Category: Worship

Genesis 12 is the opening chapter of the story of the Bible with Genesis 1-11 being the prelude. The first eleven chapters show us how desperate the plight of man is in his rebellion against God. Depravity is deep and pervasive. No self-cure can come from a fallen race.

God’s answer to the crisis of the first eleven chapters is the call of Abraham and the blessing upon Abraham and his seed. God takes the initiative in calling Abraham; God promises to bless him and commands him to be a blessing; God further promises that through the seed of Abraham all the nations of the world will find blessing. Abraham obeys and the land of Canaan is promised to his seed.  Abraham understood that what might be experienced in the kingdom of Israel on earth was at best only temporary and a foreshadowing of that eternal city ‘whose builder and maker is God.”

The remainder of the Old Testament story is the outworking of this promise to Abraham. In some sense as both Adam and Noah  were given a new world in which to serve and worship the Lord, Abraham and his seed are promised a new world (Canaan) in which they will serve and worship the Lord. In Noah and Abraham there is a movement to return to what was lost in the Garden. Noah and his descendants after him failed to serve and worship and failed to regain what was lost. Abram will show his in his act of deception that he is affected by the fall and is not the One who comes to restore all things. Eventually the Old Testament story will end with the physical descendants of Abraham proving their inability to be faithful and leaving us looking for that seed ‘in whom all the nations of the world will find blessings.”

Galatians 3 tells us that the ‘seed’ of Abraham through whom blessing comes is Jesus and that all of those ‘in Jesus” by faith, regardless of ethnicity inherit the promise to Abraham.

Paul affirms that this was the gospel preached to Abraham. — that the One who comes to restore all things, to defeat the serpent, to atone for sin, and to lift the curse is Jesus Christ.

In urban centers around the world, the promise to Abraham that ‘all nations of the world will find blessing’ is being fulfilled as the gospel is preached and many, like Abraham, place their faith in Christ.

Unlike Abraham, we seek no temporal land of promise because we have found in Jesus the rest and the inheritance that comes from “being in the land.” Together in Christ, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, we enjoy all the blessings of ‘landedness’ in Christ.

Like Abraham, we sojourn here while still looking for that eternal city, whose builder and maker is God.  There we will gather with the redeemed of all ages from all nations to worship the Lamb who is worthy of our praise.

Genesis Six through Nine reveal the severe holiness of God and His particular mercy.  Noah from the godly line of Seth finds favor with the Lord. He is called upon to become a deliverer in the midst of a terrible judgment. The method of salvation (i.e. the flood and ark) dictated by God was curious, if not laughable, in a world of violence, rebellion, and godlessness. Noah obediently fulfills his calling and  also experiences God’s saving grace as God shuts him in the ark to protect him and then later remembers him to give him new life in a new world. An entire world perishes and a new world begins.

God in His grace establishes a covenant in which he promises the continuity of the world, despite its sin, until His purposes in redemption are accomplished.  God also establishes the rule of civil law in society for the protection of life so that society has the possibility of redemption, if not self-destructing through the kind of violence that existed prior to the flood.

But, even the new world shows its flaws at the outset. The human savior, Noah, and his family reveal the effects of the fall. Though he and his family worship, they fail to serve God in perfect trust and covenant faithfulness. Noah ‘s story leaves us looking for that Deliverer who will not disappoint us, not God – the Deliverer who will deal the final blow to evil and bring about a perfect world where the curse is gone forever.

Often urban life displays a similar disregard for God as did the world of Noah’s day, reflected in the violent crime that takes place. Today there is no less of a reason for God’s judgment on cities. Recently at a Police Clergy meeting, the Captain of the 19^th Precinct commented on the percentage of decline in violent crime and murders. He then added, “But since the overall numbers are so large the percentage decrease is really insignificant.” Yes, there is enough violence taking place in urban centers that cry out for a similar flood-like judgment.  

But God continues to keep his promise to Noah that he would sustain the created world until His redeeming purposes are accomplished. Meanwhile, urban church planting often happens in places that are less safe, but in desperate need of the gospel of God’s saving grace. The rescue takes place not from a devastating flood, but from the kingdom of Satan, sin, and death; the deliverer is not Noah, who would eventually disappoint us, but One called Jesus, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and now sitting at the right hand of His Father.