Read Genesis 25, Ephesians 1, 1 Peter 1 & Philippians 3:12-4:1
There are a lot of "big events" that take place in the 25th chapter of Genesis. Abraham dies. Isaac and Ishmael come together to bury their father. Isaac inherits everything and he and Rebekah have twins. A lot of really important events in a short section of Scripture...
These "big events" are in large part fulfilled promises from God from Genesis 17. Anytime you see God fulfill a promise, you should rejoice! Why? Because God ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES! This week we spent some time rejoicing in v.5 "Abraham gave all he had to Isaac." This inheritance was promised by God through Abraham to Isaac. We are reminded of the promises that we have in Christ and how great it is that God keeps His promises. Ephesians 1:3-14 paints a beautiful picture of this beautiful and ABUNDANT blessing! We are not given "some" spiritual blessing, but EVERY spiritual blessing; we were not an afterthought, but were chosen before the world was formed; not just excused from our sin, but made holy and blameless before God, through Christ; not just welcomed, but ADOPTED through Christ and blessed in the beloved. We have redemption through His blood, forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He did not just place upon us, but that He LAVISHED upon us! 1 Peter 1:3-19 reminds us that our inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and kept in heaven for us, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed. Consider, your most valued possession on earth, no matter how nice and well-made it is, it is still perishable, defiled, and fading...and if it makes it to the last day, it will still burn up because it is flammable. You brought nothing into this world and you can take nothing with you. Your only true treasure is that which existed for you in Christ from before the world was formed. And that treasure is an ABUNDANT INHERITANCE!
The problem is that in the calamity of life, we forget how precious our treasure is. This is why we need to be sober-minded. True joy is not just the absence of conflict. There will always be conflict. But setting our minds and eyes on the things above and never losing sight of our God-given treasure will sustain us through the hardest storms. Interestingly, both Paul and Peter, after communicating a clear picture of their beautiful and abundant inheritance, urge the people to be sober minded. Paul prays that their eyes would be opened (Eph. 1:15-21) so that in the midst of THIS, we would not lose sight of THAT! Peter urges his hearers to "prepare their minds for action, be sober-minded! don't be conformed to your former ignorance! Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile! Your inheritance is great! Don't lose sight of it!"
A look at 1 Peter 1:6-7 shows us that we are to REJOICE in the inheritance and blessing, WHILE we are grieved by trials and testing. In the midst of calamity, those in Christ who have the promised inheritance are the ones whose faithful responses result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ. And if you don't praise Him now, you will not praise Him then. Those eternally separated from God will not be crying out for another chance. But for all of eternity they will hate Him as they hated Him on earth.
To rejoice while you are grieved is to take up your cross and bear it. Jeremiah Burroughs states, "Christ does not say, 'do not count as a cross what is a cross'; He says, 'Take up your cross daily.'" What this means is that we don't have to pretend like our crosses are flowers or rainbows or anything more pleasant than a cross. It is ok for us to have a due sense of our affliction. But, "TAKE UP YOUR CROSS" and save your life. Refuse and lose your life. But REJOICE ALWAYS...AGAIN I SAY REJOICE.
So in Genesis we have seen Abraham drawn out of the world and blessed abundantly. He has gone on a walk with the CREATOR who hung the stars, and that CREATOR pointed to the stars that He hung and said, "that's how much I am going to bless you." Abraham was given livestock, riches, servants, and power. He knows that his offspring will be blessed FOREVER! His wife's barren womb was opened by the loving hand of God, and in their old age they had laughter. This was announced by Jesus who came and had lunch with Abraham in his tent! And it was through the seed of Abraham that our Savior Jesus Christ came into the world! It was through this seed that the head of the serpent was crushed! Abraham indeed lived a life of ABUNDANT BLESSING!
But we must see that this abundant blessing did not result in a "charmed" life. It did not result in the absence of conlict. This abundant blessing came in a very different way. Consider...
