I have been reading Creation and Blessing by Allen Ross, which is his commentary on the book of Genesis. I am about halfway through the book and what has been noteworthy to me is the emphasis on blessing and faith through the book (and I am roughly at Gen 25). I wrote a paper several years ago for a seminary class on faith in Genesis and recall that being a major theme. God is a "blessing" God--He wants to bless and He does so in abundance and without us deserving His blessing.
One of the mantras coming out of seminary is "context, context, context" for understanding a passage or book. Genesis is written by Moses (no JEDP) to the generation that is about to enter the promised land under Joshua. Genesis is giving the people of Israel their founding stories, what God has promised that He is in the process of fulfilling through them, repeated pictures of what imperfect faith looks like, and how God faithfully took care of those He has promised to bless. "Is God with us?" asks this generation. Look at Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph--yes! "What kind of difficulty can I expect?" Opposition, war, famine, barrenness, delay--but this does not stop God from fulfilling His promises! "What does faith look like?" Walking into the unknown trusting that God will provide, especially when you know that where you are walking is directly part of His fulfillment of promise! "Is perfect faith required of me?" No, these Genesis stories recount men and women of imperfect faith, but also a God who is a perfectly faithful God. The blessing is based on God's covenant promise, not their (or our) faithfulness.
This is good news for us. We must learn to walk by faith and Scripture provides us imperfect examples to encourage our walk. God is perfectly faithful and stands by His covenant, provided to us in Jesus.
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