Today's Scripture Reading (September 23, 2024): Genesis 12
A friend's daughter died
in a car accident recently. I admit I can't imagine the pain that my friend and
his family are going through right now. You aren't supposed to lose your
children. I also thought of everything that had to go wrong for the accident to
happen. If she had left home ten minutes earlier or later, is it possible that
the accident may not have happened? However, our reality is that everything we do comes with
consequences, even if that is a fact that we don't always think about.
Losing a child is
extremely hard, but it happens and has happened within my extended family. But
it isn't supposed to be that way. I remember looking at a picture of my
father-in-law's family and going through the picture of these aunts and uncles
when they were children. The picture hung in the hallway of my father-in-law's
house. I knew the family, although admittedly, I knew some of my wife's aunts
and uncles better than others. However, I noticed a discrepancy as I went
through the family photo. Either I had not met all of my wife's aunts and
uncles, or a stray child had wandered into the photo. I pulled my wife aside
with a burning question. Who is that?
My wife smiled and said
that it was her Dad's brother. (I immediately noticed it was Dad's brother, not
my uncle.) Then she added he had died when he was a child. What followed next
was a caution: we don't talk about him. I couldn't think of anything sadder.
Not only did this blond-haired, happy child die long before his time, but the
event had such a disastrous impact on the family that they had decided not to
even speak about him. I admit I still have questions I would love to have
someone answer about this child. But I have followed the family injunction, and
we don't discuss him.
Famine hit the area we
know of as the Levant. Honestly, drought in this corner of the world is nothing
new. Therefore, there are frequent famines in this part of our planet. Famine has
always presented a grave obstacle to the inhabitants of our world. Then, there
were no social safety nets. When famine struck, people died. So, these
repeating cycles of crop failure were nothing to fool around with. So, when famine
strikes, Abram heads out to spend time in Egypt.
Experts have discussed
this event frequently. Most seem to come down on the side of accusing Abram of lacking
faith. Like many of us, Abram may have talked a better faith walk than the one
that he lives. I am not convinced. Famine struck, and going to Egypt for a
while was something that Abram could do. He had faith that God would take care
of him in Egypt just as he had taken care of him as he had moved around the Fertile
Crescent of the Levant from the Kingdom of Ur to Canaan.
But there would also be
consequences to the move. And in this case, the consequences were significant.
If Abram had stayed, there could have been deaths among Abram's family and
servants, maybe even the deaths of children connected to the patriarch and his
circle of influence. The move to Egypt might have saved those lives. However,
the negative consequence of the move to Egypt might be that this is where Sarai
would find her servant, Hagar, and Hagar would play a significant role in the
later story of Abram and Sarai.
Tomorrow's Scripture
Reading: Genesis 13
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