On this seventh day of bible of a year the following passages were on the schedule: Genesis 17:1-18:33, Matthew 6:25-7:23, Psalm 6:1-10.

I’d like to share what stood out to me in Genesis 17.

Here, the LORD establishes His eternal covenant with Abraham. He’s done so before; apparently Abraham needs some reassuring. Don’t we all? Then we have to keep reminding ourselves of God’s promises, by reading the Bible :), just like God keeps reminding Abraham of His promises. And God may use many people and many ways to keep reminding us of them as well!

But anyway, what stands out to me regarding this covenant… Firstly, God is GENEROUS. He does not just promise Abraham to look out for Abraham himself, but He makes an everlasting covenant with him, and promises to bless all his descendants. Now does Abraham deserve this? I believe not. Okay, I guess He made a great step to follow the LORD by faith. But he is scared in other areas of his life, and lies about Sarai’s relationship with him, because he is scared people will kill him because of her beauty. Because he lies that she is his sister, Sarai ends up in the pharaoh’s harem, and the LORD rescues her through plagues. Abraham is far from perfect. But the LORD chooses Him, and justifies Abraham because Abraham believes.

Secondly, the LORD is TRANSFORMATIVE. Abram gets a name change: He becomes Abraham instead of Abram. Abraham means the father of many nations. Abram gets an amazing role to play in God’s kingdom. Choose to follow Jesus, and your life changes. Abraham’s name does not only signal a role change, but a new identity. He becomes a changed person. God’s grace does that to you – you become new inside.

A third thing I noticed is that THE LORD INCLUDES WOMEN. Abraham’s wife is included in the plan. Sarai becomes Sarah, and her name changes as well. Sarah means princess. Sarah’s own son, not Hagar’s son by Abraham will be  the child of the promise. God loves His women followers. Sometimes it may seem that women have a lesser role to play in the kingdom, at least if you look at certain isolated texts in the bible, or the interpretations of certain denominations (Most of these churches argue that women have an important but different role, but still this role can seem rather confining!). If you read here, Sarah’s role is very important. In a society where women seemed to be valued mostly for their beauty, child-bearing, and sex (at least if you go by the rest of the context in this part of Genesis, I don’t really know my biblical history very well), this is pretty revolutionary. Now I am not completely certain of what women’s roles are in comparison to men’s, but whatever they are, their roles are important!