Were There Other Hypothetical Abrahams?
[Scroll down to the end for some bonus content about “That Hideous Strength” from Friday’s post, including a complete answer to my trivia question.]
Were there other men whom the Lord called and commanded to leave their homes and families who refused to go? Were there others with whom the Lord wanted to make a covenant, if only they would obey? Were there other hypothetical Abrahams? If so, then certainly part of Abraham’s greatness—just like the Virgin Mary’s, millennia later—was his unique willingness to say, “Yes.”
You have no idea what hinges on your obedience today. Abraham said “Yes,” and history changed forever.
P.S. As we will see, the stories of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—are primarily concerned with their education about family; family is what God will use to pass on the covenant, so it’s important that Abraham and the others learn how to make family work. (It doesn’t come naturally!) So, in this strange story about Sarah and Pharaoh, Abraham is learning that a “wife” is not the same thing as a “sister”.
Today’s Scripture
Bonus Content: “That Hideous Strength
On Friday, I wrote about Babel and entitled my post “That Hideous Strength.” I asked you to identify the source of that title.
No one actually got the answer right (or at least not completely). Yes, it is the title of the 3rd novel in C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, but none of you actually explained why Lewis gave his novel that title or why I used it in the title of my post. So, let me tell you:
I re-read the Space Trilogy last year and was struck by the epigraph on the title page of That Hideous Strength. Here’s what it says:
“The shadow of that hyddeous strength
Sax myle and more it is of length”
Sir David Lindsay: from Ane Dialogue [describing the Tower of Babel]
Sir David Lindsay was a poet of the late Renaissance, who wrote Ane Dialogue in 1555 (which explains the strange spelling). Lewis, remember, was an expert on English Renaissance literature; when he wrote his novel about the dangers of technological powers joined with spiritual evil, he used the striking phrase “that hyddeous strength” as his title. I think the description of Babel is terrifying: an evil tower so high that it’s very shadow is six miles long.
So, there ya go.