#ABRAHAM (PART - II) - Ep 13 - Who’s Who in the Bible - Fr. Xavier Sanjivi, C.Ss.R.

[Music] good evening dear people and welcome to all of you wherever you are for this session that we will have of reflecting on who's who in the bible and praying with biblical characters to welcome to all of you for this session so we continue our program with abraham which we had at our last class but before that let's begin with a little prayer god our loving father we thank you we thank you for so many examples and witnesses that you have given to us right from the time of our father abraham till the present day people who have been people or witnesses to the faith we pray that we will always be in a position to learn from them and to implement in our own lives some of the aspects of faith that they had implemented in their life we make our prayer through jesus christ our lord amen our mother a perpetual help pray for us abraham today is considered the father of faith not just by jews this book is done the bible is the hebrew bible it's not just by them but he is considered a father of faith by christians and also by muslims today and if you join put these numbers together the muslims the christians and the jews together perhaps there are 4 billion people in this world who look up to the patriarch abraham as their father in the faith with great love and with great reverence to this man so that is why we go back now to understand this great individual in the history of our salvation in today's session we will reflect on three important aspects of abraham the first is that he was prepared to make a covenant with god we'll see what it implies and what is the consequences the second is the promise of god god who comes and visits him through different people it comes there and he he promises him a child and the third of course is the promise of the land you see so these three things we will try to consider in this session and we'll pray over it abraham although he came into this land he was there was as a nagging sadness in his heart and the sadness was that he is without an heir and he always as it were complains to god and says yes lord you have promised me many things but i have no child so one day god takes him out and says abraham i am your shield do not worry he is still worried and god takes him out and he shows him and he says to him look towards the heavens and number the stars if you are able to number them then he said so shall your offspring breathe as many as the stars of heaven you can't number them neither can we so but he says so many will be your offspring that's another way that god god blesses abraham and the scriptures say abraham put his faith in god and it was reckoned to him as righteousness in other words what is that phrase me righteousness it means that he has been acceptable to god that is how the great faith that he has placed in god the fathers of the church they were not the fathers that you see here today but the fathers of the church were a special group of people who lived in antiquity before the year 750 a.d and they had some special qualities one important quality was that they should be people learned people who will make a contribution to the thinking of theology on to the progress of theology in the church and they also should be people of great sanctity in their life so they were called as the fathers of the church today from historical perspective we call them some of them you may be very familiar with with their writings for example you have saint ambrose saying john chrysostom saint jeremy or saint augustine you see they are all very important people and they have made a very significant contribution to the growth of the church especially in matters concerning doctrine of the judge in fact and one of the things they always spoke about is a point called topology what is typology typology is a preview or a type if you talk this person is a type of a person who will come in later on in new testament times you see for example in the old days we when when we went to see a movie they used to show us the trailer of the next movie that will come now that's a kind of a preview a little snapshot of the next movie it is like that so they used a lot of typology especially in things concerning the book of genesis about adam they called adam the the first adam and then the second adam and they referred to jesus they called noah how the ark was a sign of the church a type of the church and it there the ark had only one door and it was a type of entering into the church through baptism it was all like that they went went in this sphere or in this thinking of topology type so what is it the fathers of the church spoke of they spoke of abraham as a type of the christian who has faith that is all they they said they said who's a christian he is has he's in the tradition or in this stream of faith that abraham expressed in his life and what did god tell to abraham gabriel has got a great desire and that desire is to have a child and he's not finding it not getting a child but the lord says to him abraham i am your shield i will protect you and then he says in chapter 12 verse 3 he will say and will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed and i am very happy over that blessing you see but he says i have no child no all their blessings are all very nice but i have no child you see and then for him for abraham the offspring was very important for him so he's very disappointed that the offspring is not coming very soon so what does god do to him one day in the night time he takes him out and he says look towards the heavens number the stars if you are able to number them then he said so shall your offspring be what a beautiful promise it's a promise but it must begin with the sun begin with the child is it not and it's not happening