Wednesday Bible Study: Abraham plank by plank part IX

 

If you thought I had confused you before, pull up a chair!  Often, God teaches me what I need to know through the connectivity of the Bible, and you are about to see how that works for me.  You see, I have a morning routine of Bible reading- A chapter starting from the beginning of the Bible, a chapter in Psalms, and a chapter in the prophets.  With God there are no coincidences, and I knew something was up when I simultaneously reached the back halves of both Exodus (where God takes several chapters discussing the building of the Tabernacle) and Ezekiel (where He spends several chapters describing Ezekiel watching an angel "measuring" the Temple to come when Jesus rules on Earth.  This stuff- unless you are a detail nerd- is heartbreakingly boring, but I knew there was a point.  And that there was a point was virtually shouted to me when I hit the end of each the same morning.  I don't want to exhaust your good will by describing what happened in detail, but let me show you just one verse each from the two chapters:

Actually, one chapter shy of the end in Exodus: Exo 39:30  And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. 

And Ezekiel: Eze 48:35  It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there. 

So I found myself having to parse through these stories to see what He was telling me.  The first thing was, "Ezekiel is your attention-getter.  The meat is in Exodus"

Second, He had me take apart the whole story of the making of the Tabernacle, and it comes down to this:

-God had the plan from the beginning.  You get that concept because He showed the layout to Moses- just like He showed (in measured detail) the Heavenly Temple to Ezekiel.

- God anointed a messenger, Moses, to bring God's Word to the people, as he would Ezekiel later.

- God placed the idea in Moses' brain so vividly, he forgot not one detail, and his explanation was carried out as if the workers had seen it, too.

- God gave them the materials to build the Tabernacle, when He had them "plunder" Egypt when they left.

- God put the generosity in their hearts to give the resources- much more than enough- to build it.

- God gifted the craftsmen the ability to make the intricate details.

- God made sure the name of each tribe was inscribed on the gems of the Ephod, placed in His order.  Thus not only including everyone, but making sure they knew it was by HIS arrangement, so there would be no fighting over 'pecking order'.

-And finally, God through Moses blessed the outcome.

And the Ezekiel connection?  Not once is it said anything about any hand of man working on this Temple.  Like all the abilities it took to build the Tabernacle, God GAVE IT.

So what, pray tell, does this have to do with Abraham- or us?  Here we go.

The 13 years are up and God makes two visits to Abram.  The first was just God's voice.  It was a renewing of all the promises God had made previously.  But this time, Abram had grown deep enough in faith to be able to question God- plus, while having a kid at 86 was a stretch, having one at 99 seemed impossible.  But God not only assured him, He added a sign- every male was to be circumsized. Then, a second sign- He changed their names.

To me, I believe this first was God's way of showing Abram, "Do not be afraid to cast off flesh- I AM not flesh, and My Word is more than flesh.  The second symbolized a change in their positions.  Abram meant "High father", a term that gave glory to Abram. He became Abraham- "Father of a Multitude"- a feat that would take a miracle of God.  Likewise Sarai, which meant basically, "dominant", was switched to Sarah- a "noble lady".  

Less than a month later (according to the Book of Jubilees), they were visited by "three men"- who as the story goes, were actually Christ Himself in bodily form, with two angels.  This is where we had that little happening with Sarah we talked about a few weeks ago:

Gen 18:12  So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 

Gen 18:13  The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 

Gen 18:14  Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 

Gen 18:15  But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.” 

One can only suppose Abraham chuckled to himself here, as God had already told him the child's name would be Isaac- which means "laughter".

But there is something else here.  Sarah basically said in v12, "To have a child, you have to have sex.  And look at us!  We're about dead, why would we have sex?"  Note that the LORD did not say, the power of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you, like He had the angel tell Mary.  He just said, "You're gonna have a kid."  But there's a way this makes sense.  Consider, Two things happen before the story of Isaac's birth- and one of them is Abraham repeating his deception of Pharaoh with King Abimelech.

Gen 20:1  From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 

Gen 20:2  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 

Why would Abimelech take Sarah, a 90-year old lady too "worn out to have pleasure"?  Because she was HOT again- at least as much as she was back in Egypt.  I believe God turned back the aging process for these two- something I never considered before, and I apologize for earlier speculations.  Think about it- she's going to need her breasts to nurse Isaac ( I kinda doubt she'd pass the job off to Hagar), not to mention energy enough to raise him.  Annnd... we have the evidence of Abimelech hitting on her to confirm.

Just one more little item to add to this story before I tie everything together.  As the "three men" started to leave, and Abraham, being the good host, saw them off, the Lord muses about whether He should tell Abraham the REST of the reason for their visit- the destruction of the evil cities of the Plain.

Gen 18:17  The LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 

Gen 18:18  seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 

Gen 18:19  For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 

What do I hope to tie in here?  That God is inclusive to those who love Him.  That's why He has us pray, even though "He knows what we need before we ask".

Okay, so let's go back to what we learned in Exodus.

- God had the plan from the beginning; it grew in detail as Abraham gained in faith, but it never changed.

-God had called the man who was to set the plan in motion- Abraham.

- God took the time to build this plan into Abraham SO completely, he never even blinked later on when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac.

- God provided everything Abraham and Sarah needed to complete the plan- including, I believe, restored youth.

- God had, just as David described in Psalm 139, knew and patterned Isaac all along, "written in your book and planned before a single one of them began".  God gave their bodies the ability and the gifts to "make" Isaac, and I think this is important.  Like the goldsmith Bezalel and his learned crafts, the happy couple were born with the ABILITY to have children- but it was the GIFTS- skill to Bezalel, youth to Abraham and Sarah- that made it happen.

-God had it planned from the start that EVERYONE would be included in His plan- and in HIS order.  Thus, Abraham is the Father of MANY nations- not just Jews.  Remember what John the Baptist said to the self-righteous Jews:

Mat 3:9  And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 

- And finally, God blessed Abraham for his faith, by sharing a confidence about what was about to happen to Sodom and Co.

And what does Chris and his readers pull out from all this?  Two big things.  One, God has our lives in His hands- planned out to the most intricate detail.  If you don't believe me, I dare you, go ahead and wade through the ends of Exodus and Ezekiel.  Or, you might just read this:

Jer 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 

And two:  It's all GIFTS FROM GOD!  Oh, we might have to do our part here and there- like Abraham and Sarah apparently did ;)- but any skill we did it with, any material we used in it, and any plan we devised- it came as a gift from the God that loves us.

Next up: Shake and bake in Sodom...