Supernatural RSM Series – Part 4
Refton Student Ministry Series:
Supernatural Part 4: The Promises
During tonight’s lesson at RSM we will do a recap of the Bible’s story so far: Creation, Fall of Humanity, Sin of the Watchers, The Flood, The Tower of Babel, and the Divided Nations. This leads us to the story of Yahweh God choosing Abraham to make a new nation, Israel. Despite all odds, Yahweh promises Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child, and their descendants will be as numerous as the stars! Why? Because through this nation Yahweh would bring back the other rebellious nations to Himself. Ultimately we know that Yahweh does this through Himself by becoming Jesus, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
I’d really like the students to get an overall feeling of the events in the life of Abraham, but rather than just stand there and talk for 45 minutes I decided to show them the first episode of The Bible tv series (available on Netflix if you’re interested!). The video does a fairly decent job at telling the story, however, they definitely strip the supernatural out of the narrative. I will be asking the students to observe what is missing from the biblical narrative in the episode. Unfortunately, the act of stripping the supernatural out of the Bible is quite typical of our modern Christian culture. I’m hoping that by now you can tell if we continue to strip the supernatural out of the Bible, we really miss the authors intended meaning.
We’ll see examples of this as we go throughout Abraham’s story…
Abraham
Genesis Chapters 12 – 22
Chapter 12 – Abram receives the promise from Yahweh that he will be made into a great nation
Chapter 13 – Abram and Lot (his nephew) decide to separate because the land could not support their people and flocks. Abram lived in Canaan, and Lot lived just outside of Sodom, an incredibly sinful city. Even though they separated, Yahweh God promised Abram that all the land he could see would be given to him and his offspring. His offspring would be as numerous as the dust (if the dust could be counted!).
Chapter 14 – Lot and his people get captured during a war when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. Abram caught word of this and gathered 318 trained men to rescue Lot. They succeeded, but Lot stayed in Sodom (see Genesis 18).
Chapter 15 – Despite their age, Yahweh God promises Abram and Sarai a son, and that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars.
Chapter 16 – Time passes and Abram and Sarai decided to take matters into their own hands since they still did not have a child. They agreed to use their servant girl Hagar since Sarai was too old, as was customary for their time. Still, they should have trusted Yahweh.
Chapter 17 – More time passes and again, Yahweh God gives Abram a promise of a son. Yahweh renames them as Abraham and Sarah as a sign of the covenant. Abraham laughs at the idea of he and Sarah having a child at their age.
Chapter 18 – Abraham receives three visitors, one of which he recognizes as his “Lord” (Yahweh!). They explain that Sarah will have a son this time next year. Sarah laughs at the idea of having a son at the age of 90, but Yahweh can do the impossible, and ironically names the future child Isaac, which means “he laughs.” Yahweh then takes Abraham to a place that overlooks Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleads for Yahweh to save anyone in Sodom who is righteous (he’s thinking of Lot!). Yahweh sends the other two visitors, His angels, in the city to save Lot and his family.
Chapter 19 – This is the account of the angel’s rescue mission. The biblical author gives an account of how sinful the city was. The rescue mission was successful. Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. Lot’s wife died because she disobeyed God.
Chapter 20 – Abraham and Abimelek
Chapter 21 – The Birth of Isaac
Chapter 22 – Time passes and Abraham is tested by Yahweh God. He is to sacrifice his son Isaac to Yahweh. Things worked out in the end, but why would God ask such an unthinkable thing of Abraham?! Let’s get into that…
This is something that pastors and Christians in general have struggled to understand. I remember teaching this story in student ministry several years ago and thinking to myself that I know God was only testing Abraham, but why in the world would He choose to test Him that way?! I have a son, and I cannot imagine being asked by God to put him on an altar and sacrifice him like an animal. As I said, it’s unthinkable.
