1 Peter 1:6-9

Peter makes no bones about the fact that sometimes things will be hard, but that does not mean we are destined to be miserable! Instead we greatly rejoice, because we are protected by the Lord. Note that we do suffer grief in all sorts of trials. Living by faith does not mean we find everything easy, nor that our lives will be free from physical or emotional pain. But we rejoice because we know that they are not pointless. Instead they have come so that our faith can be refined.

When we go through difficulties it enables us to sort out what is really important. Moreover, it teaches us to rely on what is truly reliable. It helps us to realise that our faith is the most precious thing we have. Faith is powerful, and it will result in glory and honour when Christ is revealed. This will happen supremely when Christ returns, but we can also receive foretastes of this now. For sometimes we see at least something of the victory in this life.

Peter had seen Jesus, whereas his hearers and us have not. This puts us in no worse a position. Rather we are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. Note that this happens now, and that we are receiving the goal of our faith (ie present continuous). There is a fairy tale gospel that says if we have enough faith everything will be alright, we will enjoy unending prosperity, and suffer nothing. This is unbiblical nonsense. As Paul says, we have to go through many trials in entering the kingdom of heaven, but I will say it again that this does not mean destined to a life of misery. Far from it. We should expect to receive this glorious joy. We should expect to experience receiving the salvation of our souls, ie there should be times when we become aware of the work that God is doing in us, making us more and more like His Son Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:4,5

In the world many people are fearful of losing what they have. In some parts of the world wars and natural catastrophes can take away everything in an instant. Even in the affluent west things can happen and nothing is certain. Moreover, we all have a deep desire for security. The inheritance that God has given us in Christ is completely secure, nothing can take it away, nor will it be destroyed. It is kept in heaven for us. Now when we talk of heaven we immediately think of somewhere far away, but that is not true. When Christ came to earth He preached that the kingdom of heaven was near, and taught us to pray "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". In God our future is secure.

We are shielded by God's power until the final day. We are not promised an easy ride, but we are promised that we will be kept safe. This means that whatever happens we can be confident that God will protect us and see us through. Sometimes we think that faith means believing that God will not let anything bad happen to us, but it seems more Biblical to say that faith is believing that whatever happens God will see us through. We access this shielding by faith, it is necessary for us to exercise faith.

This is until the "last time". This current age is temporary, anything we are experiencing is only for a time. We need to know two things about life now, the first is that it matters, the second is that the current state of affairs is temporary.

1 Peter 1:3

Peter's letter is overwhelmingly concerned with the practicalities of the Christian life, and the starting point for how to live life as a Christian is praise to God. For He has given us new birth into a living hope by raising Christ from the dead. We should realise how much this personally meant to Peter. In His greatest hour of need, and despite all Peter's declarations of undying commitment to Christ, Peter had let Jesus down by denying Him three times. He had followed Christ for three years, Peter had failed, and with Jesus dead on the cross it all seemed as though it was for nothing. In reality it was all for everything. For God raised Christ from the dead, and Peter found new life. Note that this is a living hope, it is not just about what happens when we die, but also about life here and now. We can make two crucial mistakes about Christian hope. One is to think it is all about what happens when we die, and that is arguably the prevalent view in the West. Tom Wright argues effectively against this in his excellent book Surprised by Hope. The other error is to think it is all about now. This is equally unbiblical (see 1 Corinthians 15:19), and the truth is that unless Christ returns in our lifetime (which He may well do) we will all die. We need to know that death is not the end, but eternal life starts now. We are to start to live a new life from the moment we are born again, and to grow increasingly in that new life every day.

1 Peter 1:1,2

1 Peter was written by the apostle Peter in the early sixties. From earliest times it was acknowledged as being written by Peter, though in more modern times some have cast doubt on this. The main argument for doubting Peter's authorship was the good quality of Greek in the letter, and that Peter was supposedly incapable of writing high quality Greek. This can be countered on two grounds. First this was written towards the end of Peter's life, and he would have learnt a thing or two in that time. Moreover, just because he was a fisherman by no means implies he was not intelligent. Secondly, 1 Peter 5:12 may imply that Silas helped with the writing.

