The Dream of God
07/23/2006 - The Dream Reclaimed: Abraham
In his book Simply Christian, N. T. Wright says that every human being seems to have an innate sense that something is not right with our world. He calls it "echoes of a voice." And we all hear that voice in a variety of ways. Everyone one of us has an inborn sense of justice. We want things to be fair. Yet we learn early on that life is not fair. There is injustice in our world … lots of it.
"That's not fair!" we yell on the playground. And this longing for things to be made right is the echo of a voice deep within all of us that yearns for justice to be done.
We hear the echo of a voice in our thirst for spirituality. We all have a sense that there must be more to life than this life because the things that this life offers us don't ultimately satisfy. Part of the Christian story and for that matter, part of the Jewish story and the Muslim story is that we all have been so seriously damaged by evil that what we need isn't simply better self-knowledge, or more education, or improved social conditions. We need help. We need to be rescued by someone outside of ourselves.
The need for community and human relationships is another echo of a voice. We were made for each other. Yet making relationships work, let alone making them thrive, is often remarkably difficult. Getting along with each other can be tough.
Beauty is another echo of a voice. The world is full of beauty. We stand mesmerized on the beach watching ocean waves roll in to shore, each one a miracle of smooth curves and crashing power, but that enjoyment turns to horror when we see images of a tsunami. If the whole earth is full of God's glory, why is it also so full of pain and anguish and screaming and despair?
We search for justice, but often it eludes us. We hunger for spirituality, but often live as if this world was all that there is. And the finest and best of our relationships will all eventually end in death. The laughter will turn to tears. We know it. We fear it. But there's nothing we can do about it.
God's dream of dwelling in peace and harmony with all that he created went terribly wrong. His dream for justice and spirituality, relationships and beauty was shattered in the garden and turned into a nightmare when Adam and Eve rebelled and chose to do their own thing in Genesis 3. Then the first murder took place in Genesis 4 when Cain killed his little brother Abel and that crime eventually mushroomed into worldwide violence which got so bad that God threw up his hands and cried, "Enough!" In Genesis 6:7 he says, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created - and with them the animals, the creatures that move along the ground, and the birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.
God had second thoughts about the whole dream and was going to destroy it all until he discovered one righteous man, one person who walked with him despite the rip current that was dragging everyone else away and his name was Noah. And so God flooded the earth, but rescued Noah and his wife and their three sons and their wives and started all over again. In Genesis 9:1, God blesses Noah and his family and gives them the same mandate that he had given Adam and Eve. Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
And they did, but now it took only two chapters for the dream to unravel again. This time, instead of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to become like God, humankind attempts to build a tower to reach the heavens and become like God.
About which Wright says, "Those who were supposed to be reflecting God's image into the world were instead looking into mirrors of their own. And they both like and are frightened by what they see. Arrogant and insecure, they have become self-important so God scatters them across the face of the earth, confusing their languages so that they can no longer pursue their grandiose projects."
"The story of the Tower of Babel is an account of a world given to injustice, spurious types of spirituality (trying to stretch up to heaven by our own efforts), failed relationships, and the creation of buildings whose urban ugliness speaks of human pride rather than the nurturing of beauty."
And we wouldn't be surprised if God destroyed it all again. He certainly could have and justice would have been served. But he doesn't. Instead, he takes his finger off the trigger and hatches another idea. And so in Genesis 12 we read about a great turning point in reclaiming the dream of God.
This morning we continue our series called The Dream of God: Bringing Heaven to Earth with a teaching I've called the"The Dream Reclaimed." If you have a Bible meet me at Genesis 12 and let's look at that turning point.
In Genesis 12:1-3 we read, The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.2"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
In the midst of a world gone mad, God doesn't choose to bomb it. He chooses to bless it. He wants to keep the dream alive. And so he reaches down and calls a man who is going to spearhead his rescue operation. He forms a crisis response team in the form of a family, a lineage of people who will, through the ages, remember their Creator and their original purpose for life and who will seek to bring truth, blessing, wisdom, and healing to all people so that God's creation can be rescued from evil.
