Our Church Family

Dear church,

Our world is full of human schemes. This is what we are good at. We look for ways to get ahead in the world. We use reason and hard work to plow ahead. This is the way of the world. The Tower of Babel was built in just this way!

Our scheming, all so often, is for us. We do it for ourselves. Sometimes we even scheme against other people. And this, too, is for ourselves. And our schemes can be complex.

The stock market last week was rattled by investors who artificially drove up the stock price of a company called GameStop, the video game version of Blockbuster Video – a company that failed because its business plan had run its course. GameStop sells video games from brick-and-mortar stores when most people now buy them online. The company is expected eventually to fail. 

But investors drove up the stock price of GameStop, not because they believed the company was a good one but instead to cause massive losses to the hedge funds that were betting on the company’s failure. On Wall Street, it turns out, you can make a lot of money by wagering on the failure of others. And some smaller investors don’t like this kind of thing. As it turns out populist uprisings can put a dent in a hedge fund’s bottom line. 

These are our schemes, and they can be complicated schemes. We can devise elaborate plans, both legal and illegal, to achieve the victory we desire. And these plans can work, and these plans can fail. And in our winning, we may say, “God’s favor is upon me.” And in our losing, we may say, “Surely God has forgotten me.”

Rachel had her mandrakes, and Jacob had his peeled poles and his sudden flight out of the country and his extravagant gift to his brother. Rachel also had her father’s household idols – but this is another story. These are pictures of our human schemes, our striving in the world to secure our place within it. 

And all the while, God is calling us to walk with him. 

It isn’t surprising Jacob found himself one night in a wrestling match with a strange man. At times in our scheming, we may find ourselves scheming against God. We try to fight off both God and his ways – as did Cain and like all the peoples under the flood. In all of our scheming and striving, we wrestle against the ways of God. Jacob was a picture of the man who wrestled against God.

The people of God are not to scheme. They are to cling to him.

Jacob learned this. His own wrestling match with God gives us a picture of what the man of God is to look like. Jacob started out wrestling against God and, over the long course of the night, his wrestling in some mysterious way turned into a wrestling for God. Jacob would not release him. “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Jacob was clinging to God.

God’s ways are foreign to our elaborate schemes. We work so hard to get ahead in life, to build wealth, to secure our retirements, to keep our jobs, to build our families, to care for our children and grandchildren, to keep ourselves healthy, to keep ourselves safe. Sometimes, the long list of COVID-19 protocols can feel a little like a human scheme: “This will keep you healthy, which is the most important thing of all!”

And we wrestle against God as we scheme and plan and work. Only the grace of God changes things.

The prophet Hosea wrote about Jacob, who was a man of striving and schemes: “In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us – the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial name: ‘So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.’” (Hosea 12:3-6).

We should not try to shake God out of our lives and do things “our way.” We are to make room for God in our lives. We are to wait continually for him.

Chris

Dear church,

Humans like to make up schemes to get ahead in the world. This is our way. Rachel had her mandrakes, and Jacob had his peeled poles of poplar and almond and plane trees. Rachel was reaching for a child, and Jacob was reaching for provision for his growing family.

As soon as God “remembered” Rachel and she became pregnant, Jacob knew it was time to go back to his homeland – back to Canaan, the Promised Land. I suppose Jacob thought his son by the way of Rachel was the one who would carry on the family of God. 

But Jacob had to shake free from Laban first. Their households were woven together. Laban now had his own sons, and so his future was set. Jacob had come into the picture empty-handed and married both of Laban’s daughters. Fourteen years of labor served as his dowry. 

But now Jacob had a household and a desire to return home to his country. But he had nothing to speak of to his name. And so he came up with his plan – his speckled and spotted sheep and goat plan. 

The long history of Bible scholars aren’t sure what to make of Jacob’s breeding program, which consisted of placing striped sticks around the places where the sheep and goats watered and bred. When we read this text, we find it strange. 

Some have said this simply was ancient imitation magic – the idea the sight of particular images, a striped stick for instance, can induce results that look similar to those images. And so sheep give birth to striped sheep if they breed while looking at striped sticks.  

