A Word about Family Business: Casey at the Bat

 

Today in our series “Family Business” we will see that life situations outside of his family can cause stress and pressure on a father.  If these are not handled well, failure inside the family can result. Let’s begin by reading Genesis 6:1-7:

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. 3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. 5 When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.”

Every child in Sunday School learns the story of Noah and the Great Flood.  Geologists, archeologists, and other scholars have debated whether this flood happened or not, but none have been able to prove that it didn’t happen the way that the Bible says it did. In truth, every ancient civilization includes a flood in the story of their beginnings. 

Of course, since we accept the Bible to be God’s Inspired Word, we know that the Flood did happen, and we must come to grips with what it means in terms of Gods eternal plan.

When I think of the Flood, I think of Noah, and when I think of Noah, I think of Ernest Thayer’s poem, “Casey at The Bat”. So, why does this poem remind me of the flood? Well, because the hero of both stories had feet of clay.

First, we can See the Failure of Creation:

The poem begins with the Mudville nine in a dire situation,

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day, The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.  And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, a pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game.  A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast. They thought, "if only Casey could but get a whack at that. We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat."  But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake; and the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake. So upon that stricken multitude, grim melancholy sat; for there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat.

At this time, the condition of this world was also dire! God had made a perfect, beautiful world. Satan had struck back at Him through His creation and had spoiled it through sin. Now man had followed suit and was wallowing in his rebellion, like a child playing with a cake at a first birthday party. Go big or go home, right?

God had had it; He was fed-up with human sin! God is perfect and He cannot abide sin. God is also righteous, and He cannot allow sin.  Like Popeye, God had “stood all He could stands, and he couldn’t stands no more,” or as a friend might say, people had, “. . . gotten on God’s very last nerve.” Yet God was loving; He gave them 120 years of probation to change their way of life. Still, they refused to repent.

James Dobson has taught for many years that the key to child discipline is not to yell or scream, but to act, and God decided to act. He decided to blot out sinful humanity. Yet, like the poem “Casey at the Bat,” there was a possible hero, a man named Noah. Let’s read Genesis 6:8-22,

Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord. 9 These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14 “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside. 15 This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 You are to make a roof, finishing the sides of the ark to within 18 inches of the roof. You are to put a door in the side of the ark. Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks. 17 “Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. 19 You are also to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of everything—from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds—will come to you so that you can keep them alive. 21 Take with you every kind of food that is eaten; gather it as food for you and for them.” 22 And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

Next, we can See the Faithfulness of Noah:

Like a diamond in Mudville, Noah’s character shined. He found favor in God’s sight, and he was just towards people. Noah also walked with God like Enoch had done. He was not perfect, but he was righteous in serving God, and so he was chosen to save the remnant of humanity.

One might say, that like Casey was for his baseball team, Noah was humanity’s only hope. This was not only a great honor, but a huge challenge!

I once counseled with a young pastor who had been told that he was the last hope of a struggling church. No pressure, right? Well, in truth that church had great expectations of him, in the same way that the crowd did when they saw that Casey was going to get to bat:

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all, and Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball; and when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred, there was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third. Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell; it rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; it pounded through on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat; for Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat. There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place, there was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face. And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat, no stranger in the crowd could doubt t'was Casey at the bat.  Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.  Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.

Like Casey, Noah seemed to be up to the challenge. And for the most part, he was. He was given an outrageous task, but he was both obedient and diligent to accomplish it. The Ark was probably a 450 foot-long, 75 foot-wide, 4,000-ton ship. Can you imagine what his neighbors said? His wife? And yet Noah did it all!  Not part, not most, but all of it! 

Not only that, but Noah did it without arguing or delaying in any way. He was like Abraham, who got up and went when called by God, or like the Disciples who became fishers of men when called by Jesus.

