like this between Jacob’s family and the family of Shechem. After Jacob’s daughter Dinah is physically abused, Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, seek revenge by first deceiving Shechem’s family into getting men circumcised, and then they take the retaliatory action of killing all the males. Of course, it is clear from later in Genesis 49:5-7 that God did not approve of this action.

⁵ There are numerous examples of capital punishment in the Old Testament, but the only example of a maiming punishment is Judges 1:6-7: Then Adoni-Bezek fled, and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7 And Adoni-Bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” Even Adoni-Bezek, who gets maimed here, recognizes the justice of his penalty – thumb for thumb and toe for toe.

⁶ See Davis, Lex Talionis in Early Judaism, 37-54 for a full examination of these passages.

⁷ Jesus’ teaching on the lex talionis is tied directly to the passage in Deuteronomy 19:15-20 by the use of the lex itself (Deut 19:21; Matt 5:38), the reference to the resistance (ἀνθίστημι) (Deut 19:18 (LXX), Matt: 5:39) and the reference to the evil person (πονηρός) (Deut 19:19-20 (LXX), Matt 5:39).

⁸ Guelich notes that the disciples formed the “inner circle” of the audience, while the crowds formed the “outer circle.” Robert A. Guelich, The Sermon on the Mount: A Foundation for Understanding (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1982), 51.

⁹ Ibid., 54.

¹⁰ A Jewish monetary interpretation of the maiming elements, while a literal application of “life for life” remained, seems to have been what led to the separation of these two portions of the formula in the literature (e.g., y B. Qam. 8.1, Mek. Exod.; Megillath Ta’anith) leaving the first two elements of the eye and tooth in the predominant position. Josephus also has the maiming law in a separate discussion (Jos Ant. 4.280). This sheds light on why, when Jesus cites the text in Matthew 5, the first part of the formula “life for life” is absent. When or over what period of time this took place one cannot say, but clearly by the time of Jesus the elements are separated.

¹¹ The observation is made that “all sorts of verbs are omitted in formulae and proverbs which tend to be expressed in laconic form.” F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, trans. and rev. by Robert W. Funk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), 254.

¹² BAGD, 73.

¹³ While δε is not normally seen as a strong contrasting word, BAGD notes it can be used to emphasize a contrast or bring out a separation. Ibid., 171.

¹⁴ The Greek word ἀνθίστημι occurs fourteen times in the NT (Mt. 5.39; Lk. 21.15; Acts 16.10; 13.8; Rom. 9.19; 13.2 bis; Gal. 2.11; Eph. 6.13; 2 Tim. 3.8 bis; 4.15; Jas 4.7; 1 Pet. 5.9). BAGD cites the general meaning of “set against” but notes that in the literature it has the verbal middle sense with the meanings of “set oneself against, oppose, resist, withstand.” (BAGD, 67) In Paul’s writings ἀνθίστημι is used of resisting or opposing God (Rom. 9.19), or God’s ordinance in relation to governments (Rom. 13.2), or the truth (2 Tim. 3.8; 4.15). Romans 13.2 (ὥστε ὁ ἀντιτασσόμενος τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ διαταγῇ ἀνθέστηκεν, οἱ δὲ ἀνθεστηκότες ἑαυτοῖς κρίμα λήμψονται.) provides the general principle not to resist the governmental authorities; for Paul this would have been the Roman government. In this passage ἀνθίστημι is used synonymously with ἀντιτᾳσσω. The Greek word ἀντιτᾳσσω also means oppose or resist. Thus, Jesus’ call not to resist the Roman soldier is seen echoed in Paul’s teaching on the Christian’s relationship to the governing authorities. Ephesians 6:13 is a call to put on the full armor of God so that one may be able to resist in the evil day (ἀντιστῆναι ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ πονηρᾷ). This citation is lexically close to the passage in Mt. 5:39, but the evil is not specified as a person but the “evil day.” James 4:7 gives a perspective that one should submit to God but resist the devil (ἀντίστητε δὲ τῷ διαβόλῳ). This passage is notable since commentators have rightly recognized the influence of the Sermon on the Mount in James. However in this passage the command is to resist, while in Mt. 5:39 the command is not to resist (μὴ ἀντιστῆναι τῷ πονηρῷ). This is a strong argument that the evil person in Mt. 5:39 is not to be identified with the evil one, the devil, who is specified in Jas 4:7. First Peter 5:8-9 is also a call to resist the devil (ὁ ἀντίδικος ὑμῶν διάβολος. . . . ᾧ ἀντίστητε).

¹⁵ Josephus, Jewish War 2.357 is a reference to a speech made by Agrippa to dissuade the Jews against rebellion. It reads, “But our forefathers and their kings, though in wealth and in vigour of body and soul far your superiors, yet failed to withstand a small fraction of the Roman army; and will you, to whom thraldom is hereditary, you who in resources fall so far short of those who first tendered their submission, will you, I say, defy [ἀνθιστασθε] the whole Roman empire?”

¹⁶ In Migr. Abr. Philo is expressing concern about people joining with the multitude to do evil. It reads, “Now, in the judgment of men the multitude of the unjust is preferred to the single just; and He charges the just never to agree with the multitude. . . . Should we then be so with few? Nay, not with any bad man [φαυλου]: and the bad man, one though he be, is made manifold by wickedness, and to range oneself by his side is a very great disaster: on the contrary it behooves us to resist [ανθιστασθαι] him and be at war with him”. Philo teaches that one must resist the “bad man” and be at war with him, which serves as a notable comparison with Jesus on the matter. For Jesus the “evil person” is the person who offends you and Jesus teaches not to resist him. In Philo, the “bad man” is wicked in his own character and actions and is to be resisted.

¹⁷ Accordance 4.3. Oak Tree Software, Altamonte Springs, FL.

¹⁸ Banks argues based on usage in 5:37, 6:13, 13:19, 38 that it must refer to Satan but the near context does not point as clearly in this direction. Robert Banks, Jesus and the Law in the Synoptic Tradition, Society for New Testament Monograph Series, 28 ed. Matthew Black and R. McL. Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 197.

¹⁹ The NKJV updated this phrase in the KJV from “evil” to “evil person.” This writer’s understanding based on the late NKJV General Editor Dr. Arthur Farstad is that the NKJV would not change an interpretation of the KJV unless the Committee thought the KJV rendering was definitely wrong.

²⁰ BAGD, 6.

²¹ See the following for numerous examples of forced transport in the inscriptions, papyri and other literature. G. H. R. Horsley, New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri Published in 1976, vol. 1 (North Ryde Australia: The Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University, 1981), 36-45; and S. R. Llewelyn, and R. A. Kearsley, New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri Published in 1982-83, vol. 7. (North Ryde, Australia: The Ancient History Documentary Research Centre, Macquarie University, 1994), 58-92.

²² Llewely and Kearsley summarize the literature. “The documentary evidence adduced above has highlighted both the heavy burden which angareia imposed on subject populations and the ever present problems posed by abuse. These burdens and abuses were experienced no less in the Roman province of Syria than elsewhere.” Llewelyn, and Kearsley, New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, 87.

²³ While examples of compliance with laws of commandeering are seen in literature of early Judaism negative attitudes concerning forced labor is clearly present in the materials (y. Ber. 1.1; b. Yoma 35b). In commenting on the OT, Israelite participation in forced labor is also strongly condemned, which even was directed toward Abraham, Asa and Solomon. The feelings appear to be quite strong such that the literature condemns a popular figure like Abraham for the practice, and extols the merits of Jeroboam—who split the Israelite kingdom and promoted idolatry—over Solomon for rebuking Solomon for this (b. Ned. 32a; b. Sota 10b, 46b; b. San 101b).

²⁴ BAGD, 521.

²⁵ In the post-Constantine era these views continued in more minority groups: the Waldesians, Francis of Assisi, Wycliffites, Erasmus, Schwenkfeld, the Anabaptists, the Quakers, Tolstoy (he also mentions Gandhi) and Albert Sweitzer. Ibid., 331.

²⁶ Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach (Lam 3:30). I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting (Is 50:6)(NKJV).

²⁷ Cohen gives one Jewish viewpoint of how the difficult the message would have been able to be received by the Jews. “The ultra-violent reaction of the gospels to the legal principle of retaliation with an extremely pacifist unworldly ethic of nonresistance to evil would have struck the rabbis of the Talmud as an unrealistic interpretation of a goal realizable only by a few saints on earth, for the Torah was not intended for angels.” Boaz Cohen, Law and Tradition in Judaism (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1959), 208.

²⁸ Robert C. Tannehill, “The ‘Focal Instance’ as a Form of New Testament Speech: A Study of Matthew 5:39b-42,” 284.

Related Topics: Cultural Issues, Ethics, Sanctification

Lesson 26: Obedient Faith (Genesis 12:4-9)

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One of the battles currently being waged in evangelical circles concerns the nature of saving faith. On the one hand are those who claim that if a person professes to believe in Christ as Savior, he is saved. There does not need to be any (or at least very little) confirming evidence in his life that his faith was genuine. According to this view, he could later become an atheist, but if he had previously professed faith in Christ, he is eternally saved.

The other side argues that we are saved by faith alone, but that such faith, if it is genuine, inevitably produces a life of growth in godliness. If a person professes to believe, but there is scant evidence in his life, his faith is not genuine. True saving faith produces good works. I believe that this is the clear teaching of Scripture. The debate is not inconsequential, since it concerns the heart of the gospel message.

In October, 1990, James Dobson in his monthly newsletter, was encouraged by a recent Gallup poll that indicated that 74 percent of Americans had made a personal commitment to Christ, up from 66 percent in 1988 and 60 percent in 1978. Dobson stated that even if only half of these are what may be considered valid spiritual commitments, the number was still encouraging.

I find it discouraging! In light of our social and moral decay, the numbers show that the gospel has become so watered down in our day that Americans have no idea what saving faith in Jesus Christ means. Can you imagine how different our country would be if only 25 percent, let alone 74 percent, of Americans were truly born again? Our entire society, beginning at the family level, would be transformed as people began to live in obedience to God’s Word. Churches would be standing room only every Sunday. Missionaries would be going out in droves, all fully supported by the generosity of God’s people.

During the First Great Awakening, in which thousands were truly converted under the preaching of men like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, who was not converted, but who was impressed with the change Whitefield’s preaching brought on society, wrote, “It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.” In our day, the high numbers professing to believe in Christ with no resulting change in behavior reflect a major problem, that there are droves of Americans who think they’re saved, but they are not.

