God Provides for Righteousness

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
The first week, we looked at how God grows faith which is through trial. Last week, we saw what faith acts like, in that it isn't just a mental affirmation but it is a deep seated trust in Christ that cannot help but be obedient to what God says. Today, we are going to look at what obedient faith brings to the faithful: blessing. 

Now, I'm going to start up front by defining what I am not saying here. I am not saying that obedience always brings immediate blessing. God isn't a vending machine where if you pray and read your Bible a certain number of times God will give you a blessing that day. I've seen the reverse of this in folks responding to minor setbacks like traffic or a crashed computer with, "Well, I didn't pray today! That's why all these things are happening to me!" I mean, maybe, but there is no way to actually know that, nor is a prayed for day always going to be a trouble free day. God isn't a formula where you plug in this to get that in a predictable way. 

I am also not saying that obedience always brings blessings as we would define the term like riches or health. You will often find the most godly people in the world enduring the greatest suffering, so we can't make one to one comparisons here. My mom got cancer, and it turned out to be a painful but deep blessing. My mom has been able to walk many others through the same valley, a blessing she wouldn't have without having gone through it herself. This was certainly not the path we all desired her to go, but the Lord is able to make blessings out of things we wouldn't wish for. 

So what am I saying? I am saying that true blessing comes through obedience. Exactly what that looks like or when it is going to come is up to the Lord, but we see the consistent witness of Scripture is that righteousness brings reward. 

Righteousness Brings Reward 

Now, right off the bat, we see what looks like God granting the blessings of chapter 12 to Abraham because of obedience. Does this mean that Abraham has earned his salvation here? As we saw last week, works display salvation but they do not determine salvation. God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness all the way back in chapter 15, well before he does anything here. God promised that he would have these things, yet God uses his obedience to bring blessing, and at least in this instance, was used to bring blessing to the whole world! 

This has worked in reverse, as well. One scholar noted that when Abraham was disobedient, he was "a burden around the neck of the nations" (Waltke, 310). We remember when he lied about Sarah, both Pharaoh and Abimelech AND the rest of the nations they ruled suffered. We have already mentioned that Abraham's escapade with Hagar has brought us the evening news cycle. Middle Eastern politics can draw a straight line right back to chapter 16 of Genesis. 

Our focus today, however, is going to be the straight line of blessing from Genesis 22 to Matthew 1. 

While God promised to give all these things to Abraham all the way back in chapter 12, and that God empowered Abraham to obey in this way, that doesn't mean that his obedience is unimportant. One Pastor put it this way the promise rests squarely on God's sovereign choice and unilateral oath. But it's fulfillment. Also includes the actions of his people as they obey." ((Phillips, 80). In other words, God uses means to accomplish His will. He certainly can do all things Himself, like evangelizing the world, but He is choosing to use us to bring that about. AS such, we have a real responsibility to carry out this work while resting in the assurance that it will be God's grace alone that ultimately accomplishes it. Even still, we will enjoy the blessing of obeying such a work, just like Abraham. This obedience coming out of faith in God's Word results in this blessing that Abraham gets that has implications for the rest of the world. 

Do you view your obedience that way? Do you see your obedience as important not just for your soul but for the souls of those around you? Do you view your righteousness as having an effect on others that makes a real difference? You may not know this, but I watch your faces on our last song we sing together. Because of my position, I am often aware of hard things going on in your lives, and to see you all sing through those hardships, worshiping when I'm sure you'd rather just be in a room by yourself because of what is happening, it has an effect on me. There is a blessing in you being here for me and for those around you. 

Now, not everyone has the sort of effect on the world that Abraham has, so let's take a look again at the promises that God confirms to Abraham. 

We have here, for the most part, the same promises that we have been hearing about since Genesis 12, with the addition of the word "surely." Once again, Abraham is promised that he is going to have descendants like the stars of heaven. While the Jews are not a small group of people, this promise is applied to all the spiritual children of Abraham. This has been made possible by what comes in the latter half of 17 and all of 18. 