Other Bible scholars have argued Jacob was beginning to take hold of humanity’s charge to have dominion over the earth. Jacob finally was able to begin the process of ruling and subduing the earth as God commanded in the opening chapters of Genesis. God’s people were becoming the faithful stewards of the earth – or at least held the promise of becoming such.

Still other Bible scholars argue poplar and almond bark and branches aid in reproduction in sheep. This is especially true when the bark and branches are soaked in water – like in a watering trough.

But at the end of the day, God showed Jacob in a dream that it was God – and nothing else – that caused the great increase in the motley flock of Jacob. “Jacob … Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.”

Jacob was a schemer, but he didn’t leave room for the work of God in his life. His breeding program wasn’t marked out by prayer. It was marked out by his human wisdom. 

But the end result was not the fruit of the scheme. It was the fruit of God’s own sovereign action. God was making a way for his people. 

We must learn how to wait on God to act in our lives, rather than scheming our way forward. 

Chris

Dear church,

Have you left room for the working of God in your life? That’s a silly question to ask members of a church. We are the people of God’s promises. Of course we leave room for the working of God in our lives. 

The founding of the nation of Israel came by way of people who knew what it meant to scheme their way into the future. By their own cunning, they looked to take hold of the promises of God and to secure this world for their own. But they left little room for God. 

And at times, God seemed to work at cross-purposes with his chosen people. Moments seemed to come when the way forward seemed clear, and yet God stood firmly in the path. 

For instance, Rachel struggled to become pregnant. Surely Rachel was the chosen one, after all. Jacob had found her by the well and fell madly in love with her. Jacob’s own mother, Rebekah, was found by a well. And so Rachel was found by a well. She was the wife through whom the next generation of Abraham’s family would get its start. This was the way of God – Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and … This was up to Rachel. 

But she struggled to get pregnant. Could it be that God had a different plan in mind? Leah was there. The unwanted older sister already had given birth to four sons. And two servant women were there as well, each giving Jacob sons in quick succession. 

God was doing something new, unbeknownst to everyone involved. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be followed not by a succession of lone patriarchs but by a nation – 12 tribes strong. Rachel thought she knew God’s plan in detail, and God was doing something new. 

Rachel didn’t know God’s plans, and so she reached for the mandrakes. In Rachel’s day, mandrakes were considered an aid to fertility. Reuben was bringing them dutifully to his mother, Leah. Rachel, still barren, thought this was the puzzle piece she was missing. She tried to scheme her way into the future. “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

Rachel had made no room for the hand of God in her life. In her desperation, she negotiated. And like Esau for a bowl of soup, Rachel gave up something precious. Her negotiations only led to another son for Leah, and further muddying of what seemed to be the way of God. 

Do you leave room for the working of God in your life, or do you reach for the mandrakes? Our ancestors in the faith are no different than we are today. We struggle and grasp, seeking solutions for our problems when, in fact, it would be God who “remembered” Rachel and opened her womb. 

Rachel didn’t need the mandrakes. She only needed God. 

Dear church,

This isn’t the daily post about our Scripture readings. Scroll down or up on the homepage to find that. This is just a little extra for you to think about for the weekend.

On Sunday, a member of our church said she was reading Luke 22:31-34, where Jesus predicted Peter would deny him three times. Here’s the first part of that passage:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

The member of our church who read this said she sensed our church was going to be “sifted” in the near future. 

And so here is something that one of our members believes she heard from the Holy Spirit. And, importantly, it is something that pertains to our entire church. We should listen whenever we hear one of our members has had an experience like this. God can use any of us to speak to all of us. And God may be trying to tell us something if we only would listen. 

With that said, let’s consider what it means to be “sifted.”

If we sift something, we are separating the good from the bad, the usable parts from the unusable parts. We want the unusable stuff to disappear, leaving the good stuff for our use.

One of our kids once asked where we put the “spiffer” in the kitchen. Mary and I didn’t know what a “spiffer” was. After we got the description of this strange “spiffer,” we realized this dear child was looking for the “strainer.” We got a good laugh out of it as a family.

A strainer, of course, allows us to separate water or oil from some other cooking ingredient. I can’t say I’m familiar with all of its many uses, but I have strained water from spaghetti noodles on a number of occasions. 

