Proper 5
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
This text in Genesis 12 is one of the most important passages in the Bible for it lays the foundation for all that follows after. It records the beginning of God's salvation history that finally finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
The passage cannot be understood apart from the preface to it in Genesis 1--11, however. Certainly it portrays God breaking into human history about 1750 B.C., to call a man named Abraham out of his home in Haran in upper Mesopotamia. But the question is: Why? Why was it necessary for God to speak his word into time and to give a promise to a nomadic semite?
The answer is found in what precedes this text. Genesis 1--11 tells the story of how all of us have walked in relation to our God. "Adam" is the Hebrew word for humankind, and so Genesis 1--11 is our story. It says that God created us and all things good. But in our attempt to run our own lives and to be our own gods and goddesses, we have rebelled against God's lordship (Genesis 3). The result is that we corrupted all of God's good gifts. We have distorted our intimate communion of love and fellowship with God (Genesis 3:8--10), corrupted the mutual communion of wife with husband (Genesis 3:7, 16), turned brother against brother (Genesis 4:1--16), and peoples against peoples (Genesis 4:23--24), until the earth is now full of wickedness that grieves God to his heart (Genesis 6:5--6). We destroy the loveliness and fecundity of nature (Genesis 3:17--19; 4:12), and in our proud search for power and security, make it impossible for nations to understand and get along with one another (Genesis 11:1--9). The result is that we live under God's sentence of death, for "the wages of sin is death."
But God has no pleasure in the death of anyone, and so with Abraham, he begins an actual history of salvation that will overcome all of the effects of our cursed rebellion against him, and that will restore his creation to the goodness he intended for it from the beginning.
To Abraham, God gives a threefold promise: "I will make of you a great nation," that is, God will make a new community of Abraham's many descendants, to replace the community that humankind has destroyed; "To your descendants I will give this land" that will flow with milk and honey, to replace the paradise that all of us have lost; "By you all the families of the earth shall be blessed," to turn the curse upon sin into the blessing and fullness of life that comes from God. And in Genesis 17:7, God adds one more promise: "I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants" to restore the relationship that we, in our rebellion against the Lord, have broken. The call of Abraham is the answer to human sin and the beginning of God's work of saving us all.
In the immediate context of our text, humankind wanted to make a name for itself (Genesis 11:4), but God will make Abraham's name great (12:2). Sarai was barren (11:30), but God will give her many descendants (12:2).
Genesis 12:1--9 records God's great reversal - the reversal of the history of sin, to replace it with the history of his salvation. God promises, and he always keeps his promise. And his saving work finally finds its consummation in our Lord Christ, who overcomes our sentence of death, restores us to communion with the Father, begins a universal community called the Christian Church, and is the source of blessing for all the families of the earth.
Lutheran Option: Hosea 5:15-6:6
Unfortunately, Hosea 5:15 should not be connected with 6:1--6. The word "saying" is missing in the Hebrew, and has only been added from the Septuagint. Originally the passages were not joined. If they do fit together, then what follows in 6:1--3 is a confession of guilt. But obviously, 6:1--3 is no such thing, as is evident from God's reply to the people's words in 6:4--6. Rather, 6:1--3 records Israel's phony repentance and belief that God will forgive her, no matter what she has done.
There is no doubt that Israel is in a jam. She is being engulfed by the Assyrian Empire (cf. 5:8--14), and so she has been summoned to a fast of repentance, in which she will plead for God to deliver her. She still has enough faith to know that Assyria is the "rod" of God's anger (cf. Isaiah 10:5), and that God is the only one who can rescue her.
And she is quite confident that God will do so. Israel in this eighth century B.C. time is very much like all of us. God has "torn" her, she believes (5:14), and so he will "heal" her (6:1). God has wounded her (5:13), and so he will bandage her up (6:2). God has become for Israel, as he often has become for us, simply a servant to take care of her needs - always forgiving, always loving, never judgmental, overlooking any defiance of his will. Indeed, he is just like one of those nature gods that the Canaanites - and often we - worship, Israel thinks - treating her gently like the spring rains that water the earth, demanding nothing in return. It is indicative of the Israelite's hollow repentance that their words in this passage are spoken not to God in prayer, but only to one another. Let's go find good ole god, is the tone, and he will deliver us from our difficulties.
But God has withdrawn from Israel to his place (5:15), and he cannot so easily be summoned to our aid. That is a sobering thought that we need to keep in mind. To be sure, God does not answer Israel's nonchalant devotion in wrath. Rather, he searches his mind and love for some way to save his unfaithful people, as he always searches for some way to save us. "What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?" (6:4) - the question of a loving Father to his disobedient child (cf. 11:1). Israel thinks she loves God, but her love is so ephemeral, disappearing at a moment's notice like dew dried up by the sun, as our love for God so easily dries up and disappears.
God has tried to correct his people, as he always tries to correct us. He has sent them prophets to issue his judgments upon Israel, just as the Word of God, if we study it carefully, always speaks God's judgments upon our disobedient lives. For what is the cross of Christ but the clear indication that sin, our sin, leads to death?
God does not disdain our offerings to him, our money given to his church, our service rendered in his name, our worship carried out every Sunday morning. But the question from our text is: Are our hearts involved in those offerings? Are we giving and serving and worshiping in sincere and heartfelt commitment to our Lord? For our text makes it very clear that above all else, God desires covenant love that cleaves to him like a faithful wife to her husband, or like an adoring son to his father. He wants our true knowledge of him, gained through Bible study and constant prayer every day, so we know the Lord we are worshiping. He wants us - heart, soul, mind, and strength, responding in love to his love, and committing ourselves to his lordship, above all other loyalties. Then, though we often fail, good Christians, we can truly say in all our difficulties, "Come, let us return to the Lord," and the Lord will reply to us, "Come!"
