Family of faith.
This article is part two of my comments on the connection of Israel to non-Jewish believers, of which I am one. But before I proceed, I have something of a revision to make of some of my comments from last Sunday.
In that article, describing the covenant God entered into with Abraham, I said that God needed someone from the race of Adam who would fulfil our side of the covenant in order for it to be valid. Whether or not that is true, I now think there is a better way of putting it which is closer to the truth.
God is telling a story – the story of history, the story of all our lives – in which he has chosen that we each should have a real, important, and necessary part to play. Ultimately it is the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We should not imagine that we are the stars of the show. Nonetheless, so far as we are willing and God makes us able, he has appointed that we should have a part which is important and makes a real difference to our world.
I think this is a better sense in which to understand the extraordinary faith shown by Abraham in his willingness to sacrifice his only remaining son, Isaac, believing as he did that God would raise him from the dead. So great was the faith which dwelt in Abraham that God appointed to him an unparalleled part in establishing the covenant which ultimately is the salvation of all who believe. That is not to say his part can be compared with the sacrifice of Jesus our Lord who is the Saviour of all – though it was according to the pattern of Jesus’ sacrifice, and the sacrifice of the Father in sending his only Son, and it needed to be – that was the point. But it was the desire of God that Abraham should be all he could be, and that his part should be to the limit of his faith, which was great, because God loved Abraham – not some kind of legal necessity – that led God to appoint to Abraham the role he played, and to challenge Abraham to do it, which he faithfully did.
I think it is important to understand the work of God in Abraham’s life in this sense, because this is the way God works in our lives too.
‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.’ (Ephesians 2:10)
God desires not just that we should be the hapless recipients of his endless kindness and unmerited favour – though it is true that is what we are. But more, God desires that we should each have a real and important role to play, one which makes a difference, a good difference which will not be accomplished without us playing our part.
On that note, I want to look at another, extraordinary work in the life of Abraham which was essential to the covenant and to its unfolding into the salvation we have all found in Jesus Christ, which has come to us through Israel, Jesus our Lord and Saviour being the fulfilment of the covenant of God with Abraham and with his seed.
The book of Genesis describes how the covenant which God made with Abraham was extended to his son Isaac, and to Isaac’s son Jacob, who was renamed Israel by God. But in the history of the nation of Israel after that, the circumstances of the covenant took an unhelpful, and ultimately tragic turn. Because after some generations, the extraordinary qualities of faith and obedience which were found in Abraham were no longer evident in his descendants – his ‘seed’, who were to be the beneficiaries of the covenant and recipients of the blessing of God. Though throughout, there were men and women of Israel who remained faithful to God.
Passages giving an overview of the nation of Israel’s ungodliness and unbelief are found in Isaiah 1, Jeremiah 2 and elsewhere in scripture. Judges 2 describes it like this:
‘And also all that generation [which knew Joshua] were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.’ (Judges 2:10-13)
‘And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:’ (Judges 2:20-21)
Of the conduct of Israel’s children in Egypt where they settled with Jacob their father in his last days, and the four hundred years following in Egypt, we know little. But from the time of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt under Moses, even up until the time of Jesus, and according to the record of the apostles in the New Testament, after that time also, Israel was largely unfaithful to God and did not respect the covenant. (I will confine myself to the scriptures and make no judgement on the conduct of Israel subsequent to the New Testament; I believe what we need to know for our time is found in the Bible.)
And it emerges that to God, the conduct of Israel and their respect for the covenant was critical. The Spirit expressed through Abraham’s offspring was more important in the eyes of God than their physical DNA. This situation was still manifest during Jesus’ own earthly life, when he described it as follows:
‘I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.’ (John 8:37-40)
Far from being ready to lay down their own lives for Jesus, as Abraham did (for the life of Isaac was far more dear to him than his own life), Abraham’s seed were plotting to put Jesus to death. And to God, this was greater evidence of their true lineage than any genealogy connecting them to Abraham. Jesus said to them:
‘Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.’ (John 8:44)
So a question arises: if God no longer counted the physical seed of Abraham as Abraham’s children, would he extend the covenant to them which he made with Abraham?
Because, so far as we are concerned who are not Jews, the covenant could not be extended by faith to us also if it had not remained in force for the seed of Abraham, with whom the covenant was initially and primarily made. I will return to that later.
It turns out, Abraham himself again provided the justification for God to save even these most evil and unbelieving of Abraham’s offspring, which God in his infinite faithfulness, kindness, forgiveness and love had already purposed to do. (And they, like we who believe, would not remain evil, for God is able to impart to them even his own righteousness, and to cleanse them, and us, from all evil.) To find out Abraham’s role in this we must backtrack again, back before even the birth of Abraham’s son, Isaac.
