Abraham - the father of the faithful.

As we move on in our monthly look at the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures: the Old Testament in the Christian Bible), we come to one of the most significant figures in Biblical history. Over the next three (!) posts, we shall be looking at a man who was named Abram, but had that name changed, by Almighty God (El Shaddai), to Abraham (Avraham).

I am currently reading through the book of Deuteronomy in my personal devotions, and read these words a couple of days ago: "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession." (7:6).  

The Jewish people are  often referred to as "The Chosen People". This has caused many to accuse El Shaddai of favouritism! Indeed, "chosenness"is so strongly associated with favouritism and arrogance that even some modern Jewish people reject the concept. Yet the idea of El Shaddai choosing the Hebrew people runs throughout the Tanakh. For example (emphases added):

"But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Avraham My friend.”  (Isaiah 41:8)

“You His servants, the descendants of Israel, His chosen ones, the children of Jacob.”  (I Chronicles 16:13; see also Psalm 105:6)

“For YHWH has chosen Jacob to Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure.”  (Psalm 135:4)

In fact, contrary to feeling smug and favoured, observant Jews are keenly aware that "chosenness" deflates any sense of significance! Indeed, those words already quoted, from the book of Deuteronomy, continue: "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that YHWH set His love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because YHWH loves you, and is keeping the oath which He swore to your fathers, that YHWH has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (vs.7-8; emphasis added).

Understanding El Shaddai's choosing of the descendants of Avraham, Isaac (Yitzac) , and Jacob (Yacob/Israel) is central to having a firm foundation in His providential plan! And the record starts with Abram.

In Genesis 18, we read these words of YHWH: "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of YHWH by doing righteousness and justice, so that YHWH may bring to Abraham what He has promised him." (vs.18-19).

Only 400 years had passed since the great Flood in the time of Noah, so that the world was not yet populated by a great variety of peoples living in powerful nations. "Nations", at that time, were more like city-states, rife with paganism and polytheism. A mere four centuries after the Flood, mankind was still lost. It was still the case "... that every imagination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually." (Gen.6:5).

El Shaddai called Abram out of one of those city-states - Ur of the Chaldees - and told him to go to a land that He would show him. The people of Ur were Moon-worshippers, but El Shaddai spoke to this one man. "Now YHWH said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 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 curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." He didn't know where this land was located, but he trusted the direction, and promise, of this One Whom he recognised as the Almighty God. He believed God, and headed for the Promised Land. Please note that this was millennia before the founding of the very Islam that lays claim to that Promised Land, today!

This,then, was the start of the Chosen People. God chose one man - and that one man chose God! We are not told if God had called any other person before Abram. We are told that Abram chose to accept God's promises, and that he put feet to faith! That, surely, is a salutory lesson to all of us!

More in a couple of nights. Do keep an eye out for the next "instalment"!

New Beginnings

After a number of last-minute hitches, and delays, I have just sent out, to our Annual Newsletter mailing-list, the exciting (for my wife and me!) news that we have completed all of the legalities in our purchase of a house in France.  It has been an exhausting, sometimes, frustrating, time-consuming matter - but it is done!

Why have we made such a move when we are no longer in the first flush of our youth?  Simply because we believe that this move is in the Lord's will.  What He has planned for us is, of course, still to be discovered, but we have learned, over many years, to take one step at a time.   It will be difficult to leave the static caravan (mobil-home) that has been our French 'base' for three years - but as soon as we have it emptied of items that have been stored here, it will go on the market, and we trust that someone else will have as much pleasure as we have had when it is purchased (sooner, rather than later, we trust!).

This is, of course, for us, a time of 'new beginnings'.  Beginnings are of extreme importance.  How often, as a child, and a young man, I was taught by my parents to "Start as you mean to continue"!   I am thinking of a man named Abram, who lived some 4,000 years ago in that part of the world known, today, as southern Iraq.  At God's call, he left all that would have been his and, with his wife, his nephew, and his flocks and servants, he set off for an unknown (to him) destination.  The whole story is found in the Old Testament book of Genesis (Beginnings), chapters 12-25, and is well worth reading.   That was a new beginning for Abram (better known by his later name of Abraham) and, from that new beginning came the whole nation of Israel - a nation that many have tried to destroy, but that continues to exist, and flourish, in spite of their attempts!

We are not going to be the progenitors of a new nation - but we believe that the Lord has a specific plan for us as we settle in to our new home.  We believe, too, that He has a specific plan for your life - but you have to be willing to listen to Him if you want to discover it!

Are you ready for new beginnings?  It can be scary; but it can also be exciting!   And, of course, the greatest 'new beginning' is the new life that is promised to all who come to Father God in faith; accepting the salvation that is offered through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus; and opening themselves up to the daily guidance of God the Holy Spirit.  If you want to know more, please contact me - or even check out a couple of "My Favourite Links" (scroll down!).