Torah: Genesis 12:1-17:27
Haftorah: Isaiah 40:27-41:16

Long ago, the Jewish sages created reading calendars to be read annually throughout all the synagogues every sabbath. They are the Parsha (from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible), and the Haftarah (selected readings from the prophetic books of the Old Testament). Today, I continue my series exploring the Messiah in each of these portioned readings that was planned and scheduled in ancient days and appointed for our present days. For November 1 this year, the readings are cited above. I would encourage you to read those passages first before you read my post, or at least read them in tandem.

This week’s parsha focuses on the life of Abram who became Abraham. He is known for his great obedience to God and great faith. Through him came God’s promise to bless the whole world. Abraham, however, was not perfect, but God still used him in his greater plan to bring the knowledge of God to the world and to bring the Messiah to the world.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

^“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” (Gen. 12:1-4).

Though Abraham was counted righteous by faith, Abraham did not delay to obey God’s instructions. He left Haran promptly. The Hebrew for “get yourself out” or “go from” is an emphatic command. It is a call that includes a command to hurry. If my kids are in the street and a car is coming, I will emphatically call them to get out of the road more so than when I routinely call them to dinner. God was calling Abraham (then Abram) to escape a head on collision with idolatry and the vices of his people’s paganism.

According to a Misdrash, Abram’s father, Terah, was an idol-maker. He made them and sold them. One day his father left the store in Abram’s care. He gave Abram the charge that none of the idols should have even a scratch on them when he returned. When Terah returned to the store, every idol was smashed except for one. When Terah asked Abram what happened, Abram pointed to the only idol left standing and answered, “He did it.” We have no assurance that this story actually happened, but it is an entertaining one. This story colors Abram as a man who was fed up with the nonsense he recognized in paganism and was willing to risk anything in pursuit of truth. So when the true God reached out to him and told him to go, he went.

As another example of his obedience in this parsha, at the instruction of God, he circumcised himself and hundreds of men on the same day (I’m not a man but that must have been tough). After all, 318 men went to battle with him, and that’s just the men born in his household. He circumcised everyone born in his house and purchased, in the same day. Logic would assume that number significantly exceeds the number mentioned in Genesis 14:14. Abraham did not hesitate to obey God. If only believers today had more of that faith. If God tells us something plainly in His Word, just believe it! Just do it!

Just like Abraham, people today are called to go out of their place of idolatry that they are naturally born into and by faith to go into the unknown with God. Idolatry is putting something else before God. They are called to cut off their sin and forever be changed by God. Circumcision is a symbol of the removal of sin. And you can’t be uncircumcised.

By trusting His leading, we put our faith in Him, and we obey whatever he says as a demonstration of our faith. Paul uses Abraham as an example of justification by faith:

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:1-5).

James uses Abraham as an example of faith demonstrated through obedience.

^“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

^“But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:14-26).

So how do we today demonstrate faith like Abraham? God isn’t necessarily telling you to pack your bags and leave town immediately. God probably isn’t telling you to literally circumcise yourself. God’s command to leave Haran was a particular instruction to Abram, and circumcision is a particular covenantal sign God gave to Abraham and his descendants, the Hebrews, the Israelites, the Jews. But God does tell us to leave our lives of sin, follow Him, and cut off anything that hinders.

Now Abraham wasn’t perfect. In fact, he made some pretty big mistakes in this week’s parsha, but that didn’t ruin God’s plan because God’s plan was based on God, not on Abraham. Likewise, this week’s haftarah says God’s purposes and plan are not based on Israel or Judah, but on God. In fact, he calls Israel a worm (Is. 41:14), but he speaks of them so endearingly.

God fulfilled his plan through Abraham. The Messiah that would bless all families or nations is a descendant of Abraham. Jesus Christ came to save the world from sin, and that is the greatest blessing of all. The author of the book Hebrews explains Jesus is the High Priest Who can intercede for and atone for our sins the best because He is after the order of Melchizedek, who is also in this week’s parsha (See Heb. 5:1-7, 6:13-20, and chapter 7). The author of Hebrews cites the messianic passage written by David, Psalm 110:4, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’” Melchizadek means King of Righteousness or My King is Righteous, and that is exactly what Jesus is. He alone is righteous. Abraham, and every other human being, is a sinner, but because Jesus is completely righteous, He can be the King of Righteousness and the High Priest Who is above the Aaronic priesthood of the Torah and was promised before the Torah was given because He Himself gave the Torah and is before the Torah was.