So, all was good right? Noah was like the U.S. Cavalry in an old west movie, charging in to save the day, right? Not so fast! In fact, he was more like Casey than he should have been. Our poem ends the same way that Noah’s service ended:

The sneer has fled from Casey's lip, the teeth are clenched in hate. He pounds, with cruel violence, his bat upon the plate. And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go, and now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.  Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright.  The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light. And, somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout,  but there is no joy in Mudville -- mighty Casey has struck out.

We also can See the Failure of Noah:

Noah was given a unique opportunity to do something that no other human since him has been given the chance to do as we can see in Genesis 9:1-7,

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. 3 Every living creature will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. 4 However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it. 5 I will require the life of every animal and every man for your life and your blood. I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life. 6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image. 7 But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”

Noah could have worked with God in creating a new life for humanity. He could have become the father of a renewed race of faithful people of God and thus erase the stain of sin upon mankind. We can only imagine what our lives here on earth would be like if Noah had fulfilled his potential in God. But, like Casey, Noah struck out as we can see in Genesis 9:18-27,

Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated. 20 Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21 He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked. 24 When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said: Canaan will be cursed. He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers. 26 He also said: Praise the Lord, the God of Shem; Canaan will be his slave. 27 God will extend Japheth; he will dwell in the tents of Shem; Canaan will be his slave.

In the end, Noah could not stand the strain. Even Noah, as good as he was, could not do it. He was not perfect, and his flesh was weak. He crumbled under the pressure. He “choked”. 

Noah was like Casey who struck out, and he was also like Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner who missed an easy ground ball in the 6th game of the 1986 World Series. His error allowed the New York Mets to tie the series and then go on to win the championship in the 7th game. 

Noah’s error had much greater consequences, but not only did he perpetuate the sin that God had wanted to eliminate, but he also wasted all his own gargantuan efforts.

Noah’s real failure, his real sin, was that he failed to continue to walk with God. He lost sight of what God was to him and he lost sight of what God wanted to do through him. He got wrapped up in his own problems and he had a pity party. Like many people who experience stress today and who react poorly to it, Noah self-medicated.  With Noah’s collapse, all seemed to be lost, but . . . God . . . Genesis 9:9-17 tells us,

“Understand that I am confirming My covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. 11 I confirm My covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by the waters of a flood; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: 13 I have placed My bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember My covenant between Me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. 16 The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have confirmed between Me and every creature on earth.”

Finally, however, let’s See the Faithfulness of God: 

God has made a covenant with Noah and his descendants, including us! He will never destroy the Earth again by a flood, and the rainbow is the symbol of that promise. When we see the bow we will remember God’s promise, like putting our Bible by the bedside to remember to read it.

Noah may have wasted his promise, but God is perfect and faithful and has made many promises to us. Unlike Noah, God always realizes His promise. He loves us and wants the best for us. He wants to help us and bless us, and He does. 

God also knows that we are frail and weak, and that we can only withstand so much pressure before we, too, choke like Casey and like Noah. He knows we want to do right, but we can’t. God loves us so much that he gave His very best to help our weakness. That way, of course, is Jesus. 

Jesus can help us withstand the external pressures of life, and He can also help us withstand the internal pressures of life as well. Jesus can do this because He walked in our shoes, and He overcame the stresses that trip us up. He mastered them, and He offers us the power to master them as well!

Conclusion:

Have you ever felt that, like Casey, you let your team down? Have you ever been stressed out because you felt the weight of the world on your shoulders? Have you ever let the stress of life and work affect your relationships at home? Have you ever felt like you let God down?

If so, you probably have. If you haven’t, you probably will.

The good news for all of us the help of God to overcome our frailties and to help us bear up under the loads of life. Will you accept His help today?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Like Father Like Son

Today in our series “Family Business” we will see that apples don’t fall far from the tree as we consider Genesis 4:1-15. Let’s begin by reading Genesis 4:1-7,

Adam was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have had a male child with the Lord’s help.” 2 Then she also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of flocks, but Cain worked the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain presented some of the land’s produce as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also presented an offering—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he looked despondent. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? 7 If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

From time to time all of us make verbal faux pas. One of my favorite stories about such mistakes was told by former FBI agent and criminal profiler John Douglas in his book Mindhunter. He told of how his boss had once held a news conference about a murder case.  In it his boss said, “This is not an uncommon event.  People have been killing each other ever since Cain shot Abel.”  That’s funny enough, but Douglas went on to say that none of the brilliant members of the Fourth Estate who were present caught it!

