All About Abe: Genesis Pt. 2

I want my kids to know how special they are to God that there is no child who's an invisible seven-year-old standing on the curb to every single one of us. Children old, like you see 70 to 75 guys as I see you. It to me. And we see it right there, the gospel in Genesis 15. It's the cross. I think about how Abraham did nothing to be chosen, right? Yet through God's grace he

To lean toward faith. And don't you think gratitude calibrates our GPS? I do. I think sometimes the reason I make a choice to lean away from rebellion is I remember the rebellion he's rescued me from. Access more.

Hey, hey, backporchers. My name's Allison Allen. I am the 5'12 spiritual wingwoman to Lisa Harper for Back Porch Theology. And we're happy that you are here today. We have had a delightful beginning hike. I'm excited, but I'm also overwhelmed. It's a lot. Well, because Truly we could stay in Genesis for a couple of years. Oh yeah. So to try to do Genesis in a couple of weeks.

Is is I mean I feel like I'm at an an all you can eat queso buffet and only have two hours. Yes, or a little itty bitty bowl. Right, right. Well listen, if you are joining, I do want to say this uh to your point, Lisa. Go back and check out last week just so you can get caught up because we ran through it was only up to chapter twelve, I think, in Genesis and we covered

Goodness, in the beginning, God, we covered made in in God's image, the Imago Day. We covered the introduction of chaos with original sin. Then we talked about a little bit about Cain and Abel and Babel, the the restoration of this.

Story of the reversal about yeah, from ruin to redemption. In in Acts. Which is the ongoing theme of this divine love story we call the Bible. Building those uh resurrection and restoration bridges One of the guys that we didn't get to talk about, but I think is is pertinent for today was kind of the main dude before we get to the next main dude, and that's Noah.

So we didn't we didn't spend a lot of time pre-babble. Pre-babbble. Noah's kind of it if you just talk about one main character. Yes, yes. And so you can there's there are a lot of resources where you can kind of catch up on Noah's story. From Noah, we have a son named Shem. And from Shem, we have a son named Tera. Well Terah is Shem's grandma's fourth grandson. So to the fourth degree removed, right?

And then from Tara, we have this little guy named Abe. And we've entitled this episode All About Abe because it's a brilliant way or it's it's a it's a Because it's a really good way to walk through the second half of Genesis. Um Lisa Especially Allo when you consider that Abraham, the three major world r religions, we of course come at it from a

Christian Bible believing standpoint, but Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all all trace back to Abraham. Their father back to Abraham. Yeah. Um, as we were prepping and praying, you shared a story. that I think is is somewhat apropos. It's a really tender story and

Um, I love all your stories, but there's something about the stories when you were quite young that just tenderized my heart. And I'd love for you to share the story of a seven-year-old girl um on a street. Um I don't want to give anything else away but maybe a parade. type atmosphere. Yeah. Um yeah, you're right. When I was when I was a little girl there were some really hard things. Yeah. And uh I think Ali that one of the reasons I so lean in

to that theme of God taking people who who thought they were worthless. Yeah. And he redeemed their inherent dignity is is kind of always that that lines up with with some of the lies I believed about myself. Because after my dad left us, there there were just some hard things happened in my family of origin. And I I knew Jesus had delivered me from my sins. I didn't think he liked me very much.

Because by the time I was five, six years old there was some abuse in my story and from my earliest memory I felt dirty and damaged. And yeah, maybe I don't remember if I was six or seven. Favourite. television show when I was a little girl was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I remember it totally.

Yes. Sunday night. Yeah. Yeah. And and Marlon, I always want to say Marlon Brando, but it was Marlon Perkins. Okay. Was he was kind of the patriarch of the show and he was always very well spoken. Older, he was, I think, a zoologist. Okay. But the guy who did all the work, like wrestled the anacondas and jumped on the backs of like the wildebeest, his name was Stan Brock. Okay. And he uh uh he was like a real life

Indiana Jones. You know, you'd always wear safari outfit, that khaki safari outfit. buckling hero and I've always been drawn to kind of wild men. And so while Marlin would be like, and we see the anaconda in its natural habitat, then it would switch the camera angle angle to stand and he'd be in the water. Wrestling the Anaconda. So oh, I just thought he was unstinkably.

