Thursday, March 19, 2026
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The Lord draws Abram’s forehead to the ground
It’s in Genesis 17, one third of the way through the longest book in the Torah.
Abram prostrated himself, and God spoke to him. This is my covenant with you: you will become the father of many nations, and no longer shall you be called Abram (exalted father) but Abraham (father of multitudes). I will render you exceedingly fertile.
Yahweh became more specific.
I will make nations from you. Kings shall stem from you. I will give to you and your descendants the whole land of Canaan as a permanent possession. And I will always be their God.
But there is our side of the covenant too:
You and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.
And thus continues the story of God, who keeps giving humans a new chance to do the right thing, and God’s people, from creation to fall to flood to rebirth, falling again into the arrogance of Babylon, the over-reaching tower of Babel, over and over falling on our face, having defined good and evil for ourselves. The wrong thing, over and over.
But in this one-third-of-the-way-through-Genesis moment, God’s words with Abraham settle the matter. Even when they are outrageous, God will no longer consider destroying his people, or the earth.
I will always be their God.
No matter what the timeline turns out to be, he will save his people, bring them home. Over and over he will reconstruct the destruction we create and then watch with us, from closer than close, how we live our own lives. I think of distant wars, but more intimately, I see what I’ve done (and not done) in my own backyard. My sense of enthusiasm waxes and wanes. God waits with me for it to wax again. (En-Theos, God within = enthusiasm)
Was it any different for Abraham? The stories in the rest of Genesis chronicle the waxing and waning of enthusiasm in all those ancient lives: Abraham and Sarah’s own son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob who betrayed his twin brother Esau, Jacob’s sons all twelve of them – the arrogance of one, that would be Joseph – nearly killed by his offended brothers, captured, jailed, and finally powerful in Egypt. Tragedy turned a corner then, as en-theos flowed backward through the family tree. Joseph wept for his brothers and, forsaking revenge, rescued them from famine. All told. No holds barred in the great story book called Genesis – the beginning of things – catastrophes explored, no holding back, then suddenly overcome and transformed by humility and grace.
First Abraham, then Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
The prophet is dead. Long live the prophet!
Far ahead along the timeline comes Jesus. Is he a prophet too? Even the stones are crying out.
The Messiah is dead. Long live the Messiah!
Christ has died.
Christ has risen.
Christ will come again.
Already …and not yet.
The Lord remembers his covenant forever, which he made binding for a thousand generations.
A thousand! But how many generations have there been since the creation of man?
Start with the idea that God began his creation more like 6000 years ago rather than 4.5 billion, just to keep it simple. Bodie Hodge, an engineering graduate of Southern Illinois University who enjoys history at least as much as science, and genealogy more than anything, writes a short summary of his own genealogy, beginning with Bodie and backing up through time to Adam, who is Bodie’s 100thth great grandfather. Jesus the Christ is his 155th cousin. You come up with (or Bodie did, anyway) somewhere between 88 and 104 generations that account for all of man’s life since the beginning. The dawn of time. Far fewer than a thousand generations.
We are not as old as we think we are.
If TODAY you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Jesus said outrageous things every day. We wouldn’t listen any better than his contemporaries listened.
I say to you today, whoever keeps my word will never see death.
Outrageous! We all die. You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?
Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.
I AM, that means YAHWEH. I AM, that means God! The same God who spoke with Abram? You aren’t God! You’re a poverty-stricken, wanna-be rabbi, a questionably competent carpenter barely thirty years old. Are you a liar?
Are you a lunatic?
Outrageous!
They picked up stones to kill him, but Jesus walked through them untouched and left the temple.
We will soon see Jesus of Nazareth on the cross, dying … that’s sure how it looks. Blood is spilling everywhere. Jesus’ Head collapses onto his chest. His death comes quickly.
But his Resurrection comes even quicker.
Outrageous, all those stories being told.
It is my Father who glorifies me. You do not know him, but I know him. I know him and I keep his world. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day! He saw it and was glad.
(Genesis 17, Psalm 105, Psalm 95, John 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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