So far, in this series, the main culprit has been Satan.  Lucifer became proud of his beauty, forgot that it had been bestowed upon him by God, and tried to stage a coup in heaven.  He was defeated, and he and his followers were cast out of heaven, but sin and evil had come into being.

In reaction, God, out of His loving personality, created the heavens and the earth, and all living creatures therein, the highest of which was humanity.  As we saw in Genesis 2 and 3. Satan counter-punched, striking back at God by tempting Adam and Eve to sin.  Satan accomplished his goal of enticing God’s greatest creations to defile themselves and ruin God’s perfect plan for them. Now we will begin to see the impact of the sin of Adam and Eve as Cain followed their lead and sinned in his own right. Let’s begin by considering verses 1-7.

Cain Failed to Worship God:

Worship is “job one” for a Christian.  For over fifteen years, the slogan of the Ford Motor Company was “Quality is Job #1.” The company wanted to differentiate itself from other auto manufacturers by highlighting its focus on quality at every stage of production and so high quality, ostensibly, became its highest priority.  In the Christian life, worship is our most basic function as a disciple individually and as a church collectively. If we fail to worship, we fail God and we fail ourselves.

Worship is declaring the “worth-ship” of God. It is praising Him and extolling His glory. He deserves our worship, and we have an innate need to worship Him as well. Some have put it this way: there is a God-shaped place in our hearts that only He can fill. The Scriptures support this idea; Psalm 42:1-4 says,

As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, “Where is your God?” 4 I remember this as I pour out my heart: how I walked with many, leading the festive procession to the house of God, with joyful and thankful shouts.

Worship allows us to connect with a higher being and a higher purpose than just ourselves. Life will never be empty or meaningless for God’s people if they worship Him in spirit and in truth and with all of their heart, all of their soul and all of their mind.

These verses tell us that Cain’s worship was flawed. Like someone giving their cast-off clothes to a charity shop, Cain brought his leftovers to God. And verse 5 shows us that even when he did that, he had a bad attitude about it. He did not care enough to give his very best to God. Abel, on the other hand, worshipped well. He brought his best, his first fruits to God, and his attitude was to make pleasing God his number one priority.

Let me be clear that the issue was not the type of offering that Cain provided. Yes, animal sacrifices were central to the Law of Moses, but it also included provisions for grain and liquid offerings as well. We also must note that the Law of Moses had not yet been given. No, the issue was not with the type of offering, but the quality of it, and the attitude in which it was given.

Steven Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said that in life, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” For the Christian, worshiping God is the main thing. Author and Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe has said:

Heaven is a place of worship, and God’s people shall worship Him throughout all eternity. Perhaps it would be good for us to get in practice now!

When we do the right thing, we are often criticized by others who don’t. For example, the first American to orbit the earth, John Glenn, was the object of jealousy by the rest of the first seven astronauts because of his “Mr. Clean” persona. We can see this same thing taking place in the first family as we read verses 8 and 9,

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

Cain Failed to Love His Brother: 

Cain not only failed to worship God, but he also failed to love his brother. Cain’s failure to worship originated in his failure to love.

A number of words are used for love in the Scriptures including phileo, which means brotherly love (and from where we get the city name of Philadelphia) and agape which is God’s type of love which is extolled in 1 Corinthians 13. In any case, Cain failed to love his brother to the extent that he lured him out into the field and killed him.

Detective Joe Kenda, who solved 356 murder cases in his career, has said that the three basic motives for murder are money, jealousy, and revenge. All of these things can provoke an immature person into hurting another. 

