Genesis 15

So this week's study is on Genesis 15, one of the chapter's in scripture that gives pretty much a low down on the whole bible, so YOU DON'T WANNA MISS THIS!!

So context, Abraham has just flippin DESTROYED the 5 kings who kidnapped Lot, then got blessed by the High Priest Malchizedek, and rejected Sodom's offer, for they were an evil nation and Abram did not wish to depend on kings and their gifts, but on God. So from here you can see how Abram would have been feeling, he rejected all these gifts and is choosing to rely on God, but still has no son for his promise.

This is where we come in, here is the chapter so you guys can read it for yourselves:

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Now, as we know the author of this chapter, this whole book and the whole Pentateuch (first five books of the bible) is generally held to be Moses, writing to the Israelites as they wander around the desert. It would probably not be a coincidence then that Moses writes about the faith of Abraham so much (as the Israelites really bombed out in that area).

Ok, so you can see how Abram could have done with some encouragement in this chapter, as the chapter before he refused to take an offering from the king of Sodom in order to show his faith in God. It would have been perfectly fine for God to not encourage him and test his faith further, but He simply chose to let Abram know his faith was not misplaced.

So God encourages Abram, and then Abram lets loose. He tells God of his fear of leaving all he has to this dude Eliezer, which would therefore make everything God has done for Abram pointless in Abram's eyes (cos you know, not like God has a plan or anything). But God still encourages him, telling him again that he will have a son, and that they will be as numerous as the stars. Why did God wait for Abram to ask to encourage him, and why encourage him at all? It probably has something to do with verse 6; God brings Abram back to that place of faith. A person's faith (or lack of) can be shown clearly in times of crisis, like the years of childlessness Abram had currently gone through. Something important to note is that God is omniscient, so He would not have spoken to Abram to see if he has faith or not, but to cause him to have faith. This also shows that we do not have a works based salvation, but because of our faith (which He caused), not by anything we have done, are we counted as righteous.

God then decides to encourage Abram again, except this time specifically about the land he is going to possess (what could God be up to?). Abram again tells God of his fear that he does not know for sure (faith?) that he really will possess the land promised to him. Now God does something really weird... why does Abram need to get all these animals and cut them in half? And why not the birds? Well simply, these animals are used in rituals later for Israel, and when sacrificing birds, they are not to be cut in half (lev 1:17). Many believe that the birds of prey in verse 11 resemble Israel's enemies, and the torch and the fire pot and flaming torch in verse 17 to mean God's presence. Abram then goes to sleep and is told a prophecy about what the Israelites were currently going through!! Coincidence? I think not!!

Now, God makes a covenant with Abram by getting the torch and fire pot to pass through the animal carcasses. The covenant is that Abram's offspring will posses the land, and by using both offspring and land, this unconditional promise links to the earlier conditional promise of Abram becoming a great nation. So why did God say all this to Abram? Most likely to change the conditional promise to an unconditional one, which is kind of oddly similar to what Jesus did on the cross. When Jesus died, not only has He made it clear that faith in Him is all that is needed to be counted as righteous, by abolished the law, He has made it so that our salvation is not based on conditional sacrifices needed to be made, but one unconditional sacrifice made in unconditional love that is available to all men.

God bless all of you!

Genesis 12

We're starting with the life of Abraham in our weekly bible readings. If you guys want an idea of what happened in Genesis 11, so you understand a bit of the background then check out our summary of it here.

Again here's the text so you can read it for yourself:

The Call of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Abram and Sarai in Egypt

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. 16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

So to start off its always important to lay down the context for the chapter, otherwise we could probably twist the passage to justify racism if we tried hard enough.

The author of this passage is commonly held to be Moses who is assumed to be the author of the entire Pentateuch. He's writing this history of the patriarchs for Israel, who he has led out of slavery from Egypt and with whom he's currently wandering aimlessly in the desert with (...yeah, the Israelites thought it was messed up too).