Well, when I was six or seven years old, we found out I grew up in a little town north of Orlando, forty thousand people. We found out Stan Brock. was gonna be like the Grand Marshal of our Christmas parade. Our Midtown's Christmas parade. No, he wasn't like He wasn't world famous. I mean, he was too. To me he was. Yeah. To me, I couldn't imagine anybody better. I mean, I wouldn't have cared if it was Elvis. To me, Stan ranked above them all.

And so I asked mom if we could get to the parade early'cause I don't know if you grew up going to a small town parade. But you have to have to get there early to get on the front, like to get on the curb. Right. Otherwise, you're standing a couple of rows back. And so I talked to my drive me to the parade early. I got on the curve on Main Street in our little town.

So early that I mean, I'm just sitting there waiting, waiting. I could care less about the clowns or the high school marching band. All I want to do is see Stan Brock. And even though he was like the Grand Marshal, he wasn't at the front of the parade. He was back just pre Santa. And so I'm waiting, waiting, waiting, watching all the other events. And then I see him in the distance, because of course it's Florida, it's flat.

I see him. He's in his khaki safari outfit. He's barefoot. I remember that. Details. Brunette, big man, so asphatic. He's riding a white horse bareback. He is not. He is riding a white horse bareback. And I just remember being live. Uh he was everything and more I had dreamt he would be up close. We've galloping that horse down our, you know, little town's main street.

And Allie, when he gets close to me, I without thinking, I just stand up. You do you know when you're in the presence of greatness. Oh yeah. I stand up and I promise you to this day. I promise you. He turns, and I guess just the little kid on the standing up just mesmerized, and he winks at me. And I was so undone, I just started running after the horse. Just chasing behind me. My mom had to run and grab me and pull me back to the curb because I I was just so beside that I just started running.

after him. Yes. And I've I've I've always wished I could connect with him and say thank you. Thank you. I was just a a little kid. Yeah. I didn't just feel invisible. I felt dirty. And this Hero spots this Six, seven year old on a curb. And chooses to just kinda single me out. I've never forgotten that moment. I chase them still today. I love that story. I I've just I could see you pitter pattering down the road, running after the hero.

I love it also because I think it's a perfect um entry point for one of the characters we're gonna look at today from Genesis, who in some ways is a proverbial kid on the curb. Yeah. And that would be Abraham. Abraham. Who was chosen. Yes. And so what I'd like to do is just walk through I mean, we can only walk through two major highlights of his life. But can we talk a little bit Lise about what we know about where he came from. Can you talk a little bit about his backstory? Okay.

Upstanding guy who had it all together. Right. Um, there's a tendency because of the way we are in modernity, we're so performance oriented. So if you have a big platform, if you have a great gift, then you assume they'll kinda float to the top. Right. They'll be the the leaders that are chosen. God chooses people nobody else would choose. Abraham wasn't a great. He became a patriarch, the father of like what we said, three major world religions.

But Abraham actually started out, he we're told he grew up in a city called Ur U R. Okay. That's an ancient Mesopotamian city dedicated to the the moon god. Listen to the name of the moon god. Sin. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. God makes it real clear. Yes. When he's trying to make things clear, they are really, really clear. Yes. And his father's name, you already mentioned Tara.

Terra's name is connected to the etymology of his name is to learn lunar worship. So this is not an upstanding faithful guy from an upstanding family. This is I mean uh basically his dad read him the horoscope every morning. And so the point is, you know, we make Abraham, David, Moses the heroes of the story. And I'm like, no, they're unlikely heroes. Yes. The whole point is God chooses the least.

of three. That's right. So the unmistakable hero of the story is God. Right. That God uses those that are weak and those that are foolish to illuminate his wisdom and his power.

So Abraham wasn't a great guy. Right. Abraham was a lunar worshiper and God says, I choose you. proverbial seven year old on the curb. On the curb. Um, I'm gonna choose you. And you're gonna be my representative of a people group that I'm gonna set my favor on as a theocracy, fancy word, uh a people group dedicated to God. Yes. Theosity. Um, so I'm gonna set my favor on you.

but you're kind of a show and tell project. Yes. Yeah. So it's not that Abraham's so special. It's not that the theogracy is unusually special. It's that God in his sovereignty said I'm gonna show uh my image bearers who are so rebellious and so prone to build their own towers of babble and so prone to have division among themselves and so prone to pride and rebellion.

