Daily Devotion, June 4, 2020

Devotion: Read Genesis 17:1-8.

During the tornado power outage and even now when I get 5 minutes I often will grab a book to read, a Sudoku puzzle, or a word search. As I was thinking about today’s scripture, I came across a word search that was on Abraham!!! Here were the words to find: Abram, believed, Canaan, covenant, Abraham, father, great, Sarah, offering, and nations. That pretty well tells the story of this scripture.

In Genesis, God made many promises to Abraham and Abraham believed God and trusted his promises. God changed Abram’s name from Abram (father of many) to Abraham (father of many nations). Although the many nations wasn’t something Abraham saw in his lifetime, two nations were formed during Abraham’s life. The Jewish nation from his son Isaac and the Muslim nation from Ishmael. God also promised Abraham and his descendants the land of Israel. Not just the little nation we know as Israel today but the entire land from the Euphrates River south to the land of Egypt. It was east to west from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan.

The prospects of him becoming a father at age 99, with many descendants, seemed to be a dim possibility. God’s covenant promise was an everlasting covenant and a guarantee of a life that would be filled with descendants. God’s purpose was that Abraham and his descendants would become channels of blessing through whom God’s redeeming work would be done throughout the whole world. Personal Worship Option: God, help us be faithful in proclaiming and spreading your blessings in the world around us and sharing your love through our actions.