HEBREWS 12 - OUR GREATER PROMISE
(Read Hebrews 12)
We have a hope and a future in Jesus. His promise is sure. His covenant is marked in his own blood.
At the sound of the blood of Abel calling from the ground, God turned his face and approached his murderer with justice and mercy. Abel’s blood was spilled in rage and jealousy. God responded swiftly, and his brother the murderer found himself both banished and marked for his crime.
Our brother, Jesus Christ, died unjustly at the hands of evil men. It was for our sin that he went willingly to the cross. Our hands are stained as red as Cain’s. Jesus blood cries out for justice for this crime. But for us, he receives the banishment. His voice cries to God in anguish for being abandoned. The mark is placed on us, the mark of Christ that says that we will not be judged for our sin. His blood was shed so ours doesn’t need to be.
So now, we walk in faith in the promise of God’s completed work in us. We have heaven ahead, and his presence with us guiding our steps. We share in the birthright of the only begotten son of God, our brother. The world is as temporary and meaningless as a bowl of lentil stew consumed in fifteen minutes and forgotten. The birthright is ours, but the temptation to trade it is the same as it was for Esau. We must persevere.
His promise is sure. We walk in faith. Christ endured the cross for the joy set before him. We scorn the entanglements of this world for the joy he’s promised us.
ROMANS 9 - THE SPIRITUAL DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM
(Read Romans 9)
Paul, the writer of this passage, loves the people of Israel deeply. He is descended from Abraham, as is Jesus. He is heartbroken for those who would have God revealed so clearly to them for so many years, yet reject the promise when the Promised one comes. He recognizes the beauty and the heritage of his own faith, the laws, the traditions, the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis, which all beautifully illustrate the character and nature of God that was finally revealed in Jesus.
Two examples from Genesis are given for what it means to be a child of Abraham. Though both Ishmael and Isaac are children of Abraham, Isaac is the child of promise born from the power of God, and Ishmael the child born by Abraham’s own efforts. Therefore, it is not by someone’s effort that they are a child of Abraham and inheritor of the promises, but by the power of God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that regenerates someone to Salvation, not their efforts or good deeds.
More surprising is the second example, of Jacob and Esau. Like Ishmael and Isaac, both are the seed of Abraham. Like Ishmael and Isaac, the second son is preferred before the first. In their case, this chapter says that it is God’s Sovereign choice that preferred Jacob over Esau. When we consider the story in Genesis, it is clear that Esau did despise his own birthright by his own choices and desires. He sold his birthright for stew, and married outside of the family against his parent’s wishes. However, Jacob wasn’t much better. For most of his life, Jacob was a sneaky and deceptive man, gaining wealth and blessing by his own efforts. However, the story of his life was one of God pursuing him relentlessly, chasing him down and revealing himself again and again until Jacob finally walked away limping, body torn but spirit whole.
In the case of Jacob and Esau, we don’t need to ask why God rejected Esau, but why he chose either of them at all. The story is the same as his calling of Abraham. Genesis certainly gives us no reason why God would do so. He wanted to reveal himself to the world, and Abraham was the one who was the first to begin receiving this revelation by God’s covenant. There wasn’t anything particularly special about him. What made him special was God’s covenant, made in God’s power.
We must be careful to remember the entire context of this chapter. The writer begins by mourning the lack of faith of one group of people, and celebrating the universality of God’s redemption at the end. Yes, God has the sovereign will to choose whoever he will. However, the opportunity to respond in faith to God’s redemptive covenant in Jesus is offered to everybody.
Abraham had faith in God. Isaac had faith in God. Jacob had faith in God. The path of faith for each of them was messy and long, but in every case, they put their trust in God, they put action to their faith, and God established his covenant with each of them. So it is not the genetic material that makes a child of Abraham. Jesus is Abraham’s seed, and every person on earth can now be adopted into that family, no matter who their parents may be.
Whether Ishmael, Esau, or Israel, all come to God on equal ground. We are equally made in God’s image, equally fallen, equally loved unconditionally.
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