The key word here is "offspring." There is a little vagueness to this word because it is a singular noun but it can be seen as a plural (Matthews, 299). The word has that same broadness in English as well. If I say, "Behold, my offspring!" I could gesture to one child or all of my children, and I wouldn't have to change my wording. I would have to use other words around the word offspring to let you know which is which. It is pretty clear that the word offspring in the early part of verse 17 is plural because we are talking about descendants as numerous as the stars in heaven. Clearly, this is meant to refer to multiple people like we mentioned earlier. 

It is when we get to the latter half of this passage that the words around offspring like "possess" is in the singular. Scholars are divided as to whether this is singular because of the oddity of the word, just like it is in English, or is this referring to one person in particular? 

If this is one person in particular, then this has got to be a very important person. In verse 18, we are told that "in your offspring (again, singular) shall all the nations be blessed." In other words, there is going to be one person in particular who is going to bless all the nations. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, cuts through the mysteries of grammar and tells us plainly in Galatians 3:16, that this offspring is in fact Christ: "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ." Because of Christ, as Paul argues earlier in that same chapter, we the Gentiles are allowed to be pulled into covenant with God! God has blessed all the nations by bringing them to Himself. Once, everyone was far off. But now that Christ has appeared, everyone who repents and puts their faith in Christ will be assured of a place in the heavenly promised land.  

What's amazing is that Abraham has no full idea what this means yet. Indeed, even Moses who is writing this down has no idea what this means yet. How could anyone possibly know that this means that God Himself is going to join this line of descendants in the person of Jesus Christ? That wouldn't even be a category for them. The Lord can work in some extremely surprising ways and still does so. He provides for those who obey his call. 

One of my favorite examples of this idea is the missionary Hudson Taylor. He was one of the first missionaries to inland China and went there at the age of 22. Remember, this wasn't the age of easily accessible information about where you are going or how to learn the language or anything like that. Further, he committed to never ask for funding but would rely totally on prayer. Since then, the agency he formed brought 800 missionaries who founded 125 schools! And it wasn't even the big, lifetime achievement sort of things that God used. One time he was traveling with a friend when they were suddenly robbed of all valuables except their theology books that they were carrying for distribution. The next day, they had people coming to them in droves to buy the books which gave them enough money to continue their travels! On not one but two occasions he was physically attacked, and upon noticing that the fight drew a bunch of people to watch, he used the opportunity to preach the gospel! Source: www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/gods-work-gods-way/

In the moment, it probably didn't feel like much. But the Lord used that story to continue to motivate others to similar work. I think the same could likely be said of Abraham in verse 19. After this remarkable moment of obedience and reaffirmation of the promise, Abraham simply gets up and goes home. After this, it is going to be a while before anything amazing happens, yet this was the moment that set in motion the rest of redemptive history. You never know where obedience will take you! 

As we said earlier, it isn't just the remarkable things in life that God uses. In these last four verses, we are told of Abraham's brother having children. Out of the eight, there is one who is going to be very significant in the life of Isaac, Bethuel. He goes on to have a very important daughter, Rebekah, who will become Isaac's wife and continue the line of descendants. At the moment, no one knows that this is in any way significant. Yet the redemption of the world is passing through their ranks. 

So what is our takeaway here? Never underestimate the importance of obedience to God's commands. So many things look deeply insignificant in the moment you first see them, and this works for obedience and sin. So many can pinpoint a moment when they wandered from God because of one decision and many other can point to a similarly small thing that turned them around. My encouragement to you as you struggle down the narrow road is to remember that you are on the road leading to blessing. You actually have no idea how you might be used. From Abraham's perspective, he died with Sarah's one son and had enough land to bury his wife. Sure, rich and powerful, but then what does that matter at the end? I would imagine his surprise if he could see the capital C Church today. 

So, weary Christian, keep looking to Jesus. Trust Him with your efforts that they are not in vain. You may not see your goals accomplished in your lifetime, but trust the Everlasting God to work with your obedience.