Abraham, my Friend 34

Abrahamic Perfection

I want to say more about Genesis 16 but I think it will make more sense if we revisit later rather than try to look too far ahead. In essence, Ishmael was ‘fathered’ by uncircumcised energy and came from the wrong mother. Such children can have long lives and long term consequences. We will need to understand the significance of circumcision and its institution in Genesis 17 before we can fully understand why God works this way. Watch this spot; we’ll be back…

Let me put Genesis 17:1,2 into context. It is pre-law and pre-circumcision. This may give us some valuable insights into the New Covenant, which is post-law and post-circumcision. We may even get some insights into why John Wesley called his exposition of the New Covenant, Christian Perfection. So here is a little examination of Abrahamic Perfection based on a single verse: 

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Gen 17:1 ASV).

I-thou covenants

God is about to ‘cut a covenant’ with Abraham — personally. Most of this covenant will be expressed in terms of what God undertakes to do, with some very simple instructions for Abraham. We often call this the Abrahamic Covenant, but, strictly speaking, that is to get the cart before the horse; God calls this covenant ‘my covenant’. Nine times in this single chapter God refers to it as ‘my covenant’. It is an intensely personal covenant: 

And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly (Gen 17:2 ASV)

This is not a corporate covenant of the kind that was enacted at Sinai; that covenant was not addressed to a ‘thee’ but to ‘you’ (‘thee being singular, ‘you’ being plural):

Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine… (Exo 19:5 ASV) 

Such vital details are important and are one of the reasons I am still using the American Standard Version for the Old Testament — just temporarily… until I can find something better. The covenant of Genesis is a between me and thee covenant.

May I introduce you to Abraham’s Friend?

So the Abrahamic Covenant is between just two persons; it is always between two persons, but we will examine this at another time. Abraham is one covenanting party; who is the other? Let’s allow Him to introduce Himself. 

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Jehovah appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (Gen 17:1 ASV) 

This is Jehovah. It was Jehovah who had first spoken and revealed Himself to Abraham. It was Jehovah to whom Abraham had raised his altars and upon whose Name he had called. It was Jehovah who had given Himself to Abraham to be his shield and exceeding great reward. Abraham knew something about Jehovah; part of Abraham’s pilgrimage has been ‘getting to know’ just who Jehovah is. For Abraham, each revelation and subsequent obedience has been part of the process of becoming ‘Abraham, My Friend’. 

One of the foundations of such ‘friendship’ is the process of self-revelation. Abraham is increasing in the ‘knowledge of who God is’. At this point in his pilgrimage, other attributes of the nature of Jehovah are to be revealed to him; the Jehovah who speaks now describes Himself as ‘God Almighty’. El Shaddai. Whenever God reveals Himself He does so in a manner which is significant to the individual or the event; Christ’s self-revelatory introduction to each of the churches of the Revelation illustrates this point.

El Shaddai

This is the first time we hear that title although it will become the title by which the patriarchs will know Him (Exodus 6:3). I don’t know that we have ever quoted the Geneva Bible in these devotionals but here is a good time to start… 

When Abram was ninetie yeere olde and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said vnto him, I am God all sufficient. walke before me, and be thou vpright… (Gen 17:1 Geneva Bible)

 El Shaddai, God – All-Sufficient. The word ‘almighty’ gives the feel of physical strength, and this would fit the Hebrew which has the sense of muscular shoulders about it. The translation ‘all sufficient’ includes this sense but adds the idea of strength used for our benefit rather than against us. This is not a macho-God, but an all-we-need God. Adam Clarke says that the word Shaddai is derived from the Hebrew word ‘shadah’ meaning ‘to shed, or pour out’. In fact, it is almost certainly derived from the Hebrew word ‘shad’ meaning a woman’s breast. This is God – All-Sufficient. The Hebrew word is in its masculine form but its origin is the picture of the all-sufficient care of a mother.

I am told that the natural focus of a baby’s eye is the distance between the mother’s breast and her face; a baby can’t feed from its mother without looking up into her face. Of course, it is just the right distance to begin to hear the mother’s voice too, and to learn to recognise its moods and accents. And it just so happens that it’s also the safest place for the baby, wrapped in its mother’s protecting arms. Of course, it also happens to be the position in which the baby can receive absolutely all its needs. So from this unique position, the baby discovers fellowship, protection, instruction, and provision for every possible need. It seems to me that this is just too many coincidences; I think God is trying to tell us something!

A mother’s love

I would like to share a story of true mother-love. Many years ago a Turkish man became a Christian; he came from a simple family with a simple pattern of village life. He married an English Christian who was a close friend of mine. Later he became very ill and Christians from the west arranged for various tests which confirmed that his kidneys were badly diseased; the only hope was a kidney transplant. After more tests, it transpired that only his mother had the right match and she was asked if she would be willing to give her kidney for her son. It was explained that without a kidney her son would die. She never hesitated and the operation went well; the son lived. Some time later an amazing subtext to this story emerged. The simple village mother had not known that healthy people have two kidneys; she thought everyone had just one. She wasn’t even a Christian… just a mother!

