7. God's Covenant with Abram (Genesis 15:1-20).

by Wesley Blackburn

I really believe that today’s passage is one of the most critical in the Old Testament, if not the entire Bible. I realize that’s a pretty grandiose statement, but bear with me. I hope you’ll see why I say that by the end of this posting today.

Basically, in today’s reading, God comes to Abram and tells him not to worry; God is going to be his shield and his reward. Abram, though, doesn’t believe it. Several years ago, God promised Abram that he’d give him a huge piece of awesome land and that He would bless the incredibly old Abram and his wife, Sarai, with a male child. This was something that Abram and Sarai had been hoping and praying for for years.

But up to this point, God’s promise hasn’t materialized.

Abram isn’t shy about talking to God about this. In 15:2, Abram asks what God can give him, seeing as how he’s still childless. The thing I find interesting about this question is that Abram asks a question that assumes God isn’t going to give him a child. Read it. Abram asks, since I’m still childless, what can you give me? He sort of just assumes that he’s going to have to settle for something else from God because God is taking too long.

That’s a man (and a faith) that I can empathize with. Sometimes, God just takes too long. I want something now. I want deliverance from a situation now. I want blessing and prosperity now. If God promises something to me, it’s coming now... I don’t need to wait for it. No doubt Abram was under the same mindset.

So what does God do? He simply tells Abram that He’s going to take care of things.

He doesn’t give a sign.

He doesn’t give Abram a vision.

He just gives His word.

And for Abram, that’s enough. In fact, it’s enough to make the Bible state that “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). When we read in the New Testament book of Romans, we’ll discover that to Paul, this would be one of the most important verses in the entire Bible, because it tells us that we can be considered righteous in the eyes of God simply by believing Him.

Now, Abram has decided to continue believing. And after he believes, God decides that now is a good time to offer some reassurance to Abram through the form of an everlasting covenant. God tells Abram to gather some animals to sacrifice, and then lulls Abram into a deep sleep. While Abram is asleep, God appears as a smoking firepot, passing between the divided carcasses that Abram had made.

Here’s where some historical context (remember our TXT principles?) becomes very important. When two rulers, family/tribal heads, or other important figures wanted to reach an agreement on something in the ancient world, they would make a covenant. Just like Abram did, these rulers would find several animals and divide the carcasses in half, spreading them out opposite from one another, forming a walkway for both men to walk through. After walking through this little path and viewing the carnage on all sides, the two figures would swear an oath to one another, stating “May this (referring to the mass death all around them) happen to me and my people if this covenant is broken.” In other words, these leaders would give their word that they and their people deserved to die (and they meant it) if they violated the terms of this covenant agreement. Covenants were serious stuff.

Many Bible scholars speculate a similar thing is happening here. But one important difference has to be noted: Abram never walks through the pathway. Only God does. In essence, God is putting Himself out there, saying to Abraham, “May death happen to me if this covenant is broken.” It’s interesting to note that God is the only party who makes this oath, as if to say that this promise doesn’t really hinge on Abraham at all. Because of God’s faithful nature, He’s going to make good on His promise.
Pastor Andy Stanley defines faith as “a confidence that God is who He says He is and that God will do the things He has promised to do.” We see this here. God is making a promise. And because of His faithful nature, He will always keep it. That’s a fact.

God keeping His promises; that is the enormous theme we learn from Genesis 15. Imagine the implications if we would actually be courageous enough (and trusting enough) to really live that out in our lives.

6. The Call of Abram (Genesis 12:1-20).

by Brendon Foulke

Easy words are said, words that are easy to understand, but yet in retrospect are unfathomable. We see Abram and his wife Sarai, along with Abram’s brother Lot in this section. We see them together and listening to God. This story is one that can lead us in a way of confusion and of imagination. Imagine that you are sitting your living room, you and your wife with your kids, and God comes to you and says “pack up everything you own, all that you are, and follow my instructions and go to this piece of land that I will show you when you get there.” Would you do it?

This is essentially what God does with Abram. Abram is told to pack all of his belongings and take off and follow God wherever he leads. Here is the amazing thing: verse 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.” He went without hesitation. He left the place he belonged, his father and mother, his friends, he left all of it behind and took off because he trusted God and his words.

Although Abram trusted God when he took off and followed, he didn’t trust himself. Abram lied about his wife so that he wouldn’t be killed. In the end God provided for Abram and his wife Sarai, as the Pharaoh was able to provide food, livestock and other things that Abram and Sarai needed to live.

Would you follow God no matter what the circumstance? Would you give up comfort? Would you answer the easy words of "Follow me?"

5. The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).

by Bobby Jackson

So my son is playing soccer right now. It is super fun to watch, not to mention hilarious. At any given time, I can see twenty children with green and white t-shirts chasing the elusive white and black ball around the field, and it is such a contrast to the professionals who know how to play their position and work together as a unified group (even if they are not as fun for me to watch).

