Thinking Christian about the Life of Abraham: Legitimate Concerns and Decision Making

Hey everyone, welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. I'm Dr. James Spencer, and today we're going to be looking at the way that Abraham's legitimate concerns, particularly the concerns that he expresses in Genesis 15 and really throughout most of his life, are going to drive his decision making. And this is largely a conversation about Genesis 15, 6, and Genesis 22, which are both quoted in the New Testament. Paul quotes Genesis 15, 6, Abraham believed God and it was credited him as righteousness. And James quotes both Genesis 15, 6 and Genesis 22, noting that Abraham's works work with his faith to demonstrate his justification. So what's the context of Genesis 15, 6? Well, in Genesis 14, Abraham finds out that the king of Sodom and his various allies have gone up against their sovereign lord. So if we think about this, you have sort of a suzerain who is part of a covenant. The suzerain is the top guy. He's the top dog. And within a covenant, the suzerain set the rules. The vassals are underneath that suzerain, and the vassals are supposed to be loyal to the suzerain. And so in this case, the king of Sodom and his allies are the suzerain, or I'm sorry, the vassals to the suzerain who is Cheddar Laomer and his sort of cadre of additional allies. And so what happens is the king of Sodom and his allies decide that Cheddar Laomer is not worth following anymore, and they want to overthrow him. They want to become the suzerain. They are they're tired of being vassals. They want to become the suzerain. And so they go up against him in war. They lose. The problem with that for Abram is not necessarily the king of Sodom is now in trouble, but that Lot, who was recently parted from Abram and moved towards Sodom, is actually taken captive with all his possessions. And so Abram comes together with a group of his own allies and goes and rescues the people who have been taken captive by Cheddar Laomer. After he is done that, he has this interesting interaction with Melchizedek. We won't get into that too much. You can find some links in the description where I've dealt with that in other places. But ultimately, as we move into chapter 15, this is the context that we're dealing with. And so the beginning of chapter 15 gestures back toward Genesis 14 because God comes to Abram in a vision and he says, fear not, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. And Abram tends to believe that. He's just had this massive military victory. His interactions with Melchizedek and the king of Sodom demonstrates he understands that God gave him this victory. And so Abram isn't as concerned, I don't think, with wealth. He's not concerned with prosperity. He's not concerned even with military security at this point. But what he is concerned with, he voices in verse 2. And he says this, Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? So Lord, in Genesis 12, right, Abram probably didn't think of it as Genesis 12, but at the beginning of his relationship with God, what God told Abram that he was going to do was to make his name great and to give him a great nation. And so now Abram, coming off this military victory, understands that God can protect him. But he's wondering how God is going to fulfill this promise given that he has no biological heirs. He's going to end up passing anything he ends up having to Eleazar of Damascus. And so God responds to Abram and he says, you know, look toward heaven and the number of stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, God said to Abram, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord, or Abram believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Now that that verse, Genesis 15, 6, is the one that's quoted in the New Testament. So what we're seeing here is that Abram believes that God is going to give him biological heirs. He believes that Eleazar of Damascus is not the heir that he's counting on and that something is going to come about that Abram is going to have children of his own. Okay, so this is important to note because in this chapter, God doesn't specify that Abram and Sarah are going to have children. He only says this man, and this is Genesis 15, 4, this man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. And so it's going to be Abram's son. Now, from our perspective and our sort of, you know, moral matrix, we would probably look at that and say, well, of course God means Abram and Sarah. That is what he ends up meaning. But in Abram's context, this isn't about morality. This isn't about some sort of weird, aberrant sexual behavior. This is about a context in which there is no science to help someone who is infertile have children. