These Some Fine Women

Exodus 1:15-22

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

I couldn’t help but think about a passage just studied in our Sunday Bible class from Revelation 12:4b, “The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.”

The targeting of Israel’s sons in Egypt was Satan warming up for That Child. Every male offspring of Abraham’s race was a potential threat. Every one of them could be another Abraham, another man of faith. Or even more, every one of them, being seed of the woman, might possibly be the One prophesized (Gen. 3:15) who would slay the Serpent, crushing his head.

As a subsidiary of Satan, the Pharaoh of Egypt was a pragmatist, not a moralist. To him, the Israelites were a powerful utility, but nothing more. They were simply serviceable means to an end. Any increasing power of Israel must be diminished to prevent them from overwhelming their masters. So, attack the problem where it seems easiest. Simply use Israel’s midwives to euthanize every newborn male. This was Pharaoh’s no-nonsense and no-pity methodology. Use women to destroy men.

Such a demonic scheme worked once—in the Garden. Employ a woman to devastate Adam, the man of God. Here Pharaoh uses the same machination, except it didn’t work.

Eve appeared vulnerable and receptive. Satan used that against her. The difference between her and Shiphrah and Puah is that Eve failed to fear God. With the midwives, the Word of God prevailed. These Hebrew women were women of faith and would not be manipulated. It wasn't easy, mind you. It’s not easy being a woman whom God created ”as the weaker vessel.” (1 Peter 3:7)

But this is no insult to them. After all, weakness is a general human condition. Indeed, weakness is exalted in Scripture. St. Paul’s boasted in his weakness for therein was God’s power displayed in his life (2 Cor. 11:30, 12:5-10). Christ Himself came in weakness and “was crucified in weakness.” (2 Cor. 13:4) God chose the weak things to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). These weak vessels, these Israelite midwives, now proved themselves stronger than Pharaoh or even the commandant of death, Satan himself.

These women were not pragmatists. They were protectionists. Through abiding respect and reverence for God, they would not be an instrument, an unholy tool to be wielded by criminal hands. To them, life is sacred because God who created life is sacred. It was natural for them to attribute vigor to the mothers of Israel, unlike the Egyptian women in child-bearing, because the God of Israel is Himself hardy and enduring.

Shiphrah and Puah are perhaps the most courageous women in the Bible, not so much for what they did as for what they didn’t do. They didn’t compromise their faith. They didn’t obey a command which countermanded God's Law. They didn’t yield to threat. They didn’t lie either. They were shrewd in answering Pharaoh, but how clever that is when dealing with a snake!

The vigilance of these midwives whom God honored should be an example to us. Remember, the devil will try again. Pharaoh, when he couldn’t get these women to do his dirty work, turned to men. As a matter of fact, he elicited the entire population of Egypt to heave Hebrew baby boys into the Nile.

Is it any surprise then that the devil seeks to steer all of society behind such evils as abortion, euthanasia, carnality, and avarice? Is it any wonder Satan still would induce sinful women to lure men to destruction “like ox going to the slaughter”? (Proverbs 7) The devil only wishes to use people as a utility, simply to be serviceable to his own ends. Men who therefore use women as a utility will only find themselves hoisted on their own petard.

The devil attacks what he views as weak. What a fool he is. Shiphrah and Puah have proven that the weakest, the poorest, the lowliest, and the defenseless (whether infant, woman, or man) who have a living faith in Israel’s God not only survive but thrive.

Such faith rests entirely on the Word and believes That “male child” of Revelation 12, is Jesus Christ, born out of Israel who would “rule all the nations with a rod of iron.” Through faith, what a mockery is made of Satan who, having affected the downfall of mankind by a woman, is now crushed by God who has used a woman to bear the Savior of mankind. That’s not only his defeat; it is poetic justice.

Galatians 4:4-5, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

Shiphrah and Puah would not be surprised to see how God blessed Mary. After all, God used them, didn’t he?

