Month: January 2018

Today’s reading shows God working in the affairs of individuals in ways they might not imagine, which should cause us to consider His working in our affairs. That adds interest and purpose to my prayer life by encouraging me to chat with God about the cares of my affairs.

Imagine what Leah’s life was like, to be unloved by her husband, with her lovely sister as her lifelong rival. God cared enough for her to give her children and withhold children from her rival. In that culture a woman’s worth was measured by her ability to bear children, so Leah’s children would have been a great advantage for her. Yet Rachel wasn’t barren forever; God didn’t tend to Leah’s concerns at permanent cost to Rachel. Perhaps Rachel benefited from the character development that hopefully resulted from her suffering childlessness. What does their story say to you about God’s care for you?

Jacob’s scheming didn’t gain him wealth; that was God’s doing. Since that is made clear in chapter 31, one wonders why Jacob’s foolish efforts to grow his flocks and herds are recorded. Perhaps, since “these things happened to them as examples… to us,” consideration of Jacob’s foolish get-rich-quick schemes might shed light on our own efforts to take care of our needs apart from God. 

That Scripture offers no commentary about Jacob’s scheming or about it being justified by Laban’s treachery doesn’t mean that Jacob’s actions are acceptable. Scripture often records deeds without commentary, which is sometimes confusing to the reader. Yet we don’t need to be confused about what is acceptable to God if we look at “the whole counsel of Scripture.” God’s word describes what is right in master-slave (and employer-employee) relations in Ephesians 6:5-9. Jesus also taught that it is right to treat others the way we want to be treated.

God blessed Laban through Jacob’s work, and Laban knew it. Will He do that for our employers? 

Note that Jacob in conversation with Isaac (verse 27:20), referred to God as the “Lord your God.” Isaac by this time had a relationship with God that was evident to his son. In verse 28:1, he knows Him as “God Almighty.”

Isaac had demonstrated the same temptation to lie for his security with which  his father had struggled. His son perhaps learned deception from his example, and that deception was turned against him. These two examples remind us that our children observe things of which we might be unaware. Their observations teach them things that we might not know we are teaching them. How important it is for us to have redeemed characters, if that is what we want to teach our children. This reminder from today’s reading is an opportunity for us to search ourselves and ask God to transform us as needed to make us what we want our children to become!

We may not appreciate the importance of the parent’s blessing, but this culture obviously did. Esau had no regard for his birthright as the eldest son, which meant inheritance of wealth and status; but he valued his father’s blessing enough to beg for it. Rebekah and Jacob valued the blessing enough to scheme for it. Were they in error, or are we? If my blessing can truly bless my children and impact their futures, the practice is worth my investigation.

Jacob was not his father’s favorite (!), but Isaac had to acknowledge that God’s promise was going to be through him. Note the blessing he gave Jacob in verse 28:3, “that you may become a company of peoples.” That will be fulfilled by the next time he sees Jacob. In his blessing of Jacob he was referring to the covenant God had made with Abraham. Then Jacob meets with God on his way to the place Isaac had sent him….

Jacob had not called on the name of the Lord, but God appeared to him in his dream and gave him the three-fold promise He had given Abraham. God appeared to him in this miraculous and dramatic way and gave him those great promises, and Jacob’s response was “if God will be with me” and keep me safe and meet my needs and bring me back safely to my home, then I will accept him as my God. He expected so much less of God than God had offered! He did not accept God’s promise in faith as Abraham had done! Jacob was a dunce! But he was wise enough to set up the remembrance of God’s meeting with him and promises to him.

The remembrance is necessary, for the enemy wants to snatch from our memories our meetings with God. If we do not establish some form of remembrance, such as a monument or a journal entry or a sound testimony, for example, God’s meetings with us are in danger of being forgotten or at least reduced in our memories. If you’re not a writer or a speaker, how about establishing another form of remembering? My nephew designs tattoos, for example, so that each tattoo he has on his body is a remembrance of what God has done for him. As he shares with admirers the story of each tattoo, he is not only remembering what God has done in his life and relationship with him, he is also witnessing about the life-changing reality of Jesus. What about establishing significance to something you collect, which will enable you to remember and witness?

