The Old Testament
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Gen. 12:1-3; 17:1-11
July 25, 2010
In our Bibles,
we have an Old Testament and a New Testament. Why is that? Just
what is a testament anyway? And, what’s the difference
between the Old and New Testaments? These seem to be pretty
basic questions for understanding the Bible, but I suspect there’s
a good bit of confusion out there about them!
Today’s scripture
lesson in Gen. 12-17 gives us some answers. These chapters are a major
turning point in the big narrative that runs through the entire Bible. In
fact, it is almost impossible to correctly understand the rest of the Bible without
understanding them. Prior to chapter 12, God had intervened rather randomly
in his world, working here and there, with this person and that one with no discernable
progress toward setting his creation right again. But beginning in chapter
12 of Genesis, God initiates a new strategy, committing himself to work through
one person and his descendants in a covenant, or a “testament” in
a continuing attempt to restore his creation to its original purpose.
Let’s
talk a minute about covenants. The best-known use of a covenant today is
a marriage covenant. Two people make solemn promises to one another before
God and witnesses. The promises are binding and they cover a lot of ground- “for
better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and
to cherish, as long as we both shall live.” And there is an awful
lot of hoopla that surrounds the making of that covenant. But making those
promises is not always easy.
I once did a wedding in
which the groom, perhaps overwhelmed with the seriousness of the covenant promises
he was making, really struggled to just get the words out! As I usually
do, I fed him the words one phrase at a time. I said, “For better
or worse.” He repeated, “For better….” “For
worse,” I said. “Uh..for worse,” he repeated. “For
richer, for poorer.” “For ….uh poorer.” I
decided to let that one go. He was sweating profusely and looked extremely
uncomfortable. We got through, “in sickness and in health” without
incident, perhaps because he was feeling so sick! But we just couldn’t
get through “to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live.” I
ended up feeding him two words at a time. “To love.” “to
love” “And to cherish” “And…” “To
cherish” “To cherish” Then I decided to go for
broke. “As long as we both shall live” “As long…we
live” “Close enough,” I announced and we proceeded with
the rest of the service. The giving of the rings brought a whole new challenge,
but that’s another story. Covenants are serious matters!
In our Scripture lesson,
God’s covenant is made with a man named Abram, an Arab from the town of
Ur, located in present-day Iraq. Let’s begin with God’s first
brief statement of this covenant which is found in Genesis 12:1-3.
1 Now the Lord said
to Abram, "Go
from your country and your kindred and your father's house to
the land that I will show you.
2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you,
and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those
who bless you,
and the one who curses you
I will curse;
and in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed."
Let’s look at
the covenant between God and Abram. What does God promise this 75 year-old
man? First, God promises to make a great nation from him, to give him many
descendants. This would have been a stretch for Abram and his wife Sarai
to believe, since they were elderly and didn’t have any kids. But
that was the promise.
The second part of the
covenant promise was that Abram would be blessed so that he could be a blessing
to others. In fact, he is promised “in you all the families of
the earth will be blessed!” We’ll come back to that one
later.
Years later, God appeared
to Abram once again and fleshed out the terms of the covenant a little more.
1 When Abram was
ninety-nine years old,
the Lord appeared
to Abram,
and said to him, "I am God Almighty;
walk before me, and be blameless.
2 And I will make my covenant between
me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous."
3 Then Abram fell
on his face;
and God said
to him,
4 "As for
me, this is my covenant with
you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.
5 No longer
shall your name be Abram,
but your name shall be Abraham;
for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.
6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations
of you, and kings shall
come from you.
7 I will establish my covenant between
me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for
an everlasting covenant,
to be God to
you and to your offspring after you.
8 And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land
where you are now an alien,
all the land of Canaan,
for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God."
9 God said
to Abraham, "As for
you, you shall keep my covenant,
you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. (Gen.
17:1-9)
The promise is repeated
to 99 year-old Abram that he will have many descendants and even that kings would
be descended from him! Ancient people often thought of their legacy in
terms of descendants, but Abram and his 90 year-old wife still had no children
of their own! This promise, first made to Abram 24 years before, had not
resulted in a single child born to Sarai. It was an outrageous promise,
so outrageous that Sarai laughed out loud when she heard it! But in God’s
time, this promise was fulfilled. Isaac (whose name means “laughter”)
was born and from him was descended a vast multitude of people, the Jewish people,
some of whom were indeed kings.
