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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Gen. 28
Funny, that the Bible doesn’t speak much about Terah, Abraham’s father. From what I see, God’s entire promised family line started with him. It was Terah who first left their native land to go to the land of Canaan (see Gen. 11:31). But for whatever reason, he stopped in Haran, which was curiously the name of his son who had died. Did he name the place they stopped after his dead son? Or did he stop there because of the name? No idea. But it makes me wonder if Terah was unable to let go of his loss and this became an obstacle to his following God.
Though the Bible only mentions Terah taking Abram, Lot, and Sarai with him to Haran, it seems that he actually took the entire family. Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother, Nahor, who was living in Aram-naharaim. This is evidently the region where Haran was located. Later, Isaac also sent Jacob to Haran to take a wife from Rebekah’s brother, Laban. So Nahor evidently also made the trek with Terah and settled in Haran with him. Thus, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of their wives came from Terah and this place.
What is the relevance of all of this? I have no idea. But it raises my curiosity all the same.
Gen. 29-30
For lack of a better way to say it, I’ll say that, from our human perspective, God fulfills His promises in stages. His promise to Abraham, which was passed down to Isaac and then to Jacob, involved the land of Canaan, descendants too numerous to count, and that all nations would be blessed through them. Several hundred years passed from the time God first declared His promise until He gave the land. And the descendants did not start to multiply until Jacob. But the promise of blessing started almost immediately. Not only did God bless Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob wherever they went, but He also blessed those around them. And those people always seemed to know the blessings they experienced were due to the presence of God’s chosen ones. Even Laban told Jacob, “I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” (Gen. 30:27b).
I think God does this because of His mercy. He knows that we are weak, impatient people. I mentioned a few days ago what I believe is God’s ultimate promise. “I am God Almighty. Live in my presence and be blameless.” (Gen. 17:1). His goal is that we will be His people and He will be our God. This is His promise and it will come to be. But there is a lot of hard stuff that has to happen first. So God fulfills other promises along the way to give us something to hold onto and keep our hope alive.
I see this thought played out in God’s promise to free us from our sins. I was taught that this is a three-part promise, a perspective that makes a lot of sense to me and follows along with how I see His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob fulfilled. When we, like Abraham, demonstrate our faith in God’s promise, He immediately frees us from the penalty of sin. We become God’s chosen people, set apart for His blessing and saved from His judgment. Then, as we follow Him in our journey of life, God offers us freedom from the power of sin. As with the number of Abraham’s descendants, this is a work in progress. Sometimes we lean into that power, and sometimes we try our own thing. But God offers it regardless.
We see these things at work in our lives so that we will know that one day we will be free from the very presence of sin – the third and final part of God’s promise of freedom from sin. That is our Promised Land. That is when we will, “Live in [God’s] presence and be blameless.” (Gen. 17:1).