oh god this is troubling abraham very much in his life you see and then the third thing is indeed they are the promise is about the land you see and the god says i will give you this line and in in chapter 15 he will tell in verse 18 he will say to your descendants i will give this land from the river of egypt to the great river the river euphrates what a beautiful thing from the river of egypt that is the river nile in egypt from that poor point right up to the river euphrates now all that and the fertile crescent literally i will give to you you know and it is such an important phrase for people today especially for jewish communities they hold on to that very very strongly in their life you see it has but that is the promise that god has made to abraham in yet abraham turns to god one day and he says it's all very nice lord how do i have the assurance that you will give me this land so god says to him come let's make a covenant. and then he says to abraham go bring a three-year-old heifer heifer is a female calf that has not littered us yet and then a three-year-old she got and then a three-year-old ram and bring a turtle dove and a young pigeon you see and you bring it here and what do you do you cut these animals into and you place it one against the other not the birds the birds you don't have to cut but these animals you cut and you wait there he said i will come and i will make a covenant with you and in the middle of the and then god puts abraham to sleep he is totally passive and then abraham sees a flaming pot and a flaming torch going through the midst of those animals what is the significance for that that is what is called the cutting of the covenant so what is the covenant a covenant is taken from the practice that people had among kings are big leaders in their country and these leaders entered into a treaty with one another or an agreement with one another and in the agreement they had certain conditions and certain clauses that each one has to fulfill in his life and if they did not fulfill those clauses in their life they used to say that in case you don't abide by the conditions of the covenant then your case would be just the same as this you will be cut into half or you will have to face the consequences of not abiding by the rules of the covenant and you will be like that so here but usually what happens in a covenant especially among political parties or political kingdoms on the political sphere is that one king will be superior and the other one will be inferior in terms of strength so the poor inferior person will always agree to the terms of the covenant or in terms of the contract or agreement but what is the covenant a covenant is an agreement between man and god who's the superior person our partner here it is god who is the superior partner and man who is the inferior partner but who takes on the obligation here in a covenant it is god the superior partner in the covenant he takes on the obligation almost to say if i do not abide by the conditions of this covenant let me also be my condition be like these animals that are there cut now so that is how you get the phrase to cut a covenant you say and it is a way of assuring abraham you say abraham no i am there this is my i give you my word i make this contract with you nothing will happen to you i am there you will have a child and your children will be as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the shore of the sea see that's what the lord promises but yet for abraham that's not enough you see as a human being the poor man is worried and he says let us believe in this the first part is he believes in what god is i understand the scriptures say it was imputed to him as a righteousness so he accepted that as god's righteousness the saint paul in his letter to the galatians he will say remember abraham he believed god and because of his faith god accepted him as a just man understand then that those who follow the way of faith are children of abraham that is what it is for us that you follow the path of faith of abraham and we become children of abraham in a covenant at least in those days there was always a sign given a sign that this covenant has been ratified you see and what is the sign here you take for example in the covenant that god makes with noah or noah makes with god what is the sign of the covenant the sign of the covenant is the rainbow in the heavens and god says every time i look at the rainbow i will remember that never again will the flood waters destroy the earth that is how he says now that is the sign and here when god makes a covenant with abraham what is the sign the sign here is of circumcision circumcision simply means to cut round from the word itself so circumcision has been chosen as a sign why was this chosen this image chosen first of all in the ancient world in their time a circumcision was an ordinary initial right that a right of initiation that young boys were made to undergo as a sign that they have passed from being young boys to enter into the stage of adulthood you see now hereafter they can be given responsibility and you can ask for an accountability from them so that is that but the people here have taken this common practice that was there in their land and made it a sign of the covenant and what was it a sign of the covenant it is for them to say that in his own body that he is constantly reminded that he belongs to god that is the point that every day he is constantine he belongs to god and the second is that he belongs to the chosen race the chosen people of god that he has where god has chosen and then the third is it is also for him as a warning to be separate separate from the from the sinful part of the world in his life so these are three reasons why god chose it perhaps for them and they had they accepted it