Of Heaven and Of Earth

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

OF HEAVEN AND OF EARTH

Gen 24:1-9

24:1 Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. 2 He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. 3 I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac." 5 The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?" 6 "Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. 7 "The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land' — he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. 8 If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there." 9 So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.

NIV

According to records, Abraham is about one hundred and forty at this time and as this is still a strong patriarchal society, the Father arranges the marriage of his son. Once again Abraham uses the more relational name of God, Yahweh, Elohiym, the Lord God. He calls him the Lord, God of heaven and earth. It is interesting that if these are the very words of Abraham written by the author, Moses, we would think they are as Moses did speak face to face with God and would have been inspired to record this exactly. So, then Abraham was fully aware of the absolute rule of God both in heaven and on earth. Nothing would happen in either if Yahweh, Elohiym did not order it. With this understanding of who the LORD God is, Abraham knows his son should have a wife from his own clan and some other line of descendants from his father's household. Much could be said about the oath taken with the hand of the chief steward under the thigh of Abraham. Interestingly, the Hebrew word used can mean the loins, or the genitive part, and the part of sacramental consecration, when all men were circumcised as ordered in the covenant God made with Abraham. This is an oath of oaths, and the chief servant must follow it without fail. We make all sorts of promises, but not in this manner as this oath. We break our promises sometimes, but this oath cannot be broken unless, the circumstance Abraham gives for a reason of releasing the servant from this oath. Two truths we should remember. First, our Lord God is the God of both heaven and earth. Our lives do not belong to us, as we agreed to the terms of the new covenant by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This means that we live totally under the rule of the covenant God made with us, and he is our Sovereign, Almighty God, who leads us, orders our footsteps, and that our lives are for his expressed purpose. Being a follower of Jesus, who many call a Christian, means that we are not just living our lives, doing our thing, and adding Jesus, or God as our religious activity, or spiritual part of our lives. God is our divine influencer, our ruler, our lamp onto our feet. We do not do what he has not ordered but only do what he has ordered in our lives. Does he give us some latitude? We would think we have some choices in life, but we also think we should be careful in those choices, knowing, or at least contemplating what consequences they could bring. The second truth is regarding giving our word, or as in this passage, an oath. This would apply first in our marriage. We made some kind of vow when we wed our spouse, and even if the face of trouble should show up, the vow should still stand. Secondly, when we work for an earthly employer, we are actually working as onto the Lord, so our word, our faithfulness to our assigned task is our word. We agreed to the agreement, and we gave our word that we would do what was required. Thirdly, and most importantly, we gave the Lord God our word that we would follow Jesus, that we would bear his image, being his ambassador in this foreign land, which also implies this world is not our home, our treasures are laid up beyond the blue. Our reward is in heaven, although God may bless us in the here and now. But our task, our calling, is to do the bidding of our God. We cannot escape his call, just as Abraham believed, and followed, we follow because we believe the LORD God of heaven and of earth.