Hey, this is John Collins at the Bible Project.

And this is our fourth and final conversation in a series talking about the theme of generosity

in the storyline of the Bible.

God is the generous host of all creation.

He created life and abundance, and he created humanity to share and extend that abundance.

But what we find instead is that humans don't trust the host.

We don't believe there's enough, and we believe that we know the best way to create security

in life for ourselves.

But our way doesn't create life.

It creates mistrust, broken relationships, pain and death.

We don't create abundance.

We create Babylon.

And God's response to the death and destruction of the world that He orders, and that He loves,

is to give it a gift.

I think this is such a great way of thinking about the calling of Abraham in response to Babylon.

It continues to give gifts so the seeds of the new creation.

God wants this family to trust in His generosity and to become the blessing to every other family

in the world.

And as it turns out, they struggle.

Now if you think about it, it's a pretty odd strategy that the Bible is claiming that

God has.

God keeps giving gifts to humans and humans, keep willfully ignoring and destroying and

...