Beginnings - 1 October 2007

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. Hebrews11:8 (NIV)
A recent sermon I heard this summer (thanks Hillary) made me think about the way that God formulated His relationship with His people Israel in the Old Testament and the way that there are many analogies with that whole journey which relate to our own christian lives. So I decided to base this set of devotionals on that wider view beginning with Genesis which means ‘beginning’.
It all began with one person Abraham, the man who had faith. And faith has to be the cornerstone of any relationship we have with God. That faith is apparent in all the decisions we make, where we turn to in a crisis, how we live our lives. God gave Abraham a promise that he would never see fulfilled and the promise passed to Isaac and then to Jacob who was renamed Israel after he wrestled with God through the night.
And then suddenly the relationship becomes plural with the twelve sons of Jacob who became the twelve tribes of Israel and the story of Joseph (of Technicolour Dreamcoat fame) tells us how the people of Israel ended up in Egypt.
And that was the first thing that struck me about this journey. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were nomadic people; they wandered all over the area between Egypt and Canaan quite freely. So why did God not just let them wander back into Canaan and take over?
The answer comes from the story of Joseph; Egypt was the only place that had food during a time of famine. God put His people in the safest place that He could on earth during that time. Much later that safe place was to turn into a prison of slavery but God was able to rescue them.
In my life I have been in safe places, and I have been in conditions of spiritual slavery and I have been in circumstances I have not understood the significance of at the time or sometimes even later. At these times I have cried out to God for rescue and understanding just as God’s people the Israelites did in the time of Moses. Like them I have had to grow into an understanding both of God’s presence and His ability to save me. I have also had to learn that He has a plan for my life. I don’t always understand what He is doing or why some things happen to me but that is where faith comes in.
Our God knew what He was doing when He began with Abraham and with faith and as we too wrestle with the events that God puts before us in our lives we deepen that faith in the God who loves us as surely as he loved the tribes of Israel.
How can you learn from the faith of Abraham?