Worth the Cost

Sarah died in Kiriath-arba

(that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan;

and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah

and to weep for her.

Genesis 23:2

Abraham is seeking a burial place for his wife, Sarah. In his search, we see how those who walk with God and honor Him receive respect even from those who do not know Him as their God. In Abraham’s respect of God, Abraham respected other people. He kept himself humble before others and allowed God alone to exalt him. First Peter 5:5–6 declares, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”

Abraham did not think highly of himself because of his relationship with God, and he did not consider those who did not serve the Lord Most High as lesser than he. Oh church, let us not get too big for our britches.

Abraham refused to allow Ephron the Hittite to simply give him the land. He would pay the price of the land. I am reminded of David as he stood at the threshing floor of Araunah and said, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God which cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24).

How many in the church feel they are owed something? How many walk through the doors of the sanctuary with their lists of “I wants” and hold their years of service and their tithes given as a badge of entitlement? How many have this attitude that God now owes them something because they said yes to His free gift of salvation?

This gift is free to us because someone else paid the price. God was willing to give us His everything. We should also be willing to give Him our everything. We should have the same spirit in us that was in the church in Corinth when Paul wrote that they were “begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:4).

When was the last time you went to church and begged your pastor for the favor of participation somewhere in the church? When was the last time a person, a cause, or an organization touched your heart and you begged them for the favor of supporting them? When has your offering to God cost you something?

Abraham would not dishonor Sarah, the mother of nations, by burying her in a cave that cost him nothing. He would also take no chances in losing this precious place; it would be his by right. Abraham was a man who had learned that true love was shown through the sacrifice of one’s own self.

Jesus did not dishonor His bride. He bought her at a price. She was His by right. He demonstrated His love for His bride by the sacrifice of Himself. Let us also demonstrate our love for our Savior. “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).

Oh Father,

That I might humble myself before You and before others and allow you alone to do the exalting. That I might honor You in all that I do, think, and say. Today and forever, might I not consider myself as more highly than I ought, but know that it is only by Your amazing grace that I am able to stand. Might I respect all people and see them all through Your eyes, knowing that You died for all, just as You died for me. Help me to walk in a way that displays Your unconditional love and Your lack of partiality to all people. May I humble myself, that You might be exalted and draw the lost into Your saving grace.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Faith Isn't Faith Until It's Been Tested

Now it came about after these things,

that God tested Abraham.

Genesis 22:1

God does not tempt us, but He does test us. Faith is not faith until it has been tested, and Abraham’s day of testing has come. God calls out to Abraham and asks him to take Isaac, his only son, and offer him as a sacrifice to Him on Mt. Moriah.

How hard it must have been for Abraham to hear this command from his Lord—to go and sacrifice his promised son as a burnt offering to the Lord. I am sure for a moment it brought confusion to Abraham’s mind, but Abraham had learned who God was, and so he obeyed.

Abraham went up to Mt. Moriah to worship the Lord. We see Abraham’s faith when he turns to his young men and says, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). Abraham expected Isaac to return with him, and he declared it to be so.

He went to be obedient and to offer his son on the altar, as God had commanded. This was a huge step of faith for Abraham, but Abraham knew God had said that through Isaac he would become a great nation.

Hebrews 11:19 says that “he considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.” As Abraham had contemplated his own body when God said at the age of one hundred he would have a son, he now contemplates the resurrection of Isaac’s body because of the promise given to him by God.

Once again Abraham worships God through obedience to his word. Abraham doesn’t argue or delay. God honored Abraham’s obedience at the moment the knife was raised in total abandonment and full devotion to his God. An angel stayed the hand of Abraham, and a ram was provided for the sacrifice.

In Matthew 5:28 Jesus declares, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

With God it is always about the heart.

In Isaiah 29:13 God says, “This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.”

God doesn’t judge us by our outward actions, as man does; He judges our hearts.

Abraham did not have to physically sacrifice his son for God and have God prove He could raise Isaac from the dead. God knew Abraham already believed in his heart that He would raise Isaac from the dead. It is said that actions speak louder than words, but in God’s world, the heart speaks louder than both.