For Shiphrah and for Puah

Whose courage did not fail

Their fear of God over Pharaoh

No evil could prevail.

The sons of Israel’s portion

Would live to sing God's praise

To bow with their protectors

To Christ, for endless days.

Motive, Means, Opportunity

Genesis 22:11-19

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Most people know that motive, means, and opportunity are the three criteria for identifying a criminal suspect. But we probably don’t think to extend such to define virtually every work of man, bad or good.

Abraham’s act of bringing his beloved son to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed clearly falls into the category of a good act. It was a magnificent act, really. Even the angel of the Lord commended him, taking note of Abraham’s good motive, “You fear God.” Abraham also had the means, again acknowledged by the angel of the Lord, “You have not withheld your son, your only son.” And certainly Abraham had opportunity. The Lord’s angel called to him, “Abraham, do not lay your hand on the boy.”

Before a jury of his peers, there was enough evidence to send down a finding of approval for a good deed which concurs with the decree of the Judge of all the earth.

There is nothing to criticize here insofar as regards Abraham’s motive, means, and opportunity. But, for argument’s sake, let’s imagine for a moment the Lord not intervening. The blood sacrifice is made. The knife and fire are employed.

To carry through with the sacrifice at the expense of Issac’s life would not make Abraham’s deed any less good. The motive, means, and opportunity would not have changed.

Abraham bowed to the command of God, unquestionably surrendered his most precious gift, his son, and did so precisely in accord with God's instructions. So, whether Abraham proceeded or was restrained by God, his action was obedient.

The fact that God, at the last moment, stepped in to restrain the hand of Abraham always struck me as a child, as God saying something like this, “Abraham, I’m not actually going to make you sacrifice your son. You don’t have to do it, but I am going to give you credit as if you had. I know you would have done it, so I’m going to bless you because you would have done it.” Sort of like saying, “Consider it done.”

Here is a very poor comparison, but I’ve thought of it as something like a “gimme” in golf. You get the ball right up there near the hole. You’ve done the tough part getting up and down. That’s fair enough. We’ll just consider the last stroke good. It’s a “gimme.”

But I am convinced that is really a misinterpretation … or at least a misapplication.

Here is the deeper issue. Let’s do say Abraham had used that knife in a final stroke upon his son and had used that fire to ignite the wood brought for the sacrifice. Let’s say his deed was not considered “good as done,” but actually done. Same motive, same means, same opportunity, same verdict — a good deed!— because it was a worthy deed of obedience.

But what would it have gained? What would the sacrifice of Issac have accomplished? There was no reciprocity or atonement in the flesh of Issac. Issac’s blood was not holy hemoglobin. A sacrifice of ten sons could not make Abraham sinless or free before God no matter how “good” the act may have been in itself. St. Paul writes of the insufficiency of any sacrifice we might make. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels … if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries … if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains … if I give away all I have … if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Cor. 13)

Issac’s blood was no more holy than the blood of that ram subsequently caught in the thicket and then offered to God as a burnt offering.

What I’m trying to say, and probably not very well, is that Abraham’s act, simply as an act in itself, no matter how good, is not the center of this narrative. Any “good” act by any of us, no matter how superior the motive, positive the means, or expedient the opportunity, only has value if it flows from Christian faith.

Abraham’s faith commenced with the Word of God. It was God who spoke authoritatively and clearly to Abraham. It was God who motivated him by the divine Word. It was God who gave him the means (Issac was God's gift to Abraham). And it was the Word of God which unfolded this opportunity to trust God and act in obedience.

The “sacrifice” of Issac was not an exercise in doing a magnificently difficult work. It was an exercise of Abraham’s faith in our magnificently merciful God. For as we all know, it wasn't by the act of sacrificing Issac that Abraham stands righteous before God. It was by the act of God who sacrificed His beloved son, Jesus, the One promised by the Word in which Abraham believed.