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free Retirement Defense Guide, or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. There is no mechanism by which an infertile human being and another infertile human being can get a child, even maybe through adoption, but that's what Eleazar was. But through biological means, there are only so many ways that Abram could actually have a child. And so God is addressing his very legitimate concern. He doesn't think that Eleazar is going to be sufficient to really fulfill God's promises. He doesn't see that as being what God promised. And so what does Abram hear from God? He says, well, God says, no, you're going to have a biological child. And this biological child will be your heir. And so we go through Genesis 15, we run into Genesis 16, and what we see here is that the legitimate concern that Abram has is an ongoing sort of problem. Okay, great, God, you've told me that I'm going to have an heir of my own, that I'm going to have a biological heir. How is that going to work? Because Abram and Sarah at this point are actually quite old. And so the assumption is that Sarah, at least, is beyond childbearing years. And so in chapter 16, what we get is this narrative that portrays Sarah and Abraham's, or Sarai and Abram's deliberations about what is going to happen in order for Abram to get this heir. So again, his legitimate concern, I need an heir. And his actions, I'm going to take these steps, are instructive to us because what Abram's going to do is he's going to try to solve this problem on his own. He and Sarai really are going to try to solve this problem on their own. And so in verse 2 of chapter 16, Sarai says to Abram, Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And so what do they do? They follow the convention. This was actually a fairly common practice in the ancient Near East where you'd see surrogates being used to gain heirs for a family when the wife was infertile. So Sarai has never had children. That's the implication of what she's saying. She is older. And so she's concerned that if they wait around for her to get pregnant, she doesn't see that as ever going to happen, that Abram can't really have this promise that God has given him fulfilled. Again, a real legitimate concern. Abram at first sees that Eleazar of Damascus is going to be his heir. That's a concern. God says, nope, it's going to be your biological child. Now we move to another concern. What is that concern? Well, it says Sarai is barren. She's never had children. And so despite the fact that she and Abram have been having marital relations for a very long time, Sarai has never had any additional kids, no kids whatsoever. And so the assumption is that she is barren, that she can't have children. And so what do we do now? And Sarai comes up with this solution. And so we sort of understand if you're

You know the story of Genesis, you know how this narrative goes. Abram goes and sleeps with Hagar. Hagar has Ishmael. Ishmael then is understood, at least for a chapter, to be the heir of Abraham. Now, in chapter 17, God's going to come back to Abraham. And Abram is, at this point, 99 years old. We see that in Genesis 17, verse 1. And he appears to Abraham, and he says, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between you and me and may multiply you greatly. Abraham falls on his face, and God says to him, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you the father of multiple nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make you new into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be to you, to be God to you, and to your offspring after you. And I will give you possessions, you and your offspring, possession of the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. Now, and the interesting part is that God is going to ultimately reiterate these covenant blessings, but then he's going to ultimately take a step back and tell Abram that Ishmael, who is now probably getting close to 12 or 13 years old, is not actually going to be his heir. Remember I said that Abram at this point was 99 years old, and God is going to say to him that this child is going to come not from his union with Hagar, but from his union with Sarai. And so in chapter, in verse 15, chapter 17, verse 15, we see God say to Abraham this, as for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become nations, kings of people shall come from her. And so Abraham now has been through a fairly long process with God. God has promised him certain things. He's giving him, you know, he's made a covenant with him. Abraham sort of thinks he has this figured out. He's got Ishmael sort of waiting along the side. This is his biological heir. But God comes along in chapter 17 and says, no, no, I'm not chastising you necessarily. I'm not, there's no real moral judgment given regarding Abraham's union with Hagar. That isn't necessarily to say that there was nothing wrong with that, but the text isn't focused on that. I think part of the reason that's happening is that Abraham and Abram, Abram, Abraham, is being pictured as the sort of quintessential disciple. Abraham is trying to learn who God is and how to interact with him. As he does that, he does some