Can you imagine how difficult it must have been for Abraham to send away his sons? Modern day relations in the Middle East teach us how important that was; for these non-covenant sons, spread over the Middle East, are probably the ancestors of many of Israel’s most hateful enemies today.

In our politically correct culture, sending them away seems unacceptably harsh. God could have provided for Isaac’s wealth just as He did Abraham’s, and He in fact did (reference verses 26:12-14 and 28-29); so why did these sons need to go? The possession of the land was clearly intended for Isaac’s descendants, and no others. Isaac was not powerful enough in numbers to actually possess it in his lifetime, but Abraham didn’t want to risk Isaac’s full possession in the future by allowing his other sons to share in the possession of it now until Isaac’s descendants grew powerful enough to take full possession. Rather, he took clear action to make it understood that his other sons were not to share in the possession of it.

Abraham’s hard stand reminds me of Jesus’ teaching that anyone who doesn’t hate father, brothers, etc. isn’t fit for the kingdom of God. Abraham demonstrated that in his sending away his sons for the sake of the covenant (which of course delayed his own possession of the land). The translation of the word “hate” aside, God really does require at times that relationship with Him necessitates some difficult sacrifices for us. Of course Abraham didn’t hate his sons. His actions show how critical it was for the covenant to preserve Isaac’s interest in the land and terminate the interest of all other potential possessors. To fail to exclude the others would be to despise the covenant. What lessons does God have for your life in this example?

One lesson that occurs to me is that God’s covenant is not all-inclusive. While He loves all He has created, He doesn’t enjoy relationship with all. It is a privilege to enjoy relationship with God. Do we treasure it as it merits? This is a good reminder to thank God now for the privilege of having a relationship with Him.

The promises God made to Abraham were to be through Isaac, and Isaac’s wife, the wife God clearly intended for him and orchestrated the connection with  so beautifully, was infertile. God was clearly in control of this matter, for all it took to correct it was Isaac’s praying for his wife. Would Isaac have prayed to God at all, if not for this very important need? God made the promises, but their fulfillment didn’t come automatically. What can this teach us about God’s promises to us? What application does this have for your life?

When the infertility problem was corrected, what followed was perpetual struggle in the family. The working out of God’s promises is not always smooth. If we expect it to be, we are deceived, and this gives the enemy an opportunity to discourage us.

Isaac’s relationship with Abimelech gives us an idea of what it meant that Isaac was a sojourner in the land, as opposed to a possessor. We, too, are sojourners in this world. Do we live as such, or are we striving to take possession, make ourselves comfortable and secure? The life of a sojourner is a life of faith in God’s provision and protection.

Until God appeared to Isaac at Beersheba, He was known to Isaac as “the God of your father Abraham.” After that, He was known personally to Isaac, so that in tomorrow’s reading when God introduces Himself to Jacob, He does so as “the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac.” Obviously, something happened at Beersheba to advance the relationship between God and Isaac; building the altar and calling on God’s name were not simply motions Isaac went through. We should all be able to testify about transformational Beershebas in our walks with God.

Some readers believe Abraham knew God wouldn’t actually require him to sacrifice his son; one can only suppose. Imagine – take the time to consider what Abraham went through. God does some startling things, and asks of us some startling things, and His ways are higher than our ways. This was the kind of test that not only showed what was in Abraham’s reverence for God, but also grew it. Abraham exercised his choice to obey God at cost of not only his beloved son but also the promises God had given him through Isaac, and the choice he made doubtless grew his love for God. That is sort of a reversal of Adam and Eve’s choice to eat the fruit forbidden to them. Abraham responded to his test in the way God had hoped Adam and Eve would respond to their test. God, prepare us to respond like Abrahams and not Adams when You present us with a testing and proving opportunity. Can you spend some devotional time praying for that today?

