Before Abraham Was Born
In a heated exchange in the temple courts, Jesus claims that Abraham saw his day and rejoiced.
John 8:48-59NIV
The argument in John 8 had gone on for some time before it reached Abraham. Jesus' opponents claimed Abraham as their father. Jesus replied that Abraham's children would act like Abraham, and they were trying to kill him instead. Then he said something that stopped the conversation. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.
They objected that Jesus was not yet fifty years old and could not have seen Abraham. His answer was: before Abraham was born, I am. He did not say I was. He used the name God gave Moses at the burning bush. They picked up stones.
The lesson is about what Abraham was really looking at. When he built altars in a land he did not own, when he laughed and then believed, when he climbed Moriah trusting God to provide the lamb, he was looking forward to something he could not name. Jesus says that something was him. Abraham's faith was not a vague optimism. It was directed at a promise, and the promise had a face.
When you read the Abraham story this week, you are not reading about a distant ancestor of a different religion. You are reading about a man who saw, from a great distance, the day you live in, and was glad.
More in Bible study
With God All Things Are Possible
A familiar line of encouragement turns out, in its own setting, to be about something harder than success.
At the Jordan: Reading the Baptism of Jesus
Before Jesus spoke a word in public ministry, he stepped into a river and let himself be baptized, and the Gospel of Matthew tells us what happened next.
The Warning and the Question
Before Jesus named what was dangerous, he turned his disciples toward the one question that mattered most.
