| BABEL AND PROMISE |
You made it through a full week of reading. Keep going.
Making a Name
Compare these two scriptures:
Genesis 11:4
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.
Genesis 12:2
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.
The people of Babel really thought they were something. They took the idea “On my own I can live” to its extreme. They gathered together to make a life for themselves completely apart from God. They even thought that their city could rise to the height of the glory of God.
Abram was a nobody. He did not have children of his own. He did not have a land of his own. His name was far from great. And yet God called him. God made him a promise, a covenant.
There is a simple lesson to be learned here. Those who would exalt themselves above God or in the place of God will be brought low. But those who will humble themselves before the Lord will be lifted up.
Is this not the story of most of our lives? We are just trying to carve out our little corner of the world to prosper and make a name for ourselves. We forget that this world is not our story. It is God’s story. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. The only reason the story began or continues is because of his kindness and mercy. Remember, the story should have ended in Genesis 3:6-7.
All the Families Shall Be Blessed
Here is God again. He is making a promise to save, a promise to bless.
This passageGenesis 12:1-3 is one of the earliest proclamations of the Gospel. God is announcing that he is going to provide a way, through the genealogy of Abraham, to bless all the families of the earth.
As you continue through the plan, you will see how God works through the descendants of Abraham to bring the Savior that was promised all the way back in Genesis 3:15.