June 26, 2009 – Friday, Week 12
Genesis 17:1, 9-10, 15-22 / Psalm 128 / Matthew 8:1-4
God tells Abram to walk blamelessly in his presence. Like a well designed shoe, the Psalm fits the elderly patriarch perfectly: “Blessed are you who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways! … Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home.” Some years have passed and now Abram is 99 years old and his wife is 90. Throughout misfortune and struggle, he has kept faith with God. Now, God makes his covenant with Abram and gives him a new name, Abraham. Despite his wife’s age, now renamed Sarah, God promises a son through whom nations will arise. It is a pretty tall order. Abraham is naturally a bit incredulous, but while he questions, he does not argue. God promises not to forget Ishmael but insists that his covenant will be through Isaac. (Curiously, the name changes really bring no change in meaning, “exalted father” and “princess”.)
God comes across as quite outrageous. Abram has been given the promise that his progeny will endure, become countless and a great nation. But he is old. His wife is old. If the rendering for his age is accurate, he should be preparing for death, not fatherhood. But the gift of children is the chief way that God rewards his people. Further, any claim to a divine calling has yet to be ratified by a child of promise. Unless there is an heir, Abram’s decision to separate his tribe from the others and his claims of God speaking to him become suspect.
Notice that there is a two-fold movement. God comes down from his heaven, but Abraham is also called out to walk with the Almighty. There is never once the illusion that they are equals. But there is a sense that the two walk together. It parallels the scene in the primordial garden when God summons Adam: “Where are you?” We read that God moved about the garden like the blowing wind. However, in that case Adam hid himself because along with Eve, he had eaten from the Forbidden Tree. Adam had sinned grievously and knew he was not worthy to be seen by God. Of course, nothing was hidden from God. Both as blessing and punishment, Eve would become the mother of all the living, knowing the pain of childbirth. Abraham, like all men since, was born in sin; but God calls him nonetheless to “walk in [his] presence and be blameless.” The time for hiding is over. The God who created man from the dust of the earth can certainly make a barren woman fruitful. God restores his covenant which will one day culminate in the new covenant of Christ. In Jesus, men and women can truly know the forgiveness of sins and walk in holiness before the Lord.
Jesus did a great deal of walking, as did those who regularly followed him and those who sought him out. Of course, in Jesus God was not simply a voice or the blowing wind, but the incarnate deity. He called sinners to himself and made possible the forgiveness of sins. Today, we know his presence, not by sight but by faith. We are all called to know and to love him. Like the men on the road to Emmaus, we are to walk with the Lord.
