Tattle Telling

Then she called the name of the Lord

who spoke to her,

“You are a God who sees.”

Genesis 16:13

When we read Genesis 16 we see that Hagar, now pregnant with Abram’s child, appears to have decided that she no longer has to take orders from Sarai. Sarai goes to Abram and blames him for the actions of Hagar. I can see Abram throwing his hands up in the air and telling Sarai to do whatever she feels she needs to do.

Sarai attempts to discipline Hagar, and Hagar rebels from Sarai’s authority and flees from Sarai’s presence. Hagar ends up by a spring in the wilderness, and then the angel of the Lord appears to her.

I love how God approaches her. He addresses her as “Hagar, Sarai’s maid,” (Genesis 16:8) reminding her that she was under the authority of Sarai.

Then He asks, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” (Genesis 16:8).

God knew where she had come from and where she was going, but He gave her the opportunity to talk to Him about it. God is the one who opened the door of communication. This has been His way from the beginning. In the garden, it was God who came to Adam and Eve and initiated the reconciliation.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” We go to see psychiatrists and counselors because we need someone to tell our hurts, to share our disappoints, someone to listen as we pour out our heart. Let us not forget that God is our “Wonderful Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6).

I went through a Beth Moore study, A Heart Like His (a wonderful study, by the way), and she spoke of us being able to go to God to “tell on” others. Do you remember when you were a child and you felt you had been treated unfairly by a sibling, a cousin, a friend? Where did you go, and what did you do? You most likely did as I did and went and found your momma and daddy and “told on” somebody.

It is okay for us to tattle to God. He doesn’t mind. As you can see with His approach to Hagar, He welcomes it; He seeks it. We come to Him like children. Yet after the telling, we, like mature adults, are to obey our Father.

Sometimes we realize we had a huge part in the situation, and we have to do our part to make it right, just as Hagar did. Hagar answered the angel of the Lord, and then he told her to go back and submit to Sarai’s authority. He then gave her prophecy concerning the child in her womb.

Hagar also introduces us to another name for our Creator, El Roi, which means God sees. Our God is a God who sees all. We cannot run from Him. We cannot hide. We can, however, trust that He sees all. He sees when we have been treated unjustly. He sees when we treat others unjust. He sees when we have been disobedient, and He sees when we have been hurt; nothing is hidden from His eyes.

Oh Father,

Even if no one else sees, You see. You see when we have been hurt or wronged. Nothing happens on the earth that Your eyes do not behold. How comforting that is to me! My God, I love You, and I am so thankful for Your omnipresence in my life. You are always with me.

You also know when I have overreacted and when I must apologize. Your Holy Spirit moves within me and leads me where I need to go and instructs me in what I need to do. You give me the strength to be strong, and you give me the strength to be humble.

Help me, Father, to be a woman of high esteem and integrity, a woman who does right even though no one sees, and a woman who is quick to right her wrongs.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Helping God?

So Sarai said to Abram,

“Now behold, the Lord has prevented me

from bearing children.

Please go in to my maid;

perhaps I will obtain children through her.”

And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Genesis 16:2

God had promised Abram descendants. Abram and Sarai had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years. They were both growing older and now were eighty-five and seventy-five years of age. I can understand their uncertainty, especially at this time in history.

I can see how Sarai might have felt as a failure to her husband, probably feeling that she was the problem, unable to conceive this promised descendant, but here is where she went wrong. Unfortunately, this is where a lot of us go wrong.

We let our feelings and our emotions override the promise that was given us by God. Sarai became impatient and decided that God needed a little help, and Abram, instead of reminding Sarai and himself of the reliability of God’s word, went along with Sarai’s suggestion of Abram conceiving with Hagar.

Hagar did conceive a son, but he was not, nor ever would be the son promised by God. When we step ahead of God and try to move forward in the power of our own flesh, we usually make matters worse. The consequences that come from our impatience rarely just affect us. They have the power to go on for generations to come.

From this point of Genesis 16:2 until today, consequences are still seen and experienced from this one choice. The impact of this is sobering. Our choices matter, not only to us, but to others, and possibly for years down the road. Our impatience—our allowing feelings and emotion to control us—can lead us down a path we may wish we didn’t have to travel.

Oh Father,

How often I have been impatient and tried to “help” You out. Each time I have reaped the consequences. How I pray that I would be stronger in my faith and that I would simply trust in You and in the power and certainty of Your Word. You have never let me down.