and then we go into another little incident that is the incident where ishmael the birth of ishmael is there in the life of abraham so there we have seen it in there is a misunderstanding and feelings of hardship between hagar who is the slave of sarai and sarai herself because hagar is now pregnant and sarah is not pregnant sarah has no children so there is a certain jealousy and a misunderstanding and sarai begins to ill-treat hagar in the house and she is her slave unable to withstand the till treatment from her mistress what does hagar do she runs away into the desert and it is running away only to go back to egypt because she is an egyptian lady she is being brought back from egypt perhaps when abraham came back he brought back many slaves and she must have been one of those slaves that he brought back from that land so perhaps she says to him let me go back to my country and she's on the way back to egypt across the desert you see and then she runs out of water the little water that she had and she goes and sits by a spring of water in the desert trying to see what to do next and suddenly god or the angel of god the word god an angel of god is interest it is interchangeably used in the old testament so it is the angel of god here it comes and speaks it to haga and he says hagar what i what has happened to you now i am being very much ill treated by my mistress that's why i ran away now you go back to the house you go back to the house why because god has heard your cry very beautiful life a line that we should always remember and the line for for the jewish people especially in the old testament who is god no how is god different from idols they will say god is one who hears our cry god is one who sees our difficulty what about idols and the idols have eyes but they can't see idols have ears but they can't hear who is our god yahweh he is one who can hear he can hear the cries of people and that is what hagar says god has heard you are crying no yeah he has heard so you go back home and live with abraham in the house and be there and the name of spine ismail means god hears now that is how they give that name to this young boy ishmael but then he the the angel also says a certain line about ishmael it say he says he will be in perpetual conflict with others he is the ancestor of the desert tribes known for their wild free spirit and war-like nature and israel does not forget that it is closely related to these people they are the offspring of the same father you see that is part of that little episode that comes out in the life of abraham and then next you see we have chapter 17 and in chapter 17 abraham is it is written 99 years old and still there's no sign of a son or a child in the office you see but god appears to him and god says to him abraham i want to change your name now your name has been abram and i want to change it to abraham the meaning of abram is a venerated father and the meaning of abraham is that you are the father of a multitude that's all that changes and abraham must be saying to myself with himself my god you know all these type of things are happening but actually where am i a father of a multitude you know i have no such at all not even one single son how the how will this happen and but what is the significance of giving a new name the significance of giving a new name in scripture is you begin a new life a new life according to what his name signifies and become what the name signifies and what is his name signifies the father of a multitude and abraham is told yes you will become a father of a multitude you see and he god at that point he also changes the name of sarai sarai means in their language my princess you see and he changes to sarah and then he says what is the meaning i will bless her and give you a son by her i shall bless her and she shall become the mother of nations kings of people shall come from our beautiful blessing kings of people shall come from her you know and sarah must have been very happy to hear that just to hear that however that name that nagging sadness still remains and then abraham probably says to himself i think this is going too far you know this god is going on telling me about this multitude of children kings that will come out of you oh god is very nice i have no son at all and now ishmael has been born and i have given him the name ishmael god hears so he turns and he says lord let ishmael it's all right with me no and what does god say to him no not at all he says and god says i will bless her no not and god said not at all it is sarah your wife who will give birth to a son and you will name him isaac that is and what is the meaning of isaac we'll come to that in the next chapter but so god once again steps in he says no you are trying to push me in a different way abraham i will not go this is my plan in its proper time the plan will be fulfilled and then we go into another chapter in the chapter 18 and this chapter is that an incident where yahweh comes and appears to abraham but he doesn't have the text says that yahweh appeared to abraham but actually who appeared to him three men three guests have come there in front of him and they are standing before his tent and he looks at them and he is so very happy that he immediately goes and looks after those three guests and now he gives them a special meal he gives them water to wash their hands and their feet and then he says wait a little bit i will get the the meal ready for you and he makes a special meal for them you know in indian tradition also we often say that a guest could be god you know for example we will say ati devo a god can be guest they are they a guest can be god no and we have because of that we have said that to be good to guests sometimes so and people especially in villages and countryside they have been