I'm gonna show them what a real relationship with me looks like. Yeah. But unlike what they were taught in Egypt, they don't have to appease punitive gods. I'm the one true God. Yes. I'm also their heavenly father and I love them. Yes. So he he sets his favor on he was called Abraham. It says, Now the Lord said to Abram, this is Genesis 12, verse one. 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. So he goes from from this place that's dedicated to the moon god Sin, yeah, to he moves to the Oaks of Momre is where he moves. So it's like you can almost see again that That he's going from ru ruin to restoration. He says, um, and 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 him who dishonors you I will curse.

And in you, in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Uh theologians refer to this as the Abrahamic blessing. Okay. And there's a point to this blessing. It is a comprehensive blessing. Abram, I'm not just going to bless you. Right. I'm going to curse those who don't bless you. Mm. So it's a three sixty thing. Somebody who you know how traffic has gotten so bad on us. Well, it's almost like God says, Whoever doesn't let you merge on sixty five.

I'm gonna give them a flat tire. Yeah. I'm gonna bless you so comprehensively that it's gonna be your fore and your aft. You're gonna be blessed. As you go in, you're gonna be blessed as you come out. So it's it's extraordinary comprehensive blessing. It's a great way to think about it. Abraham doesn't earn it. As a matter of fact, there's only one caveat. You just have to move. Yeah. From this place you've grown comfortable, which is the place of sin. Right. Of lunar worship.

You just have to move. Oftentimes there's a of movement associated with God's blessing. I want you to leave the place where you've grown content. And and you're you're you've grown content by things I don't want to make you content. Yes. I want you to hunger for me. So I want you to move to this place where you'll have to trust me.'Cause he doesn't tell him where he's moving.

So there's no GPS to a land, I'll show you. In other words, your first step is gonna be blind faith. Right, right. But what's so cool about this, Abraham, is there's I mean Ali, there's a

What's so cool about this, Allie, is there's so much purpose in this blessing. He says, I'm blessing you. So that everybody will be blessed. Mm. I'm blessing you. So that you will be a blessing. You know how we keep connecting the dots between this part of Redemptive Narrative and the New Testament part of Redemptive Narrative. Turn to the end of Matthew. There's the coolest connection here if you go to Matthew 28. Okay. Very end of Matt's gospel, his his Yuan Galeon, his good news account.

It says now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them and when they saw him resurrected Jesus. So when they saw Jesus, because at this point he has already been crucified. And then he's experienced a a bodily uh resurrection. He has not yet ascended right into heaven. And Jesus came and said to them all authority.

in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. In other words, go be a blessing. You see in John's Gospel.

uh toward the end of John's gospel, remember when Jesus says, Now I'm giving you a new covenant. Giving you a new command. Yep. And now I'm giving you a new command. And this new command is what? Love. Love each one another. I want you to be a blessing. So we tend to think of Abraham as a hero. He's not the hero. He's the goat.

As a matter of fact, do you know his dad's name also means old goat, which I think is a Hebrew. Um but but he says, Abram, I'm setting my favor on you not because of your deservedness. or lack thereof. I'm setting my favor on you because I delight to look at seven year olds on the curb who don't think very highly of themselves and say, I see you. Yes. And I love you.

And Abram, I'm gonna see you and I'm gonna love you, I'm gonna set my favor on you so that you will in turn tell the world around you You see that continuation in Matthew and the Great Mission. You see to the end of John's gospel and go and love each other. That's how they'll know your mind. Yes. Is how you love each other. Yes. I just even in the old testament, you see this.

evangelical call to bless the world around us. Well and and also Lisa, along with that, one of the things that strikes me is it says he was seventy five years old when he left here And so an article says Sarah was barren. Sarah was barren. Yeah. And so it he's not just unlikely. He's not just a moon worshipper. He is way, way past his prime, with no children. I mean he's wearing khakis that sag in the bottom and he's wearing sketchers. And she's wearing de pins.

I mean they are old. Yes. And their culture would have said if That's right. They're washed up. I love that that from the seven year old to the curb to the seventy-five year old, God is no respecter of persons. That's right. When he calls, he calls. He calls. Amen. And so.

I love what we see in chapter twelve, but we sort of see that um that covenantal blessing extrapolated in fifteen. And I want you to talk about it, but before before you get there, there's a story I know about you. And I need you to tell it. I want actually wanna know if it's true. Okay. Okay. Is it true, my dear, that once upon a moon many eons ago, you actually took A chainsaw. Into a church.

Well, you were teaching. Like for real, is this like you talk about Mary Poppins props? Like what what in the world is happening? I did take a chainsaw church. Okay. I I don't Google myself, but it would probably be somewhere online. Uh it's actually a church here in Nashville.

