Renewal

God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants. (Genesis 35:11, 12 MSG)

One of the most interesting things about reading the story of the Patriarchs in Genesis is the fact that with each succeeding generation, God always renews His covenant. He is faithful to people who are unfaithful to Him and to each other: they lie, cheat, steal, and withhold good from one another. Yet God stays true to His original promise.

How can this be? Does God wink at sin or overlook grievances? No! He sees these grievances, and works in spite of them. Many times, we read where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not wholly obedient to God's commands. Yet He is fully obedient to His promise. I don't normally play the "What if?" game while reading Scripture, but I do wonder sometimes just how much easier things would have been for these men had they been 100% obedient from the first time God spoke to them.

So it is with us. With each generation, God's promise of blessing and offer of salvation is renewed and available. It really began with Adam, was clearly laid out with Abraham, and is still freshly renewed daily 6,000 years later. Where will I live today? In God's blessing or outside of it?