The Journey to Christmas: A New People
I believe one of the great rites of passage in life is a person’s first love. You never forget that person who you first fell head-over-heels for. That first relationship is always a life-changing one. You begin feeling things you never experienced before and a part of your heart opens that you never knew existed. It seems as if everyone else just fades away. But all the emotions and excitement of saying those three magical words for the first time are still not as life-changing as when you say goodbye. It’s never the relationship that is life-changing but the break up.
The true power of love can never be fully understood until it has been put to the test. My dad once told me you can’t love a person until you know what you hate about them. Until you’ve seen all that makes up a person, you can’t truly love them. Love isn’t blind, it’s sacrificial. Love sees a person’s weaknesses and resolves to provide strength. This is displayed no better than when God sees our failures and chooses to provide a way out.
Mankind’s failure in the Garden is the failure of a relationship. After sin enters the picture, things change. God and man cannot co-exist as they did before. Yet even in the pain of loss, God resolves to love. He banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden but quickly begins bridging the gap. God’s pursuit to restore his people begins with just one man – Abram. Like the serpent, Abram is given little introduction in Genesis. We know about his family but the narrator never explains why God would begin with him. The point is that God chose Abram, not the other way around. The narrator doesn’t elaborate on Abram because he isn’t who the story is about. Abram is the supporting actor whose role is to bring the main character to life.
When God calls him out, he tells Abram to pick up everything and leave his family’s land. This isn’t like moving to a new city. Abram is leaving a land passed down through generations! Without any further explanation, God leads Abram out with the promise of a new start. Through this man, God will build for himself a new people who will function as priests to the broken world. Abram and his descendants will display God’s glory the way Adam and Eve were meant to. Instead of living in the Garden, they will reside in a Promised Land. To restore the relationship, a law will also be given to them. This law will prepare the people for God’s presence in their midst as Adam and Eve once experienced. If Abram’s descendents follow God’s law, his presence and the land are theirs. If they fail, the results will be like Adam and Eve’s.
There is beauty in the fact that God begins the story of his saving work by inviting humans in. Despite our failures and weaknesses, he offers every opportunity possible to join back in. His love never fails, even when those he loves do. As his creation, we have willingly surrendered to our own oppression but Abraham’s calling demonstrates that God pursues his people even when we fail to see our need for him.
Read Genesis 12:1-9 and respond to one or more of the following questions. Also, feel free to add your own insights into the text. The more interaction, the better!
Do you think God’s promise to Abraham is a conditional or unconditional promise?
What makes this passage significant in our study of Christmas?
www.gravityministries.org
The true power of love can never be fully understood until it has been put to the test. My dad once told me you can’t love a person until you know what you hate about them. Until you’ve seen all that makes up a person, you can’t truly love them. Love isn’t blind, it’s sacrificial. Love sees a person’s weaknesses and resolves to provide strength. This is displayed no better than when God sees our failures and chooses to provide a way out.
Mankind’s failure in the Garden is the failure of a relationship. After sin enters the picture, things change. God and man cannot co-exist as they did before. Yet even in the pain of loss, God resolves to love. He banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden but quickly begins bridging the gap. God’s pursuit to restore his people begins with just one man – Abram. Like the serpent, Abram is given little introduction in Genesis. We know about his family but the narrator never explains why God would begin with him. The point is that God chose Abram, not the other way around. The narrator doesn’t elaborate on Abram because he isn’t who the story is about. Abram is the supporting actor whose role is to bring the main character to life.
When God calls him out, he tells Abram to pick up everything and leave his family’s land. This isn’t like moving to a new city. Abram is leaving a land passed down through generations! Without any further explanation, God leads Abram out with the promise of a new start. Through this man, God will build for himself a new people who will function as priests to the broken world. Abram and his descendants will display God’s glory the way Adam and Eve were meant to. Instead of living in the Garden, they will reside in a Promised Land. To restore the relationship, a law will also be given to them. This law will prepare the people for God’s presence in their midst as Adam and Eve once experienced. If Abram’s descendents follow God’s law, his presence and the land are theirs. If they fail, the results will be like Adam and Eve’s.
There is beauty in the fact that God begins the story of his saving work by inviting humans in. Despite our failures and weaknesses, he offers every opportunity possible to join back in. His love never fails, even when those he loves do. As his creation, we have willingly surrendered to our own oppression but Abraham’s calling demonstrates that God pursues his people even when we fail to see our need for him.
Read Genesis 12:1-9 and respond to one or more of the following questions. Also, feel free to add your own insights into the text. The more interaction, the better!
Do you think God’s promise to Abraham is a conditional or unconditional promise?
What makes this passage significant in our study of Christmas?
www.gravityministries.org
posted by Matt Morrison | 12:55 AM
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