I often underestimate how important unity is. I believe it is one of the most powerful forces in the Bible. Jesus prayed for it before He left this earth: “I pray that they may be one as You and I are one”; Paul stated it strongly in Philippians 2 saying, “make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” In the passage today, unity also seems to be the key. What strikes me about this passage is this statement/promise, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Wow, really? If as one people speaking the same language, then nothing we plan to do would be impossible for us? I’d like to test that theory personally…I don’t think mankind has “spoken the same language” since then – literally and figuratively. What if there weren’t twelve church buildings within a one-mile radius of each other? What if every Christ follower spent their energies pulling in the same direction? Would “nothing they plan to do be impossible for them?” How could we test this and find out? I know I'd love to hear your thoughts on how this could look in our/your context.

Beyond Sunday - TXT: How to Read your Bible - The Gratitude

...by Kevin McHugh

Hello my friends. I am writing this on Memorial Day at 1:20PM, and there is a powerful thunderstorm blowing through St John as I sit down to write my reflection. Just a couple of things as I open up about this week's worship experience.

- My wife and I sat with the Kuhn's & the DeBraal's, so half of our community group was sitting together - very nice.

- I came in with a heavy heart as my brother is in the hospital 2000 miles away.

- I was really inspired to worship by the music - it hooked me immediately. Wes, Emily & company were pretty awesome, right?

Beka took us through Philippians 4:10-20 and recapped the entire message series. The things to keep in mind as we open our Bible include pace, posture, context, author's intent, background, key words, and genre - it was the way Beka emphasized posture that struck me during her message. Before I sit down and read, I need to take a second and consider that I am about to read the very word of God and that He is trying to tell me or teach me something.

One well known verse I am now thinking about in a different way is Philippians 4:13 - I can do everything through him who gives me strength....I've heard that and read that before many times and it means I can do anything if I put my faith and trust in God, right? Or does it mean that whatever I do, I should do it through my faith and through the lens of my God. That is an entirely different way to interpret that verse, and probably the right way.

Philippians 4:11 stuck with me as well....I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances... Here is Paul, who has suffered much while preaching the good news of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Yet he does not stop. In fact he continues no matter the troubles that come as a result. Why did he behave this way? Beka taught us that Paul was focused on heavenly things and had a forward looking attitude. For example:

"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" - Philippians 3:13-14

4. God's Covenant With Noah (Genesis 8:1-9:17).

by Jeff Sanford

When I think about the story of Noah and what I learned as a child in Sunday School, I remember a cute story about a man who built a big boat, gathered his family and two of each animal, and hung out in the boat while it rained for forty days and forty nights.  Following the flood, Noah, his family, and all of the animals exited the ark and saw a rainbow in the sky.  The story was cute, and it was centered on Noah.

But as I read through this story again and reflected on all that was going on, I found parts of the story that I did not remember at all.  And I found that the story was not nearly as cute and even more meaningful than I remembered.  I also found that the story was more about what God was doing than about what Noah was doing.

Noah was living in a time full of corruption.  In fact, in Genesis 6, Scripture says that, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.  So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind…from the face of the earth.’”  And He did.  Well, with one exception.

Scripture also says that, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”  Noah found favor in God’s eyes, because he walked with God.  And so God showed His love and grace and spared Noah and his family from the destruction of the flood.  Following the flood, God made a promise to Noah and all generations following him.  God promised to never again destroy all life by the waters of a flood and to remember this covenant each time He placed a rainbow in the sky.

And so Noah’s story is a story of a 600 year old man that lived thousands of years ago who made a choice to walk with God.  But even more importantly, it’s about a God who loved this man and his family enough to have mercy on them and to provide a way out of the destruction that the earth was destined for as a result of its wickedness.  And that same loving God (1 John 4:7-8) has provided the Way (John 14:6) of salvation for me and my generation to avoid the destruction that we are facing because of our sin and wickedness (Romans 6:23)...Jesus.  And just as God’s love and grace were revealed in the rainbow, they were revealed at a greater level through Jesus and his death on the cross.

So next time you see a rainbow, pause for a moment and rest in God’s goodness, the depth of His love for you, and His faithfulness to His word.  Use the rainbow as a reminder of the lengths that God has gone to rescue you.  Then thank God and worship Him for who He is and what He’s done.

3. The Flood (Genesis 6:5-7:24).

by Wesley Blackburn

Some stories just aren’t made for children.

Reading the story of the flood, I have to ask myself the question, “Why do we tell this story to kids?” I mean, think about it... this is really one of the saddest stories you can imagine. Mankind was a mess. Impurity was rampant. The world was not what God had hoped for it to be, and it grieved His heart. So what does God decide to do? Destroy everything. Start over. It was that bad, and God was that angry about it.

That’s not exactly the plot from an episode from “Barney.”