You get the point. And this is the same principle that’s involved in sifting. Biblically (and agriculturally) speaking, we might think about separating wheat from the chaff. The wheat remains. The chaff blows away.

If we want to boil the idea of sifting down to its fundamental idea, we get down to the concept of the test. To sift something means to test it – to see what it’s made of. If put under pressure, what will remain. 

This helps us understand what was going on with the disciples. They were about to be tested. 

It is somewhat important to note here that it was not just Peter who was about to be sifted, or tested. The “you” in the first phrase of Jesus’ prediction is plural: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you (all), that he might sift you (all) like wheat.” 

So all of the disciples were going to be tested. Their faith was going to be “strained.” In the end, Satan would be able to see what remained of these hardy disciples who had been following Jesus around for three years. 

When we read this, we remember how the disciples fled when Jesus was arrested. They were tested and they seemed very much to fail the test. 

A few of things, however, should remain in our minds. 

First, Satan asked Jesus whether he could sift the disciples. It was awfully polite of Satan to ask first! But the reality is Satan had to ask first because God is in complete control of his creation. Satan wanted to send the disciples through the ringer – another picture of sifting – and he asked God if he could do it. So in this sifting, God ultimately was in control. Jesus, who is the divine Son of God, ultimately was in control.

Second, we are reminded of the book of Job, where Satan also asked God about one of his faithful children. Read Job 1 when you have an opportunity. God permitted Satan to test Job. This raises a lot of interesting questions about God and his willingness to permit evil to occur in the world, but suffice it to say here that God had his purposes in allowing evil to occur in the life of Job. 

This is important for us as we think about the sifting of our church. God ultimately is in control. God allows such testing to occur in the lives of his children. And God has a purpose for it.

So when one of our church members says she feels as if our church is about to be sifted, we may initially feel some anxiety. We think about what form that sifting may take. Persecution was mentioned during our church service in relation to this sifting. And so we can begin to speculate.

Perhaps the federal or county government will hand down some difficult and ungodly restrictions on our church. And we will have to decide whether to obey God or the government, regardless of the cost that might be imposed on us. “That’s a pretty easy decision,” you might say. 

But not all Christians agree when it is best to disobey the government. Scripture urges us to respect our governing authorities but not at the expense of obedience to God (Romans 13:1-7; Acts 5:27-32). And Christians can disagree about where the line is. This certainly has happened with all of the COVID-19 restrictions that have been handed down by the government. We can reason our way into obeying the government and disobeying God, or vice versa. And feelings can get hurt in the process

Do you see how sifting can get a little complicated?

I don’t know about you, but when I think about sifting, I think about how some things simply are going to be lost from our church. When wheat and chaff go through a sifting, only the wheat is left. When spaghetti and water are run through a strainer, only the spaghetti is left. 

And so what might we lose as we are sifted? We could lose people. The faith of some of our members may prove to be weak in the face of our testing, and they may disappear from our church family. 

We could lose things that aren’t all that important to our walk of faith as a church. Perhaps, we will lose things that we’ve used as spiritual crutches – things we think we need to worship God but that are not really necessary to our worship of God. I think here of our church building or maybe some of our regular church practices. What do we really need in order to worship God?

We also could lose our status in the community. Perhaps the test is whether to follow God in full obedience at the risk of losing the respect of our nonbelieving neighbors. Churches struggle with this all the time. We want to be a good “witness” in our neighborhood. But what comes first – worship or witness? Churches can be tested on these issues.  

Then again, we may not lose people, material things, or our reputation in the community. In our sifting, it may just be that the focus of our church is forced to be purified. Maybe we are thinking some things are important when they really are not. Maybe we are spending too much time on some activities and not enough time on the activities God really things are important. We may recognize this after a period of sifting. 

I guess the primary point for me is that a season of sifting ought to be viewed as a blessing rather than some sort of curse. Yes, Satan may be involved – as he was with the disciples and with Job. But we must keep in mind that God actually is in control. It is God who wants to see what our faith is made of.

God always is working to build our faith, to grow us to walk closer to him, to trust him more. And I think sifting – or testing – is his most valuable tool. Think of all the people from the Bible who went through a serious time of testing and who emerged from that testing walking closely with God.