How easy it is to get caught up in the fear of uncertainty and to feel ignored when things are not moving at the speed at which I think they should be. Oh Father, forgive me for my lack of faith. Forgive me for not fully trusting in You. Forgive me for not being willing and able to trust in Your faithfulness. You are good, and everything You do is good. You are faithful, and I have no reason to ever doubt You. Strengthen me, my God, according to Your glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience (Colossians 1:11). You are my God and my king, and I trust in You.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Saved By Faith

“‘Do not fear, Abram,

I am a shield to you;

your reward shall be great.”

Abram said,

“O Lord God.”

Genesis 15:1–2

God is so good to us. Here He is revealing even more of Himself to Abram. God lets Abram know that He will be a shield to him, and Abram replies with “O Lord God.” Abram had come to recognize God as a God, and then he learned that He was the God, El Elyon, God Most High.

Now Abram calls Him Adonai Jehovah, his Master and God. Abram is finally before the Lord in total belief and submission that He is his God and Master, and Abram’s belief is reckoned to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). In the Hebrew the word believed is “aman,” and it means to render firm or faithful, to be true or certain.

Abram is saved by his faith in God, by his belief in His word. Abram has now put all his trust in the One he knows is faithful. Abram is justified by faith, and this salvation experience is recorded by God. It is recorded in His Word so that we may know that our relationship with our God comes through our faith in Him. In Romans 4:23–24 we read, “Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

In Genesis 12, God gave Abram a promise. When Abram had fully taken hold of that promise, God cut a covenant with him. This covenant is known as the Abrahamic Covenant. This covenant still stands today. It still holds true.

God made Himself the guarantee of this covenant. He passed through the pieces of flesh; Abram did not. This covenant was the gift of God and was God’s to keep. Before God passed through the pieces of flesh, He told Abram about the four hundred years his descendants would spend enslaved in a strange land, and He also told him that He, God, would bring them out. Isaiah 48:3 reads, “I declared the former things long ago and they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.” We know now on this side of history that God did exactly what He said He would, so we can trust that when God says something, He means it.

Oh Father,

You are an awesome God, totally trustworthy and in control. You are our faithful God. You know the beginning and the end. You determine our times and places. You raise up, and it is You who brings down. You alone are God, and You alone are worthy of all glory and honor and praise. Oh Father, what peace we have when we finally surrender to You in abandoned obedience and in complete confidence in Your sovereignty.

Oh Father, thank you for making the way of salvation by faith in You. If it were according to my deeds or according to my ability to keep Your command without fail, I know I would be forever lost from You. You have made it according to faith, according to my personal surrender to You. How I thank You. May I be able to say with truthfulness that You are my Master and my God.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.

El Elyon

And Melchizedek king of Salem

brought out bread and wine;

now he was a priest of God Most High.

Genesis 14:18

Here we learn a new name for God, El Elyon, or God Most High. Abram, maybe for the first time, meets someone who knows God. Have you ever been somewhere where you were the only believer in Jesus Christ? At work? At school? At home even?

Have you ever experienced the lies of Satan, those fiery darts, whispering in your ear, saying that you are a fool for following Christ? Whispering that what you experienced isn’t even real. This Jesus isn’t real. This salvation isn’t real. This promise isn’t real. Have you heard them?

After these moments of persecution and attack, how does it feel to step into the presence of other believers in Christ? Do they confirm to you that what you feel in your heart, in your mind, is indeed the truth? Can you imagine the joy and breath of fresh air that filled Abram as he stepped into the presence of Melchizedek?

Through Melchizedek, Abram learns that the one he calls Lord is the possessor of heaven and earth. Abram learns that it was God who delivered him from all his enemies. Abram meets Melchizedek, a theophany of Jesus Christ, his name meaning “king of righteousness.” This king of righteousness was king of a city named Salem. In Hebrew, the word salem means “peace.” Melchizedek was the king of righteousness who was the king of peace. Melchizedek was not only king; he was also the priest of Salem.

This Melchizedek brings Abram bread and wine. Jesus tells us in John 6:48 that He is the bread of life. At the Last Supper, Jesus lifted up bread and said that it represented His body (Matthew 26:26), His body that was given for our redemption. Melchizedek also brought out the wine, representing the blood of Jesus, the blood of the covenant (Matthew 26:28), which was poured out for the forgiveness of our sins.

