Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins

Walking blameless before our God

• February 22nd, 2008

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless“” (Genesis 17:1, emphasis added)

What a high calling God had given to Abram, to be without blame.  Does being without blame, mean being without sin?  Should we strive to walk to the same standard?  Can we walk before Him and be blameless?

Although David lived before Christ, he knew of the coming of the Messiah, and he knew what it was to be blameless.  It can’t be the same as being sinless, for there is only one man without sin, David even writes about the extents of his transgressions, “O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.” (Psalm 25:11)  Like all of us, he was a man of unclean hands and lips, even so in the very next Psalm he says, “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.” (Psalm 26:1, emphasis added) David acknowledges the greatness of his sin, but he also declares himself blameless before God, which he explains as having “trusted in the LORD without wavering.”  David’s trust in God never faultered.  Through everything he had been through he believed God.  In the sight of God, our trust “is far more valuable than perishable gold.” (1 Peter 1:7) Our sin has been paid for, our guilt as been atoned for… “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9) What God wants is for us to be blamess, to live a life of complete trust in Him.  This is what our life on earth is about, it’s about trusting Him; it’s for this very reason we experience trials and tribulations; it’s for this very reason that when God could (and wants to) give us happiness, prosperity, health and more, he holds back so that our trust in Him can come to it’s fullness.

It is our trust that makes us clean before God, as Paul wrote “for I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it’s God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile.  For in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in his site; and from the beginning to the end it is through trust - as the Tanakh [Law] puts it, “But the person who is righteous will live his life by trust.”" (Romans 1:17)  God considers us clean before him through our trusting in our Savior, but even in the Old Testament, the trust of the ancients is what made them clean.  The trust of the ancients was and is highly regarded, they walked out lives of unwavering trust that I believe will be restored amongst His people.

For an example let’s take a look at the life Abram in Genesis 12. 

• “The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. ”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 12:1) Abram was to leave everything he knew, and to leave for some unknown place, that God would show him.  The only thing he knows is that his name would be made great and that he would be a blessing.  There were no specifics.  Are we willing to follow God into the unknown without any specifics?
• “Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.” (Genesis 12:6-7)  God did not inform Abram of the Canaanites that were already occupying this land, and these were a nation of giants.  God tells him that this is it, this is the place I have for you.  Not only is the land already occupied by giants, but God tells Abram that his offspring will inherit this land.  At the time Abram was 75 years old, and without any children.
• When Abram’s descedants (probably around 500 years later) went to check out the land they found that a cluster of grapes was so large, it needed to be carried on a pole by two people, they said the land indeed flowed with milk and honey (Numbers 13), but this was not what Abram saw.  In fact, “there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down into Egypt to stay there, because the famine in the land was severe.” (Genesis 12:10)

It’s no wonder the Jewish nation considers Abraham the “Father of their faith,” he was a remarkable man, blameless before God.  One of the challenges I think we face is that when God gives us a promise and we face adversity, we immediately doubt the promise.  Our trust in Him wavers.  Building our trust is what Jesus is doing through us, He is “the author and perfecter of our faith,” (Hebrews 12:2) and will “present you before his glorious presence without fault” (Jude 1:24).

One of the characteristics of walking blameless before God is that our heart remains steady, David writes, “He [the righteous] will not be frightened by bad news; he remains steady, trusting in ADONAI [the LORD].  His heart is set firm, he will not be afraid, till finally he looks in triumph at his enemies.” (Psalm 112:7-8) When our trust is unwavering, bad news is only an opportunity for our trust to grow and God’s power to be revealed.  Perhaps my favorite account of a steady heart is that of Moses when himself and the entire nation of Israel (just the men alone totalled 600,000) were pursued by Pharaoh’s army and chariots on one side, and trapped by the red sea on the other.  Moses told the people, “Stop being so fearful!  Remain steady, and you will see how ADONAI [the Lord] is going to save you.” (Exodus 14:13) God did save them, he parted the sea so they could cross over on dry ground.

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