His blood, Jesus’ blood, is holy. His blood, the blood of the crucified Christ, atones for sin. Christ is the fulfillment of God's promise and the ground of Abraham’s confession, “The Lord will provide.”

Abraham believed this while walking up the mountain, even if it meant to become bereft of his dear son, that “the Lord will provide.” When Issac asked his father, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham had said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

The Lord would provide the motive, means, and opportunity. Exactly how, when, and where, Abraham didn’t know, but he knew this, “The Lord will provide.” Even if Issac dies, “The Lord will provide. Even if I am stripped of that which is dearest to my heart, “The Lord will provide.” Even if every fiber of my being cries out with incomprehension, “The Lord will provide.”

And the Lord did provide. With His own motive of merciful love and grace through His Son Jesus Christ, God provided all that is needed to atone for sin. His means of expressing that mercy was through Calvary’s cross and the sacrifice of Jesus. And the opportunity of revealing and delivering Christ to us continues in every Word of the Gospel, every baptism, every pronouncement of absolution, and every Eucharist. Through these means, Abraham’s God comes yet to us—to you and me!

By that same pure Word, God favors us now and forever. “The Lord will provide.”

You Call This Worship!

Genesis 22:1-10

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

And Abraham called this worship. “I and the boy will go over there and worship.”

When we read this indelible account of God directing a faithful and believing man to render his beloved son in sacrifice, something seems to be missing which we who read it supply almost involuntarily: the emotion.

There is not word one said here about the feelings of Abraham. We assume them. How could he not be wracked with sorrow? Must not his legs have felt like lead and his entrails like pulp as he led his son, Issac to the land of Moriah? With every swing of his arm to cleave wood for a fire, would he not see it a rehearsal for that dreadful and fatal blow which he must apply to the tender flesh of his son?

We can't read this text without superimposing all the restless sensibilities we believe must be inexorable under such a mandate from God. No man can be imagined who would not be cast into the throes of inconsolable grief at the prospect of sacrificing his child, his only child, his beloved son. For days the tonnage of sorrow, the speed and relentlessness of time, and the horror of such an act seem nearly unreal to us. To project ourselves into Abraham’s sandals is something we can't get our heads around. The emotion is too great.

Yet not a word is said about how Abraham feels.

If this is worship, where is the joy? If this is worship where is the hopefulness? If this is worship, where is the contentment—the gracious sensations and pleasant atmosphere? What about all those good feelings we think worship should evoke? Today, by example, by church growth principles, by custom and almost the universal opinion of people, worship is supposed to be … well … nice! It’s not supposed to be like this.

God is supposed to be nice. The people are supposed to be nice. The music is supposed to be nice. The welcome, the atmosphere, the seating … heck, all of it is supposed to be nice, isn't it? What about all the good “juices” of worship.

“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart; yea, down in my heart, yea, down in my heart.” Shame on us if we don’t provide appetizing worship experiences and likeable elements in a reasonable amount of time. Next to being nice, people expect to like it. Pastors are supposed to be smart enough to know what people like and what they don’t.

This journey by Abraham to Moriah is not nice. And who can in any way conceive that Abraham liked it?

Yet, he says to his two young attendance at the foot of the mountain. “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship.

What do you think it would mean for attendance and membership if this became the profile of worship in our churches?

What strikes me, as I said, is that nothing whatsoever is recorded about how Abraham felt. But the account is filled with what Abraham did.

He responded, “Here am I” when God called his name. He rose early; saddled donkeys, cut wood, traveled to Moriah, gave instructions, placed the wood on his son’s dear shoulders, climbed the mountain, gently answered Issac’s curiosity, carried the fire, built an altar, arranged the wood, bound his son, laid him on the altar, and grasped the knife to slaughter his son.

This he did.

So, what is worship? Abraham did staggeringly difficult things. Is worship showing God what near super-human things we can do? Show just how fantastic we can “do” worship? Perform wonders? Top last Sunday with even more amazing components?

