Week 5 - Day 1
THE STORY
Rescue (Old Testament)
CREATION
We were created in God’s image for relationship with Him and stewardship of the earth.
REBELLION
The Rebellion that began in heaven came to earth as Satan tempts Adam and Eve to disobey God. Their revolt broke our relationship with God and ruined our relationship with the rest of creation and each other.
Here’s how the Apostle Paul summarizes our rebellion and the consequences of it.
Ephesians 2:1-3 (NIV)
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
That’s a mouthful. So let’s summarize it like this. As human beings we are …
Spiritually dead in our sins
Followers of the ways of the world
Controlled by Satan
Captive to our fleshly cravings
Deserving of God’s wrath
That’s the bad news. But, praise God, there’s Good News. God hasn’t given up on us, instead He has come to our Rescue. And that Rescue starts already in the Old Testament.
PROMISE AND FULFILMENT
As we have already seen, the Bible isn’t just one book, but a collection of stories, histories, poems, prophecies and letters. Actually, it’s a library with two main sections: 1) The Old Testament (sometimes called the Hebrew Bible) and 2) The New Testament. These two sections can be summarized by two main words: 1) Promise and 2) Fulfillment. In the Old Testament God promises a Rescuer. And in the New Testament He fulfills that promise by sending Jesus, His Son.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s begin with God’s Rescue plan in the Old Testament.
THE PROMISE
Genesis 12:1-7 (NLT)
The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan, Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
God’s Rescue mission begins with this promise to Abram.
What was God’s promise to Abram?
Who would be blessed through this promise?
How specific were God’s moving instructions to Abram?
What does Abram’s response to God’s command and promise say about Abram’s faith?
A SON?
God promised Abram:
A PEOPLE (I will make you into a great nation)
A PLACE (I will give this land to your descendants)
His PROTECTION (I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt)
A PURPOSE (All the families on earth will be blessed through you).
One important thing was needed to kickstart the fulfillment of these promises. Abram and Sarai needed a son. Abram, however, was 75, and his wife Sarai was 65. That doesn’t sound very promising. How many elderly couples do you know having babies? So Abram has a rather frank conversation with God about being childless.
Genesis 15:1-6 (NLT)
Some time later, the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
Then the LORD said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.
It was common in the ancient world for childless couples to adopt an adult servant as their heir. Today, we generally adopt children. But in the ancient world, because they were looking for someone to carry on their inheritance and legacy, they adopted adults who were known and tested. So Abram reasons with God that it looked like Eliezer would be the one.
But what does God promise Abram?
How does Abram respond to this promise?
How does God treat Abram’s response?
TAKING MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS
Abram and Sarai grow tired of waiting on God. So they take matters into their own hands. Once again, according to another custom of that time, Sarai gives Abram her servant Hagar. The idea is that if he could have a child with Hagar, this child would officially be considered Abram and SARAI’s child. And it worked! Abram had a son through Hagar named Ishmael. Abram and Sarai finally have their son. But this was not what God had in mind for the fulfillment of His promise to Abram.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
It’s been about 25 years since God first appeared to Abram and commanded him to leave his home and promised him that he would become a great nation that would bless the world. But he still only has one child. The child he had with Sarai’s servant Hagar.
Genesis 17:1-20 (NLT)
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”
At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!
“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.”
Then God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, your wife—her name will no longer be Sarai. From now on her name will be Sarah. And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”
Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael [Abraham’s son through Sarah’s servant Hagar] live under your special blessing!”
But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant. As for Ishmael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked.”
Why does Abraham laugh?
What does Abraham suggest?
How does God respond?
Maybe you noticed the word covenant. That refers to the legally binding nature of God’s promise to Abraham to bless him and his descendants and to make them a blessing to the whole world. God’s promise to Abraham, then, wasn’t just a personal promise. Earlier in Genesis 15, God had made a solemn oath to be honor-bound to keep His promise. This oath made God’s promise an official covenant, just as a marriage oath makes a marriage covenant. The phrase you will often hear when this covenant is referred to in the rest of the Bible is I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. That’s quite a promise!
Genesis 18:10-15 (NLT)
Then one of them [God and two angels in human form are visiting Abraham and Sarah] said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”
Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”
Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”
But the LORD said, “No, you did laugh.”
Why did Sarah laugh?
How would you answer: Is anything too hard for the LORD?
THE LAST LAUGH
Genesis 21:1-7 (NLT)
The LORD kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. And Abraham named their son Isaac. Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.
And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”
The name Isaac literally means laughter.
Who has the last laugh in this story?
What does Abraham, Sarah and Isaac’s story teach us about God’s promises?
What does it teach us about faith?
What does it teach us about patience and perseverance?
PREVIEW
You need to realize that this official covenant between God and Abram and the promise to bless him and his descendants and to make him a blessing to the whole world is key to the rest of The Story. In fact, God’s Rescue mission depends on this covenant and promise being fulfilled. Jumping ahead to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes this about how God fulfilled His covenantal promise to Abraham.
Galatians 3:6-9, 14 & 16 (NIV)
So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles [those who are not Jewish—that is, those who are not biological descendants of Abraham] by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus.
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
Who is the Blessing through whom God’s promised blessing to Abraham has come to the whole world?
How does one receive this Blessing from God?
Stay tuned. The Rescue is just getting started.
In light of what you have discovered through the Bible readings and your personal reflections, how will you respond? Finish this sentence: I will …