For many Christians, the Old Testament is a closed book – regarded as primitive, dull, often barbaric and essentially irrelevant. But it is also the story of a people’s journey across the centuries towards an ever-deepening understanding of God’s greatness, love and mercy, all brought together in anticipation of the promised Messiah – a journey shared and continued by every Christian. Undoubtedly, it is sometimes difficult to reconcile the God we find there with the God we see revealed in Jesus, and there is much we would take issue with, but the Old Testament nonetheless has so much to teach us; stories to captivate and inspire. Consider the unforgettable tales of Noah and the Great Flood, Esau and Jacob, Moses crossing the Red Sea, Samson and Delilah, David and Goliath, Daniel in the lions’ den, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Jonah and the whale – and so we could go on. Here are tales that have captured the imagination of people across the centuries, and rightly so, for as well as communicating deep theological truths, they also speak directly to our human condition. Time and again we can identify with the characters in question, seeing something of ourselves in each one. It is, perhaps, in the raw human emotions so often displayed and the almost brutal honesty before God that the Old Testament’s greatest strength lies. So much of what we see in its pages mirrors what we feel and experience ourselves. Truthfully, if you think the Old Testament is not for you, think again!
All this is why I wrote four study books on Old Testament themes under the overall title of Grappling With God: Explorations of the Old Testament for Personal and Small Group Use. Those books comprise the following: Law and Promise; Wisdom, Songs and Stories; The Word of the Lord; Conquest and Kingdom, and at just£7.99 each, if you’re looking for a way to gently introduce yourself to the riches of the Old Testament, they could be just the thing for you. A short time later, I amplified the material and turned the four books into The Unfolding Story, described on the Kevin Mayhew website as ‘a comprehensive parish resource for reflective worship on the Old Testament … designed for use in public worship or for quiet days, with the 80 meditations woven into themed ready-to-use orders of service.
This week, until 8 November, Kevin Mayhew Ltd are offering 10 per cent off The Unfolding Story. Normally retailing at £21.99, that means a saving of £2.20 using the code UNFOLDING10 when ordering the book from the company’s website. Just type the code into the relevant box at the online checkout between the dates given.
Meanwhile, here’s the first of seven sessions I’ll be posting this week from the book.
HANG ON A MINUTE, I SAID
Reading
Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. Genesis 12:1-5a
The meditation of Abram
Hang on a minute, I said,
let’s get this straight:
you’re not serious, surely?
A trifle familiar, you might say,
and you’d be right, I realise that now,
but at the time I’d no idea who I was talking to,
just this inner conviction
that I should pick up sticks,
head off to goodness knows where,
and start again.
It was a lot to ask, wasn’t it? –
enough to make anyone in their right mind think twice.
Yet that’s how it was for me,
just this voice in my head
telling me to pack my bags
and head off into the wilderness,
away to a land he would show me.
Was I simply restless, I wondered –
the years bringing with them the urge to move on?
No, it wasn’t that –
deep down I knew, despite the doubts,
that God was speaking to me –
God as I’d never known him,
never imagined him,
never encountered him before.
And I was hooked, pure and simple,
for here was a God unlike any other –
mighty,
majestic,
mysterious –
not shaped by our hands but shaping our lives,
not ours to control but controlling all;
a God beyond expression,
sovereign over history,
ruler over heaven and earth.
It was exhilarating and terrifying,
a moment of promise, yet also of dread,
for here was a call to leave home and livelihood,
to tear up roots and forsake everything familiar –
then venture out into the unknown.
Do you realise what that meant?
It wasn’t just me involved, but my loved ones,
them too asked to make the sacrifice
and take the step of faith.
A lot to expect of anyone,
even had we known the way ahead.
Yet they agreed,
willingly,
gladly,
without a moment’s hesitation,
for they saw, so they told me,
a light in my eyes
and a flame in my heart,
impossible to resist.
It was a hard journey,
longer than we ever expected,
with many a trial and tribulation along the way,
but there were blessings too,
surprises I could never have dreamt of,
and the greatest of all
is the lesson I’ve learned never to fear the future,
for however uncertain it may be,
and whatever it may bring,
I realise now we must keep on travelling,
journeying in faith,
until our dying day.
Prayer
Lord,
you do not call us to a destination
but a journey;
a journey of continual new discoveries
and new experiences of your love.
Save us from ever thinking we have arrived,
from imagining we know all there is to know
or that we have exhausted the riches
of everything you would reveal to us.
open our eyes to the great adventure of life
and to the unfathomable mysteries of your purpose,
and so help us to be a pilgrim people,
travelling in faith as Abraham travelled before us,
until we reach at last the kingdom
you hold in store for all your people.
Amen.