Since eternity is riding on the matter, it’s crucial to understand what true biblical faith is. I often shudder at Jesus’s words, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’” (Matt. 7:21-23.) How awful to hear those words! Here are people who not only claimed to be believers, they served the Lord. Even more, they performed works of power in His name. They thought they knew Him. But He didn’t know them. To make sure we don’t hear those words when we stand before the Lord, we must be clear on what the Bible teaches about saving faith, namely, that saving faith is obedient faith.

Obedient faith hears God’s Word and acts upon it.

The life of Abraham, our father in the faith (Rom. 4:16), teaches this. When God told Abram to go forth from his country to the land He would show him, we read, “So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him” (Gen. 12:4). Abram heard what God said and acted upon it. That’s biblical faith.

But right away we’re presented with a question, because the rest of the sentence reads, “and Lot went with him.” Lot was Abram’s nephew (Gen. 11:27). But God’s command to Abram was to go forth from his relatives (12:1). Did Abram only obey partially, which is not true obedience at all? It could be that Abram’s faith was weak and his obedience only partial at this point. It is not until Genesis 15:6 that we read that Abram “believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” But on the other hand, Hebrews 11:8 states, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” So this seems to be the beginning point of Abram’s faith. And Genesis 12:4 does say that he went out “as the Lord had spoken to him.”

So I interpret the Lord’s command to Abram to leave his relatives to mean that he must obey the Lord in spite of what his relatives may do. If they could be persuaded to accompany him, that was fine. But if they would not go, Abram must go without them. It is similar to the Lord’s teaching that when it comes down to a choice between family and Christ, we must follow Christ (Luke 14:26). In Abram’s case, Lot was persuaded to accompany him. The rest stayed behind. But the important thing is, Abram heard and obeyed the Lord. “By faith Abraham ... obeyed” (Heb. 11:8).

1. Obedient faith hears God’s Word.

In verse 1 we read, “the Lord said”; in verse 4 we read that Abram went forth “as the Lord had spoken to him.” Before you can respond in obedient faith to the Lord you’ve got to hear what He is saying. In other words, faith is not some vague leap in the dark. It is an obedient response to God’s Word.

In Abram’s day, before the Bible was written, God often spoke to people in an audible voice. Sometimes the Lord also appeared in human form (a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ) and spoke to Abram as man to man (12:7; 18:1). While God is not limited and is able to speak to people today in an audible voice, or to appear to them, it is extremely rare. I have never had such an experience. I get a bit nervous with people who are always claiming, “The Lord told me ....” Usually they are living by faith in their feelings, not in the Lord.

So, how does God speak to us today? The book of Hebrews begins, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1, 2). All of God’s revelation to us is summed up in the person of Jesus Christ. He is God’s Word to us (John 1:1). And how do we learn of Christ? Jesus said that the Scriptures testify of Him (John 5:39; Luke 24:27). The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself and His Son.

In addition to the Word, the Lord has given us His Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and applies it to our hearts as we yield to Him and wait on Him (John 14:26; 16:13- 15; 1 Cor. 2:7-13). Most of the guidance you will ever need is contained in the Bible. You need wisdom from the Holy Spirit to apply it in various situations. But, if you’re not assimilating God’s Word into your thinking, the Holy Spirit cannot properly guide you. The Holy Spirit works through and in accordance with God’s Word.

Years ago a friend who often said, “The Lord told me,” said to me that the Lord had told him to divorce his wife. I grant that she was a difficult woman to live with. She would lock him out of the house and she treated him badly. On this occasion he told me that he had prayed about it and felt a peace that divorcing her was of the Lord. It took me about three hours to convince him that his peace was not from God, but rather it was the relief that comes from escaping a difficult situation. God’s Word is clear that God hates divorce. The Spirit of God will not tell you to do something contrary to the Word of God.

On the other hand, it’s possible to have God’s Word in our heads, but not to be sensitive to God’s Spirit to apply the Word in specific situations. We hear, but we don’t hear. In Dallas Marla and I lived next to a four-lane freeway. We got so used to the noise that if we woke up on Sunday at 3 a.m., when there would be only one car every 15 or 20 seconds, it seemed strange to have it so quiet. We “heard” the cars constantly, but we really didn’t hear them. We blocked out the noise.

Spiritually we often do the same thing. We develop the capacity to block out the Word from certain areas of our lives. We read it, or hear it preached, but we don’t really hear it. Often we don’t want to hear it, because it reveals major changes that need to take place in our lives. That’s why as Jesus taught He often said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”; or, “take care how you listen” (Luke 8:8, 18). Abram heard God’s word to him. Obedient faith hears God’s Word with a willingness to yield to the Lord in areas where we need to change.

2. Obedient faith acts on God’s Word.

We read (12:5), “and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.” We can read those words easily enough and assume that it was no big deal for Abram to act on what God told him to do. But, as I mentioned last week, it wasn’t easy. But Abram did what God told him to do.

Two dominant themes emerge from verses 6-9, both of which illustrate the life of obedient faith. The first theme is “Abram the pilgrim.” We see it in 12:6, “Abram passed through the land.” It is repeated in 12:8, “he proceeded from there ... and pitched his tent.” A tent is not a permanent dwelling. It is again seen in 12:9, “Abram journeyed on ....” Here is a man on the move with no permanent roots, a man on a pilgrimage.

The second theme is “Abram the worshiper and witness.” We see it in 12:7, when he builds an altar to the Lord who had appeared unto him. In 12:8 the impermanent “pitched his tent” is set against the more permanent, “built an altar.” Abram the pilgrim, moving with his tent, didn’t leave anything permanent for himself; but Abram the worshiper, after he had moved on, left behind altars unto the Lord, altars which bore witness to the pagan Canaanites in the land. Abram the worshiper bore witness to the strength behind his obedient faith by calling upon the name of the Lord (12:8). Let’s apply these two themes:

A. Obedient faith means living as pilgrims.

A pilgrim is a person on a journey. He is not a settled resident. He’s just passing through, on his way to a better place. God did not promise to give the land to Abram, but to his descendants. As John Calvin points out (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], 1:353), this means that the land was not his ultimate aim, but rather, heaven. Abram was looking for that city whose architect and builder is God (Heb. 11:10). He had to trust that God would make good on His word even though Abram would not live to see it.

That’s what we’re called to as Christians. We’re not of this world. We are not to love the things of this world. We’re just passing through. Our destination is heaven. As Paul said, “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). When we encounter any hardships, we have to trust that God’s promises about heaven are a sure thing. The pilgrim life means that we obey God whatever the hardships, knowing that our reward is in heaven. If we obey, like Abram, we’ll have the Lord’s presence and His promises of a glorious future, even if we never in our lifetime receive those promises.

The pilgrim life is often a difficult life, but obedient faith keeps on believing and obeying in spite of the hardships. Let me review some of the difficulties Abram faced in obeying God. He was 75 when he departed from Haran (12:4). While 75 in Abram’s day was a lot younger than it is in our day, he wasn’t a youth. He was married and had accumulated a number of possessions and servants (12:5). If moving with U-Haul is a hassle now, it was much harder then. It meant leaving a city and going across a desert to an uncertain location. There were bands of robbers and many other dangers along the way. He didn’t know anything about Canaan before he set out. There wasn’t an empty house waiting for them to move into.

No doubt Abram faced opposition from his family and friends. Knowing what we do of Sarah’s personality, it’s likely that she complained and even cried about the move. It’s often hard on a wife to leave family and friends and to move to an unfamiliar place. Abram’s older brother, Nahor, was living in Haran (Gen. 24:10; 27:43). I can hear him asking, “Now where is it you’re going, Abram?” “I’m not sure. God told me to head for Canaan.” “Canaan! Don’t you know that there’s nothing but desert between here and there? If you all don’t die of thirst, the robbers will get you! Are you crazy?” “But God has told me to go, and I must obey Him. He will take care of us.”

“But what more could you ask for than what you have here in Haran? You’ve got plenty of land, a nice house, servants, livestock, family, friends. What could you possibly gain by going to Canaan? And have you heard about the Canaanites? Those people sacrifice their children to their gods. They have sexual orgies at their temples. That’s not a healthy environment to raise a family, Abram.” But, in spite of all the hassles, the objections, the obstacles, and the risks, Abram obeyed God without excuses or protest. Obedient faith hears God’s Word and acts on it.

So Abram obeyed God and lived happily ever after in a comfortable home in the land of Canaan. Is that what we read? No, we read that “the Canaanite was then in the land” (12:7). In verse 10 we read of something else in the land: a famine! What a welcome wagon: the Canaanites and a famine! Is that how God rewards those who hear His Word and act on it?

Yes, it often is. Moses obeyed God by going back to Egypt to lead His people out of captivity. What happened? Did Pharaoh say, “Have a good trip!”? Hardly. Did the Israelites say, “We’d love to follow you out into the wilderness, no matter how hard it is”? Not quite. Finally they left Egypt after God had inflicted the plagues on the Egyptians and parted the Red Sea and drowned Pharaoh’s army. Did Israel then find a beautiful garden spot to camp? “They went three days in the wilderness and found no water” (Exod. 15:22). A slight problem for two million people in the Sinai peninsula!

Every time I’ve obeyed God by moving to a new situation, I’ve encountered trials. When Marla and I moved to Dallas so that I could finish seminary, we were caught in a blizzard in southern New Mexico on the way. We got there and couldn’t find an apartment. We finally found one and were promptly mugged and I ended up with four stitches in my hand from the gun sight as it was ripped out of my hand. Other moves haven’t been that traumatic, but every time I’ve faced difficult trials in one form or another. Where did we ever get the idea that if we trust and obey God all our problems will evaporate? It’s certainly not in the Bible. Quite often when we start obeying God we have troubles we never dreamed of having before.

From this time on, Abram lived as a nomad in a tent, not in a house. He never owned a single piece of Canaan, except for the burial plot he bought for his wife. The only thing of permanence he left behind were some altars. That points to our other theme:

B. Obedient faith means living as worshipers and witnesses.

The tent shows him to be a pilgrim; the altar shows him to be a worshiper and a witness, claiming the land for God and His purposes. He built the first one at the oak of Moreh. It is possible that this was the spot of a heathen shrine. There Abram erected his altar to the living God and bore witness to the godless Canaanites. When Abram “called on the name of the Lord” (12:8), it means that he openly acknowledged his trust in God as his strength and provider. He was raising the banner of the Lord’s name in a pagan land, declaring Him to be the only true God.

No doubt the pagans would have watched Abram curiously and asked, “Where is the god you’re sacrificing to? We don’t see any statues or images.” “No, my God is the living and true God, maker of heaven and earth. He cannot be represented by any man-made images.” Perhaps Abram bore witness to them of how we cannot approach the holy God without the shedding of blood. Perhaps he told them of God’s judgment during Noah’s day and warned them of judgment if they did not turn to God.