Because I was teaching on Genesis fifteen. Okay. Help us connect the way. Well, I think all too often people kick the Old Testament to the curb. Yeah. And they just get to Jesus. And I'm like, oh my goodness, if you don't get these stories. you don't get the miracle of Jesus. Right. It would be like you in your context as an actress, if you said Lisa, you've got, you know, front row tickets to W whatever. You've got front row tickets, but there's gonna be no actors on the stage.

You just get the script. You just get the lines. Uh disembodied stories. Yes, I'm in the theater. Yeah. But there's gonna be no music. There's gonna be no actors. I just read. Right. All I do is read the play the the lines. What would that be called? Not the playbill. What are your lines? It's called the libretto. What does that mean? That means the written word. Oh, I like that. Okay. You just get the libretto. I'd be like

I d yeah. I don't wanna read the play. Right. I wanna see the characters up to down. If you if you do not read the Old Testament. Yeah. You don't You're just reading the libretto. Yeah. And yeah, it's miraculous, but oh my heaven, it's so much better if you get these stories. When you bring a chainsaw. And Genesis fifteen, yeah. I'm telling you. You get the gospel bigger if you go into Genesis 15. And it needs a chainsaw. Okay. And I'll tell you again, Genesis 15.

Okay. It says, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I'm your shield, your reward shall be very great. But Abram said, remember, chapter twelve, he said, I'm gonna bless you. You and Sarah are gonna have kids. I know you're wearing. You're gonna have to go to Costco and buy Pampers, it's gonna be epic. But by now they've moved from her. They've moved to a new place. You can just imagine him telling Sarah.

Honey, I know you love Ur. I mean, I know you've got a small group here. You got your Weight Watchers lifetime membership here. I know you don't wanna leave, but Yahweh, the only true God, has told me if we'll leave this place and follow him, he's gonna bless us. Right. You are seventy five years old. I mean, there's no stinking way. Yeah. But she follows them. Right.

And can you imagine, Allie, that first year she's like, Mm-hmm, I don't see it. Mm-hmm. I don't see it. Second year, I don't see it. Yeah. I don't see it. Yeah. You know how sometimes you respond in a demonstrative way to a sermon. Yeah.

And you raise to the altar. Yeah. And you're like, I'm giving it all up, Jesus. I'm gonna tithe and I'm gonna uh I'm gonna be all in And then instead of your life getting better,'cause it's almost like we think if I put the right quarter into God's Coke machine, I'll get out the the drink I want. And you're all in and instead of your life getting better, it almost gets worse. Yeah. Yeah. And and we respond Oftentimes the way God's people in ancient history responded, and that is

I must have misheard you. Yeah. Yeah. Because I thought if I did this, you would do this. And there's this kind of quid pro quo we have with God. And that's what happens here. Abram begins thinking, I you must have just been speaking figuratively. Because it says, But Abram said, verse two of chapter fifteen, O Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless? And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, you've given me no offspring.

And a member of my household will be my heir. And behold, the word of Lord came to him. I mean, can you imagine God's voice? Yeah. I always think it has to sound like the guy on the Allstate commercial, like this just rich voice. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. In other words, boy, I don't stutter. Yeah. And and he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you're able to number them. Then God said to Abram, He said to him,

Shall your offspring be? Verse six, and he a believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. That right there, verse six of Genesis chapter 15, you see in Hebrews 11 in the hall of faith, because it's credited to Abram as righteousness, as faithfulness. How long was he faithful? Allie, how long was he righteous? Uh is it a trick question? Uh-huh. One verse.

One I'm sorry, I'm thinking chronological. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it. But but so God said stars, you got more spring. One verse, just verse seven after God's promise and that Abe says Oh Lord God, how am I to know that I I shall possess it? Oh you big weenie baby. Yeah. And so people go, I really struggled. I'm so sorry. I'm like, do not beat yourself up.

Right. When you have wandering seasons, go, I'm in good company. Yes. All the saints, I'm not advocating sin. I'm saying just repent and turn back. Don't think you're special. If you're prone to wonder, they all were even the saints. Abe, one verse later, he's doubting God after God shows him the stars, speaks to him as an individual.

He says, How shall I know? God says to Abram, Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he brought all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other, but he n did not put cut the birds of prey in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carc carcasses, Abram drove him away. Okay, what's going on here is this is pre-literate culture.

