God’s aim from the start: bless “all the families of the earth”
Daily Scripture
Genesis 12:1-3
1 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
those who curse you I will curse;
all the families of the earth
will be blessed because of you.”
Daily Reflection & Prayer
God made great promises to Abraham, “the ancestor of all those people…who have faith in God” (cf. Romans 4:11), including “a land I will show you,” and “I will bless you.” Human nature might read promises like that as “God thinks I am more special than anyone else!” But God had a completely different mission in mind. God blessed Abraham so that he and his descendants could share the blessing as widely as possible: “All the families of earth will be blessed because of you.”
- Scholar Theodore Hiebert wrote of the promise to Abraham, “The Israelites who [first] listened to these stories experienced these promises as coming true in their own time…. Much later… when Israel and Judah had been conquered… these old promises gave a vision about who God’s people might be again in the future.” * In what ways is God’s promise and mission statement to Abraham not just ancient history, but a pointer to God’s ideal for you as one of God’s people?
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Just before Abraham’s story, Genesis 11:1-9 told the story of the Tower of Babel. Dr. Hiebert wrote, “The text itself emphasizes the human wish to preserve one common culture (11:1-4). This wish comes into conflict with God’s aim to create a new world with different cultures (11:5-9).” ** Too often people see difference as a threat, something to hate, resist and avoid. What (if anything) has helped you learn to embrace the diversity God created in the human family?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you wanted Abraham to care about blessing “all the families of earth.” Plant that kind of heart in me, too, as one of Abraham’s spiritual descendants. Amen.
GPS Insights
Jaime Kernaghan
Jaime Kernaghan is the Small Group Specialist at Resurrection Leawood. She previously worked as Praise & Worship Coordinator with Resurrection Kids. Jaime has an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas in Sociology, with a minor in Psychology, and an M.S. Degree from Friends University; she is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Jaime is passionate about her work in connecting people. Outside work she enjoys time with family, friends and her foster son, as well as her two dogs, and her cat-dog. Jaime loves yoga, reading, writing, hammocking and time at the lake.
One of the best reminders of blessing others that I know of is to “leave others better than we find them,” whether that is our neighbor, our friend, or even the random stranger we pass on the street. Often, we have only a short amount of time to leave a solid impact. As God calls us to be a blessing, and in the Scripture the idea that “all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you,” it sometimes can feel like a lot of responsibility. And we are humans, with emotions, and our own struggles. Yet, we are called to love, to bless and to be Christ-like in our interactions.
I think this is one of the reasons I love animals. They make it easy to show love to them, to receive love from them, and to be gentle and kind in our interactions. I know not everyone is an animal lover for whatever reason, such as past traumatic events with an animal, lack of exposure, etc. Still, the love we can give and receive from animals can be so powerful.
Two people who are dear to me have lost pets this week. As I listen to them express fond memories and begin the grieving process for their beloved animals, it reminds me how much our animals are family. I believe our pets, and animals in general, are here to teach us to be softer, to be gentler, to be more open to families that often look so different from our own. May we find compassion, even when we don’t understand. May we show comfort, even when our families look different. And may we find ways, big and small, to leave others better than we found them, and to bless all the families of the earth.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Theodore Hiebert, sidebar note “The Promises to the Ancestors” in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 23 OT.
** Theodore Hiebert, study note on Genesis 11:1-9 in The CEB Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013, p. 20 OT. Explored in depth in Dr. Hiebert’s book The Beginning of Difference: Discovering Identity in God’s Diverse World. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 2019.
