August 22
TREKKING WITH ABRAHAM
“I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, led him through all Canaan, multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.”
Joshua 24:3
Unravelling the plate of spaghetti.
From yesterday’s thoughts we get a picture of how people are emotionally hurt and damaged. Yesterday’s picture was true of the experience of the whole of humanity. It occurs where feelings of rejection rule and depress folks, and how bad motives to deceive and swindle occur simply to get what a person believes they should have – or, even if it is not what is rightfully theirs – what they strive to get just because they want it. We see it so clearly in, “generation one” (Abraham and Sarah – not forgetting Hagar). The hurts and damage they wrought with each other, and the damage their relationships wreaked in generation two (Isaac and Ishmael) show us that sometimes hurt and damage takes place without the malice of the perpetrator, and sometimes even without the knowledge of the perpetrator.
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| A sanitised but still impacting view of the older brothers with their back turned on the rejected brother Joseph just sold into slavery |
Abraham, in Genesis 22, had his son lie on the altar with a torch and a knife held high for a blisteringly traumatic few moments, over Isaac. But this moment of Isaac’s greatest hurt, I rather fancy was the moment of Abraham’s greatest triumph of keeping a single eye on God and His word. Sarah’s love for Isaac was virtuous. And in her profound mother’s love, she conceivably damaged Ishmael and Hagar. If we could hypothetically go back in time and meet Abraham as he ascended Moriah, I feel absolutely certain in stating that Abraham would not have changed his mind for anything. And if we could attempt to soften Sarah’s thoughts about Ishmael, and suggest to her that for pity of Ishmael and Hagar, she allows them stay in the camp, I am confident that her response would be bleeped out of the video tape, and the script would read, “Sarah: Expletive deleted”.
Damage is sometimes done to people by malice aforethought. Damage is sometimes perpetrated in ignorance, and even by a righteous act. Some damage can be redeemed the same day. Some can be rectified over a life time. Some damage and hurt goes on from one generation to another. How painful the thought. Babies born in innocence, grow under the curse and hurt that their father, Grandfather, or even Great grandfather might have set in motion.
Isaac had no idea, in adulthood, that God had told Rebekah that Esau (the firstborn) would be subject to the younger brother, as declared by God Himself. Being blind and doting on a favourite son (oh how damaging is that), being also dominated by the food in his belly, he legitimately plans to give his paternal Abrahamic blessing to Esau. But the criss crossing bias of motives and affections struck deep in everybody’s heart. Isaac is clean in his desire to bless Esau, apart from the evil of favouritism, the eldest son was due the blessing as far as he understood. Esau, seemingly had forgotten about the day he lightly told Jacob he could have the birthright if only his younger twin could save him from “certain death by starvation” and give him a bowl of soup. Rebekah, for some reason does not approach Isaac to correct the error, so she connives to cheat his senses. Jacob goes along with his mother’s suggestion reluctantly. After all these ingredients have been mashed and mixed together and put through the oven of perpetration what have we left?
We have Esau threatening to kill his brother as soon as his father died (which did not happen for another 37 years). Esau, also holding a grudge against his mother for robbing him of “his” inheritance, chose to marry a Canaanite woman for the sole reason of vengeance on his mother. We also have Esau going to see his uncle Ishmael where they could both gripe about the terrible influence Isaac had been on both their lives. We have Rebekah, again lying to her husband, sending Jacob away “to find a wife,” when it was really to save him from being murdered by Esau should Isaac die. She is on record as sending him off for a “few days”. In reality Jacob was gone for over 21 years, by which time Rebekah was dead. Rebekah and Jacob never met on earth again. We have Isaac left in his depressive blindness, and Rebekah in a state of loss. Two sons not relating to her, both disappear on the same day knowing mother was a deceiver. How utterly sad the situation. Surely Jacob’s cheating twisting ways were learnt at his mother’s breast.
In Genesis – the four generations of familial intrigue, deception, cruelty, betrayal and emotional violence finishes up with an account of how it should be dealt with in God. This is the solution to the victims of all the worst kinds of this kind of pain. I believe it is rational to suggest that Joseph had the worst experience than anybody else in the book of Genesis. Sold by his brothers, cruelly stripped of his clothes and sent off in irons to a foreign culture, betrayed by the ones that should have, in normal circumstances, been his protectors. The complexity and detail with which Genesis tells the story is phenomenal. But when the story is concluded, and Joseph meets up again with the brothers, we have two statements that blow the mind of the first time reader of the bible. I have been reading the Bible for over forty years and these lines still blow my mind. In Genesis 45:8, Joseph says to the brothers who hated him and sold him, “it was not you that sent me here, but God”. And then in Genesis 50:20, Joseph says to those same brothers, “But as for you, you meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for good”. If that is not an incredible answer to all the ills of life, and families and mankind I do not know what is.
There are no brownie points in heaven for being hurt, abused or damaged in life. There is only one route to be free of one’s agony and pain when one has been treated badly. Christ died and rose again to give it to us. There are several words that comprise the answer to life’s hurts. One word is “forgiveness”, and that without reservation, towards those that perpetrated crimes against you. No matter how deep, no matter how “unforgiveable” their deed was, you, the victim, will stay a victim until you release the person or persons concerned, through totally forgiving them. Until the moment you forgive, you are still the victim. Victim’s do not forgive – that is why they are victims. Overcomers forgive and move on in life. Another word in this “answer” is “faith”. I do not mean faith in faith, I mean faith in Christ. Christ was abused, mistreated, betrayed and despitefully used more than anybody else could be. Still, He cried, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” How true it is that while many people are struggling with life, brooding over their hate, lusting for vengeance on those who have committed great crimes against them, many a perpetrator has forgotten all about his or her evil and got on with their lives. God help us to see the secret of life in Joseph – in Genesis.
WHAT’S THE POINT? Total and absolute forgiveness towards all and sundry who have affected your life is NOT an option – it is mandatory.
Trekking with Abraham 