Daily Lectionary | Genesis 12 & John 6:22-40
Genesis 12
Summary
In Genesis 12, we have a preview of Israel’s history. The Lord has just brought judgment on the nations who sought a false form of unity. But now the Lord calls Abram and promises to bring a blessing to the nations. Through Abram and his seed a great nation will be formed, and through that nation “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). The Lord makes this gracious promise but calls Abram to respond to it in faith. He must leave his homeland and sojourn to the place God will show him. He responds obediently and passes through Canaan (the land of the descendants of Ham). The Lord promises this land to Abram, so Abram builds an altar east of Bethel and Ai (locations of the future conquest in Joshua) and “called upon the name of the Yaweh” (Gen. 12:9). Abram’s worship at the altar is a pre-conquest of the land.
In Genesis 12:1-3, there is a fivefold blessing to counter the fivefold curses that appear in Genesis 3-11. The curse is being undone, but it will come surprisingly: through a nomadic man and his family. God elects Abram to be a vessel of blessing for the world.
The preview of Israel’s history continues as Abram and Sarai journey to Egypt because of a famine. This, of course, will not be the last journey of God's people to Egypt. Abram devises a plan to protect himself and his bride by calling Sarai his sister. What do we make of this? Perhaps this was completely foolish and thus exposed Sarai to a terrible risk. But Abram was likely seeking to play the part of a protective brother, who in that cultural setting, could fend off suitors as the gatekeeper of marriage. In Genesis, brothers stand between prospective husbands and their sisters and have authority over marriages. This happens with Laban and his sister Rebekah and Dinah and her brothers (Gen. 24:55; Gen. 34:3-17).
Reflection Questions
1. In context, what does the word “blessing” mean? What does it mean to receive God’s blessing? How does a passage like Ephesians 1:1-11 expand our understanding of blessing?
2. How is Abram an example of obedient faith in this chapter?
John 6:22-40
John has set up a contrast between Moses and Jesus from the beginning of the Gospel: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:17).” Philip tells Nathanael he has found in Jesus the one whom Moses wrote (Jn. 1:45). Jesus refers to Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness in connecting with his eventual lifting up on the cross (Jn. 3:14). Jesus says to his opponents that if they believed Moses then they would have believed in him (Jn. 5:45).
Moses was the leader of the Exodus and God’s people in the wilderness. Amazingly, the crowds ask Jesus for a sign that they might believe him and the recall the great sign of manna in the wilderness. Readers of John’s Gospel will be confounded because Jesus just performed a manna-like miracle! Jesus is far greater than Moses. He reminds them it was not Moses who gave them manna, but the Lord. And the Lord is the provider of true bread, and that bread is Jesus himself. “For the bread of God is he who comes down from haven and gives life to the world” (Jn. 6:32).
Jesus makes his first “I AM” statement in saying that he is the bread of life.
Reflection Questions
1. What does it mean to do “the work of God” according to Jesus in Jn. 6:29?
2. Describe Jesus’ relationship with believers (Jn. 6:37-40).