February 03 – Inherent Morality

Gen 26:5 – "....because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees, and my laws."

           The account of Abraham's life in Genesis is significant for one main reason: He believed God's promises to him; therefore, God counted that faith as righteousness before Him (in other words, being in right-standing before God). The odd thing is that, from Genesis 12 through Genesis 25, we read of God telling Abraham to actually do only a few things. The following is a complete list of those things.                                                                                                                                                                       In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham to leave his country, his people and his father's household to go to a land that God would show him. Abraham obeyed and then wandered around for awhile in Canaan (which was the land that God had promised to give his descendants).                                                        In Genesis 13, God tells Abraham to "walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you." So, he moved his tents and dwelt for awhile in Hebron. We get a glimpse of this obedience to God's specific command.                                                                                                                  In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham, confirming that he will have a son, even though he and wife Sarah were old, and Sarah was barren. God tells Abraham to bring him a heifer, a goat, and a ram – each three years old – along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abraham obliges, and we are painted the spooky scene of dreadful darkness, birds of prey, a smoking firepot, and some further details from God about Abraham's descendants. No further commands                                                        In Genesis 17, God speaks to Abraham again with a vague command: "Walk before me and be blameless.....you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, for the generations to come....this is my covenant with you....: Every male among you shall be circumcised." On that very day, Abraham had all males in his household circumcised. Later in the chapter, God tells Abraham to call Sarah's yet-to-be-born son, Isaac. When Isaac is born, he is given the same name. Abraham was obedient in those two very specific commands.                                                                                                        In Genesis 21, God tells Abraham to listen to Sarah who wanted to send Hagar and Ishmael away from the household for good. Abraham obeys, and consents, even though he was distressed about it.                                                                                                                                                                                   In Genesis 22, we have the great story of God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son, even though God had told him, that the descendants who would eventually inherit Canaan, would come from Isaac. Abraham obeys to the point of almost murdering his son, when God steps in and stops the test. This is the last direct command that God had given to Abraham. To summarize then, there are seven specific commands from God and one vague command. The latter is what needs some explaining.

              This takes us to the main scripture of today’s devotion. What were the requirements, commands, decrees, and laws that Abraham kept? We are given a hint of an answer to those questions in Genesis 18:19. Abraham is given an indirect response by God to the angels with them. “For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of Yahweh, by doing what is right and just, so that Yahweh will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” Doing what is right and just?? Is it possible that God has placed within all humans an inherent sense of morality, in other words, a moral law? A law that contains an innate sense of right and wrong related to lying, stealing, adultery, murder, and the like? Before the account of Abraham’s life, we only see a few specific references to God’s commands: 1) no eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (chapter three); 2) the murder of Abel (chapter four); and 3) no eating of raw meat and no murder as commanded to Noah right after the flood (chapter 9). Other than those things, there are only two references of evil to the end of Abraham's life: Gen. 6:5, and Gen. 18:20f, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah's demise from “grievous” sin. Gen 6:5 states “Yahweh saw how great man’s wickedness had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” This is re-iterated after the flood in Gen. 8:21 – “…even though every inclination of [man’s] heart is evil from childhood…” Then Gen. 19:5, 6 states “ '....where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.' Lot went out...and said, 'No, don't do this wicked thing.' “ Notwithstanding that last specific reference, and after the few references mentioned, can we know what were the requirements, commands, decrees, and laws to be kept by Abraham?                          Romans 2:14 unlocks the key to this mystery. “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the [Mosaic] law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the [written] law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing and/or defending them.” This verse packs a punch! This verse states outright, that the written law (given by Moses) was a stating of those requirements that were already inherent in man. Further in this chapter, Paul makes the argument that because of the Jews' inability to keep the very laws in which they prided themselves, that the Gentiles blaspheme God's name because of them. Was this blasphemy only an apparent mockery of the Jew's hypocrisy, or did it also contain an inherent knowledge of the common sense of right behavior, which was inside everyone, no matter in what culture they found themselves?                                                        Of course, another thought emerges, since God supernaturally spoke, and appeared, to Abraham at different times: Did God specifically tell Abraham what the moral law entailed? We will never know this side of heaven. It doesn't even matter, because we all have been given the moral law, an inate sense of right and wrong.

May 3 – What Happens When We Die?

       "We are confident, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." - 2 Corinthians 5:8

       " After that, he [Christ] appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep." - 1 Corinthians 15:6

       The New Testament writers and Jesus himself, weave a tapestry of the big picture of what happens when people die. To understand how the people of Jesus' time saw the state of post-death, let's first look at a few Old Covenant writings. David laments in Psalm 6:5 that "No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave?" Psalm 30:9; 115;17; and Ecclesiastes 9:10 basically states the same thing. At best, this lends credence to the idea of "soul sleep", in which we are in a state of limbo, sleeping/awaiting the next phase of existence. At worst, it lends credence to the belief that we do not have an eternal spirit that lives beyond death. The latter is basically what the Sadducees of Jesus' time believed (as they did not believe in a resurrection of the dead). This study is not interested in the resurrection of the body, which is a related, but completely separate, topic.

       At another point in time, David seems to contradict himself in Psalm 16:10-11, that "....you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." While this phrase is quoted by Peter in Acts 2 to reference the physical resurrection of Jesus, David must have had something in mind regarding all living humans.

       The ancients certainly had the concept of "Sheol", a Hebrew word that is often translated as "the grave". In modern times, we understand "the grave" as a hole in the ground, where a dead body is laid. But the ancients understood it as the "abode of the dead, of "good" people and "bad" people alike. We now understand it as something like a "holding place" where there were two separate areas for conscious spirits. One was a tormenting fiery place for the ungodly; the other was called Abraham's bosom, a place of bliss for the godly people who had died. None were sleeping, but were quite conscious. Reference the story of Lazarus, told by Jesus in Luke 16:19-31 to get the complete story . There are also two other references of dead persons being quite conscious before the resurrection of Jesus. I Samuel 28 recalls a story of Samuel being "summoned" from "the grave" to speak with King Saul. Matthew 17 tells the story of the transfiguration of Jesus on a high mountain, accompanied by Peter, James, and John. The spirits of Elijah and Moses showed up to talk with Jesus for a brief time. From these references, we get a glimpse that the dead were not "sleeping" but were definitely conscious.

       The story of Lazarus in Luke 16 also fits into the puzzle of what happens now when people die. I am obviously insinuating that there has been a change in the "locations" of some of the dead. 1 Peter 3:19 references Jesus preaching to the ungodly dead, at the time of his death. Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians 4:8 give us the picture of Jesus taking the godly dead from the "holding tank" of Abraham's bosom to heaven itself, the abode of the Father. The ungodly, however, are left in Hades, the Greek word that equals Sheol. There they are left in punishment, while still awaiting the final judgment.

In Paul's writings, we are also given clues to our state of being when we die. In 2 Corinthians 5:8,9 as referenced in the title verses, to be away from the body, is to be present with our Master. This clearly indicates that our spirits depart the body, and are conscious with Jesus in heaven. He basically states the same thing in Philippians 1:23. If Jesus led the Old Covenant godly persons to heaven as conscious beings, why would he leave us now to wait in "soul sleep"? No, he takes us as conscious beings into his heavenly presence as soon as we die. If David could envision eternal pleasures with his limited understanding of the revelation given to him, then how much greater those pleasures must be in the loving presence of our Savior.