{"id":4867,"date":"2024-09-22T00:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T00:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4867"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:31:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:31:57","slug":"blessing-outside-the-covenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4867","title":{"rendered":"BLESSING OUTSIDE THE COVENANT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"verse ltrDirection\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"background-color: white;color: #5d5d5d;text-align: justify\"><span class=\"verseNumber\" style=\"color: var(--clrText);cursor: pointer;display: inline-block;line-height: 1.2;vertical-align: top\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">There&#8217;s so much going on with the story of Abraham fathering Ishmael with Hagar at Sarah&#8217;s insistence &#8211; Abraham and Sarah&#8217;s impatience, the taking of God&#8217;s promise into their own hands, Abraham&#8217;s attachment to Ishmael, the bad blood between Hagar and Sarah.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"verse ltrDirection\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"background-color: white;color: #5d5d5d;text-align: justify\"><span class=\"verseNumber\" style=\"color: var(--clrText);cursor: pointer;display: inline-block;line-height: 1.2;vertical-align: top\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">On an earthly level, it&#8217;s a tale employing all the worst qualities of human nature &#8211; and finding it impossible to live together.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"verse ltrDirection\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"background-color: white;color: #5d5d5d;text-align: justify\"><span class=\"verseNumber\" style=\"color: var(--clrText);cursor: pointer;display: inline-block;line-height: 1.2;vertical-align: top\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">And in the midst of this domestic mess manufactured by God&#8217;s chosen couple, Abraham and Sarah, God acknowledges the suffering of the innocent victims, Hagar and Ishmael.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"verse ltrDirection\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"background-color: white;color: #5d5d5d;text-align: justify\"><span class=\"verseNumber\" style=\"color: var(--clrText);cursor: pointer;display: inline-block;line-height: 1.2;vertical-align: top\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">They don&#8217;t get to be a part of the chosen bloodline for the Messiah, but they are not just tossed aside. Abraham pleads to God on Ishmael&#8217;s behalf and God responds with love and grace:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"verse ltrDirection\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"background-color: white;color: #5d5d5d;text-align: justify\"><span class=\"verseNumber\" style=\"color: var(--clrText);cursor: pointer;display: inline-block;line-height: 1.2;vertical-align: top\">Genesis 17:20 &#8220;<i>As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.<\/i>&#8220;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"verse ltrDirection\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"background-color: white;color: #5d5d5d;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">God is not cursing and damning all those who are outside of the chosen bloodline! There is still plenty of room for blessing and experiencing God&#8217;s goodness outside of the chosen nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"verse ltrDirection\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"background-color: white;color: #5d5d5d;text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: large\">From the start, Scripture emphasizes that the people who become Israel are chosen for a specific task, not chosen for salvation.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s so much going on with the story of Abraham fathering Ishmael with Hagar at Sarah&#8217;s insistence &#8211; Abraham and Sarah&#8217;s impatience, the taking of God&#8217;s promise into their own hands, Abraham&#8217;s attachment to Ishmael, the bad blood between Hagar and Sarah.\u00a0 On an earthly level, it&#8217;s a tale employing all the worst qualities of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4868,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4867\/revisions\/4868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}