Jesus once said, “The hour … is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” (John 4:23)

The marvel in Genesis 22 is the faith which God had given Abraham. God gave Abraham this privilege to trust Him. Then we see Abraham unquestioningly following the Word of God.

And what have we learned by projecting ourselves into this drama which so powerfully draws us?

Divine worship consists of rugged acts, not comfy sentiments or polite felicitations.

But fundamentally it is God who acts.

It was God who stepped forward to serve up His Son as Savior when justice required a righteous sacrifice. It was God who assigned His Son the wood of the sacrifice to bear on His own dear shoulders. It was God who directed Christ Jesus to Calvary. It was God whose word was left with the attending disciples who could go no farther. It was God who prepared the altar of the cross and was not only fully prepared to sacrifice His Son but did so.

And what of worship today? It is still God acting – calling, washing, forgiving, teaching, feeding, consoling, strengthening, preaching, renewing, clothing, and blessing His people.

Does such evoke emotions in us? Of course it does. But it’s not the emotions that matter.

It is the greater gift, the gift God gave Abraham—the gift of faith.

Abraham's Stones

Genesis 18:20-33

Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

God cannot and will never contradict Himself.

Contrariness is our evil, not His. Our moral elasticity is particularly ominous when ”tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Eph. 4:14) There is no end to the ingenious excuse making and apologetics of sinners who exonerate themselves, so cock-sure until a change in the wind.

If anything and everything is excusable, as it was in Sodom and Gomorrah, then anyone can make himself a believer. Just pick your own favorite object. That’s when people create faith in their own judgments, trust in their own instincts and bank on whatever case they make for themselves. In this sense, all human beings are “believers.” In this sense, faith is just one’s own invention and an easy thing to have because that faith is fluid and adaptive. Then one chooses to believe whatever they wish to believe.

But such is not saving faith.

We Lutherans take a very strong stand on the fact that saving Christian faith is not formed by anyone’s own wisdom or preference. Saving faith is not of our choosing nor can it rest upon any other object than Christ. The faith that saves sinners is a pure gift of God the Holy Spirit which comes by the Word of God. Without hearing the Gospel of Christ—the impregnable Word of the cross by which faith is generated—a person cannot be saved.

Saving faith has one granite-solid object, the sure Word of Christ. The power of God is Christ, the Word, the one fixed object of our hope. He is the Word of God which cannot and will never contradict itself.

That is what gave Abraham the stones to return again and again with his questions. Abraham believed, and believed rightly that God would not be of one mind when fifty righteous might remain in Sodom and of another mind should there only be ten righteous there. Abraham appealed to God repeatedly upon the basis of his understanding that God is indeed righteous and just. Neither the statistics, the atmosphere, nor the number of times a petitioner comes before Him should make any difference.

And Abraham was right. If Abraham had asked fifty separate times, each time dropping the number by one, God would have been unchanged. Most of us go by a “three strikes and you’re out” system. I’ll be patient once. I’ll bite my tongue a second time. I may even swallow an insult a third time, but enough is enough. Keep pushing me and out you go.

What if God were that way with us?

Instead we see our Lord Jesus walk the talk. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

Peter came up and said to [Jesus], “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21-22)

The lesson here is that if we can depend on God only to a degree—only so far--then He is no different than our own worthless ambiguities.

Listen! Everybody is a believer. Everybody believes in something. Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin was that the Living God, the One staunch in His goodness and unbendable in the Truth, didn’t feature in their environs. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes and therein lost the one great object of saving faith.

Abraham, by contrast, hung on to his belief that God is God and will not change. He pressed forward in that faith way beyond reason and way beyond civility. Had he lost his sanity, to push God so?

You tell me.

