Child of Abraham

According to my Life Application Study Bible, “God has no grandchildren.” I discovered this novel insight as I read about Jacob leaving Beer-sheba for Haran. Jacob dreamed one night during the journey of a ladder that reached to Heaven. There he saw God, who repeated the covenant promise He had made to Isaac, Jacob’s father, and Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather.

Why was it necessary for God to repeat His promise to Jacob? Surely the words of that promise had reached the young man through his father and grandfather. Was Jacob’s faith in the promises of God as communicated to him through Isaac and Abraham so weak that God had to reveal Himself in this way and reiterate His promise?

It was necessary for God to repeat His promise to Jacob. Not because Jacob’s faith was weak, or because Isaac and Abraham did a bad job of communicating that promise to him. It was because God seeks a personal relationship with all of us. When God revealed Himself to Jacob and reiterated His promise, it was His way of saying, “Jacob, its time for you to know me personally.” The fact that God had promised to make Abraham and his descendants into a great nation was one thing; now God was calling Jacob to play his own, unique part in that promise.

As a father, I want to pass on to my daughter the love God has revealed to me through Jesus Christ. But I also know that whether I do so well or poorly, ultimately it is up to God to reveal Himself to her. She cannot be God’s granddaughter; I pray that He will reveal himself and the promises He has made through Christ to her personally. I long for a day when God’s promises will no longer reach her through me or the other adult Christians in her life. I long for a day when she herself becomes a child of Abraham.