A New Hope—Act #3
Gen. 12:1-3 and various others
3KCOC
4/17/11
Intro: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Most of you have seen this (PP or Youtube of Star Wars Opening). I am sure that George Lucas must have had reasonable confidences that audiences would love his story, but could he have ever imagined that Star Wars would be an international sensation and would forever become a part of our cultural conscious? Even the vastly inferior second set of movies, made around the turn of the century, were blockbuster hits because of the power of his story. If you get your story right, the rest takes care of itself.
There are documentaries on the making of Star Wars, the elaborate sets, costumes, and, what was then, cutting edge computer graphics. Star Wars defined the science fiction genre of movies and even transcended its genre. Yet, I imagine it all started a long time ago with a pen and a notebook. The story writer has the power in his/her story. He or she conceives ideas, characters, plots, and themes. The audience or readers will judge the worthiness of the story, but either way they are just along for the ride.
So, we come to Act 3 of telling the biblical story and it is act that poses a critical question: Is God still writing this story? We have seen clearly how God had to start the story when he created the world, because after all he was the only one there to write it. But then in our second act we encountered a disturbing reality: Satan enticed humans into try to write the story themselves, to play their part as gods, and the story seemingly went off script. The entire creation fell into crisis. Had God lost control of the story he started?
That’s a critical question because many see the world today as far removed from God the Creator. Even if they believe there is a God, he has little or no involvement with this world. He created it; we ruined it; he washed his hands of it. Is that the state of the story? It is in understanding Act 3 of the story that prepares us for the world changing events of Act 4. In knowing this part of the story, we can answer what God’s relation to the story is today. We don’t have to go to a galaxy far, far away, but we are going back to a time that was a long time ago.
Trouble in the Text: It looks like the pen is in someone else’s hand.
Act 2 is basically covered in Gen. 3-11 and we looked at much of this last week. In these chapters we have the banishment of Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and a flood that destroys all human life except Noah and his family. The earth is repopulated, but humans are still intent on being their own gods when they try to build a tower to reach the heavens against the will of God. So, God confuses their languages and spreads them throughout the world. Undoubtedly, God is still in the center of all of these events, but is he still controlling the story? Does he still have the pen in his hands?
Fiction author Ted Dekker imagines a collection of books that have recorded everything that has happened in the past. But there is also a book with blank pages. If you can get your pen on those pages you can literally write history that hasn’t happened yet. Anything you write will become true for good or for worse. Is that what has happened to God’s story so to speak? Did someone sneak into his office and pocket his pen and slide the book into the arms before sneaking off? These terrible things that keep happening, the fall in the garden, murder, the flood, and the Tower of Babel, they couldn’t have been the plans of God, right?
Consider the implications, if God is not in control. That means the story is in the hands of sinister forces that plot the ruin of the human race. That means the end of hope for the human race and all of creation. If you stopped reading in Gen. 11, you could easily get this picture. But we don’t; we read on, and we come to one of the most pivotal passages in the entire Bible. We might say that is the dawn of a new hope. Read Gen. 12:1-3
Grace in the Text: The call of Abram confirms who is writing the story.
God writes a story much different than George Lucas. When Lucas writes the story every character will do exactly as he writes it. But God’s story isn’t fiction, but intersects with real human beings all along the way. It is a story that invites risk even to its author. God has given human beings free will to choose to love him, to follow him, to stay a part of his story, or to completely walk away from him. And because of this dynamic of free will, it can give the impression that God isn’t really in charge of the story, but that impression is false. Humans will make their choices of whether or not they will be willing participants of God’s story, but either way, God’s story moves forward.
The passage we just read may seem underwhelming at first, but it is a major advance in God’s story. He has chosen someone, a main character, so to speak, to play a role that will one day lead to the salvation of the world. There is nothing particularly devout about Abram; this is simply God’s election according to his sovereignty. When Abram is called there is no burning bush like with Moses; it is just a simple call with a world changing outcome. Abram is called to go to a land that is not his own, but God makes him several promises.
1. I will make you into a great nation. 2. I will bless you. 3. I will make your name great. 4. You will be a blessing. 5. I will bless others in relation by whether or not they bless or curse you. 6. All peoples (nations) on earth will be blessed through you.
God intends to make Abram into a great nation, but this nation is not an end in itself. Abram’s nation will become the blessing for all nations. God’s desired end to his story is that all nations will belong to him. And this is so critical to God’s plan that the same promise is repeated to Abraham and then to Isaac and Jacob. God doesn’t reveal how he will do this yet, but he is going to do something amazing through the nation that will come from these Patriarchs.
