God introduced himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These three names appear together throughout the books of Moses, later in the Old Testament, and nine times in the New Testament. Along with Jacob’s sons, they are the patriarchs who received the Abrahamic covenant. That covenant, more than the other Old Testament covenants, is a covenant of grace.

It is easy to regard major characters in the Bible as either heroes or villains. The patriarchs were neither. They were great men of faith in their own ways, but we see God’s grace most clearly when we look at it against the backdrop of their persistent sin.… Read the rest