Abram: Be Thou Perfect?

Genesis 17, our Bible story for next Sunday, Lent Two

 1 When Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. 3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, 4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. 5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. 6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

Poor Abraham, God help him, he is coming up on a hundred years old now and God is still teasing him. He was seventy-five when God first made these same promises and enticed him to leave his home in Haran and set forth toward Canaan to claim some elusive Promised Land, Abram as he was called then, and Sarai, and his nephew Lot. Abram’s one virtue seems to be his faith, that he trusts in God and does what God says; other than that he certainly does not live up to God's call "be thou perfect." In fact, Abram could be pretty sleazy contemptible; because Abram is just one of us, isn’t he. 

Over the next quarter-century of God's carrot-on-a-stick promise, Abram holds on, he and Sarai hoping for a child; but there is no child, and in time the repeated “covenant” comes to be something of a joke between them. Abram does have a son, Ishmael, the issue of a union with Sarai’s maid Hagar. Abram loves Ishmael dearly, which makes Sarai insanely jealous and abusive.

It sounds like an ordinary family of ordinary humans; but then Abram and company are sinners just like the rest of us. And God loves him anyway. Just like the rest of us.

TW+