And its not like they sipping drinks by the pool side. In fact, that wouldn't even make sense cos there was barely any water. This was a hard time for Israel. Most of them would not live to see the Promise Land and they would need to know that God has a purpose and a promise even through their punishment. This is the point of Genesis as a whole.

I'm gonna deal with the first half of this chapter first and then come to the wife swap situation later. Basically, God rocks up and is like "Abe, it's time to bail. I'll be in the car". Now this means leaving his fatherland, which was a big deal back then cos it was basically like leaving your identity behind and becoming a no one.

To do this requires FAITH (and a fear of being crushed by the omnipotent being who just tore your roof off and commanded you to do something) and its this type of faith that gets Abe credit in Hebrews 11:8. This reminds me of the fact that without faith its impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) and also anything that does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). You would do well to think about this for a bit.

Upon commanding Abe (can I call him Abe? I feel like were close enough) to leave his home, God gives him this stunning blessing:
"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Hopefully, you can see this is a clear reference to the future Christ who will come through Abe's seed. Notice how God says "in you" and not "through you". Paul later states that all believers in Christ are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). It would seem as if it works both ways.

IN Abraham is almost synonymous with being IN Christ (his seed) and THIS is where the blessing lies. So for all those who think God broke His promise because not all the families of the world are blessed through Abraham, this blessing is for those in Christ only. And they are CRAZY blessed.

Let's move onto Abe's issue in Egypt. On the surface it just seems like a nice story with the basic moral being: trust God and He'll get you through trials.

And it is.

But I think there's something else here. Notice the contrast between the first part of this chapter and the second part.
In the first part we see Abram displaying great faith, leaving everything he has in Haran to follow the call of God and setting up altars where ever he goes in worship of God.

THEN, we see Abram set up a huge lie to protect himself (while neglecting the sanctity of his wife, mind you) all because he had no FAITH in God. See the contrast?

So what does this passage say as a whole?
Well, it seems quite clear that in regards to man, he is fickle and changes like the weather (and by that I mean Melbourne weather). One minute he might be a man who displays such great faith that he goes down in history for it and the next minute he's telling his wife that he's cool with another dude having his way with her as long as he gets to live. Nice. I guess the moral there is, don't trust Man.

But I think the more important question is what does this passage say about God?
Well, lets look and see...from verse 17:

"But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had."

We see that even though Abe was inconsistent, God remained faithful to his promise (Romans 3:3-4). He wasn't about to let some Egyptian mess around with Abram's wife and compromise Abe's seed.

Take note; our God is a faithful God.
As much as the bible, and Genesis specifically, is about the depravity of Man, it is also about the faithfulness of God to His promise that he made from the beginning.
(Genesis 3:15)

Key thoughts:
Are YOU living by faith?
Are you trying to please God with your works or with your faith in Jesus Christ?
Jesus said if you love Him, you will obey Him. You may be genuinely doing what you think to be God's will but you might be totally off and actually in sin.
It's God's will for us to read His word and obey Him by faith, just like Abraham did.
At the same time, recognise that although you're unfaithfulness is practically guaranteed, God will always remain faithful to you if you are His chosen people.

May that knowledge lead us to worship.

Peace

Mass Bird and Fish Death

So yeah, I'm a little slow on the update, 7 days after the happening has probably caused a loss of weirdness to the mass of the birds and fish dying all around the world. But what has been quoted several times on the internet has been Zephaniah 1:2-3 and Hosea 4:1-3.

""I will utterly sweep away everything

from the face of the earth," declares the LORD.

"I will sweep away man and beast;

I will sweep away the birds of the heavens

and the fish of the sea,

and the rubble with the wicked.

I will cut off mankind

from the face of the earth," declares the LORD."

Zepheniah 1:2-3.

"Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel,

for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,

and no knowledge of God in the land;

there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;

they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore the land mourns,

and all who dwell in it languish,

and also the beasts of the field

and the birds of the heavens,

and even the fish of the sea are taken away."

