Tag: promise
Cover to Cover Reading: Joshua 18:1-21:45 Focus: Joshua 18:43-45 It is almost an unwritten expectation these days that people will not keep their promises. The value of people’s words no longer carry much weight. With the ever-growing community of the Internet, it seems that everyone has a voice and an opinion. While an individual’s word now has an accessible medium for the freedom of expression, the value and weight of an individual’s word is no longer the same. The amount of slapstick mashups of popular media, such as the apology of Tiger Woods (just search “Tiger Woods apology remix” on…
Cover to Cover Reading: Genesis 18:1-20:18 Focus: Genesis 18:1-15 The story of Abraham is one of great anticipation, of which the central focus is God’s promise to make Abraham into a great nation. However, it is also a story of human disruption in the divine plan, as time and time again, Abraham does stupid things because he lacks faith in trusting for God’s provision and protection. God had made it explicitly clear to Abraham that Sarah herself would give birth to a child, but instead Abraham had a son with Hagar, Sarah’s servant. As Abraham travelled throughout various cities, he…
Cover to Cover Reading: Genesis 14:1-17:27 Focus: Genesis 15:1 – 21 As we enter into this stage of Abraham’s life, he had just fought against the Canaanite kings (think clan chieftains rather than national kings) after his nephew Lot was captured in a recent battle (see Genesis 14). At the end of this battle, one of the kings offered Abraham his portion of the war spoils but Abraham refused having taken an oath before God. (It’s not like Abraham was poor anyway!) Here, at the beginning of Genesis 15, God appeared to Abraham with the promise: “Do not be afraid,…
