We lost one of our main characters today, one of the old patriarch’s, and that is Abraham. Throughout the Old Testament you’ll be reading about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob synonymously, the three patriarch’s. Our fathers, "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. We lost Abraham today and Wendy thought how tender it was for his sons Isaac and Ishmael to go bury their father in memory where Sarah was buried. That has always touched Wendy. Number one, that they remembered that this place was their family burial area, and number two, that they came together at the funeral. She thought that was very interesting to read and wondered if Abraham had ever done anything to try and mend the relationship between Ishmael and Isaac over the years. We were told in today’s reading in Genesis 25:18 that Ishmael’s relatives lived in hostility to one another, but she wonders if he ever patched up things with Isaac. Regardless, they did come together at the funeral and did the family funeral thing in the right way. Wendy hopes that if they had not mended their relationship until that point that the death of their father helped them put some water under the bridge and let them move forward.
Wendy also wants to spend some time reading today about Abraham from the New Testament. She read from the NIV, selected verses from Hebrews 11, known as the “Hall of Faith”. What the writer does, and it’s believed to be Paul although we’re not sure exactly, he goes through and talks about all the great men and women of faith that we have to look back on and learn from and recalls them in this passage of Scripture. Abraham was mentioned more than any other name in the “Hall of Faith”.
"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore....By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death."
Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19
All of these verses, when it talks about the men and women of faith start with "By faith". Wendy was challenged years ago by one of her favourite Bible teachers ever, sister Beth Moore. Hebrews 11 ends with verse 40, and Wendy was challenged by Beth to add a verse 41. Not adding or taking anything away from the Word of God which Revelations strongly discourages, but just to remind herself that putting a “By faith Wendy…”, that one day when her family looks back on her life, maybe even generations to come that won’t even know she existed, somehow they can look somewhere and know that their descendant was a woman of faith.
Wendy’s a little nostalgic and melancholy reading of the death of Abraham because she truly wants “And by faith Wendy” that her descendants would know that she was a woman of faith and that she believed God and it was counted righteous to her. She passes that down to the next generation and the next, that her faith that is built on Christ Jesus would be an inheritance to those to come. She can’t make them a great nation and she can’t give them greatness and descendants as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, but she can pass down a heritage of faith that is strong if she has a strong faith herself. That’s why she’s stepping out of this crossroads whenever she gets a chance and not getting struck there so that those who come behind her will find her faithful.
(All thoughts transcribed from Wendy's blog to aid those whose computers are not capatible to view these videos.)
1 comment:
Thank you, Joy, for doing this all week long. It was a blessing for me as I could print it, and take it along with me--- it helped me still feel in-the-loop! Hugs, Lori
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