2011 MAY Clothesline

Greetings to all on 17 May 2010

Word for the Day
Charis [Gk] - the root for charity, charismatic and grace.

Quote for the Day
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
John Newton

Website for the Day
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/07/29/audio-and-video-for-d-a-carsons-the-god-who-is-there/
This is the website to see the 14 lesson series by Don Carson based on his book, The God Who Is There.

Thought for the Day
I have a mental list of Bible stories that will never become VBS skits. For example, the stories of Lot and his guests, the man who chopped his dead concubine into a dozen pieces [JUD 19], and Jael, who drove the tent peg through the head of Sisera [JUD 4], quickly come to mind. Another one, and the subject of today, is the story of Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac as a human sacrifice. [GEN 22]

Let’s start at Genesis 15 to set the background for the story. We find Abram about to make a covenant with the living God. A covenant was an agreement, like a contract, between a “greater” and a “lesser” party. (I cringe whenever I hear the marriage vows referred to as a covenant.) Abram is instructed how to flay a heifer, a ram and a goat in such a way that their blood flows into a swell that bisects the symmetrically arranged carcasses. Notice that Abram does not question God about this nor act like it was the strangest ritual of which he’d ever heard. As a person of wealth, he had probably entered into covenants with others many times before using the same ritual, with one difference; this time Abram was the “lesser” party.

The covenant was sealed by the two parties walking the blood path. This was a way of saying, “May my blood be upon me if I fail to deliver on my promise.” Of course, in the real world of commerce, it was only the “lesser” party who needed to be concerned about that promise. Suddenly, Abram finds himself in that unenviable position; he is being asked to, “walk before me, and be blameless,” [GEN 17.1] Simple, huh?

At this point, he becomes terrified and God has mercy on him, putting him into a deep sleep. [GEN 15.12] What happens next is truly amazing. God knows that Abram cannot walk the path with him, so he walks the path with himself! That is conveyed by the imagery of the flaming torch and the smoking fire pot in verse 17 and is confirmed in GEN 22.16 where God says, “By myself I have sworn...” Ray Vander Laan says it was at this point that Yeshua knew what was in his future!

Do you get it? This is the ultimate story of grace! God knew that Abram couldn’t keep all the commandments nor be blameless. So, he put his own life on the line and promised to make the covenant good by his own blood and to redeem us, even though we can’t live up to the covenant. Now that’s good news - our salvation is not dependent on our own goodness!

Oh ... the offering of Isaac? Child sacrifice was also customary in those days. My opinion is that Abram may still be thinking that his God is just one of many gods and now he also wants a child sacrifice. This is God’s way of driving home the point to Abram that he is not like the other gods. He provides the sacrifice, even his own son. Remember, he walked the blood path with himself.

When we couldn’t keep our part of the agreement to be obedient, someone had to pay the price. And he was a willing sacrifice, bowing to the will of his father, just like Isaac submitted to Abraham.

May God Bless
Mike Toole
Lori Moores, ed.

The illumination of this story came from Ray Vander Laan’s messages and from Don A. Carson, The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story, Grand Rapids MI, Baker, 2010. Lesson 3 is called The God Who Writes His Own Contracts.