As far as we know, the Canaanites for the most part, ignored Abram and continued in their wicked ways. In His great mercy, God spared those wicked people for 700 more years until Joshua’s day. But Abram the worshiper had borne witness to them. God will use those who live as pilgrims and worshipers in the midst of a pagan land to bear witness for Him. Some will be saved; some will mock or ignore the message. But God will use the witness of His pilgrims at the day of judgment to vindicate His justice.

Conclusion

A gray-haired old lady, long a member of her church, shook hands with the pastor after the Sunday morning service. “That was a wonderful sermon,” she told him, “just wonderful. Everything you said applies to someone I know.”

Obedient faith hears what God’s Word is saying to me, and it responds with appropriate action. It begins with hearing the gospel, that salvation is not by my merit or good deeds, but rather that salvation is from the Lord. He has provided everything to reconcile sinners with Himself. Repenting of my pride and disobedience and abandoning all trust in myself, I cast myself completely upon Christ. Such saving faith results in a new life in which I obey God in response to His great love for me.

Obedient faith goes on growing by searching God’s Word and allowing it to search me. When God puts His finger on an area of sin, obedient faith responds, even if it is difficult or inconvenient. Obedient faith lets go of this evil world and begins a pilgrimage toward heaven. It worships God by calling upon Him and it bears witness of God to this pagan world. Wherever God is speaking to you, hear what He’s saying and act on it. That’s obedient faith. Without such faith, it is impossible to please the Lord.

Discussion Questions

How can we tell if faith is genuine? What evidence is needed?
Discuss the statement, “If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.” Is it biblically sound?
How can we keep our hearts sensitive to God’s Word?
How can we live as pilgrims and keep ourselves free from loving the things of this world? What does this mean practically?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: Bibliology (The Written Word), Discipleship, Faith

Lesson 27: Faithless Man, Faithful God (Genesis 12:10-13:4)

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One of the things I love about spring in the mountains is the call of the mountain chickadee. I have discovered that the chickadees here have a slightly different tune than the ones in California, although the other day as I was jogging in the woods near Buffalo Park, I heard one singing the California way! I first discovered the sound of the mountain chickadee the first few weeks I was a pastor. We had moved to the Southern California mountains in February, 1977. I was unsure of myself and of the whole idea of being in the pastorate. I had told the Lord that I would try it for two or three years and see where things were at. It was a big test of faith for me. It still is!

One beautiful day I was sitting outside reading some commentaries in preparation for my message when I heard the sound of the mountain chickadee. I had no idea what kind of bird would make that noise, but I expected it to be a large, or at least normal, sized bird. I followed the sound up to a tree and saw the tiny chickadee. It seemed incredible that such a tiny bird could make such a clear, loud call. As I stood there marveling at this wonderful creature, I thought of the Lord’s words about the Heavenly Father’s care for the little sparrow. It was as if the Lord was saying to me, “I take care of this little chickadee; I’ll take care of you.” So every spring when I hear the chickadee, I thank God for His faithfulness to me. Though I have faltered often in my faith, God has always been faithful.

I’m glad that the Bible is not a fairy tale, but a true-to-life book. If it were a fairy tale, we would read of heroes of the faith like Abraham, how they responded to God’s call and never stumbled after that. They always trusted God, they never sinned, they overcame every hardship. But I couldn’t relate to that, because that’s not how my walk with God has gone. But thankfully, the Bible is written honestly, to show the faults even of the greats, like Abraham.

Abram came from a pagan background, but he responded to God’s call. By faith he left his home in Ur and headed for Canaan. He got as far as Haran and stopped for a few years. Then the Lord called him again, and Abram moved out toward Canaan, not knowing exactly where he was going or what he would find when he got there. After he arrived, the Lord appeared to him and said, “To your descendants I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7).

But Canaan wasn’t a lush, uninhabited paradise, just waiting for Abram and his family to move in. The godless Canaanites were in the land (12:6). Also, there was a severe famine in the land (12:10), in the promised land! Abram had always lived in Ur and Haran, which are both on the banks of the Euphrates River. They never lacked for water. But now he sets out by faith to the land of promise, and the first thing he encounters is a severe famine. Can’t you hear the critics in his household grumbling, “So this is the land of promise, huh? Nice, really nice! Are you sure God told you to come here, Abram?”

To survive, Abram journeyed down to Egypt. There was nothing wrong, per se, with going to Egypt. On at least two occasions God directed His people to Egypt for temporary protection (Gen. 46:3; Matt. 2:13). The text says that he went to “sojourn,” not to settle, there. The problem was, there is no indication that Abram sought the Lord’s guidance in this situation. It never seemed to occur to him that God was sovereign over the famine and that he needed to seek His direction. Abram built altars in Canaan, but there were no altars built in Egypt. Instead, we find him scheming about how to protect himself from the Egyptians who might kill him and take his wife. He falls into a desperate situation where Pharaoh takes Sarai into his harem. At this point, God’s promise to make a great nation out of Abram and to give the land of Canaan to his descendants hangs by a thread, humanly speaking.

But shining through the whole story is God’s faithfulness. Even though Abram was faithless, God was faithful. A recurring theme begins here and runs throughout Genesis, where God’s promise to Abram (12:1-3) is threatened by someone’s sin. But in every case, God overrules man’s failure to bring about His sovereign purpose, to show us that God’s promises and purpose do not depend on fickle man, but on the faithful God (see John Sailhamer, Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 2:116). So the lesson of the story is:

When we are faithless, God remains faithful in order to restore us to faith and to fulfill His purpose.

In 12:10-16 we see Abram’s faithlessness; in 12:17-20, God’s faithfulness in delivering Abram and Sarai; and, in 13:1-4, Abram’s restoration to faith in line with God’s purpose. There are some obvious parallels between this incident in Abram’s life and the nation Israel to whom Moses was writing. Both Abram and the nation Israel went down to Egypt because of a famine in the land (12:10; 47:13, 27). Abram feared that he, a man, would be killed and Sarai, a woman, would be spared (12:12); in Moses’ day, Pharaoh ordered the male babies killed and the females spared (Exod. 1:22). God sent plagues on Pharaoh to deliver both Abram and Israel (12:17; Exod. 7:14-11:10). Abram received many possessions from the Egyptians (12:16); Israel took great spoil before the Exodus (Exod. 12:35-36). God delivered both Abram and the nation Israel, and they journeyed north toward the Negev (12:19, 13:1; Exod. 15, Num. 13:17, 22). (Alan Ross, The Bible Knowledge Commentary [Victor Books, 1985], 2:49.)

Thus Moses put this incident here to show Israel that just as God had delivered Abram from Egypt in spite of his weakness, so He had delivered Israel in spite of her weakness. It didn’t depend on their faith, but on God’s faithfulness. Just as Abram returned to the land and called upon the name of the Lord, so must Israel obey God by taking the land and calling upon His name. We can apply it to ourselves by realizing that when we are faithless, God is still faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). Thus, we should be restored in our faith as we look to the faithfulness of God. Three lessons:

1.God’s people are often faithless, especially during trials (12:10-16).

It is significant that Abram’s deception concerning his wife started with a trial, the famine in the land. Whenever we face trials, we need to be on guard because the situation can either to draw us closer to the Lord or turn us away. The words, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8), are written to suffering Christians (1 Pet. 5:9, 10). When trials hit, the devil moves in to take advantage of the situation by trying to get us to turn from the Lord to our own schemes.

That was Abram’s problem in this situation: He was relying on his own scheming, but he had not sought the Lord (see Isa. 31:1). If Abram had asked, the God who would later rain manna from heaven and bring water from a rock could have supplied his needs in the land during this famine. But he didn’t bother to ask.

When you turn from the Lord to your own schemes of deliverance, you get yourself in deeper trouble, and you have to figure out even more schemes. Like turning on a road that angles off from the main road, the farther you go down the path of self-reliance, the farther you get from the Lord. As Abram got closer to Egypt, he realized that he could be in great danger because of Sarai. So he concocted a plan to pawn her off as his sister, not his wife (12:11-12).

Abram has been condemned as a coward, out to save his own skin, but unconcerned about Sarai’s safety. But this is probably not fair. Abram’s thinking was most likely that if the Egyptians thought Sarai was his sister, they would have to go through him to make marriage arrangements for her. Abram could stall for time, hopefully until the famine had subsided, and then head north again. Thus he wouldn’t be murdered for his wife, and Sarai wouldn’t be given in marriage. Besides, since Sarai was actually Abram’s half-sister, the scheme was technically not a lie; Abram could salve his conscience.

But the scheme backfired when Pharaoh took an interest in Sarai. You don’t stall or bargain when Pharaoh wants your sister in his harem. So Abram lost his wife for a while. There is no indication that Pharaoh violated Sarai. God protected her from adultery. But she was separated from Abram, living in Pharaoh’s harem, awaiting the wedding day. The scheme nearly cost Abram his wife, and with her, the promised blessing of God to make Abram’s descendants into a great nation.

Let me deal here with two tangential problems. First, some wonder how Sarai could have been so good looking, since she was 65 or older, and yet at 90 she was considered old (compare Gen. 17:17 with 12:4). The solution is that since the patriarchal life span was about twice ours (Abram lived to 175, Sarah to 127), Sarai here would be comparable to our thirties, and thus could still be considered beautiful by the Egyptians. By 90 she would be comparable to our late forties, thus past her childbearing years, although still attractive. In chapter 20, when Abimelech wants to marry Sarah, there is no mention of her beauty. He may have wanted her for the favorable alliance with the prosperous Abraham. I had to laugh when I read Keil and Delitzsch, a scholarly 19th century German commentary. They say how the Egyptians would probably find Sarai attractive because their wives, “according to both ancient and modern testimony, were generally ugly, and faded early” (Commentary on the Old Testament [Eerdmans], p. 197)!

The other problem concerns the matter of whether Sarai was right or wrong to submit to Abram’s deceptive scheme. First Peter 3:1-6 mentions Sarah as an example of obedience to her husband in the context of saying that wives should submit even if their husbands are disobedient to the word. Some take this to refer to this incident and say that wives should submit even when their husbands want them to do something wrong, trusting God to protect or deliver them.

I believe that Scripture clearly establishes the husband as the head of the home. But the Bible also teaches that when a God- given authority in any sphere asks one under authority to violate the clear commandments of God, the person under authority must first tactfully appeal to the authority. If that fails, he or she must obey God, not men. So I think Sarai was wrong to go along with Abram in this deceptive scheme, even though God graciously protected her. Her lie on top of Abram’s lie expanded the circle of involvement and almost led Pharaoh to commit adultery with her. Sin always snowballs like that. So, the wife or person under authority must stop the progression of sin when it comes down to her.

