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Showing posts from January, 2014

A Promise of Perfection

Abram had messed up. He had doubted God's promise to give him a son from his own body. Instead of remembering that the two shall be one and waiting patiently on the Lord, the patriarch acted in response to his wife's misgivings -- that the promise only applied to him, not Sarai. So through polygamy Ishmael was born. Not only did he set a false precedent for God's people having multiple spouses; he also created a controversy that is warred even in our time in the beautiful land of Palestine. This is the Abram whom God approaches thirteen years later in Genesis 17, to whom He says: "I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be perfect, and I will establish My covenant with you." First, God declares Who He is. To Moses He said, "I am that I AM." A speaker at GYC paraphrased it this way: "Pure existence." To Joshua, The Lord said, "As Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come." He is the General, the Commander-in-chief of the heav