February 3, 2022

Ken Miller

The Danger of Misplaced Hope

February 3, 2022

Ken Miller

1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 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.” 3 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. – Genesis 22:1-3 ESV

Due to over-familiarity and poor hermeneutics, this well-known biblical story has lost a lot of its impact on many Christians. It has been turned into nothing more than a simplistic tale of one man’s struggle with maintaining his faith in God against all odds. There is a tendency to make the story prescriptive rather than descriptive. In other words, we want to find some aspect of Abraham’s difficult encounter with God and use it as a model for our own faith journey. But this story was not intended to provide us with a do-as-Abraham-did moralistic lesson that we can simply emulate and expect similar results.

Yes, this chapter recounts the story of Abraham’s faith being put to the test, but because we know how the story ends, we fail to recognize and appreciate the gravity of the situation he faced. One must always keep in mind that the original audience for whom Moses recorded this story would have been familiar with its outcome. They were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so they would have known that this story has a happy ending. But they would have found the details surrounding Abraham’s encounter with God to be both shocking and sobering.

As the descendants of Abraham, they had inherited the God of Abraham, and this story was meant to focus their attention on Him. Their God was great and fully expected His chosen people to live in obedience to His commands. But chapter 22 of Genesis is less about the faith-filled exploits of Abraham than it is about the faithfulness of God. As we do with so many of the stories found in the Scriptures, we tend to make this one about us. Because we’re human, we seek out the moral lessons, both good and bad, that we can learn from the human characters found in the stories the Bible contains. We teach our children to “dare to be a Daniel,” using his faithfulness in the face of difficult circumstances as a model for our own godliness. We read about Joseph and assume that if we emulate his can-do attitude in the midst of trials, we will enjoy similar blessings from God. And while there certainly are valuable lessons to be learned from the lives of the characters found in the Scriptures, the real hero of each of the stories is God.

Moses opens chapter 22 with the simple statement: “After these things.” This likely refers to all the events found in the preceding chapters, including the birth and weaning of Isaac, the disinheriting and casting out of Ishmael, and the purchase of the well by Abraham. But, in a sense, it points all the way back to God’s original call of Abraham found in chapter 12. In the ten chapters that follow, Moses has recorded the unique and constantly evolving relationship between Yahweh and this man from Ur of the Chaldees. The one consistent factor in this decades-long relationship is God’s unwavering commitment to bless Abraham.

“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.” – Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

“Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” – Genesis 15:5 ESV

“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.” – Genesis 17:4 ESV

For more than 25 years, Abraham waited to see these promises fulfilled. But as the years passed, he grew older and his wife’s barrenness remained an insurmountable obstacle. Yet, Moses records that Abraham “believed the Lord, and he [God} counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6 ESV). Abraham truly believed that God would do what He had promised to do, even though he had doubts concerning how and when. At one time, he had considered Lot to be a viable means by which God would fulfill the promise. But God had eliminated that possibility. Then, Abraham had shifted his hope to Ishmael, the son born to him through Hagar, his wife’s Egyptian handmaid. But God had removed Ishmael as an option.

And then, when Abraham was 100 and his wife was 90, God had miraculously opened Sarah’s womb and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And this highly improbable and physically impossible blessing occurred just as God had promised.

“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 peoples shall come from her.” – Genesis 17:16 ESV

“Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” – Genesis 17:19 ESV

And God kept His word.

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. – Genesis 21:1-3 ESV

What a happy ending. After all the years of waiting and hoping, Abraham and Sarah finally had that for which they had so anxiously and eagerly longed: A son. Their dream had come true. And it’s not difficult to spot the high value they placed in this miracle baby. Sarah’s pregnancy and delivery had left her filled with joy over the dramatic shift in her fortunes.

“God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!” – Genesis 21:6-7 NLT

On the day that Isaac was weaned, Abraham had celebrated the occasion with a feast. He was beside himself with pride and wanted everyone to join him in honoring his son and future heir.

But Sarah, driven by her maternal instincts and her strong dislike for Abraham’s other son, ordered the immediate expulsion of Ishmael and his mother.

“Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!” – Genesis 21:10 NLT

She was taking no risks. In her mind, Isaac was the only legitimate heir to the family inheritance, and, with Ishmael out of the way, all competition had been effectively eliminated.

But to understand what is happening here, one has to return to the command that God had issued to Abraham in his 90th year.

