January 2025

‘To your offspring I will give this land’   Genesis 24.7 (NRSV)

This saying is from a section in the first book of the Bible about Abraham and his family (ch 12-36). The true purpose of these chapters is theological rather than historical in the modern sense of this later term. The three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their stories have been combined to create a ‘family story’ and their relationship with God.

Here in this long story (v.1-67) we have the theme of promise. Abraham’s heir Isaac needs a wife. For us it’s a reminder that we can trust God to be faithful to his promises.

Most ancient peoples attached great significance to the names of people and places. A change of name often meant a new beginning. So Abram (exalted father) became Abraham (ancestor of many nations). God called him to leave his land for a new land.

In chapter 12.1-3 the scene is, ‘Go from your country and your kindred..’ and in chapter 15 we have affirmation ‘Look.. count the stars..so shall your descendants be’. By chapter 24 Sarah has died and the choosing of a wife for Isaac is underway surrounded by prayer.

This continuity and place were to continue until the birth of Jesus. We have his genealogy and the place of his birth. He was to be the beginning of a new ‘offspring’, a new covenant, a new idea of ‘land’.

Abraham was followed by many who had promises made to them by God. Until the transition from the last prophet, John the Baptist, to Jesus. He proclaimed a new Kingdom, the Kingdom of God on earth and heaven.

The transition, ‘the Passover is near’. The feeding of the 5000 had just taken place, a moment of nourishment and abundance. The Upper Room supper was to lead away from the sacrificial cult of Jerusalem.

The followers of the Messiah were to be the new Temple. Life was to be more than mortal life, Jesus talked about eternal life. A new concept. The old concept like a crackly radio voice, the new like the voice of a Pavarotti. The promise a message ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand’, affirmed by the words of Jesus, ‘I am with you always’. Followers to pursue ‘love God and love neighbour’. We are the new ‘offspring’, our ‘land’ the creation around us which we promise to care for and the promise of eternity.