Hebrews 11 – Abraham
Readings for this week April 26 - 30
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Day 1 – Looking Forward
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Hebrews 11:8-10
What we look forward to shapes how we act. The future we believe in, that we work for, and that we seek, will influence how we behave now as we move towards it. This is something we see very clearly in the life of Abraham, and something that the writer of Hebrews highlights right here. Everything Abraham did - leaving home, going to a new land, making a new home, finding a wife, and so on – was done because “he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” The future goal, the promise made to him by God, the vision he was called to pursue, determined Abraham’s behaviour. His faith in God stemmed from his belief in God’s character and in God’s promise. Abraham’s obedient actions stemmed from his desire to help bring these promises about.
What we are looking forward to will determine our actions. If we want fame and fortune in life, our actions will be those of someone chasing such glory and riches. If we are looking forward to eventual escape and solitude, that will be seen in how we live. So, how are we living now? What is controlling our actions: selfish desire for money and fame, or the justice and mercy promised as part of the unrolling of God’s kingdom across the world? Do our current behaviours testify to the lordship of Christ over our lives, and our acknowledgement of his ultimate lordship over all creation? What are we hoping for? How do our lives show the reality of this hope to others? Abraham’s faith in God’s promised future was his motivation; is it yours?
Question to Consider
What motivates you? What is your hope for the future? How would someone looking at your life know that this was your hope?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me live a life that shows I am looking forward to the day Jesus returns. Help me live in the power of your kingdom of mercy, justice, compassion and love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – The Faithfulness of God
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Genesis 12:1-3
Right back in the beginning, in the book of Genesis, when God called Abram, we read about God’s reason for doing so: God promised to bless Abram so that, in turn, he would be a blessing to others. Right from the beginning what God was doing through Abram was not just for Abram but for everyone. The blessing was to be passed on, so that its impact could expand to more and more people. The process of blessing that God starts is one that is meant to continue. He kicks it off and ensures that it carries on by calling us to participate in it. God blesses us and so we bless God. And that which we have received, we pass on. Abram’s faithfulness was to be a vehicle for God’s faithfulness. The theory is that the more the people of God experience God’s faithfulness and blessing, the better they themselves will get at being faithful and blessing others.
One of the best things about this life of blessing that God invites us into is that “we don’t have to wait until we get to the end of the road to enjoy what is at the end of the road”. (Eugene Peterson). The eternity of perfect love and fellowship with God and each other has, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, travelled back down the road to meet us, to empower us, to give us a foretaste of life in the fullness of God’s eternal kingdom. The blessing and hope that God gave Abram and that inspired him to move is also the blessing and hope that God places before us so that we too can bless others with this same hope and blessing.
Question to Consider
Why do blessings need to be shared? How is your faithfulness a vehicle for revealing God’s faithfulness to others?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for meeting us on the way, for travelling with us as we go, and for revealing yourself to us. May you be revealed to others through us in all that we do and say. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – The Promise
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Genesis 17:1-22
It had been 25 years since God had promised to give Abram a son through his wife Sarai, and 13 years since the last recorded word from God to him. It is understandable if Abram had thought that God might have forgotten his promise, or perhaps even gone back on his word without telling anyone. But God immediately reminds Abram of the promise and reaffirms it in explicit detail, even going so far as to change his name from Abram (father of many) to Abraham (father of many nations) – Abraham will from now on carry the promise of God in his very name, an interesting change for a man who so far has had only one son, in unfortunate circumstances and not through his wife Sarai (who also gets a name change). God does not forget, nor does he renege; if anything, he doubles down and expands on what he had said.
I think we can understand the newly christened Abraham’s incredulity. The promise seems so outrageous, so unbelievable, so impossible that laughter seems the only appropriate response. And it is easy for us to smile and shake our heads at his response; after all, we know the result already. But here we meet God the Promise Maker in action, and what we see is a God for whom nothing is impossible, for whom no miracle is out of reach, for whom there is no blessing that cannot be bestowed. God called Abraham in order to initiate his plan to rescue the world, and furthermore there is nothing God cannot do, nothing he cannot offer to his called and chosen people, in order to fulfil his intentions for creation.
Question to Consider
Which of God's promises do you regularly remember? Why? How do these promises impact your daily life?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you for your promises – the general and the specific – and for your faithfulness to us and to your purposes for creation. Help me trust you more and live in your promises more each day. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – What Kind of Love is This?
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Genesis 22:1-10
Three days it took them to get to where they were going. Three days travelling together for no reason that Isaac would yet be aware of. What would be going through Abraham’s mind during these three days? What would he be thinking? What sort of internal dialogue would he be having with himself – or with the God who had commanded him to sacrifice his child? The faithful promises of God made all those years ago, which came to fruition in the person of his son, suddenly seem shaky, less tangible, and in danger. Why has he been asked to do this? Why would God make such a big deal out of the promise of a child and the generations that would follow, only to now appear to be reneging on the deal, and in the most painful manner possible?
God commands; Abraham obeys. The text is clear – and brief. No period of discernment required apparently. No questions from Abraham, no pleading, no bargaining as he did over the lives of those in Sodom and Gomorrah – and as I no doubt would do myself if I was in the same situation. Abraham is told to sacrifice his child; he sets off to do so. We don’t know the details of Abraham’s internal state during the journey through the wilderness. But we do know that at the very least, God met him at his destination. God did not abandon him in his time of (we assume) struggle and turmoil. However dark and troubled the journey we might be on, whatever we are facing, whether it is his absence or his presence we are struggling with, God is still there, God still waits for us at the end of it with mercy and love.
Question to Consider
What hard journey are you on that you hope to meet God at the end of?
Prayer
Gracious God, be my comfort and my strength when the path becomes hard and I can’t see the way ahead – when I can’t see you and begin to wonder about your faithfulness. Be gentle and merciful with me. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – Testing Times
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Genesis 22:11-18
What is the most precious thing in your life? What is the thing that stands out to you as the sign of the promises of God, of his faithfulness, his love, and his desire to bless you and shower his affection on you? What reminds you of the sureness that your life is held in his hands and that he has plans for your life and to fully transform you into the person he desires you to be? And how would you feel if God asked you to let go of that thing - that person, object, dream, desire – and remove it from your life, wholly, completely, unalterably? What do we do when it seems like something God-given – something he has explicitly revealed to you as a promise of his love for you – is suddenly God-taken?
We are told that “God tested Abraham”, and that the result of Abraham’s passing the test was that God now knew that Abraham feared him because “you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Isaac was the answer and sign at the start of the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham that he would be a father of many nations, the origin of a multitude of descendants. Nothing in the text suggests Abraham believed the promise now fulfilled, or that Abraham was more concerned with his son than God’s gift of Isaac to him, or that this was the reason for God testing him, but that is no reason for us not to ask ourselves this very question: are we in danger of clinging to the sign and the promise more than to the Sign Giver and the Promise Keeper?
Question to Consider
When have God’s promises to you seemed under threat? Has the ‘God-given’ ever appeared ‘God-taken’? How did God respond to you?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, may I always see what you have given me and shown me and promised me as signs that point back to you. As good as your promises and blessings are, they are good because you are good. Amen.