4th January Morning
Genesis 13-14
Finally, Abaham left and started on the Journey God had called him to. We are told that Abraham was rich in silver and gold. Abraham was a herdsman too and therefore he lived a nomadic life. It is as if with all this wealth and resources, Abraham had no land. This reminds me of the Banyarwanda and Banyankore people in Uganda who had many cows but owned no land until the current president told them to stop the nomadic life and get lands on which to graze their animals.
Land is as important as life itself. So, to God, Abraham had to own land and that land was given to him by God. Abraham was too blessed that the first land he and his nephew got could not accommodate both them. Imagine being that rich that your environment cannot contain you and your wealth. What is so amazing about the life of Abraham is that he was a rich man, but the wonder of all is that he was a God-fearing rich man. Our world is not in lack of wealth or even short of rich men. What our world lacks is God fearing rich men. Men who have the ability to distinguish what matters from vice. Getting money is not as difficult as staying a human being after you get real money. This is the economic message we draw from the life of Abraham. He put wealth in its rightful place and maintained his two relationships better. He related well with God.
Abraham was this rich man whose financial noise could not hover over the small still voice of God. He was not too busy for God. Abraham saw God in his wealth unlike most of us who see wealth in God. To him his God mattered more than his wealth, he was like NO GOD, NO WEALTH. Modern rich men are like: NO WEALTH NO GOD and no wonder all the churches are after the PROSPERITY GOSSIP. These days people SEE WEALTH IN GOD instead of SEEING GOD IN WEALTH. Abraham never went to church to get, he went to give his heart. He did not look at wealth as a goal or even the process but to him all this was just but a product of what was essentially existing. Many people in this world worship at the altar of materialism. Their desire for money and possessions is the most important thing in their lives and occupies the place God should occupy. The increasing popularity of lotteries and gambling, the growing claims and consumerism culture underlines that fact.
The accumulation and utilization of wealth confront the human family with some of its major challenges in determining the righteousness of goals and the correctness of behavior. Richards F says in the Law of Abundance, p. 46 that:
“In many respects the real test of a man is his attitude toward his earthly possessions”. The prosperity that results from honest and intelligent work is not necessarily repugnant to the spiritual quality of life but the Church consistently warns of the risks of “selfishness and personal aggrandizement” that lurk in accumulating wealth. If the earth’s resources are not wisely and carefully husbanded, wealth can become a curse. It is the “love of money,” not money itself, that is identified as the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). President Brigham Young warned that wealth and perishable things “are liable to decoy the minds of the saints“.
Wealth may result in misuse and un-Christian conduct, immoral exploitation, or dishonesty. Greed and harmful self-indulgence are sins, and the pursuit of materialistic goals at the expense of other Christian duties is to be avoided. People with materialistic wealth draw special warnings regarding responsibility toward the poor; riches can canker the soul and make entrance into heaven exceedingly difficult (Mathew 19:24).
The Bible is filled with all sorts of contrasts of wealthy people and poor people and its central message is not on whether we should pucker wealth or not. Its concern is on who we become either with wealth or without. It is true that poor people are more sinful than the rich people are, however, the rich are evil. Abraham was not evil. Materialism did not change a thing about his vertical relationship. Another relationship that wealth never affected in the life of Abraham was his horizontal relationship. Abraham maintained good relations with his family and community altogether. When the workers of Lot started fighting over lands for grazing, though Abraham had an upper hand both in wealth and power, he put the needs and interests of Lot before his and he asked Lot: where do you want to take? Lot chose the best of lands leaving Abraham with the worst for survival. To
To Abraham, his relationship with Lot mattered more than land and wealth. We must emulate this spirit. Many wrangles we have today in our modern world is because we think that our materialism matters more than our relationship with our neighbors. People kill others over a few feet of land. Others kill others just for scratching their cars. We must understand that rather than things not mattering, we should not at anyone point compare them with people. We must use things and love people. According to verses 14-18, after Abraham had behaved the way he behaved in such (an unfair to him) a situation, God gave him land and its size was as far as he could see. Imagine!! All he did was to build an altar and worship. Abraham was a worshipping rich man.
Chapter 14 is a chapter of liberation struggles. First four kings combine to fight for their freedom and power from the oppressing mega kingdom. This they do and succeed but as we all know, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. After they had secured their’s they assumed to take on others that actually did not belong to them. It was in this that they messed up with the wrong guy when they touched the nephew of Abraham, Lot. Abraham did not only have wealth but he also had an army at home, over 300 men trained to defend his family and wealth.
The concept of security guards has been here for every long time. The difference is that Abraham had trained commanders and not our modern arrow-men we export to the Arabs. Him not being selfish, his security was not for himself but also for his family and neighborhood. When he heard that his nephew Lot was one of the captives in the war, he had no option but to follow on a rescue mission. However, his rescue mission was not selective but inclusive.