We just read about one of them in our Bible-reading plan. “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him …” (Genesis 22:1-19). Read that passage again. Talk about sifting. Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his son. 

Think about the clarity that situation must have forced up on Abraham. As he walked up that mountain with his son, some hot coals, and some wood, he must have had to ask himself, “What do I really believe? Do I really trust God to do what God has said he would do? Do I really trust God is fully good, even as he’s asked me to do this terrible thing? Do I believe God can bring good out of evil?”

In those moments of sacrifice and sifting, Abraham probably felt old attachments fall away. The things of the flesh that Abraham likely found to be very important most of the time likely lost their importance to him. All that mattered was God. And God did, in fact, prove to be good.

We know of others from the Bible who were sifted. I think also about Noah, who spent decades building an ark. I think about Jacob, who labored for 20 years under Laban. I think about David, who hid in a cave from King Saul. I think about Daniel in Babylon. 

In every case, evil seemed to prevail for a time. In some cases, it was a long period of time. Israel’s decades-long exile from the Promised Land was an extended national sifting, leaving only a remnant of the nation in existence. 

And yet, these men and women proved faithful to God in their circumstances. They hung on to Him. And good emerged. God’s plan went forward. 

This is sifting.

And so if our church is going to face a season of sifting, we ought to welcome it in faith. We know God ultimately is in control, and he will sift us only if he loves us. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Hebrews 12:6).

Remember, God doesn’t want us to remain as we are. Through the testing, we emerge stronger in faith and obedience. God then can use us for his purposes in bringing more people into the kingdom of God. Just as he was able to use Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David, Daniel and so many others, he can use us. 

Jesus prayed for Peter. After Peter was sifted, Jesus wanted him to return to the disciples and encourage them (Luke 22:32). Peter would be more useful to the cause of the kingdom after his sifting. 

God is not done with humanity. And if he sifts us as his disciples, I would venture to say it is because he desires to use us for a greater purpose. 

So what should we do as a church? Let’s cling to God. 

Do you remember the wrestling match Jacob had with that mysterious man in the middle of the night? You can read about it in Genesis 32:22-32. I think Jacob gives us a classic picture of the life of a believer. We struggle with God much too often in our lives. We fight against what God would do in us and with us. We push back against God’s efforts to grow us into Christlikeness. We see God as an enemy to our own purposes, or to what we think God’s purposes should be in our lives. Jacob wrestled with God. 

God’s testing of Jacob resulted in Jacob prevailing. Jacob got his way. Jacob was a fraud and a cheat. And so God prepared to depart. It was morning. The test is over. Jacob failed. 

And then Jacob really prevailed. He prevailed upon God to bless him. Jacob clung to God and would not let him go. And Jacob got that blessing.

Our lives often are a mixed-up picture of a struggle against and a submission to God. Our old ways and habits die hard. We want to cling to our own sinfulness even as God is ruthlessly working to cut it out of our lives, to circumcise our lives. We resent, for a time, God’s demands for holiness. 

But at some point, we grab hold of God and refuse to let him go. We don’t want him to leave! Hosea gives us a good picture of Jacob (and us): “He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor” (Hosea 12:4).

Sifting is a moment when we might be tempted to wrestle with God. We might fight against what he is doing in our lives. Instead, we should patiently endure, knowing God has good plans for us (Romans 8:28).

I am curious what you all think. Feel free to make a comment or send me an email.

Chris

Dear church,

One of the settled principles in God’s creation is this: “Whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Perhaps it would do us well to recognize God is with us. He watches us. He preserves us. And he disciplines us.

One of Jacob’s problems was his self-serving spirit, a spirit that led him to lie. But he was not the only one on earth capable of bending the truth. Laban was quite good at it as well. The parallels between Jacob’s deceit of his vision-impaired father and Laban’s nighttime deceit of his future son-in-law are obvious. The deceiver became the deceived. 

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:8). This must have been a bitter pill for Jacob to swallow. Suddenly, he was a polygamist! And his wives, we will learn, didn’t even like each other. Such is life as we sow to our own flesh. The result is corruption and decay and pain. As it went with Adam and Eve, so it went with Jacob.

