Archive for "Feb 10 2012"

Story 5: Abraham [Hope Against Hope]

The storyteller over many years has narrated the account of Abraham only a breath after articulating the woes of Babel. It’s no mistake that these two very different stories have always dwelt side by side. After recounting the futility of Babel’s builders (who tried to make a name for themselves),  Abraham enters the plot, a nobody to whom God says I will make your name great.

In blatant contrast to Babel, Abraham receives God’s blessing based on one ‘great accomplishment’: he believes God.

In the story, God calls Abraham to leave his home, and promises him a nation, descendants, land, and blessing. The promise comes, however, without any kind of tangible evidence as a deposit. Looking at hard facts, Abraham is just one ordinary man with a wife whose womb is closed, a stranger moving to a strange land. No raw signs of future greatness. But, as we find in later Scripture, Abraham hopes against hope in the word from God. And that is enough for him to bank on. He goes on the journey.

Today a word or promise is worth little. We need evidence and perfect logic in order to believe anything we’re told. It’s how we protect ourselves from being wrong or let down. But as people called by God, we are in a position to believe words received from God, even when they lack pieces. Abraham never saw the promise of numerous descendants fulfilled; he just saw the stars in the night sky and believed what God told him (Genesis 15:5). Jesus makes it even clearer when He says that Abraham anticipated His coming and was glad (John 8:56). As the ultimate heir through which millions would join the family of Abraham, Jesus came a couple thousand years after Abraham lived and died. Abraham never met Him, never saw Him. Regardless, Abraham was content to rest in God’s words and to trust He would come.

We are called to exercise this kind of faith exactly when all of our evidence points compass south. When the fulfillment of God’s promise seems impossible – then we can hope against hope and live in the blessing of Abraham.

This is the challenge: believing the words God has given us, even to the point of withholding our judgment on the evidence at hand. Whether we must believe we are not condemned though we see our failure, or we must believe all things work out for our good though we lose and suffer – we have a choice. With a dozen ‘reasons’ to believe our own logic, feelings and perceptions, we have a choice to believe the Word of promise instead. As the storyteller of old would be quick to inform you – from Genesis to the end of the Book – Godnever breaks a promise. He is worth banking on.

What is God asking you to believe in spite of the current evidence today, and will you join the company of Abraham by making a move based on faith?