About men: All or nothing

I recently had the need to explore work opportunities away from home. My own drought drove me as it once did for Abraham and Jacob. However, at the last moment God intervened, shut the door and pointed me in another direction. It was almost like the knife had been poised over my family when the angel intervened.

It reminded me that God is so relational. He will never, ever divide relationships, especially families. He told Abraham to offer His son to make that very point - that unlike the pagan system, His value does not turn our most treasured relationships into sacrifices.

Oh of course we don't do human sacrifices anymore - we just offer our families on the economic or career altar, allowing the most treasured of all relationships to suffer for the sake of a thankless system. But God is not like that at all. Indeed, performance is of little or no consequence to Him at all. Obdeience is far more valuable than sacrifice. We can make whatever sacrifices to the system, be it time, money, convenience or lifestyle, but it all means nought to God - for divine progress derives from obedience to God's laws and principles.

There is a more salient point though. When Abraham sired a half son through Hagar, God made the point that for all his potency as a man (and Abraham was evidently very potent given the children he sired after the death of Sarah), the promise was two-edged - it vested in him and his wife. Just as a seed cannot germinate without an egg, so we are incapable of stewarding God's promises except in covenant with our life partners.

Far too many men feel that what happens out there is down to their prowess or ego - and many women have fallen for the same lie. To God it is all or nothing. Moses, Joshua and Caleb were great men, but God refused to let them go into the promised land without Israel, for the nation was the chosen vessel of God, not the individuals making up that nation.

So too with our families and indeed with the church - the individual for all his or her gifted-ness, is of little value alone, but is of awesome value and power within the context of the greater whole, for therein lies the fullest expression of His heart. God is relational - He never built the kingdom alone and He sure will not allow any of us to go it alone - its all, or nothing.

(c) Peter Eleazar@www.4u2live.net