Category Archives: Genesis

genesis 16: return

Interesting, hard chapter in the story. So many emotions and dynamics going on.

Sarai’s desperation for a child. The injustice against Hagar. Abram’s unwillingness to mediate, with his “do what you want with her” attitude. Hagar’s contempt for a woman who would have her bear a child she would then have to hand over. Sarai’s mistreatment of Hagar and Hagar’s desperate escape to the desert.

We see the frailty of humanity. The weakness of fallen people trying to get what they want from this life.

And only the names have changed. Humanity is still frail, still fallen, still trying to grab life on their own terms.

But now I’m going to step on toes, I think.

Hagar was clearly a victim, being mistreated and some would even say, abused. And no matter how much we don’t want to, we must hear what the Lord says to her –

“Return to your mistress and submit to her.” (vs. 9)

I will tread lightly, but I will still tread here. Because I’ve lived it. I’ve heard the word “return and submit” and let me tell you, we’re talking about hard to the bone words to hear.

As much as we don’t want to say it or believe it, scripture makes it very clear that sometimes (please do not read the word ‘always’ there) God calls us to return to or remain in a situation of mistreatment.

“What about physical abuse?” I don’t know, ask God. “What about the kids?” I don’t know, ask God. “What about…” I don’t know, ask God. There’s no formula. God doesn’t have the exact same plan for everyone’s life. Your final destination and mine may be the same, but the journey there will look different. This is why we must seek God for ourselves, with a heart of obedience. All I’m saying is that we cannot hold onto a false belief that says God does not ever want us to suffer mistreatment, and therefore we are entitled to run from it.  

Wrestle it out with God. Kick and scream and dig in your heels. But at some point, we all have to deal with the truth that God does not view our sufferings through our lens. His lens is eternity and divine purpose. Ours is usually self-preservation, comfort, and control, mixed with a sense of entitlement and a right to be happy.

He is the God who hears you. He is the God who sees you. He is the God who loves you. But He is also the God who is looking at your situation from within eternity.

And sometimes (not always), He will tell us to return to what we’re running from.

genesis 15: covenant

Let’s listen to just the conversation between God and Abram –

God: Don’t worry, I will shield you, and your reward will be great.

Abram: What reward will You give me, since You have not given me an heir? In fact, a servant is going to inherit everything I have.

God: No he won’t. You will father a child. In fact, come outside. Look up. Can you count the stars? No? Neither will you be able to count your offspring, there will be so many of them.

And Abram believed that the Creator of all things, the Holy One of Heaven, had just made him a promise that He would keep.

And then He made the promise even bigger.

“See this land? I’m giving it to you and to yours for always.”

“How can I be sure that I’m really going to possess this land?”

“Go get the animals.”

In the Old Testament, when two people wanted to enter into an agreement or contract, they “cut covenant”. They would cut the sacrificial animals into two halves, and then they would both walk between the pieces together, as a way of “signing a contract”.

Abram would have known what was coming next. He and God were about to “cut covenant” and it was not unfamiliar. But he didn’t know that God cuts covenant like no other.

As Abram slept, God walked alone through the pieces.

And as we were dead in our sins, Jesus hung alone on a cross.

Cutting covenant with us.

What kind of God is this who walks alone through the sacrifice to be in covenant with me?

What do I do with such goodness? How do I hold this kind of mercy? What, dear Lord, is the response that heaven is looking for from earth?

And Abram believed that the Creator of all things, the Holy One of Heaven, had just made him a promise that He would keep.

“…and He counted it to him as righteousness.”

genesis 14: rescue

Sat with this chapter for a long time, letting hard to pronounce names wash over me. I wanted to see God, so I sat and read and waited.

Four kings went against five kings and four kings won. They took everything, including Lot and all of his possessions.

Lot had chosen to pitch his tent in Sodom. Bad choice, it turns out. I’m sure he didn’t know the wickedness that went on there. At first. But what about when he did know, and he still chose to stay?

Sometimes, we stay where we are long after we should have left.

I kept reading, searching for the heart of my King. I think it’s right here:

“When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he assembled his 318 trained men, born in his household, and they went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he and his servants deployed against them by night, attacked them, and pursued them as far as Hobah to the north of Damascus. He brought back all the goods and also his relative Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the other people.”

