Small Requirements
It should have been a wonderful evening; but before Abraham and Sarah had time to share their excitement and anticipation, God decides to include Abraham in matters of state. He takes Abraham into his confidence and tells him what he intends to do about the cruelty that has gone beyond restraint in Sodom.
God was not willing, the prayer book tells me, to be God without us. He did not need us because he does not have needs, but he chose us, he chose to make us partners in his activities. Now he confides in Abraham, because, says God, I know him: that he will follow the way of Jehovah and train his family and household to do righteousness and justice even after he has passed on.
What a little thing! Training his family and the people he employed to walk in God's path, to do right and be just. Because of this God treats Abraham with respect and the way is open for God to fulfill all his promises to him.
Isn’t this the sort of thing that every good parent tries to do? It seems a bit basic and we would have expected God to be using a different assessment. Moses, Daniel and David were men of courage who led a nation and confronted emperors. In contrast all God looks for in Abraham is the ability to train a family group in the ways of Jehovah.
When I worked with a group of American men and women the women were uncomfortable with my calling to be preacher, they told me that all God required of me was to raise my children well. Maybe they were right. At the time all I could see was that one generation would devote themselves to their children who would devote themselves to their children. What about the other people I asked, the ones whose parents had not been able to train them right, couldn’t I include them with my work of parenting? Now I look back with concern, would it have been different if I had followed the example of my American women friends and devoted myself to children and home? Would I have known how to do it well? Parents, at that time, had little more than customs to equip them for the work of parenting. Now children blame their parents for the difficulties they have had growing up. They say their parents were too severe or that their parents damaged the child’s self-esteem. Looking at it that way God seems to be requiring a lot from Abraham.
Even the male members of faith might have a problem with the simplicity of God’s requirement of a life centered on worship and revolving around training family and household to wak in the path of Jehovah. I can imagine the men asking if God wouldn’t prefer them to lead a nation, establish a new denomination or at least discover some startling new truth in the Bible.
There is a curious statement in the book of Hebrews; the writer says that in a way the Levite great great great grandsons of Abraham were included in Abraham’s action when he gave a tenth of his gains to a priest called Melchizedek. The writer is interested in proving that there can be other priests besides the sons of Levy. I used to concentrate on finding who Melchizedek was and overlook the strange statement that if Abraham did it, then in a way his descendents did it! Now I’m fascinated with that casual statement; have we in some way unknown to us passed onto our children through many generations our patterns and values?
Our generation has recognized that we are in some way inheritors of the miss-treatment of the Indian nations and the enslaving of the African nations, and that we bear some limited responsibility to try to correct what our ancestors did. Therefore when we strive to do right and be just and walk in the way of The Almighty do our descendents inherit that from us? Will a godly lifestyle pass onto future generations something that will be healthy and satisfactory and form a platform for developing the likeness of God in humanity? If that is so, and since God is faithful, it seems likely, then our living has already born fruit.
I like to form theories about why God waited so long to give faithful, long-suffering Sarah her own baby. Of course this proved that the birth was miraculous and the baby a special gift of God. But did God have another reason for waiting? Was it only when Abraham and Sarah became old that they had the experience and self-discipline to inculcate in Isaac a life-style acceptable to God? We, who have become old, have experiences and learning to pass on to our grandchildren.
But even though the aged have gifts to give to their descendants, how do we give them? Since the sixties youth have not learnt from their parents but from their peers, our experience and wisdom are discarded. Our only hope is that God will bless us by calling our children and grandchildren to himself in some way they will not resist. In spite of the indifference of a younger generation and in spite of the barriers to sharing our experience of God (Don’t force them, don’t embarrass them, you’ll drive them away etc.) God may choose to bless our remembered lives by revealing himself to our grandchildren, perhaps this is likely since God says that because Abraham follows the way of Jehovah and trains his family group to do so, he can fulfill his promises to Abraham.
So from the life of Abraham we have gathered at least three principles for the work of growing old with God. First: God has called us his friends and wants to involve us in his activities. Second: intercessory prayer is perhaps the most valuable work we can do for the world. Third: what God requires of us is: to train our families to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.
