Although our lives are becoming globally intertwined these days, our worlds are still small. For example, it’s true that global communications now exists in ways that we could not have imagined years ago. Yet, despite such global communications, in the end it still comes down a phone call from family or a friend.
Often, our lives seem no bigger than the globe that used to decorate our childhood classrooms. Although a global, financial crisis still looms large in this world, it often comes down to one fact. Can I pay my mortgage this month? Indeed, my world is small, occupied by the continents of my emotions, the oceans of my fears, and the mountains of my hopes and dreams.
And so, perhaps, we are not so different from Abraham, after all. God almighty came to him! Talk about something that happened in his life that was much greater than anything global!
But what was on Abraham’s mind? It wasn’t the world, but something from the oceans of his fear in his own, small world. Abraham asked God about his baby. Where is he, the son who is but a gleam in Abraham’s dreary eyes?
Tell me about this baby, God, my baby that you promised would come. I don’t see him. My wife’s belly is still flat, and she’s not getting any younger. Lord, you tell me not to fear, but how is an old man not to fear when he’s about to die childless? You tell me that you are my protector. But can a shield of protection stop these arrows of doubt?
Lord, you tell me my reward will be great. The only reward I see is myself dying an old man with nothing to pass on in this world. You promise me the world, but all I see is dust falling between my wrinkled fingers back to the earth that soon will swaddle my bones.
So, what does God do? He expands Abraham’s world. He takes him by the arm and ushers him outside. God points his eyes star-ward and tells him to do the arithmetic. Put a number on those faraway suns. Go ahead. So will your descendants be. God uses astronomy to teach Abraham theology.
So, you want a baby, Abraham? All right then, I’ll give you a child. And I’ll give him children, and those children more children, until the stars themselves blink in astonishment at the number of your offspring.
That’s how God is. He usually brings us more than we expect. For, in reality, our expectations are tiny, and His gifts are large. We ask for a drop, and God pours out an ocean. We ask for a morsel, and He gives us a feast. That’s the difference between man and God. That’s the difference between Abraham and God.
Our problem is that we want the wrong gifts from God. We also expect too little from Him. He wants to give us more than this world, but we beg for a grain of sand. Perhaps, it’s cowardice; we shrink from God and His almightiness, not praying the prayers we should pray. Perhaps, it’s a lack of faith; we don’t trust God to give what He has promised. Perhaps, it’s self-sufficiency; we can take care of ourselves, Father.
But God doesn’t come to Abraham, or to you, as a tight-fisted miser. He’s anything but that. To Abraham, He promises a baby, soon to be born. He promises a world of descendants, the holy land, and his family’s rescue from Egypt when that day comes. He’s going to give it all, and then some, and then some more. And just when you think that God has run out, He’ll show up once more and surprise you with grace.
You may or may not believe this. But your belief, or the lack of it, changes nothing. You can believe the earth is flat, or that politicians will stop their posturing, but your belief won’t alter reality.
The reality is that God is good. The reality is that His goodness knows no bounds. Your unbelief will not bind Him into being bad. Your un-great expectations of Him will not bind Him to be less than God. A man’s expectations will not bind God from being good to that man, whether he wants it, expects it, or curses the gift of God when it lands in his lap.
Abraham, bless him, was eager for something he could hold, so he could know that God would carry out what He had promised. I can’t blame him. After all, walking by faith is hard. It’s easier to follow God when you don’t need faith.
Even though taking God solely at His word is the true way of faith, God sometimes goes outside His chosen ways because of His mercy. He can do that. After all, He’s God!
We are creatures of this earth. So, in a form our human eyes can take, our God comes and says, “I mean what I say.” To Abraham, He appears as a fire pot and a flaming torch, which passed through the bloody gauntlet of sacrifices that Abraham had sliced in two. A strange sight it must have been. But then, by our reckoning, our God has been known to act strangely.
This was His way of making a covenant, a pact, with Abraham. It was a way to say: “I’m as good as my word. And if I’m not, then may my fate be as one of these butchered beasts.” But God was to be no butchered beast, for He remains true to His Word, come hell or high water.
And so as the perfect fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, God Himself becomes a baby. He becomes a real baby, much like the baby He promised to Abraham. The Lord becomes His own promise. He is the Gift-giver and the Gift. And that Gift is enough for you, for, in that Gift, He gives us more than the world.
Abraham was to get his son, grandchildren, the Holy Land, the whole works. All we get is a baby. Yet, that baby is our world, and much more. He made those stars that Abraham could not count. He knitted together in their mother’s womb all those babies who would call Abraham father. He comes to reveal, once for all, that God cannot stop giving the best.
Jesus explodes our small conceptions of a small-giving God. No war rages within you that Jesus cannot eternally end with His peace. You have no wound so deep in your soul that He cannot heal with His love. Your life may be as bloody as the sight of those cut-up corpses through which God passed as a fire pot and a torch. But God will still pass through your carnage.
Yes, God will pass through; He will not abandon you. And He’ll even do better. He’ll stop amid the slaughter that is yourself and start putting you back together. Only He can do that. And He does it well. For being good, and doing good, for you, is what God does.
Come outside and stand beside Abraham. Count those stars. So will your gifts be. Go to the beach and count the grains of sand. So will be the number of times God blesses you. Travel to Bethlehem and stand before the manger. There, you will see, in a new and living way, the fire pot and torch of God.
That baby becomes a man, who becomes a sacrifice, who becomes a victor, who becomes the almighty King at the Father’s right hand. He will pass through the cuts and wounds of your life and bring healing. He cannot do otherwise, for love compels Him to do only what is good for you.
So, love Him, as Abraham did. Befriend Him, as Abraham did. Believe in Him, as Abraham did. The God of Abraham will be your protection, your great reward. Amen.
