Seed of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3)
The Grinch hated Christmas, so he carried out a diabolical scheme to steal it away from all the Who’s in Whoville. He dressed up like Santa Clause, put fake antlers on his dog’s head, and headed down into Whoville from his mountain home high above the city. He snuck into every home and stole everything that reminded him of Christmas: toys and decorations; lights and trees; even the Roast Beast and all the candy. To quote Dr. Seuss:
Gifts and candy he takes the whole lot.
Not an ornament, not a toy, not a crumb he forgot.
Then the Grinch headed back to his mountain home and waited to hear all the weeping and wailing from the Who’s in Whoville when they woke up to find everything gone. Instead, he heard singing. The citizens of Whoville had gathered in the town square to join hands and sing! As Dr. Seuss had put it:
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?” (Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Random House, 1957)
Indeed, how could it be so? Because Christmas can be a struggle for some, especially if so much is gone! If your health is gone, if the money is gone and the bills are piled high, if a loved one is gone, it’s hard to celebrate.
So how do you learn to sing in the hard times? How do you find the blessing of Christmas when you feel like you’re living under a curse?
Well, that was the state of the world 2,000 years before Christ. Man’s pride at the Tower of Babel had invited God’s judgment as He scattered humanity all over the face of the earth. People lost their homes, their friends, and their livelihoods. In fact, the world had been under a curse, having gone through Adam’s fall into sin, and the flood, which spared only Noah’s family. Then God’s judgment at the Tower of Babel brought even further pain and loss.
Even so, in the midst of such loss, God promised to bless the world through one family. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 12, Genesis 12, where we see God’s promise of blessing for people who have lost so much.
Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (ESV)
Here, God promises Abram land, seed, and blessing, not so that he could keep it all to himself, but to bless the world through him. So in the midst of your pain and loss...
FIND GOD’S BLESSING IN ABRAM’S SEED.
Be enriched through your association with an offspring of Abram. Flourish, thrive, and grow in a relationship with his descendant.
There’s no other way, because Abram’s seed or offspring is God’s plan to bless the world. In Genesis 22, God repeats His promise to Abram. There, He says, “In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:18).
Does that mean we have to get close to the Jewish people in order to receive God’s blessing? Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt to befriend some Jews, because God promises to bless those who bless Abraham’s descendants. However, there’s only one Jew you MUST know to receive God’s blessing.
The New Testament commentary on this verse is very clear. Galatians 3:16 says, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings” (plural), referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” (ESV)
Christ, the offspring (or seed) of Abraham, is the One through whom God blesses the world, and indeed, that has been the case!
In his book, Is God a Moral Monster, Paul Copan lists many of the positive achievements the influence of Christ has had over the last 2,000 years. They include:
Eradicating slavery: As the Christian faith spread after the fall of Rome, the practice of slavery dwindled. Centuries later, when slavery reemerged, Christian advocates (like the Mennonites, the Quakers, and individuals like William Wilberforce) strongly opposed it.
Opposing infanticide and infant exposure: Abandoning infants was a common Greco-Roman practice until Christians led reforms to outlaw it in the fourth century.
Eliminating gladiatorial games: This brutal sport, which used the death of slaves to entertain the masses, was condemned by Christian activists.
Building hospitals and hospices: Unlike most Greeks and Romans, the early Christians organized resources to care for the sick and dying.
Elevating women's status/rights: Although women have been mistreated in nearly every culture, Jesus treated women with profound respect. Early Christians routinely protected women and children from neglect and abuse.
Promoting higher education: Europe's and North America's great universities (Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton) were founded on Christian principles and trained pastors and missionaries.
Producing great works of literature and philosophy: some of the most profound and beautiful written works have been authored by followers of Christ—Augustine, Dante, John Milton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, and Soren Kierkegaard, to name a few.
Creating beautiful works of art, sculpture, and architecture.
Establishing modern science: Modern science is rooted in a biblical worldview that assumes an orderly and predictable universe. Many early scientists were also devout believers—Newton, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Boyle, and many others.
Composing brilliant music: Think of Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, and Hayden.