But in all of this, God was still at work. In all of this turmoil, and in all of the turmoil that would ensue from this mixed-up family of Jacob’s, the promise of God still was moving forward. Twelve sons would become twelve tribes, and one son would deliver them all. Later descendants would guide the family into freedom, would grant them God’s Law, and would plant them in the Promised Land. 

The story, of course, is marred over and over by just the sort of sowing and reaping that was evident in Jacob’s life. And still, the promise of God remained embedded in this chosen people. 

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:5-6; also Proverbs 3:11-12).

We ought to pay close attention to the difficult things in life, both big and small, that we face (John 9:1-3). While it isn’t necessarily wise to try to connect those mishaps back to some particular sin we’ve committed, it also isn’t wise to regard our trials and tribulations “lightly.” In our walk with God, he is always seeking to bring us out of our sinfulness. He wants his glory to be displayed in us, who are the bearers of his image.

And as Christians, those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, we know that his promises are sure. Neither our sins nor the Lord’s discipline will cancel out the promises for those who trust in Him.

Chris

Dear church,

You have things to do today. In your mind, you might have a checklist – work, groceries, chores, home maintenance, parenting, hobbies. This thing you are doing now, reading your Bible and praying, is just a small part of your day. Soon your devotional time will be over, and you will move on to other things. Those other things are good, not bad – at least if you do them to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Jacob saw the ladder and understood himself to be in God’s presence – the very house of God. And we know the ladder now to be Jesus Christ himself (John 1:51). The path to heaven is by way of Jesus only. And a part of us wants to ascend that ladder all the way to heaven right now. We might want to be swept up into spiritual things, up and out of this world, leaving the dust and the grime behind. 

Certain “spiritualities” in our culture advocate for just this kind of thing. We are made for so much more than this, and we ought to meditate or pray to rise above this earthly existence. We want to transcend all of this and enter into some spiritual space where we can really worship or live in freedom. 

But the fact remains: You have things to do today. God didn’t call you out of the world. He came to you in the world. The incarnation of Jesus Christ includes the idea that the divine came down and lived among us. Jesus ate and drank and worked, just like us. In doing so, he showed us what a holy life looks like, and he promised to sanctify the lives of his followers in the here and now. 

Jacob understood something about this. He marked the place of his vision with a stone. He gave it a name. He etched it in memory with a ritual. And then he went about his business. “Then Jacob went on his journey …” (Genesis 29:1). Jacob was made for that time and that place and to do the things that he had been called to do. He had things to do that day.

The life we live here on earth is precious. Your coming day is precious. It is in these days that we are given the opportunity to walk with God – even as we are still emerging from our own sinfulness. 

We ought to think deeply about what God is doing in our lives today. I am sure Jacob was eager for the fulfillment of God’s promises to him and his family. God had told him what God was going to do. All of that was coming. It was on the way even at that moment. 

But in the meantime, Jacob had a life to live for God. God wasn’t going to snatch Jacob out of the world. God wanted to bring his promises into the world through Jacob. 

This is why your to-do list is important. Now that you’ve opened your Bible, and now that you have prayed, and now that you have worshipped, and now that you have revisited the promises of God for his children, it’s time for you to go about your day.

Just as God was doing some very specific things through the life of Jacob, so he has some specific things he wants to do through our lives. Jacob carried the promise with him, and so do we.

Understanding this is important when we come to those unpleasant or seemingly worthless parts of our day. Sometimes we encounter people or situations that are difficult or disappointing. So we recall we are people of the promise. God has said he has a good plan for us – and he has a good plan for the world through us. 

If we know that, it might change how we respond to the people and situations we encounter today.

Chris

Dear church,

Jacob lied. It was a flat-out, bald-faced lie. 

“Are you really my son Esau?”

“I am.”

That was not true. We might be inclined to figure out ways to get around the fact that Jacob was a liar and cheat, just as Esau knew him to be. But this cannot be done. One of the key patriarchs of the faith was a liar. And his father, another key patriarch, was extremely gullible. 

But Isaac was old and vision-impaired, so we can cut him some slack. Perhaps. But if we do, we are forced to heighten the guilt of Jacob. Jacob was acting against the ways of God. “Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road” (Deuteronomy 27:18).