Lot had been taken captive. Didn’t matter why. Didn’t matter if it was partly his fault. He was a captive, and Abram went to set him free and bring him back. Because Lot belonged to the family of Abram.

And Abram’s heart is not kinder than God’s.

Maybe you need to hear that today. To remember that no man’s compassion and mercy and love and willingness to come after you is greater than God’s. I don’t know what foolish choices you have made, or how those choices may have led you into captivity, but I do know this:  If you are His child, He has in no way abandoned you to that captivity. His heart toward you is loving and full of compassion, and He will come for you in your captivity.

The Bible, with all of it’s hard to pronounce names and places and all the details that fascinate and confuse and make us ponder, is ultimately the story of rescue. Of the people held captive, and the Rescuer who came for them, no matter what.

genesis 13: strife

“Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.”

Strife: Contention. Struggle. Fight. Discord.

Abraham was unwilling to allow there to be strife, because they were family. But then he goes further. Aaagh. So much we could learn from Abraham.

He was so peace-minded that he allowed Lot to choose what lands he would take first. He wasn’t after the best and biggest piece of the pie. Not interested in whether he would get his fair share. He was after peace.

Side Note: I’m looking for God in this chapter and I found Him when Lot chose his land.

It was God’s plan all along to give the promised land to Abraham and his descendants, and in the moment of Lot’s choice of land, I smiled. Because even when Abraham gives the choice to another, God still made sure that Lot chose in accordance with God’s plan! I just love the Word of God!

We can roll the dice to see where they land, but oh beloved be sure of this: the dice will obey God!

Interestingly, many, many years after he sought peace with Lot, Abraham’s descendant David would write these words:

Family is one of the most contentious arenas on the planet. So much brokenness in families, so much offense and bitterness being held in hearts that should be knit together. Arguing, demanding, refusing to give up their right to have, or their right to be right.

Turning from our bitterness and anger to do good is hard. But I wonder if it could be easier if we became seekers and pursuers of peace. People who cannot abide the presence of strife. People who would rather step back and allow someone else to choose what they would prefer, and be content to take what is left.

That last one is hard for a lot of us. Unless, like Abraham, we trust God, and we value peace in the family above getting what’s ours.

Questions:

  • Have I allowed strife to remain in any of my relationships with family?
  • Am I causing, or adding to the strife by demanding what’s mine, trying to prove I’m right, or launching accusations against others?
  • What would it look like to seek and pursue peace?

genesis 12: trust

We have to put ourselves in a place called Haran, which is now in ruins in Turkey. We have to stand with a man named Abram and hear God tell him to go. To leave his home, his father, leave what is familiar and go to what is unknown.

Now pretend that God has told you to go. Pack up, leave what you’ve known and go to, literally, God only knows where. Would you do it? Right now, would you do it? Leave your home, parents, friends? Or would you have to think about it, turning that command over and over in your hands, looking for some other meaning to the word ‘go’?

I know. We’re all saying something like, “if God told me to go, I’d go!” aren’t we?

But let’s look at some of the things God has already told us:

Do not worry. Do not be afraid. Do not be anxious. Give generously to those in need. Lay down your lives for others. Die to yourself.

So do we still insist that if God told us to go, to leave all that we know and go somewhere unknown we would do it? We can’t even do what He has already told us to do that doesn’t require nearly the level of faith that it required for Abraham to obey the call of God.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10)

Abraham could have obeyed out of fear. He could have obeyed out of a sense of duty. But one of the reasons that Abraham is held out to us as an example is because of those two little words – “by faith”.

For the sake of my point today, I want to change out the word faith for trust. For faith to fully be faith, trust must be present. But we so often equate faith with believing in God that we don’t always see our lack of faith in certain areas. But if we call it trust, it sort of stands out like flies on rice. I’ll show you.

Because I fully trust God:

  • I do not worry about anything.
  • I do not live in fear.
  • I am not anxious.
  • I freely give out of all of my resources, including my money and my time.

Because I trust God, I love my enemies and pray for them. Because I trust God, I willingly serve others, put others first, and consider others above myself. Because I trust God, I will lay down my life for His sake and for the sake of His Kingdom. Because I trust God, I will leave everything to go.