Chapter 23 may not be important to us, but it would have been to the Israelites for whom the book was written. It reminded them that Abraham was well-respected in the land they were about to take possession of. The Canaanites of that day welcomed him into their midst, to the point of offering to give him land at no cost; however, Abraham paid full price for it, and it was formally and legally deeded to him in full sight and approval of the elders of the people who lived there. Formal burial of one’s dead was a mark of habitation; everyone understood the tie to the land that resulted from it. 

God’s provision of Rebekah for Isaac is a lovely story of God’s working out the details of man’s affairs in accordance with His will, to fulfill His purpose, and in such a way to delight His people. Do you suppose God delighted in delighting Abraham’s servant and Isaac? Do you suppose He delights in delighting us? In delighting you? Can you imagine Him working in your affairs in such lovely fashion? What lessons does this story have for you?

One thing that speaks to me is Isaac’s waiting on God. Chapter 25 tells us that he was forty years old when Rebekah became his wife. Apparently she was worth waiting for, for from that impersonal selection process came a match that obviously pleased Isaac. God doesn’t always bring us good in our timing, and sometimes the enjoyment of good is delayed by other things that are necessary.

Another point from Isaac’s story is that he didn’t take the easy route. Abraham set high standards for the choice of Isaac’s mate, standards not easily met. Can you imagine being given the assignment Abraham’s servant was given? It must have seemed impossible. How often do high standards get that very response in our experience? If God gives the standards, He can see that the one who adheres to them meets them. This is no promise, but it is the example we have been given in Abraham and Isaac.

The servant sought God’s help in carrying out his charge.  He didn’t expect to get help from God in the form of an audible instruction, any more than we can expect that. He knew God’s provision by the fulfillment of the arrangements he had made with God ahead of time. Then when God worked according to his arrangement, he recognized God in it and gave Him due praise. Is that a step we tend to omit when circumstances work out well for us? Do we rejoice in the circumstances and the way they worked out, but forget that God was in them, and neglect to give Him thanks and praise? For what can you praise God today that you have failed to do so in the past? Can you commit to Him today to wait on Him to work out the circumstances that tempt you to take matters into your own hands?

What lessons can you glean from Lot’s choices? When we first met him, he was so prosperous that the land couldn’t support both his wealth of livestock and Abraham’s. He chose the place of apparent abundance; so what happened? Can you imagine a more ignominious end? What can you learn about God from this account? Is He more just, or more merciful? How do these truths about God impact you?

Abraham was obviously not perfect, and didn’t master a bent toward lying for his own protection, even as he enjoyed more relationship with God and reinforcement of His promises. He needed inner transformation for that. (Do you see how desperately man needs the promised Messiah?) As in the same incidence in Egypt, Abraham needed Sarah’s cooperation to pull off the lie. This man of God put his wife (and thus God’s wonderful promises to him) in jeopardy, for his own safety, sought his wife’s cooperation in doing so, and received her cooperation! It seems senseless. Is it any less sensible than our own choices? Is there a choice confronting you today, to live in God’s promise or take matters into your own hands? What are you going to do about it?

Nevertheless, God “did for Sarah as He had promised,” and Isaac was born after they had waited about 25 years after God’s call and initial promise. Imagine what they had been through in that time, with only infrequent words from God to sustain their hope as hope must doubtless have grown dimmer with their aging. Why would God have waited so long? To strengthen not only Abraham and Sarah’s faith, but the faith of Isaac as he also lived as a sojourner in a lawless land? To strengthen the faith of Moses’ readers, the nation of Israel, in the process of being transformed from a nation of slaves to a nation of warriors? To strengthen our faith in God? “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (1Corinthians 10:11-12)

Where do you need to be strengthened in your faith in God today? Will you choose now to renew your faith in Him in this circumstance?

Abram and Sarai take matters into their own hands, giving up on God’s fulfilling His promise to Abram. Admittedly, they had waited ten years for God to fulfill the promise of offspring; that’s a long time to wait, especially with Sarai’s biological clock doubtlessly ticking like a time bomb and then chiming a death knell. But God…!

