pursuit: Genesis 14

Genesis 14

I may hold up on posting more free-associative encounters with Genesis and blog for awhile about The Beginning of Wisdom, in an effort to get caught up and, maybe, have some kind of guidance – even if it is philosophical rather than spriritual – when it comes to Abraham.

As it stands, Bass and I are still at the second, revised creation story – and while that is enlightening, I have fought long and hard to get over my innate tendency towards reading 500 pages on the idea of the thing, for every page of the thing itself. Plus, I'm getting a kind of hero-worship thing going on with Abram right now, so I'm pushing forward.

MAybe because of my Abram Thing, Genesis 14 comes together better for me now than it has in the past. I still kind of glaze over when it comes to the account of all the battling kings, themselves, so anyone who Gets that, let me know. But then Abram comes in, and I am struck, again, by just how powerful a figure he is: "When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken prisoner, he mustered his retainers, men born in his household, three hundred and eighteen of them, and pursued as far as Dan…” (14:14)

I get caught up in a "Jesus and only Jesus" focus when it comes to the Bible; I seem to immediately move from “this is the primary thing” to “this is the ONLY THING, as in, nothing else can be instructive, period.” But that can’t be the case; I don’t think people were entirely without a sense of what God is, what love is, before Christ. I mean, God was love then, too, right? But we just didn’t see it.

But here it is, in Abram: the love that hears in one minute that your kinsmen are lost and in the next minute is taking action to save them. That love that pursues it object from Dan to Hobath to wherever and brings back not only that object but the women, the children, the possessions.

Abram’s love for Lot, here, is a picture of what we are to live like – not a picture that is perfect, and certainly not that Love itself. Abram, here, is what secular people would say Jesus is, I think. He is living the way we ought to live, the way one who is connected to God would live. The fact that we didn’t get that is the reason -- or, an appreciable element of the reason -- why Christ had to come. He says as much to the Jews: guys, you already saw Abram pursuing his kinsmen, and that is what My love does for you; that is what it makes you. Since it didn’t help you, since you claim to be Abraham’s children but don’t pursue each other that way, don’t even get that it is that love, that pursuit, that matters, here I am, Christ, to show you what this Love is.

I believe that this pursuit is what God wants from us. Not to say Abram was perfect; not to say that he the goal in the way Christ is the goal. But then, I think that, on some level, it’s a mistake to look as Christ as a "role model". Christ is God. I don’t think we can hope to emulate Him; we look to Him to experience Him, because we need Him, not because He is a template for us. He doesn’t guide us so much as He sustains us. As a role model, maybe Abram makes more sense and shows more humility. I don't think Christ really wants us thinking we can emulate Him. All we can do, at the end of the day, is go to Him. Christ is the Word; Abram is a man, living the Word -- trying to.

So here is the Law, I guess – as much as the commandments are the law. When you learn that your kinsman has been taken prisoner, pursue them. When your kinsman is lost and hopeless and being a dick to you, pursue him. When your kinsman is doing time for drugs, pursue him. When he is released from prison and doesn’t know where to go, pursue him.

When he is leaving you snotty messages on your desk at work, pursue him. When he is your employee and he calls out for no good reason, pursue him. When he is eight years old and is banging his head on the wall and yelling that he hates you, pursue him.

When he is rejecting you and you needed him and he has let you down again, pursue him. When you both hurt each other and he is not ready to admit where he was wrong, pursue him.

When he is sitting on the subway asking for money and you’ve had a long day, pursue him. When he is homeless and no one sees him, pursue him. When he is in Haiti and has just lost everything, pursue him. When he is in Asia and is being trafficked for sex, pursue him. When he is visiting Asia to exploit a trafficked child, pursue him. When he is dying of AIDS in South Africa, pursue him. When he is suffering from dementia, pursue him.

As far away as he is, as little kinship as he is showing, as uncomfortable or awkward or inconvenient or demanding as the pursuit is – pursue him. That, I think, is how God told Abram to live. Not just for his own life, but to be a blessing to us – because this pursuit is a blessing. To be what God calls us to be, to do what He calls us to do, is a blessing.