LIFE LESSONS
ABRAHAM
DR. JIM DIXON
GENESIS 11:1-18
SEPTEMBER 29, 2002
Phillips Brooks was an Anglican priest who served the Union Army during the Civil War. He served young men who were dead and dying. He talked to young men, some of them little more than boys, who were lonely and homesick. He talked to young men who were afraid, fearful. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, Phillips Brooks was exhausted. He was tired of doing funeral services. He was tired of seeing young men crippled and knowing that they would never walk again. He was tired of telling wives that their husbands would never come home. He was tired of telling little children that they would never see their father again. He was exhausted.
The Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia gave Phillips Brooks a sabbatical. In the year 1865, at the close of the Civil War, Phillips Brooks journeyed to Europe and then to the Middle East. His journey concluded in Jerusalem and there in Jerusalem he rode on horseback for two hours until he came to Bethlehem. When he arrived in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and went into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, there was a worship service going on. It lasted for five hours that Christmas Eve, and the heart of Phillips Brooks was ministered to. He was inspired there in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to write one of the great Christmas carols we sing every year, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.”
He wrote those words Christmas Eve in the Church of the Nativity. Of course, the first stanza ends with the words, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.” The second stanza ends with the words, “praises sing to God the King and peace to men on earth.” Those words had special meaning for Phillips Brooks because he had just come through the Civil War, and he knew the world was in desperate need of peace. How ironic that he would have written a Christmas carol praying for peace in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem near Jerusalem. How ironic because there is no peace in Jerusalem and there is no peace in Bethlehem. There is no peace in the Church of the Nativity. Just a few months ago, as most of you know, Palestinians were holed up in the Church of the Nativity and their continuing struggle with the Israelis, part of a larger struggle between Jew and Arab. There is no peace.
The irony is that the Jews and the Arabs are both related to Abraham, descended from Abraham. The Jews descended from Abraham and Sarah and their son Isaac. The Arabs descended from Abraham and Hagar and their son Ishmael. When you think about it, even Muhammed is descended from Abraham through Ishmael. Our Lord Jesus Christ is descended from Abraham through Isaac, so that when you think about it, the Jews, the Muslims, and the Christians are all descended from Abraham. Of course, that is why we have this Time Magazine that came out this week and it has the picture of Abraham on the cover. How wonderful that Time Magazine has decided to coordinate their publication with our sermon series.
Of course, the cover says, “Muslims, Christians, and Jews All Claim Him as Their Father.” Time Magazine is hoping that they can use Abraham somehow to bring peace to the world. It’s not likely to happen. We are going to deal with the whole issue of Jews, Arabs, and Christians as it relates to Abraham a week from Sunday when we come to Sarah. I think you are going to want to be here for that.
Today, we will focus on Abraham himself and seek to enter his story, seek to enter his world, and see what God is saying to us as we enter the whole life story of Abraham. It was Abraham who gave God one of His most famous names. It was Abraham who gave God the title, “Jehovah Jireh—Yahweh Jireh, the Lord shall provide.” As we look at the life of Abraham through fourteen chapters of Holy Scripture, it’s very clear that God provided for Abraham. We see the provision of God supremely in the life of this patriarch, Abraham.
I know each of you want God’s provision in your life. You want Him to be Jehovah Jireh for you. You want Him to provide for you. I want Him to provide for me. We look at Abraham’s life, and we see how we can have the provision of God. We have two teachings and the first is this: God’s provision is linked to His call.
Abraham and his family came from Ur of the Chaldeans. He received his call in the city of Haran as he had moved from Ur to Haran. Archeologists have just recently excavated, in Southern Iraq, the city of Ur. It was the capital city of the kingdom of Sumer, and it was one of the most ancient civilizations of earth. The city of Ur was a great city. Archeologists and historians and scientists have discovered that about the time of Abraham, the Euphrates River began to move away from the city of Ur. It changed its course and moved ten miles away from the city of Ur so that people began to leave the city of Ur. One of the families that left at that time was Abraham’s. They left the city of Ur and moved to Haran.
Archeologists have unearthed, in the excavation site at Ur, a giant ziggurat, a giant tower reaching to the heavens, much like the ziggurat archeologists have found in ancient Babylon dedicated to the Babylonian god Marduk. These are ziggurats built before the time of Abraham.
The ziggurat in Babylon was called the Tower of Babylon and may be related to the Tower of Babel in Genesis, chapter 1l. But what they have discovered is that in the time of Abraham, there were ziggurats everywhere. They were all dedicated to different gods because it was a polytheistic world.
Mesopotamia was polytheistic. Indeed, the entire earth was polytheistic. Abraham and his family were polytheistic. They worshipped many gods. Monotheism truly began with the call of God, the one true God. That call given to Abraham. When He called him, He manifested Himself to him. Whether it was a theophany (a physical manifestation of God), we don’t know. Whether God spoke audibly, we don’t know. Whether it was a still small voice, we don’t know. But Abraham heard the call of God, and it was radical. He understood that there was one true God, and he moved out of Haran and took his family with him in response to the call of God that Abraham would be the father of nations, that he would be the father of the Jewish people, and through the Jews all the nations of the earth would be blessed. The Messiah would come from the Jews, and through Him, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. But it all was beginning with the call of God upon Abraham.