In other words, they don't have written contracts. Okay. So when you made a covenant, a promise, an agreement with someone You didn't have an attorney, you didn't go to Legal Zoom. Right. You acted it out. You would have loved this as an actress. You would do something physically I love that. Symbolized your agreement. Okay. And the most binding of these covenants during this era of the Old Testament was called the blood covenant.

So what would happen is when you're bringing two people groups together, and it was usually represented by clans or tribes, when they're making a a big deal covenant. They would bring they would bring animals from their herds. Okay. Then they would cut those animals in half. They would dig a trench between the animals, a shallow trench, and whoever was representing those people groups. So let's just say I'm marrying your brother. I know Jim's already married, but let's just pretend Jim isn't.

So that means your daddy and my daddy are gonna come together and and they're gonna bring my dad's gonna bring some of his herd, your dad's gonna bring some of his herd. They're gonna cut those animals. They're gonna let the blood from the animals representing their wells drain into this shallow trench. So just think Rototiller from Home Depot.

shallow trench, the blood's gonna drain in the tent trench. Then your daddy and my daddy, they're gonna take off their shoes, they're gonna walk through the blood, getting the blood on their feet. And when they get to the end of that what's called a blood covenant. They're gonna say to each other effectively if the covenant, the marriage between Lisa and Jim is severed.

May what was done to these animals be done to us. It's like you did you ever when you were a little girl become um blood sisters for me? You poke yourself. Um Uh it's a much bigger version of it. And and so when you notice Abra Abram doesn't

He doesn't balk when God says, Get some animals, cut'em in half. He's like, Oh, he didn't balk because he knows that. He's done it before. Right. But then the story shifts. Okay. Because with a blood covenant, if you had royalty, Tim Keller has some great stuff on this, by the way.

Um, if you had royalty and a commoner and you had a blood covenant, the king didn't have to walk through the blood. Because everybody knows the king has collateral. Only the commoner walked through. Well that in this situation God says, Do a blood covenant, Abram's like cool.

Um, the blood drains in the into that trough, but then Abram falls asleep, which is in the next verse in verse twelve, it says, As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. What's interesting is in the Hebrew that's probably not asleep. He was probably held down okay by Holy Spirit. He was not unconscious. And then a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared. Now we love to talk about Theophanies. on the porch. A theophany, fancy word that just means a physical

representation of God. Okay, what's so cool is this is the first time in the Bible you see a Theophanies. Ooh, I love that. You see Theophanies after this. And we've talked about it could have been a Christophany in the garden. Yes. But first time you see a

physical manifestation where a created being could recognize something symbolizing God. This is before the flaming topiary with Moses. This is before the rest of the match with Jacob, all that yeah. So this is a theophany, a physical representation of God. And the the Abram's on the side, the commoner. Yeah. The commoner who represents all commoners. He doesn't walk through. God passes between the pieces.

So when God passes through, what God is saying to the one who represents us, our great, great, and then some granddaddy is when the covenant between us is severed. I'll pay the price. You owe the price. I'll pay it. I'll pay it. When people go, why is the blood of Jesus so important?

Usually people go it goes back to the Jewish sacrificial system. I'm like, oh baby, it goes further back than that. Goes back to Genesis fifteen, when God says to those prone to wander Man who brought nothing special to the table when your descendants turn away from me. When they break the relationship that I've allowed them into, I'll pay the price in my blood. This is a precursor to Jesus. This is so extraordinary. So When I was teaching on this

I thought kids need to understand this. This isn't boring Old Testament. This is awesome. So I asked the church if they would bring big stuffed animals, not to take'em from the kids. They bought'em from like Walmart or something. Right. But I said, bring big stuffed animals. We're going to act this out in church.

So I brought we took the chain off. It wasn't dangerous. But I brought a chainsaw and I cut through the stuffed animals. Teaching the story. And what was awesome is all the adults went and I said, Y'all This is what God did. And I said, Now go teach this to your children. Do you know how many people have come up to me and said I bought stuffed animals cheap ones. Yeah. And I cut through them because I want my kids to know how special they are to God that there is no child.

who's an invisible seven year old standing on the curb to every single one of us, children old, like you said, seventy to seventy five, God says, I see you, I love you. You're worth it to me. I'm already, I've already got the plan laid. It's not a knee-jerk reaction. I already knew I would send my only begotten son son to stretch out his arms and shed his blood. And we see it right there, the gospel in Genesis fifteen. It's a cross. It's a cross. It's a cross. It's a cross.

