Advent Thoughts #12
I am studying Abraham this week, and trying to find connections to Christmas!
Abraham was promised a son in impossible circumstances. So was Mary. Abraham's problem wasn't fertility, it was fertility in fidelity and according to the parameters God set up. He could have children (with Hagar and then with Keturah (healthy old man, methinks). His wife couldn't. She was the miracle. Mary had other children (although I know people debate that, but it seems like a silly debate.) Her fertility during her status as a virgin was the miracle.
In both cases, the son was the offspring of promise, and in both cases "in that son all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." (The shall is a command, not just a prediction, like "You shall not kill." Judaism claims Abraham but his offspring are missional. They do not exist for their own racial identity, but for the world.
Finally, the disturbing part of Abraham is his willingness to sacrifice Isaac. Hebrews says he believed God would raise him from the dead (Mary got to see that for real). But at the time pagans killed their children to appease gods, so Abraham doesn't really question it. He just, sadly, keeps going up that mountain. The story ends happily, because God will provide a ram for the sacrifice. This prefigures the cross, the only son of promise sacrificed for us.
Abraham was promised a son in impossible circumstances. So was Mary. Abraham's problem wasn't fertility, it was fertility in fidelity and according to the parameters God set up. He could have children (with Hagar and then with Keturah (healthy old man, methinks). His wife couldn't. She was the miracle. Mary had other children (although I know people debate that, but it seems like a silly debate.) Her fertility during her status as a virgin was the miracle.
In both cases, the son was the offspring of promise, and in both cases "in that son all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." (The shall is a command, not just a prediction, like "You shall not kill." Judaism claims Abraham but his offspring are missional. They do not exist for their own racial identity, but for the world.
Finally, the disturbing part of Abraham is his willingness to sacrifice Isaac. Hebrews says he believed God would raise him from the dead (Mary got to see that for real). But at the time pagans killed their children to appease gods, so Abraham doesn't really question it. He just, sadly, keeps going up that mountain. The story ends happily, because God will provide a ram for the sacrifice. This prefigures the cross, the only son of promise sacrificed for us.
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