Another example of the Big Story of God being developed in the opening chapters of Genesis: The Tower of Babel/Babylon (ch. 11). God cursed mankind's proud, Godless, self-reliance by confusing their languages and scattering them. Much later, when the Good News of Jesus gets delivered in Acts 2, what does God do? He unites people from every ethnicity to miraculously hear the Gospel in their own language.
And in ch. 12 we have the beginning of the nation of God, Israel. Abram is called out of ignorance and from a distant land to follow God. And he becomes the father of all who follow God by faith (Rom 4; Gal 3, etc.). Ab is imperfect to be sure (as you'll see) - but he trusts God and GOD is faithful!
A great story in about to unfold!
Read it here.
Pretty cool contrast between 11:4 - people making a name for themselves - and 12:8 - Abram making a name for God.
ReplyDeleteBut like you said Jeff... Abe blows it right away in 12:13. I think I'm going to tally how many times God's faithfulness to Abe and His covenant brings Abram back to trust in God.