things right. For instance, in Genesis 14, we see him deny the offer of the king of Sodom to take the spoils from war so that the king of Sodom cannot claim that he made Abraham rich. Abram wants to make sure that God is viewed as making Abraham rich. So that's a great decision. But then we also see him sojourn into Egypt. We see him call Sarah his sister so that he can be protected. We see him put her in harm's way and God has to intervene and protect them. We also see him sleep with Hagar, and we see him have a child by a woman who is not his wife and assume that that is going to be his heir. All of those are probably problematic mistakes, but they're mistakes that within the context of Genesis are not viewed as morally problematic. They are viewed as the stepping stones, the moments, the overall total experience, those events within Abraham's life that allow him to move from where he was in Genesis 12 to where he ends up in Genesis 22. And so it's not a question of, are these things appropriate? I think we can give a resounding no to that. I think that Abram made major mistakes, sin, as he walked across his life. The question is, how are these things portrayed and what is God trying to do with Abraham? How is he taking him towards something that is bigger and broader than just these basic sins that he's perpetrating? And so as we find in Genesis 17 here, Abram and Sarah are both finding this promise that they will have a child rather far-fetched. It's difficult for them to believe that they're going to have kids. They're old. They've never had children before. They've had plenty of sexual relationships, but nothing has ever happened. And so why now? Well, God responds and says, nope, it will be through Sarah. This is actually going to happen. We have a brief interlude in chapters 18 and 19, really. Abraham is going to intercede for Sodom. Lot is going to be rescued from Sodom. And we're going to have in chapter 20, Abraham and Abimelech form a covenant. And then we're going to get to the birth of Isaac in chapter 21. And in chapter 21, what we see is Isaac is born, but then he and Ishmael have this sort of friction together. Hagar is pushed away, but because of her affiliation with Abraham, God is going to care for Hagar. He is going to care for what she's doing. He's not going to abandon Hagar. Hagar has to go away. Ishmael has to move on, but God is going to care for them. And we finally get to Genesis 22. Genesis 22, after all of this that we've sort of learned about what Abraham is going through, is actually the crescendo of this whole life that Abraham's been living. This is why I think that James talks about Genesis 15, 6. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free Retirement Defense Guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. Genesis 22 in the same breath. And the reality is, James is drawing on rabbinic and Jewish exegesis of these passages. Genesis 15-6 and Genesis 22 were often viewed together. Because what we have in Genesis 15-6, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And what we have in Genesis 22 is that Abraham is demonstrated to be one who fears God, are actually deeply connected. And they're connected through this tension of the seed. This legitimate concern about how am I going to have an heir is going to come to a head in Genesis 22. In Genesis 22, what God does is he tests Abraham. Now, we know that. Abraham probably doesn't. Abraham hears a command from the Lord and says, Go and sacrifice your only son for me. And Abraham is pictured as walking through the paces of actually doing this. He's going to take Isaac with him and a couple of servants. They're going to go to Mount Moriah. He leaves the servants behind. He's taking everything he needs. Isaac asks him, Where is the sacrifice that we're going to give to God? Abraham says, The Lord will provide. And ultimately, he is raising the knife in order to kill Isaac, his only son. And I would just urge you to think about what the implications of this are. Not just from a father son relationship standpoint, which is difficult enough, but also from a covenantal relationship with God standpoint. This is the son that God promised Abraham to fulfill all that he has promised to fulfill for Abraham. He's trying to give Abraham, through Isaac, all of the blessings that God has promised are supposed to come. Now he's telling him to kill him. And Abraham has to realize that this moment of impossibility for him, where he's going to kill his son, and he doesn't understand how any of this is going to work out. He doesn't understand rationally or logically what is going to happen. He can't envision a way for this to work out well other than to trust in God. And I think that's why we see in Hebrews 11, we see that Abraham is said to be, he believed that Isaac would be raised from the dead. I don't think literally that Abraham believed that Isaac was going to be raised from the dead, although I'm not exactly sure. But I think what Hebrews 11...

