The Promise of a Future

October 6, 2013 Background Scripture: Genesis 12:1 – 7; 13; 15; 17:8 Lesson Passage: Genesis 15:5 – 21 Can you imagine being promised a future? Who wouldn’t want that—especially if it has a bright outlook? Many of us labor tirelessly trying to secure a bright future for ourselves and our family. As we come into middle age and reflect back over the years of our lives, we tend to examine and question many decisions and moves. Not very many of us find ourselves living the life we thought we would many years prior. So we examine our decisions and our moves to carefully plan the navigation of the remanding time we have left. How wonderful it would be if this was already planned out for us and it has the closing: And they lived happily ever after. Throughout recorded history, a few people have had just that provided for them. In our text today, we consider one of those persons. Our lesson revolves around a growing relationship between God and Abraham (Abram). Obviously, no relationship starts out fully mature but it begins filled with hopes and dreams. As the relationship progresses, there is always the desire that those hopes and dreams would somehow become reality. But that’s not really what makes relationships special. Relationships are special because of the pleasant surprises that occur along the way. And yet relationships develop character because of the struggles and difficulties we encounter and endure together. The relationship between God and Abraham was no different. The relationship started out with some personal challenges to Abraham. He was told to leave the familiarity and comfort of his homeland and the companionship of his family and go to a place that would be strange to him. In what is best described as baby steps, Abraham began to slowly comply with God’s command. Abraham was willing to do what he was asked but not all at once! Oh boy, that should sound familiar. However, as is often the case, circumstances and difficulties made it easier for him to comply with God’s instructions rather than continue to resist them. When Abraham finally arrived at the place where he was sent, there the fullness of the promise was revealed. Abraham, the aged man, and Sarah, his aged and barren wife, were promised offspring too numerous to count. This must have been frightening for a man well pass his prime and his wife was well beyond her child-bearing years. Furthermore, the land where he received the promise would be his and his descendants forever. (Needless to say, the land was not barren but populated with many people from several ethnic groups.) The aged couple who had not been able to conceive a child would indeed have a child and many descendants to carry on their name and legacy. Although they had become nomads, this would not be the destiny of their offspring. Even after they die and their bodies are resting in graves, God promised to even look out for their descendants and to be their God as well. This was not just a “handshake deal”. God sealed the promise with an oath and blood covenant. This was the strongest existing contract at that time. Abraham was promised a good life but even better, he was promised a future. Robert C. Hudson September 25, 2013