Family Fortunes
Sometimes the story of Abraham and his family reads like a soap opera. Matthew 1 simply gives us ‘Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers’. Genesis gives us all the juicy details. Husbands pretending their wives are their sisters. Parental favoritism and the dysfunction that arises out of that. Sibling rivalry leading to decades-long estrangement. And all of this in a culture that seems quite alien to us with its semi-nomadic herders and arranged marriages. But in all of this God is working to fulfill the promises first made in Genesis 12, starting with one man and his wife to build a nation through whom he will bless all the nations of the world. It’s a reminder that when God works through people, it can be a messy process. Two encouragements come from this: even though it’s messy, God perseveres in working out his purposes through human beings. And if God can work in and through flawed people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then there is hope for us.
This week’s chapters in Matthew give us several links back to the OT. The story of the (Gentile, i.e. non-Jewish) centurion in chapter 8 from yesterday’s reading, is an example of God’s promises to Abraham being fulfilled. Look especially at verses 11 and 12 and compare with Genesis 12:1-3. The irony here in Matthew is that many of Abraham’s descendants in the time of Jesus are missing out on the promised blessings because they don’t recognise God at work in Jesus. The result is opposition to Jesus’ mission, which makes life difficult for the disciples he sends out. For some other OT links, watch out for the Micah quote in 10:35-36 and John the Baptist as the ‘new’ Elijah in fulfilment of Malachi’s prophecy in 11:7-14 (See Malachi 3:1 and 4:1-6). I’ve always found it rather neat that the OT ends with a prophecy that is fulfilled early in the first book of the NT, with Malachi and Matthew sitting next to each other in our Bibles.
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5 Responses to “Family Fortunes”Thanks so much to all the contributors who have posted messages – I’m finding it much easier to “stick to the plan” with all this encouragement around!
Just a quick question on todays reading from Matthew…
Matthew 8:23-27 tells of Jesus calming the storm. I struggle with what Jesus says to the scared disciples…”You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Was it wrong of them to cry out to him to save them in the midst of their crisis? Isn’t this exactly what Jesus wants from us? Should they have *known* that they weren’t going to drown? If so, how can this be applied when faithful Christians do drown, suffer, etc.
I think I must be missing the point here so any comments would be much appreciated!
Rachel, I think you will get a better understanding when you look at Mark’s account of the same incident. Mark 4:35-41. When the disciples woke up Jesus they said “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Mark 4:38. Mark also records Jesus’ reaction as “Why do you have no Faith?” Jesus is rightly rebuking them. What is happening is the disciples are questioning God’s love and his power. It was particularly frustrating for Jesus because the disciples had already seen miracle upon miracle and expressions of Jesus love. Matt 4:23-25. Yet their reaction when faced with a problem is to question His love and power. So our reaction to difficulties should be prayers for help, but not questioning God’s love or power. We come to the Lord saying “Help us, we know you love us and have the power,” and then we should pray like the disciples ultimately learned to ask in Luke 17:5 “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our Faith.”
rachel, forgot to deal with the second part of your question. Not enough room to deal with the suffering question, but quickly, know this: God knew before the foundation of the world all the trials and tribulations we would suffer and made provision for them according to His will, which may not be our will. Nothing catches God by surprise. He doesn’t all of a sudden wake up and say, “Man, I can’t believe what Charles is going through, I better do something.” Also, we can not live one second beyond the time God has prescribed for our lives. He will take us home how and when he has ordained. I once heard a preacher say that “In a poll the two biggest worries for people were Death and Taxes. For the Christian, you can take death off the list, so that only leaves taxes!!!”
Don Carson has some interesting things to say on this in his little book ‘When Jesus Confronts the World’:
‘The words “little faith” may not refer so much to quantity of faith as to its impoverished nature. … Jesus presupposes that proper faith would drive out fear; he rebukes the disciples in that in their case fear has driven out faith. Clearly they have enough faith to turn to him for help; but the desperation of their cry and their astonished remarks after the miracle show their faith is not very mature.’ He goes on to compare this to our prayer – do we say we believe in a prayer-answering God and then get surprised when he does answer? Carson then writes:
‘But the most serious deficiency of faith displayed by the disciples lay in their failure to recognise who Jesus really is. If they had truly come to terms with the kind of messiah Jesus was, could they really have thought that a squall on Galilee could swamp the boat and take the life of the heaven-sent Redeemer whose mission was to die in shame and rise in triumph for the salvation of his people?’ Obviously not! Carson concludes:
‘Jesus is always better than our fears. Moreover, our faith will be most stable if we centre it on who Jesus is. Faith urgently needs to know, not so much what Jesus will do or what promises he may have made that are applicable to this or than situation, but who Jesus is.’
For a contrast in faith, look at the centurion just a few verses earlier in 8:5-13.
Channel 4 will be showing a series of documentaries starting Sunday 24th January at 7pm in which seven prominent figures from different walks of life iprovide their interpretatations of The Bible. Thought this could be an interesting addition to our daily reading.