Fear is another reason people hurt others. 1 John 4:18 tells us that, “Perfect love casts out all fear,” but sadly our love isn’t perfect. In fear, we can give way to the idea that we should, “Do unto others before they do it unto us!” Our national fear after the 9/11 attacks caused our government to believe that Sadam Hussein possessed and had the will to use weapons of mass destruction, and yet after our invasion of Iraq, none were ever found.

Sometimes people are simply callous and hardhearted. As James 2:14-16 reminds us, 

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can his faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

For whatever reason, Cain gave place to his anger. He planned and plotted to kill his brother. Then he lured Abel into an isolated place, and he killed him. Afterwards he dismissed his act with a cruel and dismissive comment.

An infantry veteran of the Korean War once told me that he had gotten so accustomed to death, that, to avoid sitting on the frozen ground, he sat on an enemy corpse to eat his rations.  This was a battle-hardened and battle-scarred soldier, not someone who was new to death and violence, yet Cain’s attitude was equally callous. Let’s continue by reading verses 10-12:

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?” 10 Then He said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! 11 So now you are cursed, alienated, from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed. 12 If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

Cain Failed to Love God:

Sin against people is rampant in our world. Theft, murder, rape, child abuse, the list is endless, yet we often forget that, as King David admitted after conspiring to murder Uriah, sins against people are also sins against God. 1 John 4:7-8 tells us,

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

We must remember the true nature of love. It begins on the inside before it shows itself on the outside. This is like the sauce leaking out of a paper bag of barbeque sandwiches; it comes from the inside out. Putting barbecue sauce on the outside of a bag will not season the food on the inside. In the same way, love that is all show has no go. 

All through the Bible we see inner love coming out into the open. Abel and his proper worship of God. Abraham willing to sacrifice Isaac. Jonathan who protected David from Saul at his own cost. Mary who sat at Jesus’s feet and learned from Him. Mary who anointed Jesus with perfume. Jesus with the woman at the well.  Jesus dying on the cross.  As the song says, when He was asked how much He loves us, Jesus stretched out His arms wide, and then He died.

So, it is obvious that Cain failed to love God. What about us? If God loved us like we love Him, where would we be? Vance Havner, a noted revival speaker of the late 20th Century commented that, 

"We have left our love for Christ, and when love for Christ dies, love for each other, for the Bible, for souls, dies." 

In our world today, if we had more respect for Divine guidance, we’d have less need for guided missiles!

Cain failed to worship God, and he failed to love both his brother and God. Is there any hope present in this story? Yes, there is and we can see it in verses 13-15, and 25,

But Cain answered the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! 14 Since You are banishing me today from the soil, and I must hide myself from Your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 Then the Lord replied to him, “In that case, whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” And He placed a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him . . . 25Adam was intimate with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, for she said, “God has given me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”

God’s Love Didn’t Fail:

In this sordid tale of rebellion, jealousy, and murder, is there any hope? Is there any bright spot? Yes, of course. The Bible is full of disappointing incidents, but the one element that will never disappoint us is the love of God. We can see clearly here that God’s love didn’t fail.

First, God gave His grace to Cain. Grace is the unmerited favor of God, and we know that this was given to Cain because God did not kill Him. The payment for sin is death, and God could have taken Cain’s life, but He didn’t. He gave Cain the grace to continue to live and to have the opportunity to repent and grow in love for God and for humanity.

Next, God corrected Cain. The Bible tells us that God will discipline the one whom He loves, and He disciplined Cain. We should not fear God’s correction; on the other hand, if we sin and God does not correct us, we need to be concerned, if not alarmed! If we sin and God does not correct us, then that might mean He does not consider us His own, and that is a serious problem!

Also, God protected Cain. When Cain begged God to change his punishment, God did not, but He did offer Cain His mercy. Mercy is the power of God that helps us to live in painful or difficult circumstances. In His love, God showed His mercy through His protection to Cain.

Finally, God showed His love to Adam and Eve in that He gave them a new son, Seth, and later a grandson named Enosh. Usually, the children in a family suffer the collateral damage from family strife, but in this case, it was the parents. No doubt what happened in that field grieved them, and God, in His love, gave them His mercy also.

