PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Genesis 17-18
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“All nations on earth will be blessed through him.” (Genesis 18:18)
God repeats the promise from Genesis 12 to Abraham before going to Sodom.
Abraham is interceding on behalf of the righteous in Sodom.
Maybe he is being selfish, and only thinking of his family there (Lot).
But maybe he is living out his calling as a nation (people)-blesser.
Abraham was not a great people-blesser (ask Ishmael how Abraham ‘blessed’ him).
His heirs were not great at it either (consider the history of Israel and the church).
But this story reminds me that God is not quick to give up on us flawed partners.
Even if there are only ten left in a community, God will work with them.
I need to be a people-blesser; people need to be blessed in and through me.
By how I speak, by how I care, by how I help, by how I prioritize my life.
Like Elijah, I may feel lonely, like I’m the only one left (1 Kings 19:14-18).
But in reality, I am a flawed people-blesser, like Abraham, and God still uses me.
And there are more flawed people-blessers than I realize; God isn’t giving up yet!
I may want to quit ‘church’, but I cannot quit my calling to be a people-blesser.
PRAYER
Lord, my job is to bless (love, serve, help, etc.) others, including the people I don’t like or agree with. Though I am flawed and weak at it, help me to do better.
“for I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right”. God confides in Abraham as to what he is contemplating to do about the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah – and he does so for what seems to me to be for a training purpose – because he must then ‘direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord.” I believe that God expects the same of me – that I too am responsible to teach my children the way of the Lord – and that they know that is the model I keep – even as I am a bad example at times – but my children and household need to know that is the way I believe. Lord help me in spite of my own flawed witness to be that kind of leader for my family and all whose lives I may touch and interact with!
Abraham talked with God. I need to do the same. And when the visitors came, he practised hospitality. I need to do the same. As God gas blessed me, I too need to be a blessing to others. In this way they may see that I serve a risen Saviour and live the way that Christ wants me to live – as an instrument of His peace.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
And all for thy mercy’s sake.
O divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as o console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving hat we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.