Genesis 12: 1-3 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Genesis 15:1-6 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”2 Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” 4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. In Genesis we read of Abraham whom God makes a covenant with and includes the promise of many descendants (Genesis 12:2). God promised that the number of Abraham's children would rival that of "the dust of the earth." Not just the Jewish nation but many nations and kings would proceed from him (Genesis 17:6). And to think that this promise was given to an older, childless couple. God fulfilled his promise and Abraham gave birth to the nation of Israel and many other nations through Hagar (details in Genesis 16). Well the problem with kids is they tend to get in fights with one another, and if you have kids you wil understand. Inside the family we call this sibling rivalry when that escalates to kingdom versus kingdom we call these wars. This broken nature in humans began with the first family in Genesis 4 which resulted in murder. This is far from God's design for our family for our country or the nations. But God not only promised many nations but a chosen seed in Abraham's son Isaac that would bless the nations. And since then we have seen the nations grow and with it the brokenness as well (the wars seem to only get worse). Jesus would come as that fulfilled blessing promised to Abraham and it can be seen in his final command to us before ascending into heaven: Matthew 28:18- 20 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 [e]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [f]always, even to the end of the age.” We have become fishers of men. God the Father is reconciling the nations, all of them, back to Him through His Son and by the Holy Spirit. And God is calling us to cast the net! Is their a group of people that you easily associate with? Is their a group of people. a culture, a community, or a nation that you feel like God is calling you to 'cast you net' in?
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