“I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” – Genesis 17:1-2 ESV

God was calling Abraham to a life of integrity or moral wholeness. Every area of his life was to be dedicated to God and he was to live with the constant awareness that God was always watching. In other words, God was to be the sole focus of his life. And what is interesting to note is that, shortly after issuing this command, God declared, “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5 ESV). The Hebrew word is what is known as a Qal Perfect verb, which generally designates a completed action. In other words, it expresses an event in the past tense. It has already taken place. Long before Isaac was born, God declared that He had already made Abraham the father of a multitude of nations. It was a future event that was as good as fulfilled because it was guaranteed by God.

So, what’s the point? In demanding that Abraham conduct his life with moral integrity and a constant awareness of His presence, God was issuing a call to total dependence and reliance upon Him. God didn’t need Isaac to exist to prove His faithfulness. The assurance that God’s will would be done was not to be found in Isaac. This young boy was not to be mistaken as the promise. He was simply a conduit through whom God would fulfill His covenant commitment to make from Abraham a great nation. But even that aspect of the promise was not dependent upon Isaac. God had already made it clear that Abraham’s other son, Ishmael, would produce a multitude of offspring. He had told Hagar, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude” (Genesis 16:10 ESV). And God had reiterated that promise to Abraham.

“As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.” – Genesis 17:20 ESV

There was more to God’s promise than the guarantee of many descendants. He could and would fulfill that aspect of the promise through Ishmael. No, God had something far greater in mind and it all goes back to the original call of Abraham.

“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.” – Genesis 12:2-3 ESV

God was going to do something great and it would be accomplished through Abraham and his offspring. And the apostle Paul provides a Spirit-inspired insight into this future fulfillment of God’s promise.

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. – Galatians 3:16 ESV

God did not need Abraham to father a lot of descendants in order that He might bless the nations. There was only one offspring necessary for God to fulfill His covenant commitment. But because the arrival of that one offspring was scheduled for centuries later, there would be many other descendants of Abraham born along the way, including Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and David. Isaac was not the fulfillment of the promise. And yet, Abraham and Sarah had managed to make Isaac the focal point of their lives. With his birth, Isaac had become the center of their universe and the focus of their future hopes. So, God decided to test Abraham’s allegiance and realign his priorities. And He did so in a jaw-dropping, faith-shaking manner.

“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.” – Genesis 22:2 ESV

Don’t miss the gravity of this moment. God was commanding Abraham to sacrifice his hope, to put to death the one in whom all his dreams and ambitions for the future were based. Or so he thought. Would Abraham be willing to walk before God and be blameless? Would he trust the God who made the promise or place his hope in the son who seemed to be the key to the promise being fulfilled? Was God dependent upon Isaac? Would Abraham allow this young boy to become an indispensable necessity for God’s future blessings? Or would he put His hope and trust in God?

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

January 5, 2022

Ken Miller

The Book of Genesis

The Hidden Hope of Salvation

January 5, 2022

Ken Miller

The Book of Genesis

21 To Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, children were born. 22 The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram. 23 The sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. 24 Arpachshad fathered Shelah; and Shelah fathered Eber. 25 To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan. 26 Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. 30 The territory in which they lived extended from Mesha in the direction of Sephar to the hill country of the east. 31 These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

32 These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. – Genesis 10:21-32 ESV

Compared to his younger brother’s genealogy, Shem’s lineage is far more pedestrian in nature. It contains no names that might raise eyebrows or elicit a sense of shock. And yet, within this list of obscure and difficult to pronounce names Moses provided a subtle, yet powerful, reminder of God’s sovereign authority over the affairs of mankind.

For most modern readers, this list of names seems rather superfluous. The individuals listed are unknown to us and, therefore, carry little weight. Yet, for the Jewish audience to whom Moses penned the book of Genesis, these names would have had a great deal of significance. At the mention of Arpachshad, Shelah, Eber, and Peleg, Moses would have had his reader’s undistracted attention, because these men were part of the family tree of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation. In fact, Moses will provide a more detailed and complete genealogy of Abraham in the very next chapter. He will go on to trace the lineage of Shem through the line of Peleg, all the way to the man who would become the patriarch of the Jewish people.

But in chapter nine, Moses chose to ignore the line of Peleg and traced the lineage of his brother, Joktan instead. Moses provides a rather strange aside when describing these two brothers.

To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother's name was Joktan. – Genesis 10:25 ESV

There has been much debate regarding the meaning of the phrase, “the earth was divided.” The Hebrew word is פָּלַג (pālaḡ), and it means “to split, cleave, or divide.” Based on the context of chapter 11, the most logical explanation is that Moses is referring to God’s dividing of the nations by the creation of languages. It seems that the events recorded in Genesis 11:1-9 occurred during the lifetime of Peleg. It was in Peleg’s lifetime that God decided to “divide or split” the earth by confusing the languages of the people. And Moses provides a detailed description of God’s momentous decision.

“Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” – Genesis 11:6-7 ESV

And Moses goes on to describe how God “dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:8 ESV). God literally “divided” or “split” the earth by creating new people groups with different languages. Their inability to communicate with one another caused an immediate parting of the ways, indirectly fulfilling God’s command that mankind “fill the earth.” In “dispersing” them, God was breaking humanity in pieces and scattering them abroad. That is the literal meaning of the Hebrew word, פּוּץ (pûṣ).

It would appear that Moses split the genealogy found in chapter 10 at the juncture of Peleg and Joktan because he was going to provide further details about Peleg’s lineage in the following chapter. During the lives of these two brothers, something significant and earth-shattering took place. And Moses will provide further insights into that momentous occasion. But it seems safe to conclude that when Moses states “in his days the earth was divided,” he is referring to the events surrounding the tower of Babel, as described in the opening verses of chapter 11. Another reason for reaching this conclusion is found in a psalm written by David. In it, he uses the very same word, (pālaḡ), to describe the dividing and confusion of languages.

Destroy, O Lord, divide (pālaḡ) their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city. – Psalm 55:9 ESV

So, hidden within this somewhat meaningless and uninteresting genealogy is a subtle reminder of God’s sovereign will. As the sons of Noah procreate and populate the planet, God is operating behind the scene, sovereignly orchestrating His divine will. With the birth of each new son, another branch in the human family tree begins. Peleg and Joktan, while brothers, would produce two distinctively different progeny. From Joktan would come the various Arabic tribes, the Yemenites, Assyrians, Lydians, and Aramaens. These “clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood” (Genesis 10:32 ESV).

God was orchestrating the creation of all those nations that were destined to play vital roles in His future plans for the world. By sovereignly forming such diverse groups as the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Canaanites, God was putting in place all the pieces to His divine plan for mankind’s redemption. There was a method to the seeming madness. God had a reason for creating each of these distinct people groups. And Moses wanted his readers to understand that the existence of each of these nations had been decreed by God’s will. They didn’t just happen. They were planned by God Almighty. And while each of them would eventually become an enemy of Israel, God had a divinely ordained role for them to play.

There is no cosmic karma in the universe. Nothing happens by chance. Nations rise and fall by the sovereign will of God. The existence of languages was part of God’s plan. The birth of great nation-states was His idea. Each of the men listed in the genealogy of chapter 10 would go on to father a multitude of descendants. And these people would eventually form various nations, representing a diverse mix of ethnicities with each speaking their own unique language and displaying their own cultural distinctiveness. And it would be into this diverse and divisive milieu that God would sovereignly raise up a single man who would become the next “Adam” in the story of mankind’s eventual redemption from the fall.

This all takes us back to the protoevangelium (first gospel) found in Genesis 3:15. In pronouncing His curse against the serpent, God provided the promise of an offspring or seed, that would come from the woman.

“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.” – Genesis 3:15 ESV

There is far more to this statement than the prediction of mutual hatred between mankind and snakes. This was a divinely decreed promise of payback for Satan’s role in Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God. There would one day come a descendant of Eve who would restore fallen mankind to a right relationship with God. Jesus Christ, as outlined in the gospel of Luke, would be born a descendant of Adam (Luke 3:23-38). But as Matthew records in his gospel account, Jesus would also be the descendant of Abraham, who would be born from the line of Peleg.

…Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. – Matthew 1:1 ESV

Hidden within these somewhat obscure genealogical lists is the message of God’s sovereign plan to restore what Satan had attempted to destroy. When God sent the flood as a form of judgment against the wickedness of humanity, He could have destroyed Noah and his sons, and been completely just and right in doing so. While Noah found favor with God, he was not sinless. While Moses describes him as righteous and blameless “in his generation” (Genesis 6:9 ESV), this was intended as a statement of comparison, not commendation. In other words, Noah had not earned his salvation from God. God did not spare Noah because he was righteous. No, according to the book of Hebrews, God spared Noah because he believed and obeyed. He took God at His word and heeded the warning that judgment was coming.

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. – Hebrews 11:7 ESV

Noah’s faith was in the salvation of God. Despite the fact that none of God’s commands made much sense or the likelihood of a worldwide flood seemed remote at best, Noah believed and obeyed. He put his faith in God’s promise of deliverance. But in stepping on the ark he had helped to construct, Noah was foreshadowing a greater deliverance to come. And the author of Hebrews ends chapter 11, his great “Hall of Faith,” with the following words of encouragement and insight.

All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us. – Hebrews 11:39-40 NLT

Out of all the offspring born to Adam and Noah, there would eventually come one “seed” that would provide a means of restoring broken humanity to a right relationship with its Creator.