Adult Enlightener: October- December 2019

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

The Adult Enlightener Contemporary Training for the Church (CTC) quarterly guide is designed for the career-oriented adult. It uses language and ideas that are meaningful to the adult learner who is primarily handling work and family responsibilities. It is a practical resource for everyday Christian living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Sep 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781681675602

Book preview

Selected Scriptures: Genesis 15:1–6, 17–21

www.rhboyd.com

@ R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

@rhboydco

@rhboydco

#rhbpc

BIBLICAL TEACHING EMPHASES:

I. Abram’s Doubts

II. God’s Reassurance

III. The Land Promised

RESOURCE:

The Holy Bible, God’s Promises Edition (Nashville, Boyd Publication, 1998).

LEARNING SESSION

God established His covenant with Abram after his battle with the kings of the East, who had kidnapped his nephew Lot. The priestly king Melchizedek of Salem blessed Abram following this victory (see Gen. 14:17–20). The king of Sodom then offered Abram wealth from Sodom that he had rescued from their mutual enemies (see vv. 21–24). Abram declined the king of Sodom’s offer because he refused to allow others to say that the king of Sodom or any other human had made him rich. Abram was willing to trust more in the provision of God than in what others could offer him. Following these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram.

Our lessons for the next few weeks will focus on the concept of covenant in the Old Testament. In our study of the covenants God made with Abram, Israel, and David, we will see a God who is faithful and who keeps His covenant to the end. We will also see the manifold ways in which the people failed to keep the covenant, and suffered greatly because of it. The ultimate lesson here is that we can trust God no matter the circumstances, no matter our place in life, or what we have endured.

I. ABRAM’S DOUBTS

God had called Abram to leave his homeland and his family, taking only his own household, and move to a new land. Abram believed the Lord when He said He would make Abram’s family a blessing throughout the world, and so he did what the Lord told him. Abram never lost faith that the Lord intended good things for him and his family, and that the Lord was powerful enough to carry through on all of His promises.

God began by telling Abram he had nothing to fear. His promise reassured Abram he was not traveling aimlessly, but that God was leading him, and would fulfill His promise to him.

The Lord’s promise, though, did not keep Abram from having questions about how He would perform His promise given Abram’s circumstances. Abram was childless and was already questioning whether an heir would issue from his line. He understood basic biology; the older he and Sarai got, the less likely it was that they would have their own child to be Abram’s heir.

II. GOD’S REASSURANCE

The human perspective is often limited and rigid. When Abram was reminded that God had promised him an heir (see Gen. 12:1–3), Abram immediately pointed to his current childlessness, adding that his heir at present was the son of a servant (see 15:2–3). God invited Abram to look again, to see beyond his own limited field of vision and to recognize what is possible with God.

God did this in a very concrete way: He brought [Abram] outside and said, Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them" (v. 5, NRSV). It is in looking again that Abram was able to see through the eyes of faith, and to recognize what God might accomplish. Looking again changed Abram’s perspective. He understood how the promises of God were not dependent upon humanity. He also saw that God’s promise would not be kept in a miserly way. God would make of Abram a great family, as numerous as the stars Abram could not count. Though the promise took a long time to be fulfilled, God would be lavish in His attention to Abram and his offspring.

ACTIVITY

MAKING IT RELEVANT:

Discuss the relationship between covenant and divine promise.

Abram’s change in perspective is described in the text: And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness" (v. 6, NRSV). Abram was affirmed as righteous because he believed God in spite of evidence that might suggest a different reality. Faith is similarly ignited in us when we look again and see from God’s perspective what is possible for Him, despite the limitations that we are subject to.

III. THE LAND PROMISED

The covenant between God and Abram concluded with a vision and a promise. In the vision God described a time of trial and suffering for Israel, but the vision also carried an assurance of ultimate deliverance: Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions (vv. 13–14, NRSV). God’s faithfulness would rule, and the time of affliction would pass. Israel would serve God in the Promised Land. This land was occupied already by others who were stronger and greater in number than Israel. Yet God in His faithfulness would deliver the Promised