All of God’s provision in the life of Abraham was related to the call, and God provided Abraham with land. It was the land of promise, the land of Canaan. It was given so that Abraham indeed might have land for his people, the Jewish people. God provided not only land but wealth that Abraham might indeed be a patriarch. God provided victories as they were needed in accordance with Abraham’s call. Ultimately God provided Isaac when Abraham was an old man. When Sarah who was barren was long past the age, it was a miraculous birth provided by God in conjunction with God’s call. It was all about the call. God provides in accordance with the call.
In Genesis, chapter 13, you see an encounter between Abraham and his nephew Lot. We read in 2 Peter, chapter 2, that Lot was a righteous man, but we also see in the Bible that Lot has a lot of weaknesses. Some of those weaknesses are described in Genesis, chapter 19, but in Genesis, chapter 13, we see that Lot had a problem with greed. Lot was extraordinarily rich, and Abraham was rich. They were so rich that the land could barely contain their people and their cattle. Abraham talked to Lot and said, “We need to divide things up. You need to have your land and I need to have mine. You choose first.”
Lot chose the best land. As we are told in Genesis, chapter 13, he chose “the fertile green valleys of the Jordan.” He chose the best land. Abraham took the leftovers, and Abraham was not even worried because he knew he was called and he knew God would provide in accordance with that call. And indeed God did. God blessed Abraham and his seed. We see this in every area of life. God blesses nations and individuals in accordance with His call.
I know you’ve all heard of the city of Providence, the capital city of Rhode Island and the second largest city in New England. Providence, Rhode Island, was established in 1636 by Roger Williams. Roger Williams was a brilliant Anglican pastor, born in London, England, in 1603. He was educated at the University of Cambridge and graduated with highest honors. He studied theology and then he became a minister in the Church of England, but he got in trouble with the higher authorities because he believed in religious freedom, He wanted everyone to love Jesus Christ. He wanted everyone to come to Christ, but he wanted them to do it freely. He did not believe in forcing people into the Christian world. He believed in religious freedom.
He came to the colonies, and he was assigned a church in the city of Boston and then in the city of Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. But he got in trouble there too because he got in trouble with the Puritans because the Puritans did not really believe in religious freedom. They wanted everyone to think exactly like they thought. Even though Roger Williams wanted people to love Christ and come to Christ, again, he wanted it to be out of freedom and choice. So, he fled the Massachusetts Bay Colony and became a missionary to the Indian Nation. As a missionary to the Indians, he loved them, and he told Indian women and men about Jesus Christ. Hundreds of Indians came to faith in Christ through Roger Williams.
But some of them did not believe in Christ, and Roger Williams continued to love them. He loved them all, and the Indians loved him. It was the Indians who sold Roger Williams the piece of land upon which he built the city of Providence. Then he returned to England and received the charter for the Rhode Island Colony. He returned, and of course the rest is history.
Why did he call that city Providence? He did it because he honestly believed that it was all part of the divine plan, that God had ordained and called the Rhode Island Colony in the city of Providence into existence. It was all about the call of God. He believed that God had provided and would continue to provide in conjunction with that call. Now, Roger Williams believed the call of God upon the Rhode Island Colony was to provide the world with freedom—religious freedom, freedom in general—and he believed God would provide in conjunction with that call to be a beacon for freedom.
The founders of this nation thought similarly. Even non-Christian founders who were really deists like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin believed God had called our nation into being. God called the nation into being, and He called it to be a beacon for freedom and democratic liberty all over the world. They believed God would provide in conjunction with that call.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was at a breakfast for the persecuted church. Bill Armstrong spoke there, former Senator Bill Armstrong who is a member of this church. His wife Ellen is one of our elders. I honestly believe Bill is one of the greatest senators ever to serve our nation. He told the crowd at that breakfast meeting two weeks ago that he believed God called America into existence to be a beacon of freedom in the world. I believe that is true. We have a lot of problems in this country, a lot of problems in our culture, but the call of God upon this nation is to be a beacon of freedom—religious freedom, democratic freedoms, civil liberties all over the world. He has provided and will provide if we are faithful in that call.
God has called the church. Jesus said, “I will build My church and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” His call is upon the church. He provides in accordance with His call. He has called us to be a covenant community where we can learn to love each other. He has called us to be light in the world, salt on the earth. He is called us to take the gospel to the nations. He has called us to exalt Christ, bring people to Christ, bond them in Christ, build them up in Christ, and send them out in Christ. He has called us to be mobilized to the congregation. He has called us to transform our community, elevate the urban poor, and ultimately impact the nation and the world. The call of Christ is upon us, and He provides in accordance with His call. He has provided for this church in accordance with His call. He will continue to provide because He has called.
