The Promise of a Future

October 6, 2013 Background Scripture: Genesis 12:1 – 7; 13; 15; 17:8 Lesson Passage: Genesis 15:5 – 21 Can you imagine being promised a future? Who wouldn’t want that—especially if it has a bright outlook? Many of us labor tirelessly trying to secure a bright future for ourselves and our family. As we come into middle age and reflect back over the years of our lives, we tend to examine and question many decisions and moves. Not very many of us find ourselves living the life we thought we would many years prior. So we examine our decisions and our moves to carefully plan the navigation of the remanding time we have left. How wonderful it would be if this was already planned out for us and it has the closing: And they lived happily ever after. Throughout recorded history, a few people have had just that provided for them. In our text today, we consider one of those persons. Our lesson revolves around a growing relationship between God and Abraham (Abram). Obviously, no relationship starts out fully mature but it begins filled with hopes and dreams. As the relationship progresses, there is always the desire that those hopes and dreams would somehow become reality. But that’s not really what makes relationships special. Relationships are special because of the pleasant surprises that occur along the way. And yet relationships develop character because of the struggles and difficulties we encounter and endure together. The relationship between God and Abraham was no different. The relationship started out with some personal challenges to Abraham. He was told to leave the familiarity and comfort of his homeland and the companionship of his family and go to a place that would be strange to him. In what is best described as baby steps, Abraham began to slowly comply with God’s command. Abraham was willing to do what he was asked but not all at once! Oh boy, that should sound familiar. However, as is often the case, circumstances and difficulties made it easier for him to comply with God’s instructions rather than continue to resist them. When Abraham finally arrived at the place where he was sent, there the fullness of the promise was revealed. Abraham, the aged man, and Sarah, his aged and barren wife, were promised offspring too numerous to count. This must have been frightening for a man well pass his prime and his wife was well beyond her child-bearing years. Furthermore, the land where he received the promise would be his and his descendants forever. (Needless to say, the land was not barren but populated with many people from several ethnic groups.) The aged couple who had not been able to conceive a child would indeed have a child and many descendants to carry on their name and legacy. Although they had become nomads, this would not be the destiny of their offspring. Even after they die and their bodies are resting in graves, God promised to even look out for their descendants and to be their God as well. This was not just a “handshake deal”. God sealed the promise with an oath and blood covenant. This was the strongest existing contract at that time. Abraham was promised a good life but even better, he was promised a future. Robert C. Hudson September 25, 2013

God Scatters the Nations

September 29, 2013 Background Scripture: Genesis 11:1 – 9 Lesson Passage: Genesis 11:1 – 9 I guess it’s true that we can sometimes talk too much; especially if the conversation is all wrong from the beginning. And here is another twist of irony; we now have biblical proof that shows that relationships don’t last when communications break down! On the flip side, I have always been in awe of the biblical statement that if that generation had been allowed to continue to communicate and work together then there was no limit to what they would attempt to do. You have to let that soak in for a while. Without the Spirit of God to guide us, our evil works would continue to grow worse and worse over time. When you couple evil works with the synergy that occurs from cooperation, then we would surely corrupt ourselves—and if it were possible, perhaps even beyond the reach of grace. It’s good to know that everything that God does is for the good of humanity whether we recognize it and accept it or not. God is constantly saving us from ourselves. In fact, when we are honest with ourselves, we admit that we have gotten ourselves into some situations that we had absolutely no idea how we were going to get out of them. Humanity is blessed because God is not indifferent to our plight as so many believe. God loves us too much to allow us to destroy ourselves. We can take something that is good and corrupt it to the point that it becomes an instrument of evil. Communications is good. As stated earlier, relationships don’t last long without it. But even communications can be corrupted. I recall reading our lesson passage many years ago and struggling to understand why the actions of the people were considered so evil by God. It seemed obvious to me at that time that there was no way they could successfully build a tower that reached all the way to the very throne room of God. So what was wrong with their attempt to do so? Well, I have since learned a lot in the ensuing years about human actions that take place independent of any consideration of God. First, human nature is not to be trusted. You only have to disappoint yourself once or twice to come to that conclusion. If our selfish nature can disappoint us, then surely it presents a danger to others who run in our circles. Again, when this evil is coupled with the synergy of cooperation, then we have a recipe for disaster that can quickly escalate into world wars. Secondly, of all the things people can build, why would they attempt to build a tower to heaven? I believe the answer is obvious. With such a tower, then people can go to God on their own terms without having to worry if He is going to come to them when they call. How is that for audacity? We should all thank God that He doesn’t let us get too carried away with our own foolishness. Without bringing injury to anyone, God simply confused their language so they could not understand each other. After communications broke down, then relationships dissolved and people moved away from each other. Their evil works were subdued because God scattered the nations. Robert C. Hudson September 17, 2013

