Have you ever thought of that before? That Jesus answered this very same call of God the Father and did exactly that? That He stepped away from His Father and His home...from His kingdom...from His throne to live in human flesh, poor and without wealth? That He left comfort and safety...a place with no sickness or death to come to a world that was unsafe, uncomfortable, and was filled with sickness and death.
Unlike Abram, His obedience was complete. Abram's obedience was fragile...He left with his father and family, with all of his possessions. Jesus left it all behind...taking nothing with Him. He relied totally on His Heavenly Father, in this new and strange land, never doubting, never seeking to save Himself in the midst of the harshness of life. Like Abram, when He arrived here...He arrived to famine. Life on earth is a famine. But unlike Abram who sought to save Himself by heading to Egypt...Jesus never sought to save Himself, but trusted implicitly in God's provision and protection for Him His entire earthly 33 year famine. Abram put his wife Sarai at risk to protect himself in Egypt and threw her into the danger of being a part of Pharaoh's harem. But our True and Better Abram, Jesus, put Himself at risk over and over to protect His Bride. Our True and Better Abram...relying fully on His Father...in fact, sacrificed and died to save His Bride.
And because Jesus obeyed perfectly, He is heir to the blessing. Think about the promise of God to Abram found in Genesis 12 through the lens of Jesus:
"I will make You into a great nation and I will bless You; I will make Your Name great, and You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless You, and whoever curses You I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through You."Doesn't that just take your breath away to read this blessing with Jesus in mind? This makes me think of what Paul said in Philippians 2 about Jesus.
"Who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! THEREFORE God exalted Him to the highest place and gave HIM the name that is above EVERY name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."Jesus is the True and Better Abram. Let us fix our eyes on Him and meditate on Him...on this glimpse we have been given of the True Treasure of Scripture...and let us be changed by what we have seen about who He is and what He has accomplished on our behalf.
Post a Comment