Day 6: Abraham

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. — Genesis 12:2

In the past fifteen years or so, the growth of Christianity has flattened in Singapore. In April of this past year, a key thrust at a children’s ministry conference in Singapore was whether another generation will rise and still fear God. The question gripping parents, Sunday school teachers and children’s ministry leaders in my country echoes the same concern: how do we pass on this living faith to yet another generation?

Scripture shows us it is possible for another generation who does not know the LORD to rise quickly (Judges 2:10). By about the third generation of Moses, we gasp that his grandchildren had abandoned faithfulness to YHWH (Judges 18:30). If Moses’s own grandchildren turned away from God, will our grandchildren keep faith? In the face of this concern, the chain of four generations – Abraham to Joseph – commended for faith in Hebrews 11’s hall of fame deserves more attention.

In Genesis 12:1–3, we see the call of Abraham to go to the Promised Land. God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation, his name would be great and he would become a blessing to others. Abraham held on to these promises to the end of his life, despite seeing very little fulfilment. In the same way, his son Isaac received the promises, held on to them and saw little fulfilment of what God had promised. Such faith was again passed on to Jacob, who, in spite of seeing little fulfilment of God’s promises at the end of his life, sought to bless his own children with the same promises of God. And, of course, his son, Joseph, displayed incredible faith and faithfulness through many challenges in his life.

What we see is an incredible intergenerational faith that persists and thrives through scant fulfilment. But how was this accomplished?

To be sure, God has, in every generation, kept a people for Himself. God was determined to make for Himself a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. He does so by revealing Himself anew to each generation and reiterating His promises to another generation. This continuity of God’s covenantal promises is seen afresh in the stories of Isaac (Genesis 26:2–5), Jacob (Genesis 35:11–12), and Joseph (Genesis 48:3–16; 50:24–26). We also see that in each generation, faith was not simply inherited but tested and proven. Each generation learned to trust and commit to the same God through challenging circumstances. For example, we read of Jacob learning to trust the God of his fathers in Genesis 31:42. In short, each generation demonstrated the trustworthiness of God to the next, by the grace of God, and God kindly revealed Himself and His covenant promises anew to each successive generation.

Just as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and the Old Testament figures of faith in Hebrews 11 did not receive what was promised (Hebrews 11:39), we do not yet see the fullness of God’s kingdom realised – which can lead to losing heart and turning away. How can the Singapore church raise another generation of Christ-believers with a fi re-tested faith that withstands scant fulfilment amid false gospels and the discouragement of life in a broken world?

Christian parents must lead the way, first by pointing this generation of Christians to our trust in God’s fuller revelation of Himself and His better covenant promises: the resurrection of our bodies and a glorious inheritance where all things are made new – all through His Son Jesus Christ, who is the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Second, we have the privilege of praying and trusting the Holy Spirit to teach the next generation to trust and commit to the same God, even as those lessons come through life’s challenges.

In this Advent period, may the hope of the stories of Jesus’s ancestors and the new covenant realities of His first coming inspire our perseverance in faith. And may the example of Abraham encourage us to pass on our faith through the lives we live.