Day 2 - Genesis 17:1 - 28:19

I hope you enjoyed today's 'Happy Families' instalment - and imagine what the scriptwriters on Eastenders would say when given some of the plotlines in today's portion! As well as the vivid details, we see some of what Nick Page describes as the big themes emerge:

• the change of name
• the unexpected child
• the older supplanted by the younger
• God's eternal promises.

Throughout these chapters, I was struck by the way in which is was the promise of God, set out through the covenant, that animated the people we read about. And it was not just to Abraham that the promise was given and re-affirmed, but also Isaac, Jacob and even to Sarah. It was this knowledge that God had bound Himself to them in a covenant, that it was their responsiblity and obligation to keep, that gave their lives meaning and pattern.

Chapter 22 leaves me awestruck, especially when I consider that the lamb that God provided for me was his own Son. This video moves me to tears, while this one from Michael Card is very haunting.

2 verses from today really struck me - 24:1 and 24:40 - and the causality between them:

"Abraham was now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in every way... The Lord, in whose presence I have lived."

Living in God's presence, remembering the eternal covenant and receiving the blessings God has promised us.