The passage cannot be understood apart from the preface to it in Genesis 1--11, however. Certainly it portrays God breaking into human history about 1750 B.C., to call a man named Abraham out of his home in Haran in upper Mesopotamia. But the question is: Why? Why was it necessary for God to speak his word into time and to give a promise to a nomadic semite?
The answer is found in what precedes this text. Genesis 1--11 tells the story of how all of us have walked in relation to our God. "Adam" is the Hebrew word for humankind, and so Genesis 1--11 is our story. It says that God created us and all things good. But in our attempt to run our own lives and to be our own gods and goddesses, we have rebelled against God's lordship (Genesis 3). The result is that we corrupted all of God's good gifts. We have distorted our intimate communion of love and fellowship with God (Genesis 3:8--10), corrupted the mutual communion of wife with husband (Genesis 3:7, 16), turned brother against brother (Genesis 4:1--16), and peoples against peoples (Genesis 4:23--24), until the earth is now full of wickedness that grieves God to his heart (Genesis 6:5--6). We destroy the loveliness and fecundity of nature (Genesis 3:17--19; 4:12), and in our proud search for power and security, make it impossible for nations to understand and get along with one another (Genesis 11:1--9). The result is that we live under God's sentence of death, for "the wages of sin is death."
But God has no pleasure in the death of anyone, and so with Abraham, he begins an actual history of salvation that will overcome all of the effects of our cursed rebellion against him, and that will restore his creation to the goodness he intended for it from the beginning.
To Abraham, God gives a threefold promise: "I will make of you a great nation," that is, God will make a new community of Abraham's many descendants, to replace the community that humankind has destroyed; "To your descendants I will give this land" that will flow with milk and honey, to replace the paradise that all of us have lost; "By you all the families of the earth shall be blessed," to turn the curse upon sin into the blessing and fullness of life that comes from God. And in Genesis 17:7, God adds one more promise: "I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants" to restore the relationship that we, in our rebellion against the Lord, have broken. The call of Abraham is the answer to human sin and the beginning of God's work of saving us all.
In the immediate context of our text, humankind wanted to make a name for itself (Genesis 11:4), but God will make Abraham's name great (12:2). Sarai was barren (11:30), but God will give her many descendants (12:2).
Genesis 12:1--9 records God's great reversal - the reversal of the history of sin, to replace it with the history of his salvation. God promises, and he always keeps his promise. And his saving work finally finds its consummation in our Lord Christ, who overcomes our sentence of death, restores us to communion with the Father, begins a universal community called the Christian Church, and is the source of blessing for all the families of the earth.
Lutheran Option: Hosea 5:15-6:6
Unfortunately, Hosea 5:15 should not be connected with 6:1--6. The word "saying" is missing in the Hebrew, and has only been added from the Septuagint. Originally the passages were not joined. If they do fit together, then what follows in 6:1--3 is a confession of guilt. But obviously, 6:1--3 is no such thing, as is evident from God's reply to the people's words in 6:4--6. Rather, 6:1--3 records Israel's phony repentance and belief that God will forgive her, no matter what she has done.
There is no doubt that Israel is in a jam. She is being engulfed by the Assyrian Empire (cf. 5:8--14), and so she has been summoned to a fast of repentance, in which she will plead for God to deliver her. She still has enough faith to know that Assyria is the "rod" of God's anger (cf. Isaiah 10:5), and that God is the only one who can rescue her.
And she is quite confident that God will do so. Israel in this eighth century B.C. time is very much like all of us. God has "torn" her, she believes (5:14), and so he will "heal" her (6:1). God has wounded her (5:13), and so he will bandage her up (6:2). God has become for Israel, as he often has become for us, simply a servant to take care of her needs - always forgiving, always loving, never judgmental, overlooking any defiance of his will. Indeed, he is just like one of those nature gods that the Canaanites - and often we - worship, Israel thinks - treating her gently like the spring rains that water the earth, demanding nothing in return. It is indicative of the Israelite's hollow repentance that their words in this passage are spoken not to God in prayer, but only to one another. Let's go find good ole god, is the tone, and he will deliver us from our difficulties.
But God has withdrawn from Israel to his place (5:15), and he cannot so easily be summoned to our aid. That is a sobering thought that we need to keep in mind. To be sure, God does not answer Israel's nonchalant devotion in wrath. Rather, he searches his mind and love for some way to save his unfaithful people, as he always searches for some way to save us. "What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?" (6:4) - the question of a loving Father to his disobedient child (cf. 11:1). Israel thinks she loves God, but her love is so ephemeral, disappearing at a moment's notice like dew dried up by the sun, as our love for God so easily dries up and disappears.
God has tried to correct his people, as he always tries to correct us. He has sent them prophets to issue his judgments upon Israel, just as the Word of God, if we study it carefully, always speaks God's judgments upon our disobedient lives. For what is the cross of Christ but the clear indication that sin, our sin, leads to death?
God does not disdain our offerings to him, our money given to his church, our service rendered in his name, our worship carried out every Sunday morning. But the question from our text is: Are our hearts involved in those offerings? Are we giving and serving and worshiping in sincere and heartfelt commitment to our Lord? For our text makes it very clear that above all else, God desires covenant love that cleaves to him like a faithful wife to her husband, or like an adoring son to his father. He wants our true knowledge of him, gained through Bible study and constant prayer every day, so we know the Lord we are worshiping. He wants us - heart, soul, mind, and strength, responding in love to his love, and committing ourselves to his lordship, above all other loyalties. Then, though we often fail, good Christians, we can truly say in all our difficulties, "Come, let us return to the Lord," and the Lord will reply to us, "Come!"
