The Marriage of Isaac

October 28, 2018 Background Scripture: Genesis 24 Lesson Passage: Genesis 24:12 – 21, 61 – 67 Genesis 24 is a very long chapter. It details the events of Abraham sending his faithful servant into a far country to retrieve a bride for his son, Isaac. Please note that there is no biblical record that Isaac requested a bride be sought for him. His father, Abraham, saw that Isaac was grieving because of the death of his mother and he sent for a bride who would bring comfort to Isaac. This account in the book of Genesis is very much a portrayal of the eastern culture of prearranged marriages. This is not the western culture idea of “Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl get married and live happily ever after.” In the eastern culture, parents did not leave it up to the inexperienced, and often unwise, young people to make a decision that had such far-reaching implications for the entire extended family and the family’s wealth. Therefore, marriage was considered a family decision that was pursued by the parents of the prospective groom and bride. It was often conducted as a business arrangement between the two families. You can see this by the great amount of wealth the servant of Abraham took on the trip to locate a bride for Isaac. He had a caravan of ten camels laden with a variety of good things from the stockpile of Abraham’s wealth. The goods he carried along would allow the servant to bargain for the best available bride. The arrangements and all of the details for the wedding were all planned by the parents. Sometimes the marriage arrangements were made when the prospective bride and groom were still infants. Remarkably—or not—those arranged marriages often outlasted the ones initiated by the emotional and physical attractions of young adults. Again, sometimes those arrangements were made while the couple were still children. At other times, the arrangements were made when the parents thought the young adults were now of age and settled into careers. In either case, the parents took the initiative to arrange for a marriage to take place—which included selecting who would be the bride and groom. Abraham decided it was time for Isaac to have a wife and his trusted servant was charged with going to the land of Abraham’s family and selecting an appropriate bride. The servant was no doubt influenced by the religious faith of his master. This showed when the servant prayed that God would divinely intervene and make the selection on behalf of the servant. The servant’s prayer was so specific that there was no way to miss that God had answered his prayer and showed him who the bride would be. After God identified Rebekah as the bride, the servant proceeded to the home of Rebekah’s parents to begin the business part of the arrangements. When all was concluded, and Rebekah had consented to the arrangement, the servant of Abraham, his servants, Rebekah, and her maids started out to return to Isaac. Isaac met them in the field and received Rebekah and took her into his mother’s tent. Genesis 24 might seem strange to many westerners, but it would seem quite ordinary to many residents of the Near East and Far East even today. I imagine that easterners might take great pride in the longevity of such a well-protected and honored tradition. This biblical account seems almost an allegory of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Even today, the Holy Spirit goes throughout the world bearing spiritual gifts in search of those who would become the bride of the Son. There is no biblical record that the Son requested it. But Father knows best. Robert C. Hudson September 5, 2018

The Birth of the Promised Son

October 21, 2018 Background Scripture: Genesis 18:9 – 15; 21:1 – 7 Lesson Passage: Genesis 18:9 – 15; 21:1 – 7 One of the most remarkable promises God made Abram unfolds in today’s lesson. God had told Abram that he would have a son to be his heir. Perhaps out of guilt, Sarai had convinced Abram to father a child by her maid, Hagar. They both consented to it because they believed they were carrying out the will of God. God promised him offspring when he was seventy-five years old, so they conspired to help God ten years later. When he was eighty-six years old, Hagar bore Abram a son, Ishmael. Thirteen years later, God again appeared to Abram and reminded him that he was going to have a son as He had promised previously. Abram begged God to accept Ishmael as that promised son. God told Abram that Ishmael was not the son He had promised. However, God promised to bless Ishmael because he was Abram’s son. But Ishmael was not the son that God promised to give Abram. At this time, God changed Abram and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah. God promised that Sarah would bear Abraham a son and he would be the promised son. This was hard for the two of them to fathom. Sarah would give birth for the first time in her life at the age of ninety years old and Abraham would be one hundred years old when the promised son was born. This was God’s promise and it would require an absolute miracle of God to bring it about. God did not have to perform a miracle for the eighty-five-year-old Abram to father a child by the young maid, Hagar. On the other hand, Sarah had never been able to conceive and bear a child and she was now pass the child-bearing years at the age of eighty-nine. Only God could make it possible for Sarah to conceive at the age of eighty-nine and then give birth to her firstborn child at the age of ninety years old. First, Abraham laughed at the notion of this and then Sarah laughed. But the question was posed to Abraham: Is there anything too difficult for the Lord? In our heads, we know the answer to this question is always no. But, when we are faced with difficult situations, difficult people, difficult decisions, or just plain difficult days, we don’t always feel that the answer to the question is so simple. I believe the lesson in this for us is to resign ourselves to the position of accepting that God can do whatever He chooses to do whenever He chooses to do it. Sometimes, we need to stop looking for a “plan B” and accept that the outcome is in God’s hands. We know He can do it and therefore we should depend on Him to do it. God does not need our help. The more difficult the situation, the more we accept that it is only through the power of God that the outcome will be the seemingly impossible. God could have given Abram and Sarai the child thirteen years earlier when they were trying to help Him. I believe He waited until they had reached a point where they would not even try a “plan B”. Then God would not be competing with anyone or anything for the glory. The outcome would clearly be according to the will and power of the almighty God. While Abraham and Sarah laughed, God was moving their situation from impossible to hopeless. Then, God announced the birth of the promised son. Robert C. Hudson September 5, 2018

