Many years ago, on a hot summer’s day, my family and I traced the source of our local creek. I drove up a valley and into the tall timber of a state forest and parked the car. On foot we traced the dwindling stream up a mountain range.
Our search ended at a moss-covered pond fed by a spring. Tributaries downstream added to the creek but this modest pond was its source. From there it descended the hills to flat country, where it joined a fast-flowing river that later joined Australia’s longest river in a long, winding journey and emptied into the ocean.
In a similar way we can also trace the source of the truths we hold dear and in doing so seek to assure ourselves that the closer we get to the source of each it is seen to be a pure spring of New Testament truth.
The spiritual river that “makes glad the city of God” (Psalm 46:4) streams God’s unfailing love and mercy to His people. This spiritual river has no tributaries, yet its depth and flow remain constant. It’s streams, or currents, are as pure in their downstream supply as they were in their upstream source.
God’s pure prophetic stream of promise has its source in His covenant with Abraham, one later confirmed by God with Isaac and again with Jacob. God reaffirms His relationship with His people by referring to the promises He gave to Abraham. “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God knew them.” (Exodus 2:24)
God confirmed the covenant with an oath (Deuteronomy 7:8), and to this day Israel is “beloved for the fathers’ sake” – for the sake of the covenant God that made with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel (Romans 11:28).
However, in Leviticus 26:42, God does not follow the prophetic river of promise downstream from Abraham to Jacob and Moses but instead traces it upstream to its source. “Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and I will also remember my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.”
Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, also traced the source to Abraham in his song of praise: “That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath that He swore to our father Abraham…” (Luke 1:70-75)
Zacharias, too, began with the promise of his people’s salvation and traced the prophetic river of promise upstream to the mercy promised by God to his forefathers, and to its source: the Oath of the Covenant.
Since Abraham is “the father of all those who believe” – not only of the Jews but also of those non-Jews who “walk in the steps” of Abraham (i.e. in his obedience). All who do are “Abraham’s descendants and as such are heirs according to the promise.” (Romans 4:11; Galatians 3:29)
What does it mean to be a “son” or “daughter” of Abraham? When the tax gatherer Zacchaeus pledged to give half his of possessions to the poor and restore anything he had taken by falsehood – a statement of repentance and restitution – Jesus called him a “son of Abraham” who had been lost but was now saved (Luke 19:9,10).
When the ruler of a synagogue was angry with Jesus for his Sabbath day healing of a woman whose back had been bent for 18 years, the Lord called him a hypocrite, saying. “Does not each one of you on the Sabbath let loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead it to water? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, visibly, these 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:15-17)
Jesus identified Zacchaeus as a “son of Abraham”, and the woman as a “daughter of Abraham.” The first was saved and the second healed! Jesus described healing as “the children’s bread” (Matthew 15:26). Whose children? The children of Abraham! Some Jews who called Abraham their father showed that they were not his true descendants through their desire to kill Jesus (John 8:33-40).
Are you drinking this in? As a son or daughter of Abraham by faith in Jesus Christ you should! Why drink from polluted streams of doubt and unbelief or restrictive tradition when you can drink from the pure stream of prophetic promise? Trace your theological stream back to its source and should that source be polluted – stop drinking from it! The bad effects downstream on those who drink from a river indicate that it has been polluted upstream.
The Reformation was but the beginning of biblical restoration. Through Martin Luther, God restored to the Church the truth of Justification by Faith. Luther did similar to what Hezekiah had done when he “opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.” Martin Luther restored and repaired biblical truth. God used other, later reformers to throw light on truths that had been polluted by decaying religion during the Dark Ages.
But no sooner was a certain truth restored than an edifice was erected around it — first to proclaim it but later to protect it. Instead of the entire house being opened up, rooms in the restored spiritual house were separated from one another by new denominations.
The polluted stream of ancient philosophy differs from the pure stream of prophetic promise. The polluted stream has us in heaven, seated on clouds and strumming harps after being allowed entry by St Peter; but the pure stream has our spirits in heaven in the Person of Christ, and one day our bodies in the Resurrection on a renewed earth, enjoying our kingdom inheritance with Abraham (Matthew 5:5; Romans 4:13).
The polluted stream would have us detest the physical body and encourage us to escape from it into a spiritual dimension that is a Christianized version of the Elysian Fields, which is a hazy life after- life. But the pure stream offers the hope of a physical resurrection of life after death, and of immortality in a tangible body.
The polluted steam would have us escape from the problems of life into another life of other-worldly personal bliss. But the pure stream renews us and flows through us to refresh others. Which stream are you drinking from? The pure, living stream of prophetic promise, I hope!