What parallels to the account of Adam and Eve’s sin do you notice in Genesis 16? What lessons can they teach you or remind you about your own weaknesses and how they impact your marriage? (Are these two accounts too few to note a pattern in women getting so carried away by their feelings that they badger their husbands into doing something their husbands wouldn’t otherwise do? And to see a pattern in husbands giving up their roles as leaders and giving in to their wives contrary to God’s word?) Women might be wise to use Eve and Sarai as warnings, that we may have a tendency to lack self-control over our feelings, may tend to badger our husbands, driving them to take regrettable action. Examine yourself, Girls! Men might be wise to take warning from Adam’s and Abram’s examples of failing in their leadership roles and caving under pressure from their wives. Perhaps this is why God established the hierarchy in marriage that He did, that “wives (be) subject to their husbands”, so that this pattern doesn’t repeat.

What lessons can you learn or reminders can you note about taking control in matters that are for God to work out? Is there something in your life that you need to choose to wait on God to work out? Make that choice now!

Chapter 17 is an important continuation of the establishment of the covenant between God and Abram. God tells Abram the conditions He places on the promises He has made to Abram. Note what the conditions are (to walk before God and be blameless, and circumcision) and what God promises (Abram will become the father of a multitude of nations, and the land of Canaan will everlastingly belong to Abram’s descendants). The promise is so firm that God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude,” and Sarai’s name to Sarah, meaning “princess.” The name change is significant because in that culture names were closely linked to a person’s character. One’s name is a vital part of one’s identity.

Note in today’s reading that God is identified by two different names: to Hagar He was “the God who sees.” He introduced Himself to Abram as “God Almighty.” Consider what His names, and the fact that He has numerous names, mean. He is so big, so much, that He is not confined to one name. To Hagar and Abram, He was what they needed.

Abraham laughed at God’s promise to give him a son through Sarah, which any of us should be able to understand because by now he was 99 years old, and Sarah was 89, and they had waited 25 years for God to fulfill His promise of a son! But Abraham was, after all, talking to God Almighty.

Abraham may have laughed, which seems out of character for one whose faith in God had earlier been credited to him as righteousness. But don’t look down on him too far, because he did immediately submit to circumcision himself and go circumcise his household, instituting it for his household thereafter.

How are you doing in your reading? If you have been doing so faithfully, you are well on your way toward having a habit established. If you haven’t been so faithful, there is time to work on it – keep working at it! I am praying for you to succeed.

Note how Abram’s relationship with God grows throughout these chapters. What parallels can you apply to your own life?

Consider what Abram’s obedience to God meant, and understand. Although we know Abram as a spiritual giant, he was not so when he first obeyed God. At best, God was probably known to him as the God of his father, for in Genesis 31:53 Terah’s descendants knew God as “the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, and the God of their father.” It was not until he reached the heart of the Promised Land, Bethel, that Abram “called upon the name of the Lord,” according to verse 12:8. Based on what history tells us about his home and some hints from events in the lives of Terah’s descendants (refer to Genesis 31:19), we can assume that Abram observed at least in part the worship practices of his culture of origin in Ur: he worshipped many false gods, of whom God Almighty was not one. He enjoyed relative luxury living in Ur, a great city with all the comforts civilization had to offer. He traded all that for a promise from an unknown God and life in tents as a sojourner living in a place he didn’t belong, in an age where might made right. What a foolish move! God’s people today often hear the same from the culture around them.

Abram was not a saint, as the detour to Egypt shows. Egypt (the greatest civilization in the known world in Abram’s day) became a problem for Abram and his descendants. It represented to them the best man’s efforts had to offer in the way of security and luxury. It symbolizes life outside of the land of promise, living not by faith in God but by faith in man. We should be able to identify with that today, for our culture offers us the same temptation that Egypt was to God’s chosen people of that day.

