Blogging is great – as long as you are connected to the internet. This afternoon our internet service at the church went down and this evening, for reasons unknown to me, I am not connected to our home service. All that being said, my Sunday reflection is not being posted until Monday.
Our readings have now moved us from the world and our human origins to the history of the ancestors of Israel – The Patriarchs. The story of the Patriarchs will take us through the end of Genesis…but don’t worry, we won’t read all of that this week! However, I thought it would be a good idea for you to get a “heads-up” of those who we will be reading about over the next two weeks. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah and Rachel, and Joseph; these are the names who will occupy our minds and our hearts, so get ready, it will be a great two weeks of wonderful stories.
As you read, notice the themes that are present in the Abraham/Sarah cycles of stories (Genesis 12:1 – 25:10) – obedience, separation, blessing, protection, universality, holy places, and the promises of descendants and land. Covenant is the overriding theme of these passages. In Gen. 12:7, God told Abram, “to your descendants I will give this land.” In Gen. 13:15 and Gen 15:5 we find concrete specifications of the covenant. For the land, “all the land which you can see…” and for descendants, “look at the heavens and count the stars if you can. So shall your descendants be.”
In joy,
Suzy
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