Oh Father,

True worship is about sacrifice and obedience; sacrifice of self—of my wants and my desires. Sacrifice of anything that comes between me and You. Sacrifice of anything I put before You in my life. True love only comes with the sacrifice of self. I can sacrifice all for You only because You first sacrificed all for me. I can live in complete obedience to You and Your Word because I can trust that You will keep Your word. You have proved Yourself to me countless times, just as You proved Yourself to Abraham. Thank You, my Father God, for being my God.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Everlasting God

Abraham planted

a tamarisk tree at Beersheba,

and there he called

on the name of the Lord,

the Everlasting God.

Genesis 21:33

We have learned so much about God just from the study of His names. Through His name God reveals to us His attributes. Let us take a close and detailed look at this name of God revealed to us by Abraham in Beersheba. Everlasting God is El Olam in Hebrew— El meaning “strength, mighty,” especially the almighty; Olam meaning “eternity, always, ancient, everlasting, perpetual, beginning of the world, and without end.”

The Lord the God of eternal strength. The God who is always mighty. The God who is perpetually powerful. The one who is the great, mighty one from the beginning of the world and is without end. Psalm 90:2 declares, “Before the mountains were born or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God”.

This is our God, the one who seeks us. “There was the true Light which coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him” (John 1:9–10). God has been calling out to man from the beginning. He has been calling out to all man.

He called out to Abram. He calls out to the world. He comes and he enlightens every man. Abraham responded to Him and called on the name of the Lord the Everlasting God.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree, an evergreen. These trees grow tall, and they are strong. They are able to tolerate conditions that destroy other trees. Their roots are able to reach deep into the soil and bring up the salt and water that is needed to sustain its life. By doing this, it is able to eliminate the competition of other plants in its area. It is spread from one place to another by cuttings.

God cut Abraham from his home and from his family. He also cut him from the false gods he worshiped. He, however, did not remove Abraham from the world or blind him to the temptations of this world. God did not have to because He knew that the deep-rooted life that He would give Abraham would destroy all competition of all other gods and any temptation he might face.

Abraham had learned so much about the One who called him out of the Ur of the Chaldeans. This unknown God who spoke to him and gave him this amazing promise of a seed, of a land, had fulfilled His promise. This God who had protected him and provided for him and walked with him every step of the way. This God who is the Everlasting God is the same God that calls us out of the world and into His glorious presence.

Abraham’s journey is recorded for us that we too might learn about this unknown God who sent His Son to die for us. This Son “whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” (Hebrews 1:2).

This God blessed us with His written Word that we might know and understand who He is and who we are in light of Him. May we never take for granted the opportunity we have to rest in the truths found in the names of our God revealed to us in the Scriptures.

God speaks through David in Psalm 69:36, and He says “The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will dwell in it.”

Do you love His name?

“Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised” (Psalm 113:2–3).

May we never forget that our God is the mighty one from before the beginning of time and He is without end. Oh, precious one, learn who He is, that you too might live and walk in Him.

Oh Father,

What a miracle to even be able to call upon Your name. To know that in You and through You and for You, I too am now without end. I am able to forever worship You and call on Your name; one day to even be able to stand with Abraham and worship You with him. My mind cannot even wrap around this truth. Everlasting God, may Your eternal life take deep root in me. May I be so satisfied in You that the desires of this world are destroyed for they cannot compete with You. You are the Creator of time itself and You are not bound by it. You are perpetual, ancient of days, great and good. You are my God, and I worship You.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

God Hears Our Cries

Do not fear, for God has heard …

then God opened her eyes

and she saw a well of water.

Genesis 21:17, 19

Hagar and Ishmael, who is now around the age of seventeen, have been sent away by Abraham. He sent them with food and water, but they used up their provisions before they found a new home. Hagar is now fearing for the life of her child. She leaves him under a bush and goes off to cry, for she cannot bear the sight of watching her son die of dehydration.

Hagar’s cries do not go unheard. The angel of God calls out to Hagar from heaven and says, “What is the matter with you, Hagar?” (Genesis 21:17). The angel tells her not to fear, and then he tells her that God is going to make a great nation out of Ishmael.

Another promise is given. Ishmael cannot die in the wilderness if God has promised to make a great nation from him. I think that Hagar believed this promise to be true and then God opened her eyes and she finally saw the well of water.

Once again we see in Scripture how God hears our cries. What peace we can have in knowing that we have a God who sees and a God who hears. He hears our cries, our laughter, our fears, and our praise. In Psalm 107, one of the key repeated phrases is “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses.”