This can cause us stress because we instinctively want the fathers of the faith to be good men. It doesn’t seem right for them to have so many flaws, and to obtain the promises of the covenant with God by deceit. 

But we really ought not to feel stress about the sinfulness and deception of Jacob. And we really ought not to downplay what Jacob did. He was a sinner, plain and simple. In that way, he was exactly like you and me. 

God was working out his plan by using imperfect people, even in all their imperfections. This is the only kind of people God had available to work with, after all. The apostle Paul wrote, “All have sinned …” (Romans 3:23).

The power and grace of God emerges in the fact he uses weak and sinful people to accomplish his purposes. God chose one man – Abraham, also flawed – and decided to imbed his promises for humanity in him. Abraham and his flawed family would carry those promises into the future – all the way to the Messiah, and beyond. 

One of the interesting things about Jesus is he emerged from this sinful lineage. Jacob is mentioned in the very first verses of Jesus’ genealogy (Matthew 1:2). King David also is mentioned, and he was a murderer and an adulterer. In fact, every name in the list of Jesus’ ancestors was the name of a sinner. 

If we really looked into their lives, we would cancel them.

But again, God was working in and through the lives of these sinful people to bring his good purposes to fruition in Jesus Christ. God doesn’t want us to remain sinners, of course. He wants us to walk away from our sinful lifestyles, regardless of what form they take (John 8:11). 

We ought not to feel like God won’t work in our lives until we clean up our acts. As Genesis 27 shows us, God can use anything or anyone to bring his good plans to bear. And his good plans are for his chosen people to become free of sin and death and to walk in harmony with him for eternity. 

God understands our frailty and failures, and he chooses to enter into our lives anyway.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Another way to look at this passage is to “zoom out” and consider it from the big picture. God chose Jacob before he was born. The older brother, God had said, would serve the younger brother (Genesis 25:23). Esau, who was born first, would serve Jacob.

One of the more common ways to view this text is to recognize it as foreshadowing the way in which the Christ came along later, after Israel had been in existence for thousands of years. Christ and his church become the younger brother here – and, yes, the church is a brother with many flaws. 

The point is that right standing with God is not simply a matter of “human will or exertion” – or even birth order (Romans 9:16 – please read all of Romans 9-11 when you have a chance). Instead, it is a matter of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

These are just some things to think about as you consider this chapter.

Chris 

Dear church,

As Christians, we are peculiar because of our practices. We tend to do certain things as we walk through life. We pray. We attend church. We sing. We forgive. We rest. We serve. We read. It is not that we do these things only once in our lives. Aside from our baptisms, which we (mostly) do only once in our lives, these practices are repetitive. Over and over again, we do them. Even when we wonder why we do them, we find ourselves still doing them again. And then again. And then again.

Sometimes these practices feel empty and even ritualistic. And we stop and we wonder why we do them. Are we slaves to these practices? Wouldn’t it be liberating to walk right past the Bible on my kitchen table in the morning, instead of sitting down to read yet another chapter in Genesis? Wouldn’t it be refreshing to sleep in on Sunday instead of gathering myself to venture out into the snow to attend church?

But then we remember that these practices, which are so monotonous so often, are bigger than we can imagine. When we practice these things, we are proclaiming something about ourselves – if only to ourselves. We are proclaiming again – and again and again – that this is who we are. We are Christ-followers. We are children of God. We are blessed for eternal life. We’ve been chosen.

We also are proclaiming something to those who might be watching us. A good friend brought his grandson to our church gathering recently. Church gatherings are simply something that Christians attend. And my good friend was demonstrating to his grandson this fact. In the practice of church attendance is the reality that we are part of the family of God. And as we take our children and our grandchildren to church gatherings, we are doing our part – small though it may seem – of passing on the promises of God to them. It’s what makes recent church trends so sad. 

Isaac doesn’t make a big splash in Scripture. He doesn’t provide us with a particularly striking picture of a man of the faith. Most of his story in Genesis is connected to Abraham who came before him or to Jacob who came after him. Isaac seems almost like a placeholder for the promises. He simply kept the wheel turning, moving from one generation to the next. And his generation didn’t seem all that exciting. 