- Abraham's father was a Babylonian idolater
- Out of fear for his life, Abraham made a bad decision to whore out his wife to Pharaoh
- He had to go to war to save his bonehead, freeloading nephew
- His wife was barren, unable to have children
- He had an affair with Hagar, producing an illegitimate child named Ishamel, creating horrible tension within his house that exists to this day in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- He was circumcised at the age of 99 (ouch)
- His wife laughed at God and MOCKED Him
- He whored his wife out again to Abimilech, in fear of his life
- He had to send his son, Ishmael, away and this caused him great sorrow
- He was tested by God and told to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering
- He actually stood over his bound son with a knife, ready to obey God
- His wife died
- He had to pay an exorbitant price just to bury her
- He had to arrange for his son to be married at the age of 40
- And finally, in chapter 25 Abraham, though great by the hands of God, is unable to escape the common lot of men...and he dies.
But, maybe it was just rough for Abraham because he had to get the ball rolling on this whole blessing thing... So let's then look at what happens to his abundantly blessed son who receives ALL that Abraham had...
- First, he has to bury his father
- The result is an uncomfortable confrontation with his half brother who hates him
- Then his wife is barren for TWENTY YEARS
- And when she finally conceives, the children struggle within her, causing anguish physically, mentally, and spiritually
And all of this calamity was upon the lives of some of the most abundantly blessed people to ever walk the earth.
So how quickly do we become weary? Are we content with God's blessings and abundant provision, even when our faith is tested? Would we have continued in prayer after being unable to have a baby for two decades? Would our bonehead family members push us over the edge? Do we expect charmed lives because of our eternal blessing?
Burroughs states... "We should prize duty more highly than to be distracted by every trivial occasion... [for the believer] the authority of the command so overawes his heart that he is willing to spend himself and to be spent in discharging it." I encourage you to consider those things in your life that run the risk of keeping you from rejoicing. And I encourage you to respond to those things in a sober-minded manner, never losing sight of your inheritance, constantly rejoicing through your grief.
We indeed are abundantly blessed.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Genesis 24 - Conclusion
Read 1 Corinthians 2, Ephesians 5:31-32, John 6:38, Luke 22:42, Titus 2, & Hebrews 8 & 9
What happens when something or someone is misrepresented? You don't actually get a true picture of that thing or that person. What we have considered in this study is that marriage is a worldly shadow of a heavenly reality. As it is designed by God, it is to represent what God designed it to represent. Marriage is not an end in itself. The goal is not just to get married, stay married, and die. Although, in our culture that is still rare. We are designed by God to live within an order and structure that represents the New Covenant. Ephesians 5 tells us to leave and cleave. Christ modeled this for us as He left the Father and cleaves to the Church. And the cleaving is not temporal. As you sit with your spouse and cleave, the only way that you could ever have any right to leave is if Christ abandons His bride...the church. To say it another way... As long as Christ cleaves to His bride, you cleave to yours. Why? Because if you don't, you are misrepresenting the unbreakable covenant-keeping love that Christ has for His bride.
In John 6:38, Jesus says, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me." So if husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church they must die to themselves and die to their own will, and submit, like Christ, to the will of the Father. And the will of the Father is that you sacrifice your selfishness for the well-being of your bride, not because she has earned it or deserves it, but because GOD TELLS YOU TO...and why did He tell you to? Because you are representing the "groom part" of HIS COVENANT LOVE! Consider. if I was to ask you why you love your wife, would you have anything more to say than, "Well, she does this and says that..."? Would any part of your answer be that God tells you to... that it is the will of the Father for you to love her? If not, I would submit that you are not loving your wife in the robust manner by which you were designed... because a robust love represents the New Covenant! And the world is watching...
So if someone asks me, "why do you love your wife", a good answer would be, "because God tells me to. God modeled this love in the New Covenant that exists in Christ, so just like Christ loves the church by the will of the Father, I will love my bride, by the will of the Father."
Wives, in Titus 2 you are called to be trained to love your husband and children. This goes far beyond loving them just because your Husband stirred your emotions or your child said something sweet and smiled at you. And why? Because you are representing the "bride part" of the New Covenant love. Ravi Zacharias states "The will is that faculty which can only be tested when pain is as much a part of its choice as pleasure is... Nothing brings harmony more than embracing the will of God. Nothing brings fragmentation more than turning away from the will of God. Marriage is the harmony of God synchronizing two wills with the will of the Father." There will be times when we have to choose pain, just like Christ did. If not, it is those times that we will run away.
