Abraham and the Promise of Blessing
For Meditation
We’re kicking off a new sermon series for the summer this week called Pointing to the Promise. In this series we’ll be looking at stories from the Old Testament that show that from the very beginning, God was working to redeem the world and make all things new. As we dive into these stories, we’ll get a look at what kind of Kingdom God’s bringing about here and now as well as the future, and that we ways that we can invite other people into it.
This week we’re starting with a story that’s considered a turning point in the history of the redemption story, the story of God’s promise to Abraham. God promises to bless Abraham so that he can be a blessing for others. When it comes to blessings, it’s easy to think about them as something that benefits me, or us, things that are meant to enhance my life, our lives. It’s often harder for us to see the blessings we’ve received as being given to us for the good of others. Not only that, but the blessing also that God gives to Abraham isn’t what we would first think of as the blessing. Like Abraham, we tend for first look to material things as blessings when God’s blessings often look very different.
The good news is that God knows this about us, he knows our tendencies to miss his true blessing and seeking after other things, and yet he faithfully loves us and continues to bless us. How do we respond to God’s continual and faithful blessing? Do we keep it for ourselves, or do we look for ways in which we can bless our world by sharing the blessing of Jesus and his call? God blessed Abraham and through him the world was blessed. God has also blessed us so that we can bless those around us. How can you bless others in the name of Jesus?
Genesis 12:1-9
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “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.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all 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 set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 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. 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 went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.
9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.