Conclusion:

The impact of the sin committed by Adam and Eve didn’t just affect them but their family as well. The story told by the murder of Abel by Cain is a sad one, and not just because of its impact on the first family, but also because it is a story that has repeated itself an untold number of times down through the generations.

The good news is that God’s love has also perpetuated itself infinitely down through the ages. Even when we destroy our family relationships, He is eager to give us His correction and discipline so that we can feel and be blessed by His grace and peace and mercy.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about a Child of Promise

Today in our series “Family Business” we will see God fulfilling His promises to frail human beings in the middle of family drama as I comment on Genesis 21:1-21. Let’s begin by reading Genesis 21:1-7,

The Lord came to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him. 3 Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age.”

The birth of a child is usually a joyous event.  It is joyous because we see the potential in that young life.  We see a child who has promise and we want to encourage that child to achieve that promise.  Our encouragement can sometimes have unintended consequences, however:

A teacher was trying to encourage her students to catch a vision for what they might become.  Time and again she told them, “You can be anything you want to be!”  Then, she asked them to share their expectations with the class.  One child wanted to be a policeman, another wanted to be a doctor, and a third wanted to be a soldier.  The teacher was flabbergasted by her fourth student’s response.  That little girl stood up and said: “When I grow up, I want to be a lion.”  The teacher replied, “A lion? You can’t be a lion, you’re a person.”  “But,” the child fired back, “you said we could be anything we wanted!” As Art Linkletter used to remind us, “Kids say the darndest things!”

As we continue to observe people conduct their family business in the Scripture, we come to the birth of a child, who was also a child of promise.  Let’s begin by considering verses 1-7.

The Promise to Sarah:

Every person has emotional and spiritual needs. A list of ten common emotional needs among people includes: Acceptance, Appreciation, Affection, Approval, Attention, Security, Comfort, Encouragement, Respect, and Support. A common mistake we make in our interpersonal relationships is to assume that our priority needs are everyone’s priority needs. Jesus did tell us to, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” but in that case He meant that we should want to bless, affirm, and enrich others in principle, but not necessarily in detail.

For example, my wife enjoys eating yellow crookneck squash. I dislike yellow crookneck squash to the point that I wish that that species had never been created! Therefore, my wife would have a vastly different reaction to being presented a steaming helping of that food than I would. She would feel appreciated, but I would feel nauseated. Well, that would be hyperbole, but I certainly would not appreciate a dish of yellow crookneck squash as much as she would.

What was Sarah’s need? She needed personal fulfillment. She needed to resolve an emotional deficit in her life. She needed to feel personally useful. She needed a baby!

Again, not every woman, and not every couple, need a child. Gone are the days when people needed to have children so that they would have extra hands to work the farm. No, as my brother-in-law said, “In today’s world there is no logical reason to have children. The only reason to have a child is to share your love.” The Social Security Administration might argue the point in general, but in terms of individual couples, my brother-in-law had a point.

Sarah needed a child for her own reasons, but she also needed a baby to fulfill God’s promises to her, and He obviously did so, even if she had doubted Him. Both she and Abraham did doubt God, but, in no surprise to us, God was faithful and in doing so, He fulfilled His promises and Sarah’s need. 

Sarah had her baby and named him Laughter!  She rejoiced and shouted with happiness, which reminds me of the actress Sally Field receiving her Oscar and shouting, “You like me; right now, you like me!”

God not only fulfilled His promise to Sarah, but He also fulfilled His promise to Abraham as we see in verses 8-13,

The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!” 11 Now this was a very difficult thing for Abraham because of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 13 But I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.”

The Promise to Abraham: 

At this juncture we must realize that every event that is included in the Bible is meant to be there, but it may not be included to give us a model to follow. In fact, many Scriptural passages are there to give us an example not to follow, and also to issue to us a warning.  For example, it is a common plea among pastors for their congregation to become a New Testament Church. That sounds great until you read 1st Corinthians, James, and the first three chapters of Revelation. These passages might give a different impression of what a New Testament Church might be like.