For most of us, very few of those statements are actually true. We want them to be true, wish they were true, and would probably never admit to others that they aren’t true. But they aren’t.

We must lay aside whatever keeps us from fully trusting God’s goodness, His ways, and His heart. We cannot continue to compare Him to man, keeping our guard up, watching and waiting for Him to betray us. We can’t continue to trust Him for salvation, but not for financial provision or employment, or a spouse. We trust Him to save us but we struggle to trust His sovereignty over all things.

We trust the blood of Jesus, but not the heart of the Father who sent Him to shed that blood on our behalf.

Questions:

  • How honest am I with myself regarding my trust in God? Am I willing to admit that I do not fully trust Him in certain areas?
  • Do I actually trust that His plan for me is good, or am I working my own plan, just in case?
  • Do I trust God’s heart for me, or am I just agreeing with what other people say?

I urge us into the Word of God to know the One who is utterly trustworthy.

genesis 11: rebellion

He told them to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. Instead, they migrated together and decided to build a city and a tower, so that they would not be scattered over the earth.

So God scattered them over the earth.

Because nothing – no city, no tower, no people, no rebellion, will stop God’s plans and purposes.

Think of the Israelites and their shiny golden calf. Their grumbling and complaining and refusal to trust God. It took 40 years and the death of a generation, but He got His people to the promised land.

Think Jonah. Sent to Ninevah. Went the other way. Big fish swallows him. He went to Ninevah.

Remember Saul. Chosen by God to be king. Hiding in the baggage hoping not to be seen. But God saw him. Saul was anointed as king.

Another Saul, killing the Church. God knocked him down then picked him up and used him to build that same Church.

So, who do you know that’s living in rebellion, running from God, building their own tower? Have you despaired? Have you given up? Don’t. Get up and get yourself before the throne of God and continue to intercede for them and believe God for them.

Think of you and me. Rebels all the way. But look at us now – children of God. Because our rebellion did not stop Him from coming for us.

Thank You, Jesus. Just, thank You.

Exodus 32; Jonah; 1st Samuel 10:20-24; Acts 9

genesis 10: origins

“These are the generations of the sons of Noah…”

Just nine words. Words that no doubt most of us just skim past. But you and I are in those words. Generations. Sons of Noah.

Japheth: Often referred to as the Father of Europeans. His descendants were French, German, Celtic, Russian, and Spanish, among others. Some of his sons’ descendants inhabited Iran and Iraq, India and Armenia.

Ham: His descendants inhabited Africa and the Far East. They founded both Babylon and Ethiopia. They lived in Libya, Egypt, and Israel. It is also widely believed that the Asian peoples descended from sons of Ham.

Shem was an ancestor of Persians, Assyrians and the Syrians, and various Arabic peoples.

You and I fall somewhere in there, as descendants of the sons of Noah, a descendant of Adam and Eve.

It’s good to know and remember where you came from.

I was the first person in my immediate family (parents, siblings) to become a Christian. I met a guy in a bar and eventually married him. He came from a Christian family and told me about Jesus. Not a lot, but the basics. Years later I would surrender my life to that Jesus and never look back. But I learned that there were members of my dad’s family (grandmother, grandfather (eventually) uncles, aunts) who were Christians. I can’t help but wonder where it began. I would love to discover who was my point of origin for the gospel in my family.

After I got saved, most of my family members became Christians, one at a time. I’m still believing for those who have not yet surrendered to the Lordship of Christ.

The covenants God made with both Abraham and Noah included their descendants. God’s purposes and His heart are for families, for lineage and legacy. He doesn’t bless one man, He blesses a man and his descendants. He doesn’t just save one man, He saves a man and his entire household.

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

That doesn’t mean that when one person is saved, his whole household is automatically saved. It means that one person getting saved then opens the door for the gospel to his whole family.

In a very roundabout way, I am coming to my point, which is this:

God is about family. Descendants. Legacy. Households. Keep going. Keep praying. Keep believing. Keep walking with Jesus. You are opening doors. You are walking in the blessings of God that are being passed down from one generation to the next.

You could very well be someone’s point of origin for the gospel.