January 11, 2022: Day 8 – Genesis 25-28 and John 14-16
January 11, 2022You’ll notice as we go through Genesis that it is a following of descendants of Abraham. We went from looking at Abraham and his journey under God’s covenant with him, to Isaac and his journey in finding his wife and living his life under God’s covenant. And now we find ourselves with Jacob and Esau and all the beautiful, and tragic, stories that accompany those characters. As we make our way through Genesis it is a retelling of God’s people as they live out their lives under God’s command and under God’s covenant.
The story of Esau of Jacob begins once again the story of the eldest serving the youngest. You’ll see that theme carried our in pretty much all of the families of God in the Old Testament. Already we have seen Isaac is over Ishmael. In these chapters we see Jacob over Esau, even if it was by hook or by crook. Isn’t Rebekah something else as she consistently deceives her husband so that her “favorite” son would get what was not supposed to be his? That is also something else that we see in Scripture where the protagonists don’t always follow the rules and yet God’s purposes are somehow carried out. This is certainly not something to emulate.
We then find ourselves in the New Testament in John in what I see as probably the most important Scripture in the entire canon. Look at John 14:6, there is no other more important verse in the Bible than this one. Jesus says that he is the way and the life and that no one gets to the Father except through Jesus. This is the most exclusive claim in all of Scripture. I have always said that our faith is the most inclusive, it embraces all men and women from all walks of life. Anyone can be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Anyone and everyone. This is the inclusivity of the Gospel.
But the exclusivity of the Gospel is that it is only through Jesus that we find salvation. We do not all worship the same God, Jesus is the unique, singular, distinct God that must be worshipped. No other gods will do. This is an exclusive claim, but one that is open to all, which makes it inclusive. I hope you are following me.