This passage is one of those which you must consider carefully with the help of the Holy Spirit. Abraham and Sarah had failed to trust God, and they had done a foolish and sinful thing.  People often do things because they can, without asking if they should. In that day it was perfectly legal to create an heir by requiring a female slave to have a master’s child. It was legal, but it was also wrong. And in this case, the result was familial chaos. 

Abraham had been called of God to serve God by being the father of a great people. That had not happened yet, and Abraham was frustrated. He needed to fulfill God’s will for himself. I understand that frustration. I was called to the ministry in college, yet I waited 8 years to become the pastor of a church.

We all have a need to play our parts in God’s Kingdom.  God has a mission: to reconcile sinful humanity with Himself. God has established His people as a tool to make that happen. God has given us a commission and He has equipped us for His work. We need to be about the Father’s business, but we don’t need to get ahead of Him

Despite Abraham’s rash actions, God fulfilled Abraham’s need as well, He provided Isaac, a son of promise, and He was going to use Isaac in His plan. From Isaac came the nation of Israel and from Israel came Jesus. From Jesus comes the promise of reconciliation with God for all of us!

So far, so good, but there are other people in this story as well. Let’s continue by reading verses 14-21:

Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. 15 When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly. 17 God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is. 18 Get up, help the boy up, and support him, for I will make him a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. 20 God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. 21 He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

The Promise to Hagar: 

Next, we see someone with some acute and immediate needs, Hagar. She was totally innocent of wrongdoing over the birth of her son, because, tragically, she had no say in the matter at all. Her life was completely in the hands of Abraham and Sarah, and all she could do was comply. That is not to say that she did not make mistakes, however.

The Biblical record shows that she did develop a disdain for Sarah which was expressed on more than one occasion, but that’s what happens in a relationship that has three people in it instead of two. As Princess Diana said about her marital difficulties with the then Prince Charles, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” 

In Genesis 2:24, we read,

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.

I believe that this is not only descriptive, but also prescriptive. When we violate God’s Word, we suffer the consequences. Not only that, but collateral damage can also happen, and especially to children.

So, what was Hagar’s need? She needed a savior! She was lost, and out on her own. She had no way to save herself. She had no way to save her child. Hagar was not alone in this need; we all have a need for a savior! 

We may not be cast off into the desert, but in our natural state, we are all lost in the wilderness of sin. There is none righteous, no not one, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags before God! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! We are like someone who has fallen down into a well; we can’t save ourselves and we need a savior.

God, of course, saved Hagar. He heard her cry for help, and He revealed salvation to her. He made a great nation of the child at death’s door. He will help us, too today, when we call upon Him!

The Promise to Us:

We, as God’s people today, have needs. We have a need for salvation. We have physical and emotional and relational needs. We also have a need to fulfill our role in God’s Kingdom. Who can help us with those needs? God can! 

Part of the Good News is that God does not change:

• The God of Abraham was the God of Isaac.
• The God of Isaac was the God of Jacob.
• The God of Jacob was the God of Joseph.
• The God of Joseph was the God of Moses.
• The God of Moses was the God of David.
• The God of David was the Son of Man.
• The Son of Man was the God of the founders of the church.
• The God of the founders of the church is our God today!

Thus, we can be assured that He can and will answer our needs! He did it for Sarah. He did it for Abraham. He did it for Hagar. He will do it for us!

Conclusion:

The children in this story were fulfilled promises of God, and they remind us of the multitude of promises that God has made to His people in His Word. We also can see today that God willingly and perfectly can fulfill all of our needs. What needs do we have today? Give them to God and watch Him work!

A Word About Getting Off to a Rocky Start

Today in our new series “Family Business,” we will see how the first couple got off to a rocky start as I comment on Genesis 2 and 3. Let’s begin by reading Genesis 2:15-25:

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.” 19 So the Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found as his complement. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22 Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. 24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

My wife and I dated for over three and a half years before we got married, and we were one of the last couples among our friends who wed. A couple of years before that, my best friend married a young lady; they were both members of our church and my wife and I both participated in their wedding ceremony. All seemed well, that is until they left for their honeymoon.