Okay, so Lisa, there is a verse. that I want you to just do a little circling. I wanna I want it to be like an airplane. Just a wee exegesis. Just just a we exegesis. Because we don't have time for the entirety of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Um, what we know at this point in the story is that Abraham or Abram and Lot have separated. Okay. And there's a whole lot of um verbiage about Uncle and Nephe. Uncle and nephew.

And um and and and we're making our way to the moment when Abram rescues Lot, but there's a really interesting verse that you brought forth. that I would love to hear you speak on. It talks about this is this is uh chapter thirteen uh it says this, all right, we're talking about the land. Okay. And verse eleven it says, so Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan for himself.

Then Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated one from another. That's Abram and Lot. Abram lived in the land of Canaan, But Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up or pitched his tent near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against the Lord. What what do you see there in terms of Choice and obedience. Allie, I'm so glad you landed on Land. Okay. All right.

Because the word land, we're talking about, you know, where they live. Yeah. It's really one of the operative words in the whole book of Genesis. Um, the word I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing this Hebrew correctly, but I think it's eret. Okay. She's used over 300 times in Genesis. Wow. God makes it clear that where you pitch your tent is really important. Yeah. Um

Where our feet are our hearts follow. Okay. And so he says Abram was drawn to Canaan. Ultimately in the story, Canaan becomes the land of promise, the land of milk and honey. Right. Lot pitches his tent. as close as he can get to Sodom and Gomorrah, he already knows it's evil. I I oftentimes will hear people go, Oh, well, I didn't know. I didn't mean to and I'm like, Mm.

If we're really honest about our own stories, we've got a lot of responsibility because God is not capricious. He doesn't try to trip us up. Right. He makes it very clear. This is a place for you to pitch your tent. This is a safe place. This is a place of promise. And when you willingly pitch your tents as close as you can to Sodom, there's gonna be heck To pay, yeah. I remember in Samson's story. Oh yeah. He said

Don't go there, Samson. Don't go there Samson. Over and over again. And Samson goes to the to The Valley of Grapes or something. Valley of Sorek, which means uh the grapeville. Yeah, grapeville. He's a Nazarite, he can't have anything to do with grapes.

God's not trying to trip him up. He's got a neon sign. In this context, there's a neon sign. Don't pitch your tent next to Sodom and Gomorrah. My nephew and I this weekend were in a city where a gentleman we know, um, who was leading a wonderful church had a horrible moral failure. And um and my nephew was like, Aunt Lisa, how could he do that? And I said, It didn't start with that epic moral failure.

It started back here. Because one unconfessed sin always leads to another. One, I'm just gonna pitch my tent close to Sodom and Gore because I like their music. Right. I'm like, man, if you aren't careful with the boundaries of your life. You're gonna get in trouble and you see that with these two men. Abram goes on and you know, h his life isn't perfect. But the trajectory of his life is toward promise. And the trajectory of Lot's life, he loses everything because he willingly pitches his tent.

close to Sodom. I mean I'd say

Boy, for all of us, where are you pitching your tent? This so that's a warning. It's a good, good warning. Yeah, a compassionate warning. Once again, a good father. Yeah. Saying the reason I'm set I've set up this parameter. is for your your good. This is promissory. This isn't punitive. Yeah. I mean I think about how

Abraham did nothing to be chosen. Right. Yet through God's grace he chose to lean toward faith. Yes. And so I think there's some something beautiful in that that we can't choose ourselves, but in an enabling work of the Holy Spirit, we can lean. And don't you think gratitude? Yeah. calibrates our GPS. I do. I think sometimes the reason I make a choice to lean away from rebellion. Is I remember the r rebellion he's rescued me from. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, I wanna bring someone on Doc Gate who can help us lean a little bit more heavily into Grace and see what he has to bring to this. This has been really rich for me, but I wanna see what other feathering he can bring. Let's do it. Hey, hey, Doc H. You know what? I I I want to ask you a question. And if you don't want to answer it, you don't have to. Okay? Okay. What's your middle name? Maybrie M A B R Y. Stop. I like Maybury. I like that. For sound somewhat common in Kentucky.

Or my family. Is it really? James Maybury Howard. My dad is Carl Mabry. Okay. Uh one of my greatest. James Maybury sounds like very there's a lot of gravitas. Like he should sign important documents. Yes. I don't know why my brain went there, but I've got to do that. Well that's funny. In all these years I didn't know that was his middle name. A hankering need to know a middle name. And we've been talking all about a name uh for this episode. We've been talking about Abe.