And it all starts with a man named Abram, which means "exalted father," which is ironic because he has no kids. Five chapters later his name will be lengthened to Abraham which means "father of many," indicating God's desire to bless him with a large family tree.
Genesis 12 is often referred to as the call of Abraham. And it's a remarkable call! For reasons known only to God himself he chooses to bless the whole world through this one man, but unlike Noah, there is no indication that Abraham was a righteous man or a blameless man or that he even walked with God up to this point. God just seems to pick him at random.
At the time, Abraham was living what appears to be a comfortable lifein the suburbs of an ancient city called Ur which was located near the Persian Gulf in what is now southern Iraq. Scholars tell us that Ur was one of the world's wealthiest cities with a population of about 300,000 people, many of whom were highly educated. And like the rest of the world, the people of Ur worshiped many gods, the chief being Nanna, the moon god.
Abraham lived there with his dad, Terah, who was a successful shepherd, his two brothers, Nahor and Haran, and his wife Sarai. His family worshiped idols like everybody else. Abraham was a middle-aged, comfortable, idol worshiping, prosperous businessman who wasn't planning to relocate anywhere when God singles him out from everybody else on the planet and says, "Follow me."
And the amazing thing is that he does. He leaves Ur and travels about 600 miles northwest to a city called Haran and stops there. Haran isn't the Promised Land. Haran is in the country that we call Syria today, still about 400 miles northeast of Canaan, the Promised Land. He stops there with his family and settles down for about fifteen years until his dad dies. And then God comes to Abraham again and says, "Let's go."
Look at Genesis 12:4-5, So Abram left, as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
Hebrews 11:8 adds this to the story, By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
What makes Abraham such a remarkable person is not who he was before he received the call of God, but how he responded after he received the call of God. He obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going.
That's faith! Abraham had never been to the Promised Land. He didn't book his trip through a travel agent who had been there or leaf through a full color brochure of the Holy Land. He didn't take a virtual tour on his computer. He had no idea where this place was. But he believed God and he followed him.
Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
And when it comes to the dream of God, faith means believing that God is still alive and building his kingdom and reclaiming his dream on this earth even though we don't always see it, even though at times it seems like this world is all there is, even though life is unfair and tsunamis and hurricanes and disastrous things happen, even though there is violence and abuse and war and a glaring absence of peace and harmony in our world today, even though life is a riddle, wrapped up in a mystery, inside an enigma we still believe that God is at work to accomplish his dream of bringing heaven to this earth. We still believe he wants his will done on earth as it is in heaven. That's faith. That's being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
But living by faith isn't easy and sometimes we're tempted to give up on the dream. Abraham finally gets to the land that God promised, but soon he discovers that the land is not all that its cracked up to be. Look at Genesis 12:10, Now there was a famine in the land. What? Is that the reward of faith? Is that what it means to be blessed? God takes Abraham away from his home and a comfortable, prosperous lifestyle and sticks him in place where people are dying of starvation!
This is what's called a faith crisis. Ever have one of them? Sometimes we step out in faith to follow God and the bottom drops out and we think, "Oh no. What's this? God where are you? You let me down!" Walking by faith gets messy at times. There are times when we wonder whether it's really worth it to follow God. "There was no famine back in Ur or Haran. We had plenty of food on the table there."
But as we said last week, shattered dreams are often God's unexpected pathway to joy. A crisis doesn't mean God didn't lead us there or that God isn't with us. Instead, it means that God wants to deepen our dependence on him. Famines are disguised opportunities designed to strengthen our faith and build our trust in God. Don't be surprised if a crisis hits soon after you've taken a faith step.
And so God takes care of Abraham and his family through the famine and they finally get settled in the Promised Land. But there is still a huge part of their dream that hasn't come true and they're tempted to give up on it. Years go by and there's still no baby like God promised. They have no kids. And Abraham and Sarah aren't getting any younger. He was already seventy-five when God told him to move and promised to make him a great nation. But that was twenty-five years ago and now Abraham is pushing one hundred and Sarah is ninety.
So they're tempted to take matters into their own hands. First, they think the descendants are going to come from Eliezer, Abraham's butler. Then they think the descendants are coming from Hagar, Sarah's maid. But finally, after years of waiting their frazzled faith is rewarded by God and he gives them a son.
