Life in Canaan

Genesis 12:7 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.

Abram’s arrival to Canaan can easily be compared with salvation and then the life that follows is our saved life. Abram had arrived here and had built an altar which shows how his acknowledgement that this transition had been glorious. We were thankful and happy when we were saved. But we do not progress as per God’s plan but wander on our own as Abram did. Verse 6 says that the Canaanite was there and at that situation God had promised Abram about the victory and ownership of this land. 

This is Christian life where we are saved but placed in similar situation like our previous life. There were Chaldeans and Babel earlier now we have Canaan. The flesh now poses as the new enemy which is against our new commitment. In this life, God has promised that we will be victorious over our flesh. But we always try to escape this test which is not God’s will. 1 Corinthians 16:13

This hastiness is seen again about Ishmael, where we see that Sarai being the first one to introduce Hagar to Abram and then Sarai was regretting about her decision. This is the state of the soul which takes stupid decisions without waiting. Running around for solutions is not good or biblical. At many times we need to wait patiently for God to work.

When Abram was in Canaan (Chapter 13), he could drive out four kings who had together captured five others. Abraham was a hero but before and after this victory, he could not even try to safeguard his own wife when out of God’s plan. He makes the same mistake at Egypt and Gerar (Chapter 20) by disowning Sarah. In both cases he is silent till Sarah is taken away and God had to intervene and bring her back. This is a small encouragement to us that God interferes when we make mistakes because we are in the covenant. God knows what we should lose and what we should not. God may allow famine in our life, but He would never accept our stupidity in losing the source of our blessings. Sarai can be compared with our soul which we do not value or cherish at all.

Abram had gained material wealth at Egypt and Gerar. But when the king of Sodom gave him money, he rejected (Gen 14:22). It is much ethical to accept from Sodom because Abram had bought victory to them. But both Abimelech and Pharaoh had lost blessings and gave to Abram for fear. Abram was wise enough to reject money from Sodom because of their wickedness. But this wisdom is not present when Abram was out of station. This foolish wealth had to be cleansed by sending everybody as slaves for four hundred years to Egypt. Everything was lost there and they had gained new wealth from Egypt as genuine wages (Exodus 12:35, 36). Hagar was one wealth Abram acquired in Egypt who brought him diversion and trouble at home. God says to Abram to “Fear not, I am your shield and your great reward” (Genesis 15:1). God always wants to be our only protection and honor. Abram was silent when he received all the gifts and Sarai was away. When we keep receiving earthly treasures, we easily forget our actual destiny.

Lot was one attachment God did not desire but Abram dragged along. The destiny of Lot was disgusting. The trouble through Lot lasted for centuries. Lot was the only link Abram had to his father’s house and this relationship was loved by Abram. As we grow up in Christ, we do not love the flesh who is spread across our life but we honor the tradition. A mixture of tradition and salvation results in cults and rituals. Abram had to give away a large share of his promise to Lot. That’s why Abram informs Lot that tradition and salvation cannot dwell together as both needs a lot of space, time and energy.

There were four heirs to Abraham thought he had. The first was Lot, next Eliezer of Damascus (Genesis 15:2), then Ishmael and Isaac was the last one. The first is our tradition; the next our possessions, then our personal achievements and at last comes the actual spiritual fruit from God. This prize is God’s intention and blessing to us. If Abraham had waited completely without bringing these people up, the place would have been very peaceful.

During Christian life after salvation, it is required that we continually stay in God’s plan, do not wander or decide on our own but submit to Him totally.

Amen.

A New Nation

Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.”

The first words spoken to the chosen generation was to get out of their traditions. In 11:27-32, we read about Terah’s decision of going to Canaan. This was not a bad decision to not gain God’s approval. But God had chosen Abraham only. Here, “Ur of the Chaldeans” written twice draws our attention. It has been widely accepted that this “Ur” is very close to Babel and so, this group of people did not scatter away but had chosen to stay nearby. Since Chapter starts with “Now”, we can see that the time of Babel was when the last genealogy in Chapter 10 was written which was before the birth of Reu, Peleg’s son. Adding up the years of birth we can see that 161 years after Babel was the decision made by Terah and God was not happy about their stagnancy and Terah had a conviction to move around the world. Terah has started to move to Canaan but stopped his progress at Haran. God rejected Terah because he was in Haran for around 50 years and not move. Canaan was not introduced to Abram alone. God had indeed wanted all the early fathers to move, but Abram was the only one who obeyed or was humble enough to obey and honor his father.

There are three things God wanted Abraham to forsake: his country, family and inheritance. Country points to our culture, family to our sentiments and inheritance to our pride. All these have to be thrown away to have God’s plan executed in our lives. Abraham had to forsake his identity completely to submit to God’s plan. This is faith. Faith does not drag along our self-esteem and other talents. In Luke 14:12 we read Jesus not approving our help to family members or friends which is still selfishness. We need to be independent for true Christian progress. Jesus had always pushed us to leave family and belongings behind. In Gen 12:2, God provides the answers to this loss. We will become a nation if we forsake our country or tradition. We’ll be blessed if we lose our earthly sources of blessings. We will have our names honored if we lose our identity to God.