And perhaps this is what we ought to be learning from Isaac. His life may have lacked excitement. But in that boring life were the promises of God. Isaac passed the promises from Abraham to Jacob. He kept the stream of generations of God’s people moving forward. Just as we keep the stream of faith moving forward in our own lives and in the life of our families by our seemingly monotonous practices, Isaac kept pushing the faith forward. 

Isaac had his practices, too. He dug wells. These weren’t even new wells. These wells were Abraham’s wells. And Isaac’s chief activity for a season in life was to re-dig those wells. He was to go back again and open them back up. They were like well-read chapters of the Bible, that we find ourselves reading again and again. They were like the same sermon points that keep popping up over and over again.

Isaac kept re-digging the old wells. It wasn’t easy, of course (Genesis 26:17-22). We do find opposition as we attempt to carry on the faith and to pass on the promises. There are times it is difficult to keep going – to keep praying, to keep reading, to keep serving, to keep forgiving. 

But sometimes, this is the only task God has for us at the moment. Just keep praying. Just keep attending church. Just keep singing. Just keep forgiving. Just keep taking time to rest in Christ. Just keep serving. Just keep reading. It may feel boring. It may be frustrating. We may wonder at the value of it. We keep going back and retreading old ground, again and again.

But as we do – deep in our subconscious, if nothing else – we are proclaiming the promise of God to ourselves again. We are recalling who we are in Christ. Quite frankly, whether we see it or not, we are growing. And we are passing that identity and those promises on to the next generation in the faith. Our kids and our grandkids and our unbelieving friends and neighbors are watching. So we keep re-digging those old wells. 

Chris

Dear church,

In what ways have we fallen back into the patterns of the flesh? These are the world’s ways, concerned only with what we can obtain with our senses – of sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. 

When we’re consumed only with the things of the flesh, we give away more precious things like they are nothing to us. The immediate takes precedence over the eternal, and the eternal is threatened with never coming into being. 

We have a new way of living in our country, of making our own flesh-filled decisions about gender and sex. Which bathroom would you prefer to use? The immediate controls the day, and the eternal is pushed to the side and despised. “Male and female he created them” – and we forget all about it. As a result, precious things are no longer in view – like the care for our most vulnerable. Instead, we concern ourselves only with being nice and tolerant with those who care nothing for God or science. We want the praise of the world for being enlightened. This, too, is a thing of the flesh.

This is a new way of living, and it also is an old way of living. Individuals can be consumed with the things of the flesh, too. Esau was hungry, and he gave a precious thing away for the sake of his stomach (Hebrews 12:16-17). He was a man who despised the eternal. 

And so we must be vigilant. The writer of Hebrews says, to a people worn down by the world and the flesh, “lift your drooping hands” (Hebrews 12:12).

Chris

Dear church,

The most important question we ever will answer in our lives is this: “Will you go with this man?” The question may take many forms, but the fundamental question in all of life is whether we willfully choose to go with this man, Jesus Christ, and begin our journey into eternal life. 

The story of Genesis 24 is the story of Abraham’s search for a bride for his son, Isaac. Finding a wife was very important because God had promised that Abraham’s family would outnumber the stars in the sky and that his descendants would become a mighty nation living in the land of Canaan that would bless the nations of the earth.

Abraham’s own ability to have children and continue in the promise had been doubtful for a time, until God stepped in and provided Abraham and Sarah with a single son. And now Abraham was seeking out a wife for Isaac. 

Abraham would not settle for a wife from among the Canaanites. The Canaanites, after all, were a cursed people (Genesis 9:20-27). And so Abraham would seek a bride for Isaac from among Abraham’s own people. 

There is much to be gleaned from this chapter theologically. Abraham did not want to send his son Isaac back to his homeland. Abraham was called out of that particular place. The promise of God was for the land where Abraham was living – not for the land where Abraham once lived. The future was not in the old land. Rather, it was in the Promised Land. But the pull of old land could be strong, and Abraham did not his son Isaac to face that temptation. There was no place for Isaac there. 

And so Abraham would send his servant into the old land. The servant would swear an oath of obedience to Abraham. The servant would go to Mesopotamia. And God would bring to the servant the bride who would be joined to the son. 

