Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Invitation, Challenge
- Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and we know His desires for us.
- Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are. He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
As I look at these two stories in Genesis 18, the lens of
invitation jumps out at me. After all,
in the first story we have God coming to Abraham and sharing with him the
vision that within a year he will have a son born to him. If that doesn’t scream invitation, I don’t
know what does! That story is all about
God, His love, and allowing Abraham to experience His love through their
relationship.
As we get to the end of that story, we hear God debating whether
or not to clue in Abraham as to what He is about to do in Sodom. I hear the struggle of God calibrating
invitation and challenge with Abraham.
God had just piled a huge amount of invitation on Abraham. God wrestles with whether to allow Abraham to
stay in the invitation or to draw him out into the challenge.
What sticks with me is that God does draw Abraham out into the
challenge. He challenges Abraham with
respect to Sodom. Abraham responds. Abraham rises to the challenge. Abraham argues for the righteous people in
Sodom. He accepted God’s challenge and
succeeds with high marks when God invited him into a spiritual challenge. Abraham is God’s representative and even
reminds God about the need to balance righteousness and love.
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