Too Good to be True

A series on the story of redemption – Part II
The story of Abraham
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 12:1-9 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

There have been several times when my wife and I have been suckered by a sales pitch for a travel program that sounded too good to be true. Each time, after several hours of high-pressure sales, we would leave exhausted from the experience and promising to never do it again.

 

As a young man, my Dad told me that if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Our experience confirms that my Dad knew what he was talking about. However, there is a story where it’s not true. Consider Abraham.

 

¹ The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. ² I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. ³ I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”         NLT

 

Later the Lord reaffirmed his promise when he told Abraham to look into the sky. 

“Your descendants will be as many as the stars above… The only problem is that your wife can’t get pregnant. And look here. This is the land that I’m giving your descendants... The only problem is that the land is already inhabited.”

 

Problems or opportunities? Either way it sounds too good to be true!

 

But Abraham followed the Lord’s call to a land he had never seen. Even though it seemed impossible, he believed the Lord’s promise of descendants. For sure there were times of doubt; times when he and Sarah would try to take things into their own hands. But for the most part, Abraham trusted the Lord.

 

⁶ And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.        NLT          Genesis 15

 

Although Abraham didn’t know all the details, the Lord had a plan. It was a plan to provide a way for His creation to return to a relationship with Him. It was an impossible plan of redemption that would span generations over thousands of years.

 

And the Lord’s plan comes with a cost. The cost was for the Lord to sacrifice His one and only son who He loved. Only then is it possible for us to personally know our Heavenly Father, who loves us and longs to be in relationship with us.

 

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.           NLT   1 John 4

 

The Lord’s promise to Abraham sounded too good to be true. Even His plan of redemption sounds so impossible that it can’t be true. But it is. Abraham gave us the blueprint for righteousness… faith. Jesus is the person to put our faith in.

 

²⁹ And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.             NLT           Galatians 3                                                       

 Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

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