Genesis 24

Then he prayed, “LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ... 

Lord, may my walk with You be so tangible and desirable to others that they are inspired to pray to You.

Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, saying, “Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham ... "Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham ..." ...When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.

This servant of Abe is a worshiper. Lord, I pray that he was Your servant, too.

Lord God of Abraham, please teach me the pure response of worship in reply to You.  Let me bow down before You and worship daily, let me praise You at every answer to prayer.  God, help me to introduce You to all who know You as someone else's God.  Make me faithful, keep me focused, let me bring You great glory.

 “I will go,” she said. 

Father, yes, I will go.  Let this always be my answer to Your direction.  And may I go quickly in obedience to Your invitation.

Genesis 23

Genesis 15 ... Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”

Genesis 23 ... So Abraham bought the plot of land belonging to Ephron at Machpelah, near Mamre.

I don't know if Abe consulted the Lord about this purchase. I don't know the burial practices of former Ur-dwellers.  I don't know if Abe knew he could initiate conversation with the Lord.  I don't know a whole lot.

I do know that I shouldn't do an endrun around God's promise to me so I can make a situation more tolerable, less sad, more convenient ... even when I want to do that very thing.  I can count on God to fulfill His promise, His vow, His Word to me and to give me the reserve and temerity to wait on His work to be completed.

Father, I long to walk in the audaciousness of obedience. Grant me eyes to see Your pleasure, Your perfect will, Your plan for me and the chutzpah to embrace and revel in that divine desire.  Keep me content, Holy Spirit, in areas where I will be tempted to buy some land to bury some bones so I won't have to look upon them.  Keep me close to You when I am grieving and weeping, lest I try to amend Your covenant with me.  Holy Spirit, protect me when my emotions show themselves to be more influential in my life than they were designed to be.  Be my Filter, my Frame, my Reference Point and my Firm Foundation for all of life and thought, Lord Jesus.  Let me not grow weary of well-doing, to the praise of Your very great Name!

Genesis 22

God tested Abraham.

I will not always recognize a test from You, Heavenly Father.  Lord, that You would find me faithful in all times. 

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 

Lord, increase my faith and my faithfulness - may I personally take care of the rather difficult details of my tests/life instead of delegating them to others.  Help me God, to rise early in the morning, to properly prepare myself for the journey You provide, let me cut my own wood for the sacrifice You require and go expediently to the place of which You speak.  Strengthen me in spirit and grace for the testings.

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

May I not grow weary, Lord, in the journey to the place You describe - physically or spiritually.  May I take the whole craggy path up to the mountain where You will meet me.  'On the third day' reminds me of the three day trip the Israelites were to take from Egypt to go and worship You.  Let me be willing to take the three day journeys to worship You and witness Your provision, Your glory, Your power.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 

Father God, I can't imagine what kind of impression this story, this event had on Isaac, his children and Jews throughout history.  To have seen You as Creator, Judge with the flood, Promise Maker, Promise Keeper, Righteous with Sodom & company; but to know You now as the One who demands the life of loved and only son - even though You repented of the requirement - and not know Your much loved and only Son and His sacrifice must be so very complicated for them.  Lord, then to have such persecution for no reason other than their bloodline, that almost seems like the same kind of thing.  Hope must be difficult to grasp.   Would You please help me understand Your chosen people better; increase my passion for their salvation and for the descendents of Ishmael, too.  Let me love them well.

Lord Jesus, Abe was addressed once by God and Isaac before the sacrifice.  He answered immediately.  At the time of the sacrifice, God called out to him twice.  May I follow Abe's and Your divine example in obedience that it would take my name being called twice by the Lord God Almighty to delay my task.  Lord, I thank You that You make Your ways clear. 

God, I want to love You more that even when You give severe mercy to me, I would not look at any other's lot in life and wonder.  Your plan is right, Your commands are perfect, Your mercies are best...and Your timing is impeccable.  May I go with what I know and not slide with the tide.

Genesis 21

And Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me."... But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.

Sarah laughs, predicts everyone will join her, and takes offense when a teenage boy does.  His laughter was a mocking one; but he was a teenage boy - who was born as a result of the 'Sarah solution.' Where is the grace and joy over her own baby?  How can Sarah permit another person to eclipse the glory from what God has promised and so amazingly delivered to her?  

In Sarah's life, I can see this wrong choice so clearly; but where do I do the same thing?  

Where do I exchange the grace and provision of God Almighty for the maintenance of my ego or to refurbish my insecurity?  

What did Hagar have that Sarah did not trump?  Hagar was still the maidservant; albeit, the mother of one of Abe's sons - but whose fault was that?  Sarah was Abe's wife, the wife of promise, the mother of a miracle, apparently still desirable.  She had position, prestige, power and pretty; she had Abe and Isaac, the child of covenant.

What could the world have, another person offer or the enemy entice me with that could blind me to what God has already given me?  I am His maidservant; but also His daughter, the child of His choosing and desired by the King of Kings.  I am pretty sure that beats any position, prestige, power or pretty that can come my way in the natural.  

Yet, those ethereal things can captivate my imagination, my heart, my mind.  What am I thinking?  Like Sarah, I have a choice.  

Lord, help me to never stray from the cross, from what You've done for me, from who You say I am and from graciously responding to Your mercy.  Lord, I love You, I love Your grace, Your provision.  Let me not believe a lie about being satisfied elsewhere.  Do not allow my ego, my fear, my heart to direct my path, my choices, my relationships.  I need Your help to stay faithful to You; please keep my eyes on You and cause me to choose well, for Your glory's sake.