Paul, as a mother…

Let me pursue this wonderfully tender picture into the New Testament. Paul is often libelled as macho and misogynist, but on two occasions he pictures himself as a woman. The first picture is of child-bearing: 

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you… (Gal. 4:19 NKJV)

Do you see that again… until…? How many times are you willing to go through this Paul? ‘As often as it takes… until…’ 

The second picture is that of providing for their daily needs: 

But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. (1 Th. 2:7 NKJV)

The picture behind the ‘nursing mother’ is of a mother suckling her own flesh and blood baby. There are many lessons to learn here. Chief among them may be that only what has passed through our own souls can ever provide ‘food’ for the next generation.

The essential vision

To return to Genesis 17… God presents Himself to Abraham in the language of the faithful provider of all he could ever need. This is an important point. Only those who have had such a vision could ever receive such a commission. 

The culmination of God’s word to Abraham will be ‘be thou perfect’.

The Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Dictionary defines this word ‘perfect’ as follows:
1) complete, whole, entire, sound
1a) complete, whole, entire
1b) whole, sound, healthful
1c) complete, entire (of time)
1d) sound, wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity
1e) what is complete or entirely in accord with truth and fact (neuter adjective/substantive)

To this breathtaking concept of Abrahamic Perfection we need to add the observation that the verb here is ‘be’ not ‘do’. God is not requiring of Abraham a single perfect act but a life which is ‘perfect’. ‘Impossible,’ you cry. Well, yes, it would be if that had been the start of the commission, but it isn’t; and be thou perfect is the consequence of something else; it is the effect, not the cause. 

In my old King James Version the last clause reads, ‘and be (or become) thou perfect..’ ‘And’ implies that something came before what follows. My point is that in this context God did not simply say ‘become perfect’; He said ‘do something’ and ‘become perfect’. Do what?

What must I do?

Walk before me… This is the most common Hebrew word for ‘walk’, being used over 1500 times in the Old Testament. How would you define walking? Well, it’s not complicated, just put one foot in front of the other. Now do it again with the other foot. Now if we say ‘walk’ we seldom get the cry ‘it’s impossible’; we know we are being asked to make a start — and an uncomplicated start at that. 

We can be overcomplicated with simple Bible concepts. Here’s an even easier explanation of the word ‘walk’. ‘Take a single step. Good, now take another one’. Why should we cry ‘impossible’? Even a babe can learn to walk; even a babe still dependent upon its mother’s milk can do this. (In simpler cultures weaning took place much later than in our western ones, usually around two or even three years.)

But what step should I take? 

The Hebrew preposition ‘before’ is really the Hebrew word for ‘face’. It is often translated ‘before’ or ‘in the presence of’. It is a Hebrew idiom. In this picture, it is someone in eye-contact with the person who is directing their steps. 

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee. (Psa 32:8 ASV) 

Notice, those thou’s again. You won’t remember, but this is the way your mother taught you to walk. She got your attention, fixed her eyes on you, opened her arms and said ‘Come’, and you walked. If you had stopped to work it all out, you would have cried ‘impossible, I don’t do walking’. Did you never read that you must come ‘as a child’? This is why children make such astonishing progress; they don’t know they can’t, so they do. I remember teaching my children to jump into the swimming pool. ‘I can’t’, they cry. ‘Come on’, says Dad, ‘I’ll catch you.’ ‘I can’t’, says the child, ‘Come on’, says Dad, ‘I’ll catch you.’ The child jumps, he’s caught, ‘I did it’, cries the child. He has done what he couldn’t do because he believed his father. Simple isn’t it?

The God-conscious walk

Abraham is to be accountable to God alone; walk before me. He carries no law written in stone, but He is required to hear God’s voice and obey it. The Law cannot get a grip on him; he is outside the Law’s power and demands. His way to Abrahamic Perfection is simple and unique. There is no familiar path made clear by habitual walking. There is no list of do’s and don’ts; just an insistence upon personal communion, step by step obedience, and a moment by moment dependence on El Shaddai, God – All-Sufficient.

This whole, impossible, lifestyle can only be sustained as we live in the power of the revelation. It begins, as always, with God’s initiative — the revelation of who He is. He is Jehovah-Jesus whom you have known and who has already opened your eyes to wonderful things. But He reveals Himself now to thee in a new way as God – All-Sufficient. You have never seen Him before like this, but you know He is all you could ever need. He commissions you to walk in His presence, with your eyes in mutual contact; in fellowship with Him. He commands it; His commands are His en-ablings. It’s impossible, you cry. To whom?

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming (presence) of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. (1Th 5:23-24 NKJV)