Mid-Advent
1
Gen
12:1-8
12/6/23
St.
Paul told the Romans, “For whatever was written in former days was written
for our instruction, that through endurance and through the
encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The Scriptures have been given to us by God
in order to instruct us. They teach us
to walk in endurance and to receive encouragement so that we may have hope.
Tonight
we focus on what Scripture teaches us about Abraham, and specifically about the
waiting that was present in his life.
Abraham’s life was filled with waiting as he continued to have faith in
God’s promise. We find in Abraham a
model for our life as we must wait. And
this Advent season reminds us that we wait on the basis of the promise that God
has already fulfilled.
God
called Abraham when he was living in Haran – what is today southeastern
Turkey. We learn in our text that God
called Abraham – then known as Abram – by saying, “Go from your country and
your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.” Yahweh told Abraham to leave everything that
mattered to him and to go to a land he would show him.
Now we need to recognize that prior to this
Abraham did not know God. We read in
Joshua: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Long ago, your fathers
lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor;
and they served other gods.” Like his father, Abraham served other gods.
Yet in God’s grace he called Abraham to himself
with the promise, “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. 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.” God promised to bless
Abraham, and he promised that in Abraham all nations would be blessed.
Abraham listened to God. He believed. He left with
Sarah his wife, and Lot his nephew and went to the land of Canaan. We learn in our text that there God appeared
to him and said, “To
your offspring I will give this land.”
God had promised to make Abraham great. He had promised him an offspring. He had
promised that in Abraham all peoples would be blessed. This was a lot to take in since Abraham was
already seventy five years old when God called him, and he and Sarah had no
child. Yet he believed God’s word. He believed the God who had called him.
Abraham waited. He waited. And nothing
happened. He and Sarah remained with no
child. Rather than giving him a son, God
kept giving him promises. On one
occasion God took Abraham 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.” We learn that Abraham
believed the Lord and God counted it to him as righteousness.
Abraham waited.
He waited for twenty five years without receiving an heir. St. Paul tells us that during this time Abraham
continued to believe. The apostle says,
“In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many
nations, as he had been told, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ He did not
weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead
(since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the
barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise
of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully
convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
Abraham waited in faith. Sometimes we find it hard to do this. We find ourselves waiting to see in what
direction God is going to lead our life.
We wait to see what our future will be, and we get frustrated. We grow impatient with God because things
aren’t happening in the way we want or aren’t happening as fast as we want.
Abraham waited in faith for twenty five years. And then God fulfilled his promise. Even though Sarah was too old to have a
child, God demonstrated that nothing is impossible for him. Sarah gave birth to Isaac as God provided an
heir.
Yet God wasn’t done fulfilling his promise. He had told Abraham that in his offspring all
nations would be blessed. He had
promised that the blessings of salvation would come through this One. The Old Testament is the story of how God
worked out this promise over time. God
gave numerous descendants to Abraham and among them he continued to designate
individuals who were the bearers of his promise. He gave Jacob, and Judah, and David. In each instance he narrowed the focus of who
this One would be – this One in whom all nations would be blessed.
During Advent we prepare to celebrate the fact that God
fulfilled his promise to Abraham. Matthew
begins his Gospel by saying, “The
book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of
Abraham.” David descended from
Abraham. God promised that he would
establish David’s kingdom forever. He spoke through Isaiah about the One who
would reign over David’s kingdom as he said, “For to us a child is born, to
us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
God’s people had to wait. It was seven hundred years from the time of
Isaiah until the first century A.D. when the virgin Mary became pregnant.
Betrothed to Joseph, an angel announced to him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as
your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will
bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his
people from their sins.”
Joseph learned that Mary had not been
unfaithful. Instead, the child in her
womb was the means by which God would bring forgiveness and salvation. Joseph took the child as his own and so
included Jesus in the line of David. Because of Joseph, Jesus was born as the
One who was the son of David.
Jesus the Christ was the fulfillment of God’s promise
to Abraham. St Paul tells us, “Now the
promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And
to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your
offspring,’ who is Christ.” Jesus
came to bring blessing to all families of the earth by redeeming us. He freed us from sin by means of his death on
the cross and resurrection from the dead.
Like Abraham, our life often involves waiting. We too are called to wait in faith. We believe and trust in God’s promise of love
and care. But we wait as those who have seen more. We wait as those who have seen God fulfill
his promise to Abraham in Jesus Christ.
We know that God sent his Son into the world as the son of Abraham and
the son of David. We live knowing that
our sins have been forgiven and our future secured by his resurrection. We wait by faith in Jesus Christ.
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