Then at least what we can say Hebrews 11 is gesturing towards is this, that Abraham believed that God was going to do something that he couldn't comprehend. He believed that if he sacrificed Isaac, that Isaac was still going to be his heir, that there was going to be something that happened. He wasn't sure what. Something that happened to the maybe the nth degree of resurrection, right? If I kill my son, God will resurrect him. That's how sure he was that God was going to fulfill his promises. And so this legitimate concern that Abraham has at the beginning, who is going to be my heir? God's made him promises. Abraham's left his father, his family, all his security behind. He's just declined an offer from the king of Sodom to make him rich. And so he's now asking God, I've done all this. I trust you. I've seen you help me in battle. I've seen you help me win victories. I believe you'll make me prosper. But where does that lead? Because I can only live so long and I need an heir to pass this on to. And if what you're telling me you're going to accomplish, you're really going to accomplish, it's difficult for me to believe that that heir is going to be Eliezer of Damascus. My assumption was that it was going to be a biological heir. This is a legitimate concern. This is something that Abraham's really and truly questioning. And not in an evil way. Just like, what the heck? How is this going to work? And that one legitimate concern drives Abraham to sleep with Hagar. It drives Abraham to question whether or not he should send Hagar away. It drives Abraham to sort of say to God, why can't Ishmael stand before you? Why do we need to go through this again? I have a biological heir now. Why does this need to happen? But I think what he understands in the end is this, is that God wants to work through Abraham in a way that it makes clear that God is working through Abraham. Anyone can have sex with their wife's maidservant and have a child and a biological heir. That was sort of the, I don't want to say it was the normal way things were done, but it was certainly one of the ways that people could accomplish something. And so it's not particularly miraculous. It's not particularly interesting. It's sort of, it's a little bit mundane. But taking a 99 year old and giving them a biological heir in Isaac and then pushing that 99 year old plus person, he's a little older now, to sacrifice the child after sending Ishmael away. He has nothing left. There's no one left around him. Isaac is it. Now sacrifice him. God is putting Abraham to the ultimate test and asking him to fear God above anything that he rationally knows. And it's this fantastic point where Abraham sort of summons the faith of 1516. Abraham believed God and was credited to him as righteousness. And now in Genesis 22, we see the culmination of that faith. We see it build throughout the narrative. And in Genesis 22, it comes to its climax. And what we see is that Abraham is going to, he's willing to sacrifice Isaac. He doesn't understand why he's doing it. He doesn't understand how it's going to work out if he does it. But he's still willing to do it because he trusts God that much. And so as we think about Abraham's narrative here, as we think about what it means for us, it thinks about, you know, if we think about what it means for us to make our decisions. I think one of the things I would just suggest is this. And I don't mean this to be normative in every sense. I don't think this is the case. I don't think it's a pattern that we should repeat in every instance, in other words. But if we look at the pattern of Abram's life, we have to at least ask ourselves, should I act or should I trust? When Abram acts with Hagar, he has a solution that seems viable to him, but it's not a solution that points to and glorifies the triune God. It's a solution that can be attributed to man. And so in Genesis 14, when he tells the king of Sodom, I don't want to take these spoils from you because I don't want you to be able to claim that you're the one who made me rich. His union with Hagar, he doesn't take that statement, that conviction, and transfer it over to his union with Hagar. You know, I think what Abram misses is that God wants the whole of Abram's life, everything about the covenant promises. He doesn't want anyone else to claim that they did it and God didn't. And so as we see Abram have this union with Hagar, what we see is Abram implementing a human solution to try to leverage into or fulfill a divine promise. And we have to be very careful about that. We have to be careful to be patient and let God do what God says he's going to do. For us, you know, maybe that impacts our everyday decisions. Maybe it doesn't. On some level, I think it does. On other levels, I think we have to act. I think there's a fine line between, you know, being restrained in our actions so that God can shine forth or being active in our decisions so that God can shine forth. Standing forth for God versus standing back to allow God to act. This is the tension that I think we live within. But for us, again, what I would just say is this. If we find ourselves acting in such a way that it isn't clear that God should get the glory, we need to rethink our action. I think that's the most basic thing that I see in the Abraham narrative is that when God tells Abraham that he's going to give him Isaac and he gives him Isaac out of this barren situation, this is a situation, this is a moment where God does something that humans couldn't do. And thus, if Abraham waits and he doesn't jump the gun, if he doesn't, if he doesn't, you know, take Sarah's advice, if they don't sort of collude and figure out how they can get this done, God's going to do it anyway. God's going to make it happen. Abraham just really needed to be patient. And I think that's what... Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free Retirement Defense Guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. We learn from Abraham in Genesis 22. The Abraham in Genesis 22 is very different than the Abraham in Genesis 15 and Genesis 16. Abraham, the Abram, really, of Genesis 15 and Genesis 16, is still thinking, hey, I should get this done for God. I should be participating in this way. I should be acting in order to make sure that this happens. My human logic should govern the way that I move forward. But what we really see in Genesis 22 is that God defies our logic oftentimes. And when he does, he does so in amazing ways. And so as we look at this passage and we look at the life of Abraham, I think one of the key things that we need to take away is just this, is that oftentimes when we restrain ourselves from acting, when we allow ourselves and really allow God to put us in situations where only he can solve the problems we're faced with, it's a good thing. That's a moment where we can point to and glorify God because we are at our weakest point. We have no idea what we're doing. We have no understanding of what we're doing there. And there's a beauty in that. And so as I read Genesis 15 through Genesis 22, what I see in that connection between Abraham believing God and having it credited to him as righteousness and him being pronounced as one who fears the Lord is just this. Abraham learns to keep God as the central focus of his life. He recognizes now that God...

infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor that he's ever going to face. And he refuses in that moment, Genesis 22, to allow anything, even his only son, to be put ahead of God. He refuses all idols. And instead says, no, God is infinitely relevant. What he has said he will accomplish. I have no idea what that means. I don't understand how it's going to happen, but I know it will happen. And so for us, as we look out at our lives, my encouragement would be just this. We have a lot of legitimate concerns. There are things we should be concerned about. There are agendas we should have for moving forward in our lives. But at the end of the day, we've got to make sure that those legitimate concerns are not overshadowing, crowding out, or pushing to the margins the God who is infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor we'll ever face. God is more important. God is more powerful. God is more relevant, infinitely more relevant than any of the situations that we face. And so we have to learn, as Abraham did, not to respond to the situation, not to try to solve the immediate problem, but always to respond to God from within those situations, from within those problems. When we keep God at the center, when we fear God above all else, God gets our attention before the problems and situations that we're in. And it allows us to respond to him from within a situation, as opposed to responding to the situation. And I think that's a really crucial aspect of what I learned from the Genesis 15 through 22, the life of Abraham. It's not the only lesson. It's a really crucial lesson. So hopefully you all have enjoyed thinking through Genesis 15, or I would say Genesis 12 through 22. My encouragement would be to read the whole thing and just look at what's going on there. I know I skipped over the sovereign more narrative. I'll circle back around to that in a later podcast episode. But I think that it shapes and forms this interlude to the rest of the Abraham story. It's really crucial, but I wanted to emphasize the particular theme as I went through this. And so I did tend to skip over that. But hopefully you've learned a little bit. Hopefully you can take something away from that. And like I said, I don't think that restraining ourselves from acting is the right thing to do in every case. But I think that we don't often think that it's the right thing to do in any case. And so we need to have this tool in our toolbox, this restraint, this patience, this willingness to wait on the Lord, as opposed to solve our problems ourselves. So my hope is that you will go away from this little devotional, this time looking at these texts, and just have gnawing at the back of your mind, God is infinitely relevant. God is more infinitely relevant than any other actor or factor that I'll ever run into. And that because God is infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor I run into, I should be attending to him as opposed to being attending to them. I should be responding to God from within those situations, as opposed to responding to those situations. I'll end it there and really appreciate you all listening. Come back next time. We'll have another episode of Thinking Christian for you and another devotional next week. So thanks very much. If you're watching this on YouTube, I'd just encourage you to subscribe to our channel. That really helps us out. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, I'd ask you to do the same. Please subscribe on whatever platform you're listening to, whether it's Apple or Spotify or what have you. Please hit that subscribe button. And if you have an opportunity and you're so inclined, leave us a positive review. You can skip the negative ones if you'd like. It's a little tongue in cheek there, but the positive reviews are always appreciated. The negative reviews are too, although I'd appreciate if you're going to leave a negative review, hey, do something constructive and helpful so that we can get better at what we do. Thanks, everybody. And I'll see you on the next episode of Thinking Christian. A powerful prayer life does not require hiking a mountain to be able to hear from God. God can meet us right in the middle of our busy lives to help, guide, and speak to us through prayer. I'm Christina Patterson, host of the Teach Us to Pray podcast, providing practical teaching and encouragement on how you can make prayer a natural and consistent part of your everyday life. I promise it won't require hiking a mountain, but you just might develop the faith to move one. Listen and subscribe at lifeaudio.com.