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. ( Genesis 12:2-3, ESV)

God creates the entire universe, and everything in it, and calls it good. Then, Adam and Eve rebel. Then Cain murders Abel. Then violence and evil began to spread. Then people decided that they, as creatures who were created to reflect the image of God, would instead build a tower as a mirror for themselves! At which point, God confuses their languages and scatters them across the face of the earth, so that they can no longer pursue their spurious lives. Things are quickly going from bad to worse, and God, the creator, wants to set things to the way they are supposed to be.

Enter Abram. God calls him out from among all the people on the face of the earth and starts making some pretty amazing promises. He tells Abram that he will make him a great nation, he will have a great name, he will be blessed. But, it gets even better: God is going to bless everyone on earth through Abram! Now, that’s a pretty lofty promise! God is going to use Abraham (his name is changed in Genesis 17) to somehow bring about his rescue operation in a world where things are in pretty bad shape.

Over the next several chapters, God reinforces and reiterates this promise, this covenant, with Abraham. God will be the God of Abraham and his family. He will bless the whole world through Abraham and his family. God will put things back the way they are supposed to be, and God is rock-solid in his commitment to do these things. However, Abraham is a little less rock-solid. As a matter of fact, according to Genesis, Abraham is anything but solid.

Immediately following the promise from God, Abraham goes into Egypt for a short while. Out of fear for his life, he lies to the Egyptians, telling them that Sarah, his wife, is his sister. No sooner has God made a great promise to Abraham than he very nearly throws it all away!

Let’s follow the family line a little bit.

Consider Jacob. He lies to his dad, cheats his brother, and then runs away. He later returns home to face his brother, and to wrestle with God.

Joseph is sold off as a slave, but it doesn’t take him long to earn favor and become a very successful man. His family comes to live in Egypt with him.

Interestingly, not long after Joseph’s death, the status of the family changes from favor to slavery! As they desperately seek God for freedom, he hears them and answers.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”‘ ( Exodus 3:14-17, ESV)

Making a long story short, God rescued his people from the Egyptians, and gave them their own land.

Again, things went rather badly. Saul became king, and that just didn’t work out to well. Then came David a “man after God’s own heart.” Of course, he made a pretty good mess of things as well. He eventually finds himself running away from his son, the rebellious Absalom. You may be noticing a pattern at this point…David goes into exile, and later returns, albeit a little sadder and wiser.

Later, the kingdom divides into a larger segment to the north, Israel, and a smaller segment to the south, Judah. Judah becomes captive to Assyria, and is again in exile longing for a return home. There was no imminent return. As a matter of fact, eventually Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people of God disgraced and scattered.

And then it happened: 70 years later the Persian ruler sent the Israelites home to Jerusalem.

To continue the story, the Jews, or Israelites, became captives within their own country! The pattern re-emerges. They are in need of rescuing, once again.

Now, what is God to do, now that his plan of rescue, the people through whom he was intending to bless all the families of the earth, are themselves in constant great need of rescue? Rabbi Lionel Blue was once quoted as saying, “Jews are just like everyone else, only more so.”

Well, as you can see, this plan just doesn’t seem to be working out all that well! But, in fact, it is…we just don’t have all the pieces, yet. The next post will discuss the hope that Israel had, and how that hope carries the rescue operation further.

And, trust me, this really is an answer to the question posed in this comment.