We are seeking to tell the story of the Bible by selecting certain key people at particular points along the way. In the previous chapter, we indicated how God had decided, after the fall of man, to choose one person and through him to build a nation - a nation to be the instrument by which his message of redemption might reach the whole world. That man was Abraham.

After Abraham, we pass very quickly over his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. This is difficult to do, because there are so many interesting and worthwhile stories about each of them. How important they are is seen by a phrase that is used even today by the Jewish people: when they talk about God, they speak of "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." During This period of time. God continued building for himself the nation t…