July 31, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“So, the Lord said to him, ‘Bring Me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.’ Abram brought all these to Him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.” (Genesis 15.9-11)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Abram was assigned a blessing by God’s righteousness. By believing in God in all things, knowing He will do what He has said He will do, Abram learned to put his trust in God and follow His instructions. When he asked God, “How will I take possession of the land which You have shown me and have my descendants be beyond counting,” God responded with a request of obedience. He wanted Abram to do what He, and most importantly he-Abram, said he would do. God requested Abram to offer a sacrifice. This was not a new practice. We know that Abram had offered sacrifices before at each stone altar he built on his journey through the land of promise. (Note: Abram did not build an altar in Egypt. This was a journey of his own choosing and he suffered the indignity of deciding for himself how to preserve his life and property at the expense of his wife. There is a theological truth in that story which reflects upon the righteous relationship between husband and wife with God as the husband and the nation of the people of God as his intended wife. Abram violated that “covenantal” agreement where God never would. This marriage metaphor is a constant throughout scripture climaxing with Jesus and the Church. He is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride (bride-in-waiting during the Age of the Church before His glorious return to claim Her and take Her into the house which He built eternal in the heavens.)

Much is made of the practice of sacrifice demonstrating fealty to God, or in other cultures the same to whomever or whatever they believed was their god. We must not believe that there was any sense of mystical happening which appeased God as is blood spilled and flesh burned and/or eaten causing Him to relent. The purpose of sacrifice was truly dependent upon the decision of the human community to follow God’s instruction of obedience. By such “life rending,” the people were invited, if not caused, to remember that God made the first sacrifice for the redemption of His people. To cover the shame and move Adam and Eve into a place of reconciliation with Him and themselves, God sacrificed animals (we may read lambs) and took their skins to make coverings for them each to wear. In sacrificial offerings following that, it would be as a reminder that they would be covered by the righteousness of God. Their obedience and trust in God to redeem, restore and reconcile would be counted to them as righteousness. The problem existed when such meaning and purpose was lost. Reducing the tradition to rote practice without rehearsing and remembering the sincerity and intensity of God’s action toward them caused God to declare that He no longer wanted their sacrifices. They had become meaningless and dysfunctional. Do not think that God stopped believing in the true purpose of sacrifice. He believed in it so much that it became personal as “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only begotten Son with the intent that whosoever believed in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3.16) It is in the sacrament of communion that we remember and rehearse the power and purpose of God’s belief and call of sacrifice. Our participation in it should do the same as a reminder to us that we are called to be sacrificial, too, as we lay down our lives for one another and for all others that they, upon believing in the sacrificial love of God and Christ for us, would accept His forgiveness, mercy and grace and set the world aside to put on the Kingdom.

But this sacrifice was different from all other sacrifices Abram knew and those he practiced which were not dissimilar to those practiced in the Ur of the Chaldees, in Haran, in Canaan, in the Negev and even in Egypt. What was the difference? That, mighty ones of God, is the next reflection. Reflect upon your commitment to sacrifice (both old and new) and consider well what makes the difference for you. Until we come together again.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.