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The flesh wants to accomplish what we believe God can’t accomplish without our intervention. Our flesh in this instance can be thought of as our efforts apart from God’s direction. Lot’s daughter’s offspring and Hagar’s offspring became a thorn in the descendents of Isaac’s (children of promise) side. All God wanted from Abram (now Abraham) was for him to continue having relations with his wife and to wait with faith.
The arm of my effort can NEVER bring about God’s promise or His provision. In fact when I try to supply my own need by my own effort without God, many times that effort will be a complete waste or work against me! It seems that whenever I worked 7 days a week to “get ahead” I always got behind somehow. It never worked out, and I am glad it didn’t. It has taught me to rely on God. God doesn’t need me to come to the rescue, He needs me to cooperate with Him and do only what He tells me to do – and believe.
“Send the slave woman away with her offspring.” In order to have offspring you have to have relations, you have to unify, you have to bond. Break the bonds you have with your own efforts (and your pride), to get things done – the way you do things, whether it has been “for” God or for your own satisfaction. Break with the ways that put you at odds with God’s way of releasing the promise and get rid of the offspring – they may (will) grow up to be your enemy.
By the way – in spite of Abraham, his lying about Sarah, his sleeping with Hagar, the promise was fulfilled. That is because God made it! Listen to His promise and be assured of the outcome.
Six times the Lord heard from Abraham in regards to not destroying the region of Sodom and Gomorrah. (These readings are so packed with lessons, but I am endeavoring to comment on the life God gives to me through them.) How patient and wonderful is God? (this is called a theophany for those of you who would like to study it, (Abraham is talking to God), it is thought that this is an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ). Back to my life lesson. God didn’t get all mad or ask Abraham how many more "what ifs" he was going to give him, He just answered him.
To me this detracts from the "God in the sky who doesn’t want to hear from you" image that I constantly have to fight against. Today it is much clearer to me, but the old tapes play and every time they do I just delete them – again and again. This is a perfect passage to remind me of God’s forbearance, His love and His great desire to talk to me. God wants to talk to me, AND even tell me what He is about to do! That meal that Abraham had prepared took hours. They were just cutting it up during all of that – with God!
Briefly let me also say that I should get myself up and take care of my guests. Greet them warmly, fuss over them and make them feel at home. Abraham was like a king and he did, and so did Lot. "If you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me".
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It hit me that Ishmael was going to be blessed and be made into a great nation and have many offspring, but the rest of that prophecy to Hagar wasn’t very promising. I think God wants to be straight with me about bad outcomes or hard things and my western mindset of “sola benedict” “only blessing, doesn’t like to accept it. Whatever my lot is from the Lord, hard work, tough times, trials of all sorts including sickness and death of loved ones, I must remain confident that nothing can stop me from my destiny except myself.
Abraham laughed at God. It didn’t seem to insult God though. That gives me such comfort. Although Abram was a man of faith and believed God, he tried to escape trouble by passing off Sarai as his sister. Deception to get to the promise that God gave him – hmm… Then he had relations with Hagar to fulfill the promise. Looks like a lot of confidence in the flesh. Then he laughed at God when God told him it was with Sarai that he would conceive Isaac. God is so patient, so forgiving, so loving and so forebearing with me! If my heart remains toward Him, I think He will forgive and wait for me to come around. He will fulfill His promise to me. I love my Daddy.
In the beginning of chapter 12, God asks Abram to do a radical thing – leave everything familiar and go somewhere. The destination was unknown! God wants me to leave it all for Him, even when He doesn’t tell me where I am going. This is a pre-requisite for becoming great! I know people who are great in ministry, great in finances, great in status, but God doesn’t compare me to them. If I am going to attain my greatest greatness, I must leave all for Him. Isn’t that the gospel? Give me your life and I will give you mine. It is scary to leave familiar and ordinary, but not when you know who is leading you. I want greatness – as great as I can be for my God!
The other stand out stoppage, (where God tells me to stop and think about it and listen to Him) is Gen. 13:17 “Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” God is giving me the “keys to the Kingdom”! In other words He is giving me the Kingdom. My task is to walk through it all! Not just what is comfortable and familiar, but to strike out to unknown territory and experience all of it.
One of the ways to do that is what we are doing this year – reading through the Word of God! What is contained within the pages of the Word of God is the life and inheritance of the Kingdom of God that He has given you and me! Open it up every day and walk it!
God is showing me that doing wrong – thinking wrong doesn’t “dis”-accept me from God (Gen. 4:6-7). It puts me face to face with an enemy that wants to control me. When we do wrong we are still loved and accepted because of the blood of Jesus and it being applied to our “account”. That “account” is the punishment for our sin because we have chosen to be jealous and angry (as in this case). So God’s acceptance of me and His relationship with me never change with my acting out against his will except for my tendency to be ruled by whatever “sin” I may be doing. In my mind at times, I become the problem, or God is the problem, when all along it is the sin that is the problem. If I would realize that sin is the one attacking me, I would fight it as an enemy and my relationship with God and myself would remain unharmed. Paul talks about this in Romans 7. It is not as if I am absolving myself from responsibility, because I am the one who is allowing sin to “master me”. However, I am not the enemy! God is not the enemy! Nothing can ever separate me from God’s love (Rom. 8:39), not even sin! Sin separates me from what God wants me to have – the most unhindered life possible! Freedom from anger, jealousy, bitterness…, toward others, towards myself, or even towards Him!
Sin is crouching (sneaking-trying not to be detected) at my door. I will be like Enoch, who in Gen. 5 is the only one who is written about as; one who walked with God. I will walk with God and kick the sin that is crouching at my door in the teeth, and I will never fear abandonment from my Father in Heaven.
Gen 1-3
First, the word “blessed” stood out to me. Although it was absent with the creatures on the earth, it is found both with the birds and fish (Day 5 of creation) and mankind (Day 6). What strikes me is when the command of being fruitful and multiplying is given, the blessing is given. Whenever God gives us a task, He gives us His blessing to engage in and complete that task. When it feels like there is no blessing in what we are doing, maybe there isn’t. We should stop and check to see if the task is what God gave us to do or if it was taken on without Him.
The prominent lesson for me is that God said man needed a helper and that He would make one for him. Then God parades all the animal kingdom before man and has him name them. They could have been some great helpers. Oxen could plow fields, birds could seed the fields, horses could transport him places and on it goes. There was a connection that ADAM needed to realize HE NEEDED! At the end of the parade God said that no suitable helper was found. God knew there wouldn’t be, BUT Adam needed to come to that realization! There is my main lesson. Things are happening in my life for ME to discover that I need HIS provision for my life. It could be what is right in front of me, but many times it can’t be seen and must be trusted for.
Faith - Faith in His provision – Faith in His ability to create something just for me and faith in His great love for me. Even though Adam was perfect, He still needed help from his creator.
Jan. 1 Genesis 1-3
Jan. 2 Genesis 4-5
Jan. 3 Genesis 6-9
Jan. 4 Genesis 10-11
Jan. 5 Genesis 12-14
Jan. 6 Genesis 15-17
Jan. 7 Genesis 18-19