On a more positive note, the letter claimes to be written by Peter, and the when we read it, and 2 Peter, there are many echoes of the Peter we know from the gospels and Acts.

The letter is addressed to "God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces" of Asia Minor. These would have included both Jewish Christians and Gentiles. People from some of these areas were in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, and Paul visited some of them as well.

LIke Paul, Peter sees Christians as chosen according to God's foreknowledge. It is no accident that we have come to believe, but part of God's eternal plan. So when we try to make sense of life and circumstances we need to remember that we are part of God's purpose, we are not subject to the whims of random events. We are God's elect.

We were chosen with a purpose, and through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is constantly working in our lives to make us more holy, more Christlike. The goal is that we become obedient to Christ. And His blood makes us clean and acceptable to God.

Genesis 22:20-25:11

I will round off the final couple of chapters that cover Abraham's life fairly briefly. Rebekah was also born at this time, who would be Isaac's wife. When we follow the Lord and show faith in Him things will start to fall in to place.

Genesis 22:20-22 tells us that Abraham's fruitfulness spread to his wider family. Chapters 23 and 24 deal largely with planning for the future. Sarah died and Abraham needed a burial site. Having no land this was a problem, so he had ot buy some land. In fact Abraham was highly favoured and Ephron the Hittite was willing to give him the land free. However, Abraham insisted on buying it. The point of the incident is that Abraham, and hence Israel, legally owned the land.

Then Abraham sends his servant off to find a wife for Isaac. The key stipulation is that the wife must come from his own people, and not be a Canaanite. Moreover, Isaac must not be taken back to Abraham's homeland. We can draw a parallel here with our relationships with our families. We should maintain links with our families, but it should be our desire to see them come into the kingdom of God, not for us to go back to their way of life.

The servant found Rebekah and brought her back to Isaac, who married her.

Abraham seemed to live a full life to the last!

Genesis 22:6-19

Having left the servants, Abraham took the things necessary for the offering. Abraham had clearly (and wisely!) not told Isaac what was happening, but Isaac realised something was apparently missing, namely the animal to be sacrificed. Abraham told him God would provide and carried on with the preparations. Notice again the faith of Abraham.

Having arrived at the designated place Abraham started to make the final preparations. This included binding his son to the altar. There is no mention of Isaac's reaction to all this. Abraham was about to kill Isaac when the angel of the Lord called out to him to stop.

The Lord knew that Abraham truly feared Him, being willing to trust Him to the absolute limit. Abraham looked up and saw a ram that was to be the sacrifice.

The Lord spoke to Abraham again and confirmed His promises that he would have countless descendants and all nations would be blessed through him. Now Abraham is the archetypal example of the man of faith, and is central to Paul's understanding of faith and salvation. These words of God here seem to make it clear that the end result of a life of faith will be a changed life. In the Bible there is absolutely no room for any theology that teaches that by simply saying the right formula we will be saved. The goal and fruit of Biblical faith and salvation is always a changed person (James 2:23,24).

Genesis 22:3-5

Abraham obeyed quickly, making all the necessary preparations and setting on his way with two servants and Isaac. On the third day he saw the place he had to to go to, and left the servants behind, leaving just Isaac and himself. Interestingly he tells the servants that they would come back. Hebrews 11:18,19 tells us that Abraham reasoned that God would raise Isaac from the dead. So it seems that Abraham's words were not just "white lies" to his servants. Abraham knew God's promise to him, and knew that it was through Isaac. All the waiting, and then the pain of having to send Ishmael away, had firmly implanted in Abraham the truth that Isaac was the means of God's promise. Sometimes God puts us through hard times to make us even more convinced of the reality of His promises. As Paul says, suffering produces perseverance. Now Hebrews tells us that Abraham reckoned that God would raise Isaac from the dead. As we know that is not what actually happened, but God did not take Isaac's life. We need to recognise the difference between believing that God will do something, and thinking we know how He will do it. The first is crucial, the second really doesn't matter most of the time. In fact we can be led astray or become stubborn if we get fixated on God doing something in a particular way. God will work things out in the way He chooses.