Melchizedek then blessed Abram. As great as Abram was and is, there remained one greater, for the greater always blesses the lesser (Hebrews 7:7). Abram then paid tithes to this Melchizedek. Hebrews 7:3 speaks of Melchizedek and says he was “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.”

Jesus Christ is King of kings and He is our Eternal High Priest. He is “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7:17). Jesus Christ is not like the Son of God; He is the Son of God. Jesus does not just tell us about God Most High; “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3). What a beautiful picture of our coming Christ can be seen through this king and priest of Salem.

Oh Father,

You have never left us without a witness. You have been unfolding Your glorious plan throughout history. Unfolding Your mystery to mankind, never leaving us without a reminder of who You are, our great and awesome Creator, possessor of heaven and earth, our El Elyon. Oh Father, the longer that Abram walked with You, the more of Yourself You revealed to him. My Jesus, reveal Yourself to me. As Abram bowed before Melchizedek, this king and priest, I bow before You. You are the King of kings, and You are my High Priest. Blessed be You, my God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen.

Forever

The Lord said to Abram,

after Lot had separated from him,

“Now lift up your eyes

and look from the place where you are, northward and southward

and eastward and westward;

for all the land which you see,

I will give it to you

and to your descendants forever.”

Genesis 13:14–15

Abram was seventy-five years old when he and Sarai and Lot set out from Haran and went toward the land of Canaan. There was a famine in the land of Canaan, and so Abram set out for Egypt. On the way, Abram looked at Sarai, his at-least-sixty-five-year-old wife, and instructed her to tell everyone that she was his sister and not his wife; of course, we discover in Genesis 20:12 that she actually was his half sister.

Today this conversation would go more like, “Sarai, it’s really not a lie; technically you are my sister.” Even a “half-lie” is a lie and brings consequences in its telling. Abram feared that his wife’s beauty would lead to his death, so that Pharoah would be able to claim Sarai as his own.

Sarai obeyed, and Pharoah took her in as his bride.

Let’s just stop and pause here for a moment in our day of plastic surgery and Botox and rest in the fact that this sixty-five-year-old woman, plastic-surgery free, was desired by the greatest ruler of that day. Ladies, let us wake up and remember that true beauty comes from the inside out: “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

God, of course, was not going to allow this lie to go far because it was through Sarai that Abram was to have Isaac, the one through whom the promised seed of redemption would carry. God sent plagues, and Pharoah released Sarai, and Abram knew that he had disobeyed God and acted out of fear. But Abram didn’t run from God; he ran to Him.

In Genesis 13:4 we read that Abram went to “the place of the altar which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.” Abram went back to the altar he had built when he last called on the name of the Lord. There he sought forgiveness and direction.

Throughout their journeys, both Abram and Lot had increased in livestock and servants, and the time came for them to separate. Abram gave Lot the first choice and decided that he would take whatever was left. Abram had just experienced the sovereignty and provision of his God, so his faith had grown to know that God would give him all he needed, whatever the place might be.

Lot chose and headed off toward Sodom, and then God finally showed Abram the land that was to be his and his descendants’ forever. God waited until Lot was out of the picture before He revealed more of His promise to Abram.

In this revealing, He once again reminded Abram that he would have descendants; he would have a child. God also added the promise of forever. This land that God was giving to Abram would be his and his descendants’ forever.

Oh Father,

How many times have I made bad choices out of fear? Rash decisions usually come with serious consequences. How thankful I am that You love me unconditionally. How thankful I am that You are able to take my mistakes and turn them into something useful for Your glory. Oh Father, when I fail, when I am afraid, when I feel abandoned and alone, may I always run to You and not away from You. Father, when times come that lead to a separation from family and friends, may I be able to trust in Your sovereignty and know that You are in control. I see in Your Word that sometimes we have to be separated in order for You to bless us and bring us into spiritual maturity. However, we are never separated alone; we are separated unto You, and You are all we will ever need.

My Jesus, I love You, and it is in Your name that I pray,

Amen.

Author and Perfector

Now the Lord said to Abram,

Go forth from your country,

and from your relatives

and from your father’s house.

To the land which I will show you.

Genesis 12:1

From Adam to Noah we have nine generations, and from Shem to Abram we have nine generations. From father to son, the story of the garden, the story of the fall, the story of the flood, the story of the tower and the story of the redemption promise have been passed down.

