Now Abraham had 8 children

In Gen 23 we read of Sarah’s death and burial [c23] and in c25 of Abraham’s re-marriage. The names of his new wife and their six children would make very challenging quiz questions. We are told very little of Abraham’s new 6 children, Keturah’s sons, who are effectively dismissed from significance [25:1-6].Then we are told of Abraham’s own death, which introduces a fuller yet still brief account of his son Ishmael, whose descendants, fulfil the prophecy that they would live in hostility towards all the tribes related to them.

What is revealed here is significant in terms of God and His relationship with people. while all people are made in His image but not all people live in the blessing He promised to Abraham. Keturah’s six children by Abraham did not. Hagar’s son by Abraham, though by cultural custom treated as a son of Sarah, did not. It is not by human birth in itself that anyone enters God’s people. It is only by His choosing. By His grace.

That is a truth that applies across all humanity, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, reminding the Gentiles who have been called into God’s family that ‘formerly [they] … were … excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without … God in the world.’ [v11-12] Entry to God’s Kingdom people is no longer by descent from Abraham but by belief in Christ Jesus. As John proclaims in his Gospel, c1 v11ff Jesus “came to His own [people, Israel] but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who belong to His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will but born of God.”

Even in under the Old Testament God’s people were not absolutely bounded by descent from Abraham. Rahab, who hid Israel’s spies, was delivered from the fate of Jericho, and came to live among the Israelites [Gen 6:25]. Ruth the Moabite, openly declared a personal faith in God and became David’s great grandmother. And Naaman, humbling himself before God for his healing from leprosy also turned to the Lord declaring “never again would [he] make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord.” 2 Kings 5:17]. And Jonah’s preaching led the whole city of Nineveh to turn to the Lord. [Jonah c3].

[Please note in passing the sin of the relativism of the modern world, referring to God as ‘god’ as if He is no more than all other deities and not the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the One and Only Sovereign God.]

Nonetheless under the Old Testament while for specific people and even peoples the boundary of God’s people may have been extended, descent from Abraham remained the general rule, which is why Jews kept records of lineage which Scripture includes.

However these special extensions point to the general extension that comes through Christ, by which the call to belong to God breaks out beyond Abraham’s blood line. As Jesus says in John 10 [see v14, and 16].“I am the Good Shepherd … I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and shall be one flock and one shepherd.” For the calling of His other sheep Jesus authorises His people to “make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” [from Matthew 28:19 and 20]. And He commissions Paul who “received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith” to join Christ’s people [see Romans 14b, 5 and 6].

The old wineskin of physical descent could not hold the new Trinitarian wine. For “God our Saviour ...wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and human beings, Christ Jesus, Himself human, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…” [see 1Tim 2:3-6]

This is an action of the Spirit, by whom people are re-born into the family of God [John 3:6-8] a re-birth accomplished through blood, not the blood of flesh, the blood of ancestral biology but the blood of Christ, through the cross, following the principle of Leviticus 17 v11 it is blood that makes atonement – i.e. that heals the divide between God and man, bringing them together as one. [at-one-ment]. So Paul can state in Galatians 3:29 ‘if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs to the promise.’

And just as the boundary protecting God’s people could be opened to let people in as a product of their turning to God, so also it could be opened to send people out, as a product of their turning away from God. A turning out which Psalm 95 after celebrating the uniqueness of God refers to in Exodus, sounding God’s warnings against disobedience:

“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested Me; they tried Me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

These last verses being cited in Hebrews 3 as a New Testament warning to God’s people, by which Christians are urged to “see to it … that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” [3:17] Sadly the New Testament tells us that some of God’s people did lose their belonging, as for example, Ananias and Sapphira [Acts c5]; and Demas [see Colossians 4:14, Philemon 1:24 and then 2 Tim 4:10].

All this re-affirms Revival in its threefold fullness

Firstly God’s purpose is to draw a people to Himself. He chooses us. Not us Him.

But, secondly, because of the Fall while people are born in the image of God they are not born into His people, but into the rule of the god of this age who blinds the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of Christ. Because of that God moves in revival to rescue people from the dominion of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom they have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [Colossians 1:13] This applies both to individuals and to groups of people.

Yet, thirdly, because of the Fall God’s people are always being tempted to become ruled by sin and sink back into the dominion of darkness, so God moves to enliven His people, refreshing and re-vitalising their relationship with Him.

But, where is the lineage?