A People of God

The earth felt new again, for Noah’s family everything was different. Yes the luxuries of life before the flood were gone, the comforts they had become accustomed to. However, instead of violence there was peace, instead of wicked cultures there was a family of faith. The state of the earth was as close to the Garden of Eden as it had ever been.  

Noah’s family began to repopulate the earth. Cities began being built, commerce was thriving and all the people spoke one language. In spite of the stories of God’s judgment and the flood, even in spite of the Rainbow in the sky, the people forgot about God. Their ambitions echoed the fall of Lucifer, “let us make a name for ourselves.”

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”  As God looked on, He saw how they had forgotten Him and were making a place of worship for themselves, and knew He had to take action.

The whole earth spoke one language, so God gave them many languages, which confused their efforts. The people began breaking up into their new language groups and dispersed all over the world. It was called the Tower of Babel for that is where the many languages came from.

Within a few generations, there were many nations and many languages. God developed a special relationship with one man, Abram. God established a covenant with Abram, a deep and lasting agreement between the two of them.

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  (Genesis 12:1-3 ESV)

This was an amazing promise! God was promising to bless the entire world through one man and his descendants. There was just one problem, Sarai, Abram’s wife was unable to have children. Abram was already 75 years old and Sarai was 65. How could their descendants be the fulfillment of this promise?

God led Abram out of Ur and to a new land, the land of Canaan. “Look Abram, as far as you can see in all directions, this is the land I have given to you and your descendants.” Because of God’s promise, this land was now known as “The Promised Land.”

Many years passed and one day Abram said to God, “what is the good of all these blessings you have given me if I have no child to pass them on to? I am old and soon will have to make my servant my heir.” God responded to Abram, “No Abram, you will have a son who will inherit everything I have promised to you.”

God took Abram out one clear night and said, “Abram look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. This will be like your family, too many to count.” Abram believed God by faith in His promises and it was counted as righteousness to him.

“I am the Lord and I called you out of Ur to give you this land.” Abram asked, “How shall I know that I will possess the land?” The Lord told Abram to gather animals for a blood covenant, a type of covenant that is binding between the two of them. Animals would be cut in half and the two parties would walk between to represent the significance of the covenant, “may this happen to me if I do not fulfill my part.”

As evening came, God caused Abram to fall asleep, and said “your descendants will be wanders in a land that does not belong to them, and serve others for 400 years, but after they will come out with great wealth and possess this land. You however will die in peace, living to a good old age.” 

And then God thought, there is no one greater than I, so I shall swear by myself (Hebrews 6:13-18). And the Lord walked through the slain animals, bearing the full weight of the covenant. 

More time has passed and still Abram and Sarai had no son. Sarai grew very impatient and doubted God’s promise. She asked her Egyptian servant girl, Hagar, to be a surrogate mother for her. Maybe this is what God meant. Abram agreed to the plan. Soon Hagar became pregnant with a boy named Ishmael. This caused a terrible strain on Sarai and Hagar’s relationship. Hagar despised Sarai, and Sarai had Hagar and Ishmael sent away from the family.

When Abram was 99, God visited with him and said, “I am the almighty God, serve me with your entire life and live a blameless life that I may make my covenant with you and multiply you greatly! I am changing your name from Abram to Abraham, which means ‘father of many nations.’ I will always be your God and you will always be my people. I am also changing your wife’s name from Sarai to Sarah, which means ‘mother of many nations’. By this time next year she will be blessed with a son and you shall call his name Isaac.”

Abraham and Sarah both had difficulty believing that they could be parents in their old age, they even laughed at the thought. Abraham wondered, “how can I be a father at 100 years old? How can Sarah be a mother at 90 years old?” Sarah thought, “How can a worn out and tired old woman like me be a mother, and my husband is even older then I am!”

Abraham asked God, “why don’t you just pass your blessing to my son Ishmael?” But God asked Abraham, “Why did you laugh? Is anything too difficult for me? About a year from now you will have a son. Through Isaac I will pass on my blessing, not through your servant’s child!”

Sure enough, in just about a year Sarah gave birth to Isaac, exactly as God had said. The birth of Isaac was the beginning of the promise God made to Abraham. God desired for Abraham’s descendants, called the Hebrews, to be a new kind of people who showed the world what it means to live God’s way.

This wouldn’t be the last time that God Almighty used a miraculous birth to bless the world. And it was through Abraham’s descendants that this future blessing would come.

Today's story comes from Genesis 11-18, 21

(Today’s post is adapted from: The Storyformed Way is a derivative of The Story of God © Copyright 2003-2006 Michael Novelli & Caesar Kalinowski, all rights reserved. This derivative was created and distributed with permission. You are free to use, remix, and build upon this work non-commercially if you attribute Soma Communities. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)