As Christ embraced the will of the Father, He ushered in a NEW COVENANT. As you embrace the will of the Father, you are representing that New Covenant. In Matthew 22, God reminds us that marriage on earth is temporal, and when you die it is over. So death separates you from the love of your spouse. But in Romans 8, we are reminded ("we" being the bride of Christ)... "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through HIM WHO LOVED US". So love between a husband and a wife is separated by death, but NOT EVEN DEATH can separate us (the BRIDE) from the love of Christ. So our aim is to love in such a way that we are able to communicate that hidden and secret wisdom of God. Our aim is to rightly represent in our spark and shadow of a life, the eternal,, beautiful, rich truth that the love of Christ is FOREVER!!! From our marriages, from our community of faith, our church, in the midst of our conflicts, on the mountain tops, and in the deep valleys, we want to cry out to a lost and dying world and boldly proclaim, "The love of Christ is forever! He will never forsake you! RUN TO HIM!!!"
What happens when something or someone is misrepresented? You don't actually get a true picture of that thing or that person. What we have considered in this study is that marriage is a worldly shadow of a heavenly reality. As it is designed by God, it is to represent what God designed it to represent. Marriage is not an end in itself. The goal is not just to get married, stay married, and die. Although, in our culture that is still rare. We are designed by God to live within an order and structure that represents the New Covenant. Ephesians 5 tells us to leave and cleave. Christ modeled this for us as He left the Father and cleaves to the Church. And the cleaving is not temporal. As you sit with your spouse and cleave, the only way that you could ever have any right to leave is if Christ abandons His bride...the church. To say it another way... As long as Christ cleaves to His bride, you cleave to yours. Why? Because if you don't, you are misrepresenting the unbreakable covenant-keeping love that Christ has for His bride.
In John 6:38, Jesus says, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me." So if husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church they must die to themselves and die to their own will, and submit, like Christ, to the will of the Father. And the will of the Father is that you sacrifice your selfishness for the well-being of your bride, not because she has earned it or deserves it, but because GOD TELLS YOU TO...and why did He tell you to? Because you are representing the "groom part" of HIS COVENANT LOVE! Consider. if I was to ask you why you love your wife, would you have anything more to say than, "Well, she does this and says that..."? Would any part of your answer be that God tells you to... that it is the will of the Father for you to love her? If not, I would submit that you are not loving your wife in the robust manner by which you were designed... because a robust love represents the New Covenant! And the world is watching...
So if someone asks me, "why do you love your wife", a good answer would be, "because God tells me to. God modeled this love in the New Covenant that exists in Christ, so just like Christ loves the church by the will of the Father, I will love my bride, by the will of the Father."
Wives, in Titus 2 you are called to be trained to love your husband and children. This goes far beyond loving them just because your Husband stirred your emotions or your child said something sweet and smiled at you. And why? Because you are representing the "bride part" of the New Covenant love. Ravi Zacharias states "The will is that faculty which can only be tested when pain is as much a part of its choice as pleasure is... Nothing brings harmony more than embracing the will of God. Nothing brings fragmentation more than turning away from the will of God. Marriage is the harmony of God synchronizing two wills with the will of the Father." There will be times when we have to choose pain, just like Christ did. If not, it is those times that we will run away.
As Christ embraced the will of the Father, He ushered in a NEW COVENANT. As you embrace the will of the Father, you are representing that New Covenant. In Matthew 22, God reminds us that marriage on earth is temporal, and when you die it is over. So death separates you from the love of your spouse. But in Romans 8, we are reminded ("we" being the bride of Christ)... "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through HIM WHO LOVED US". So love between a husband and a wife is separated by death, but NOT EVEN DEATH can separate us (the BRIDE) from the love of Christ. So our aim is to love in such a way that we are able to communicate that hidden and secret wisdom of God. Our aim is to rightly represent in our spark and shadow of a life, the eternal,, beautiful, rich truth that the love of Christ is FOREVER!!! From our marriages, from our community of faith, our church, in the midst of our conflicts, on the mountain tops, and in the deep valleys, we want to cry out to a lost and dying world and boldly proclaim, "The love of Christ is forever! He will never forsake you! RUN TO HIM!!!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)