Bible Red Thread 5: A Trusting Man (Genesis 11-22)

sermon Genesis 11 : Patrice Berger, 2022_12_20, AB Lausanne church

title : Bible Red Thread 5: A Trusting Man (Genesis 11-22)

Bible Red Thread 5: A Trusting Man (Genesis 11-22)

Division versus unification: The masterful blow of the flood did not ultimately change anything. The episode of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 demonstrates that the problem of sin is much more serious than one could imagine. Mankind’s arrogance toward their Creator justifies a radically new intervention by God, resulting in a new division of mankind through their tongues. However, the initial plan of God drawn up in Eden has not changed: the King of the universe wishes to build, under his sole authority, a unique people who honour him, so that they can flourish through trust, in a perfect kingdom prepared in advance. However, a few generations after Noah, there is no longer any human being who cares about his Creator on the surface of the earth!

A new people of God… To continue to carry out his project, God will have to create new people. By pure grace, God looks at a man: Abram. Why him? The Bible says nothing about it except God’s gracious gaze upon this man. What is certain is that nothing, strictly nothing predisposed this individual to encounter God. Abram is a prosperous merchant, and animist, who lives in the fertile crescent, in Ur in Chaldea, the most flourishing place of humanity. His goal is to trade and his life is geared towards this one goal. How would he need God?

…Based on trust: Yet the Creator offers Abram a challenge that is just enormous. God asks Abram to trust Him and to demonstrate that choice by giving up everything he is, everything he owns, and everything his life is based on. But as much as the demand seems excessive, so are God’s promises to Abram encouraging. Indeed, God does this:

to make the seed of Abram (who was a childless person) numerous
to offer a territory for his descendants (although he abandoned his land for God’s call)
to protect him in person (in times when he is alone).

Thus, Abraham is blessed, as well as his descendants! In summary, God proposes to Abram to give up his comfort, his habits, his possessions, and all that he acquired by his own strength. If he accepts – if he believes in the promise of God – he will receive a hundredfold,

Confirmed by obedience: Since the beginning, God’s plan has not changed. He makes promises to those who choose to trust him, that is, those who obey him. God had promised that Abraham will have numerous offspring, eventually forming a people. God tests Abraham’s confidence, and the wait for the fulfilment of this promise seems endless to him! This is why Abraham attempts to fulfil the promise on his own. He bequeaths his inheritance to his nephew Lot, makes Eliézer (his best servant) his testamentary legatee, and finally, on the advice of his wife, he decides to have a descendant with one of his servants! This twisted, purely human project will be a disaster: suffering, disputes, abandonment, and rebellion will characterize the beginning of the life of the child resulting from this union. Faith is making choices based on trust in God.

Progressive learning: Abraham gradually learns that it is better to trust God than to act on his own. Thus, he will wait up to a hundred years for God to miraculously provide the promise of descendants, in the person of Isaac. Really, only God is trustworthy! Abraham seems to have learned his lesson, since a few years later, when God asked him to offer him the life of this long-awaited only son, Abraham did not hesitate for a second, he went all the way with determination and confidence, to the point to appease his servants and his son and to see an unimaginable solution: God could bring his son back to life (Hebrews 11)! This attitude will favourably incline the heart of the Creator, to the point that he will substitute the life of this only son for that of a ram. Through this act,

The plan is taking shape God already knows that he will provide a solution of reconciliation beyond our imagination. God intends to spare the lives of his creatures! For this, they will have to show, by their obedience, complete confidence in him.

REFLECTION Abraham is universally known not for staying home in comfort but for trusting God!

Posted by the evangelical church Action Biblique Renens-Lausanne