extremely good to visitors our guests so abraham sees three people who are standing there but in the history of the church they have always looked upon these three people as a representing the most blessed trinity so in christian iconography and in christian literature they have been represented that are they is it a way of saying that god is a trinity no we do not know that we only know that the text says and yahweh appeared to him and who appears not here but three men are appearing in front of him you see and so the in the text the the discussion goes between yahweh on the one hand and the three guests you see so the relationship between these three people are there so in the end it is left ambiguous you see the ambiguity in the story is perhaps to suggest the mystery that surrounds god none of us can fully understand or comprehend or know god fully so they left it like that as a mystery for us but what is the point of the story the point of this incident is before those guests depart they ask where is your wife sarah to abraham and he says he is in the tent and they said to him next year when we come she will have a child and she laughs at it her laughter was not a laughter of joy but she her laughter was one kind of cynical laughter to say how can i who have gone past the age of childbirth you know as a woman i've become so old how can i be a mother and give birth to a child you know that type of a and the guest one of them he turns to say why did you laugh he asked sarah she says no i did not laugh she was scared and she says that i did not love what is the point the point is to say the birth of this child isaac is no mere natural biological phenomena no no it is a divine intervention on the part of god god fulfills his plan even when things seem impossible to us you see how god deals with abraham every time he says no i'll make you a father of a multitude nation but then start will do he doesn't he pushes and he pushes and abraham is 99 or 100 years old and sarah is about 90 years old he pushes them literally to the brink and then what we thought would be impossible becomes possible with god that is the teaching that the scriptures try to give through that particular incident that is why when isaac is born his name is isaac which means laughter laughter can be understood that sarah laughed when they told her first or it can also be that this birth of this child brought a lot of laughter in their family in their family you see so they gave him that name god promises a child for for abraham and it is a way of saying no weakness of man no difficulties that man has can stop the plan of god for people in their life no it will not stop god's plan will come to its due fulfillment but my dear people i don't know just a few lessons that we can perhaps learn from this text the first thing in our journey of life faith will get tested we will all get this just like abraham was tested in his faith we will also beat what was the test that abraham till now faces he goes away to egypt no he loses his confidence his trust in god and goes away to egypt now god takes him back of course but that but yet it shows that he has failed in our journey of faith we will also have certain ups and downs we should not give up we should not say oh yes i've made the mistakes so many times not only so many times same mistake i've repeated 10 different times doesn't matter you can always come back to god and that is all the story of abraham tells us you know that we can always return and we will always be welcomed by god all we need to do is never to give up in our life the second insight the story brings out is that we are never too old to sin sometimes we think after a certain age when we stop sinning no we are never too old we can sin even at the last moment of 90 years abraham was 99 and the poor man sinned he turned against god his pride was so much he wanted to live independent of god where this happened to any one of us we are never too old to sin it's not don't say only the young fellows to say all of us are into this one thing and it demands that we take effort on our part to come out of this sin the third is be ready always you see god comes to visit abraham he comes like a stranger he comes like a guest he how do we know when he will come to us we have to be ready always whenever as soon as he saw immediately he took trouble to look after them and welcome them into the into his tent doesn't how do we be ready how can we be ready by just doing the duty that is given to us in our life and then we will be ready if the lord comes to us at any time another little insight we should gain from this in the story of abraham is nothing is too difficult for god you know we think that is so difficult for a woman after 99 years to to to give birth to a channel it is not it is difficult for us as human beings not for god nothing is too difficult to god nothing is impossible to god so these are few points that perhaps we can keep in mind and perhaps we can reflect upon it and ask the lord to bless us in our life so i think we are running short of time so i'll end with a little prayer we'll pray god our loving father as we remember abraham today and the way you have led him through the ups and downs of life we pray that you will strengthen our faith that sometimes even things that are impossible or appear to be impossible to us are not impossible for you you can do it for us help us to have that kind of strong faith in you and in your mercy for us in our life we make our prayer through christ our lord amen and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen good night to you people and god bless you all very much thank you [Music] you

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Length: 32min 12sec (1932 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 18 2020