Wednesday Bible Study- the add-to's

 

I am sure for you, as it was for me, the dive into Revelation was hard to take... the one light being that, even at his worst, man was a word away from the mercies of God.  That fills me with wanting to go back to something more of a joyous nature.  And I found myself drawn here:

2Pe 1:5  But also in this very thing, bringing in all diligence, filling out your faith with virtue, and with virtue, knowledge; 

2Pe 1:6  and with knowledge self-control, and with self-control, patience, and with patience, godliness, 

2Pe 1:7  and with godliness, brotherly kindness, and with brotherly kindness, love. 

2Pe 1:8  For if these things are in you and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

I want to look at each of these add-tos in turn, and learn what the phrase, "bringing in all diligence" means.  So I will be pulling an example from the Bible of each one to explore it.

When it comes to faith, I have to start with Abraham, because 

Rom 4:16  That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring--not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 

Rom 4:17  as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"--in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 

We are part of the promise given to Abraham, of descendants as many as the sands of the seashore.  But there was a long, rocky road for Abraham to get there.

First, he has faith to get up and leave Ur of the Chaldees for a new land "which I will show you"; but that first faith was deflected by his father, who had him stop in Haran, the "Las Vegas" of that day.  But God had called, and he had answered, so God wasn't giving up that easy.  He called again, and this time Abraham made it all the way to that Promised land... but, they had a drought.  Weakened by hard times, he went to Egypt, until God took advantage of Abraham's own fear and stupidity to drive him back.

From there, God was diligent to create a faith within Abraham to make him worthy of being that "Father to us all."  Somewhere between the ages of 75 (when he left Haran) and 90, God promised him this vast cloud of descendants.  He wanted to believe- as did Sarah- but you got to know, he had to be a bit skeptical at this point.  God had to prove himself; not a demand from Abraham, but a need in his heart.  God proved himself three ways.

First, He proved His protection was greater than Abraham's fear.  Remember that 'stupidity' I mentioned earlier?  That was telling Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister, so the Egyptians wouldn't kill him out of lust.  He tried the same thing again, back home with the people of Abimelech.  Sarah must have been a beauty unrivaled, because even pushing 90, she attracted both Pharaoh and Abimelech.  But both times, God supernaturally protected her honor.

Second, he proved His right- and righteousness- to Judge, with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which would have been spared if God would have found one person outside of Lot's family who was not wholly given over to depravity.  Even in their darkest, God gave Sodom this mercy.  They failed, like the doomed at Armageddon, but Abraham was witness to the mercy offered, as well as the Power of His judgment.

Third, God proved His faithfulness in that despite their ages, despite both Abraham (through designating his servant Eleazar as heir) and Sarah (by giving him Hagar, her maid, to have that child with) trying to do God's job FOR Him, God was true to His word: when Abraham was 100 and Sarah 91, Isaac was born to them.

Protection, righteousness, and faithfulness all shown to the extreme, it was now time for God to ASK the extreme.  Abraham was now in his 120's, and Isaac a young man, when God asked this:

Gen 22:1  After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." 

Gen 22:2  He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." 

Now, the Abraham we first met might have- like he did with Pharaoh and Abimelech- slapped a wig on Isaac's head and said, "But Lord, all I have is my daughter."  The Abraham that pled for Sodom might have pleaded with God, "Not so!  Do not ask this of me!"  The Abraham that was trying to DIY God's promise might have dressed up a scarecrow in Isaac's clothes- the family that later comes up with dressing Jacob as Esau certainly had THIS in them- and tried sacrificing it.  But now, this was an Abraham who had seen God's best, and so:

Gen 22:3  So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 

Not a word or action of backtalk.  But, God made those promises before, you say, so he surely knew God would "back down", right?

Not so.  The author of Hebrews gives us his motivation:

Heb 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 

Heb 11:18  of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." 

Heb 11:19  He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 

Get that?  He didn't know God would stop the sacrifice; he DID believe that God could overcome that by raising Isaac from the dead!  So confident was he of this fact, that he told his men:

Gen 22:5  Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." 

Why did God to that to him?  Reasons, but not my point.  Are we supposed to have THAT kind of faith?  Well, ask yourself, does God need you to build him an entire spiritual nation?  Or does he just need you/me to be faithful WHERE WE ARE?  The true point is, things like faith and the other add ons we'll be hitting require OUR work, our DILIGENCE, to accomplish what God desires for us.

Where is God proving Himself to you?  THAT will be the bedrock we build our next lessons on.