So Abram encountered a trial that led him to act on his own, without seeking God. This got him into another situation where he devised a lie in an attempt to protect himself. That got him into deeper trouble. But, take note, it got him what he said he wanted! In 12:13 he told Sarai to lie “so that it will go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.” In 12:16 we read that it went well with Abram on account of Sarai. Pharaoh gave him livestock and servants (probably including Hagar, by the way) for Sarai’s sake. But the hitch was, of course, that Pharaoh took his wife.

Do you think Abram was happy as he sat alone in his tent night after night? He could hear the bleating of the many sheep and goats, the lowing of the cattle, and the braying of the donkeys, evidence that it had gone very well with him on account of Sarai, just as he had wished. But while he got what he had wanted, there was an emptiness in Abram’s heart as he sat wondering whether he would ever have Sarai back as his wife again.

But let’s not just talk about Abram’s faithlessness. Let’s talk about our faithlessness as well. If you’ve known the Lord for any length of time, you have done the very same thing Abram did. It was easy to trust and obey God as long as things were going well for you. You thought, “Hey, this Christian life is great!” Then there was a famine in your land. Things weren’t going quite the way you expected. You said, “Lord, what’s going on here? Isn’t this supposed to be the abundant life?” And you turned from God to the world or to your own ingenious schemes to fix the problems. You rationalized, “A man has to take care of himself, doesn’t he?”

Maybe you had to tell a few half-truths to pull the right strings. You salved your conscience by telling yourself that you really hadn’t lied. And besides, things were going pretty well now, since you started down this path. You got that raise, your business took off. Just look at your prosperity. You say things like, “I’m making more money than ever before. Isn’t that an indication of God’s blessing?” Or, “I feel really good about this new relationship. If it weren’t God’s will for me to marry this guy, wouldn’t He stop me?” The world may treat you well, but if you peel away the veneer and catch you at a rare quiet moment alone, you’d have to admit that there is a leanness in your soul. That’s where Abram was; we’ve all been there, too. Maybe you’re there right now. Notice that the Lord isn’t mentioned in this story until verse 17:

2. In spite of our failures, God is always faithful (12:17-20).

In the face of Abram’s faithlessness, we see God’s faithfulness. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). Even though Abram’s eyes were off the Lord, the Lord’s eyes were never off Abram. God intervened by striking Pharaoh and his household with some sort of unspecified plagues. But somehow the Egyptians figured out that things started going badly from the moment Sarai took up residence in the harem. And somehow Pharaoh found out that Sarai was Abram’s wife. Pharaoh’s command to Abram to take his wife and go (12:19) echoes God’s call to Abram to go forth from his country (12:1). God uses a pagan king’s rebuke to get Abram back to the promised land to uphold His divine call. The incident shows God’s faithfulness in spite of Abram’s faithlessness.

It’s always embarrassing for a believer to be rightly corrected by an unbeliever. It’s tough to bear witness in those situations! Remember Jonah, fleeing from the Lord on the ship headed for Tarshish? When the storm arose, they cast lots to figure out whose fault it was. The lot fell on Jonah. They ask him about himself and he has to tell them that he’s a Hebrew, who fears the Lord God who made the heaven and the sea and the dry land. And he tells them that he is fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Even though they’re pagans, they answer, “How could you do this?” (Jonah 1:8-10). They could see Jonah’s inconsistency. So here Pharaoh calls Abram to account and Abram doesn’t say a word in reply. He just goes off with his tail between his legs, duly chastened.

If you as a Christian ever get rightly rebuked for your sin by an unbeliever, just confess your sin and seek the person’s forgiveness and pray that God will give you or someone else an opportunity at another time for witness. But don’t try to minimize or rationalize your sin and then proceed to witness for Christ. That’s the worst thing you could do!

Verse 20 shows God’s abundant grace in spite of our sin. Pharaoh commanded his men, and they escorted Abram, his wife, and all his belongings out of the country. That’s grace: undeserved favor. If Abram had got what he deserved, Pharaoh would have killed him and kept Sarai and all his possessions. Or at least he would have kept his possessions and kicked Abram and Sarai out of the country with just the shirts on their backs. But God graciously blessed Abram through Pharaoh.

Don’t ever mistake God’s grace as a license to sin. God’s grace ought to bind us in deeper devotion to our forgiving Father:

O to grace, how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee!

(Robert Robinson, “Come, Thou Fount”).

God’s grace never ought to be a reason for us to think, “I got off easy the last time, so I can do it again.” If we do that, we are courting God’s severe discipline (Gal. 6:7). In this case, God’s faithfulness and grace led Abram to be restored:

3. God’s faithfulness should lead us to repentance and restoration (13:1-4).

Abram headed back to Bethel (= “The House of God”), “to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, ... to the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord” (13:3, 4). Last week we saw that two things marked Abram’s life of obedient faith: the tent and the altar. The tent showed Abram to be a pilgrim, one just passing through on the way to another destination. The altar showed Abram to be a worshiper of the living God. The altar also bore witness to the godless Canaanites of the true God and of their own idolatrous ways. Abram left Egypt and came back to the tent and the altar. To call on the name of the Lord means to worship and trust God for who He is, the righteous and yet merciful Sovereign, who faithfully keeps His promises even when we are faithless.

What Abram did, we need to do when we have disobeyed God and strayed from His paths. We need to return to our beginning place with God, the cross. We bow there and remember the great price the Lord paid for our forgiveness. We call on His name, His attributes: His love, His holiness, His grace, His faithfulness. And we reestablish the communion we formerly enjoyed with Him. What the altar was to Abram, the Lord’s Table is to be to us. We are invited there frequently, to confess our sins and appropriate God’s forgiveness. If you are straying from the Lord, right now He invites you to come back to the cross and be restored to fellowship with Him.

Conclusion

Thank God that when we’re faithless and turn to our own schemes to escape trials, He remains faithful to restore us to faith in Him in order to fulfill His purpose! John Newton, the converted slave trader and drunkard, who became a faithful pastor and author of the hymn, “Amazing Grace,” wrote another hymn which, sadly, is not as well-known. It shows God’s faithfulness in bringing trials into our lives and our need to seek Him rather than turning to our own schemes:

I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

I hoped that in some favoured hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

“Lord, why is this?” I trembling cried,
“Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death?”
“‘Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st seek thy all in me.”

Discussion Questions

Does God send trials or just allow them? Is the difference significant? Discuss.
Why are prosperity or good circumstances not necessarily signs of God’s blessing?
When you’re in a “famine,” how can you determine whether you’re in or out of God’s will?
Was Sarah wrong to submit to Abraham in this situation? When are we justified in disobeying authority? How can we do it properly?

Lesson 28: Choices, Consequences (Genesis 13:5-18)

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There is a point along the Continental Divide high in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado at which the waters of a small stream separate. It would not seem to matter much whether a drop of water goes to the left or to the right. But the outcome of those drops of water is totally different. One drop goes to the west and eventually flows into the Colorado River and empties into the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean. Another drop goes east until it flows into the Mississippi River and dumps into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Two drops of water, two entirely different destinations, but one small turning point that determines the outcome.

Many choices in life are like that. At the time they don’t seem significant. But those choices set in motion a series of events which shape your life and the lives of your children and grandchildren after you. If we could share how we all came to know Christ as Savior, I would guess that many of you chose to go somewhere where you met someone who started talking to you, which led to a chain of events resulting in your salvation. The original choice wasn’t a big deal, but the outcome was life-changing. Or if we all shared how we met our mates, many of the stories would begin with seemingly insignificant decisions to attend some social event. That decision led to a relationship which forever affected our lives, not to mention our children’s lives.

Sometimes people make unwise choices which aren’t momentous in themselves, but they lead to tragedies: A teenager chooses to ride with a friend who has been drinking, resulting in a serious accident and the loss of life. A girl decides to have a drink at a party, resulting in her letting down her inhibitions. She ends up pregnant or with a venereal disease. Since seemingly small decisions can have such momentous consequences, how can we protect ourselves from making wrong choices? The story of Lot’s choice (Gen. 13:5-18) teaches a crucial lesson about life’s choices:

Since choices often result in eternally significant consequences, we must choose in line with God’s principles.

The herdsmen of Lot and of Abram were quarreling because there wasn’t adequate land to support all their flocks. So Abram gave Lot his choice of where to settle. Lot surveyed the land and decided to move down into the lush Jordan valley. That choice was the beginning of Lot’s gradual but steady spiritual decline. First he looked toward Sodom (13:10). Then he moved his tents near Sodom (13:12). Next we find him living in Sodom (14:12). Finally he is sitting in the gate of Sodom (19:1)--he was a city official. He lost his wife, barely escaped with his own life and his two daughters, and goes off the Old Testament page hiding in a cave where his daughters make him drunk and commit incest with him. The offspring of those disgraceful nights were the Moabites and the Ammonites, two of Israel’s perennial enemies. It all began with Lot’s choice to live near Sodom.

1. Choices often result in eternally significant consequences.

There is a clear progression in this story. First, both Lot and Abram have increased wealth (13:2, 5-6). Their increased wealth leads to increased strife because there simply wasn’t enough land for each of them, plus the Canaanites and the Perizzites (13:7). They didn’t have that problem before. Where did we ever get the notion that wealth will solve our problems? Some of the most unhappy families in the world are those with the most money, where one member is set against the other, trying to make sure he gets his portion of the inheritance. The increased strife led to increased responsibility for choices. Lot wasn’t just deciding for himself. His family and many servants and their families would be affected by his decision. The increased responsibility for choices led to either increased wickedness (in Lot’s case, choosing Sodom) or increased blessing (in Abram’s case, choosing Canaan).

Genesis 13 is the first mention of wealth in the Bible. Wealth can be a blessing, but we need to recognize something that isn’t said very often in our prosperous culture: Wealth is a dangerous blessing! Increased wealth always results in increased potential either for evil or for good. To whom much is given, much shall be required (Luke 12:48). When your income increases, so does your accountability to God.

We need to pay serious attention to the biblical warnings about wealth. As Jesus watched the rich young ruler walk away, He observed, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” (Luke 18:24). The apostle Paul said, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang” (1 Tim. 6:9-10).

Everyone is quick to point out, “It isn’t money, but the love of money that’s the problem!” (Whew!) That’s true, but irrelevant. It’s like handing a five-year-old a loaded gun and saying, “Guns aren’t dangerous, just the people who use them.” True, but irrelevant. The fact is, no five-year-old is mature enough to handle a loaded gun. And no sinner is capable of properly handling money unless he is constantly yielded to the Holy Spirit and is continually on guard against every form of greed.

