But if we unclench our fists, if we let go of our lives, if we confess that we are not our own, that we need and depend on God for life and for every other good thing—then, Jesus says, we will keep our lives, not only in this world but in the world to come.

You and I are made by God and for God. Our home is in God. We are beloved. We are dependent. We need God, every second of every day, if we are going to be happy or good, much less both. Very little is worth knowing more than this.

I want you to catch a glimpse of why God called Abraham. He was starting a family. This family would be different from other families. It would be a family founded on knowing and loving God. With God at the head of this family, other families might take notice. They might peak over the fence, wondering what life was like inside the house. They

In everything that makes a human community human, Israel’s election as God’s people should shine in their lives like neon lights.

Holiness is the number one job description for Abraham’s children. The people of God must be holy, as the God whose people they are is holy. If they’re not holy, then what makes them different from any other people? To be holy is to be set apart. It means to be other, different, distinct, unlike the rest. God is holy because there is no one and

We have learned that God is love and God is faithful. Now we see that God is mighty to save, for he is the great Liberator and Deliverer. Israel knows him as Savior and Rescuer, the breaker of chains who responds to the suffering of his people. The loving and faithful God hates injustice and smashes the bonds of servitude. He frees.

God does what only God can do: make a way out of no way, something from nothing, life from death.

Israel is the moon to God’s sun, reflecting the divine light to a world blanketed in darkness.

You’ll find reference to these all over the New Testament, on the lips of Jesus and the apostles. So much so that C. S. Lewis calls the New Testament but “a tissue of quotations” from the Old Testament. Reading the latter, you realize “how constantly Our Lord repeated, reinforced, continued, refined, and sublimated” what came before him, and “how