Ancient commentators were quick to see, in this long chapter, the gospel story. This is why it is important to read the Bible – and to read the book of Genesis – as Christians. When we do, we begin to see God constantly is telling us the good news. In the Bible, he tells the story in a multitude of ways, from the Old Testament and the New. 

In Genesis 24, the faithful servant went on his mission, looking for a bride for the son. It was a long journey, and it required faithful persistence on the part of the servant. 

But the servant found the young woman. She emerged out of nowhere and offered him hospitality. She gave him water and then watered his ten camels. This was no small task, and it demonstrated Rebekah’ heart. Perhaps it was in her heart to be a person of God even before she knew what it meant to be a person of God. The people of God, after all, give water to strangers (Matthew 10:42).

This does not mean Rebekah was perfect. But, like Abraham, this woman had been chosen. That is to say, she had been chosen to enter into the family of God. 

Now in those days, marriage was a family affair. Two families were joining into one. In this case, the families of Abraham and Rebekah’s father, Bethuel, already were linked by blood. But households still negotiated with one another. Rebekah’s brother, Laban, did most of the talking. He served as the head of the household. 

And the two sides – Abraham’s servant and Laban – worked out a deal. Rebekah would go. 

The story takes a little twist on the morning of their departure. The servant was ready. He wanted to complete his mission. “Send me away to my master” (Genesis 24:54).

But the old world wants to cling to its own. “Perhaps another ten days, maybe longer,” it seems to say. “Stay here for a while.”

But this calling of ours is an individual calling. We don’t enter into the faith by way of our parents or our pastors or our friends. We enter into the faith of Jesus Christ. God called and made promises to Abraham, and Abraham had to choose (Genesis 12:4; 15:6). 

So, too, did Rebekah have to choose. “Let us call the young woman and ask her” (Genesis 24:57). 

And so most important question we ever will answer in our lives is the question Laban asked his sister: “Will you go with this man?” (Genesis 24:58). Rebekah knew it to be an invitation to enter into marriage with Isaac, the only son of Abraham and Sarah.

But we know this question is for us, too. The servant has come for us. His name is Jesus Christ, the servant who suffered. 

The disciple Peter stood in Solomon’s Portico at the temple in Jerusalem. A crippled beggar had just been healed. And Peter had good news for the Jews gathered there. “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness” (Acts 3:26).

And so the people there needed to answer the question, “Will you go with this man, Jesus?”

Rebekah answered the question for herself, and she proved to have the heart of faith God is seeking. She did what Abraham did. “I will go” (Genesis 24:58).

And when we answer as Rebekah did, we grab hold of eternal life. Or, rather, eternal life grabs hold of us.

You see, Jesus is both the servant of the Father and the Father’s only Son. When we accept the invitation to go, we are brought out of our old land and our old ways – the way of sin and death – and brought into the land of the promise, the land of eternal life and blessing. 

We skip from the beginning of the Bible to the end, and we read in the book of Revelation, “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:7-8).

In the long story of Genesis 24, we see the gospel. You and I are being called. The servant has come to us. God has chosen us to enter into his family. But we must leave behind the old things, the things of the world that so easily entangle us (Hebrews 12:1). Those old things and those familiar people in our lives will ask us to stay – maybe ten days, maybe longer. “Don’t go,” they say.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

We run the race by following Jesus Christ. Jesus left his seat alongside the Father, came to a dirty old world, looking for the Bride. And he took on the shame of the cross. Those new bridal garments come with a cost. Jesus died the death of sin for us. He did it for joy, of course – the joy of living in obedience to his Father and, I hope, the joy of knowing you and me. 

Obviously, there is more to the story of the gospel than Genesis 24 can lay out for us. In the story of Abraham’s servant and Rebekah’s response, we don’t see the servant suffer as we saw Christ suffer. And Isaac doesn’t make a strong picture of Jesus Christ. But these early events do give us parts and pieces of the gospel story, preparing us for what is to come. 

In particular, Genesis 24 puts the question starkly before us, and it cannot be avoided. Today, God may be asking you, “Will you go with this man, Jesus Christ?” This may not be the first time you’ve been asked that question. You may have said, “No,” in times past. But you can say, “Yes,” today.

God has a marriage supper planned. His bride – that’s his church – is on its way there right now. You’ve been invited.

Chris