Genesis 12:5-9. 5And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. 9And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, people aren’t getting better and better, it seems like they’re actually getting worse and worse. From Cain killing Abel, to the flood, to the Tower of Babel, mankind is turning away from God more and more. What will God do? Will he flood the Earth again? Will he drop a bomb on us? Send a plague? No. God will choose Abraham.
Abraham is God’s big do-over. He is the new Adam and the new Noah. Through Abraham and Sarah, God will create a brand new family that will bring God’s blessing to the whole world. And this will all be from God’s grace. Adam and Eve and the Noahs were commanded to be fruitful and multiply (make a family), and they were commanded to take over the land. But Abraham and Sarah weren’t commanded. They were promised. They were promised a family and a land – Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
Like we said these promises will be from God’s grace. How do we know? Because both promises are something Abraham and Sarah cannot do without God.
Family – But Sarah is not able to have babies. God will have to do a miracle.
Land – But the Canaanites live in the land. God will have to give the land to Abraham because he won’t be able to take it away from them.
And so there are no commandments here, only promises. And it is the promises that make us want to worship God – So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
This is how our worship is like Abraham’s. No, we don’t pile up rocks and build altars. But we do worship God because of his promises that he has made to us. We worship God because of his mercy and grace. Here’s how Paul says it in Romans:
Romans 12:1-2. 1I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Paul is saying that because of the mercies of God (salvation through Jesus), we should present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, and that is our act of worship. God’s mercy and grace, his love and kindness, his promises make us want to worship him.
Abraham’s altars weren’t built to appease, satisfy, or persuade God. They weren’t made to earn anything from God. They were built as memorials to a promise making God, even before the promise was fulfilled. That’s faith!
Life with Jesus is always meant to be a response to the grace of God. Especially his amazing grace in Christ. Now, like Abraham, everywhere we go we leave behind “altars” to Jesus, not towers to ourselves.
You: Are you building altars or towers wherever you go? Are you talking about God or yourself?
You with Jesus: Do you worship God because of his promises, or for some other reason (or maybe not at all).
Prayer: Father, even before all your promises are completely fulfilled I will trust you. Make my life an offering to your grace and mercy. Let me be a living altar of your love. Amen.
TLICfamily 