Through the Bible in one year - Day 12

 

Psalm 11:7
For the Lord is righteous;

he loves righteous deeds;

the upright shall behold his face.

Genesis 12:1-3

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. And 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. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Today I wish to keep looking at the story of Abram. We see in the Genesis passage I’ve highlighted above that God is the one sending Abram, and it is God’s intent that Abram be a blessing and that through him the whole world will be blessed, and yet when we read about Abram’s actions we see that he has decided to do it his own way – as if he doesn’t believe or trust (or both) the word of God. We could talk a long time about Abram in particular and how that was not a bright thing to do...for instance we see in the Psalm today that the Lord is righteous and He loves righteous deeds-and from my point of view saying your wife is your sister and handing her off to the pharaoh to save your skin is not righteous – and God doesn’t think it was-and the pharaoh doesn’t think it was either.

How much better this could have transpired is something we won’t know, and yet, I have to say that these actions of Abram should not be unfamiliar or unbelievable to us; don’t we look to mitigate our circumstances-to make them the most favorable for ourselves-and the least dangerous? Don’t we act out of fear – at least sometimes? I know even if I don’t always react out of fear there are times when fear enters into my thoughts. I’ve never been in a strange land where I thought the powers that be were out to take my life – but it is conceivable. And under those circumstances I can only pray that I would remember the promises of God, and not act out of fear.

The words from the New Testament reading today give us that hope.

Luke 7:50

And [Jesus] said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Peace, to you today.

Today’s readings: Psalm 11, Genesis 12:1-13:1, 1 Chronicles 12, Luke 7:36-8:3