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
Today we heard a wonderful sermon. We’re starting a new series on the Covenants God gives in the Bible.
This week we looked at the Covenant given to Abraham (Genesis 12, 15, 17 and 22). It was a sermon packed full of wisdom, bits of truth, woven together.
One that struck me was of God’s MERCY.
The God who is revealed in the Old Testament is often seen first and foremost as a God of RIGHTEOUS FURY AND ANGER BURNED OUT AGAINST HIS ENEMIES.
When you grow up with the stories of Jericho, David + Goliath, Moses at the Red Sea, the Tower of Babel, Cain and Abel, and the Fall (and lots more), it sure sounds like it. Especially if that’s all you hear.
But God, the Sovereign Almighty Creator, Perfect and Just, revealed in the Scriptures, is A GOD OF MERCY. In both the Old and New Testaments.
When Adam and Eve sin, they hide because they think God’s righteous fury will be called down upon them. They know He walked in the garden. They were the ones He used to walk with. But now that they have sinned, well, God said that they would die if they ate of that fruit.
Does God bring down His might upon them? No.
He gives a covenant, in His cursing of the Serpent. A covenant that is a glorious foreshadowing of Christ the Redeemer of His people.
Right from the beginning, from the Fall, God calls His people back into a right relationship with Him.
And with Abraham He did the same. He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans. He called Abraham to be His friend! This sinner man. Called to a Covenant that would see ALL PEOPLES/NATIONS/FAMILIES of the earth blessed!
Wowza. I mean. Seriously.
Yes, there is wrath in the Old Testament. There is righteous fury.
But the Covenants that thread themselves throughout the Scriptures, fulfilled in Christ, are of God’s MERCY to us, His people. They are of His great LOVE for us.
In them, in Christ’s sacrifice, becoming a curse for us – In them we find SALVATION.
How awesome is that!