Genesis 15, 19, 22, 27-28, 37
6 Stories today... Abram and God's covenant, Lot's terrible parenting, Abraham's sacrifice, Jacob's lying, Jacob's dreaming, Joseph's big mouth
Genesis 15 is the story of God promising Abram. God actually makes the promise in Genesis 12, but He makes the covenant in Genesis 15.
I remember teaching the teenagers about covenants a while ago. We talked about the 3 steps of promises. Step 1 is a promise that you make, which I would say is about 95% you are going to follow through. There are some circumstances that will cause you to break a promise. People break promises and they are usually forgiven.
Step 2 is a commitment. If you commit to doing something, you are saying that I am 99% likely do it. Pretty much, to not fulfill my commitment I need to be seriously injured or on my death bed or something of that nature. A commitment says I will schedule my life around this thing.
Step 3 is a covenant. And this means if I break this covenant with you... you can kill me. Literally, in Bible times, that is what it meant when you formed a covenant. They would cut animals in half and walk between the 2 halves. Symbolizing, that if I break this covenant, I deserved to be cut in half. In our life times, we may only enter 2 or 3 covenants. The main ones are salvation and marriage. We make a covenant with God and a covenant with our spouse.
Abram here is making a covenant with God, but if you read closely. Abram didn't make the covenant. God made the covenant with Abram (and his descendants) while Abram slept, so only God entered the covenant.
I don't really feel like talking about Genesis 19... it is one of the worst chapters in the Bible. If you really want to know what happens, read it for yourself. But beware it is rated R (possibly X-rated). But I think the people who decided to put it in the tour of the Bible were focusing more on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham and Isaac's sacrifice is interesting. It took a lot of faith for Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his son. And it took a lot of faith for Isaac to allow his father to be willing to sacrifice him.
We always talk about Abraham's faith with this story, because that is what the Bible focuses on. But Isaac let his dad tie him up, place him on the altar, and almost slit his throat. It's not like a 100+ year old man can tie down a (probably) teenage boy (who is strong enough to carry a bunch of fire wood up a mountain).
I pray that someday my son or daughter has the kind of faith, because of my testimony, to say that "I am trusting God, even if ____________"
We also see Jacob doing the exact opposite. Jacob doesn't trust God to provide and lies to his dying father to receive his blessing. I used to wonder if it was in God's plan for Jacob to trick Isaac into the blessing, but then I remembered... God is bigger and wiser and more powerful than some trickster. God would have no problem getting the blessings to the correct sons.
The Jacob dreams about a ladder to heaven. I have never really understood this story, except that God spoke to Jacob and reiterated the covenant that He made with Abraham and Isaac. But we still don't really see Jacob following God for about 10 more chapters.
Joseph shows up in Genesis 37 and runs his big mouth so much that his brothers want to kill him, but instead sell him into slavery. I'm sure that there are probably a few boys and girls in this world who could learn a thing or two about running their mouths and the consequences it brings. I know I learned this lesson.
Well, over the course of 22 chapters we go from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to Joseph. Interestingly, we see foreshadowing of the Messiah in each of their stories. Abraham is promised that God will "bless the whole world through his Seed." Isaac is Abraham's only son, and is sacrificed. Jacob sees God face to face. And Joseph (haven't read this far yet) saves the world (from hunger).
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