Reflections

Reflections of today's reading:

• Genesis 17:1b "...I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect." In verse three Abram falls on his face. And that is exactly what I wanted to do when I read that.
  
  
• Wouldn't it be weird if someone came up to you and said that you were to change your name? That's exactly what God did to Abram and Sarai. It doesn't seem their names were drastically changed, but still. . . :D
  
  
• Right after the Lord tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son, Abraham says in vrs. 17, "Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" What amazes me here is that God doesn't get upset at this outburst of skepticism, but calmly says, "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant, and with his seed after him." How incredibly patient is our God! And how horribly impatient are we! Oh, God is so good!
  
  
• Another thing I noticed is Abraham's faith and how it grows as he learns from and grows closer to the Lord. The above point is the one of the first places where I noticed his lack of faith, and the next place where Abraham seems to have little faith (or maybe it's true concern for his nephew or both ;)), is when he's pleading with the Lord to spare Sodom of destruction. He asks the Lord to save the city for 50 righteous living there. But after finding out that the Lord will save it if that many righteous are living there, he then asks the Lord to save the city for only 45 righteous people. It's almost like he's bartering with Lord here. ;) So Abraham continues to ask God to save the city for less and less. When you finally get to where God will save the city for 20 righteous people, I'm like, "Ok, surely now Abraham will stop." Not the case. Pleading with the Lord not to get angry, he asks if God will save the city for only 10 righteous people. And God, in His graciousness, says He will! Ok, sorry to get a little off topic... Anyways, after that incident, Abraham's faith gets stronger. Isaac is finally born and, of course, Abraham and Sarah are overjoyed! But then, God tells Abraham to give his son -his only son- as a sacrifice. And you know what? Abraham doesn't blink an eye! He does exactly what God tells him to do without a word. And when his son asks, (paraphrasing here) "Father, where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham says, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." Wow, Abraham's faith certainly had grown by that time!
  
  
• Something I thought was interesting was how Abraham and his servant swore an oath. You know how modern-day oaths might be sworn by raising your hand. Well his servant put his hand under Abraham's thigh! That would be an interesting custom to look up.
  
  
• After Isaac's mother died, I thought it was so sweet that he was comforted when he married Rebekah. :)