not good enough

 Certain verses in the Bible rarely, if ever, have sermons or books written about them.  They are confusing and distressing, and we prefer to forget about them.  Recently I read one of these passages:

Abraham married a second time; his new wife was named Keturah.  She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah….  But Abraham gave everything he possessed to Issac.  While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons he had by his concubines, but then sent them away to the country of the east, putting a good distance between them and his son Isaac.  Genesis 25:1,2,5,6 (MSG)

 Abraham the polygamist?  Sure, we all know about Hagar, and it’s easy to excuse Abraham for that—after all, Sarah pushed her onto him.  And the new wife is fine; Sarah had died.  But what about the other concubines?  Where did they come from?  How many were there?  Obviously, he was sleeping with them, because he was having sons with them.

There is no mention of God saying anything to Abraham about this practice; no chastisements, no gentle reproofs.  There is just this small footnote at the end of his life.

I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now, and have reached several conclusions.  First, it is probable that there were significantly more women than men because of the war-like society.  A woman who was not under the protection of a man was most likely in serious danger.  Could it be that God allowed the (lesser?) sin of polygamy to protect women from greater abuses?

Also, as I read the Bible, I see the gentle unfolding of God’s plan.  He doesn’t barge into Abraham’s world, exposing His entire plan, requiring an immediate overhaul of his life.  Even today, He continues to make Himself known more fully.  As Father, He doesn’t require that His children completely understand Him.  Instead, He moves toward His children, communicating with them where they are.  Abraham had a limited time on earth to learn about the nature of God.  Perhaps there just wasn’t room for that particular issue to fit in.  Who am I to say what is most important?

I find that on further inspection, this Bible passage gives me hope instead of distress.  And this is why:  There are multiple references in the New Testament of Abraham being in heaven, spoken by Jesus Himself.  So if someone who was obviously imperfect, needing correction, misguided, and partially hindered by the cultural norms that surrounded him was invited into heaven, then there’s a place for me, too.

Reading about Abraham’s life doesn’t give me warm, fuzzy feelings about him.  He put his own feelings before that of his spouse.  He played favorites with his children.  He misled people so things would be easier on him.  Sound familiar?  Need a mirror?

Abraham didn’t “get” into heaven.  He was invited, not because he was good enough (because he most certainly was not), but because he believed.  He had boundless faith in God; trusting Him in all matters, whether it was his work, his children, his wife, or his other relationships.

Look at what Romans chapter 4 says about Abraham:

So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things?  If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it.  But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story.  What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point.  He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.”…We all agree, don’t we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fir before God?

We call Abraham “father” not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody…Abraham was first named “father” and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do:  raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing…But it’s not just Abraham; it’s also us!  The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless.  The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

I like the wording: “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point.”  Am I entering into what God is doing for me?  It brings to mind the imagery of a beach, entering into the water; dipping in a toe, wading in, perhaps walking along the shore for awhile.  How many of us stay in the shallows, where it is safe, when God is begging us to enter fully into the water, where the waves will envelop us and we have no choice but to fully trust God?

Father, like Abraham, I am not good enough.   I pray that I may also have the faith of Abraham.  Grow my faith so that I may enter into your plans for me; so that I may swim with you.