Abraham, my Friend 39

the sitting, running, worshipping, standing man

All through his pilgrimage Abraham, the Friend of God, has been a praying man. As we enter our next chapter of Genesis we discover how vitally a part of his relationship with God prayer was. Prayer is based in relationship. Not academic or ritual relationship but a dynamic link between Creator and creature. The man who does not pray denies his creaturehood; whatever his theology he is a practising atheist.

Relationship is a dynamic, growing thing and we have needed to see how God initiated this relationship and made Abraham the great example of access to God by faith (or justification). We have seen some of his failures, but even these are not wasted in God’s shaping of His vessel. We have seen the aberration of human energy focused in achieving the will of God, and we have seen Abraham brought to the place of an abject consciousness of his own weakness, inability and deadness. We have also seen God establishing a covenant with him. This is vital; prayer depends upon permanent relationship, not promise or impression.

Of course, we can pray from the first day, but to be shaped into a praying man will take God some time in the individual.

As Genesis 18 opens we read again that Jehovah appeared unto him. How often have we remarked that it is always God who takes the initiative? Even though Abraham is now in covenant relationship, and bears in his body the private but indelible marks of ownership, God must still take the first step. What a wonderful thing it is that we have a God who has chosen self-disclosure. No human power or desire can enable us to discover God; we know nothing that He has not specifically revealed. Speculative theology is a peculiarly human arrogance.

The sitting man

So the time has come for God to take the next step in the nurturing of his Friend as a praying man, and he appears to Abraham as he sits in the tent door in the heat of the day. It’s a moment of rest and reflection. The sun is high and hot and Abraham shelters from its presence in the doorway of his tent.

 And Jehovah appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day… (Gen 18:1 ASV)

We have watched this tent for some time now. It is the symbol of the pilgrim:

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise… (Heb 11:9 NKJV)

By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise… (Heb 11:9 NASB)

It is the symbol of his impermanence and unsatisfied longing:

For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. (Heb 13:14 NKJV)

We have watched him building altars but pitching his tent; the altars of stone are his permanent records of his devotion to God; his tent pitching has left no record. His pilgrimage left no mark on the human landscape, but every step was known to God. Such are God’s praying men; their memorials are not in stone where men may worship or mock them but in eternal consequences which neither man nor time can erase.

Substantial faith

I wonder, what was Abraham thinking about as he rested in the door of his tent? Isaac, I suspect. Isaac unborn, unconceived as yet, but already a fixed reality by faith.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1 NKJV)

The thing long hoped for had become ‘substance’. In his heart, he had the evidence of things not yet seen. God had already named the unborn son:

And God said, Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name Isaac…  (Gen 17:19 ASV)

And Abraham had believed:

(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did… (Rom 4:17 NKJV)

The record in the epistle to the Romans sums up Abraham’s state:

…being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. (Rom 4:21 NKJV)

Patient expectancy

Sitting seems to be the position of expectancy.

 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. (Heb 10:12–13 NKJV)

…but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. (Heb 10:12–13 ASV)

Patient expectancy. There is a time to stand and fight, and a time to sit and wait in anticipation. We are familiar with the phrase ‘tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem’ (Acts 24:49 KJV) but ‘tarry’ in the Greek is ‘kathizō’ which really means to ‘sit down’. Our familiar phrase could really have been translated ‘sit down in the city of Jerusalem’.

It is also the position of work completed. As regarding the achieving of our salvation, Christ had nothing more to do; He sat down. The waiting disciples had nothing more to do (at this stage); they must sit down too. Shall I be misunderstood if I say real praying must begin with no praying, just sitting?

The early Pentecostals were famous for their ‘waiting’ or ‘tarrying meetings’, where much time was spent in agonizing prayer. I wonder how folk would respond if we organized some ‘Sitting Meetings’? What must I do to receive the promised Spirit? Just sit down… but don’t go to sleep! I watched a video clip of a baptism this week and noted the contribution of the person being baptized. He just seemed to put himself into the hands of the baptizers and then did nothing! Lazy or wise? I have conducted a few water baptisms and I always prepared them with the same words; ‘please don’t help me’! The only person I ever almost lost was someone who tried to ‘help me’!