Yet

Genesis 21:1-7

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

“Yet”

Don’t you love those conjunctions on which the whole world pivots? It’s almost laugh-out-loud funny. What mirth is aroused by the incredulity of Sarah’s pregnancy, deliverance, and suckling of a child! The woman is a nonagenarian for crying out loud.

Abraham’s body was as good as dead, and until now Sarah’s womb was barrenness (Romans 4:19).

Yet!

The neighbors were shocked silly. Centenarians do not become fathers. Ninety year olds do not have babies. Neither do virgins—but that’s another story.

Yet.

“Yet” is the Christian believer’s secret weapon. Let doubters, pessimists, skeptics, and agnostics line up their reasonable mainstream evidence and arguments. Even Sarah could not believe, without laughing, that God should suggest such an impossibility.

Except God doesn’t suggest the impossible. He accomplishes the impossible. And, oh yes, lest someone think it a fluke, there was another aged mother named Elizabeth whom everyone called barren. Regarding her the angel Gabriel pronounced, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37) Again, that’s another story.

The conjunction “yet” introduces the true story in the life of every believer. When logic, common sense, biological science, precedence, and research all sew up their conclusions, the merry Christian happily says, “Yet …”

Here is the conjunction on which the Apostle Paul hinged all his hopes. Paul had been greatly harmed by a coppersmith named Alexander who opposed the Gospel of Christ. When Paul was hauled before the authorities and charged with preaching a subversive message, no one stood with him. Everyone deserted him. (2 Timothy 4:14-18)

“Yet”

Here it comes … the believer’s unfailing password.

Paul writes, “Yet the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.”

“Yet” is such a tiny word, yet it is God's Word for us to employ as often and freely as we like. It carries more than enough weight to turn the world, override any fear, prevail over any enemy, and justify our saving faith in the living Lord Jesus Christ.

If all those intractable obstacles preventing Sarah’s motherhood were powerless against God so that she could say, “Yet I have born Abraham a son in his old age,” can you not say, like the blind man, “Yet he opened my eyes.” (John 9:30). Martha believed when Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” God's Word is doubled-down for the highest stakes. “Yet shall he live!”

And our Lord always comes through.

Jesus rested his whole being on this tiny conjunction. He told his disciples, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet, I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” (John 16:31)

So, next time a diagnosis of illness, a discouragement, a despair, or the death of a loved one blocks your way and tells you no answer is possible, take out God’s little conjunction and say, “Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:8-10)

Then go on your way laughing with joy.

The Call to Faith is Quite Enough

Genesis 12:1-9

Now the Lord 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 dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

I am more than a little suspicious of the religious personality who claims direct revelation from God. Usually it has to do with God presumably revealing the funding target for a particular “ministry,” or that an unspecified person in the viewing audience can expect an unverifiable healing.

Steer way clear of the “evangelist” who never actually proclaims the Evangel – the good tidings of redemption through Jesus Christ – of the “ministry” that never actually ministers the means of grace but will liberally use Christ’s Name while trolling for dollars.

There is more than enough revelation from God in Holy Scripture to keep anyone busy listening, learning, and living the Christian faith without heavenly Tweets fobbed off on the susceptible poor. False prophets will answer for the violation of God's Name.

If God should actually choose to speak immediately to you, it certainly would not consist of a petty comment on your next Seed-Faith offering or the healing of your bunions.

Instead God speaks through the means of His inspired written Word and the incarnate manifestation of His Word, Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 1:1-2; John 1). With the coming of Christ and the written revelation of Jesus’ saving work there appears no more "need" for direct revelation since we have everything we need to know for life and salvation.

Oh, God could speak directly. The call to Abram was direct revelation, but that is not an event to be envied. For Abram it meant a wholesale transformation of his life, permanent departure from the home he knew, and a journey to a distant land without welcome from its heathen people.

For anyone who might think it more motivating to get a direct assignment from God, first try your training wheels on this word of Jesus in the Bible, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24).

