PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Acts 7 says that when Abraham was still in Chaldea, the God of glory appeared to him (v. 2). Do you know in what way God appeared to Abraham? Genesis 18 gives us a clear record of this. One day Abraham sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. Then suddenly three men came. Of these three, one was Christ, who is called Jehovah in this chapter (vv. 1, 13). When the two angels who came with Christ left, Christ remained with Abraham, and Abraham talked to Jehovah face to face as he would to another person. This chapter is clear, but it presents a big problem. Christ was there in the human form, with a human body. He even ate Sarah's cooking, and Abraham brought Him water so that He might wash His feet. This seems to contradict John 1:14, which says that at the time of the incarnation God became flesh. How could Christ already be in the flesh long before John 1:14? This is God's history. Moses' writing is very human, yet in this human record you can see God. God lived in this record. We may think that only God's creation of the heavens and the earth is worth recording and that there is no need to have a long record about a youth like Joseph. But do you like to read Genesis chapters one and two more than chapters thirty-seven through fifty? Even if you read chapters thirty-seven through fifty ten times, you will not get tired of them. These chapters are humanly very interesting, but you can see God there. This is God's history in a human story....

Based upon this principle, the story about Jacob is even more interesting. His name means one who grasps the heel, and he was surely a grasper. When his uncle charged him to shepherd the flock, he took the opportunity to grasp his uncle's cattle (Genesis 30:25-43). Here you can see that although one of God's chosen people was so cunning, God was working on him to change him from being a grasper into being a prince. Formerly, he was Jacob, but eventually his God made him Israel, which means a prince (32:28). In his youth this Jacob seemingly robbed everybody in his contact with them his father Isaac (27:1-29), his brother Esau (25:29-34), and his uncle Laban. But when he was old and matured, he blessed others everywhere he went. What seemed to be stealing hands became blessing hands. When he met Pharaoh, the top king on the earth, he blessed him (47:7). In the Bible there is the principle that the one who blesses is greater than the one who is blessed (Hebrews 7:7); hence, Jacob was greater than Pharaoh.

Genesis 5:22 says that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years. This also means that God walked with Enoch, a man, for three hundred years. These two friends never changed. After three hundred years God took His very intimate friend from the earth and away from death. Is this the story of Enoch or the history of God? In Genesis 3 we read that after man fell, Adam and Eve were afraid. Then God came and called out to Adam, asking, Where are you? (v. 9). This seems very human. The righteous God talked to a sinner in a very intimate, friendly way. Without such a story, how could you know God? Is this the record of Adam and Eve? Apparently it is, but actually it is even more a record of God's history. It shows us more about God than about Adam and Eve.

If you pick up this principle and apply it to the entire Bible, you can see God on every page. The Bible is not mainly a record of men but a record of God. Furthermore, it is not a record of God in creation; rather, it is a history of God in His dealing with man, who is on His heart. In His dealings with man we can know Him, and we can see what kind of God He is.

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