Background and Context:

The first moments of mornings remain my favorites. When a boy, it was my favorite time with my stepfather during deer season. The temperature would drop; a wind would sometimes pick up; then the first sounds of morning would come. Usually the sounds came from sparrows and finches on the floor of the forest. Gray squirrels would twitch their tails as they emerged from their lofty nests and scurried down the trees in search of food. Then, if we were lucky, we would hear the inimitable stamp of deer in the woods. There’s no sound like the sound of deer walking. To this day, I never tire of watching them–the ways their ears scan their environs like hairy antennae, the ways they lift their noses to the winds to know what’s in the area, the ways they stomp their forelegs when vigilance is called for, the ways the older and wiser does and bucks will remain in cover until they’re convinced it’s safe to emerge into more vulnerable areas.

This morning I am far from a deer stand, but rather preparing for teaching in Indiana. I rose early as is my pattern, read and wrote some, drank my first cup of coffee, and cleared out some emails. And I was in the Pentateuch this morning, studying the life of Abraham, the lives of his sons Ishmael and Isaac. It is so interesting to see that human nature is consistent–the ways in which Abraham’s fidelity to the words of God would ebb and flow, though God’s words remained steadfast. Throughout history, the same patterns recur. Men and women do well for a while in their spiritual disciplines, but then they blow it. They have an awful moment, or day, or week, or year, or season. What do I mean? In Genesis 21:12, God tells Abraham that Isaac is the son of promise through whom the ordained offspring of the Messiah will come: “. . . . for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This promise finds its fulfillment in Jesus, as the New Testament makes explicit in Galatians 4:

Text:

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”

  Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (Galatians 4:21-21, ESV)

Abraham’s weaknesses were overcome by the strength and covenant steadfastness of God.

The theology/doctrine is straightforward: God worked through his chosen means (Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, etc.) to lead to his appointed end: Jesus Christ. The promise of Genesis 3:15, that the seed of Eve (Jesus) would bruise/defeat the head of the serpent (Satan) was and is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. All of the Bible coheres, in short, revealing what God does through his plan of judgment and redemption.

Encouragement: As I ponder sometimes of how many glorious sunrises I have witnessed, how many times I have seen it rise over the earth’s seas, over mountains in Afghanistan, over deserts of Iraq, from aircraft in the skies, from deer stands in my home state, or from my neighborhood, we live in a cosmos that demonstrates God’s nature as one of promise and fulfillment. Lord willing, we will have another year to work towards the right goals and for the right purposes. Welcome to 2024.