God's Word did stir Abram. What else will cause a man to surrender his home, comforts, and worldly security? Is it not God's promises which justify the same reliance of Christians who would deny self and take up a cross to follow Jesus?

Yes, I know there are people who sacrifice their lives to false hopes and non-existent gods believing that austerity, virtue, or jihad will earn them a place on some Cloud 9.

The difference with Abram is that God spelled out not so much what Abram was to do but what He, God, would do. The call to Abram was simply to go, but the promise and power behind that call is instructive to us. Abram’s God promised to lead him, bless him, and honor him. God promised to curse anyone who might seek to harm his chosen servant. And God promised an unlikely homeland, a once-godless place which God himself would cleanse and then fill with Abram’s offspring and divine prosperity.

Such a place today is known as the holy Christian church consisting of all those called to faith in the cleansing of Baptism, led in an unceasing confession of Christ’s Name solely on the Old and New Testaments of Holy Scripture.

Did you notice that on arrival in Caanan, Abram didn’t get busy driving out the unbelievers. He didn’t file a claim with the Bureau of Land Management. He didn’t build cities.

He built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

God's call to Abram had been a call to faith, and Abram expressed his trust in worship right were God had promised to bless him.

Abram never saw in his lifetime the fulfillment of all God had promised. The great nation and fruit of Abram’s faith through which all nations of the earth would be blessed would not be realized until the coming of the Christ Child.

But Abram was content to worship God in hope, knowing that God does not call anyone without a promise and never gives a promise without the certainty of its fulfillment.

God doesn’t offer goofy calls. He doesn’t make insipid promises. And He certainly doesn’t ask us to pry Him loose with our seed-dollars.

No, God has given us the fullness of His Son’s righteousness through the Word of the cross. He has also led us to a home in the communion of his people, and blessed us with His unending benediction. Like Abram, celebrate that grace at the altar of the Lord … yes, this Lord’s Day at the Communion altar.

Divine Regret

Genesis 6:5-6

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

As a child, I did not understand her words, “This hurts me more than it hurts you.” My little legs might sting from the switch necessarily and justifiably applied as punishment, but the tears welled in her eyes. The wrong was mine whether disobedience, sass, defiance, or lying. Her discipline was fair. The punishment was just and necessary.

Little boys are not entitled to immunity from truth or right behavior. Neither do little boys understand — at least I didn’t — the love of a mother who grieves unrighteousness in her child to such a degree that it truly hurts her more than it hurt her son.

My mother’s parenting would likely be regarded as child abuse today. Corporal punishment is anathema to a permissive age, but I gratefully say my childhood experience with discipline was never excessive, never unjust, and never unloving. And certainly I never recall my mother ever saying she would wish I had never been born.

That my mother never regretted giving me birth cannot be credited to any lack of provocation by me. I often gave her reason enough, increasingly so when I might have outgrown a spanking but not her tears. To wish I’d never been born – I don’t believe she ever thought it. And even if she had, I know she never would have conceived saying it even if it were so.

Child psychologists today would probably condemn such a statement as the very height of verbal child abuse. We are horrified to think any parent would be so cruel to say to their child they wished him never to have been born.

And yet, God said it. “The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth.”

When you think of it, divine regret is something quite unnerving. I don’t like to see God second-guess Himself or need to think twice. It puts me in delicate territory. It confronts me not only with the thought of what it would mean if God just took his ball and bat and went home but also with the unpleasant disclosure that maybe I’m just not so all-fire wonderful after all or worth wanting any more.

As a little kid, when I played fast and loose with my mother’s rules, I admit I never reckoned on her leaving and not coming back. She tended to my “backside.” I never weighed what it would mean if she showed me hers—for a last time going out the door, regretting I’d ever been born. Would that not have been child abuse?

Scripture says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” There were no redeeming qualities in any whom God had made and loved. The sin in man is total and terrible, a perfect storm of rage and rot.