An Everlasting Covenant

September 22, 2013 Background Scripture: Genesis 6:9 – 9:28 Lesson Passage: Genesis 9:1, 3 – 6, 8 – 17 From the beginning, God has always had a covenant with man. We sometimes refer to the first covenant as the Adamic Covenant. It contains the instructions God gave to Adam probably before Eve existed. Adam was told what to do, what to eat, and what not to eat. After Adam’s fall from grace because he disobeyed the first covenant, God gave a second covenant to Adam, Eve, and the serpent. We refer to this as the Edenic Covenant. Among the stipulations in it were the hardships that mankind would endure just to survive and propagate the human race. Although human hardships were assured—including physical death—the promise of redemption was also an aspect of this covenant. There was also a promise of future judgment against the serpent and its offspring. Today, we take a look at the third covenant. This one we refer to as the Noahic Covenant. This covenant was given to Noah and his family after the world had been judged by the great flood. The devastation of this divine judgment left only eight human souls alive in the world—and perhaps even traumatized. The Noahic Covenant began with a blessing from God and the command for them to procreate and again fill the earth with people. The animals would now become wildlife and have a fear of man. Perhaps prompting this fear or dread was the provision that man would now be carnivorous and add the flesh of animals to his diet. Prior to this covenant, the only diet that God had presented to man in the scriptures was vegetarian. This covenant also provided the wonderful promise that neither all of mankind nor beast would ever have to fear a repeat of a divine judgment by flood waters. The seal of this promise would be the display of a rainbow in the sky after the rains are done. This provision would continue perpetually through all generations. After the Noahic Covenant, there would be at least four more covenants between God and man but the provisions of this covenant would continue even in the light of the other covenants. The provisions of this covenant are everlasting as long as people continue to procreate and bring forth into this world new human life. The hardships of the Edenic Covenant were not taken away but rather implicitly included in this one. On the other hand, Noah and his family no longer had to fear clouds nor rain. Those would continue to come but they would always be cut short of total devastation of the earth. No doubt the Great Flood was a traumatic experience and there was a need for an everlasting provision in this covenant so that mankind’s relationship with God could be one of reverence and love rather than fear and torment. The rainbow is a remainder of that provision. Thank God that it wasn’t just for the eight souls and the groups of animals rescued from the flood in Noah’s days. Even today, we experience devastating storms that often bring tremendous floods and sometimes trauma. But they are limited in their scope because of the provisions of this everlasting covenant. Robert C. Hudson September 11, 2013

Knowledge of Good and Evil

September 15, 2013 Background Scripture: Genesis 3 Lesson Passage: Genesis 3:8 – 17, 21, 23 Is ignorance truly bliss? It certainly seemed to be true in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. On the surface, it appears that being ignorant of good and evil allowed Adam and Eve to live blissful lives in God’s Paradise. When Adam sinned by eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he placed himself at enmity with God. Eve’s conversation with the serpent and their subsequent actions started an avalanche of Divine judgment upon the serpent, the woman, the man, and the ground. Their actions included Adam’s sin, their shame as a result of it, and their futile attempt to avoid God’s presence. In spite of Adam’s excuse that they were trying to hide from God because of their nakedness, it is clear that something else was going on since they had already covered their physical nakedness with fig leaves. They were embarrassed because the fig leaves covered their naked bodies but not their sin. Their sin was exposed and they wanted to avoid God’s presence. In their fallen state in the garden, there was an even greater danger lurking. The new threat of danger was their access to the tree of life which was in the midst of the garden. Its fruit would cause them to live forever in their current state of sin. This would have caused them to have the same destiny as Satan and his angels—namely, the Lake of Fire for eternal damnation. Therefore, they were evicted from the Garden of Eden so that they would not have access to the tree of life and eat of its fruit which would have been a greater error than the first. Prior to Adam’s sin, the tree of life was not part of the diet restriction God had imposed on him. If they had chosen to eat of it prior to his sin, then they would have lived forever in their state of bliss. Rather than that, Adam chose to disobey God’s instructions to him even though God told him what the punishment would be. God made garments of skins for them. These were more durable than the leaves which would eventually dry up and wither away. More important than that, those skins were taken from some animal that, no doubt, gave its life for the provision. The skins covered their bodies but the blood of that animal covered their sins. Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden as part of God’s plan of redemption. They were not evicted from the garden because of their knowledge. They were evicted because they were now living in a state where sin had become part of their nature. Sin came when Adam disobeyed God’s direct command (warning) to him. Knowledge does not cause sin to occur. Rather, acquiring knowledge by disobeying God is the real problem. Disobedience to divine instructions is sin. Now let’s revisit the question, Is ignorance truly bliss? Adam and Eve were living in a state of bliss because they lived in obedience to God not because they were ignorant. Knowledge did not bring about their suffering and struggles. Knowledge is neither moral nor immoral. Knowledge is neither ethical nor unethical. Knowledge is neither holy nor unholy. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing right about disobeying God. Robert C. Hudson September 4, 2013