Genesis 32 :: The Face of God
Genesis 30:25-31:55 :: The Fear of Isaac
Genesis 29:1-30:24 :: Nemesis
Genesis 26:34-28:9 :: Bitter Blessings
Genesis 26 :: Footsteps
Genesis 25:12-34 :: Rivalry
Genesis 25:1-11 :: Satisfied
Genesis 24 :: Will You Go?
Genesis 22:20-23:20 :: Unashamed
Reader:
Sarah died.
Abraham came to mourn and weep for his wife – his dead.
Her life and marriage were far from easy and far from perfect.
Yet God remembered her faith…
Faith in God’s promises, even though she died without receiving them, she saw them in the distance.
She was persuaded that God would fulfill all He promised.
She welcomed those promises with great pleasure.
She repeated those promises to herself and God, knowing that her life was temporary on this earth but eternal in God’s city.
Her faith declared plainly that she was intensely seeking the Father’s-Land.
She stretched out for a better, that is, heavenly land.
This is the kind of faith that does not shame God.
God is not ashamed to be called Sarah’s God.
In Jesus, not only is He unashamed of us, He is making ready a city for us to dwell with Him.
(Isa 51:2; Deut 18:4; Lev 23:10; 1 Cor 15:20, 23; Jam 1:18; Rev 14:4; Rom 8:23, 11:16; 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5; Eph 1:14; Heb 2:11, 12:22, 13:14; John 14:2; Rev 21; Isa 41:8; Ps 105:42)
God Became Man :: The Worshipers :: Love
God Became Man :: The Parents :: Joy
God Became Man :: The Times :: Hope
God Became Man :: Forecast :: Peace
(2 Sam 7:11-16; Ps 89; Dan 9; Gen 12:3; Rom 5:14; 1 Cor 15:22, 45; Gen 38; Josh 2, 6; Heb 11:31; Jam 2:23; Ruth; Deut 23:3; 2 Sam 11:1-12:25; 1 Kgs 1-2; Gen 21:12, 25:23, 28:13, 49:10-11; Isa 7:14; Mic 5:2; Hos 11:1; Jer 31:15; Isa 53:2-3; Ps 78:49)
Genesis 22:1-19 :: Now I Know
Reader:
Genesis 22 is the climax in the account of Abraham’s life and faith.
God tested Abraham.
The test revealed Abraham’s faith - his unhindered love for, and obedience to, God.
God’s response to Abraham was, “Now I know that you fear God.”
Through examining Abraham’s relationship with God, now I know what “the just shall live by faith” means.
Now I know that God will test me - repeatedly.
Now I know that God has a plan - His will is to bless; He speaks so that I will trust; He acts to fulfill what He speaks.
Now I know that God is with me - in every place, in every circumstance, I am not alone.
Now I know that the Word of God is all about the Word of Life - Jesus.
Now I know that God will provide - in His way, in His time.
Now I know that I fear God.
Genesis 21:8-34 :: God Is With You
Reader:
God is with you.
Before you knew it, He was there. On that mountaintop, He was there. In that pit, He was there. In the normal hum of life, His is there. Whatever will happen in the future, He will be there. He is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come! Always present.
God was with always Abraham – and Sarah, and Isaac, and Hagar, and Ishmael.
God is with you – always.
“Our Father, we know that You are present with us, but our knowledge is but a figure and shadow of truth and has little of the spiritual savor and inward sweetness such knowledge should afford. This is for us a great loss and the cause of much weakness of heart. Help us to make at once such amendment of life as is necessary before we can experience the true meaning of the words ‘In Your presence is fulness of joy.’ Amen.” – A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 74
Genesis 20:1-21:7 :: As He Said
Reader:
The incident in Genesis 20 reminds us, once again, that no believer in God is perfect in their thoughts and behaviors. Sometimes integrity is missing in the midst of faith.
We are also reminded that not everyone who does not believe in God is as depraved and wicked as those in Sodom. Sometimes integrity is found in the midst of unbelief.
But God remains incorruptible, sound, complete, unimpaired, undivided - the definition of integrity.
What He has said, what He has spoken, will be performed at His set time - always.
(Ps 25:21, 26:1, 41:12; Pr 2:7, 10:9, 29, 11:3, 13:6, 20:7; Rom 11:29; Ac t 27:25)
Genesis 19:15-38 :: The Warning
Reader:
Everyone and everything you know is going to be destroyed.
Escape for your life!
That is a the warning the Bible consistently proclaims from Genesis to Revelation.
Everyone and everything is subject to the repercussions of rebellion against the God who made it all.
In His grace and mercy, He consistently warns those He created in His image: I have provided the way of escape from the punishment that is coming. Escape to My Son, Jesus. Believe in Him. Believe that He came from Me. Believe that He died for all sin. Believe that His death removes you from My wrath towards all sin. Believe that death has no power over Him. Believe that He rose from the grave and has returned to Me. Believe that He is coming again. Believe that when He comes, He will receive all those who believe in Him into Our eternal presence. Believe that when He comes, He will banish all those who do not believe in Him into the eternal lake of fire and brimstone.
We have been warned. We have been shown the way of life and of death.
Escape for your life!
Flee to Jesus.
(Jude 7; 2 Pet 2:6-8; Rev 14:10, 20:10, 21:8; Mat t 10:15, 11:23; 1 John 2:15-17; Luke 17:28-32; Ps 11:6, 75:8; Deut 23:3-6; Ruth 1:4, 4:18-22; Mat t 1:5-6)
Genesis 18:22-19:14 :: The Judge
Reader:
God is the Judge.
As Judge, He sees perfectly.
As Judge, He is always righteous and just.
As Judge, He distinguishes between the righteous and the wicked.
As Judge, He delivers the righteous and He destroys the wicked.
In Genesis, we have seen God as Judge with Adam, Eve, the serpent, Cain, the people of Noah’s age, the people of Babel’s age, and now, with Lot and the people of Sodom.
As Judge, He declares that the people of Sodom are exceedingly wicked and sinful against Him – that their sin is very grave. Here, we are exposed to their violent homosexual desires. Ezekiel 16 reveals not only their abominations, but their pride, fullness, idleness, and injustice. God destroys Sodom.
As Judge, He declares Lot as righteous. God delivers Lot.
However, the people of Sodom left many marks upon Lot and his family.
(Eze 16:49-50; Jer 23:14; Isa 5:7; Ex 3:7, 22:21-23; Ps 146:8-9; Deut 16:18; Lev 18:22-24, 20:13, 23; Rom 1:26-27; 2 Pet 2:6-8; Jude 7)
Genesis 18:1-21 :: The Way
Reader:
Jesus of Nazareth declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
The Way.
Those who believe in Jesus are said to be, “of the Way.” Essentially, we are of Him – we are one with Him, we are in relationship with Him.
The Way is proclaimed to be the way of the LORD, the way of righteousness, the way of peace, the way of salvation, the way of escape, the way of truth, the way into the Holiest of All.
The LORD singled Abraham out to keep, and instruct his descendants to keep, the way of the LORD.
The way of the LORD demands loyalty, trust, obedience, and to look to the LORD’s provision in Jesus, the Way.
(John 14:4-6; Acts 9:2; Matt 3:3, 7:13-14, 10:5, 21:32; Luke 1:79; 1 Cor 10:13; Heb 9:8; 2 Pet 2:2; Rom 4:11; Gen 12:7, 15:6, 18:19, 22:14; Job 31; Ps 33:5)