Reading through the Bible in 2020: Notes from the Bible Recap Day 16

Reading through the Bible in 2020

Bible Recap Day 16 Gen 12-15

Personal notes from reading Gen 12-15:

This part of scripture starts off with God giving Abraham (his name is Abram at this point) instructions to leave his home and move to another country, Canaan.  God promises to bless him and make a nation from him. But not only did God tell Abraham that he would be blessed, He lets Abraham know that all families of the earth will be blessed through Abraham.  And Abraham shows great faith when he packs up and leaves immediately. However, pretty quickly, he shows that he’s far from perfect and it doesn’t take much for him to lose confidence. Instead of trusting that God would protect him when he strolls into the new town with a beautiful wife, he pretended that he wasn’t married and let the pharaoh take Sarai.  Even when consequences are scary, its best to trust God. Abraham really thought that if he entered Egypt with a beautiful wife, that they’d kill him to take Sarai as their own. Instead of going to God with his fears, he comes up with his own solution. A solution that could not have been worse! And so of course it didn’t turn out well.  

Abram and his nephew, Lot, end up separating due to disagreements between their staff and Lot makes a bad choice in where he chose to settle.  He saw that life would be easier for him if he lived where the river provided good, fertile land. The issue was that it was filled with really wicked people.  Sometimes the right choice isn’t the easiest choice. I’d venture to say that most of the time the right choice seems to be the more difficult path. Do what’s good by God.  Period.

And then, scripture introduces us to war.  During the war Lot was captured with all of his belongings.  And you probably guessed it before you even read it, he had to be rescued by Abram. 

Abram grows in his faith.  And boy, did we get to see how God responds to faith.  God blessed Abram in a big way. He made a promise to Abram and Abram could stand on those promises.  Undeservingly, God has made promises to us and we can certainly stand firm on His promises.

Notes from the Bible Recap Gen 12-15 :

We are back in Genesis chronologically.  We started with creation and made it through the flood, leaving off with Noah’s line and finally the tower of Babel.  You’ll remember that Noah’s sons were Shem, Ham and Japeth and each of those son’s lines were sent in different directions of the earth with different languages after their attempt to build a tower to heaven to make a name for themselves.  From there, we then moved on to Job’s account and now we are chronologically looking at Abram, who was the son of Terah and from the line of Shem. To put a perspective on the timeline, Abram was probably born approximately 2,000 years after Adam (comparatively speaking that is about how far we are from when Jesus was here on earth).

God shared a very special relationship with Abram and God lets Abram know that he will be blessed in a way that will bless all families on earth. Through Abram’s line, Jesus will be born.  And of course that’s more than a blessing to all families, it’s salvation.  

God blessed Abram with wealth and land and possessions.  He had quite the staff to manage his livestock and land and when he heard that his nephew, Lot, had been captured, he set out with his staff, basically turning his crew of workers into a small army.  And they did catch up to get Lot back after about 160 miles of pursuit.  

We were introduced to a very intriguing person that has left many Bible scholars wondering (and I have always wondered myself) if this person, this King and Priest, could have been Jesus preincarnate.  Of course, that’s a minor detail and not one to get stuck on with theories, but interesting nonetheless. This person of interest was King Melchizedek of Salem. Melchizedek means king of righteousness and Salem means peace.  (I can’t help but take a moment to marvel at how beautiful this is, even if it is just a picture of Christ!). After Abram’s successful retrieval of Lot and all of Lot’s people and possessions, King Melchizedek met up with Abram, bringing bread and wine (which of course we know later on that it will represent the body and blood of Christ).  He was not only a King, but a priest. A priest of God Most High. King Melchizedek blessed Abram and then Abram tried to give up a tenth of everything he had.  

God lets Abram know that He will bless him and Sarai with a son (even though it was basically physically impossible due to their age).  Abram’s faith, his belief in God was seen as righteous. That’s something to consider. It wasn’t his act of valor in rescuing Lot or how good his deeds were that were counted as righteous, it was his faith in God.  Now, there is a direct correlation between Abram’s faith and his actions and obedience. But it’s that faith, that belief in God that draws him in a close relationship to God.

When Abram asks God how he’s to know that these blessings are really his to possess, God tells Abram to sacrifice a cow, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon (and each animal had to be a specific age).  And then God brought Abram into a deep sleep and He spoke to Abram. And when Abram woke, a flame passed between the pieces of the sacrifices (which is one of the ways God appeared to people in the Old Testament).  And God made a covenant with Abram that this promised land will be given to his offspring.

From the podcast, I learned that this sacrificial act was typical between Kings and their servants at that time.  The servants would walk between the sacrificed pieces as a visual act to make a vow to fulfill their part of the covenant.   God showed up as a flame to let Abram know that He was good on His promise. He doesn’t break vows. He was a promise keeper with Abram.  We know how that covenant was fulfilled. And He’s a promise keeper still.