Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, May 13, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
To be fair, God did have expectations of Abraham. A covenant is by definition a two-way street. God promised that Abraham’s descendants would, in Paul’s words here, “inherit the world” but Abraham also committed that God would be his God and he would follow in God’s ways, something his descendants often had trouble doing, and still do to this day.
Jesus, in this case, was a sort of emergency clause in the covenant. In the event that Abraham’s descendants failed to hold to their promises, God was going to have them inherit the world anyway, by showing up as Jesus and turning everything on its head. An by turning things on their head, it blew open the understanding of God’s love to include not just Abraham’s literal descendants, but all of creation. Go big or go home, I guess.
For his part, Abraham simply trusted God. God’s promise of descendants seemed preposterous, given his and Sarah’s ages. But he kept his promise anyway. It wasn’t following a law or earning God’s favor. It was just faith. And that’s what made it all happen in spite of everything that passed in the centuries following.
God’s promise is still for us today. It might seem preposterous. We just have to trust.
Do I have trouble holding on to faith in God’s promises? Why or why not?
