2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
One of the names of God that I didn’t get to talk about in my series on that subject is El Olam, “Everlasting God.” There are plenty of scriptures to back up the use of this name for our Abba. Just as He is everlasting, so are His desires for us. As I mentioned yesterday, His messages to us are simple and consistent, repeated many times in different contexts, so that they will really sink in to remain with us. To put it in God’s words, “so they will be written on our hearts” [JER 31: 33-34]. By now, it should be clear that God wants us to take our covenant commitments with Him and others seriously and to never forget them. To that end, He led many people we read about in the Scriptures to erect memorials or take some kind of action to help us remember the commitments we have made. By the way, those of us who are married need only look at our third finger left hand for a reminder of a commitment we’ve made. Today, we are going to look at some examples from the Scriptures.
There are times when some feature of a place or the place itself is named to remember something important that happened there. Such is the case in GN 21: 22-34 in the story of a covenant between Abraham and the Philistine king, Abimelech, that arose out of a dispute over the ownership of a well dug by Abraham. God was very much a part of this agreement, or else Abimelech wouldn’t have had his mind transformed to the point where he would enter into it. Abraham offered Abimelech seven lambs from his flock, which the king accepted to seal it. Seven is God’s number of perfection and completion. In verse (31) we learn that the place was called Beersheba, which in Hebrew means “Well of the Vow.” This place is still found in Israel today. As a memorial of this covenant made, Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshipped the Lord, El Olam, the “Everlasting God” (33).
The everlasting nature of this covenant is demonstrated as it extended to descendants of Abraham, as well. We see this in GN 26: 26-33 in the covenant cemented between Abraham’s son, Isaac, and King Abimelech at Beersheba. The Lord’s participation in this covenant is even clearer as it is revealed in GN 26: 28, “They [Abimelech his adviser, Ahuzzath, and his army commander, Phicol] answered, ‘Now we know that the Lord is with you [Isaac], and we think there should be a solemn agreement between us.” The Philistine acknowledgment of God being with Isaac is their recognition that Isaac possessed a superior power to their own. That attitude had to be God’s doing. Verse 33 repeats the assertion that this place be called Beersheba as a memorial to this covenant extension.
We can now turn to the covenant between Jacob and his Uncle Laban in GN 31: 43-54. I won’t take the space here to repeat details of the the familiar story of how Laban and Jacob’s relationship became so difficult. Suffice it to say that Laban tricked Jacob into marrying his oldest daughter, Leah, first and then got him to work an additional seven years before he was given permission to marry Laban’s second eldest daughter, Rachel, with whom Jacob had been in love from the beginning. There were disagreements as to the ownership of sheep between Jacob and Laban as well. At last Jacob decided that he wanted to return to his home with his wives, children, and flocks. Once again God steps in to soften Laban’s attitude, bringing this man to the understanding that he could no longer keep tricking Jacob into staying and working for him. A covenant agreement is made between these two men, and they in (44-45) set up a pile of stones as a reminder of this agreement. Their covenant was sealed by the sharing of a meal together there at the place from which they agreed the Lord will keep watch on each of them from then on. That place was called “Mizpah,” which in Hebrew means, “place from which to watch.” The practical nature of this agreement is revealed in (52-53), “Both this pile and this memorial stone are reminders. I will never go beyond this pile to attack you [Laban said], and you must never go beyond it or beyond this memorial stone to attack me. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor [Abraham’s brother and Laban’s father, & Abraham was Jacob’s grandfather] will judge between us.’ Then, in the name of the God Whom his father, Isaac, worshipped, Jacob solemnly vowed to keep this promise.”
When we graduated either high school and/or college, we were given a diploma. I believe God was an active Participant indirectly in this achievement, because it was He Who gave us the ability and self-discipline with the help of our parents to complete these courses of study. The diploma and maybe a school ring are reminders of this achievement, which is a promise that for completing the course of study, our society permits the graduate to be considered qualified either for the next step in his/her education or entry into a particular career. I mention this, because God is in every aspect of our lives, whether we realize this or not. That gives us sufficient reason to be very thankful that we don’t have to struggle to go through our lives without His many blessings.
PRAYER : O Lord, we are imperfect and sometimes prone to forget the important agreements we make with You and others. You understand this imperfection and have directed us to establish memorials or take actions to remember them, because You know important they are. That is why those of us who are married wear wedding rings where long ago we were cut to create a scar that would last for life to remind us of the vows with our spouses that we took before You. It is also why You directed men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Abimelech, and Laban to erect memorials to the promises they made before You. We learn of these covenants in the Scriptures, because You want us to appreciate the eternal nature of our promises made before You. You want us to know that they often extend beyond one generation. It was You Who gives us language and Who directs us to carefully select names for places knowing their meanings. Beersheba and Mizpah are two examples where these names serve as memorials of important agreements made there. You are a consistent Lord, One Who wants to be the Lord of our lives, so that they can be salvaged from spiritual death. We acknowledge that You want us to be aware of the blessings You have given us and of Your continuing presence and direction in our lives. For that reason, we dedicate ourselves to paying attention to the meanings of the memorials that You have directed us to erect in our lives. We humbly approach Your altar to pledge You our worship, adoration, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, diligence, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
There is still more to say about the subject of memorials, so I will go on with that in tomorrow’s message. Imagine what we could be and accomplish if God were not our Jehovah Shammah, “The Lord is There,” and our El Olam, “the Everlasting God.” It boggles the imagination to see how useless and worthless we would be. We would have no talents, no accomplishments, and no value to ourselves or anyone else. Our lives would be in slavery to sin and the flesh. But God is there for us. He does call us to make important covenant agreements, so that our lives can be blessed. Since He is our Creator, we wouldn’t even exist without Him. Since He is our Abba Who is always loving, we who have faith in Him will always be blessed [RO 8: 28; PHIL 4: 13]. That, Dear Ones, is love beyond comparison! Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn