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...And I Will Bless You

             The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3) 

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8) 

This was the passage I was looking for yesterday, but I came to Genesis 11 before I got here and I’m glad I did, because the juxtaposition is interesting. The people (very likely with some sort of leadership) decided they would build the tower to make a name for themselves so they wouldn’t be scattered. In other words, they wanted to make themselves into a great nation. Then, about three hundred years later, God called Abram out of Ur and promised to make him into a great nation.[1] Of course, it took more than four hundred more years before the great nation could be considered a nation, and probably another four hundred after that before it would really be called “great.” That’s not the reason I chose this passage, but it is interesting.

I chose Genesis 12:1-3 because it was the event referred to in Hebrews 11:8, one of my theme verses since 2015. In fact, I named my truck Abraham because it was purchased with the idea of the journey Dad and I would make with it. And then Dad only made two journeys. But for a while now, the point has been that we always go to a land we don’t know- even if we never leave home. Every fall, and every spring my mind fixates on this idea as I prepare to go to Florida or Pennsylvania. It is doing so especially actively this year as I make decisions about the future.

I’m not suggesting that I’m hoping God will make me a great nation or give me “the land” (although some land might be cool. Just a few acres, preferably with a well already established.) But I do hope that God will bless me and that I will be a blessing. Maybe a bigger blessing than I have been. I tend to think about this in terms of the obedience, not the blessing. I think it’s time to change that.


[1] Jones, Dr. Floyd Nolen, The Chronology of the Old Testament (Green Forest, AR, Master Books, Inc.), 278.

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