A closer look at this psalm reveals to us that those in Psalm 107:1–9 called out for salvation because they were lost.

They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region;
They did not find a way to an inhabited city.
They were hungry and thirsty;
Their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
He delivered them out of their distresses.
He led them also by a straight way,
To go to an inhabited city.
Psalm 107:4-7

In Psalm 107:10–22, those who call out are calling out because they have found themselves in prison, in chains, at the very gates of death because of their own rebellious ways.

There were those who dwelt in darkness

and in the shadow of death,
Prisoners in misery and chains,
Because they had rebelled against the words of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble;
He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
And broke their bands apart.
Psalm 107:10-14

In Psalm 107:23–32, those who call out are calling out because they are overwhelmed by outward circumstances beyond their control.

Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters;
They have seen the works of the LORD,
And His wonders in the deep.
For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths;
Their soul melted away in their misery.
They reeled and staggered like a drunken man,
And were at their wits’ end.
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.
He caused the storm to be still,
So that the waves of the sea were hushed.

Psalm 107:23-29

In all three cries, God delivers them. Whether they were lost sinners crying out for salvation, whether they had lived in open rebellion and spurned the counsel of God, or whether they were in a mess due to no reason of their own, God heard their cries.

God alone can open our eyes. When we cry out, He opens our eyes to the way out, the way to redemption, the way to hope. He opens our eyes to His mercy, His grace, to the light at the end of the tunnel. As God opened Hagar’s eyes to see the well of water in the wilderness, so He opens our eyes to the Living Water, His Son, Jesus Christ.

Oh Father,

That I might drink continually from Your well. That You would keep my eyes open to Your will and to Your ways. . Oh Father, how thankful I am that when I cry You hear me. How humbled I am to know that I do not have to fear in any situation, for Your loving-kindness is great. Even when I have found myself in the bottom of a pit that I dug with my own hands, when I cry out to You in true repentance, You will hear me.

Oh Father, may You be glorified in me. Help me, my Jesus, to walk in Your light, for I have died, and it is not I who live, but You who live in me.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Obedience is Evidence of Faith

Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac

when he was eight days old,

as God had commanded him.

Genesis 21:4

Abraham and Sarah now have their promised son. Abraham is one hundred years old, and Sarah ninety years old. God showed Himself faithful. He showed His glory, His power, and His sovereignty over life. At the appointed time, Sarah conceived and bore Isaac (Genesis 21:2).

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.” God had appointed the time of birth of this promised son just as He appointed the time of birth of His promised Son. “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks” (Daniel 9:25). The birth of the Christ has never been hidden. God revealed His coming in the Hebrew Bible. His appointed time had been recorded in the Scriptures for any who would hear and believe.

How long the wait must have seemed. Along the way, Abraham and Sarah had tried on their own— in their own human strength and wisdom—to bring about this promised son. Likewise, man has been trying in his own human strength and wisdom to bring about the promised seed of Genesis 3:15. Man knows that he is broken. He also knows that there is more to life than what we presently see. We just have to look through the history of mankind to see this revealed.

Religion is man’s attempt to get to God. All around the globe peoples, tribes, and nations have formed their own religions and designed their own gods, trying in their own strength and wisdom to fix their hearts and the hearts of their fellow man; trying through the worship of gods that they formed with their own hands and imaginations to get to that place of approval and peace that they feel is out there somewhere. The promise, however, would not come through any ability of man, but through the word of God.

In his life, Abraham worshiped God through his obedience to the word of God. Abraham and Sarah worshiped God in giving Him the glory for the birth of their son Isaac. Abraham was a man who practiced immediate obedience to the commands of God. He was not perfect, and he made mistakes along the way; but when God said go, he went. He did not delay in his obedience. He did not pick and choose which commands were the important ones and follow as he saw fit. He acted when the command was given, with full devotion to the best of his faith.

Our obedience is evidence of our faith. Our obedience to the Word of God is an act of worship. Let us spend today in worship, and may we give God the glory for the birth of the promised Son, Jesus Christ.