But in the midst of this terrible story comes Noah. God asks Noah to take his family and one of each animal into an enormous boat that Noah is supposed to build, and then stay there while God covers the earth with rain. After it’s all over, Noah and his family will be allowed to come out, their life spared.
But have you ever really thought about this story? I don’t like it for a lot of reasons, and one of the main reasons is that it brings up way more questions than it does answers for me about God. How could God kill thousands (maybe millions or billions?) of people all around the earth in one fell swoop, in probably one of the most terrible ways imaginable (drowning)? The Bible frequently extols God’s patience with us... what are we to do with a story like this? Did God just fly off the cuff and get mad? Or was mankind’s present state that bad?

The flood itself kind of scares me; not because I think another flood is coming, but because my sin can cause flood-like experiences in my life. I wonder how many times I’ve grieved the heart of God (Genesis 6:6) because I lived in a way that was so far apart from what He desired from me? I wonder if in some areas of my life, I’m trying God’s patience too much for too long, and some real consequences could be in store for me. I believe in a God that is just and loving, but the flood reminds me that even God might have His breaking points.

But I think one thing I observed more than anything else in this story was a statement about Noah. In Genesis 6:9, we are first introduced to Noah, being told that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” We aren’t really told why God found Noah so righteous and blameless; just that he walked with God, whatever that means.

But as I read, I think I got an idea of what that means. Immediately after being introduced to Noah, the writer of Genesis dives into God giving Noah His plan: He’s going to destroy the people and animals on the earth, and He wants Noah to build an enormous boat to keep him, his family, and two of each animal safe. In the face of sure criticism from the onlookers, what does the Bible say of Noah? “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22).

Then, after this, God gives Noah the warning that the flood will start in seven days, and offers some more specific instructions about bringing animals onto the ark. What was Noah’s response? “Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him” (Genesis 7:5).

Noah was a righteous man. The Bible tells us so right here in Genesis, and in fact, in Hebrews 11 (the famous “Hall of Faith” chapter), Noah is commended for his incredible faith in following God. Why? The story of Genesis 6-7 makes me wonder if maybe it was just because Noah did what God asked him to do. When I think of following God, I generally think in terms of what’s the hot new spiritual growth idea. But God is just thinking of faithfulness. Obedience. Trust. The flood reminds me that these are the qualities God is looking for.

Maybe, just like Noah, I need to take some more time to practice those in my life.

2. The Fall (Genesis 3:1-24).

by Wesley Blackburn

And now, only one day into these 100 days of readings, we are already at mankind’s darkest hour. The Fall.

Reading this passage, I actually see several things; a few I’d never really thought about before. First off, I see one technique that the devil uses to cause us to stumble, and that’s distrust. When we stop trusting God wholly and completely, that is just a recipe for bad stuff to happen. Look at the serpent’s first words to Eve in 3:1 - “did God really say...?” But it doesn’t just stop there. The serpent continues to cultivate distrust in God by essentially saying in verse 5 that God just doesn’t want Eve to eat the fruit of the tree because He wants to have the corner on the market of truth. Essentially, in this scenario, God is being painted as a figure who is holding stuff back from his people. He wants to be top dog, and He doesn’t want Adam and Eve to have this supposedly awesome thing.

But that’s where fall in all of us begins:

• Did God really say that?
• Does God really have a problem with this? It sees so innocent.
• Do I really believe that?
• Does God really know what He’s talking about?
• Does God really have my best interests in mind?

When I look at my life and when I see my greatest sins, I can usually see questions like these lying at the root. Yeah, sin is a complex issue, but after reading the story of the fall, I have a feeling that at its very root, all sin comes down to trust. It’s easy enough to trust God with my eternity... after all, I don’t have a say in that anyway. But it’s a lot harder to trust God with my life. That’s where we need to make the real determination about what we really believe about God, about life, about what’s important, and about ourselves.

But I think that the fall shows us another thing. The fall is my story.

It’s really easy to be tough on Adam and Eve. After all, they just had to not eat something. Doesn’t seem like too tough an assignment. But really, I’m the same way. God’s given all of us a simple to understand task (to love God and love other people; Matthew 22:34-40), but we totally fail at it. And what’s more, when we fail, we act just like Adam... we blame everyone and everything else. This story is one of the reasons I believe the Bible. It’s just too brutally honest about the human condition. It only takes two chapters before we find a way to make the bottom fall out. That’s too true. Just like Adam and just like Eve, we try to take control of our own lives and then when everything screws up, we pass the buck.

Just last night, I was really talking in prayer to God about how scary I find it that within me, I have the capacity to do the greatest of good, but also the vilest of evils. It’s also scary to me how things can be cruising along just fine and dandy, and then all of a sudden, without warning, I can just turn on God. The fall makes me realize just how deeply sin is woven into me... and it makes me rely on Jesus because the fall draws me to a realization that only Jesus can ever cure my sin problem.