So Lot’s increased wealth led to strife which led him to make the worst decision of his life. Lot did something many American Christians do, usually without much thought: He made a major life decision based on the unchallenged assumption that pursuing prosperity should be the main goal in life. Lot chose Sodom because he saw the lush valley and thought he could prosper there. We’re given a clue when verse 10 says that Lot saw the valley “like the land of Egypt.” Lot’s heart was still down in Egypt, where he had become rich along with Abram. Lot didn’t want any part of the hard life of faith, of living in famine-stricken Canaan. He wanted to live the good life in Egypt. He never seemed to consider what verse 13 points out, the spiritual implications of moving his family to Sodom.

I’ve seen many Christian families make a decision to move because the husband is offered a better-paying job. But they never consider how the move will affect them and their family spiritually. You can’t escape from living near sinners (Canaan was almost as bad as Sodom), but some people and places are exceedingly wicked. If God calls you to such a place as a witness, you go in with your guard up. But many American Christians, like Lot, decide where they’re going to live based on finances, not on spiritual reasons. Verse 11 states the problem: Lot “chose for himself....” He and his family paid an awful price.

Since many choices have eternally significant consequences, how do we make good choices?

2. We must choose in line with God’s principles.

It’s possible to gain the whole world and lose your soul. There is much more in life than the outward and material. We must base our choices on God’s Word, not on the assumptions of our culture. Those principles encompass the whole Bible and take a lifetime to learn thoroughly. But there are four basic principles in our text that I want to explore with you:

A. Make choices which value relationships over rights.

Note verse 8: “Please let there be no strife between you and me, ... because we are brothers.” Coming just after the statement about the Canaanites and Perizzites being in the land, this may point to Abram’s concern about how their strife would affect the witness to the pagans around them. How can God’s people bear witness for Him if the world sees them fighting among themselves?

Abram had a right to choose whatever land he wanted and let Lot take the leftovers. He was the older, the chief of the clan. God had promised the land to Abram, not to Lot. (Note, by the way, that even though Abram and Lot both had the freedom to choose, God’s sovereign purpose to give the land to Abram overruled their choices.) But Abram graciously yielded his rights and trusted God to give him his portion. What mattered to Abram was, “We are brothers.” He valued his relationship with Lot over his right to choose the best land.

So much strife could be avoided in the family and in the church if we would put a premium on our relationships, set aside our rights, and let the Lord take care of us. The next time you are about to quarrel with someone (and quarrelling is a choice we make!), stop and think about whether the quarrel is rooted in godly principle or in selfishness. Sometimes we need to confront sin or take a stand for the truth, even though it causes conflict. But be careful! It’s easy to justify selfishness by calling it righteous anger. The general rule is, “Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another” (Rom. 14:19).

B. Make choices which value godliness over greed.

By faith, Abram had already renounced everything visible and opted for the unseen promises of God. So he had no need, as Lot did, to choose by sight. There is a deliberate contrast between verses 10 and 14. In verse 10, Lot lifted up his eyes and chose the land which looked the best to him. He took off for the good life and left Abram literally in the dust, in dusty Canaan, where there had just been a severe famine. In verse 14, as Abram is standing there wondering if he did the right thing (and perhaps Sarah was asking him the same question), God tells him to lift up his eyes and look in every direction. All the land he can see will be his. Perhaps as Abram was looking around, his eyes fell down to the dusty soil on which he was standing. So the Lord says, “Do you see all that dust? I’ll make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.”

Lot chose by sight and ended up spiritually and financially bankrupt. He escaped Sodom with the clothes on his back and fades out living in a cave. The things he saw and got didn’t bring him the lasting happiness he expected. Abram chose by faith, not by sight, and ended up spiritually and financially blessed, seeing and possessing by faith the whole land of Canaan, although he died owning only a burial plot. Lot lived for greed and came up empty. Abram lived for God and came up full.

How can we know whether we are under the influence of greed? Charles Simeon, a godly 19th century British pastor, offered three helpful criteria for evaluating ourselves (Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible [Zondervan], XII:469-471). First, we may judge ourselves by the manner in which we seek the things of this world. If we find ourselves thinking more about the things of this world and how to get them than about God; or if the thought of having them brings us more pleasure than our thoughts about God; or if we are willing to violate our conscience or neglect spiritual duties to pursue those things, then we are governed by greed.

Second, we may judge ourselves by the manner in which we enjoy the things of this world. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the things God provides us. But, if we start thinking, “If I just had such and such, I would be happy,” or if we think that by getting so much in the bank, we will be secure from the trials of life, then we’ve shifted our trust from God to material things, and we are governed by greed.

Third, we may judge ourselves by the manner in which we mourn the loss of the things of this world. Christians are not to be devoid of feelings. But here Simeon is getting at the principle which enabled Job, when he lost all his worldly possessions, to say, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” It enabled Paul to be content with much or with little, because Christ was his sufficiency. If our joy rides on our possessions or if we are filled with anxiety and grief if we lose them, then we are more governed by greed than by God.

One night in November, 1980, the Lord enrolled us in a crash course on this subject. The Panorama Fire was raging out of control in a canyon a few miles below our house. At 4 a.m. a neighbor whose husband was a volunteer fireman called and told us that we would be forced to evacuate our home at 7 a.m. My office was at home then, and we only had a Mustang with a top rack to carry everything we wanted to take from my office and for the four of us (Daniel wasn’t yet born). We didn’t know whether we would ever see again what we left behind. It’s a wholesome experience I would recommend to everyone! It helps you clarify the question, “What are we really living for?” Remember, the same thing that happened to all of Lot’s stuff when Sodom burned is going to happen to all your stuff when Christ judges the world.

C. Make choices which value fellowship with God over the approval of the world.

Lot has often been criticized for moving to Sodom, but it is not often mentioned that both Abram and Lot lived in corrupt cultures. To compare the Canaanites with the Sodomites is like comparing Stalin with Hitler. The Sodomites rated a 10 on the wickedness scale, and the Canaanites a 9.5. So you have to ask, “Why did Abram remain untainted, but Lot became corrupted?”

The answer is in verse 18: “Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.” We see again the two things that marked Abram’s life of obedient faith, the tent and the altar: Abram the pilgrim, just passing through; and, Abram the worshiper, bearing witness to a pagan world. You don’t ever find Lot building an altar in Sodom, and he traded in his tent for a townhouse. He settled in Sodom and blended in with their corruption. He was popular, sitting on their city council, but he was not prophetic. Abram lived in fellowship with God and became known as the friend of God.

As Christians, we always face a tension: If we pull out of the world too far, we lose our witness because there is no contact. But if we blend in with the world, we lose both our fellowship with God and our witness to the world. Jesus was the friend of sinners, but He was never tainted by their sin because He put a premium on fellowship with the Father and He never sought the approval of the world. He was in the world with a clear sense of His mission, to glorify the Father and to seek and to save the lost. If we want to line up with Abram rather than with Lot, we’ve got to be people of the tent and the altar, pilgrims and worshipers, here to bear witness. We must put fellowship with God above the approval of the world in all our decisions.

D. Make choices which value God’s eternal promises over immediate pleasure.

Lot’s choice of Sodom was based on what would bring him quick gratification, but he didn’t take into account God’s promise to Abram about the land. After Lot moved to Sodom, the Lord reaffirmed His promise to Abram and even expanded on it (13:14-17). F. B. Meyer says that God wanted Abram “to feel as free in the land as if the title deeds were actually in his hands” (Abraham [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 50). God wanted to give Abram a graphic picture of what it means to possess by faith what God had promised, even though it wouldn’t be an actuality in Abram’s lifetime. The apostle Paul described it, “as having nothing yet possessing all things” (2 Cor. 6:10).

As believers we are to live by faith in the promises of God. When we face decisions, we take God into account and make those decisions in line with His promises and principles, not the immediate gratification of the flesh. We deny ungodliness and worldly desires in light of the blessed hope of Christ’s return (Titus 2:11-13), trusting that His promises concerning eternity are true.

The Lord Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33, emphasis mine). Most of us want to seek the other things first and add the kingdom of God later in our spare time. The next time you face a decision that involves a major commitment of your time or a move to a different locale, make the decision based on how it will affect your own and your family’s commitment to the kingdom, not on financial factors alone. If the extra hours and the move will bring you more money, you need to ask, “Why do we want more money? Is it so we can give more to missions?” If the bottom line is that you want more money because you want more things, then you’re not seeking first God’s kingdom.

Conclusion

We tend to think of Christian commitment as a bold decision to forsake everything and follow Jesus. There is a sense, of course, in which that is true. We must make that once and for all commitment. But Lot had done that. He had left his family and friends in Ur to go with Abram to the promised land. Lot’s problem, like many Christians today, was in following through, walking step by step in dependence upon the Lord, saying no to the things of this world based on faith in the promises of God.

Someone has said that we tend to think of commitment to Christ like laying a $1,000 bill on the table: “Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.” But the reality is that God sends most of us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there, in small deeds of faithfulness and obedience. But it’s right there, in those little 25 cent choices, that our lives take their direction.

So make your choices based on God’s principles: Relationships over rights; godliness over greed; fellowship with God over the world’s approval; and, faith in God’s promises over immediate pleasure from the world. Because if you have God and His promises, you have everything. So seek Him first, and all else is yours.

Discussion Questions

When (if ever) is it right to fight for your rights, and when is it right to give in? Are Christians supposed to be doormats?
Is it necessarily wrong for Christians to desire a better lifestyle? How do we determine where to draw the line when it comes to amassing possessions?
Are you more prone to withdraw from the world or to join in with it? How does a Christian find the right balance?
To what extent should we protect our children from the pagan world in which we live?

Related Topics: Discipleship, Spiritual Life

Lesson 29: Restoring A Fallen Brother (Genesis 14:1-24)

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One of the most needed and yet most neglected ministries in the body of Christ is that of going after and seeking to restore a brother or sister who has fallen into sin. We avoid doing it for a number of reasons: No one likes confrontation. We don’t know what to say or how to go about it. We don’t want to be judgmental or critical. We’re aware of our own shortcomings and don’t want to come across as hypocrites. So we say, “It’s none of my business,” and let the person go on in his or her sin. Or, perhaps you tell one of the pastors or elders and let them deal with it.

But Galatians 6:1 instructs us: “Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.” The ministry of restoring a fallen brother belongs to all who are spiritual, which means, spiritually mature, those who walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26). While never easy, it is vital to the spiritual health of the church. You cannot be faithful to the Lord if you don’t grow in your ability to perform this important ministry.

Restoring a sinning brother calls for a faith that is both bold and humble--bold enough to confront sin and do battle with the forces of darkness, and yet humble enough to see how prone I am to sin and humble enough to depend on the Lord so that I don’t fall into sin in the process of seeking to restore my brother.