This rescue mission reminds me of a political friend of mine by the names: Tamale Mirundi. This brother in his faithfulness to his political affiliation had spent more time hitting hard and hitting right his kinsmen on the opposition and somehow somewhere, an opportunity showed up for his enemies. They surrounded his mother and wanted to kill her. The brother ran to the president who he served for help and when he got there, the president ordered one of his generals by the names Kayihura, to rescue the mother of Tamale. And then the president told Tamale: “sit here, you are going to speak to your mother in 30 minutes from now” and so it was. This too was a rescue mission, however, the difference is that it was a selective rescue mission. Many people on that village might have been victimized but it was only the mother of Tamale that was saved.
In the case of Abraham, he rescued his nephew but also an entire kingdom that was captured. As we fight for freedom, we must be careful not to pursue selective and exclusive freedom. Our personal freedom and safety should be secured through the freedom of others. You are not free and safe if am your neighbor and am not safe. I cannot be attacked by an anaconda, and you give a deaf ear in the name of minding your business. What has eaten me, might eat you up next.
The king of Sodom made a very interesting request and here it is: Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people, and take the goods for yourself.” (Genesis 14:21 NKJ). Now I had earlier discussed the importance of people over wealth. This Sodom king understood that it people who make goods, once you have people, you have all the material wealth. But when you have material wealth without people you have nothing. Interesting enough, he made the request to a man Abraham who already knew the value of people. And one who was on this rescue mission due to his beliefs that centered on valuing people at the expense of things.
The transaction proposed by the Sodomite king was a bargain that made sense on the side of the king but no sense to Abraham. Abraham could not trade people for goods. He was not a bandit or a pirate to whom materialism mattered more than life. Many people today are always put on test by this sodomite king, who requests people for goods and majority choose goods and sell-off people. I hope you and I are not.
Finally, like Abraham does, he winded up in worship. He gave a tithe to the king of righteousness (Melchizedek) the prince of peace (Salem). I will come to that later, but my concern here is how Abraham concludes everything. Mwine V Glynn (my wife), and I have a saying: IT ALL ENDS IN I LOVE YOU. We agreed that we cannot avoid misunderstandings and fights, but we have agreed that whatever the disagreement, the success or failure, it must all end in telling each other that I LOVE YOU and practically affirming how much we love each other. The life of Abraham begun in God and always ended in God. Begin your day with him, live it with him and end it with him always.
4th January Evening
Genesis 15-16
Abraham was successful in everything except in one thing; he did not have a child. God was with him and had given me all things but not everything he wanted. He did not have a child. This we must learn that worshipping God does not necessarily mean you will lack nothing. You can have all things but miss one or two things. No one would have expected Abraham not to have a child given all his success, but yes he did not have one. He went before the lord with the prayer request of a son and his complaint was: how can Eliezer who is not biologically my son be my heir? How God answered this question is the message of chapter 15.
God told Abraham that first a servant will not inherent his dynasty but his biological child. However, God continued to tell Abraham that; while he is concerned with someone who he does not share genes with to be the heir, he was going to be the father of many Eliezers in the world and all these will be your innumerable children all over the world. But you will father these children through your only biological son (the one we now know to be Isaac). So in a sense, every character here was symbolic and representative. Abraham was a figure of God, Isaac Abraham’s biological son was God-Incarnate him we named Jesus Christ, and Eliezer is every gentile sinner and whoever serves sin.
Now all this was by the efforts of God alone and without a thread of human work. It was this that Abraham believed and it was counted to him righteousness. This is is what we call the FULL GOSPEL. After all this, Abraham sacrificed to establish the concept of the cross, and interesting enough, when he sacrificed, it was not a burnt offering but a hanging and bleeding sacrifice. He anticipated healing from the flowing blood of these animals he cut apart. Now look what this verse says: And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. (Genesis 15:11 NKJ). Vultures are modern pastors and congregants who gather around the cross not to be saved for eternal purposes but to solve their appetite urges. As Abraham drove them away so did, Jesus
Vultures are modern pastors and congregants who gather around the cross not to be saved for eternal purposes but to solve their appetite urges. As Abraham drove them away, so did Jesus drive them out of the temple they had turned into a market place. Jesus was not against business or work, but he was opposed to what was transacted. The priests in the Temple were selling salvation and grooming people to work their way to heaven. Likewise, Abraham was not against the feeding of the vultures but he was opposed to them eating the sacrifice. Uhhhm!!! I wish I could continue.
In chapter 16 we have an opportunistic couple. Like the chronicler told us in Genesis 3 that it was the woman who convinced the man to eat from the forbidden fruit, he is still with his androcentric (men-oriented) tendencies against women. He presents Sarah again as the culprit that initiated the impatience to God’s promise. As she who manipulated the house maid, and in all this Abraham is presented as one who is just influenced and a victim of circumstances.
Well, the story reveals a manipulative and an abusive couple that follows culture at the expense of what God would love to see. It was accepted in the then culture for the master to have kids with his maid-servants at leisure as long as he agreed with his wife though seeking permission from a woman was not always compulsory. So Sarai advised her husband to take advantage of Hagar and they did. After the maid had given birth, she forgot her position and identity in this home. She thought because of surrogating for this couple, she had become one of them. She started abusing and despising the one and only housewife Sarai.