And uh Lisa has got an amazing quote. And I think she just wants to pitch a ball and let you hit it, swing for the fences. But I can't I can't wait to hear what you have to to bring to us about this man Abraham. Doc H, you know I can't do quotes. This is an excerpt. She was gracious to call it a quote, but I'm wind baggy even in my quotes.

Um, you're the one who introduced me to this book. I think you've taken your elders through this multiple times. Um The Mission of God's Great Mission of God's People, Christopher Wright. And I I'm just gonna read you something. You probably have this memorized, but I wanna read this We talked to him because he was at our seminary. We talked to him about that book, The Mission of God's People. He said after it was published, a bunch of people came to me and said

You really named it wrong. It shouldn't be the mission of God's people. It should be uh the people of God's mission. God's mission. that on a podcast and I thought it's always cool too when somebody writes a classic and they're still humble. Like he'd still go, Oh, I could have done that. He'd just chuckled what was he like? Oh, it's very gentleman. Oh, I love that. I love that. And he's, you know, uh British, so whatever he says sounds Oh. We've talked about that before, anybody?

British, Scottish, Australian, South African, those accents are more godly too. It's like they can read the Bible and it carries more weight. Well I'm gonna I won't do this in a British accent or people will be scarred because I can't do any accents.

Um, but I'm gonna read just uh an excerpt, um, Doc H in light of what we've been talking about with Abraham and the redemptive ark you th see through scripture. I just want you to riff on this and I'll explain where we're going after I read this excerpt. By the time the story has reached Genesis eleven, the human race faced two huge problems. The sinfulness of every human heart and the fracturing and confusion

Of the nations of humanity. We talked about that with the Tower of Babel. Sure did. God's plan of redemption addressed both. In the call of Abraham, God set in motion a historical dynamic that would ultimately not only deal with the problem of human sin, but also deal with the dividedness of the At lunch today, you said Abraham, in your opinion, is the most important character, obviously apart from Jesus.

the most important human character in scripture and all of holy writ. Based on what doctor Wright says here and that statement you made at lunch, can you kind of put this cookie on the lower shelf for us to understand? Oh yeah. And how much time you gave me? Two hours? Yes, two hours. Two hours or seven minutes. Yeah. When you uh when you trace the covenants through scripture, you see an interesting pattern emerge.

It's not like here we have one covenant and then we have a different covenant and a different covenant. Right. The covenants all follow a linear path. Mm-hmm. Okay. And every covenant, it gives us more information than the covenant before. And it's it's building on it. It's layering, if you will. And so the covenants are the highway. through scripture which shows that redemptive arc or which shows the

the God reestablishing dignity at different parts of the creation. So even in the very beginning, I'm not a covenant theologian. I know some of our listeners might be that understand that language. Right. But in the very beginning, God makes a covenant because he assigns a a function to the stars and the moon and the sun. Right. And so they have a role to play. Okay. And they play that from now on. They have to, or we die. And so in Genesis twelve, one of the essential features of that covenant

Is that I will make you a blessing. Right. And so that begins to permeate the whole redemptive thread all the way through scripture to where we get today that We are a blessing so that we can bless others. And we are ambassadors. We are ambassadors. It's not just about us. Right. Yeah. And so we are always going to be up Against the divisions of the nations because not everybody's a Christian. Right. And we have a lot of people that have varying viewpoints.

And there's a lot of hostility in the world. Right. And there's a lot of anti Christian sentiment in the world. Right. And so you look at those teachings that permeate that movement of scripture and it's countercultural every step of the way. Right. You know, God says don't get vengeance. Why would he say that? Because the definition of justice is the same word as righteousness and justification in Greek.

In other words, to truly get justice is to do what is right for the everybody involved. We don't know how to do that. We simply don't know how. And so it's best to do what we're really capable of doing loving people. Right. So he starts right in the beginning. He says, I'm going to make you a blessing to all the nations. So now that's us. You got online several thousand years and here we are. It's interesting when you get to the end of the story in Revelation.

You have the leaves of the tree of life. Right. In the New Jerusalem. The healing of the nations. And the leaves are for the healing of the nations. So apparently Entering into glory is just not a light switch where everything's perfect. Once we get there, and evil and sin and greed are dealt with, now we get down to the real business of bringing about healing. Wow. So even that trend continues.