In Genesis 14, we see Abram exercising that kind of bold and humble faith. His nephew Lot made the decision to move his tents toward Sodom, which had the better grazing land. That choice started Lot on a spiritual slide from which he never recovered. By chapter 14:12 we find that Lot had moved into the city limits. Sodom, along with some other city-states in the region, had for 12 years been subject to a coalition of city-states in the east. But in the thirteenth year they rebelled (13:4).

The kings from the east weren’t going to let this region go without a fight. It was their trade route to Egypt. And so they began dealing with their opposition. They finally defeated Sodom, her king fled, and the residents and goods of Sodom were taken captive, including Lot. A fugitive came and told Abram, who staged a surprise, nighttime attack, recovering all that had been taken, including Lot and his possessions. On his return from battle, Abram was met by two kings, the mysterious Melchizedek, king of Salem, and the king of Sodom. Toward Melchizedek Abram was humble, offering him a tithe of the spoils. Toward the king of Sodom Abram was bold in rejecting his offer to keep the rest of the spoils for himself. In rescuing Lot, Abram exemplifies the kind of bold and humble faith we need if we want to be faithful in the ministry of restoring a fallen brother:

To restore a fallen brother we need faith in God which is both bold and humble.

Boldness and humility may seem antithetical, but they are not. They comprise the biblical quality of meekness or gentleness. We usually think of meekness as weakness, but biblical meekness is strength under control. A meek person is strong, but submissive to the Lord. He is like a powerful but well-trained horse, which can charge forth into battle, but is so sensitive and submissive that it will stop or turn at the slightest nudge from its master. Such humble boldness is a fruit of the Spirit that marks the godly person (Gal. 5:23).

Abram had that kind of bold, humble faith in God. In chapter 13, he humbly yielded to Lot and gave him first choice of the land. When Lot chose the most fertile land and then was taken captive, Abram didn’t say, “It serves him right!” He boldly went and rescued Lot. Then he humbly bowed before Melchizedek but boldly resisted the king of Sodom’s offer. He knew when to be bold and when to yield.

1. Bold faith goes to battle to restore a fallen brother (14:1- 16).

Most of us probably err here; we’re too passive, too hesitant to confront the forces of evil. Abram could have had a lot of excuses for not going after Lot. It was Lot’s fault; he chose Sodom. A man will reap what he sows. And isn’t God sovereign? He could have prevented these kings from conquering Sodom if it had been in His purpose. Why interfere? And, it wouldn’t be prudent for a man like Abram to go after four powerful kings. They hadn’t bothered him. He was living in peace. Why stir up a hornet’s nest? In the same way, we can always come up with plenty of excuses for not going after a fallen brother. But there’s always one compelling reason to go:

A. The reason for bold faith is the bondage of a brother (14:1-12).

Abram wouldn’t have risked going after these kings except that he heard that Lot had been taken captive (14:14). Even though Lot wasn’t right to be living in Sodom, he was a believer. And he was Abram’s nephew. Abram knew that he was his brother’s keeper. Even though Lot was at fault and was experiencing the consequences of his poor choice, Abram went after him.

These verses are a graphic illustration of the consequences of a believer dabbling in the world. Lot chose Sodom because he thought he could get rich there. He thought that the things of the world would bring him happiness and fulfillment. But the result was that he lost everything to this invading army and he himself was taken as a slave. Often a foolish Christian will cast off what he perceives as the “restrictions” of God’s Word and pursue the pleasures the world offers. But he ends up in bondage of the worst sort. It’s like a family pet rabbit that longs to break out of its cage and finally does so, only to find itself cornered by a dog. Sin promises us freedom, but we end up becoming the slaves of corruption (2 Pet. 2:19).

But the point for the spiritual Christian is that when our brother is caught in some trespass, we must exercise bold faith in seeking to restore him. Doing nothing is not an option if you love God and your brother.

B. The response of bold faith is to do battle to restore our brother (14:13-16).

Sometimes, if you do not have a relationship with the person, all you can do is pray. But when the situation involves someone you know, the Lord may want you to be involved. Remember, it’s never convenient or easy to go after a Christian who has fallen into the clutches of the enemy. It is always risky and it takes time and emotional energy. But the Lord Jesus went after the straying sheep, and if we are His followers, we must do the same. It is not just the responsibility of pastors. It is the job of every mature (spiritual) Christian. There are several things we can learn from Abram’s rescue of Lot about doing battle spiritually to restore our brother:

(1) You must be separate from the world and sin to rescue a fallen brother. If Abram had been living in Sodom, he would have been in the same fix Lot was in. Abram was living by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron (14:13). He had formed a mutual defense alliance with Mamre and his brothers, Eshcol and Aner (14:24). Some might argue that it was wrong for Abram to do so; in later times it was wrong for God’s people to form alliances with pagans.

But in Abram’s defense, in spite of this military alliance, he maintained his distinctive spiritual calling and purpose. Abram began by building an altar there (13:18), so he no doubt had told Mamre and his brothers about the one true God. He was in the world, but he wasn’t blending in with them. He was maintaining his distinctiveness as “Abram the Hebrew,” worshiper of God (14:13). This is the first time the word “Hebrew” occurs in the Bible. It probably comes from the name Eber, one of Abram’s ancestors (10:21, 24). But here it is used to set Abram apart from the Canaanites. From that position of separateness from the world, Abram was free to deliver Lot.

The only way you can help a brother or sister who is ensnared in the world or in some sin is to walk in holiness yourself (“you who are spiritual”). One reason Christians are often hesitant to confront a sinning brother is that they know there is sin in their own lives. So they adopt the philosophy, “You don’t confront me and I won’t confront you.” But the result is that sin festers and grows and the body of Christ is weakened.

(2) You need preparation to rescue a fallen brother. Abram led forth 318 trained men as well as his allies (14:24). Even though he was a peaceful man, Abram knew that the time would come when he needed to go to war. So he had trained his men before the enemy hit.

When Paul says, “you who are spiritual,” he’s not referring to something you attain instantly. As Galatians 5 spells out, the spiritual Christian is one who walks in the Spirit, who has replaced the deeds of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. That takes time. If you aren’t growing in the Lord and in your understanding of the principles of His Word, you won’t be able to apply those principles wisely when someone you know needs them. We need to use times of calm to learn spiritual warfare for the times of battle.

(3) You must use wisdom to rescue a fallen brother. Abram divided up his forces and pulled off a surprise night attack. The enemy army was probably somewhat lax after their string of victories. They weren’t expecting any retaliation. Maybe they were drinking and partying, with their guard down. That’s when Abram and his troops hit. No doubt he was trusting in God, but he also wasn’t stupid.

Consider the way Nathan confronted David in his sin. He didn’t walk up and say, “David, you committed adultery and murder.” He told David a story and got him to sympathize with the victim in the story. Then he sprung his trap by saying, “You’re the man! You did what the aggressor in the story did.” David broke down in repentance.

Howard Hendricks tells of how he went to speak at a church. He was met at the airport by the pastor’s wife, who told him, as they drove to their home, of her concern because her husband was overworking, heading toward a heart attack. He wouldn’t listen to her pleas to limit his ministry commitments. She asked Dr. Hendricks to talk to him. Most of us would have said something like, “Aren’t you working too hard?” The pastor would have said something like, “Well, it’s the Lord’s work.” And the rebuke would have rolled off him.

But Hendricks didn’t do it that way. He waited for the right moment and then asked the pastor, “Do you smoke?” He got a stunned look from the man, who finally blurted out, “No, of course not!” “Why not?” Hendricks persisted. “Because my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and I shouldn’t abuse it,” he replied. Hendricks shot back, “Then why are you abusing your body by working yourself toward an early grave?” The message hit home!

(4) You must act on principle, not results, to rescue a fallen brother. In verse 16 we read that Abram brought back Lot and all his possessions. Brought him back where? To Sodom. Lot didn’t learn a thing; he wasn’t changed one bit by this whole experience. There’s no word of thanks from Lot. In spite of what had just happened, Lot moved back to Sodom and continued his downward spiritual course. Abram probably could have guessed that Lot would do that. But he rescued him anyway.

Have you ever heard about a Christian caught in sin and you thought, “Why try to help him? It wouldn’t do any good.” There are three reasons to help him anyway. First, Christian love demands it. If you love someone you can’t sit around while he destroys himself through sin. Second, we don’t know the future, so we can’t assume that our brother will fall again. Maybe this time he will learn to walk with God. Third, we need to deliver ourselves. God told Ezekiel (3:16-21) that if the watchman didn’t warn the wicked to turn from their sin, God would require it of him. But if he warned them, but they refused to listen, at least the watchman had delivered himself. If you see a brother or sister in sin, you are responsible to try to restore him, no matter what he later does. The godly person needs a bold faith in God when a brother is caught in sin.

But boldness can easily become brashness. Satan often comes to us when we’ve been bold and pushes us farther in the same direction. Thus we also need humble faith.

2. Humble faith honors God and holds to Him after a spiritual victory (14:17-24).

Abram headed back from his great victory and was met by two kings, the king of Sodom and the king of Salem. Apparently the king of Sodom came up to him first, but before he could speak, the king of Salem arrived (14:17-20). Only after Abram had dealt with the king of Salem did he deal with the king of Sodom. There are two battles in this chapter: Abram’s battle with the foreign kings, and his battle with the tempting offer of the king of Sodom. The second battle was the greater, because it was the more subtle of the two. Abram’s fellowship with the king of Salem strengthened him to resist the temptations of the king of Sodom. In these two encounters we find Abram honoring God and holding to Him, not yielding to the temptations of success.

Melchizedek, the king of Salem, is one of the most intriguing men in the Bible. He seems to come out of nowhere and returns about as quickly as he came. He was the king of what later became Jerusalem. He brought out bread and wine to refresh the weary warriors. And “he was a priest of God Most High” (Hebrew = “El Elyon,” v. 18). This is the first mention in the Bible of anyone being a priest. We don’t know to whom he was a priest or how he became one or how he learned of God. We don’t even know his name, since Melchizedek is probably a title. It means “king of righteousness.” Some have speculated that he was an angel or even a preincarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, but those views are not likely.

We do know, from Psalm 110 and from the Book of Hebrews (the only other places in the Bible Melchizedek is mentioned) that he was a type of Jesus Christ, who became a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. We also know that even though Abram was one of the greatest men of faith in the Bible, Melchizedek was even greater. This is proved by the fact that he blessed Abram (“the lesser is blessed by the greater,” Heb. 7:7) and he received tithes from Abram (Heb. 7:1-10). Abram humbly accepted Melchizedek’s blessing and offered him a tenth of the spoils. From Abram’s encounters with Melchizedek and with the king of Sodom, we learn two things about humble faith:

A. Humble faith honors God.

Melchizedek attributed Abram’s victory to God Most High (14:20). Abram didn’t say, “Now wait a minute! God helps those who help themselves. Let’s give credit where credit is due.” Rather, he affirmed Melchizedek’s statement by giving him a tenth of the spoils. Both men were honoring God publicly for this great victory.