God wasn't going on rumor or unconfirmed reports. He looked. God saw. He saw with absolute transparency the thorough hatefulness and abhorrence in man. Even the very worst epithets are too good for what God sees in our sinfulness. When God uses words like “every inclination,” and “only evil,” and “continually,” in the space of one breath, you gotta know it’s bad/bad; I mean really, really, really bad—and shockingly so.

God’s regret at having made man is understandable. For us to have received all the care God can give, His every good only and continually, and then to trash it utterly, grieved our Lord to the very marrow of his bones. It broke his heart.

Far from a regret in which one angrily turns their back and resolves to “chuck it,” to pitch the whole rebellious, undeserving brood aside forever, God weeps and grieves.

I don’t suppose I’ll ever fully appreciate what it means that my offenses and the penalties I deserve have hurt Him far more, infinitely more, than they have me. My mother expressed a hint of it as she reproved me for my wrong. No amount of punishment or chastisement could make me whole. I might do my little “gig” against the sting of a switch, but what is that to the comprehensive nature of my sin?

It is the tears, broken heart, and anguish of our Heavenly Father which reveal the source of my restoration, a love so deep and so acute that He would turn over His own Son into that death I had earned. “Every evil” – “only evil” – and infinite sorrow were assigned to him.

And here’s the wonder. God never regretted it! He has never, and will never, regret the price of Calvary. The Father is not sorry He gave His Son, for in so doing, He won me back again.

Blood For Our Pardon

Genesis 4:1-15

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.

This is no accidental killing, so Cain is not guilty of manslaughter. Nor is it second degree murder committed by one flown into a rage. This murder is heartless and calculated. Yet, even to charge Cain with murder in the first degree hardly assesses him. Would that he were culpable only of a murderous act. Would that this was merely a crime. But Cain is not simply guilty of a criminal act. The tragedy is far more profound. The heartbreak of this narrative is not the murder. It’s the suicide. Cain’s sin was self-destruction. Yes, of course, it was the murder of another, but in truth Cain took the life of his own flesh and blood. The death was Cain’s. In the attack upon his own blood brother Cain as surely slew himself. Such is the calamity of taking life into one’s own hands.

The tragedy is not primarily the death of Abel. Weep not for him. His blood still speaks. His soul yet lives. The Lord’s regard for Abel has not changed. Abel depended on the mercy of God. He lived by faith. He died in faith. As Hebrews says, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”

Abel is among the living witnesses. Abel survives. Though he received the worst man can do to another, yet he lives a redeemed child of God, washed in the blood of Christ’s sacrifice his offering signified.

Note the paradox: the one whose blood was shed lives, yet the survivor’s fate is worse than death. Void of repentance or trust, Cain is driven from the ground, a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. He is dead to God, unresponsive to God's continued providence and without even the satisfaction of justice. Cain cannot even argue, “I paid my debt of an eye for an eye” because he remained unmolested under God's mark.

He did this to himself. The carnage was self-inflicted. Such is the ruin of sin, by sin, to the effect of sin which is death.

What hope then is there for us who have not been our brother’s keeper? Is there a cure for the self-inflicted, slow suicide of sin?

Our deliverance is in the narrative of the other brother, the brother who surrenders his life voluntarily, a brother of the same flesh and blood as we, the mediator of a new covenant whose blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24).

Again we have a paradox. From the death of this brother comes life to us. This time it’s not death by the hand of our brother, but life by the pierced hands and dying of our brother. His blood covers the earth.

At first this strikes people as absurd because death is the end of life. But not in the death of this brother. The death of this brother is the beginning of life for us. This brother is Jesus Christ. We are guilty of his murder. Our sins robbed him of his life. Our iniquities, as dreadful as Cain’s, were laid on him, yet by his wounds we are healed.

Abel’s blood cried for retribution, but Jesus’ blood cries for mercy. “Abel’s blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies; but the blood of Jesus for our pardon cries.”