And now that should be I mean every prophet we'll get there, but every prophet talked about how they didn't take care of the poor, the widows, the marginalized orders. Right. They didn't demonstrate true justice or righteousness. They weren't a blessing. Yeah. In the right, in their world. Yeah. And we're held accountable to that as a church. Yeah. Wow, I love that. So good. Years ago, it was probably the first couple of episodes in of BPT.

And I'll never forget it and I know you won't either. You were talking about the church and you said if your church were to close its doors, yeah. Would the neighbors across across the street be mad? Would they be sad? Or would they even notice? There's only one good answer. That's right. There's only one good answer. But that that Kind of brings you back to the practical of being a blessing. Have you just because Jesus

lavish grace on you while you were still a sinner. Have you blessed the people that he allows you to rub shoulders with. I love that that goes all the way back to the very beginning.

But then you see it at the very end in the healing of the leaves in Revelation. And I love the idea that that glory is not static. Yeah, it's static. Um As we've sat here this last little eight minutes or so and we've talked about Abraham and the redemptive arc of scripture, I I just keep thinking that um there are probably some folks that are joining us, Lisa, who are going, that's just

A little bit too ephemeral to put my hands on. It's a little too not lofty, but I just can't it's not tangible enough. Especially if the Bible has been presented as uh punitive or as a punitive or they've been smacked over the head with it because their behavior didn't line up with the other. is that uh every step of the way he had choice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He could have chosen not to go. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, even in the the covenant in Genesis fifteen.

even he is stunned by what God is saying to him because he says Wait a minute, how do I know this is gonna be That's how I know it's true? Yeah. So then he obeyed when God said get the animals and cut'em in half. Yeah. And he had a choice there too, he could have been like, No, that's gonna be gross and messy. I don't I mean, you know, he did. He always had agency. He always had agency.

It was something you said earlier though, Doc H, when you said the healing of the nations, and that word healing uh leapt out uh to my mind for folks that are joining today. they don't uh they may not understand a chainsaw in church and the the covenant and how, you know, history is moving through this red God's hand is moving through history in a redemptive way. But their ears pricked up at the word healing, the healing of the nations. And so what I like to do is just pray for our friends.

For whom the Bible has been held up as a weapon. Or is held up as punitive or it makes little sense. Right. Or maybe even someone that said, You know what, I used to love the word of God. Yeah. I used to love the word of God. It was life to me. It was my heart is grown cold. Yeah. And so I think as we're beginning this journey, um Let's just ask for the Holy Spirit to soften hearts. And if it's if it's one Five verses, if it's one chapter.

If it's um one little bit, that will be life to you. It's it's the sweetest honey. And so let's just pray that God would soften hearts um back toward the word of God. Yeah. And if you come across a passage that doesn't make sense. That's okay. We all have skip it and move on. Still to this day. We do. I would encourage um those of y'all who that shoe fits. Yeah. If you're not driving a car Or tractor. Um or on the elliptical.

If you're in a place where you've got some safety and some privacy, I'm I'd encourage you to put your hands just palm up in your lap in that posture of receptivity. I think there's a a a a humility God honors even in saying There was a point in my life that I loved your word and I saw it as a love story and now I just would rather read de readers digest. I think the honesty of saying I need you.

To give me hunger pains for your word again. I I think that's important. Yeah. Jesus. Um we come uh as best we can surrendered. and in a place of humility. And Father, we just want to pray for parts of our own hearts, friends that are joining us today that might say the scripture has grown cold to me. Uh it's dusty. Uh I don't sense life. when I pick it up, I want to pray, Father, that you would breathe like you breathed on Adam.

When you breathe life into him, that you would breathe on the coals of our hearts, that we might desire uh you and desire your word. Father, I want to pray really specifically for people um for whom the word of God was used as a cudgel, a weapon. And so to them the word of God is not safe. Even that phrase, the word of God. has uh a negative connotation because it was so poorly utilized in their lives.

What I want to pray, Father, is that you would breathe life, that it would be sweeter than honeycomb. That if they join you and read three verses, it is life to their bones. And Father, that they would know that it is the author. himself who is issuing the invitation to say, come join the pages of this love story. Father, we ask you to do this. We can't do this. No no amount of words that we speak can make you make you any more attractive than you yourself.

So Father, we ask that you would um glorify your name uh and and come to your people afresh, that your your word would be life, the scripture would be life, and we'll be real quick to thank you for it. Jesus' name. Amen. Amen and amen. We love y'all. We want you back right here next week on the porch. We're going to dig in even further. That's more.