God called Abram, Abram obeyed, God counted Abram’s faith a righteousness to him, and through his faith and obedience, God gave the world the Bible and the Messiah so that all people can have faith and obey and receive the righteousness of faith through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, concerning all believers, 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Peter is citing Exodus 19:5-6, “’Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; ⁶ and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” Peter takes this promise to Israel and applies it to all believers, Jews and those not Jews. God called Abram out of Ur and Haran, God called the Hebrews out of Egypt, and God calls us out of the darkness of sin. There is clearly, according to the Bible, more than one type of priesthood or mediation. The entire nation of Israel was/is a type of priesthood, and inside that is the Aaronic priesthood. There is a priesthood of all believers, and there is a promised messianic priesthood after the priesthood of Melchizadek that Jesus fulfills.

Abraham himself was a mediator for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah on more than one account. Genesis 13:13 tells us “the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.” But Abraham intercedes for them. First, he goes and fights for them and three other cities against four other kings and rescues them. This is when he was old enough to be in a retirement home by today’s standards. Then he later intercedes for them to God that He would not destroy them, but that story is in another parsha.

Abraham was a radical man called to live a radical life. He wasn’t perfect, but he had faith, he lived his faith, and he interceded for others who needed to know the same God Who found him. We have to be ready to live the faith of Abraham who was called out and commanded to cut off anything hindering him from following the One True God. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:22-24). Jesus also says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Matt. 5:29-30). No, we don’t have to literally carry a cross around every day and we don’t literally dismember ourselves. These are hyperbolic expressions of a need for dramatic life-altering change in a true repentant believer.

Abraham trusted God when He called him out of Haran. Trust the Bible. God fulfilled his promise to Abraham by giving the world the Bible through his descendants, the Jews, and by Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, the one through Whom all the families and nations of the world all blessed with salvation. If you haven’t already, repent, believe Jesus is Lord Who died for your sins and was raised again and went to heaven until He will return to rule and reign and judge the earth. He forgives you, saves your soul from hell, justifies you, sanctifies you, and He will raise you to eternal life one day. No matter where you are in your faith, study His Word and pray, and as you learn more about what sin is, you can identify it more and more in your life. Once you learn about what else is still sin in your life, repent, leave it, cut it off, and keep following God. God did not tell Abraham everything he expected of him in one encounter either. God revealed what he expected from Abraham a little at a time over the course of years. To be expected to know everything at once would just be too overwhelming, but our faith, though the size of a mustard seed, is enough (Mt. 17:20), and it too can grow with time (Mk. 9:24, Lk. 17:5, 2 Cor. 10:15).

God told Abraham what would happen to his descendants long after he himself died. They would go into exile in a foreign land as slaves for 400 years before they returned to Canaan, and it happened. God told Israel and Judah, before the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, in this week’s haftarah, that they would be exiled from Israel and Judah, but then God would bring them back from many distant lands, and it happened in 1948. Should we then not trust God concerning what He says is and what He says is yet to come?

Abraham was an outsider during his entire walk with God. He was a sojourner in Canaan. If you feel like you don’t belong, you are in good company! In fact, Jesus said that’s how it’s supposed to me. Jesus told his disciples, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn. 15:18-19). He also prayed to the Father the night of His betrayal, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (Jn. 17:14).

God is a God of the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow. The only place people truly belong is with God through Jesus. That is the only place any of us can find true belonging. Unti next time, God bless.

Children of Abraham, Children of God

I am nothing but a grain of sand
Blown by the wind, tossed by the waves, 
And in advance God told Abram 
His children would be such He saves.
I'm not alone in twofold ways.
His covenant extends to me.
I am strangely His in a strange land,
And this also comes secondly,
I'm only one of all tossed sands
That He counts and records
Though I nor no man knows nor counts,
What God bought and affords.

I am nothing but a lonely star
Amid the blackened space,
Lightyears distant, oh so far
From others in their place,
And as well as God knows the heart,
He told Abraham too,
That his children would as such,
That what we are, He knew,
And every other star there is 
Feels just as distant as I feel,
And yet if I but look around
I'll understand to God what's real. 

I am Elijah in a cave,
Afraid and so alone,
The winds of life surrounding me,
Then by the Spirit shown
That 7,000 more like me
Are thinking the same thing,
They grope for God up the mountain
And to the cliffside cling.
And yet you made the stars to shine,
And together form constellations.
You made the sand to form firm ground,
Combined to hold the nations.

Though blustery storms may veil the stars
And earthquakes shake the sand
We seek You in Your still small voice.
We are each in Your hand.