Abraham

Even as we move through this weekend celebrating the creation of the world, we'll find that our Torah service tells the story of how Jews pray by noting the inflection points of prayer across time.

We'll read four stories from the Torah and Haftarah over the course of Rosh Hashanah, with the most famous or infamous of which is the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, where he is nearly slaughtered in sacrifice by his father, Abraham.

This story is deeply troubling to us today, and it has troubled Jewish interpreters for at least 2,000 years.

But if we go back 3,000 or even 4,000 years ago before the time of our rabbis, we find that the ancient cultures that ruled over Mesopotamia and the Near East, the Assyrians, the Moabites, the Canaanites, the Ugarites, and more, they had their own religious practices from which ours grew.

And even so it is now.

This is actually reflecting the story of Ishmael and Isaac who was born to Abraham and Paul is saying that just like Ishmael who was born in the flesh persecuted Isaac who was born in the spirit who was born in the supernatural So it is now.

Anything that is in the flesh, it always persecutes and it always fights and it always negates and it always tries to destroy what is born of the spirit.

And you and I have the opportunity today to either yield to what is born of the flesh, either yield to the Adam nature in us, or to intentionally put to death the Adam nature and yield to the Jesus nature in us.

Everything that you do, give your spirit man full control.

If you do not do that, if you do not submit to the spirit, if you do not submit to the spirit man, then Ishmael will end up becoming the person who is going to inherit everything.

You know, that is why it was very necessary for Abraham to put Hagar and Ishmael out of the house.

He had to intentionally listen to Sarah and say, Okay, I understand what you're saying.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

God's attitude does come in because after all, they had not been circumcised.

They were not of the seed of Abraham.

Yes, but before you come to that, there was this Jewish attitude.

This concision and uncircumcision.

The Jew, you see, had quite forgotten that circumcision was the gift of God to him.

It was something that was true of him.

We be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any men, said the Jews to Christ on one occasion.

Poor, blinded fools.

Are they Israelites? So am I.

Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

are they ministers of christ i am talking like a madman i am a better one with far greater labors far more imprisonments with countless floggings and often near death five times i have received from the jews the forty lashes minus one three times i was beaten with rods Once I received a stoning.

Three times I was shipwrecked, for a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty.

God's attitude does come in because after all, they had not been circumcised.

They were not of the seed of Abraham.

Yes, but before you come to that, there was this Jewish attitude.

This concision and uncircumcision.

The Jew, you see, had quite forgotten that circumcision was the gift of God to him.

It was something that was true of him.

We be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any men, said the Jews to Christ on one occasion.

Poor, blinded fools.

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, preparing an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which was according to faith.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterward receive as an inheritance.

and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

That's for all of us who believe and for his own.

His creation.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

And he who had received the promise offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called, according that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him a figurative sense.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.