BLESSING SWEET AND REST COMPLETE
So here we are, prepared for the journey, ready to embark on the trail leading through Christ’s earthly lineage. From this point forward, we will examine each life, learn from examples, and apply just what God would have us to learn. There are treasures waiting! Endeavor to empty yourself, implore Him to fill you, indulge in His Word, and step out with us. Here is our journey becomes a marathon with blessing of obedience already prepared! Have no doubt, reader. Have no fear. Where we are going, He already is…
Abraham
Today we will saturate ourselves with the life of Abraham (Read Genesis 12-25). We have already studied the Covenant God made with him. We saw the Promise to him fulfilled in Christ! We paused to see a vulnerable Abraham fall to his face in reverent humility before an Almighty God! Now we view through the scope of time this man, Abraham, his faith, his obedience, and his failures. Gather nuggets as we walk and fill the pockets of your heart with them!
Chapter 11 of Genesis closes with men, in confusion, scattering the earth. They had, after all, just endeavored to build themselves a way to Heaven! I find it so interesting that when Abram (Abraham) comes on the scene in Genesis 12, God’s promise to him involved just that – a way to Heaven! God knew they needed a Deliverer. He established His people and promised to bless all nations through Abraham. And He absolutely did! What’s more, His way didn’t leave us in need of a staircase. God made the way to bring Heaven down to us; His name is Jesus!
Abraham was 75 years old (Genesis 12:4) when God called him to leave everything familiar. Exactly 100 years later, he died, “an old man and satisfied with life.” (Genesis 25:8) We are here today for all the in between! Walk through each fold of his story with me; witness his faith laced with obedience and likewise his fear linked with mistake. Take note, sweet reader, of this man. To this, a new day in our journey, “Pay attention; we have not been this way before!” (Jan Silvious, Mylonn 2009)
Chapter 12 – God calls Abram and he goes, with faith, toward Canaan, the land of promise. He journeys through, but famine delivers him to Egypt where, in fear, he presents his wife as sister.
Chapter 13 – Abram and Lot part (Lot toward Sodom, Abram toward Hebron); God reaffirms His promise to Abram.
Chapter 14 – Abram rescues Lot, taken prisoner after a battle against the King of Sodom. Melchizedek blesses Abram, who in turn, gives him a tenth of all.
Chapter 15 – God cuts His covenant with Abram, promising a son (from Abram’s own seed), land, and blessing. Abram “believed in the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness,” – justified because of His faith!
Chapter 16 – A barren Sarai gives Hagar to Abram. Hagar flees in distress, but an angel tells her to return and promises a son whose descendants would be numerous. Hagar returns and Ishmael is born (Abram 86 years old.)
Chapter 17 – God reaffirms His covenant with Abram, changing his name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah. God institutes circumcision as a sign of the covenant. Isaac’s birth is promised within the year!
Chapter 18 – God appears to Abraham, Sarah laughs at the promise of a son, and Abraham intercedes for Sodom.
Chapter 19 – Sodom/Gomorrah destroyed; Lot’s wife perishes and his daughters debase him.
Chapter 20 – Abraham presents Sarah as his sister to Abimelech. God told him in a dream her identity. Abraham prays for Abimelech; God heals.
Chapter 21 – Isaac born; Hagar/Ishmael leave (angel comforts her). Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech.
Chapter 22 – Abraham’s faith tested at the command to offer Isaac. Blessings of obedience ensue as God provides.
Chapter 23 – Death of Sarah
Chapter 24 – Abraham’s servant journeys to find a wife for Isaac; he finds Rebekah.
Chapter 25 – Death of Abraham and settling of his life.
How exciting to sojourn alongside this Father of Faith, Abraham! Appropriately named was he, for we can’t truly study the life of Abraham and fail to see a portrait faith! His unquestioning obedience tied with steps of action, sometimes literal ones, resulted in blessing and provision, just as God promised!
In our first meeting with him, we find him leaving the comforts of all he knew to journey to a place he did not know… all because God said, “Go.” In faith, He went (Genesis 12:4, Hebrews 11:8)! Without question, his feet moved in cadence with obedience, beginning the journey toward Canaan and through all God had for him. I have to wonder what he must have felt, what questions entertained his mind. Certainly his fear of the unknown was strangely comforted with the promise of provision. Nevertheless, gathering his wife, nephew, and possessions, he silenced his questions and he went! (God has a way of drawing us out of our comfort zone, doesn’t He? And there He works because we so quickly learn to depend on Him!) I love that in Genesis 25, we read that Abraham died “an old man and satisfied with life.” I can only guess what he must have felt when he obeyed God’s call to go, but of this I am certain: at the end of his journey, He was left with no regret! Faith rewarded…
In Genesis 15, God promises a son to Abraham (15:4). Verse 6 says “he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (see also Galatians 3:6). Wow! Declared righteous because he believed! Sound familiar? In Romans 4, Paul upholds Abraham as an example of faith, telling us we are also justified in the same manner (See Chapters 3-4). God made His promise, poured it out upon a cross, upholds it still, leaving us to exercise faith and by His grace alone stand justified! No room for boasting; rather a complete abandon to God! Abraham believed God. It was enough. God declared him righteous! Now that, my friend, is blessing sweet…
In Genesis 17, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham (father of multitudes) and Sarai’s name to Sarah (princess), reiterating His promise of a son. Abraham had Ishmael, but God, going to do it His way, said a new son would be born to fulfill the covenant (Isaac)! He declared circumcision a sign of that covenant, a reminder of their devotion to God. Likewise, as believers, we are also marked by Christ when we believe. We were “dead in our sins, yet He made us alive together with Him, forgave us those sins, cancelled the debts marked against us, and nailed them to the cross” (Colossians ,29)! Yes, a father of multitudes! His promised son, Isaac, a picture of another Promised Son… And because He Is, we, in faith, are heirs, princesses of His promise!