God promised more. Abram
would be given a new name! Abram means “exalted ancestor,” which
is pretty good, but Abraham means “ancestor of a multitude” which
is even better! Sarai gets a new name, too, “Sarah,” but we’re
not told why. This new name thing happens several times in the Bible. It
usually signifies a new start or a new calling for the re-named person. Simon
became Peter. Saul became Paul.
This morning we sang a
song of praise entitled, “I Will Change Your Name.” It picks
up on this same idea.
I will change your name.
You shall no longer be called
Wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid.
I will change your name.
Your new name shall be
Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one,
Faithfulness, friend of God,
One who seeks My face.
A new name is a sign that
your life is no longer defined by the sin and pain and failure of this world. It
is now defined by the One who made you and calls you into covenant with him. God
can change your name. Will you accept his new name for you? Some
of us have gotten so used to our old names (“Failure,” “Victim,” “Sinner”)
that we can’t let them go to take on the new name God has chosen for us. Are
you willing to accept your new name, and let go of your old one? You can,
with God’s help.
Back to our story. In
this covenant, God promised Abraham many heirs, that he would be the father of
many nations and kings, and he was given a new name. He was also promised
a land for his descendants, the land of Canaan. “And I will give
to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien,
all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding.” (Gen. 17:8)
It would take hundreds of years, but God fulfilled this promise to the descendants
of Abraham after the Exodus from Egypt. By the way, conflicting understandings
of this promise underlie much of the tension in present-day Palestine and Israel.
The final promise is found
at the end of verse 8. God promises to be the God of Abraham’s descendants. This
creates a special relationship between the Creator of the universe and this particular
people. God will protect them and watch over them and work out his purposes
for them. God will be their God.
All of this is wonderful,
but keep in mind that a covenant contains two parts. Both sides promise
something. God has promised a lot. What is Abraham’s part? What
does he promise?
“God said to
Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring
after you throughout their generations.” (Gen. 17:9)
Abraham was to keep the
covenant. The terms of this covenant are not fully spelled out here, but
they clearly involved loyalty to the Lord. The full terms were provided
to Abraham’s descendants at a later time, particularly the 10 Commandments
and the rest of the law. Later it becomes clear that God intended these
people to be a model, to show the rest of the world how God intended people to
live. They were to do this by keeping the terms of the covenant.
Now let’s go back
to the promise God made in his first encounter with Abraham in chapter 12: “I
will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one
who curses you I will curse;. and in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2,3)
Abraham was blessed is
that that he would be a blessing to others. “...I will bless you... so
that you will be a blessing.” The Bethel Bible series, an intensive
course which overviews the entire Bible over a 2-year period, sees this promise
as foundational for understanding the whole Bible. (By the way, if you’ve
struggled to understand the Bible when you read it, you might want to take that
course when we offer it during 9:30AM Sunday School this Fall.)
But, how are all the families
of the earth blessed through Abraham, when the covenant was restricted to his
descendants alone? How would others be blessed when they are excluded from
participating in it.
One of Abraham’s
descendants was a very special one, Jesus Christ. His lineage is traced
all the way back to Abraham in Matthew chapter 1. And through Jesus, a
descendant of Abraham, all the world has indeed been blessed through him, for
a new covenant has been opened to all people regardless of their family lineage.
As heirs of that covenant,
we are also called to be a blessing to the world. How are we doing with
that? When I was with our mission team in Mexil, Mexico, I saw a congregation
of people who take that responsibility very seriously. They have received
the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ and are passionate about spreading
that blessing to others. Their church was recently planted by the Presbyterian
church in Holca. And in time, I’m confident that they’ll be
establishing a mission church of their own. That’s how sharing the
blessings of the gospel often happens in Mexico. They seek to be a blessing
to others by planting new churches.
In our 270 years of existence
here at GPC, how many mission churches have we established? Have we explored
opportunities for new churches in the Hanover area or among Spanish-speaking
residents of Adams County? Church planting is one way to be a blessing
to others. What are other ways in which we are being a blessing to the
people around us?
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