Turn over to Genesis 21:1-7, Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age; at the very time God had promised him. 3Abraham gave the name Isaac (he laughs) to the son Sarah bore him. 4When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." 7And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
Isaac is the son of promise. He's the one they've been waiting for all these frustrating years. Hebrews 11:11-12puts it this way, By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
Abraham's faith is rewarded by God. He and Sarah now have the promised child safely in their arms. Their dream has finally come true. The struggle is now over. Right? Wrong! Just when Abraham thought school was out, God hands him his final exam in faith. And it's a big one. Someone has said that the toughest tests are always tests of sacrifice and Abraham is asked to make the greatest sacrifice he could ever imagine.
Look at Genesis 22:1, Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
After all that Abraham had been through to get his promised son, God comes to him and says, "Kill him! Drive a knife through his heart and light him on fire!" What kind of a God would ask such a thing? It's horrific! And no one would dare blame Abraham if he said, "What are you crazy? No way, God. I've done everything you've asked up until now. But I won't do this. I won't kill the son you gave me. You've finally crossed the line."
But he doesn't say that. Instead, look at verse 3, Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
This guy is amazing! Abraham obeys God immediately and starts walking. Look at verse 4, On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,7Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 8Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. 9When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
Abraham was about to go through with it. The altar was built. The wood was stacked. The boy was bound. The knife was raised ready to plunge through Isaac's chest. And at the last possible second God says, "Stop!"
Look at verse 11, But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." 13Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.14So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
All along God had planned to provide a substitute, a ram to die in Isaac's place. He gave that ram an appetite and led it up the high mountain and when it was rummaging around for food in a thicket it got stuck. And just at the right time it was there as God's provision. Abraham passed the test with flying colors and God showed him a fresh new part of himself and Abraham called that place Jehovah Jireh, "the Lord Provides."
Abraham passed the toughest test of his life. And God honored him for it. Look at verses 15-19, The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." 19Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us the secret to Abraham's obedience. By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19Abrahamreasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
Abraham's faith included a resurrection, even though he'd never seen a resurrection. He believed that even if he had killed Isaac God could raise him from the dead. And so God blessed Abraham's faith even more and from his son, Isaac, he eventually made his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach. And later on the Bible says that you and I are Abraham's descendants if we believe in Abraham's God and what he did for us two thousand years later in the sacrifice of his son, Jesus.
Galatians 3:29 says,If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. We are Abraham's descendants if we believe in Jesus, whether we're Jews or Gentiles. We are blessed to know God and, like Abraham, we are to be a blessing to this world. We are the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham to reclaim the dream and bring hope and healing to this world. We are the stars in the dark night sky that Abraham couldn't count. We are to be light in this dark world to help reclaim the dream of God. That's why we're to speak up for justice and live for more than our eyes can see. That's why relationships are such a high value to Christ followers and beauty is something to behold.
I love how Wright puts it when he says, "The point is that God's covenant with Abraham is seen as a rock-solid commitment on the part of the world's Creator that he will be the God of Abraham and his family. Through Abraham and his family, God will bless the whole world. Shimmering like a mirage in the deserts through which Abraham wandered was the vision of a new world, a rescued world, a world blessed by the Creator once more, a world of justice, where God and his people would live in harmony, where human relationships would flourish, where beauty would triumph over ugliness. It would be a world in which the voices that echo in all human consciousness would blend together and be heard as the voice of the living God."
By faith we believe that that world is coming. And by faith we do everything we can as a church and as individuals to reclaim the dream and to be a blessing to this world. God starts with an unlikely, elderly couple, named Abraham and Sarah, about 3,000 years ago, who miraculously conceive in their old age and give birth to a people who by faith have a special calling to know God and to make him known, to be enlightened and to enlighten others, to be blessed and to bless everyone else. And when we believe in Jesus we become part of that people too, descendants of Abraham whose great privilege and responsibility is to be a blessing to this world as well, to be part of the solution to evil and not part of the problem. If you have faith in Abraham's God that's your calling and that's my calling too, to take the blessing of God to all peoples on this earth.