Peggy Roe, Member since 1970, Board of Trustees

Genesis 17:1-5, 7, 15-16, 18
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”  3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you:  You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.  5 “No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.” …

7 “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.”…

15 God said to Abraham, “As to Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her.  I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of people will come from her.” …

18 “…your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring with him.”

Reflection:
The entire Bible is an ongoing story about a promise-keeping God. Genesis opens with the famous words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” – words that dramatically reflect the Jews’ long-held belief in the origin of the universe. Christians have embraced the book as foundational to their faith, as well, but it is the Jewish people who “wrote” the book and claim its significance in numerous ways.

Primary among these claims is God’s covenant relationship with Israel. Well before the tale of Abraham and Sarah is the story of the Great Flood. Following the devastation caused by ‘blotting out’ creation, God relents and tells Noah that God will never again destroy humankind or any living creatures by a flood. The sign of the covenant is a rainbow God sets in the sky to commemorate this promise.

Genesis recounts the generations that follow Noah and his sons, eventually bringing Abram into the narrative as the son of Terah. Abram answers God’s call to leave Ur and journey with his wife Sarai to a new country – Canaan – to build a home for God’s people. When Abram and his wife Sarai finally arrive in the new land, much time has passed, and Sarai has yet to bear a child. To expedite God’s promise, Sarai gives Hagar, her servant, to Abram to produce an heir; Hagar gives birth to Ishmael. Now scorned by the jealous Sarai, Hagar flees, taking Ishmael with her. Sarai still has not conceived a child with Abram, which is necessary for the procreation of the peoples that will follow and be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

The scripture then relates what God promises when he changes Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah: “I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her.” (Genesis 17:16) God keeps his promise and blesses Abraham and Sarah with Isaac, and the story of God and this ever-expanding family continues to unfold. Unlike the rainbow in the clouds, which God provides, the sign of this covenant is something that the males of Jewish households must complete: the rite of circumcision. The significance of these stories is not the sign of the covenants but the fact that God is faithful and trustworthy.

Millennia have passed, and God is still keeping his promises. The greatest of these, to us as Christians, is the fulfillment of the promise to send us a savior—Jesus the Christ. As humanity continued to fall short, God had to take action—not through destruction but through redemption. We are the direct beneficiaries of God’s promise to save us, his errant children, through the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son. And what is the sign of this covenant? The sign is God’s grace, available to us free for the asking and unlimited in abundance. How blessed we are by a God who keeps promises?

Closing Prayer:
Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for being a God we can trust to uplift us, inspire us, and also to forgive us. We confess our selfish desires, our sins of omission and commission, and the many times we take your presence for granted. Please continue to keep your promise to bless us with your gift of grace, which we humbly seek. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.