Genesis Chapter 15: Chosen To Fulfill God’s Purpose
Chosen To Fulfill God’s Purpose
After Abram rescued Lot and was blessed by Melchizedek, the word of the Lord came to him saying:
Genesis 15:1 Fear not, Abram: I am they shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Many times we are taught that money and materials things, or falling in love, is the reward (or are the rewards) we are to get from God, but the real reward is God’s peace and love. It is not to say that we won’t get these things, but that the peace we get from God is what we should value as we get and experience material things. God must come first, and righteousness and morality must be our standard in the face of these things, even if they are taken away from us or added to our lives in abundance.
Genesis 15:2 And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
Genesis 15:4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
Genesis 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall they seed be.
Genesis 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Here, Abram counts his blessings as the righteousness he lives by—when we receive blessings from God we should tie them to the way in which we serve God and the righteousness we exhibit, even when no one is looking.
Imagine what the world would be like if people looked to righteous behavior as a means of getting the blessings and peace they wanted in life, as opposed to cheating, as a way of getting ahead.
Genesis 15:7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
Later on, God caused “a deep sleep” to fall upon Abram “and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.” (Genesis 15: 12)
Genesis 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their’s, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
This passage can’t be read by many without thinking about Black people, in America, and throughout the Caribbean Islands, Central and South America and the hundreds of years of slavery they experienced and the discrimination they continue to experience.
Yes, I believe God’s chosen people are all over the earth and that, if you are lucky enough to be alive, you should consider yourself chosen to fulfill God’s purpose.