In Genesis 18, God appears with two angels to visit Abraham and Sarah. Sarah heard she would have a child in her old age and laughed. I love that God, hearing her, replied, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (A rhetorical question that needs no answer, still I am reminded how I forget God is fully capable, fully sufficient, fully sovereign, and able to meet my every need, despite circumstance’s best effort to make me think otherwise…) I like to think that Sarah’s laugh was one of joy/relief, of knowing that what she desired, a child, would be granted. Regardless, in the process, an elderly couple would consider God faithful, trusting and watching the One who would produce blessing nine months later with the birth of Isaac – from whom would come descendants outnumbering the stars and God’s people, Israel (Genesis 21, Heb. 11:11-12)! Their faith and resulting blessings rested on the One Who could do anything!
In chapter 22, we find our Abraham years later on Mt. Moriah, ready to sacrifice Isaac. In a moving scene we find that Abraham, ready to obey, was willing, because he believed God would provide even when he didn’t understand (see also Heb. ). He was a man justified by faith, and as a result, his faith tendered to obedience and he acted upon it!
Sweet reader, lest you begin to believe you could never live a life of faith like Abraham, know that he, too, made mistakes. No, he didn’t always get it! He missed it sometimes and even tried to do it his own way! (Oh how often I “fix” things, making more of a mess, or forget to rest and to wait on His timing or His way…) In Abraham’s case, he lied (Genesis -20; Genesis 20:1-18) in order to protect himself and Sarah, presenting Sarah as his sister. In both instances, God provided protection and restoral. In addition, we find in Genesis 16 the story of Hagar, Sarah’s maid, and her son born of Abraham, Ishmael. Abraham and Sarah jumped ahead of God’s plan, dabbling their hands in what they thought they could accomplish, but God had His way and His time still to be revealed. Oddly, this story comforts me because I realize that despite human plans, best intentions that crumbled into feeble effort, God blessed still. Also precious to me is that Hagar proclaims God as “a God who sees!” (Gen. 16:13) And so He is! And because of it, we can know His timing is always the right timing even when we are tempted to rationalize something different! And, what’s more, when we fail or miss it, by a mile or just by a minute, the redeeming power of His grace remains! In Genesis 13:14, God (describing to Abraham the land He is giving him) says, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward.” I can’t help but let my heart pound in awe as I realize God’s grace, its depth, height, and width, is fully past any point my human eyes can see or this human heart can fathom.
Abraham must have felt a failure, and certainly even questioned why but, regardless, still he moved his feet toward all God had for him. His faith remained… and God called him friend. And why was he such? Because he believed -- and that belief flooded over into every other part of his life.
Romans 4:20-21 says that Abraham, “with respect to the promise of God, did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was also able to perform.” Oh to have a faith increasing like Abraham’s! Not only did he grow strong, but He, going two steps further, gave glory to God and remained fully assured that God was able to uphold all He promised! What about you today? He proclaimed Himself Faithful on the cross. If you, sweet one, haven’t claimed Him as salvation, or believed Him His promise, your first step of faith is waiting. Oh, the blessings are sweet. And, if you have, would you examine your steps today? Are they plodding along in obedience to Him because He is your everything? And along your way to knowing Him more, will you give Him all? Will you allow your faith to be action because of who He is? Will you step in cadence with His purpose for you? And, beloved of Him, will you know, when you fail or falter, His grace so deep, wide, and high is right there waiting wherever you are?
Believe Him for WHO and WHAT He is -- Provision and Protection, Healer and Hope, Strength and Savior, Shelter and Refuge, Shadow and Song, Rest and Relief, Comfort and Compassion, Shield and Sustainer, Deliverer and Defender…. And so very very much more. Abraham did. And at the end of his life, He was satisfied! What sweeter blessing is there than that? Trust what He says. Act in faith. And know that is enough…
Lord, let our vision be You so we reflect no other. Help us choose to walk, just as Abraham did, moving feet toward knowing You more. Mistakes we will make but Your grace deeper we will find… Blessings sweet and rest complete!
UNDOUBTEDLY
Holy Father, help me now.
I am tired of wondering how.
You are able yet I doubt.
Still my heart to hear your shout!
Take my life and let me bow,
Humble, broken and willing now.
Always knowing, ever grateful,
Simply confident you are faithful!
You will provide; You always do
With promises fulfilled and true.
Help me rest in your perfect plan,
Never questioning that You can!
For small things and for things grand
Help me easily trust Your hand.
It is so much better when I do.
I am free to love you through and through.
I am free to walk and free to grow,
Free to believe, and free to know,
Free to relinquish and free to rest,
Free to settle in what YOU know best!
You are God, Faithful and True
You always do what you say you will do!
Your riches abundant never wear out!
Why should I have any doubt?
How am I to walk my days?
How am I to give You praise?
Without a doubt, without a waver
Fully trusting in my Savior!