As we move from Kings to Prophets in scripture, we find this same dynamic at play between God, through his chosen prophet, and His people. God speaks through the prophets to call His people back to himself, back to the covenant relationship he made when He said back in Genesis “I will be your God and you will be my people”. Over and over again the Israelites fail to respond to this commitment and call from God and chase after idols and other gods. Hosea presents this image powerfully as he, with God’s leading, marries someone who he knows will betray him over and over again. The book of Hosea finishes with a promise that we find consistently through the prophets. God himself will commit himself in a new way, by a new covenant, that will no longer depend on the faithfulness (or unfaithfulness) of His people, but will offer a new eternal calling as God’s people.

We want a King! The Israelite people, in another act of faithlessness, ask God to give them a human King, like the rulers they see in the tribes and culture around them. Despite this rejection and lack of trust in God’s commitment to be with them, God chooses to accommodate the people and their wishes, and allows himself to be represented through these Kings, but warns that a King will not give them what they seek. As we discover, the extent to which the King chooses to worship God determines the extent to which the Israelites live faithful to God and to his calling to be set apart. Time and time again God offers himself to them and forgives them. In fact He even promises that through one King (David), God will bring a Messiah who will usher in a new way.

When Ruth gives her quiet and determined commitment to Naomi that she will go where she goes, worship the God she worships and die where she dies, she has no idea the inheritance that will stem from these words. We see mirrored in Ruth’s commitment to Naomi a similarity with God’s constant commitment to his people; to be their God, to be with them in the highs and lows, to commit to them. Ruth’s quiet commitment leads her to the fields outside Bethlehem where she meets and marries Boaz, her son Obed will be the father of Jesse who will be the father of King David and Jesus Christ the Messiah is born in that line too. Her quiet and unsure ‘yes’ to commit to her family and commit to a new God lands her in the lineage of the Saviour of the world. We never know where our quiet commitments could lead us and we never know how the faithfulness of God will work its way out in our lives, but we do know the beginning. It starts with Yes.

God fulfils his promise to release his people from slavery by miraculously rescuing them from the Egyptian army. This account will become the narrative which the Jewish people not only look back on as their covenant history and celebrate yearly, but look forward to in expectation that God will again, as promised, rescue his people through His chosen Messiah.

The account of Moses and the burning bush is a significant moment both in Moses’ journey with God and in God’s rescue plan for humanity. Not only is it in this moment that Moses receives his calling from God but it is here that God reveals himself. This account tells us some important things about who God is and who we are in relation to him. Firstly, God hears – he heard his people’s cry. Secondly, God acts – he came to their rescue. Thirdly, God uses us in the process – Moses was his chosen instrument to enact his liberation, despite his own doubts and uncertainties, he was called by God. This is something we see reflected all over Scripture and especially through the life of Jesus – God hears and God acts and we have a part to play.

Moses is a central figure in the continuation of God’s restoration plan, but his beginnings were aided by the bravery and courage of five different women. These five women (the two midwives, his mother and sister and even Pharaoh’s own daughter) showed faithfulness and courage in the face of opposition. The Hebrew women showed total commitment to God, they feared God more than the oppressive and violent rule they were under and Pharaoh’s daughter chose compassion, going against the very law that her father had instigated. Moses’ beginnings were birthed out of courage and faithfulness and in turn he (and these women) experienced the faithfulness of God in their lives. For us, we don’t operate on the basis of exchange – if I am faithful then God is faithful. No, the faithfulness of God will always outstrip any faithfulness of ours! However, the conviction and commitment that these women demonstrated in the face of opposition is a key lesson for us, leaning into our God-given calling and exercising our God-given responsibility will require great courage.

The promise that God gives to Abraham begins the restoration of the relationship that had been lost in the garden, the process of divine rescue has begun. It’s a personal promise for Abraham and Sarah – they received a commitment from God, he is committing himself to them, speaking a promise over their lives. There is also a calling on their lives too – they have to go, they have to choose trust in God and leave their country for one they do not yet know. We are invited into that narrative too; the promise was for them but the ripple effect of that promise is much larger, it filters down through the generations, God’s faithfulness is the marker and it ultimately finds its fulfilment in Jesus (Matt 28). The ask of us is, do we trust God in his promises to us? Do we trust him more than circumstances and situations? Do we trust that he is faithful generation to generation?

When we read the account of creation we see that it was always God’s intention to establish an intimate relationship with humanity; humankind was the crowning glory of all that he had created, it wasn’t just good, it was very good. We also see here that right from the beginning not only did God provide for humanity, he also gave responsibility and authority over his creation! It was meant to be a perfect symbiosis of relationship and responsibility. However, we know what happens next; the ‘fall’ created a gaping chasm between God and humanity; our relationship with God was broken and subsequently all of creation was impacted. We begin our story here, with a realisation of all that was lost but more importantly we know that God’s saving plan for humanity also began here. Over these next few months we will discover the deep and lasting faithfulness of God displayed through many different stories and we will see the lengths he went to just to bring us back to him; to restore that relationship, to reinstate that responsibility through his son, Jesus Christ.