A WORD FOR TODAY, September 15, 2022
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, September 15, 2022
“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Most certainly I say to you, a rich man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with difficulty. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.’ When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished, saying, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Looking at them, Jesus said, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” Matthew 19:23-26, WEB
The Bible is a collection of stories about people and their relationship with God. Each one is individual. Each one has a unique purpose. Each one their own virtues and vices, and God dealt with each one according to His will for their lives in His story. Though the Bible is a like a library with sixty-six books that tell those individual stories, it is also one book that tells the story of the one God who is revealed in creation and in the person of Jesus Christ. Though we don’t meet Jesus until the book of Matthew which is 59% into the book, He is there in the stories we read in the Old Testament. As John tells us, He was there in the beginning and He is there at the end, on every page.
We read the stories of all those characters because they show us how God interacts with His people. He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden until they sinned against Him. Even though Cain slew his brother, God marked him so that he would not be killed by another. Noah was a righteous man and walked faithfully with God, which is why He saved him and his family from the flood. He met with Moses face to face in the Tabernacle. He cared for Elijah even when Elijah just wanted to die. He gave Jonah a second chance to preach to the Ninevites, even though Jonah tried to run away. We can make similar statements about the characters in the New Testament, like Peter the denier, James and John the sons of thunder, and Paul the persecutor. God dealt with each one with grace.
If someone asked you about Abraham, it is likely that you would quote the line from Romans 4, “it was credited to him as righteousness.” This same quote is repeated in other New Testament texts, and it points back to Genesis 15 when Abraham believed God’s promise and it was credited to him as righteousness. So, we think of Abraham as a man of faith from the beginning. But Abraham’s story is much different than Noah’s. Abraham worshipped other gods, the gods of Ur. Abraham did not know the LORD when he first heard His voice. God chose him anyway.
God chose Abraham because He had plans. The whole story is ridiculous to us because God promises land to a nomad and offspring to a seventy-five-year-old with a barren wife. How could God bless the whole world through this one non-believer? As we read the rest of Abraham’s story and see how often he failed to live up to that faith that we have made the center of his life, we wonder if God couldn’t have chosen someone better to be the one from whom the nation of Israel came forth. Perhaps Israel would have been more faithful if God had made that promise through Noah who was chosen because he was a righteous man who walked with God.
But it is not up to us to play back-seat driver to God’s plan. The very things that we would use to discredit Abraham are the very things that make him the perfect choice for God. How much more powerful is Abraham’s faith because he did not know God until he first heard His voice? How much more powerful is the story of Isaac when we realize how perfectly impossible it all was, including the call of Abraham to sacrifice his child. Abraham followed an unknown God to an unknown place, and though he failed along the way, he always believed. Isn’t that our story?
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story in today’s scripture passage. They all quote Jesus saying, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Our story might not read exactly like Abraham’s, but we can be comforted by the fact that God chooses based on His grace, not our gifts. We can be comforted by the fact that God forgives us when we fail, and He gives us second chances. We can be comforted by the fact that God is faithful to His promises even when they seem impossible, because He is the one who can make all things possible. This we believe, and it is credited to us as righteousness.
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