Now God chooses an ordinary man, Abram, and separates him from all men on the earth. Abram was an idol worshiper in the land of the Chaldeans, a Gentile we might say; no one special in status or power. When God called him out, he would become a man forever changed. God’s call on people seems to have that effect.

God calls Abram out and tells him to leave his father’s house. God tells him that he will show him where to go. He tells him that He is going to make Abram’s name great and that he, Abram, will be a great nation and all other nations would be blessed through him.

Abram had done nothing to earn this call. It was a gift from God, a gift of God’s own choosing, set before Abram as an offer, as an opportunity. I am sure Abram had no clue as to the magnitude of this promise.

We know from the Scriptures that Abram took God at His word and that he set out as God had commanded … well, almost as He had commanded.

Abram set out with his immediate family in tow, but they only got as far as Haran. This was only the first of many mistakes that Abram would make on his journey, but God remained faithful to His word. God had given a promise way back in the garden, and here we really start to see the fulfillment of this promise set into motion.

Abram, a man set apart by the word of God. Abram, a man God would use to bring a nation into existence—a nation that God would set apart to display his glory. A nation set apart to carry the seed, the promised seed of Genesis 3:15. A nation that has made mistakes, that has forsaken her God, but even as Abram’s mistakes did not negate God’s faithfulness, neither has Israel’s.

We too are set apart by God’s Word and by his call. Jesus tells us that we did not choose Him but that He chose us (John 15:16) and that He appointed us to go and bear fruit. God appointed Abram to go. Abram went, even though he stumbled along the way.

We too stumble along the way. Sometimes we feel as though we will never catch our balance or walk on steady feet, but this I know: just as He never forsook Abram, He will never forsake us.

God never took back His promise; Abram’s mistakes did not ever negate God’s Word. God could have simply ended his life and started over with someone else, but our God finishes what He starts. The work that He began in him in the Ur of the Chaldeans, He carried out all the way into the Promised Land. May this truth give you hope and bring you peace.

Oh Father,

I know that You began a good work in me, and though I may stumble and fall along the way, You will finish what you started in me (Philippians 1:6). You will pick me up and dust me off when I fall and put me back on the correct path. Yes, most of those stumbles and falls will come with grave consequences, but You will even supply me the strength to move on with and through those consequences. My Father, as Abram stopped so often along the way to worship You and to call upon Your name, may I too never forget that my first priority is my total devotion to You. You are worthy of all my worship and praise!

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Rebels Without A Cause

They said,

“Come let us build for ourselves a city,

and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad

over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11:4

God had just recently destroyed the earth because of the wickedness of man’s heart, and here, only three generations after the flood, man again rose in rebellion to the Creator. God specifically told Noah and his three sons to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1), and now mankind refused to obey.

Those who built the tower of Babel had the same spirit of rebellion in them that was within Satan himself—the spirit, the attitude, that says “I will be my own God.” Can we ever really grasp the wickedness of our own hearts, the spirit of rebellion that lives within us?

I believe we do when we are in Christ. There was a time in my life when I said in my heart that I would be my own God. I would make my own choices, and I would make them with no regard as to how they affected others.

I said this in my heart while with my mouth I said I loved God. I honored God with my lips but my heart was far from him (Matthew 15:8). I never really saw the deep-rooted wickedness within me until I came to know my Savior. When I saw myself through His eyes, I finally understood how much I needed Him.

Still, every day I see more clearly how I could never measure up on my own. My sin was and is great. I still struggle with rebellion—rebellion against authority. I pray that I shall never shake my fist in the face of God again.

I have lifted my voice up to my Father, and I pray that He would remove me from this earth before I blasphemed His name (Romans 2:24) among the lost again. I know that there will be many times that I am slow to obey and will question my God because I am still in this flesh and in this world, but as for bold-face, open rebellion, I pray that by His grace, I never take that route again.

Oh Father,

I am so grateful for Your forgiveness. I am thankful that You chose me to be Yours. I am forever humbled by Your mercy and grace and Your love for me. Oh, how I worship You. You are all that I need. You are my everything. As the psalmist cried out, oh God, please do not take your word from me (Psalm 119:43). I would perish without it. How I hold on to Your promises. They are my strength. My Jesus, teach me to walk in Your ways and obey Your words. May I scatter when you say scatter. May I be fruitful and be a part of multiplying Your kingdom upon this earth.

My Jesus, I love You.

It is in Your name I pray,

Amen.