Family Is How We Fight

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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. 2 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. 3 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.”

 
 

The Lord’s plan to save all of creation begins with one man’s family.

Despairing about the state of the world?
Worried about the future?
FAMILY IS HOW WE FIGHT.
Strong families are needed to raise strong children. The next generation is our hope. Remember, God’s entire plan depended on one man’s family. From Abraham’s family comes Jesus, so many centuries later, but at just the right time.

QUESTION FOR REFLECTION:

What can you do this weekend to build up and build for the next generation?

 

Family is How We Fight

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Genesis 12:1-3

12:1 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 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. 3 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.”

 
 

The Lord’s plan to save all of creation begins with one man’s family.

 
 

Despairing about the state of the world?
Worried about the future?
FAMILY IS HOW WE FIGHT.
Strong families are needed to raise strong children. The next gen- eration is our hope. Remember, God’s entire plan depended on one man’s family. From Abraham’s family comes Jesus, so many centuries later, but at just the right time.

 
 

Questions for Reflection:

What can you do this weekend to build up the next generation?

How can you teach the next generation to build their lives on Christ?

Family is How We Fight

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Advent Reading - Day 05

Genesis 12:1-3

12:1 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 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. 3 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.”

 
 

Summary: The Lord’s plan to save all of creation begins with one man’s family.

 
 

Despairing about the state of the world?

Worried about the future?

Family is how we fight.

Strong families are needed to raise strong children. The next generation is our hope. Remember, God’s entire plan depended on one man’s family. From Abraham’s family comes Jesus, so many centuries later, but at just the right time.

 
 

What can you do this weekend to build up the next generation?

How can you teach the next generation to build their lives on Christ?

Obedience-->Blessing [Psalm 128]

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Stop over-thinking it!

Psalm 128 reminds us again of the Bible’s clear teaching:

obedience leads to blessing.

Stop over-thinking it. Where do you need to be obedient today?

 

P.S. Isn’t it interesting that the images the psalmist uses to illustrate blessing are all domestic? We get it totally BACKWARDS—we think the primary form of prosperity is OUTSIDE the home, whereas the Bible sees prosperity’s ultimate form to be domestic harmony and abundance.

What A Wife Is Not

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Remember, the key to understanding Genesis 12-36 is to see it as the education of the patriarchs about the way to make family work.

Here we go again.

The Abraham story began with Abraham passing off his wife as his sister when they sojourned in Egypt. A lot has happened since then, and Abraham and Sarah have grown old and very wealthy. But still, Abraham hasn’t learned his lesson: a “wife” is not the same thing as a “sister” or a “mistress” or a “concubine”; a wife is a partner in the raising and the shaping of the next generation.

And so, here Abraham tries the same trick with Abimelech, and just as before, the Lord intervenes.

What happens next is important. As we’ll see in tomorrow’s reading, Sarah finally becomes pregnant with the child of the covenant—Isaac—but only after Abraham finally learns his lesson.

“Only when Abraham acknowledges that a wife is something absolutely other than a sister does Sarah become pregnant; and only then is she a wife in the full sense”.

—Leon Kass

For the covenant to be passed down, both husbands and wives, fathers and mothers will be necessary. As we’ll continue to see, this lesson is not one the children of Abraham learn easily!

 

Today’s Scripture

Genesis 20:1-18

This Is What the Abraham Story is About

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Because it is immediately followed by the dramatic dialogue between the Lord and Abraham about the destruction of Sodom, it’s easy to overlook the Lord’s introductory comments as the episode begins:

“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” [Genesis 18:17-19]

Did you catch that?

“For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.”

The whole story is about family. It’s about the founding of a family and what it will take to pass on the covenant generation to generation.

Or, to put it another way: family is how we fight.

How can you build for the next generation today?

 

Today’s Scripture

Genesis 18:16-33

[Every weekday I write a brief commentary on that day’s reading in the Munger Bible Reading Plan. Join us and read along!]