There was not one incident where Abraham recalled his origin because he completely transformed himself to be a part of the new nation. We are also called to this new nation which is very superior to Canaan or even Israel. Faith is something that makes us believe that we belong to the eternal Father and not to our belongings.

The verse says “To a land that I will show you”. Even though Canaan was known previously, God wanted Abraham to see Canaan the way God wanted to. We make the same mistake in life and so fail as Terah failed. Terah had a different opinion about Canaan and that was satisfied at Haran to make him stay. God wants us to see our destiny through His eyes. Psalms 98:2 says God revealed His salvation. This salvation is Christ, the holy and perfect person ever on earth. When progressing to Christ, we stop in the way at Haran because we think that Christ is just about food and wine which is already available in this earth. We believe that Christ is just redemption from earthly problems and so, do not pursue a real solution. But this salvation is something we need God’s help to understand. This is the role of faith in our life. We believe Him so much that even though we do not properly understand, we would start moving.

In Hebrews 11:8-10, we read this faith elaborated. Abraham did not know where he was going. This was his promised land, but Abraham patiently waited till God built the city. Till that moment, they were living in tents. Faith allows God to work and makes us wait. Sometimes, we also become impatient and give blue-prints to God to start working. Abraham did not have any clue on what nation this is going to be and did not even build houses meaning that we was waiting for precise instructions on where to build a house from God. If God is planning to bless us, we need to let Him do the job completely without interfering.

The blessings given to Abraham did not stop there. God says that “You shall be a blessing”. Abraham was given to us as the wonderful gift which was fulfilled by Jesus. A same instruction is given to us also in Zachariah 8:13 where God says that our salvation is given so that we would be a blessing to others. Without earning people for Christ, there is no reason for us to be saved. At many instances God does not bless us because of our selfish motives to get settled where we want to. God calls us to be blessing to others and not for us to enjoy our lives. We need to note that those who bless you is given in plural and him that curses you is given in singular. This points to the value of this blessing where Abraham was a blessing to every single person and family in the world. There is only one who would curse him which is the devil. This is the amount of goodness God has promised us. This is how we shall become a blessing.

Amen.

Unity and Confusion

Genesis 11:3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 

The first time lot of men united for a single cause was at the tower of Babel. This was just after the cleanup with Noah and sons. This family had witnessed the power of God and the original plan of God was that these children would teach their kids with this understanding of His might and they would be closer in relationship with God. This plan failed in the first generation itself when Ham had seen his father in a compromising position and did not care to honor him. But Shem and Japheth had united together to honor Noah. This unity brought forth good results.

In Genesis 9:26 when Noah blesses Shem, he does not personally bless Shem, but the God of Shem who is the only God almighty. Shem is the father of Abraham and Israel and so, Shem becomes the blessed and chosen son who receives all inheritance. Riches actually start with Shem because this was the start of mankind in earth. Shem did not have another God, but since He is addressed as God of Shem, we can understand that God will be happily blessed because of Shem and his generations. This should be the highest blessing given to any person.

The blessing to Japheth is to share blessings of the chosen son. This should be given because he agreed with Shem in good deeds. This incident is a metaphor to Christ and us. All we have to do is agree and work with Him. We shall inherit all His riches with that. Now Canaan (or the rest of the world) will serve both Christ and us is explained in Romans 8:28. This is how the whole earth will be who run after money and self-satisfaction and make fun of others.

Now, proceeding to Chapter 11, we read that they started making bricks first without a purpose and that led them to building Babel. This is how the world drives us. The first step to sin will not be known to us at all and never seems evil. Bricks are good for construction. We do not know why we did the first cigarette and why we joined together. But at one stage, we end up constructing something for ourselves. The world never reveals to us where we are heading towards. Each step is presented to us with deceptive attractions. Satan is so cunning that we never know our capabilities. We just start making bricks, then realize that we have asphalt for mortar and then desires sprout up in one evil mind to build a city. There we have unity without questions because we have a wrong hero (Nimrod) who can easily influence us. Without knowing that this is stupidity and slavery, we just keep following these men who satisfy their selfishness with our hands.

We need to understand that the ark was also a very large construction of man. This was God’s plan for the salvation of man. God trusts us completely by giving what we have to do and how to proceed. In our life, we know we have to live holy by forsaking the world. We know that we are heading towards heaven where our actual destined home is. Our deeds in this world build that home. We know what we are building and how to build but still need faith to stay strong. But for sin, we do not need training, motivation or strength. All it requires is one person to have an evil motive.

God did not hate Babel because it was high and would reach heavens. Heavens are not that low for man to reach by his own strength. The actual reason is that God wanted man to spread across the earth and populate it so that there will be diversity and at least one or a few groups will be preserved holy. Man did not submit to this plan and wanted to build a comfortable city. This is a time where God created confusion instead of unity. The power of unity is so large that God Himself testifies that this unity can do anything that we plan. But mankind is not wise enough to use this unity constructively. The problem is that what we know as construction actually destroys. But when Christ becomes the head which plans everything, we are the very best useful vessels. Ps 133:1 actually shows how God longs for our unity.

1 Peter 2:10 says that we were not “a people” before. Being scattered was the identity of us. But when Christ came into our lives, we became a people of God. We need God to unify us and to lead us. And sometimes confusion is brought by God in our lives so that we separate and proceed to execute His plan in our lives and not stick with our own desires.

Amen.