God's Covenant with Abraham

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

The Affirmation of the Promise

Genesis 17:1-8  The Message

17 ^1-2 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God showed up and said to him, “I am The Strong God, live entirely before me, live to the hilt! I’ll make a covenant between us and I’ll give you a huge family.”

^3-8 Overwhelmed, Abram fell flat on his face.
Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: You’ll be the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham, meaning that ‘I’m making you the father of many nations.’ I’ll make you a father of fathers—I’ll make nations from you, kings will issue from you. I’m establishing my covenant between me and you, a covenant that includes your descendants, a covenant that goes on and on and on, a covenant that commits me to be your God and the God of your descendants. And I’m giving you and your descendants this land where you’re now just camping, this whole country of Canaan, to own forever. And I’ll be their God.”

For Reflection

And so, it begins.  God's promise commits God, the ultimate patriarch, to supply and protect the linage of Abram, now Abraham.  God, the Father of fathers, the shepherd of shepherds, the God of gods, the Creator steps in to invite all who see the power of God and human collaboration in the community of God's covenant people.  God's promise carries no contingencies, no strings.   God's promise is an overture to reconciliation.  An invitation to return, with out penalty, to live a life in God's grace.  It is a promise without end.  There will be nothing the decedents of Abraham can or will do that will separate them from the grace of God.

Today, God extends that promise to us all.  God's overture is and invitation to realize the full value of our creation in the image of God.  We, like the chosen ones, are free to choose God.

Pray

prayers of thanksgiving and praise for the Father of the Household of God.  Pray that you will recognize the power of collaborating with the Father in the quest toward reconciliation of human kind to God.