Bible Overview – Advent
Genesis 12: 1-6
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
So, Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Luke 1: 46-55
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”
When our children were aged 1,3,5,7 we moved from Tamworth to Uralla high up on the New England Tablelands. To make it easier we told them they were going to a place where it sometimes snowed. So, for the next five years every night family prayers would end with one or other of them praying “and please Lord Jesus make it snow”. It never snowed but they never gave up praying. After five years we left Uralla to go and serve God in Jakarta. On our last day in Uralla when the removalist’s truck arrived guess what happened…!
For our young family it was an early lesson that when it comes to being God’s people having patience and perseverance is a must.
In our 4-week Advent overview of the Bible, we’re going to look at how the story of God shepherding his people progresses by God making promises and keeping them. In each case he required from them patient perseverance because it was years, sometimes centuries, even millennia for his promises to be fulfilled…
This week we’ll look at God’s promises to Abraham and Sarah. The following weeks will feature Moses, then David, then the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The handout summarises this Advent sermon series. Why don’t you to tuck it away in your Bibles for future reference?
In today’s reading from Genesis chapter 12, God calls Abraham and Sarah to leave Haran on the Upper Euphrates and travel south to the land of Canaan. Along with his call God makes made three promises:
- A Land the dimensions of which (according to chapter 15) take in todays’ Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
- A Great Nation as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore (according to chapter 22)
- The Source of Universal Blessing
Abraham’s and Sarah’s initial response was to believe and act by uprooting in their old age (Abraham was 75), and travelling to the Promised Land but they stumbled many times through fear and impatience:
- Abraham passed Sarah off as his sister to Pharaoh and later to King Abimelech because he was afraid of them. God protected Sarah and forced Abraham to come clean with these kings.
- Childless Sarah got Abraham to father an heir through her maidservant Hagar and God said, ‘wrong solution, wait!’
- Finally elderly Sarah bore a son Isaac.
But then God put Abraham to the extreme test, a very disturbing one, to sacrifice Isaac…and he passed, and by the way, Isaac was spared! (chapter 22)
The time span for God to fulfil his promises?
- By the time he died Abrahm possessed no more than an acre of the Promised Land… a burial site he purchased for Sarah. His sole heir was their son, Isaac
- The Land and Nation promises were fulfilled 1000 years later in David’s time
- The Universal Blessing promised was fulfilled in Jesus 2000 years later, when Jesus sent his disciples to all nations and gave anyone regardless of race, gender or social status who believed in him to become a child of God.
This is what Mary was referring to when she sang the Spirit inspired words: “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”
For us here today just as important as promises God made and kept is the lesson he taught Abraham and Sarah.
- It is the foundation of love
- It is the basis of all healthy relationships
- It provides the environment for humans to mature into properly functioning adults
- It is the first thing babies learn…TRUST
- When Jesus showed the disciples a young child and told then that “unless you become like one of these you will never enter the kingdom of God”, he was talking about trust. Small children are neither moral nor immoral because they are too young to make informed choices – they are amoral. There are only two things that they are better at than adults: they are candid, and they are trusting.
- Jesus was telling his disciples that trust or faith in God trumps everything…morality, achievements etc. Jesus began his earthly life as a trusting infant and his dying words were words of trust, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Amen