Daily reflections

At the very beginning of the Church, the new believers faced a huge question ­– should the Jesus movement be for Jews only, or were Gentiles to be included as well? While there were plenty of Gentiles around in Palestine...

The call of Abraham marks the beginning of the story of the people of Israel. He leaves his home city of Ur in Babylonia and travels to somewhere new. God tells him that this is the land he will give to his descendants, and...

The characters of Abraham and Lot come out very clearly in this brief story. They are both substantial figures, with large numbers of livestock and large households. When competition for resources leads to conflict, it's Abraham...

This passage follows a rather complicated account of skirmishes between nine 'kings' – we're probably better thinking of them as tribal chieftains – which end up with Abraham's nephew Lot and his household being taken...

In Genesis 15, God makes a formal covenant with Abraham, evidently in a form that would have been recognisable in that ancient Middle Eastern context. However strange the details, the human situation is very recognisable...

The story of Hagar is one of the Bible's small domestic tragedies. It arises when Abraham's faith wavers. He has believed God will give him a son, but nothing seems to be happening so with Sarah's encouragement he takes matters...

According to the story, Abraham's faith in God has by now been severely tested. It is 13 years since the birth of Ishmael, and there is no sign of a son for Sarah. Now the sign of circumcision is to be imposed on all the males...

This chapter begins a story of high drama. Sitting at the entrance to his tent, Abraham receives angelic visitors, sometimes envisaged as representing the Trinity, as in the famous icon painted by Andrei Rublev in the 15th...

The men – only two of them by now – who'd visited Abraham were now with Lot. They were faced with sexual assault, which Lot tries to avert by offering his virgin daughters instead. The potential offence against the ancient...