The Story of the Bible from Creation to the Cross to Eternal Glory
In 72 daily readings, we will examine the overall story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, seeking to get the big picture of God's work through Jesus Christ in this sinful world.
Today's Reading: Genesis 12:1-9, 15:1-20
12 The Lord said to Abram:
Go out from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the site of Shechem, at the oak of Moreh. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 7 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. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. He built an altar to the Lord there, and he called on the name of the Lord. 9 Then Abram journeyed by stages to the Negev.
15 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield;
I am your shield;
your reward will be very great.
2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”
4 Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
8 But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?”
9 He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 So he brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half. 11 Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.
13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. 15 But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hethites, Perizzites, Rephaim...
Through the Bible Reading: Exodus 27-28, Matthew 23:12–39, Psalm 19:7–14, Proverbs4:13-19
If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings.
Context
I want you! The poster of a pointing Uncle Sam is famous in our cultural lore. But the scripture tells us that God also made choices. In our readings today he made a key choice - he chose Abram to the Father not only of many nations but of his Chosen People, Israel. In his great work of redemption and in his battle against the world system, God would work in and through this people.Devotional: God's Chosen
Israel never understood why they were chosen. In Deuteronomy, God told them that it was because they were so hard-headed and rebellious that everyone would know that the world he did was all by his grace and power. He said similar things in the New Testament, to churches like Corinth, reminding them that they were chosen as God's own not because of their greatness or merit but simply so God could display his power through them.
In these two passages God defines three great gifts he is going to give the people he chose as his own. These are eternal and irrevocable promises based on the character of God.
First, in Genesis 12:3, he promises to bless Israel. They will experience God at work among them, seeing his power and presence. God is infinitely good and his work in us produces good. But the real good he gives is not health and wealth, or physical, earthly things, but the blessing of his glory among his people.
But there is a key aspect to this that the Israelites almost always forgot. Not only would they be blessed, but they would be a blessing. God's gifts to us are never meant to stop with us. We are channels of his blessing - what he gives to us is to be shared with the world. When he blesses us with prosperity (as he has America) it is to be shared with others and invested in kingdom work. When he comforts us we are to comfort others. We love and forgive because God first loved us and forgave us. When God blesses us we pass those blessings on to the world.
God chose a people so he could bless the world through them. In the OT, that people was Israel. Today, that is the church. God takes us as his own not just to bless us but so that through us we can bless the world.
In Genesis 15:1-6, God promised Abraham a second gift, that his seed would flourish and that he would become the father of many nations. Though Abraham was an old man, God would supernaturally bless him with offspring who would become as numerous as the stars in the sky.
When God is working, there is growth. Offspring. New life. For Abraham, that was a physical blessing. The seed he was promised was literal descendants who would be the result of his miraculous work. Sarah. Rachel. God's power opened wombs and brought life.
Today our God promises offspring to his chosen people, but it is not literal. He uses us in his eternal process of redemption and as we proclaim Christ God saves souls and creates new life.
God chose a people so that he could bring new life through them. In the OT, that was Israel, but in the NT, that is the church's role in bringing the lost to Christ.
In these two passages God defines three great gifts he is going to give the people he chose as his own. These are eternal and irrevocable promises based on the character of God.
First, in Genesis 12:3, he promises to bless Israel. They will experience God at work among them, seeing his power and presence. God is infinitely good and his work in us produces good. But the real good he gives is not health and wealth, or physical, earthly things, but the blessing of his glory among his people.
But there is a key aspect to this that the Israelites almost always forgot. Not only would they be blessed, but they would be a blessing. God's gifts to us are never meant to stop with us. We are channels of his blessing - what he gives to us is to be shared with the world. When he blesses us with prosperity (as he has America) it is to be shared with others and invested in kingdom work. When he comforts us we are to comfort others. We love and forgive because God first loved us and forgave us. When God blesses us we pass those blessings on to the world.
God chose a people so he could bless the world through them. In the OT, that people was Israel. Today, that is the church. God takes us as his own not just to bless us but so that through us we can bless the world.
In Genesis 15:1-6, God promised Abraham a second gift, that his seed would flourish and that he would become the father of many nations. Though Abraham was an old man, God would supernaturally bless him with offspring who would become as numerous as the stars in the sky.
When God is working, there is growth. Offspring. New life. For Abraham, that was a physical blessing. The seed he was promised was literal descendants who would be the result of his miraculous work. Sarah. Rachel. God's power opened wombs and brought life.
Today our God promises offspring to his chosen people, but it is not literal. He uses us in his eternal process of redemption and as we proclaim Christ God saves souls and creates new life.
God chose a people so that he could bring new life through them. In the OT, that was Israel, but in the NT, that is the church's role in bringing the lost to Christ.
God gave his people a third gift in Genesis 15:7-11, which had also been mentioned in 12:1 and 12:7, a land to possess. The physical land of Israel was the possession of the people of Israel for all time. That has some political ramifications and even opens some controversies which are not part of our discussion here. Our purpose is to say that God gave them a land to possess, and then empowered them to possess that land and drive out the enemies that lived there.
We too have a land that we must possess - our own bodies. We must give them as living sacrifices, give them fully to God to serve him, and bring them fully under obedience to Christ. Those spiritual Canaanites who dwell within us must be driven out. But the good news is that as God promised the land to Israel he promises us the power to walk in righteousness.
God chose a people so that they could possess a land in holiness. In the OT that was the land of Israel. In the NT, it is our own bodies as the Temples of God's Spirit to be used for him.
Land. Seed. Blessing. The gifts of God to his chosen people. As God chose Israel and gave them gifts he chooses us as his own and gives us great gifts. He blesses us so that we can bless the world. He brings new life to the world through our witness. And he gives us the power to possess our "land" in holiness.
Father, thank you for you grace and power, and these mighty gifts that you give.
Think and Pray:
Israel received these gifts - land, seed, and blessing. Did they take full advantage of them?
Will you receive God's blessing and be a blessing to others?
Will you actively participate in God's purpose to create new spiritual life through you in this world?
Will you possess your body in holiness or will you walk in sin and the ways of the world?
Will you receive God's blessing and be a blessing to others?
Will you actively participate in God's purpose to create new spiritual life through you in this world?
Will you possess your body in holiness or will you walk in sin and the ways of the world?
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