First, on the way to a family-owned beach house they suffered car troubled, and it was late in the afternoon before they arrived. Next, when they opened the door of the house, they were met with a horrific odor. A freezer full of locally caught fish had malfunctioned and all the catch was now rotting in the summer’s heat. After several hours of smelly effort, they cleaned out the freezer. After taking showers, they decided to go out to eat and let the beach house air out.

The only place open at that late hour was a fast-food restaurant. As they ordered their food, they shyly told the counterman that they had just been married. As they did so, my friend’s wedding ring slipped off his finger, fell to the floor, rolled the length of the restaurant, and then it fell under the crack at the bottom of a door. The counterman just shook his head, and commented, “Well, that didn’t last too long, did it?”

Our friends are still married today, but there is no denying that they got off to a rocky start. As rough as their marriage began, it was nothing compared to the very first couple, Adam and Eve. They, too, got off to a rocky start, and their experience still echoes down the ages until today.

Ground Rules:

Every ballpark has ground rules which address the specific characteristics of the diamond. They exist to make sure both teams are treated fairly. The home team will play there for at least half of their games, and they will come to understand the peculiarities of the ballpark very well, but the visiting teams, not so much. Ground rules prevent those who know too much from taking advantage of those who don’t know enough.

God knew that Adam and Eve were innocent in the truest sense of the word. They were unaware of Lucifer’s rebellion against God in Heaven. They were unaware of God casting Satan and one third of the angels out from Heaven. They were unaware that the Devil would counter-punch God where he thought he could hurt Him the worst, by attacking Adam and Eve, God’s most precious creation, and the highest manifestation of His divine love.  Therefore, God set ground rules for Adam and Eve.

These ground rules were quite generous. They could eat freely of any tree of the garden. No tilling, no pruning, and no harvesting was required. Basically, it was a 24/7, 365, all you can eat, free buffet with only one restriction: they were only forbidden to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That was their only limitation.

Once people know the reality of evil and violence, they are never the same. Their innocence is lost, and it can never be fully regained. I know this to be the case by personal experience. I once witnessed the aftermath of an accident in New Orleans, in which a pedestrian had been hit by a semi-truck; I will not elaborate on what I saw, but that image is still with me! The ground rules that God put into place were not punitive, but protective; yet they also came with penalties for violating them.

In baseball, a play that results in a violation of a ground rule might prevent a run from being scored or an out from being recorded. The penalty for violating God’s ground rules is much more severe, because the risk to spiritual life is so much greater than the result of a game. God was not playing around when He established these ground rules, for the wages of violating them was death. As Paul reminded the church in Romans, “For the wages of sin, is death . . .” (Romans 6:23a). 

God sets up boundaries (temporal and eternal) for our own good (temporal and eternal). When we violate them, we grievously wound ourselves! God was serious, and Adam and Eve should have taken Him at His Word, but unfortunately for humanity, they didn’t, as we will see in Genesis 3. Let’s begin this chapter by reading Genesis 3:1-5:

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. knowing good and evil.”

Satan’s Lies: 

Satan is the author of lies, and in this passage, we see him using his deceitful cunning to his best advantage. He took the form of a superior creature to deceive Eve.

Today serpents and snakes are almost universally reviled, although I did have a boss once who liked snakes.  When snakes were created, like all creatures, they were good. They were the most cunning, crafty, and subtle of all beasts. These are not bad traits; the serpent was not condemned before Genesis 3 for having these characteristics. The serpent was like the cartoon character that says: “I can’t help myself; I’m just drawn this way.” It was Satan who took over this creature to ruin it, and all humanity as well.

Not only did Satan co-opt and corrupt a superior animal, but he also used superior tactics. In verse 1 he used insinuation to pry open Eve’s heart. In verse 4 he made inflammatory but unfounded accusations to ignite Eve’s emotions and to incite her to resentment. Both of these tactics attacked God’s justice, authority, and power.