So, he sits in faith, knowing that God will choose the moment. And Abraham’s visitors arrive suddenly without warning.

…and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood over against him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth… (Gen 18:2 ASV)

He doesn’t seem to have seen them coming. He lifts up his eyes and there they are, right ‘by him’. At this point, it seems as though Jehovah appeared to him and lo, three men stood by him. Is this the three-in-one? Abraham addresses the visitors as ‘my Lord’ and uses ‘thee and thou’ but then switches to ‘you and yours’.

The running man

But we don’t need to commit ourselves to one view at this time; the important thing is to note Abraham’s response to his guests: he ran to meet them from the tent door. Perhaps it would be in order to remind ourselves that this old man, dozing in the shade, is 100 years old. Just one glimpse of Jehovah and he bursts into action. He runs to meet them and throws himself at their feet. What a welcome! Had he known the hymn, I’m sure he would have burst into song:

Saviour of all, to Thee we bow,
And own Thee faithful to Thy word;
We hear Thy voice, and open now
Our hearts to entertain our Lord.

Come in, come in, Thou heavenly Guest;
Delight in what Thyself hast given,
On thine own gifts and graces feast,
And make the contrite heart Thy heaven.

The worshipping man

Although we often hear preachers say that the first reference to the worship of God is Genesis 22, in fact, the first reference is right here; he bowed himself to the earth where the word ‘bowed’ is the word for worship — to prostrate oneself. He sits, he runs, he worships…

I love this old man! No decorum here, no conscious dignity, no elaborate eastern greetings, just utter yieldedness to His divine guest. Do you begin to see why God called this man, ‘Abraham, my Friend’?

Would you be a praying man? Put away your ‘prayer list’ and come running to greet your Guest. Now worship!

Have you noticed this divine order?

Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” (Matt 4:10 NKJV)

You shall worship… and… you shall serve…

Do we need to remind ourselves that God is still looking for worshippers?

“…But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23–24 NKJV)

The original sin?

When Satan stopped worshipping he fell. The Bible describes him as a cherub and says he was the ‘anointed cherub’. The ‘anointed priest’ was the high priest and Lucifer was the ‘anointed cherub’, the greatest created being. The remaining cherubim continue their attendance upon God to this day.

The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” (Rev 4:8 NKJV)

These are the holiest of the angels but they have no eyes for their own holiness but only for His. They appear in Scripture as completely God-conscious beings. I don’t know how long they have been worshipping like this, but I do know that at a point in time one cherub took his eyes off God and began to admire himself:

Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I have cast thee to the ground; I have laid thee before kings, that they may behold thee. By the multitude of thine iniquities, in the unrighteousness of thy traffic, thou hast profaned thy sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of thee; it hath devoured thee, and I have turned thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. (Ezek 28:17–18 ASV)

 In the moment he ceased to worship his doom was sealed. Saved to serve, say the badges. Saved to worship, says the Book. Service will inevitably follow worship, but worship does not inevitably follow service. First the blossom and sweet perfume, then the fruit.

The audacity of genuine faith

There is a wonderful audacity about genuine faith. Abraham calls him, My Lord and acknowledges himself as thy servant, but Abraham wants Him to become his Guest. He has worshipped, now he will serve:

‘Abraham hastened into the tent’ and instructed Sarah to ‘make ready quickly three measures of fine meal’, then Abraham ‘ran unto the herd and fetched calf tender and good.’ In turn Abraham’s young man ‘hasted to dress it’. Busy days follow times of genuine worship. Abraham is willing to spend and be spent; the man who has abandoned himself in worship is not one to measure the expense.

The standing man

And then after the sitting, running, worshipping, and working comes the standing, always the posture of the servant:

And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. (Gen 18:8 ASV)

He is the servant here, waiting upon His Lord. He has no agenda and no petitions. There is no sitting now, he stands while his Guests eat; Abraham simply stands ready and available to God:

Unto thee do I lift up mine eyes, O thou that sittest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid unto the hand of her mistress; So our eyes look unto Jehovah our God, Until he have mercy upon us. (Psa 123:1-2 ASV)

To such men God will reveal his secrets. Such men and women, in their turn, will surely become Friends of God.