I felt the call of God when I was five years old. I was called to Christ, to faith in Christ, at five years old. I knelt with my mom in the living room of our home, and I asked Jesus into my heart. I sensed I heard the call of God. He has provided through the years in accordance with His call. He is brought tests into my lifetime, and again, all of which I related to the call, all of which are designed to shape me, mold me, transform me—all in relationship to the call.
When I was 23 years old, He called me to the gospel ministry. On a winter day on a beach in Santa Barbara as I was walking in solitude, He called me. In the midst of many tears, He called me. I felt inadequate then, and I feel inadequate today, but you see, He provides for His call. When He calls, He provides. He has called you. He has called all of you. God has called you to His Son. When you respond to that call, you enter into the world of His provision. When you respond to that call as Abraham responded to the call of God, you enter into the world of His provision.
He has called some of you to teach Sunday school and you do not want to do it, but He’ll provide. He has called some of you to be small group leaders. You do not want to do it, but He’ll provide. He has called some of you to be inner city tutors. You do not want to do it, but He’ll provide. He provides in accordance with His call.
That is the first teaching we see from Abraham. He provides in accordance with His call. Then finally and briefly, His provision is oftentimes contingent on our obedience. I know that sometimes God, in His mercy and in His grace, provides for us even when we are not faithful, but oftentimes you see that His provision is linked to our obedience.
I think in a lot of ways that passage of scripture from Genesis 22, in which Abraham is tested by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, is one of the most difficult in all of the Bible because human sacrifice is so alien, so foreign to our beliefs and to our culture. But archeologists and scientists have found beyond a doubt that in the Mesopotamian world of the days of Abraham, human sacrifice was common. The highest expression of devotion to the gods consisted of child sacrifice.
Abraham would soon learn that God does not believe in human sacrifice. Indeed, it offends Him. It violates the sixth commandment. It violates the imago Dei. Life is precious to God. Abraham’s understanding that God does not desire human sacrifice really began with the provision of the ram and the thicket. But you see, God met Abraham in the midst of his culture and in the midst of his subculture, and He tested him in accordance with the beliefs of that subculture. Abraham obeyed.
You have this passage where God says, “By Myself I have sworn,” says the Lord “ because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I shall indeed bless you, and I will multiply you, your descendants, as many as the stars of the heavens and the sands upon the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. By your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves because you have obeyed My voice.”
You see, it is all linked to obedience. In Hebrews, chapter 11, “By faith, Abraham obeyed God when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was to go.” He obeyed. It is all linked to obedience. We want you to understand in faithfulness to God’s word… I am required to say this to you. God calls you to obedience. God calls me to obedience. Much is at stake. The culture is difficult. The times are hard, but God calls us to obedience. His provision is oftentimes linked to that obedience. It is true that even if we obey, there are things God simply will not give us, simply because many of our prayers and many of our requests are childish.
I remember when Heather was three or four years old. She came to Barb and me and she said she wanted to have a swimming pool in her bedroom. She had just seen a Disney movie where there was a swimming pool in the bedroom. She wanted to have a swimming pool in her bedroom. Not only that, but she also asked if she could have alligators in the swimming pool because she had a stuffed alligator and she got along really well with that stuffed alligator.
Of course, the answer was no. The request was childish as are most requests, many requests from 3-year-olds. Many of our requests to God are childish. God knows that. But when we are faithful and when we obey Him, we do open the doors for his provision and His provision comes to us and it’s in its fullness.
I know our time is up and there are some other things I wanted to say. I read an article in Christianity Today. The cover story is about a man named George Barna, who is a Christian researcher. He is the leading provider of religious statistics in the world. His surveys are quoted in USA Today and in newspapers all over our nation and all over the world. Barna is very mad at the church. He is very mad at today’s church. He lists nine beefs that he has with the church. Three of them I agree with.
One is biblical illiteracy. Churches are not educating their people in the Bible. We have instituted this Year of the Bible in order to do a better job. The reason we are taking you through the Bible is that you might know scripture. We are having Bible Quests and Walk Through the Bible and we are wanting you to take part in these events because we want you to be knowledgeable and informed in the Scriptures, and we want you to obey them.
His second beef relates to the supernatural. He says the church in America has lost the understanding of the supernatural and the fact that we are engaged in a supernatural struggle. And I agree with that. “We do not battle against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against the powers, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, the world rulers of this present darkness.” There is spiritual warfare going on. It’s a battle for the souls of women and men all over the world. The struggle we are engaged in is indeed supernatural.
His third beef with the Church that I agree with is that we have preached a costless faith. I do not think that is true of this church. I really do not, but I do think that this is symptomatic of a problem even within the evangelical world. We have preached a costless faith. We require so little, far less than Christ required. Jesus said, “He who would come after Me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow Me. He who would save his life will lose it, but he who would lose it for My sake and the sake of the Gospel will surely find it.”
Jesus told us the cost was great, and we want to say no less, so we say to you this morning, if you’ve responded to Christ, if you’ve heard His call and you’ve said yes, you’ve come into the world of His provision, but He has called you to obedience. He is called you to faithfulness as surely as He’s called Abraham to faithful obedience. Let us close with a word of prayer.