Genesis 28:12-15 (NRSV)
Read Genesis 28:12-15 on biblegateway.com
Verse 12And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Verse 13And the Lord stood beside him and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; Verse 14and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Verse 15Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Devotion
Our forebears in the faith, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah and Rachel, worshiped the God we have come to know through Jesus Christ. The Lord promised them that they and their descendants would be a blessing to all the earth. We too are their offspring. We too are charged to fulfill this promise to carry the gifts of mercy, justice and peace to a troubled and imperiled world, to be a blessing to the whole creation. When we come headfirst up against our limitations and our resistance to the will of God, when we dare not follow the angels up and down that ladder from earth to heaven and back again, we are called by God’s tender, insistent voice, “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Prayer
Gracious God, give us hope and courage to live in this world as your children, the blessed peacemakers and the ones hungering and thirsting for righteousness, as you have called us to be. Amen.