Hosea 4:1-3.

Now, don't get me wrong, this is strange and I bet there are some 2012 cults going crazy right, but what does this really mean for us? Should we automatically assume the apocalypse?

The pretty crazy part of this whole event is that it's not just in one place, but all around the world, and the events seem to not be connected. Even if every one of these events can be explained and are shown to not be divine, we know that God is sovereign over all things and is the one who causes all things to happen. Who says that just because something can be explained that it cannot be divine? This is an act of God, EVERYTHING is an act of God, but what does it mean for us?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 talks about how the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night (v. 2). It goes on to say how we should not be surprised because we are not in darkness (v. 4), but should rather be awake and sober (v. 6) in faith, hope and love (v. 8), and to continue encouraging and building one another up (v. 11). We, as Christians, should ALWAYS be aware of the coming doom that every man will see. The very purpose of Revelations is to scare us, for us to understand that we do not have forever. John, in 1 John 2:18 calls it "the last hour", and I think he knew that the earth may not have been in the last hour, but is telling us to live like Jesus could come back at any second. I mean, even if Jesus doesn't come back, it doesn't take much for us to meet our last hour!

How do we look at an event like this? It should be a reminder of what is coming so that we get off of our lazy buts and get to work to save as many as possible right now!

Francis Chan: Just Stop And Think

This is a cool video by Francis Chan, I just love how much this guy awes at God.

Animator vs. Animation

EPIC COMEDY! HAHAHAHAHA!
An absolute A+, must watch.

Cheers.

Graphic Violence

So apart from the fact that I spent most of the video wondering why it was given such a title (and then having a lightbulb moment at the end of it), this was a crazy creative video...



Peace

Romancer

Left my fear by the side of the road. Hear You speak and won't let go. Fall to my knees as I lift my hands to pray. Got every reason to be here again. Father's love that draws me in. All my eyes wanna see is a glimpse of You...


...You hold the universe.
You hold every one of us.
- (Hillsong)

I am standing on the shore, digging my toes into the velvet sheet of sand beneath my skin, gazing at the thunderous, majestic waves roaring before me. Boundless, beautiful and beaming of Him. In and out, the ebbing waves never sleep, ushering to the shore ripples and splutters of foam, daring towards me like a million white galloping stallions.

Everywhere I look, the beauty of His handiwork bellows out His love for us. He's been pursuing us all along. Romancing us with overarching sunsets, shooting stars, glimmering seas and towering mountains. Nature cries out His royal architecture. We are encompassed and sealed by an out pour of the transcendent affection He lavishes us with.

Who are we, for Him to even notice us? I cannot fathom it.

Jesus, the Creator of this universe, pursues us.

Satisfy

Theological Analogy of the Day

Imagine a new alternative band suddenly steps on the scene. Hypothetically, let’s say that they are objectively the best band on the planet. And their opening concert is the best concert performed…EVER. Their performance receives no critical reviews; EVERYONE is a fan. They’re just, well, the best band ever.

However, after this performance, the band members themselves receive no attention.

No interviews.

No signings.

No record deal.

Nothing.

Instead, the world has fallen in love with the band’s instruments.

Teens put up posters of the guitar used. Fans pass out when they catch a glimpse of the drum set. Children dream about being just like the keyboard when they grow up.

And even more than that the band members themselves are completely ignored and even hated by some. People can’t stand the sight of them and want nothing to do with them unless, of course, it involved some sort of abuse.

Sounds ludicrous, huh? I mean, the people must be crazy! The instruments have no intrinsic value. They were merely tools that only presented any worth when in the hands of the musicians. It was the band members who should be praised! It was the people behind the instruments that should get the glory! What kind of sick/weird/messed up society would react in such a way?

Good question.

Romans 1:24-25

"Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonoured among them.

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

Peace