"O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."  (Robert Robinson)

Genesis 19 - A "Lot" of Trouble

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.  And they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them." 

How young was young?  

Those sons-in-law who were to marry the daughters of Lot were in this group. 

Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.  Behold, I have two daughters ... and do to them as you please."

Seriously?  Were females so incredibly disposable back then?  Was this some paganized form of eastern hospitality and/or did Lot value his daughters so little that he would offer them as hors d'oeuvres to wickedness?  When would that mindset have taken hold?  Abraham longed for offspring and Lot would throw his out?  If Lot recognized these holy visitors for who they were, would he have thought that this was a holy-pleasing solution? 

But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.

Blindness, frustration, exhaustion, inability to satisfy the desire and a bit of stupidity, too, if they could not find the door when they were at the entrance of the house.  A physical representation of the spiritual situation.

And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away." And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords ...Let me escape there (to Zoar)." 

AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!  

 

Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar.

Afraid, after all he had been through.  What could man do after what he had witnessed and survived?  Was he singled out, saved and sheltered only to be put in danger?  Why didn't Lot try Uncle Abe? 

 Lord God, I thank You for your gift of salvation and for the times You save me - especially from myself.  Father, I know I have been a Lot with Your provision and I praise You that You didn't chuck me out the door to wickedness for my repeated offenses.  Please help me to rightly esteem those You have put me in relationship with.  Let me not "know" the world, let me not sacrifice another to the world's appetites, let me value what You value and shun that which displeases You.

Holy Spirit, please stir in me an all-consuming appetite for holiness.  Let my choices be for You, Your fame, Your glory and never for compromise with flesh, the world or the enemy.  Please make plain to me the stupid stuff I am tempted to do and strengthen me to resist, rebuke and rebel against such.

 

Lord Jesus, please help me to say, "Your will be done," rather than, "Oh, no, my Lord."  Please help me to embrace the path You provide and to obey carefully when given instructions, particularly exit instructions.  May I live in gratitude, in love, in confidence, in right response to You and not in fear and unbelief. Thank You for saving me, time and again.  Please help me to ask You for help, wisdom, provision and whatever else I need when I am faced with a dilemma.  Let me not make my own arrangements and live away from Your supply ... in the hills ... in shame.

Genesis18

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.

 

The LORD promises and makes good on His promises.  I have a part in keeping the way of the LORD and doing righteousness and justice so that the LORD may bring what He has promised. 

LORD God, please help me to respond in faith and abidance to You and Your words to me.  Let me not taint the instruments of provision with unbelief, idolatry and self-will.  I desire the fullness of Your plans for my children, my household and me.  Holy Spirit, keep me from trying to add to or manipulate the Father's plan to accomplish His purposes.  He is able and faithful to effect His plans.  Lord Jesus, please help me to be faithful in all manner of obedience, motive and detail; even as You were, that the LORD may bring what He has promised.

And the LORD went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

LORD God, I thank You and praise You for Your precious Holy Spirit's presence.  Holy Spirit, thank You for putting up with me and my folly.  I thank You that You have filled "my place" with Yourself; but let me never presume that Your ways are mine.  No matter how much You love me and incline Yourself to me, LORD, please let me remember that I am the created, the creature.  You are the Creator and Bringer of Life.  Humility, Father, I cry out for humility and that which is pleasing and glorifying to You.

Genesis 17

This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.

The Great I AM made covenant with Abe and his boys.  The covenant response for them was to be circumcised.  

Even in Paul's time the circumcision was a huge deal.  Ever since I understood what this requirement was, I have wondered how did they determine the obedience of another, especially a new member of the community?  Was this really part of the 'welcome to the neighborhood' ritual?

I know this is a rather small issue; but it has been a real question for a while.  (yes, I have asked it out loud and been laughed at pretty consistently)

Today the Lord answered my question as He drew my attention to the words "the sign of the covenant between me and you."  I praise Him for that.  

Sure there was a circ'd formality back then; but then as now, the significance was not the cut; but the relationship of God and man.  It was not about what man did; but that he was willing to do it and carried through on his heart's setting of obedience for him and his family.  It was a private affair between a person and his God.

Today, He gives us the sign of His new covenant as our seal.  Again, that gift is very personal, private and extravagant as it signifies the relationship between God and His child.  There will be physical evidence for those who look and see; but the most important part is the individual, intimate bond of that divine covenant.

Lord, I thank You for putting the pieces of this puzzling situation together for me.  I thank You for putting to rest this old and perhaps silly question with Your revelation.  Thank You for Your New Covenant and Your gift of the Holy Spirit.  Please help me to live fully in obedience and to delight in the relationship You have provided me.  And please, let me give abundant evidence to any who look to see that I bear Your covenant sign.  What grace, what love, what presence You have given me.  

I thank You, also, for showing me that the circ'ing had to happen before the promised Isaac would be conceived. The promise of Isaac was hope that though the cutting would hurt, it would not be fatal or result in futility.  The promise of Isaac was hope that though the cutting would hurt, it would not be fatal or result in futility.  Isaac really was fruit of the covenant and obedience.  Lord, I receive Your ordering of my steps.  Help me to live with that kind of fruit, too.  You are good. 

One other thought that came my way was that when God created man, He created him in such a fashion as to supply the "cut-away-able part" for circumcision.  Man didn't have to cut off a vital part; a finger joint, a toe.  Nor did he have to maim or mutilate himself as is the man-made fashion in many cultures.  God provided what He required.  He is so good.  And what comfort that may have offered to Abe in a few years when he makes the trek with Isaac to go and worship on that mountain.