You may recall from the scripture above that in his original call to Abraham, God said to him:
‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.’ (Genesis 12:1)
But in fact, Lot, Abraham’s nephew, went with him. And I think Abraham was aware this was not entirely in keeping with the call. But a reasonable and honourable man such as himself could hardly turn away Lot, his nephew, to be left on his own. Nonetheless, when the opportunity arose, Abraham arranged to separate from Lot on terms unfavourable to himself, but favourable to Lot, and with which Lot was well pleased. For the two of them each accumulated such herds and companies of people that they could not occupy as nomadic herders the same range. Abraham therefore gave Lot, his junior in the family, first choice as to the area which would be his. And Lot chose ‘the plain of the Jordan’ – specifically, it seems, the city of Sodom and its surrounds which were fertile and prosperous at that time. It proved a fateful choice.
‘And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Cherdorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations; That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. Twelve years they served Cherdorlaomer, and the thirteenth year they rebelled. And in the fourteenth year came Cherdorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto El-paran, which is by the wilderness. And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar.
And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim; With Cherdorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five. And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.
And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.’ (Genesis 14:1-13)
To understand what Abraham did in this incident, I will allow myself to speculate a little about the situation, based on what the scriptures tell us. The four kings with their combined armies which overthrew Sodom were on the return leg of a tour of destruction throughout that region of the Middle East in which Israel is located today. No army had been able to stand against them, nor the five combined armies of the king of Sodom and his associate kings.
Regarding Sodom, it seems this was likely a prosperous city and kingdom, based on the description of the area in the record of Lot’s decision to settle there (Genesis 13:10). And in a later episode, when Lot was rescued from Sodom by the angels, the people of the city referred to him merely as ‘this fellow who came to sojourn’ (Genesis 19:9). Yet we know Lot went there with goods comparable to Abraham – hence why they separated – and apparently Lot continued to prosper. So the kingdom of Sodom was much greater than Lot and his company, and likewise, much greater than Abraham and his.
The people of such a kingdom would be well aware that other nations and forces would desire to conquer them, to take their goods and perhaps their favourable location for themselves. The fact they paid tribute to Cherdorlaomer king of Elam was a demonstration that not all nations of the region were their allies. And the fact Cherdorlaomer required tribute – rather than just ransacking the city outright – suggests that it was easier to take tribute than to go to war against Sodom. They were not defenceless. I would suggest that a good portion of the riches of Sodom were invested in their defences and their military, and they had a regional alliance with other kings who could likewise defend themselves.
Sodom and her allies were no walkover. Nonetheless, they were also no match for the armies of Cherdorlaomer and his allies. The latter, therefore, was a force to be reckoned with. No kingdom or army or confederation had stood against them.
In this light, Abraham’s decision without hesitation to take on this formidable force is extraordinary. His own force of three hundred and eighteen men were not regular soldiers – he ‘armed them’ for the mission. They had done some combat training, it seems. Nonetheless, the fact Abraham and his associates, Mamre, Aner and Eshcol, had escaped the attention of the marauding armies is testament to the fact they were ‘small fry’ in the regional scheme of things. And Abraham at least was a nomad, with no city to draw attention to his wealth, such as it was. Still, they must all have celebrated their tremendous, good fortune – and Abraham the mercy of his God – that they had not suffered the same fate as the peoples around them, to be destroyed by Cherdorlaomer and the others. Until, that is, news came of Lot.
It is remarkable that Mamre, Aner and Eshcol agreed to join Abraham in his venture to rescue Lot. Because, except seen through the eyes of faith, this was a suicide mission. Their forces were pitifully small, of no account by comparison with the great, battle hardened armies they went to fight.
For what, and for whom then did Abraham commit himself to apparently certain doom? To risk – if not simply sacrifice – not only his own life but all that he had? For Lot. And who was Lot to Abraham? His nephew. Nowhere in the scriptures is there any suggestion that Abraham had any personal bond or fondness for Lot, nor did he have any vested interest in Lot’s survival or success. And if he had needed any further reason to leave Lot to his fate – indeed, to any normal person this was not a choice, for there was nothing it seemed that could be done to save Lot, considering the strength of the force which had taken him – then furthermore, Lot was not even chosen by God in the call given to Abraham, nor was he an heir to the covenant.
In fact, God had specifically told Abraham to separate from Lot, and when he did, at considerable personal cost, God responded by confirming his promise to Abraham that he would inherit the land. So there was no spiritual imperative to rescue Lot, it could be claimed. Far from it – Lot was reaping the reward of his own choice to live in Sodom. (‘But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.’ Genesis 13:13.)
Abraham was not interested in reasonable calculations of war, nor in spiritual justifications to save his own skin. There was no question in Abraham’s mind – Lot was kin. Abraham’s duty was to rescue him at any cost.
‘And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Cherdorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, and Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.’ (Genesis 14:15-24)
It was after this stupendous exploit of faith that God entered into the covenant with Abraham. Because God needed not only someone who would be prepared to sacrifice even his own son and sole heir, as Abraham was willing to do with Isaac (though God spared him); God also needed someone who showed unflinching loyalty and faithfulness to his own kin, even unto death, and even when he had no personal closeness or bond of love to the particular persons concerned.
God needed this in his covenant partner, because that was what he knew he would have to show to Abraham’s descendants, his ‘seed’, the heirs of the covenant: an unflinching commitment to honour the covenant with them, despite that the characteristic that mattered to God – that Abraham’s seed should display Abraham’s love for God, extraordinary faith and absolute obedience – would be sorely lacking.
The faithfulness of God is beyond our imagining. The faithfulness of Abraham to his own kin, no matter how tenuous the connection, adorned the faithfulness of God towards Abraham’s seed with a special rightness. The faithfulness which God had already determined of his own self to show towards Abraham’s seed, Abraham made it right for him to show. Because Abraham did what he could. And God, in return, did what Abraham could not.
And so we have statements such as that of the apostle Paul, himself a Jew, who suffered at the hands of the Jews more than almost any other, who says:
‘And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.’ (Romans 11:26)
And it is true that elsewhere Paul says, ‘For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel’ (Romans 9:6). Nonetheless, his statement above in Romans 11:26 is triumphant and in my view, should not be limited.
So then, the faithfulness of God to Israel to provide for their salvation is absolute, not only according to the faith and obedience of Abraham’s seed, or whether his descendants show the same faithful character as Abraham, which is what identifies them as Abraham’s seed in the sight of God, but even those who are Abraham’s seed in the flesh only – because that is how Abraham regarded his own kin who were kin after the flesh only.
But Paul goes further, and this is where a further unfolding of the salvation of God for non-Jews – ‘Gentiles’ – begins to emerge.
‘For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles come in.’ (Romans 11:25)
‘I say then, Have they [Israel] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.’ (Romans 11:11)
To me, these at first seemed strange words. For it is one thing to say that God remains faithful to Israel despite all. And to say that God extends his grace to the Gentiles also. But to say that the fall of Israel somehow enables the salvation of the Gentiles? How could one help the other?
But again, we see according to the words of Jesus that it is those who show the love, faith and obedience of Abraham who are counted his children in the sight of God. Therefore, if God will save those who in his sight are not even counted as Abraham’s children – because they departed from God, and were even hateful towards God and towards Jesus, God’s Son – will God then not save those who do indeed show the nature of Abraham, though they are not descended from him? For in the sight of God, it is they who are.
So to set the pieces in order: those who are descended from Abraham according to the Spirit should be saved, if those who are descended only according to the flesh are saved; and those who are descended only according to the flesh should be saved, because Abraham laid down his own life to save his kin according to the flesh, though they were not of his nature, nor dear to his heart (though God, by comparison, loves all beyond measure).
And so we see that Abraham, this time not only by his astonishing faith in God and readiness to express it at the cost, if necessary, of his own life, but also by his faithfulness to his own, set the scene for the salvation firstly of the nation of Israel, whether or not they believe, and then the salvation of the Gentiles who, like Abraham, believe in God. And the fact Israel did not believe only made right the salvation of the Gentiles who do believe. Yet because of Abraham, Israel shall still be saved.
I apologize if I have made heavy work of putting into words the wonderful wisdom and truth which I see reflecting from scripture to scripture and from age to age through the Bible. But for myself, even to glimpse such truth, even if I cannot easily lay the pieces together, causes me to be filled with a conviction that our God is loving and wise beyond anything we could imagine. His mercies are above the heavens in greatness. And we should forbear whatever shortcomings we may imagine to see in the nation of Israel, for their part has indeed been a painful one from ages past even to this day, and we share with them an extraordinary father in Abraham – they thus far according to the flesh, and we according to the Spirit if we believe. But through Israel, and through Abraham, and above all through our Lord Jesus Christ, God has told the story of our salvation and brought it to pass, according to his great love and wonderful, merciful greatness.
Amen and amen.
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