Many people are as forgetful as Hagar in many cases. We easily get used and attract familiarity on our working desks. Gradually our reporting time at work changes, our speech, attitudes to our superiors changes. We get so used and start using what should be using us. FAMILIARITY is our modern leprosy. The problem of Hagar was the problem of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:1-3, “And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.” “And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.” “Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come night me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.”
Familiarity – I am not sure I can say enough on this predicament. I was talking with my senior and retired pastor and I asked him; What was the problem? And this is what he had to say: Nadab and Abihu, the sons of the High Priest, had become so accustomed to all of this and this became old hat to them. The church house was their second home. So, one day they just casually used their own fire. Others would have never dared to do what these sons did. Those outside would have realized how sacred this whole process was but to Nadab and Abihu, being the sons of the High Priest, it was old stuff for them to see the Tabernacle. It was an old thing for them to see the animal sacrifice. It was old stuff for them to see the fire being taken from the bloody Brazen Altar to the Altar of Incense. Thus, these sons took their censors and took their own fire to light the fire on the Altar of Incense but as soon as they did fire came down out of Heaven and destroyed them and killed them on the spot.
Why, because they thought nothing about it. They never gave it another thought that it made any difference because it had become old and trite. They had become accustomed to the house of God and their activity. They had become so familiar with the house of God. They had mentally brought the Brazen Altar, Laver, Golden Candlestick, Table of Shewbread, Veil, and the Altar of Incense down to their level of thought. They just casually took it for granted and probably said to someone who questioned them, “Oh, this is no big deal. Our dad is the High Priest and we have been here longer than you” and the result was that God killed them. This was the very thing with the man called Uzah who died because of the Ark.
On the same topic, my friend Sandman said:
People usually underestimate familiar risks. Having driven a car for years without an accident, we find it hard to remember that driving is a serious risk. Getting on the back of an elephant feels like a much riskier way to travel. For the most part, we do not “estimate “familiar risks at all; they’re too familiar to bother thinking about. Most of us get into our cars without ever considering whether driving is a significant risk. If we did pause to estimate the risk of driving, we might or might not recognize that it is sizable. But familiarity closes our minds to the very question.
Hagar being a maid and a slave in the house of a mighty man like Abraham was prestigious enough. But it went from good to better for Hagar when she slept with this man and it culminated into the unbelievable when she had a kid with him. We all can imagine the experience of this house-help. To her, the childless Sarah ceased to be the official wife and Hagar thought to have taken Sarah’s place just because she had a child with this man. This was absolutely risky for this innocent girl. When she had a child with a man she never dreamt about, she not only suffered from familiarity but she also suffered from arrivalism. And that is why she forgot her place in that home and stepped on risky toes. As you all may know familiarity breeds contempt and it is the worst thing any Christian will ever suffer.
Perhaps fellow servants warned her but as Sandman has said:
When you’re trying to alarm people – to get them to take precautions or demand precautions – familiarity is your enemy. People usually underestimate familiar risks. Having driven a car for years without an accident, we find it hard to remember that driving is a serious risk. Getting on the back of an elephant feels like a much riskier way to travel. For the most part, we don’t “estimate” familiar risks at all; they’re too familiar to bother thinking about. Most of us get into our cars without ever considering whether driving is a significant risk. If we did pause to estimate the risk of driving, we might or might not recognize that it is sizable. But familiarity closes our minds to the very question. Too much familiarity, in fact, is one of the biggest communication problems in employee safety. Employees are typically so familiar with workplace risks that the outrage disappears. Pretty soon they aren’t taking the prescribed precautions seriously enough, and the accident rate goes up.
Let me ask you what I was asked: Has familiarity bred contempt in you? Perhaps we, who have been so long members of the fold, should examine our lives this morning to determine whether we have allowed ourselves to slip into such a dangerous condition.
- What are you trusting for your salvation?
- Have you heard the gospel so many times that you can recite it by rote?
- Have you ACTED upon that message, or are you fooling yourself that you are saved just because you are familiar with that message?
- What are you basing the priorities of your life upon?
- Is Jesus Christ first in your life? Or have His claims on your life been heard so many times that you don’t hear them anymore?
(Mark 6:3 KJV) Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. Imagine!!
Finally, it was disaster for this house-help, for this manipulative, sellfish and opportunistic couple again through the woman, chased away this maid and she was sent away with the child. Hagar who thought she was the new queen of the Abrahamic dynasty was now alone in the wilderness without food and absolutey thirsty. But thanks to the God who follows sinners like me and Hagar. He followed her like he has always followed me. God will follow you even when you are suffering from the consequences of your choices. Amen.
God bless you. I invoke TRUTH, KNOWLEDGE, and FAITH.
Am Pr. I.T.White. THE GOSPEL HAWKER
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