It might seem that some 400 plus years later that such a plan is coming to its climax. A former royal member of Pharaoh’s household turned runaway murderer gets an unlikely call to march back into Egypt and rescue these descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God reveals himself as Yahweh, the I Am, that the people might know him by name. And so God works mightily through Moses and when God slays the firstborn of all of Egypt, he passes over the homes of Israel, whose doors were marked by the blood of the Lamb.
The story has ups and downs from this point on. They received the law to live as holy people at Mt. Sinai, but were found worshipping a golden calf at the same time. They were cowards when they were first supposed to enter the land. They were courageous forty years later under Joshua. They abandoned their faith repeatedly in the time of the Judges, but were united under the powerful kings of David and Solomon. But the kingdom was divided and both kingdoms fell into idolatry and injustice, and they were exiled away from their land. Again, one is prompted to ask, has God’s plan gone awry?
But God sent the prophets so that the people might know that his plan was still moving to fruition. God had not abandoned the promise to bless all nations through Abraham’s seed. Read Is. 49:5-6. God would choose his Servant, the Messiah, or whom we call the Christ to accomplish what Israel the nation could not do. Yet this Servant would come from that nation; he would redeem that nation, but that was not enough. He would bring God’s salvation to the end of the earth. And the rest of Act 3 becomes a story about the return from exile and waiting upon God’s Servant to come. The promised coming of the Messiah is the dawning of the new hope not only for Israel, but for the entire world.
Trouble in our World: People often wonder who is writing their story.
Next week we will pick up on the coming of that Servant on Easter Sunday. He has come and he will come again. But what does that mean to us living so long after that part of the story was written? It matters immensely because so many today, even in the church, or confused about who’s writing their story.
Some people believe they are writing their own story. These are the people who claim to make their own luck and control their own destiny. And they are always one devastating medical report, phone call, natural disaster, lay-off, or mistake away from having their entire world collapse on itself.
Yet, others believe their story is controlled by fate. It is sometimes called determinism. Nothing they do will make a difference, all is decided for them. This way they have no responsibility to change their lives. If they are living sexually immoral lives, they were just born that way. If they are an alcoholic, well that’s what their DNA said they have to be. If they are violent, they couldn’t help it.
Or maybe they have a fate that has been determined by others. They were a victim of abuse as a child and so their entire identity and story becomes about being a victim. Or maybe it was a divorce or just plain bad parenting. But whether you are a perpetrator because you were just born that way or you are perpetual victim because of the perpetrators, you have in common that you believe your story is determined by forces beyond your control.
One of those so-called determining forces that people turn to is astrology. Many don’t take it too serious, but many really do believe their astrological sign has much to do with who they are and what will happen to them. Astrology is a form of divination, which is condemned in Scripture. I believe Christians should avoid it all together. But I read an interesting article a few months ago that claimed the astrological calendars are actually off about a month, because of the gravitational pull of the moon on the earth. It seems they didn’t account for that thousands of years ago! So instead of being a Pisces, you may actually be an Aquarius!
My point is that many people look for something else to tell them their destiny, because they don’t want responsibility for what happens to them. Many others look to themselves to control their own destiny, because they don’t want outside forces determining their story. Which are you? If you belong to God’s people, you are neither, because the Bible tells a much better story, one that truly frees us to live!
Grace in our World: When we let God write us into his story, hope is born.
We see in the story of a sovereign, loving, covenant making God, a God who is able to carry out his plans without fail and at the same time respect the choice of others to either accept or reject him. Israel was faithful at times, but unfaithful most of the time, and yet we see God keeping his promises to Abraham just as he said. Today, all nations are blessed through Abraham’s seed, as people from all nations have come to know God’s chosen Servant, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
God offers you something so much better than putting yourself at the whim of unseen fate or the foolish delusion of controlling your own destiny. God offers you the opportunity to put your life in his loving and good hands. No one took the pen from God’s hand. He is still writing the story of history and he alone will finish it, but you get to decide how you relate to that story. Will you stand with the Sovereign Lord or will you stand against him? That is the choice you must make.
God is in control of his story, but the characters get to make real choices. The story of God choosing Abraham and his relationship with Israel illustrate both of those realities, but God is always sovereign over history. IOW, he never abdicates his throne. One scripture reading speaks of how God doesn’t intend to write his story only on paper, but he wants to write his law on your heart. I love how 2 Cor. 3:1-3 puts it.
Do you want the story of God written on your heart by the Spirit of the living God? Isn’t that so much better than all the other stories of our world combined? God story marches on and he asks if you will let him write yours. And when you say yes, the beginning of a new hope has dawned.