Genesis 18.verse 18
James 2 verse 23
Micah 6 verse 8
God was not willing, the prayer book tells me, to be God without us. He did not need us because he does not have needs, but he chose us, he chose to make us partners in his activities. Now he confides in Abraham, because, says God, I know him: that he will follow the way of Jehovah and train his family and household to do righteousness and justice even after he has passed on.
What a little thing! Training his family and the people he employed to walk in God's path, to do right and be just. Because of this God treats Abraham with respect and the way is open for God to fulfill all his promises to him.
Isn’t this the sort of thing that every good parent tries to do? It seems a bit basic and we would have expected God to be using a different assessment. Moses, Daniel and David were men of courage who led a nation and confronted emperors. In contrast all God looks for in Abraham is the ability to train a family group in the ways of Jehovah.
When I worked with a group of American men and women the women were uncomfortable with my calling to be preacher, they told me that all God required of me was to raise my children well. Maybe they were right. At the time all I could see was that one generation would devote themselves to their children who would devote themselves to their children. What about the other people I asked, the ones whose parents had not been able to train them right, couldn’t I include them with my work of parenting? Now I look back with concern, would it have been different if I had followed the example of my American women friends and devoted myself to children and home? Would I have known how to do it well? Parents, at that time, had little more than customs to equip them for the work of parenting. Now children blame their parents for the difficulties they have had growing up. They say their parents were too severe or that their parents damaged the child’s self-esteem. Looking at it that way God seems to be requiring a lot from Abraham.
Even the male members of faith might have a problem with the simplicity of God’s requirement of a life centered on worship and revolving around training family and household to wak in the path of Jehovah. I can imagine the men asking if God wouldn’t prefer them to lead a nation, establish a new denomination or at least discover some startling new truth in the Bible.
There is a curious statement in the book of Hebrews; the writer says that in a way the Levite great great great grandsons of Abraham were included in Abraham’s action when he gave a tenth of his gains to a priest called Melchizedek. The writer is interested in proving that there can be other priests besides the sons of Levy. I used to concentrate on finding who Melchizedek was and overlook the strange statement that if Abraham did it, then in a way his descendents did it! Now I’m fascinated with that casual statement; have we in some way unknown to us passed onto our children through many generations our patterns and values?
Our generation has recognized that we are in some way inheritors of the miss-treatment of the Indian nations and the enslaving of the African nations, and that we bear some limited responsibility to try to correct what our ancestors did. Therefore when we strive to do right and be just and walk in the way of The Almighty do our descendents inherit that from us? Will a godly lifestyle pass onto future generations something that will be healthy and satisfactory and form a platform for developing the likeness of God in humanity? If that is so, and since God is faithful, it seems likely, then our living has already born fruit.
I like to form theories about why God waited so long to give faithful, long-suffering Sarah her own baby. Of course this proved that the birth was miraculous and the baby a special gift of God. But did God have another reason for waiting? Was it only when Abraham and Sarah became old that they had the experience and self-discipline to inculcate in Isaac a life-style acceptable to God? We, who have become old, have experiences and learning to pass on to our grandchildren.
But even though the aged have gifts to give to their descendants, how do we give them? Since the sixties youth have not learnt from their parents but from their peers, our experience and wisdom are discarded. Our only hope is that God will bless us by calling our children and grandchildren to himself in some way they will not resist. In spite of the indifference of a younger generation and in spite of the barriers to sharing our experience of God (Don’t force them, don’t embarrass them, you’ll drive them away etc.) God may choose to bless our remembered lives by revealing himself to our grandchildren, perhaps this is likely since God says that because Abraham follows the way of Jehovah and trains his family group to do so, he can fulfill his promises to Abraham.
So from the life of Abraham we have gathered at least three principles for the work of growing old with God. First: God has called us his friends and wants to involve us in his activities. Second: intercessory prayer is perhaps the most valuable work we can do for the world. Third: what God requires of us is: to train our families to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.
Genesis 18.verse 18
James 2 verse 23
Micah 6 verse 8
posted by Jessie Coates at 11:26 PM
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