It's All About The Gifts

 Genesis 23:1-25:18, Chayei Sarah, The Life of Sarah

Regardless as to if we are celebrating Chanukah or Christmas this year, we have entered into the holiday season.  One thing we all know about the holiday season is that it is a time of giving and receiving.  It is a time of allowing others to demonstrate their love of us in a tangible way through the giving of gifts.  It is also a time when we demonstrate our love to others through the giving process.

As we enter into this time of year our hearts become filled with the appreciation that we have for others.  We allow ourselves to dedicate time and effort into thinking about their lives and spend time considering what we could do to express our love and/or appreciation for them in a way that will be particularly meaningful to them.

In the story of Chanukah, we are reminded of the gift of Torah, and the gift of His presence in our lives.  The story introduces us to a family of Jewish priests who saw Torah as such a gift that they were willing to go to war with the much larger and stronger Greek occupation.  They saw the Temple as a gift, their role in being chosen by God to be priests as a gift, a life dedicated to Torah as a gift, and of course the Torah itself as a gift. They simply did not allow the Greek forces to take from them what God provided.  In the end, God honored them in their zeal and allowed them the victory.  In so doing, they were able to re-establish the Temple and maintain the life that God had given them.

In the story of Christmas, we are reminded of the gift of a savior.  The miracle birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophetic writings in the Torah.  The Messiah is the ultimate gift from God to mankind in that in and through Him we are given the gift of grace that empowers us to live transformed lives, be in relationship with Him, and live lives knowing that we are loved, forgiven, and redeemed. 

With all this in mind, I can’t help but wondering about Abraham’s response to Ephron in Genesis 23.  The stage is set after Sarah's death.  Abraham goes to the sons of Heth and asks them for a burial plot among the burial plots of their people.  Abraham acknowledges to them that from his perspective he is nothing but a stranger and sojourner among them.  However, their view of Abraham is not the same as his view of himself relative to them.  They respond back by calling him lord, and a mighty prince within their midst.  In this place of apparent appreciation for Abraham they offer him the choicest of all their graves.  They extend to Abraham to pick any burial plot that would please him noting that none of them would refuse his request.

Abraham picks the plot that he would like and sends word to the owner that he would like to pay full price for the cave that is at the end of the owner’s field.  The owner is Ephron and he responds to Abraham’s offer with an even better offer.  Ephron notes that he is making the offer to give Abraham the burial site and the field that the site is in.  Ephron makes it a point to tell Abraham that he is extending this offer in the presence of witnesses and that this is a binding offer.  Abraham refuses the free offer and demands that he be allowed to pay a fair price for the land.  Ephron points out that the land is only worth 400 shekels of silver and that apparently this sum of money is trivial in light of the wealth of the two men.  Regardless, Abraham insists on paying the stated sum and the deal is finalized.

Maybe I’m wrong on this, but this entire thing just doesn’t sit right with me.  From where I am sitting, I see no reason why Abraham shouldn’t have accepted the free offer.  Granted, I have been taught and understand that, the monetary transaction somehow made the contract more binding.  But to me, that isn’t the point.

I think we really need to look deep into ourselves and ask how we would respond in a similar situation.  Who was attempting to give the land to Abraham?  Was it Ephron or was it God acting through Ephron?  I mean, who really owns the land?  God or Ephron?  Didn’t God promise to give all the land of Canaan to Abraham and his decedents for an everlasting possession?

The thing I want to really focus in on is our view of the giving and receiving process and the heart from which we give and receive.  How easy is it to walk through this life just like Abraham?  How hard is it to receive a “gift” from someone and trust that there really are “no strings attached”?  At the same time, what makes us think this way?  Is it that maybe when we give gifts we might be doing so from a place that is less than 100% pure?

At the end of the day, the purity of our gift giving is really very reminiscent of what I believe God was attempting to do through Ephron.  It is apparent that God had opened up the eyes of the Sons of Heth to see Abraham as someone special, to see him as blessed, and to see him as great amongst all the people of the land.  God used this view of Abraham to move their hearts to treat Abraham with special favor.

In all reality, isn’t this what is really happening in and through all of us who are willing to let God transform us to the point that He lives and operates through us?  When we move into this depth of relationship with Him, He uses us to express His love to others.  His spirit reveals to us the most tangible ways to express His love, He gives us the ability to move into that expression, and He touches them through us as we follow His lead in our lives.  If we are simply allowing Him to act through us, we have no other motivation except that of creating the opportunity for another human being to be touched by the love of God.

I pray that in and through this holiday season we all come to a place of giving and receiving in the simplicity of an expression of Him in us.  May we hear His voice, follow His lead, and extend love in the ways in which He is calling.  May we do this from a place of pureness, holiness, and health.  May we give with no need for a particular response and no strings attached.  May our giving be free from the tainting of our personal agendas and our misguided expectations.  May we receive from a place of seeing the purity and love of God in others.  May we move into a place of trust where we can truly receive all that He desires to give us.