Advocating human rights and concern for the poor: these themes are deeply woven into the biblical idea that each person, made in the image of God, has inherent dignity and worth.
Creating a worldwide, multi-ethnic community: most of the achievements listed above flowed from the Western world. But throughout history, lives and cultures around the globe have been transformed by the power of Christ. Today the Christian faith has grown into a beautiful mosaic of cultures, especially in the global south. (Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?, Baker Books, 2011, pp. 218-219; www.PreachingToday.com)
That has been the influence of Christ in our world. Indeed, God has blessed the world through Him!
But the $64 million dollar question is: How do I get in on that blessing? How do you and I individually receive the blessing of Christmas? Well, if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Galatians 3, Galatians 3, where we have the New Testament commentary on the blessing promised through Abraham’s offspring.
Galatians 3:8-10 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (ESV)
The blessing comes through faith, not through works. So if you want to find God’s blessing this Christmas...
DON’T TRY HARDER.
Don’t rely on your own efforts to better yourself. Don’t depend on your own ability to keep the rules, because that only brings a curse. The Law is very clear: you must do everything in the law if you want to avoid being cursed.
It’s like dangling from a helicopter on a chain with 613 links in it. That’s the number of rules in the Mosaic Law. Tell me, how many links in that chain need to break before you fall to your death? Only one, right? In the same way, if you break just one command in the Book of the Law, you are dead.
We haven’t done very well with the first 10 commandments (have we?), much less with the 603 commands that follow. So we’re doomed if we try to keep the law, because we cannot fail to break even one little command.
It reminds me of a popular, old Christmas song:
You better watch out! You better not cry!
Better not pout, I'm telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He's making a list and checking it twice;
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He sees you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
Santa is very performance oriented. You better be good, or else you might just get a lump of coal for Christmas.
Now, I know the song is designed to encourage children to “be good” at Christmastime, but that puts them under a lot of pressure, and it’s certainly no way to try and live your life, for anybody, young or old.
According to a recent article (2017) in the New York Times Magazine, anxiety has overtaken depression as the most common reason college students seek counseling services in the last 10 years. In its annual survey of students, the American College Health Association found a significant increase—to 62 percent in 2016 from 50 percent in 2011—of undergraduates reporting "overwhelming anxiety" in the previous year. Surveys that look at symptoms related to anxiety are also telling. In 1985, the Higher Education Research Institute at U.C.L.A. began asking incoming college freshmen if they “felt overwhelmed by all [they] had to do” during the previous year. In 1985, 18 percent said they did. By 2010, that number had increased to 29 percent. In 2016, it surged to 41 percent.
For many of these young people, the biggest single stressor is that they “never get to the point where they can say, ‘I've done enough, and now I can stop.’” One expert says. “There's always one more activity, one more A.P. class, one more thing to do in order to get into a top college. Kids have a sense that they're not measuring up. The pressure is relentless and getting worse.” (Benoit Denizet-Lewis, "Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety?" New York Times Magazine, 10-11-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
The pressure to perform makes things worse, not better, for most people. And yet, that’s the way a lot of people operate. They think that by adding one more thing to their “to do” list they’ll make their lives better, but often it only makes things worse.
Amy Simpson, in an article called When Moral Boundaries Become Incubators for Sin, talks about a man, who planted a garden and was delighted when shoots emerged. Every day he watered and weeded, and his garden grew until he was ecstatic to see plants bearing produce. However, a few days later, he went to his garden and was dismayed. Every plant showed evidence of hungry rodents and rabbits that had raided his crop. So he decided to erect a fence.
A few days later, the man again went to his garden and saw the same thing. So he put up another fence, another, and another. Every time he checked, he found vermin had raided the garden. Finally he realized critters could go over, through, or under each fence. So he built a brick wall with a deep concrete foundation.
Weeks later, he climbed the garden wall and was horrified to find it was choked with weeds. The ground was cracked, the plants wilted, and worst of all, his crop gone. Trusting in the wall’s protection, he had forgotten to tend the garden. He failed to realize the wall was blocking the sun’s rays. He also completely overlooked the greatest threat to his garden: the animals that had been inside all along.
Amy Simpson asks the question, “How many [Christians] trust in similar walls?” They depend on [their] carefully built boundaries erected to protect [them] from threats to [their] moral well-being, to [their] relationships, or simply to manage [their] time. However, relying on rigid systems won't work. In fact, they may even lead us right into the sin we’re hoping to avoid. (Amy Simpson, “When Moral Boundaries Become Incubators for Sin,” CT Pastors, March, 2019; www.PreachingToday.com)
The law never made anybody better. So if you want to find God’s blessing this Christmas, don’t try harder to keep the rules. Instead, simply...
TRUST JESUS with your life.
Put your faith in Him. Rely on Christ, the seed of Abraham, to bless you like nobody else can.
Galatians 3:11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (ESV)
Literally, “The righteous by faith will live.” We are righteous by faith, AND we live by faith as well. But if we attempt to live by trying to keep the law, then we are condemned by the law, because none of us can keep all 613 rules.
Galatians 3:12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” (ESV)
The full quote from Leviticus 18:5 says, “Keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them.” Obey and live. That’s what the law says. But the opposite is also true: disobey and die. And since we have all disobeyed the law, then we are all going to die. There is only one way out, and that’s to rely on Christ.
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Jesus paid the price to set us free from the curse of the law. According to the Old Testament Law, criminals were executed, usually by stoning. Then their bodies were displayed on a stake or post for everyone to see. It was a clear demonstration of divine rejection. So it is that Christ hung on another stake – the cross – to show that God had rejected Him. God cursed His Son, Jesus, not for His own sins, but for yours and mine. Jesus hung there instead of us, cursed in our place, so we could be blessed forever!
Galatians 3:14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (ESV)
Jesus is the offspring of Abraham through whom God wants to bless YOU! He wants to justify you – to declare you righteous (vs.8). He wants to redeem you – to set you free from sin (vs.13). And He wants to give you His Spirit (vs.14).
All you have to do is put your faith in Christ. All you have to do is trust Him with your life. All you have to do is rely on the Lord Jesus Christ, who died in your place for your sins, and then rose again!
Jesus is the seed of Abraham through whom God wants to bless the world and YOU! So if you want to find God’s blessing this Christmas, find it in Him! Don’t try harder. Just trust Jesus with your life.
In August, 1957, four climbers – two Italians and two Germans – were climbing the 6,000 foot, near-vertical, North Face in the Swiss Alps. The two German climbers disappeared and were never heard from again. The two Italian climbers, exhausted and dying, were stuck on two narrow ledges a thousand feet below the summit. The Swiss Alpine Club refused to allow rescue attempts in this area (it was just too dangerous), but a small group of Swiss climbers decided to launch a private rescue effort to save the Italians. They carefully lowered a climber named Alfred Hellepart down the 6,000 foot North Face, suspending him on a cable a fraction of an inch thick.
Here's how Hellepart described the rescue in his own words: “As I was lowered down the summit… my comrades on top grew further and further distant, until they disappeared from sight. At this moment I felt an indescribable aloneness. Then for the first time I peered down the abyss of the North Face of the Eiger. The terror of the sight robbed me of breath… The brooding blackness of the Face, falling away in almost endless expanse beneath me, made me look with awful longing to the thin cable disappearing about me in the mist. I was a tiny human being dangling in space between heaven and hell. The sole relief from terror was… my mission to save the climbers below.” (James R. Edwards, Is Jesus the Only Savior, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005, pp. 160-161; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s really what the Christmas story is all about. You were trapped, but in the person of Christ, God lowered himself into the deep hole of your sin and suffering. In Christ, God became “a tiny human being dangling between heaven and hell.” He did it to save the people trapped below – you and me.
Christmas is the story, the true story of God's risky, costly, sacrificial rescue effort on your behalf. All that remains for you to do is rely on Him. Indeed, that’s all you can do. Please, this Christmas, recognize your desperate condition, acknowledge your sin, and by faith, reach out to Jesus to rescue you!
Then enjoy the blessing of Christmas even in the midst of your pain and loss. Enjoy the blessing that comes through Jesus, the seed of Abraham.