Next Abram honors God before the king of Sodom, who offers Abram a deal. Abram can take the rest of the spoils, but the king wants his people back. But Abram refuses to take anything, lest the king of Sodom could say, “I have made Abram rich” (14:23). Abram was guarding God’s honor. God had promised to prosper Abram, and he didn’t want the king of Sodom taking credit for God’s work. If the world can take credit for part of the believer’s success, then God is robbed of His glory. So even though Abram could have rationalized that this was God’s means of blessing him, he didn’t do it. He wouldn’t equate Sodom’s goods with God’s blessing. Humble faith honors God when there are spiritual victories.

B. Humble faith holds to God and resists the temptations of success.

The test of how we handle success is usually greater than how we deal with crisis. According to Ezekiel 16:49, Sodom was very rich. So when the king of Sodom offered Abram the spoils of battle, which consisted of all the wealth of Sodom, it was no small prize. Abram could have become fabulously wealthy by accepting this offer.

If you put yourself in Lot’s sandals, this was an ironic turn of events. He had picked the best land for himself and left Abram the barren land of Canaan. He went for the money and ended up being taken captive and losing all he had. Abram had opted to trust God, and now he is given the opportunity to have not only all of Lot’s possessions, but all the possessions of the whole city of Sodom! Can you imagine how shocked Lot would have been, who sought the riches of Sodom, to watch as Abram was offered all those riches? But he must have been even more shocked when Abram refused them! He probably thought old uncle Abram had slipped into senility!

But Abram wasn’t senile. He knew God as “the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth” (14:22), who will give him what has been promised without the world’s help. Abram had thought this through beforehand in the presence of God, and had decided that he wouldn’t take anything from the spoils so that he wouldn’t be indebted to the king of Sodom. In other words, it was a settled decision on Abram’s part not to be in bondage to things, but to trust God to provide according to His promises. Convictions like that are the sort of thing you need to work out before you face temptation. If you make up your convictions as you go, you’ll be destroyed by the temptations of success. But if you determine up front to hold to God by faith, you’re more likely to be able to resist those temptations.

Note one other thing: Abram held his convictions for himself, but he didn’t force them on others who weren’t yet where he was at. He told the king of Sodom to give his men who went with him their share of the booty (14:24). These men were on Abram’s side and they were probably learning about Abram’s God. But they weren’t at Abram’s level of conviction concerning the spoils of battle. If Abram had forced his convictions on them, they would have gone away grumbling, and it would have been a barrier to their later coming to the same point of faith as Abram had come to.

Conclusion

Genesis 14 is an illustration of Galatians 6:1. Verses 1-12 illustrate, “Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass”; verses 13-16 illustrate, “you who are spiritual, restore such a one”; and verses 17-24 shed light on, “in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

When asked why Congress doesn’t decrease deficit spending, Senator Strom Thurmond explained, “It’s awfully hard to get a hog to butcher itself.” That’s why we need one another in the body of Christ. We need to learn from Abram and exercise bold, yet humble, faith in the ministry of restoring our brothers and sisters who have been taken captive by sin. We are our brother’s keeper!

Discussion Questions

What are some guidelines for determining whether to talk to someone about their sin or to let it go for a while?
Do you agree that most Christians are too passive in confronting sin? How can we grow in godly boldness?
What are some barriers or excuses which keep us from attempting to restore a sinning Christian? How can we overcome these?
How can we know if we are “spiritual” (Gal. 6:1)?

Related Topics: Faith, Fellowship, Leadership

Lesson 30: Making God’s Promises Yours (Genesis 15:1-6)

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Have you ever had the experience of doing something brave or of making a bold decision which later came back to haunt you? At the time you did it, you were strong. You thought you were acting in faith. But in the aftermath, you were gripped by fear as you thought about the possible repercussions. Sometimes I have taken a strong stand or spoken out boldly on some issue. But later, when criticism hits, I begin to worry and to second-guess my earlier boldness.

Maybe you’ve gone through something similar. You were challenged to step out in faith and trust God for something. You gave up a choice financial or career opportunity because you wanted to serve the Lord. You gave a large sum of money to the Lord’s work. But then a financial crisis hit. You said no to that date with a good-looking non-Christian guy, only to sit home for weeks without any other dates. You started wondering, “Did I do the right thing?”

That’s where Abram was after the events of Genesis 14. His wayward nephew Lot, living in Sodom, was taken captive by four kings from the east. In a bold move, Abram led his trained men against these kings and staged a surprise attack by night, routing the army and recovering all the people and spoil. When he returned, he offered a tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek, the king of Salem, but refused to take his rightful share from the king of Sodom, lest that worldly man could boast that he had made Abram rich. Abram had given up fabulous wealth on the principle that God, who had promised to bless him, would meet his needs.

Then fear came knocking. One night as Abram lay awake in his tent, he was thinking about the fact that those kings from the east weren’t the sort of guys to take a humiliating defeat passively. Surely, they’d come looking for that puny shepherd who had taken them by surprise, and when they found him, they’d wipe him out. He shouldn’t have rescued Lot. Now he couldn’t shake his fear.

And not only that, but Abram wondered whether he had done the right thing to refuse the spoils of Sodom. Sarai was complaining that they never had any spending money and she could use a new coat. Besides, that no good nephew Lot got all of his things back, things which rightly could have been Abram’s now. Abram lay there in the dark, wondering whether he should have taken the spoil of Sodom for himself, thinking, “I risked everything for that ungrateful, selfish nephew of mine, and what do I have to show for it? Nothing!” Fear and worry!

You’ve been there, haven’t you? You did the right thing, but you didn’t prosper. Another person did the wrong thing, and he’s having a great time. Meanwhile, you’re wondering whether you might get wiped out because you did what was right.

What do you need at a time like that? The answer is, you need to trust in the Lord. The Lord has promised His blessings to those who trust in Him. God’s blessings don’t always come to us the moment we think they should. Some are delayed for months or years. Some don’t even come to us in this life. But He wants us to go on trusting Him. He is faithful to His promises in His time.

You make God’s promised blessings yours by trusting Him.

One night as Abram was wrestling with his fears, the word of the Lord came to him in a vision. We don’t know exactly what that vision entailed. Perhaps as Abram thought of the shields of the warriors and of the spoils of the battle, God spoke to him and said, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your very great reward” (NASB margin).

No doubt Abram was comforted by these words, and yet there remained a void in his heart. God had previously promised to give him a son and to multiply his descendants as the dust of the earth. But he had been in the land nearly ten years now (16:3), but he still had no son. Sarai wasn’t getting any younger. And so out of confusion, not in defiance, Abram asks God about His promise of a son: “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?... Since You have given no seed [lit.] to me, one born in my house is my heir.” These two verses repeat themselves, but they show realistically the words of a man who is confused about God’s delay in fulfilling His promises.

The Lord graciously clarifies the previous promises by stating that Abram’s servant would not be his heir, but, rather, one who came forth from his body. The Lord made the lesson vivid by taking Abram outside, showing him the stars, and saying, “So shall your descendants be.” Abram’s response was to believe “in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (15:6). This crucial verse shows us that even at this early time, justification (right standing with God) was by faith. The apostle Paul expounded on this verse twice (Romans 4 & Galatians 3), to argue that we are saved by faith apart from any works. It shows us that trusting in the Lord is the means of obtaining His promised blessings.

Trusting in the Lord has gotten terrible press in Christian circles in the last few years. We’ve bought into the view that when a person is hurting or fearful or depressed or guilty, the most useless thing you can tell him is, “Trust in the Lord.” Instead we try to help him get in tune with his feelings and accept himself. We try not to be judgmental or offer any advice, but rather to empathize with him. But tell him to trust in the Lord? You’ve got to be kidding! How impractical!

I’d like to get radical and suggest that when you’re experiencing distressing emotions, the most practical thing you can do is to trust in the Lord. How we ever got away from this is beyond me. From cover to cover the Bible proclaims the blessings that come to the person who trusts in the Lord. It is the solution to our problems. Rather than shrugging it off as useless advice, we need to learn what it means to trust the Lord in all the distressing ups and downs of life.

1. Trust must be in the Lord.

Abram “believed in the Lord.” There’s a phony kind of faith in faith itself, where faith is given some magical power in and of itself, apart from its object: “I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows....” The false teachers of the “health and wealth gospel” tell us, “Just speak the word of faith and whatever you speak will be accomplished.” But that’s presumption, not faith. Biblical faith is always in God who has revealed Himself in His Word. It is not vague; it is specific, based on His Word.

And biblical faith is not an uncertain wish that says, “I sure hope it’s true, so I’m going to take a blind leap in the dark.” The essence of the Hebrew word (used here for the first time in the Bible) is firmness or certainty. In another Hebrew verb stem (roughly like our verb tense), the word has the idea of the strong arms of a parent supporting an infant. In Genesis 15:6, it means that Abram relied on the Lord and His word as true and certain.

This trust must be both personal and propositional. That is, it must be both in the personal God and in His Word.

A. Trust personally in the personal God.

Abram trusted in the Lord, in Yahweh, the personal, covenant God. In verse 2 (and v. 8), Abram addresses God as Adonai Yahweh. This is the first recorded time Abram speaks to God. Apart from here, the title occurs only two other times in the Pentateuch (Deut. 3:24; 9:26; see also, Exod. 23:17; 34:23). Adonai means Lord, Master, or Sovereign. It points to God’s absolute right to rule. So even though Abram is confused and asking God to clear up matters for him, he is asking submissively, not defiantly.

There are two ways you can ask God for things. You can ask defiantly, shaking your fist in God’s face, demanding, “Why are You letting this trial happen to me?” You’re challenging God’s authority to deal with you as He pleases. That kind of asking is always wrong. I’m greatly bothered when I hear of Christian psychologists telling their counselees to get out their rage at God. You don’t rage at the Sovereign Lord of the universe! You submit to Him!

But you can come to God as Abram did here, submissive, but confused. In this approach, you’re saying, “Lord, I don’t understand why things are going as they are. If You would reveal Your purposes to me so that I could more fully obey You, I would be thankful. But if not, I’ll trust You, even though I don’t understand.” Often the Lord will grant the wisdom we need to endure the trial, if we ask with that kind of submissive spirit (James 1:2-5). We can’t trust God if we aren’t submitting to Him as our Sovereign Lord.

