After spending time with some of the most well-known and foundational passages in the Old Testament during our first week, we now shift into the rest of Genesis for Week 2 — focusing on the (soon to be named) Abraham and his descendants. 

Although the Book of Genesis pivots from our wider human story in Genesis 1–11 to this particular family story in Genesis 12 and beyond, the passages we’ll read this week certainly continue to feel universal.  There is parental disappointment at challenges to conceive, intense sibling rivalries, and family dynamics that are exactly the same today as they were thousands of years ago.  There are moments of disagreement, betrayal, and harshness — along with moments of compassion, generosity, and forgiveness.  In short, it is so easy to see ourselves in Abraham and his descendants — and the Book of Genesis has much to teach us as we spend time with these faithful yet flawed people.

In these passages we will also see the development of another major ongoing theme throughout much of the biblical text: the covenant relationship that God makes with Abraham and all those who will come after him, with a promise that God will always be with them and a promise of a new land.  As the Book of Genesis progresses through subsequent generations — following Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph — we will continue to see God at work in their midst watching over them, prodding them, and occasionally even wrestling with them as they look to lead a more faithful life.  They certainly do not always succeed in doing so, and yet through it all God’s faithfulness does not change — which will become extremely important as we spend time in Egypt next week.

— Matt Helms, Associate Pastor

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