How Roots Season fits into the bigger story of God's campaign

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The Bible readings for Roots Season tell us how God started his campaign through Abraham and how he is executing his plan through the campaign team members who trust him like Abraham did.

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Roots Season picks up where Life Season left off--the story of the Tower of Babel. That is a very current-sounding story about a culture that trusted its technology, wanted to make a name for itself, and disregarded God's command to spread out and tend the whole world. Roots Season opens with God's alternative plan.

 

God chose an individual and promised to make a name for him--not by making him the power center of the world--but by making him the center of blessing for the world. And this will happen not by technology but by procreation and by taking God's commands seriously.

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To look at our world today, you would think we have our roots in the Tower of Babel. We could have them in Abraham, and if we are on God's campaign team, we do. 

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As we go through the biblical story we will see what our roots means. We look at this history not to pass an exam on the facts but to marvel at how lovingly God set it all up and how amazingly he gets it to come out as he promised, even when people try to block it.

• How one person literally fathered a nation

• How the nation escaped slavery and received its special connection with God and its homeland

• How the nation established a dynasty and later had a civil war

• How the nation lost its homeland for 70 years, then resettled it

• How the nation looked forward to a new leader to bring the utopia God promised

 

The "New Testament" part of the story, about 20% of the Bible, goes on to tell us:

• How that new leader Jesus the Messiah came, was rejected by the power holders but vindicated by God   

• How Jesus still leads and empowers the campaign today

• How Jesus will lead the campaign to total victory at the end

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Looking back over all this, we gradually realize where and how we fit into this story, and a fantastic thought dawns on us--this campaign can't lose.

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If you use the SYNC Bible-reading guides for the other six SYNC "seasons," you will cover the whole Bible in a year. The big story of the campaign gets clearer and richer as you appreciate it from all seven seasonal angles. 

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Why these biblical books are read during Roots Season

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Old Testament

• Genesis 12-36: The life stories of Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, the patriarchs of Israel. (Genesis 1-11 belongs to Life Season and Genesis 37-50 to Mercy Season)

• Exodus 19-40: God linking himself to Abraham's descendants through the covenant at Mt. Sinai and and other revelations to Moses (Exodus 1-18 belongs to Freedom Season.)

• Joshua: After Moses died, Joshua led Israel to conquer and settle the homeland God promised to Abraham

• 1 Chronicles: The genealogy of the clans of Israel and the life stories of David and Saul, the first two kings of the nation

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New Testament

• Matthew: the first book in the New Testament, which begins by tracing the ancestry of Jesus back to Abraham. Matthew tells the sad story of the official leaders of the descendants of Abraham rejecting the "Descendant" of Abraham, even though many of the common people welcomed him as the Messiah.

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As we read these parts of the Bible, we gradually realize where and how we fit into the biblical story, and a fantastic thought dawns on us--this is OUR story, too! We have spiritual roots in Abraham through Jesus, the Descendant of Abraham.

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Our roots guarantee our security and significance. We have a share in Abraham's purpose, which makes us valuable and brings us real satisfaction. Among other benefits, this realization gives a huge boost to our immunity to mental illness. People rarely slide into mental illness if they know what they are worth and why.

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As we stay connected with our Abrahamic roots, we discover that life is more about spreading blessings than getting them for ourselves. The goal is to connect, heal, and bless others; blessings we receive are often byproducts that come as we work for that goal. 

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As branches on the Abraham family tree, our confidence of a fruitful life is sky-high because the campaign work (blessing the world) was originally given to Abraham as a promise, not a command. God did not tell him, "It is good to bless the world, and that is what I expect of you. Try your best, and I'll reward you if you do well."

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No, God promised him that all the families on earth would be blessed through him and his descendants. Abraham did try to be a blessing but he didn't obsess over it. Instead of trying to maximize his work to bless others, he focused on listening to God and doing what God told him, even to the point of being willing to sacrifice his long-awaited son Isaac. 

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Abraham was obsessed with hearing God's instructions and trusting God's strategy, even when the strategy did not make sense and seemed certain to fail. Abraham was like a beginning chess player who has a chess master whispering moves into his ear. When the master says, "Move the rook forward three squares," the beginner trusts the advice and makes the move, whether he can see the advantage of the move or not. Later on the reason will become obvious.

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The way to live fruitful lives is to throw ourselves into God's campaign to bless the world. To get better at that, we read the Bible and listen for the direction of the Spirit.

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