Cain, though he was guilty was spared sevenfold vengeance. Jesus, though innocent was condemned an hundred-fold. Cain complained of punishment greater then he could bear. But our brother Jesus never complained of the punishment he bore in silent anguish, not out of his own iniquity but from all the evils of all his brothers. Cain rose up against his brother. Jesus was raised up in favor of his brothers; raised in death upon a cross and raised again in life upon His Word.

Sin’s grip is broken. Our self-inflicted wounds are healed.

Cotton-Mouthed

Genesis 3:1-5, 14-15

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

With the first two chapters of Genesis we are treated to a pure display of the creative power, glory, and beauty of the Word of God. This is the Word of love and life, the Word of plenty and peace. By God's spoken Word, a universe was formed, light burst forth, land materialized, and all living creatures came to be. The vanguard Voice made rank on rank the host of heaven. And then, with this same Word, God approved and blessed all He had formed. From God's mouth comes the Word. His Word is first, and His Word is good.

But then the evil one presumed to speak. Out of that dirty mouth comes nothing good and nothing original.

Why the attempt at speech? Why doesn’t the devil employ venom? He doesn’t use constriction. He doesn’t swallow his prey. Could he not have overcome Eve by these or other means?

Except that Eve was not his primary objective. Satan must exceed God if he is to prevail. He must prove the power of his own word. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (Ps. 33:6) “The universe was created by the word of God,” (Heb. 11:3) It is the Word of God the devil must surpass. He aspires to speak above the voice of God.

He dares to utter something. For if he is to surmount the Living God he must prevail against God's Word. The Word is God (John 1:1). That’s why the serpent gambles to open his mouth. He ventures to say something, but he is aphasic. That is, he has no breath, no heart, no lifeblood. He doesn’t really communicate. He can't. He has no word. He doesn’t connect. He offers nothing original, nothing genuine, and absolutely nothing good.

He has a dirty mouth, wordless and nasty.

You see, the devil doesn’t really speak. His mouth is dumb and dirty. He can only lie. His tongue will only contradict and challenge God's true Word because he can utter nothing but negation. It is impossible for Satan to speak a creative or living word. He can only lie. He knows only perjury and propaganda. His lies are not living words, not valid words, not true words—not The Word. His lies are an insult to speech and indignity to the magnificence of language.

Lies are not words; they are anti-words. Lies form nothing; lies build nothing; lies uphold nothing and suffer nothing. Lies are but spoilers and predators. Lies would only tear down what holy words have wrought.

Satan made dirty advances to Eve. He took liberties with her by the violence of lies. He seduced her with a travesty, by sham words, by fraudulent, false, deceitful words. The oily poison of lies came from that dirty mouth. First he cast doubt on the Word of God, then denied it flatly. But just to gainsay God is not enough. The serpent must now advance his own phony phonetic. He must say a word of his own that will outrank and surpass the definitive and authoritative Word of Christ.

Devil, it’s your “word” against His Word!

But the devil has no word! His accusations against the baptized are toothless and tongueless. His assertions are hollow and pointless for there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The devil is cursed—to go hereafter on his belly, to eat dust all the days of his life. Dry mouthed, desert mouthed, cotton-mouthed. This cotton-mouth moccasin’s head is crushed and silenced by the heel of Him who is The Word, by Jesus the Word who said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

So, fear not the devil’s claims nor give attention to his lies. The Word of the Lord endures forever.

“Away from us!” the demon cried when Christ, the Lord, drew near.

“Our dark, disordered world is lost when You, the Light, appear!”

But Jesus spoke with God’s own pow’r; “Come forth!” was His command;

For evil cannot bear the Light nor sin the Truth withstand.

O risen Christ, God’s living Word, to us, we pray, draw near.

Come, speak the truth that cleanses sin with love that conquers fear.

LSB 541 © 2000 GIA Publications, Inc. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, no. 100012157.