This week we are going to be looking deeper at two different passages that seem, at first, to have no great connection. But, upon closer examination have a great deal of relation to each other.  This week we’ll be looking at Genesis 12: 1-5 and Matthew 5: 13-16.  We’ll look today at the World Behind the Text of Genesis and tomorrow we’ll do the same with Matthew.

The story of Abraham (at this point he is still named Abram, God had not changed his name) is one of the key stories in all the Bible and especially for the Jewish people.  Abraham is regarded as the first Jew and the rest of Genesis follows his story and the stories of his descendants.  Abraham is in many ways the story of covenant. God is a God of covenant, He makes them with His people throughout the Bible. With Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, David, and eventually the new covenant with Jesus Christ.  These covenants are an agreement, a promise.  God says that He will be faithful to His people and to His word and His people will do their part as well.  Here He tells Abraham, to go to this land that he will show them, and he will provide for them.  They will be His people and He will be their God.

That is one of the overarching points of not just Genesis, but of all the Bible.  God is a God of relationships.  God cares for His people.  He is a great and mighty God, yet He is also a personal God, a God who walks with and beside His people.  A God who cares.

So, think about this God is relationship that we see here in Genesis.  I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But might that mean something about the way that we as a people should be in relationship with others?  We’ll explore that later this week.

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