Our reading challenge for the day is Genesis chapters 19-23. I'll hit a few highlights. You make comments too and fill in the gaps. What strikes you as specially significant?
Genesis 19 - As God had promised his angels would search for righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah. But they would not find even a minimal number to spare the cities. Out of mercy the Lord preserved Lot and his family, who continued in their faithlessness and brought forth the Moabites and Ammonites, enemies of the people of Israel.
Genesis 20-21 - In this family of promise, Abraham and Sarah have all sorts of sin and strife. Abraham misleads Abimelech about the identity of Sarah, leading Sarah to be taken into Abimelech's harem, only to be rescued by God. Isaac, the child of promise, is born and raised, resulting in Sarah's casting off of her maid Hagar and Ishmael, the child fathered by Abraham, who is later rescued by divine intervention. Who is the hero? Certainly not the family of promise, but only the God of promise.
Genesis 22 - Again the God of promise preserves his people, showing clearly to Abraham that though Abraham is incapable of bearing and maintaining the child of promise, God is perfectly capable of doing this. Consider how it is God the Father who is the father of the true child of Abraham, the child of promise, and that that very child of promise, Jesus Christ, is the lamb who is offered as a substitute for Isaac himself.
Genesis 23 - Consider how the rich man, Abraham, purchased the only piece of land he ever owned, a burial ground, late in life. What do we consider riches and security?
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