Your Humble Opinion Pt. 2

more ramblings...


An example:


The story of a guy temporarily named Abram:

God, longing to redeem the human race to Himself, shows up one day and tells Abram to get moving but doesn’t tell him where to go. He tells Abram He plans to make him “great” and “bless all the people of the earth” through him. Abram thinks that sounds pretty good and leaves with his shifty nephew Lot and his wife Sarai. Along the way they stop in Egypt where Abram fibs about Sarai being his wife and sells her to Pharaoh in exchange for a couple goats, cows, camels and house cleaners. He makes up for it though when he meets Melchizedek, the very first king ever mentioned in scripture (who just so happens to rule right where the future Jerusalem will be), priest of the God Most High, and Old Testament personification of Jesus. Melchizedek serves Abram bread and wine (communion) and blesses him. Abram responds by unwittingly instituting the tithe and giving Mel a tenth of everything he has. (If that’s not classic foreshadowing I don’t know what is.) Things go good for Abram for a while. God, being who He is, re-asserts His promise to Abram a couple times and eventually promises him a son. He and Sarai get a bit impatient though and decide it would be a good idea to conceive that son by means of adultery. When this doesn’t work they eventually dump the poor child and his mother off in the desert with some food and water. God then pulls a literary no-no and changes the names of the two main characters of the story, a bit of a habit He has. Meanwhile, Lot’s making babies…with his daughters mind you, and the LORD levels an entire city with fire that falls from the sky. Proving his thick-headedness, Abraham once again sells his wife to a king in exchange for some more favors, this time claiming a technicality rather than admitting he lied. Eventually Abraham and Sarah do have a boy, Isaac, whom the LORD in turn tells Abraham to kill. Abraham blinks, says ok, goes to kill his son but the LORD instead provides a ram (more foreshadowing), His heart warmed by His friend Abraham’s faith. Sarah dies at a young 127 years of age leaving father and son heartbroken. But nothing balms a broken heart like a wedding. With his son newly married to the lovely Rebekah, Abraham decides to tie the knot once more before he kicks it at age 175.

Every word of that story is true. And what’s more, I am redeemed to my God and Father through Jesus Christ in part due to the role each of the characters in that story played. I suddenly feel a bit better about myself.