Moving beyond our horizontal relationships with each other I pray that each of us investigate our response to the gifts that this holiday season reminds us of.  Have we received the Torah as a gift or an obligation with strings attached?  How about the calling on our lives to be priests?  Is the understanding of what it is to live holy and set apart unto God a gift or a responsibility?  And how about the gift of our messiah?  Have we accepted the gift of grace?  Are we still trying to earn and pay for what God has already provided?  These are the questions that this section of scripture challenges me to think about, to look at, and to investigate within myself.  I pray that this holiday season be one of true appreciation of the gifts of God, that you feel His love in an entirely new way, and that in that the love you extend and receive  to and from others carries an entirely new meaning.

The Ultimate Match

 Vayera….And He Appeared.

 Genesis 18:1-22:24

 As I prepared to start into this writing, I was stuck at the vast multitude of directions I could go down from this one section of scripture.  There is just so much here!!  Included in this parsha is:

• The Lord appearing to Abraham, them dining together, and the Lord promising Abraham and Sarah a child,
• Sarah laughing and then lying about it,
• The negotiation between Abraham and the Lord regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
• The image of how far Sodom and Gomorrah had fallen,
• How Lot, his wife, his daughters, and his future son-in-laws each responded to the attack from the people of Sodom and ultimately the warning of the angels,
• The seduction of Lot by his two daughters leading to the establishment of the Moabites and the Ammonites,
• Abraham representing Sarah as his sister AGAIN, this time to Abimelech king of Gerar,
• Abraham interceding in behalf of Abimelech’s wife and maids resulting not only in their barrenness being removed but also the barrenness of Sarah being removed as well,
• Abraham sending out Hagar and Ishmael, and ultimately,
• God seeking Isaac as a sacrifice, Abraham listening, and God sending an angel to tell Abraham that because Abraham feared God, was willing to sacrifice Isaac, and listened to His voice, God was NOW willing to fulfill all the promises that were previously based on the crediting of Abraham with righteousness.

Through all of this I am seeing a common thread…..Abraham growing in his understanding of who God is.  In the story of Job, the ultimate understanding comes in verses 42:1-6.  In these verses we discover what the entire journey of this aspect of Job’s life is all about……verse 42:4 sums it up when Job says “I have heard of You be the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees you”

This same concept comes into play in the story of Jacob.  In chapter 32 of Genesis we are given a record of Jacob wrestling with God and God touching Jacob’s thigh socket and dislocating the thigh bone.  After this intense wrestling match with God, in verse 32:30, we find Jacob saying “I have seen God face to face”.

The title of this week’s parsha is “and He appeared”.  In the general context the title is taking the first line of the parsha which is describing a physical presence of the Lord appearing before Abraham.  However, the overarching theme of this parsha is the journey of Abraham coming to know God in the same way that Job and Jacob came to know Him.  Simply put, to see God’s face, takes some wrestling.

In verse 18:17 we read about God considering if it was time to take Abraham through this spiritual wrestling match.  We read “The Lord said, “shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do”.  In verse 18:25 we see Abraham’s response “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike.  Far be it from You!  Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

Abraham’s language is very reminiscent of that of Job and ultimately the very thing that comes into question so often when looking at the sovereignty of God in the midst of a painful, corrupt, and evil world.

Ultimately the journey of Abraham leads him through the process of witnessing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He sees the path of sin and death that emerge from the decedents of Lot and his two daughters who God let escape the destruction.  He sees the curse that comes to the family of Abimelech that resulted from his own deception over Sarah.  He is forced to look at himself and weigh out his responsibility in this curse as God requires him to pray for Abimelech and his family.  He is forced to deal with his own sin, lack of faith, and trusting in his own ways when he is required to send Hagar and Ishmael out into the desert.

Ultimately, Abraham has to wrestle with God’s demand of Isaac’s life.  By this point Abraham is at the end of a long journey.  God has used the circumstances of life to refine Abraham.  At this point Abraham is ready to trust God and obey Him in whatever direction God askes him to go.  Even to the point of sacrificing his own son.

I believe that by this point in the story, Abraham could share the same words that we hear from Job and that we hear from Jacob……”before this journey I had heard of God with my ears, but now, I have seen Him face to face.”  I believe that this is what God desires for all of us.  That we truly come to know Him.

Throughout the bible there is a recurring theme that reminds us that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord.  To fully walk in this fear, we have to really know Him, know what He is willing to do to bring His plan of salvation into full fruition, and to create the greatest opportunity for each of us to be a part of it.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 we are given an image of the nature of God in this respect in a New Testament context.  Paul, a man who gazed upon the face of God, was willing to share the realities of the sovereignty of God with a church that may not have been ready to deal with the hard truth of who He really is.  In this section of scripture Paul clearly tells the church that many of them are weak and sick, and a number even dead at the direct hand of God.  Paul explains to them how God works in these matters and how they should view this as an expression of His LOVE because it is all about them, for them, and in their best spiritual interest.

Ultimately, this is the journey that Job went through, that Jacob went through, and that I believe each and every human being must go through if they truly desire an intimate relationship with Him.  We simply can not be in an intimae relationship with one that we do not accept for who He is, we cannot embrace the one that we would judge if He let us see Himself for who He really is, and we cannot understand the love that He has for us if we put parameters on how that love can and cannot be extended.

If you have not wrestled with God over these things, I pray that you allow Him the latitude to lead you into that wrestling match, I pray that you lean on His strength through the journey, and I pray that as countless others who have come before you have, that you prevail.  In that day you will surely say, “an in that day, God appeared to me”.