The M'Cheyne Bible reading plan has us jumping from Genesis to Matthew and from Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther to Acts. I'm not complaining, I'm enjoying the connections that show the continuity of this one big story. Even though we're only in the first month of reading, we've already seen several cases where there have been ups and downs in the relationship people have with God. In yesterday's reading--the last chapter of Nehemiah--we saw how quickly the exiles, who had returned to Jerusalem, fell from grace by forgetting their tithes, forgetting the practice of Sabbath and intermarrying with non-God-followers. We're not sure how their story ended, other than their descendants didn't continue following God until Christ's birth some four hundred years later. In today's reading from Genesis chapter 24, we do see how someone's story ended. We saw what a life of grit--one that pursued a relationship with God to the very end--produces.
"Now Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way" (v. 1).Sovereign God--the God who orders our steps--told Abram in Genesis 12 that this life of blessing would be his experience. Abraham had his ups and downs. However, in his greatest mountain-top experience when he showed his love for God, God opened the flood-gates of blessing on Abraham.
"I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies" (Ch. 22, v. 17).And God did it. He blessed Abraham so that when he died it was said,
"Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life" (Ch. 25, v. 8).Isn't that what we all want? Certainly, there will be times of testing when we're tempted to do something contrary to what God desires. And I know we'll fail a test from time to time. But, if we choose God by following Christ we will finish like Abraham, satisfied with the life we've lived. Let's do it!
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