The History of Redemption Project - Part 4

Illustration by Christopher Koelle

I'm in my fourth week of memorization, and I'm already falling slightly behind according to the plan to finish The History of Redemption in six months.  After a couple conversations with myself, I guess I'm fine with that.  The goal is not maintaining a time line...it's committing God's Word to memory so it will dwell in me richly.  This week, I have been working on this passage in the redemptive story:


"Now the LORD said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'  And he brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.'  And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.  And Abraham became the father of Isaac.  The sons of Isaac were Esau and Israel." (Gen. 12:1-3; Gen. 15:5-6; I Chron. 1:34)


With the calling of Abram, God began to establish a covenant people for Himself, the people for whom He reveals His character as merciful in calling them, holy in judging them, and faithful in restoring them.  Abram's story began with God calling him out of Ur to a land that He would show him, a city "whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10)."  Abraham's justification (right standing before God) by faith is a model of God's crediting His righteousness to us by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross as the perfect Sacrifice for the sins of His children, and in His resurrection, by which He conquered death.  (See Romans chapter 4.)


I can't read about God promising Abram that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens without thinking about the song "Step by Step" by Rich Mullins:

"Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit for me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he
And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You'll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days."