The Call of Abram

October 14, 2018 Background Scripture: Genesis 9 – 12 Lesson Passage: Genesis 10:1; 11:10, 27, 31, 32; 12:1 – 4 Since the flood destroyed all people on earth but the family of Noah, all races of people upon the earth descended from the three sons of Noah: Ham, Shem, and Japheth. After the flood, the sin in man caused corruption to be prevalent again. In spite of this, God promised Noah that He would not destroy the earth with a flood ever again. God’s plan now would involve diverting a stream from the river of humanity that He would purify for His sake. This stream of mankind would begin with Abram. Today’s lesson traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah through Noah’s son Shem. In the text, we can observe God beginning the process of purification by separating Abram from his country, his relatives, and his father’s house. This purification would require obedient compliance by Abram and not coercion on God’s part. Abram had to reach a point where he would be willing to leave all of this and make himself totally available to be used by God. It did not have to occur all at once—and it did not occur all at once. It was a process that took many years in the making. It began with Abram hearing the call of God for him to separate. Abram set out in partial obedience to the call. He was separating from his country, but he was not yet separating from his relatives and his father’s house. They started out for the right place, Canaan, but they stopped short and settled for another place, Haran. Abram’s actions mirror the sanctification process that Christians go through. We know the end goal is glorification and therefore a purging of all that does not glorify God. We release some things but hold firm to other things at the beginning of the sanctification process. We start out in the right direction, with the right destination in mind, but we settle for something far short of what God desires for us. It is oftentimes after the death of a loved one that we find the strength within us to move forward again in the direction God is leading us. Like Abram, we are grateful that God does not give up on us. As we walk in partial obedience, we are thankful that God assists us in our efforts to move in the direction in which He is leading us. As with Noah, God also promised to establish a covenant with Abram. God made Abram many great promises. Most of them were to be fulfilled long after Abram was deceased. God makes great promises to all who commit themselves to follow Him as He leads us to where He wants us to be. We sometimes worry about the brevity of life and what we may not be able to accomplish in the allotted time. God’s promises are better because they are not dependent on us and they are time-independent. Even if we happen to die before the promises come to fruition, we have the example of Abram to assure us that God will continue to work beyond our physical death to bring the promises into reality. At the end of the lesson text, Abram began to move in the direction God was leading him. Even at the age of seventy-five, Abram was determined to do the will of God. This was great faith on the part of Abram. One of the promises God had made him was that He would make a great nation out of Abram and bless him and make his name great. At seventy-five years of age, Abram was childless, and yet he answered the call of God. Robert C. Hudson September 5, 2018

The Righteousness of Noah

October 7, 2018 Background Scripture: Genesis 6; 8:19 Lesson Passage: Genesis 6:9b – 22 The multiplication of mankind upon the face of the earth should have been a glorious development. This was the original plan of God for mankind. This plan was supposed to unfold with man as he was created: in God’s image, after God’s likeness, and holy. If mankind had multiplied and spread across the face of the earth in this state, then the whole earth would have been filed with God’s glory. God could look at the physical world and see a reflection of Himself! However, when sin entered the world, it brought corruption and violence with it. As mankind began to multiply upon the earth, the corruption and violence multiplied as well. It continued until God had had enough of it. God declared that He was going to destroy all living creatures on the earth that breathed air. This included mankind, animals that walked upon the ground, and birds that flew in the air. Then came one of the most profound statements in the Old Testament: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Immediately after the statement, there are three reasons given for Noah’s standing with God. Noah was a righteous man. Noah was blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. Because of this, God granted that Noah would be allowed to know about His plan for the world. God talked with Noah and shared it with him. God was going to destroy the earth’s air-breathing creatures, but He was going to preserve Noah and his family and repopulate the earth through them. God gave Noah the plans on how to build a ship with three decks. The ship would be made waterproof and it would be used to house Noah and his family along with pairs of animals that also would be spared destruction by the flood waters that God was going to use to purge the earth. As God had caused the animals to come to Adam to be named, God would now cause pairs of animals to come to Noah to be saved from the punishing flood that was to come. Note that, Noah did not wait for impending doom to approach before he decided to have a right relationship with God. Noah was in right relationship with God before the impending doom arose. Noah had walked with God before and now God was going to preserve him and his family from the destruction. Noah was called blameless in his generation. This is noteworthy because it suggests that perhaps there is something “relative” about how we can assess our own character. I am not evaluated based on how those who lived a hundred years before me were, and if Jesus tarries, nor will those who shall live a hundred years after me, be evaluated based on how I live. This is not to say that right is not “absolutely” right. It is. There is a vast difference in how one’s public actions are viewed today versus how those same actions might have been looked upon a hundred years ago. In either timeframe, it takes a great amount of effort on the part of an individual to be different, in a positive way, from their peer group. This is observable at all times—especially in young people. No matter the upbringing, the pressure to conform to the general consensus of one’s peer group is very strong among peers. As humans, we strive for acceptance by other people. The surest way to be accepted—or, at the least, to be treated as such—is through conformance. Noah’s relationship with God made him stand out from the other people of his generation. Because of this, when they were destroyed, Noah was saved because he was in right standing with God. This was Noah’s righteousness. Robert C. Hudson September 5, 2018