This was not the only time we can observe the Devil using these techniques in the Bible. He tried to show that he was superior to Jesus in Matthew 4 by use of these same tactics of temptation. He, of course, was defeated by Jesus, but since he was successful with Adam and Eve, we can assume that he will use these same techniques against us:

• The temptation to misuse power for our own gain (Greed)
• The temptation to be spectacular to gain fame (Gaudy).
• The temptation to seize power (Become God).

We face these same temptations every day of our lives. We need to see how the first humans dealt with temptation, and measure our own responses, and results, by theirs.

Next, let’s continue by reading verses 2-7:

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”4 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Humanity’s Fall: 

What we see next is like a train wreck. There is nothing you can do about it, and you know the results will be horrific, but you can’t take your eyes away from the disaster as it unfolds.  

The fall began with a faulty answer to Satan by Eve. She omitted the word “freely”.  She added the words “not . . .  touch it.” She softened the phrase, “you will certainly die.” Each of these changes distorted God’s Word and His revealed will.

In contrast, when Jesus was tempted, His reply did not alter God’s Word. His replies were quoted Scripture. He did not add or take away from the Word. He did not miss God’s revealed will!

In the end, both Adam and Eve succumbed to the appeal of the forbidden fruit. It appealed to the eye: it looked good! It appealed to the tongue: it tasted good! It appealed to the ego: it felt good! When confronted with such temptation, we would do well to remember 1 John 2:15-17, which warns us,

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. 16 For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

The bottom line here is this: when we ignore the Word of God, and when we ignore His revealed will, we will get in trouble!

Next, let’s read verses 7 through 19:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,  and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” 11 Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.” 14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. 16 He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in anguish. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. 17 And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”  

Tragic Consequences:

The consequences of the fall of humanity were tragic to the point of being heart-breaking! 

First, we see the beginning of shame! 

• They were ashamed of their nakedness.  
• They hid from God.  
• They made excuses. 
• They played the blame game.

Just about the only shame response that we don’t see here is substance abuse, but that is only because alcohol hadn’t been invented yet!

Next, we see the advent of death! 

• Death entered our world.
• Death entered humanity.
• Death entered God’s economy against His expressed will.

The penalty for sin is death and so the world had been altered, ruined; it has never been the same again.

We also see the first judgment!

• The serpent would be cursed and reviled: for many people, the only good snake is a dead snake!
• The woman: she would suffer travail in childbirth.
• The man: he must work and sweat.
• The couple: they would experience a struggle for power and respect.

God is love, and His love is perfect, and as Hebrews 12:5-6 tells us:

And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or faint when you are reproved by Him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives.

For every sin, there is an eternal penalty: death. There is also a temporal consequence as well.  Our salvation voids the penalty, but it does not void the consequences.

Finally, let’s consider verses 20-24:

20 Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them. 22 The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

God’s Love:

God has expressed His love by creating the universe and by creating people and allowing them to live in it. His response to the fall of humanity was also loving:

• He killed to cover their nakedness.
• He prevented them living forever in their sin.
• He protected the garden with an angel.
• He prepared a plan for their future redemption.

Even this early, God had a plan to redeem fallen humanity. He would send His Only Begotten Son to the earth to walk among us again. His Son would live a perfect, holy life, and He would die to pay the penalty for our sin. Then, if we took His perfect life and perfect sacrifice as our own, we’d be restored to the fellowship and rest of God.

Today, God would have us take heed of what Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 10:11-13, which both disciplines us and encourages us at the same time:

Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.

Conclusion:

Consider the tragedy we just witnessed:

• God’s creation ruined by death and destruction.
• God’s Word and will ignored and God shown disrespect. 
• God’s highest and best work abasing themselves for the cause of the flesh.
• God’s loved ones suffering banishment and multiplied troubles

But consider also the love of God we have just witnessed as well. Can we deny Him His way with us, today?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt