1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word for us today is
taken from our Old Testament lesson in Genesis 17. In
His covenant with Abraham, the Lord promised to be with him, to bless him, and
make him “the father of many nations.” It’s an eternal
covenant in Jesus, the seed of Abraham. All who believe in Jesus are the
offspring of Abraham and are blessed, because Christ has suffered many things,
He was rejected and killed, and after three days He rose again (Mark 8:31). To understand
this theology of the cross, we must set our mind “on the things of God,”
and not “on the things of man” (Mark 8:33). “God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The message from God’s Word is entitled, “Not a Tame God,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
It often helps to illustrate that
God works in ways that, at the time, make no sense at all. Isaiah 55:8 says, “For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.” As sinful human beings we often
forget our relationship to God that we are His creatures and He is our Creator.
We forget His majesty and power and
expect Him to be "cuddly" and "safe" and to do our own bidding,
according to our own will. The great
Christian thinker and author, C.S. Lewis, has illustrated this throughout his
Chronicles of Narnia series. In the books, Aslan the Lion
represents Jesus. Often the characters are reminded that Aslan is
"not a tame Lion." He’s
powerful, merciful, loving, kind, and trustworthy, but He’s not tame,
predictable, controllable, or even safe.
I love this quote from Lewis' novel, The Last Battle: Do
you think I keep him in my wallet, fools?" said Tirian. "Who am
I that I could make Aslan appear at my bidding? He's not a tame
lion." I enjoyed
watching Disney's movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe, where this concept appeared again through this scene: Mr. Tumnus: [of Aslan] He's not a tame lion. Lucy Pevensie: No... but he is good.
3.
What a MIGHTY God we serve! How
worthy of our worship! How strong on our behalf!
Thank God that He’s not safe, not a puppet who dances at our whims, nor a
small thing to be contained in the box of our limited understanding. He is
MAJESTIC and AWESOME, and not at all tame.
Yet, He loves you. He acts in your defense and on your behalf. All that
He does is good, even when you don't understand it. And He loves you. Even when
He isn't doing what you think He should. Even when His ways are
incomprehensible to you, when it feels like He is doing it all wrong, remember
that He isn't tame, but He is GOOD.
4.
Genesis 17:1–7, 15–16 speaks to this idea that God
is not tame, He doesn’t act in ways that we can predict or control,
“1When
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, 2that I may make my covenant
between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3Then Abram fell on his
face. And God said to him, 4“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be
the father of a multitude of nations. 5No longer shall your name be called
Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a
multitude of nations. 6I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make
you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7And 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. 15And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not
call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16I will bless her, and
moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become
nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
5.
We’ve
all had some strange requests in our lifetime.
Many pastors tell stories of someone in their life who once said to them,
“You should consider becoming a pastor.”
And at the time, they may have thought the suggestion made no sense at all. And
everyone can tell a story of being asked to do something that, at the time,
seemed out of place. “You want me to
be the head of this board at church? You expect me to take on this new position
at work? You really believe that I could become an expert in the use of
technology? Are you really asking me to marry you?”
6.
So
now imagine Abram, age 99, no children with his wife Sarai, age 89, being told—not
just asked—told that he would be the father of nations.
Among other things, it helps to illustrate how God often works. He works in
ways that, at the time, make no sense at all. He demonstrated over and over
again that the laws of nature and what we would call “normal” don’t confine
him. After all, He set everything in motion. He has the power to bring
about the extraordinary. He’s capable of the impossible. But He acts not just
to demonstrate that He’s the God of all things. He does so in order to carry
out His plan for the eternal salvation of the children He’s created.
7.
Imagine
the range of emotions Abram may have had. “No
way,” may have been his first thought. “How
could that be?” And no doubt he had no inkling
of what God was really saying. He couldn’t have understood what God
Almighty had in mind any more than an infant understands the significance of
baptism. Practically speaking, it just didn’t make sense. But then it wasn’t
Abram’s plan, it was God’s. And spiritually speaking, Abram, who was renamed
Abraham, was ultimately led to trust God’s plan.
This wasn’t Abram’s first encounter with God. The covenant
God chose to have with His people had been earlier revealed. But, Abram and Sarai were convinced that the
time for the fulfillment of God’s covenant promise was long gone. The covenant
was now becoming sealed and intended as the sacred pledge that would foreshadow
the gift of salvation God planned through Jesus Christ.
8.
Abram
didn’t know at the time, but we know, that this God moment with Abram was the
beginning of the gift of descendants that would lead to the birth of our Savior
Jesus Christ. Abram would come to be known as
“Father Abraham.” It was the beginning of what would be remembered with
great thanksgiving for all generations. The Apostle Paul says in Romans
9:4-5: “They are Israelites, and to them
belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race,
according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.
Amen.”
9.
Abram
was told by God that he would be the father of many nations, but he was
told first by God to be “blameless.”
That was as impossible for Abram as it is for us. Still, that is God’s
will for all of us. We read in 1 Peter, “…as
he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is
written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1:15–16). Because of the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, God actually declares us to be holy. That’s what salvation is about.
That was the plan of God He was revealing in a dramatic way to Abram. While the
newly named Abraham couldn’t have known the depth of God’s plan for salvation, Jesus
said that Abraham did see in John 8:56, “Your
father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” Abraham didn’t earn or deserve the
honor of becoming the father of nations. We don’t deserve to be part of God’s
plan and to be declared holy because of the work of Jesus Christ. But we’re
made holy, anyway. Paul tells us this in Ephesians chapter 1,
“Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before
him.” (Eph 1:3–4)
10.
And
that just doesn’t make sense. It’s so outside of what we might
expect. We can almost identify with Abraham. What God has declared to us is
hard to believe. It’s strange and out of the ordinary. But it is true.
Through Abraham’s descendant, Jesus Christ, we can stand
before God “holy and blameless!” Imagine that!
11.
So are there circumstances in
your life where God isn't acting as you think He should? Take time to confess
your desire to control and tame Him.
Ask His forgiveness and worship Him despite the circumstances. I'm not sure who said this, but it fits, "If God were small enough to
understand, He wouldn't be big enough to worship." God is worthy of
our worship. AND He is knowable. We can submit to Him and feel safe and protected. But, we must never expect that we can control
Him. Please pray with me: Heavenly
Father, I worship You. Your ways
are not my ways. I submit to Your perfect will. Forgive me for the times I have
been more concerned about my own will than Yours and expected you to do my bidding.
Thank you for your forgiveness and patience with me. Thank you that in the
midst of your majesty and power, you love me, and know me, and have my best
interest at heart. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen.
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