A Long Story – Genesis 12:1-4

A text – Genesis 12:1-4

12 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

A reflection:

God’s story is long. God made the world and populated it with creatures, choosing for special, important tasks human beings who almost always run into trouble completing them. And for all the support God gives, these humans turn away from God often, or at the very least argue with God a lot the time. The nations war against each other, they do perverse things to one another, they kill out of jealousy and try to build towers to reach heaven.

So God starts over, building a relationship with just one person, a 75 year old man called Abram, who has a wife who cannot bear children. But Abram takes the time to walk and talk with the Lord, who promises to make of him a great nation and bless the whole world through his descendants. Funny as those promises sound, Abram believes God. He pulls up his many tent stakes, packs up his household, takes his nephew along with him, and goes where the Lord tells him to go.

And as tiny as this starting over was for God, one family of old people who became the cradle of God’s salvation for the whole world, that’s exactly what happened. God kept God’s amazing promises to Abram (or Abraham, his new name as heir to God’s promises). Over the course of history, think of the faithful people who were his descendants. Think of those who perverted the course of the promises. Think of the epic story of God’s intervention into the world to bring forth Jesus, who saved anyone (not just Jews) who believed in him. The whole world, just as God had promised. Even us.

A short text for this week, but the beginning of a big promise. The next time you or I make what we think is one single decision because we know it is what God wants us to do, remember this decision of Abram’s and think also of the consequences we set into motion by keeping God’s trust.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for choosing Abraham and Sarah for beginning your long-term work in the world. Thank you for keeping your promises to them over the generations. Help us to remember that your story is our story now, thanks to Jesus, your son. Amen.