There’s a very personal flavor to these verses, as God comes to Abram in his time of fear, assures him, and then in response to Abram’s confusion, takes him out into the night to look at the stars to give further confirmation of His promise. You’ll recall that when Abram was left with the dusty, famine-stricken land of Canaan after Lot chose the lush land near Sodom, the Lord told Abram that his descendants would be as the dust of the ground. Here, as Abram is afraid of retaliation in the night, God takes him out into the night and reassures him with the stars. God was personally tailoring this experience to meet Abram at his point of need. Abram’s response was to believe God.

Do you have that kind of personal trust in the personal God who created the universe? Even though He spoke into existence the billions of galaxies each with billions of stars, He cares about you to the extent that the very hairs of your head are numbered. When you’re fearful or anxious you can go personally to Him and tell Him your problems and know that He cares for you. It is personal trust in the personal God.

B. Trust personally in the personal God’s promises.

God has revealed Himself propositionally, that is, in the words of Scripture. While God spoke verbally to Abram, He has revealed Himself to us in the inspired words of the Bible. This is the first time in the Bible the phrase, “the word of the Lord came to” someone occurs (15:1, 4). It occurs often after this, especially with the prophets. We have the word of the Lord preserved in the Bible. Trust involves not only believing in the Lord, but also in the things He has revealed in His Word. In other words, trust isn’t a subjective feeling; it is a cognitive reliance on the objective promises of God as revealed in His Word.

The question comes up, What did Abram believe on this occasion? We know that he had believed God previously, when he left Ur and set out for Canaan (Heb. 11:8). Thus Abram was already what we would call a saved man before this experience. So why does Moses mention here that Abram believed God and that God reckoned it to him as righteousness?

Martin Luther said that Abram was justified by faith long before this time, but that it is first recorded in this context in a connection where the Savior is definitely involved in order that none might venture to dissociate justification from the Savior (cited in H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis [Baker], 1:479). John Calvin thought that it is mentioned here, long after Abram was first justified, to prove that justification does not just begin by faith, only to be perfected later by works. Rather, justification is by faith alone, apart from works, from start to finish (Calvin’s Commentaries [Baker], 1:408-409).

What Abram believed on this occasion is the specific word of the Lord concerning a son (seed) which would come forth from his body. Abram knew that through this seed, blessing would come to all the families of the earth (12:3). As Paul argues in Galatians, the word seed is singular, not plural, thus pointing not to all of Abram’s descendants, but to the one descendant of Abram, Christ (Gal. 3:16). So when Abram believed in the Lord, what he believed specifically was the promise that a Savior for the world would come forth from his descendants.

You may wonder, how much did Abram know about Jesus Christ, who would be born 2,000 years later? He knew more than we may assume! Jesus Himself said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Paul said that the gospel was preached beforehand to Abram when God promised, “All the nations shall be blessed in you” (Gal. 3:8). Though he didn’t know Jesus’ name and he had no visible evidence other than God’s verbal promise, Abram looked forward in faith to God’s Redeemer and thus it is recorded here that God reckoned it to him as righteousness.

It’s that kind of personal trust in His promises about the Savior that God wants from you and me. The Christian life is not using God to obtain happiness and good feelings in this life; it is trusting God and His promises concerning the life to come. It concerns the question, “How can a sinful person like me be right with a holy God?” When we settle that question by trusting God’s Word concerning Christ, He graciously provides many other promises which help us in this present life. But you must begin by trusting in Jesus as your only hope for right standing with God. Our trust must be in God and His Word. What do we get when we join Abram in trusting in the Lord?

2. Trust obtains God’s promised blessings.

Trust is the channel through which God pours out His blessings on His people. There are two types of blessings which Abram realized, which we also will realize as we trust in the Lord.

A. God gives us Himself to calm us in life’s storms.

I prefer the translation of the NASB margin, which reads, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your very great reward.” That is, God Himself was Abram’s shield and reward. F. B. Meyer wrote, “To have God is to have all, though bereft of everything. To be destitute of God is to be bereft of everything, though having all” (Abraham [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 63).

Isn’t that true! You can gain everything this world offers, but if you don’t have God, you don’t have anything. This very night He can say to you, “Your soul is required of you,” and then where is all that you’ve gained? Or you can be a nobody by this world’s standards, but if you’ve got Christ, as Paul said, you possess all things (2 Cor. 6:10).

It’s significant that God revealed Himself to Abram at times of crisis. When he left his home and set out for the uncertainties of Canaan, God promised to bless him and make him a great nation (12:1-3). When Abram got to Canaan and we read that threatening parenthesis, “Now the Canaanite was then in the land,” the very next verse tells us that the Lord appeared to Abram and promised to give him that land (12:6-7). After Lot selfishly took the best land and left Abram in famine-stricken Canaan, God renewed and expanded on His promise to give Abram the land and to multiply his offspring (13:14--17). And so now, as Abram wrestled with the fear of retaliation, God said, “I am a shield to you.” As he worried about poverty after refusing the spoils of Sodom, God reassuringly said, “I am your very great reward.” You never lose anything when you give up something to follow the Lord.

Donald Barnhouse observes, “God’s method of supplying our need is to give us fresh knowledge of Himself, for every need can be met by seeing Him” (Genesis [Zondervan], 1:105). If you’re facing a crisis in your life, look in God’s Word for a fresh insight into who He is. Abram didn’t know God as his shield until he was afraid of retaliation from his enemies. He didn’t know God as his very great reward until he was worried about his financial condition.

Are you lonely? Look to Christ as your Bridegroom, Lover, and Friend! Are you depressed? Come to know the Lord as your joy! Are you fearful and anxious? He is your refuge and peace! Are you confused and need direction? He is your wisdom and guide! One reason He allows trials into our lives is so that as we trust Him, we will come to know more of His sufficiency for our every need. Contrary to being a useless thing, trusting in the Lord is the means by which His precious and magnificent promises become ours in experience (2 Pet. 1:3-5). He graciously reveals more of Himself to us as we trust Him in our trials. But there’s more:

B. God gives us His righteousness to qualify us for heaven.

When Abram believed God, God credited it to him as righteousness. Abram was justified or made right before God. This is one of the most important doctrines in the Bible, that God declares righteous the guilty sinner who trusts in Christ. It is the very core of the gospel. I plan to devote an entire message to this verse, but for now I can only be brief.

As Paul spells out in Romans 3 & 4, this verse means that God declares righteous the guilty sinner when that sinner does not trust in his own good works, but rather when he trusts the perfect obedience and the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ on his behalf. “Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom. 4:4-5).

A commanding officer of a military base issued an order that no one could come on base who was not in uniform. The next morning, a general in civilian clothes drove up to the main gate, but the sentry stopped him from entering. “What’s the reason for this?” he bellowed. “Let me in. Don’t you know who I am?” “I certainly do, sir,” the guard replied, “but I must follow orders. I have been told not to let anyone pass who is not in uniform.”

If you think you will be admitted to heaven because of anything in yourself, you are in for a rude awakening. The only uniform that will gain entrance to heaven is the robe of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, credited to your account. God is pleased to give this blessing apart from any human merit when a guilty sinner believes in Christ.

Conclusion

During World War II the King of England ordered an evacuation of children from the bomb-torn areas in London. Since many of the children had never been away from home before, they were quite nervous and upset. A mother and father had just put their young son and daughter aboard a crowded train and said good-by. No sooner had it left the station than the little girl began to cry. She told her brother she was scared because she didn’t know where they were going. Brushing his own tears away, he put his arm around his sister to comfort her. “I don’t know where we’re going either,” he said, “but the King knows, so don’t worry!” (“Our Daily Bread,” 8/77.)

Perhaps you’re fearful or worried about some problem you’re facing. God is not just Abram’s shield and great reward; He will be that to you also. You may not know where you’re going, but God knows. Trusting in Him is the means of bringing His promised blessings down into your daily problems. It is the most practical thing you can do, because it links you with the all-sufficient Sovereign Lord.

Discussion Questions

Is “trusting in the Lord” impractical advice when it comes to dealing with tough problems? Why/why not?
How can a person learn practically to trust in the Lord?
How can we know whether particular promises of God apply to us today so that we can rightfully claim them by faith?
What’s the difference between “using God” for personal happiness and trusting God’s promises in the proper sense?

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Lesson 22: The Roots of the Nations (Genesis 10:1-32)

1. People are quick to forget the one true God.

2. People are quick to forget the oneness of the human race.

3. God wants all people to hear of His one means of salvation.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Genesis PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 23: Man Versus God: God Wins (Genesis 11:1-9)

1. Men proudly set themselves against the sovereign God (11:1-4).

2. The Sovereign God always wins (11:5-9).

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Genesis PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 24: The God of History and You (Genesis 11:10-32)

1. God’s plan of salvation in history involves His choice.

A. God’s choice is according to grace, not merit.

B. God’s choice of a life is what matters.

2. God’s plan of salvation in history involves time.

A. God’s plan involves time with the nations.

B. God’s plan involves time with individuals.

3. God’s plan of salvation in history involves individuals.

A. God’s plan involved Abraham.

B. God’s plan involves you.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Genesis PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 25: Great Privilege, Great Responsibility (Genesis 12:1-3)

1. Our great privilege: God calls us to bless us.

A. God’s Call

B. God’s Blessings.

2. Our great responsibility: God calls us to make us a blessing to all the nations.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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Reversing Talionic Ethics: Personal Ethics for the Public Square (Matthew 5:38-42)

Introduction

The Nature Of The OT Law

Non-Retaliation: A Personal Ethic

Non-Retaliation: An Ethic For The Public Square

Jesus’ Example Of Non-Retaliation In The Public Square

Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26

Matthew 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-50; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:1-11

Matthew 26:57-67; Mark 14:53-65

Matthew 27; Luke 23:34

John 19:23-24

Conclusion

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Lesson 26: Obedient Faith (Genesis 12:4-9)

1. Obedient faith hears God’s Word.

2. Obedient faith acts on God’s Word.

A. Obedient faith means living as pilgrims.

B. Obedient faith means living as worshipers and witnesses.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Genesis PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 27: Faithless Man, Faithful God (Genesis 12:10-13:4)

1.God’s people are often faithless, especially during trials (12:10-16).

2. In spite of our failures, God is always faithful (12:17-20).

3. God’s faithfulness should lead us to repentance and restoration (13:1-4).

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Genesis PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 28: Choices, Consequences (Genesis 13:5-18)

1. Choices often result in eternally significant consequences.

2. We must choose in line with God’s principles.

A. Make choices which value relationships over rights.

B. Make choices which value godliness over greed.

C. Make choices which value fellowship with God over the approval of the world.

D. Make choices which value God’s eternal promises over immediate pleasure.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Genesis PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE