By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
February 25, 2024
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Genesis 17:1–7, 15-16 (ESV)
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
Today we go once again to Genesis. I have mentioned before that I love the Book of Genesis. If I were to rank my favorite books of Scripture, this book would be near the top. People often wonder why I say that because they know my background. I have a science background, not just science but life science. Because of that background and education, when I read Genesis, I read it a bit differently than some. Where some might see this book as equal to science. I do not, it is not because I do not believe that God created. I look at it differently because the people of this ancient era asked different questions than we do today.
We ask how we got here. They did not necessarily care about that question. They did not care because they faced drastically different challenges than we do today. We ask why and how we were created, where they wonder why life is so hard.
Even the most impoverished person in our community has a lifestyle abundantly better than anyone in ancient days. In ancient times, every day was a struggle for survival. Every moment of your day revolved around finding food, making clothing, and protecting your community from predators.
They did not bother with asking how we got here, they were more concerned with why. Why do we have to struggle for survival when it seems as if the animals are just eating? Why are certain plants edible while others might kill you. Why do snakes, bears, and the big cats seem to want to kill us. Why does the village of people a few days journey away constantly seek to destroy us while the one in the other direction seem so friendly?
We ask how, because living to tomorrow is not as much of a challenge. So, when the writers of Genesis composed their stories, we need to understand that we ask very different questions. We ask different questions, but there are powerful lessons to learn from this book. If we are able to look deeper, we find that there are times when their answers speak to the condition of our souls.
I want us to stop arguing over the first three chapters of Genesis and begin to look at the rest of the story. Genesis begins with the phrase, “In the Beginning.” That phrase should tell us something profound. Yes, there was a beginning. And it is important to know how that beginning emerged. But our textbooks in school are not written like this. Stories start with a phrase like that. Once upon a time, or long ago in a galaxy far away. The literary genre of Genesis is not written in the format of contemporary science, it is written as mythology.
That might scare us, because when we here that word, our minds are directed to the writings of ancient Greeks, the Egyptians, or the Nordic pantheons. We see story and myth, and we equate those writings with fiction and make believe. We as educated, enlightened people no longer need the superstitions of ancient mythology, we now want the truth. We misunderstand mythology when we take that approach. The point of mythology was to convey morality and provide an explanation for the things that were unexplainable.
Why do we have to struggle so much just to eat? Scripture tells us a story. God once created a beautiful garden filled with food to eat. We could eat to our fill, never going hungry once but there was one restriction. That tree of knowledge of good and evil was not to provide nourishment. Why do we now struggle to eat? It is because our forebear, Adam, we translate this as meaning man or mankind, but a more accurate rendering of the word Adam would be of earth or my favorite mud man. Adam, mud man, was told not to eat of that one tree, but he did not listen. And because of this God said we would struggle.
“Cursed is the ground because of you, in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
This answer gives us not only an answer to why we have weeds and plants that can cause harm, but it also gives us an answer to our human condition. Why it is so hard to just live? But there is more to that story. Adam was not the only person given a curse. Eve, his wife, also faced judgement. God told her, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing, in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
I thought about these over the past couple of weeks. I thought about them because I was not preparing a sermon, so I just studied out of my own curiosity. The word we often see translated as pain in reference to Eve, is labor, sorrow, or toil. The curse of Adam was labor, as was the curse of Eve. Eve was the mother of all living; her purpose was to bring or to bear life. But her name can also mean tent or village in some cases. Adam, the mud man, was to work the soil and bring or provide food. Eve was to create a village; she was literally supposed to be home. Not in the home, but to be home, or a sanctuary.
When the word Eve is used as a verb, it is in reference to bowing down and worship. This I find fascinating. Eve was to draw Adam back in an awe-inspiring manner. Adam would be drawn home in reverence, it was his joy to bring the food as it was Eve’s joy to be home. This union of life was not just marriage, but it is society. It is culture. It is why we are here. We can look at this and assign gender roles, but that is not the whole point. The point is that it requires work to provide the things for life. And it will be just as much work to build the relationships that will make a home.
Genesis goes on and speaks of two other events where life took a drastic turn. In the days of Noah, something happened that caused the wrath of God to grow. The sons of God found the daughters of men to be pleasing and they lusted for them and caused them to bear their children. This brought about the Nephilim, or the giants. These were men of great power. And they brought about corruption and filled the earth with violence. Sound familiar? War, the quest for wealth and influence. Charismatic individuals that take advantage of others to increase their own power? That quest for power caused global destruction.
Then there was this story of a tower, that was built to make a name for a people. They wanted to build a mountain to the heavens so that humanity could dwell on the same plain as the gods. This angered God and he divided the people and confused their languages. But out of all the nations of the earth God allotted to the sons of God, he kept Israel as his portion. Israel did not yet exist. Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon all existed at that point in time. It is believed that Babylon is the very group that attempted to build that dreadful tower, and there are people that are searching for its ruins. But Egypt also manufactured mountains. These structures were used in worship and pointed to their various mythologies or stories of moral virtue.
This brings us to Abraham, and the covenant from the most high God.
It was from one of those ancient empires from which God called Abram. He came to this man. God made a promise that if he followed Him, he would give him land and number of his offspring would be greater than the grains of sand.
This goes back to the beginning. Why do we struggle, why do we fight? Why is life so hard? Life in ancient times was difficult. Food was scarce and land was important because it could provide the needed food. Abram did not have land. God came to him with a proposal. If you follow me, I will give you the land you need to provide for your family. He offered Abram hope.
It is from the land we obtain the resources we need for our lifestyles. Food, oil, lithium for our cell phone batteries all of this comes from land. Wars are fought over land, not just the land itself, but for the future possibilities that land can provide. My ancestors came to America because of the hope that could be found with land. Some of you made a similar journey maybe not for land itself but for the hope and possibilities for a future that land could provide. Abram was like us in that case. He had a desire for a better life. He needed land, he needed possibilities, he needed hope.
He made that journey. He followed God, and he still faced struggle.
God promised land, and he was a nomad. God promised offspring yet his wife was barren. At times he struggled so much that he left the land God promised because life seemed hopeless. He went to other lands seeking the resources he needed to survive. This led him to Egypt. But even more struggle followed him there.
God convinced Abram to return to the land he promised him. He looked around and became afraid that it would not be enough, so he sent his nephew away. God promised land, he promised offspring and influence. God promised, but Abram, this great man of faith, allowed fear to lead him again. As fear gripped him, he divided his family. He did not have children himself, but he had a nephew. He sent his nephew in one direction, and Abram would go in the other. Abram’s nephew soon found himself caught amid a battle.
Why do we struggle? We need resources, we need food. Land provides for those needs, and people are willing to fight to obtain those resources. Every tribe, every nation, every people group wants and needs land. They will do whatever they can to secure the possibilities land can provide. Lot, Abram’s nephew occupied land others wanted for themselves. And Abram was not there to help. He was soon over run, and all he had labored for was taken. Abram heard of this and came to assist his family redeeming Lot and his family.
That battle shook Abram. This offer of land, this present of hope was beginning to become blood-soaked work. It is after this battle, God came to Abram in a vision, telling him not to fear, because He will be his shield and reward. God renewed his promise, and in that vision, he took it to the next step. He made a covenant, or a sacrificial treaty, and again promised land and offspring.
Abram no longer worried about the land. In fact, he began to prosper. But the offspring was becoming a greater concern. He was getting older; his wife was getting older. God had promised a son, but that hope was vanishing with each passing day. Sarai suggested that they do what anyone in their situation and in that era of history would do. She offered her servant to be a surrogate. This household slave did bear a child for her master, but as with many relationships, jealousy crept in. And this jealousy threatened to rip the family apart.
Labor, the curse on Eve was an increase of toil and sorrow in the bearing of children and in the raising of children. Relationships take a great amount of work. It is never easy and at times we wonder if it is even worth it. Sarai saw that the slave was becoming the home of Abram, her husband. And Abram was focused on providing for his family. Distractions and obligations all threaten to pull our families apart. And we must work to maintain and overcome.
These stories are not just history, but they are teaching. They are wisdom and bread of life. They teach us why we struggle and why we should continue to strive. We long for land, for the potential of fulfilling our needs. We work and strive to make things happen. But what happens as we struggle through toward the goal that is set before us? We can lose sight of the larger picture.
There are times when I just move one Sunday to the next. Just one more message, one more week. We live paycheck to paycheck. Day to day. What are we really working for? Just one more meal?
Abram settled for one more meal. He settled for a child through a surrogate instead of relying on the promise of God to provide the heir through his wife. He got comfortable in existing and distracted from the promise.
And when he was ninety-nine years old God appeared again to Abram. “I am God Almighty, walk before me, and be blameless.” In all of today’s scripture there are only two imperative verbs or commands. The first is to walk before God. The second is to be blameless.
I want us to consider these for a moment. We might wonder why God appeared to Abram and spoke these words. Had Abram not walked? He left the land of his father and went to this land. He had lived ninety-nine years doing the exact thing that God had asked. Has he not been walking? This word, walk, is not the act of putting one foot in front of the other in forward momentum. In this sense walking is how we live. God had promised Abram land and a family, God is reminding Abram to continue in that life, to not give up, to remain loyal and to continue in that life. God is reminding him. Walk the walk, talk the talk. Live your life so that your words and actions resemble each other.
This is a core principle in our Friends’ belief. To walk before God is to live a life of integrity and humility. It is to live our lives bringing honor to God. There is more to walking than just walking. This is the second command, be blameless.
The first command focuses on a relationship between God and Abram, or us. The second, being blameless, focuses on the relationships we have with others.
It is at this point that this story takes a different turn. And that turn is found in the very name of Abram.
Abram means exulted father. Up to this point in Genesis Abram is longing for the land and the potential life that land could offer him and his offspring. He is an honorable father. He is taking care of his family. He is living day by day content. But that is not the extent of why Abram is in this story. God made the covenant with Abram for a reason he would provide land and a family, but this land and family comes with a price, he would not only be the exulted father, Abram. He would now be called Abraham, the father of nations.
Abram is the walk. Abraham is the be blameless. Our lives and our lifestyles are not merely for ourselves, they are to encourage everyone around us. Our walk, our loyalty to God will be a blessing to our families, but we are not only living for our families. We are the offspring of Abraham; we are heirs to the nations. We are here, at this time and in this place for a reason. That reason is to be blameless.
This is an interesting concept. On the surface we might think that it simply means that we should be good people. That is true, we should be good people. But there are several good people that participate in activities that could contribute to blame. There were many good people that participated in a culture of slavery. These good people may have seen the inhumanity of slavery and they themselves may not have participated directly, but did they actively participate in the abolition of that vile practice? There were many good Germans that lived within the Third Reich, but their lack of opposition to the inhumanity of that system did not eliminate them from blame. There are good Russians, good Palestinians, good Ukrainians, good Israelis, there are even a few good Americans. But all these good people carry blame, because we live in nations and among people with unclean lips as the prophet Isaiah says. Walk and be blameless.
To be blameless means that we should strive for our families’ well-being, as well as the well-being of the family down the street or on the other side of the globe. If we stand here and say that we were endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, those rights apply not only to us but to all people. We are not blameless if we limit others from the same opportunities that we ourselves enjoy. Walk and be blameless. Work and labor not only to provide opportunities for our children, but for all children. There is power in that name change within scripture. Abram became Abraham. Sarai became Sarah. God gave them an identity, and he gave them a purpose.
Why are we here? We are here to Love God, Embrace the Holy Spirit, and to Live the Love of Christ with others. We are here to walk before God and be blameless. We are here to encourage the children within our community to walk the walk, and we are here to encourage everyone around us to recognize the need for change. Why are we here? We are here to give hope to the hopeless, health to the sick, encouragement to the brokenhearted. We are here to walk. And we are here to show the love of God through our words and action.
Do you earnestly seek to maintain a life in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you practice the daily reading of scriptures in your families, giving time for waiting upon the Lord? Are you watchful not to be unduly absorbed by temporal affairs? Are you careful to avoid places and activities inconsistent with a Christian character?
Do you love one another as becomes the followers of Christ? Are you careful of the reputation of others? When differences arise do you make earnest efforts to end them speedily?
Are we walking before God? Are we blameless?
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