Oh Father,

Total, immediate, cheerful obedience—this is what You desire. Your commands are not given lightly, nor are they to be taken lightly. Your commands are not burdensome. They are not to be ignored, and our obedience to them is not to be delayed. You are God Almighty. You desire and require our best. Oh Father, that I might honor You with my best, my total commitment, recklessly abandoned to You alone. Oh Father, Your Word is good, and I will obey because I love You and I trust You.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen

Sovereign Over Life

For the Lord had closed fast

all the wombs

of the household of Abimelech

because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Genesis 20:18

God had kept Abimelech from touching Sarah. In fact, God had physically made Abimelech unable to go into Sarah, and He had also closed fast all the wombs of all the women in his household. There would be no baby making until Sarah was restored to Abraham.

We have to remember the promise that was given to Abraham and Sarah two chapters ago: “At this time next year, Sarah will have a son” (Genesis 18:14). The son that Sarah was to have was to be conceived with Abraham, not Abimelech. What a mess this could have been, but God’s plans will not be thwarted. God’s will shall be done. He has the power and authority to assure it, and He uses it in this situation. 

God is the one who opens the womb, and He is the one who closes it. He is the one who gives man his strength, and He is also the one who removes it. He is sovereign and in control of all things. Oh Church, do you understand this? Let this truth run its course through your mind, through your heart, through your soul.

Rebekah, Rachel, Sarah, and Hannah did not run to man to conceive a child. They ran to God. Before you put yourself in the hands of man and his ways, I beseech you, run to your God. Trust in Him. Seek His will. Time after time I have seen faithful women and men of God draw their line at further treatment. I have seen them trust in God and even abandon themselves in peace that it may not be meant for them to conceive, and then I have known God to open their wombs and have held their children in my arms.

I have also witnessed God open up the door of adoption and have seen the pure joy of a mother and father as they held this precious gift in their arms with the same love as if this child had come from their own bodies. Our God is good.

Oh Father,

You are looking out for us. We are the sheep, and You are the Good Shepherd. Sheep wander and make mistakes out of fear and ignorance, yet their shepherd intervenes and sees them safely to pasture. Thank you, God, for being my Shepherd. Thank you for the peace I have in You; the peace that comes in knowing that You are sovereign. Oh Father, that I would always trust in that sovereignty in every area and aspect of my life.

My Jesus it is in Your name I pray,

Amen.

Ignorance Is Not An Excuse

Then God said to him in the dream,

“Yes, I know

that in the integrity of your heart

you have done this,

and I also kept you

from sinning against Me.”

Genesis 20:6

Once again, Abraham has his wife lie. They are in the Negev and come across Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abimelech takes Sarah in as his wife. This amazes me in itself and makes me smile; we have to remember that at this time, Sarah is about ninety years old.

Now God appears to Abimelech in a dream and lets him know that Sarah is a married woman and he has no right to her as his wife; God actually says, “You are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married” (Genesis 20:3). God holds the marriage covenant to a very high standard, even if we sometimes do not.

Abimelech immediately begins to explain to God that he didn’t know that she was married, and God assures Abimelech that He knows that. God knows the integrity of our hearts, and He can keep us from sinning against Him when our actions come from a heart that truly did not know it was in the wrong.

Does that bring you peace?

It does me.

God could have struck Abimelech then, but He didn’t. Once again we see God’s mercy displayed. Once again we see God opening the eyes of man to His standard and making His ways known. Once again we see God not acting in secret, but giving man an opportunity to repent.

We need to understand that once the truth is known, we must make a choice. God gives Abimelech a choice: return Sarah, and live; keep her, and die. Even though Abimelech’s sin was committed in ignorance, he still had to make it right. He still needed to repent before God and be obedient to what he had heard in order to be saved.

Repent and be saved—the same choice God gives us. Even if we feel that we have sinned against God in ignorance; even if we were raised in a country or in a home that worshiped false gods or never spoke of the One True God, once we have heard, once we have seen, once we know, we must choose.

You know about Jesus Christ.

Receive him, and live; refuse him, and die.

Oh Father,

How grateful I am that You know my heart. What peace I have in knowing that when my words are twisted and distorted, when my emotions are manipulated, when someone is searching for evil against me, You know the truth. As long as I know that You know

I am without blame, what anyone else feels or thinks is irrelevant. As long as I am true to the truth that I know, my heart is at peace and it is well with my soul. My Jesus, thank You for the cross! Thank You for being a God who judges by the intent of the heart. You see not as man sees, but You see the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Oh Father, may I make wise decisions when You have laid out the truth before me.

My Jesus, it is in your name I pray,

Amen.