Isn’t it interesting that God demonstrated a greater ability to take care of Abram than Abram’s ability to take care of himself? Hopefully this strengthens our faith in God’s ability to take care of us, so that we’re less inclined to rely on our own efforts or run to the security our culture offers us in times of trial. Abram’s own efforts to protect himself were not lovely, were they? Are our efforts any lovelier? The exercise of faith is what made Abram a hero.

Chapter 15 makes little sense to us, but it is a very important chapter in the Bible. The chapter tells about the covenant God made with Abram. Covenant isn’t something with which we are very familiar, so it bears some explanation. A covenant is a promise. What is special about a covenant is that both parties make a promise, which means each party receives a promise. The most common example of covenants made today is marriage vows.

Remember, God had already made promises to Abram when He called him to move to Canaan. In chapter 12 He promised Abram that He would make his name great, and that He would make Abram a blessing to all the families on earth. In chapter 13 He promised to give to Abram and to his descendents forever the land on which he was standing, and that He would make Abram’s descendents innumerable. In chapter 15, make note of the promises God made to Abram. Consider what you know about God’s fulfillment of those promises. Has God been faithful to Abram?

When God gives Abram the vision, Abram sort of lets God off the hook, because it’s obvious that Abram isn’t going to father any children. Do you ever find yourself doing that? God insisted that Abram’s plan for working out God’s promise to him wasn’t what God intended at all, and of course God’s intention was much higher than Abram’s expectation. Let Abram serve as a reminder to us that God’s ways are indeed higher than our ways, and we don’t have to let God off the hook with regard to His promises. He is able to fulfill them in ways beyond what we could imagine!

Verse six tells us that Abram believed God, and God acknowledged that. Then in verse eight, Abram asks how he can know that God will fulfill His promise to him. So did Abram truly believe God, or not? Jesus encountered a similar situation in the man to whom He promised a miracle of casting out an unclean spirit, if the man would believe. The man’s response was “Lord I believe; help my unbelief!” Can you relate to that? Faith must start out with a choice to believe. If I insist on having proof in order to trust in a promise, my resulting belief isn’t faith; rather, it’s sight. It doesn’t take faith to believe in something you can see. So faith must start out with a choice to believe. Sometimes that choice feels like a great leap. In those times, faith may not feel real, because we may not be truly convinced. Does that make such faith less real? Not at all; in fact, it may be more real, because such faith truly exercises faith! The young man receiving Jesus’ promise, and Abram in Genesis 15 were both choosing to put their trust in God, and then asking for His help in feeling convinced. That is how faith works.

Did God get angry with Abram for asking for help to believe, after having acknowledged Abram’s belief, and even crediting it to him as righteousness? No! The animals he was instructed to bring to God were not punishment. Rather, they were to solemnize God’s promise. It was God’s giving His most solemn word to Abram in this matter. This covenant ceremony was very meaningful to Abram. In his culture, agreements were not formalized by writing them down and signing the contract, as ours are today. They were formalized in a covenant ceremony much like this one. They laid out animals like God instructed Abram to do, and both parties passed between the halves of the animals, conveying their solemn acknowledgement that if they didn’t keep the promise they were making, the same would happen to them as what they had done to the animals. That’s what the flaming torch meant: God was passing between the animal parts laid out on the ground, showing His sincerity in keeping His promises to Abram. He promised that if what He had promised was not fulfilled, He would be broken, His blood shed, like these animals. This was very moving to Abram. What a gift from God! Will God help us in our unbelief if we choose to place our trust in Him? Yes! Hebrews 11:6 says He rewards those who diligently seek Him in faith.

Notice that Abram didn’t make a promise, and didn’t pass between the pieces of animals. Was God not interested in Abram’s part of this covenant? It seems like Abram’s belief was a small thing for God to receive in this bargain. Was He offering Abram relationship with Him cheaply? More about the covenant between God and Abram is in tomorrow’s reading.

By the way, did God ever have to be broken, did He ever have to shed His blood because His promises were not fulfilled? The promises were obviously fulfilled, and yet God was broken…. More about that in the Gospels.