Spiritual Formation (Relationship with God)

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Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Gen. 3:22-23)

The purpose of the Edenic expulsion was to prevent eating from the tree of life and thereby to live forever in a fallen state; however, it has also cause us to forget that we were created for relationship with God.  Almost everyone has new, old, steady, strained, and broken relationships, these are universal experiences.  These relationships can also be seen in the Bible.  Notice that unlike Noah (Gen. 5:7-29), it seems when Abraham is called there is no reason from the Genesis account to assume Abraham already had a relationship with God.  In fact, there are ancient Jewish legends outside of the Bible that Abraham’s father Terah was an idol maker (Ginzberg, Kindle location 2061)[1].

            Therefore, it seems that the Lord’s relationship with Abram (Gen. 12) is a new relationship.  In a new relationship, there is learning about each other.  Notice that Abram believed God when He promised a biological child (Gen. 15).  However, when Abram tried according to his will to bring about its fulfillment, his action of polygamy (Gen. 16:1-4) mirrored the practices of the ungodly line of Cain (Gen. 4:19).  On the contrary, it was God’s intention for Abram’s first wife Sarai to be the mother of the child of promise.  Could this be a case of Abram needing to know the Lord better?

            

            There may be another example when Abraham is tested by the Lord (Gen. 22).  In a classic movie, when the Lord tests Abraham, he questions Him, “Are you really the Lord my God?” (Scott 1966).  However, consider that Abraham was called out of a pagan and idolatrous culture.  To us, human sacrifices sound like a barbaric ritual of the unenlightened, but to Abraham, was it a normal religious practice from his culture?  Perhaps, when the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham and stopped him from sacrificing (Gen. 21:15-16), God was revealing more of His character to Abraham.  Was He saying, “You imagine a god similar to the gods of your culture; however, I AM a God much different than those gods worshiped by the pagans.”

            

            Therefore, in the new relationship, Abraham had to learn who God really was.  In like manner, we may follow the gods of our culture, or we can learn from the Bible about the character and nature of the true and living God.

Written by Pastor Ozzy

Ginzberg, Louis. 2011. Legends of the Jews. Amazon Digital Services LLC.

1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible. LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.

1966. The Bible: In The Beginning. Directed by John Huston. Performed by George C. Scott.

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[1] This type of Midrash is called Aggadah (lore) and was never understood literally and is not doctrine.


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