Usually when we teach this story we conclude with the idea that God was merely testing Abraham. After all, that’s what the biblical author tells us in the first verse of the narrative. The problem is that this is where Bible teachers tend to stop. The larger narrative tends to go unnoticed. So what’s happening?
Remember that Yahweh God divided the nations at Babel because of humanity’s disobedience. He gave them over to members of His divine council. He had spiritual beings basically be His delegates over the nations, while Yahweh decided to focus on one nation that He could call His own. He would make this nation His, and teach them His ways, so that they could be an example to the rest of the nations and ultimately bring the other nations back to Yahweh, the God of gods! But who would Yahweh choose to begin this nation? It needed to be someone righteous in the eyes of Yahweh. So, Yahweh chose Abram for the job.
Now, there was a lot at stake here. Yahweh is omniscient; He knew what He was doing. But still, Abram needed to prove that he was faithful. So, Yahweh tested Abram multiple times, but the ultimate test was to see if Abram would be willing to give everything up in order to remain faithful to Yahweh. As crazy as it sounds, the only way to do this was to ask him to sacrifice his promised son.
Personally, I don’t believe for a second that Yahweh ever intended Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Not only does the biblical author clue us in from the first verse, but consider the context. Yahweh was testing Abraham’s loyalty. Abraham could have refused, and had that occurred I think Yahweh would have chosen someone else (let’s not get caught up in Yahweh’s omniscience… God works by allowing His created beings to make their own choices). We know that Abraham remained loyal to Yahweh, and he was stopped just before the deed was done. Again, Yahweh never intended for Isaac to be sacrificed. Do you see how knowing the overarching story of the Bible is crucial for understanding the smaller stories within it? Despite the drama of the episode we’re watching tonight, it is very possible that Abraham knew this was a test from Yahweh and that “God [would] provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8).
What Have We Learned?
We learned more of the overarching story of the Bible through the events of Abraham and the promises that Yahweh God made to him. Most of us, including myself, needed to relearn these events because our modern way of thinking and teaching has stripped the Bible of the supernatural. We cannot read the Bible in the way it was intended if we continue to imprint our own non-supernatural worldview on the Bible. We also learned the importance of knowing the larger narrative. This will only become more important as we continue throughout the story of the Bible! All of this will culminate in knowing who we are in Christ and how we fit into Yahweh’s story. I am convinced that knowing who we are in Christ is crucial for being able to sustain our faith and remain loyal to Yahweh God.
What did the video miss?
The Bible miniseries, episode 1, is guilty of stripping the supernatural out of the Bible. Here’s what I noticed:
They depict an actual (presumably talking) snake in the Garden of Eden, which bible scholars know is a ridiculous idea. The snake represents the original evil spiritual being who rebelled against Yahweh. We call him, Satan.
They missed Genesis 6:1-4. This is understandable because as we’ve seen, it’s a difficult text to explain. However, it is also the second critical event that explains why the world is in a mess, and why the Flood needed to happen.
They also omitted the Tower of Babel, the third event that explains why the world is in such a mess. It’s actually difficult to understand why Yahweh decided to make a nation (Israel) out of Abraham if we don’t consider all of Genesis 1 – 11. As we’ve already discussed, it’s also difficult to understand why Yahweh would ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac if we don’t consider the overall story of the Bible.
They made Yahweh God seem unnecessarily mystical. There are many times in the Old Testament where Yahweh “appears” in human form. That link gives you some examples in Genesis. Bible scholars call Yahweh’s human appearances, “theophanies”. Also, Yahweh God didn’t talk in a mystical voice to Sarah when she laughed at the idea of having a son. It was Yahweh in human form, on the other side of the tent who overheard her while he was speaking to Abraham. Yahweh then spoke to her directly through the tent. Again, there was no need for the mysticism.
They didn’t give the real reason as to why the men outside Lot’s door wanted the angels. This is probably due to an effort to keep things family-friendly.
Despite the overlooked content, it is still very well done and I would recommend watching The Bible miniseries if you haven’t yet.