The word Koinonia is a Greek word used in the New Testament but, like so many other Biblical truths, its roots are firmly planted in the Old Testament. In this blog, I am only going to introduce the principle of fellowship in the Old Testament and this will be followed with two specific examples in the next two blogs. God chose a man called Abram and promised him that his descendants would become a great nation. Abram grew up in Ur of the Chaldeans where they worshipped the moon god (there was a ziggurat to the moon god, Nanna in Ur). Abram's family were heathens and he had not met anyone who trusted in God.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household 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. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” [Genesis 12: 1-3 NIV]
God was asking Abram (who later became known as Abraham) to take step of faith. He was leaving behind his own country and his own nation and his own family to travel on a journey of faith with Yahweh. God made a covenant with Abram (Abraham) that all peoples on the earth would be blessed through him. Abraham was the representative of the nation which would arise from his descendants. They were receiving blessing because of their relationship with him.
Just to set the scene. We all know about Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden and this was the beginning of a history of disobedience and refusal to accept God's rule over His creation. Adam and Eve's son, Cain killed his own brother, Abel out of jealousy or spite (Genesis 4). We also read of a man by the name of Lamech and he continued in the footsteps of Cain by murdering a young man in revenge for some unidentified harm or injury (Genesis 4: 23). There is a stark description of the spiritual state of the inhabitants of the world of Genesis.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” [Genesis 6:5 NIV]
God acted in judgement by destroying the world with a flood but he graciously preserved Noah and his wife and his family in an ark. This same Noah became drunk and was unaware that he was completely naked (Genesis 9:21). In chapter 11, we have the account of the building of the tower of Babel which was again in defiance of God. They were proud of their new technology and they thought they had the capability to build a tower which would 'reach to the heavens.' They were able to make bricks which were regular in shape and size and easier to work with than stones and they used bitumen as mortar. There is nothing wrong with the technology although it must have been a messy construction. It was the motivation which was anti-God.
“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”” [Genesis 11:4 NIV]
This city was being built in defiance of the God of heaven. It was a demonstration of human strength and achievement to challenge God's right to rule the earth.
So it is against a background of sin, disobedience and rebellion that God chooses Abram and gives him the name Abraham. This shows that just as God acts in judgement, he also acts in grace towards his creatures. God did not choose Abraham because of Abraham's goodness. God wanted to have a people for himself so that he could have fellowship with them. And so God chose the nation of Israel and he led them out of the slavery and misery of their 400 years in the land of Egypt and he led them through the desert to the promised land.
We are going to have two more blogs featuring God's desire for fellowship with the nation of Israel. The next blog will consider the tabernacle or tent of meeting where God would take up residence in the journey from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan. The subsequent blog will feature the types of offerings which the Israelites were to give to God and how they teach us about the principle of God's fellowship with His chosen people.
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