Genesis 17

I love the “simple” tasks God gives us. He came before Abram when Abram was 99 years old and said, “I am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.” (Also the word perfect is in some translations) What does that mean? We know that Abram was not perfect, that none of us are perfect. We have to go back to Romans 4:3 “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  To be righteous in God’s eyes, we have to believe God. This chapter will be a covenant that God will give to Abram – but it is important to note that Abram was considered righteous BEFORE the covenant of circumcision. So it is not the act of circumcision that makes Abram righteous, it is not that work that does it, it is believing God.

God reminds Abram of the promise he has made, verse 2-8 That God will multiply him exceedingly. Now to this date, Abram has had one child, Ishmael, and will not have another for many years. God will do something that he does periodically in the Bible – changes a person’s name.

Genesis 17: 4-8 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and  your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be there God.”

What an incredible covenant! There are a few things to note here. Notice, God says, “I WILL” It is God who will do these things. Also note that God tells Abram I HAVE (past tense) made you a father of many nations. To the physical eye, one son the father of many nations doesn’t make. But God has spoken that this will come to pass, and it will – in God’s timing. Just because Abram doesn’t see it in the physical doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened in the spiritual.

God will do something he does many other times in the Bible – change a person’s name, and here we see an incredible name change. Abram which means exalted father, is being changed to Abraham which means “father of a multitude” or “chief of multitude”. Can you imagine Abraham going up to a stranger, having to introduce himself as Abraham, so the person asks how many children do you have, one by my maid. It is as if God is having Abraham speak the words, so that as he speaks his name, he is speaking into existence God’s promise to him. You have to realize the incredible faith that Abraham has, for until now, it has been many years since he has heard from God. God is teaching him to walk not by sight, but by faith and to hang onto his word.

For this Abrahamic covenant, It is God’s “I will” that will keep it, he knows humans cannot keep their promises. This promise covers Abraham and all of his seed – remember we are grafted into Abraham’s seed by our belief. And the time period for the covenant: EVERLASTING. How comforting that is, there is no expiration date. And the people will be given the land of Canaan. This promise has not yet been fully fulfilled.

Abraham and his seed, as their part of the covenant will circumcise every male child. This is to be done when the child is 8 days old. (Pastor Don has told us that at that particular time there is a blood chemical in the child that numbs the pain – it is the ideal time to do this rite). It is a covenant in the flesh. (Remember that Paul has a problem with the believing Jews in the New Testament who insist that Gentile believers must also circumcise themselves, but that is not necessary. Once Jesus came into our lives, instead of a body part circumcised, our hearts are circumcised, made tender and receptive to Jesus).

Not only does God change Abraham’s name, but he also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah which means princess. And he promises her a son – and she will be a MOTHER OF NATIONS, KINGS, OF PEOPLES SHALL BE FROM HER. verse 16.

Abraham laughs, it is not a disrespectful laugh, but one of delight as he says in verse 17, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old bear a child? It does seem impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Now, here comes part of Abraham’s heart – the fact that he considers Ishmael his first born, and has a great love for Ishmael. He decided to “help” God, and this has posed a problem, that will ultimately not go away. He says that he wished that Ishmael might live before God. (or in other words asks God to bless his mistake). God says in verse 18, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall begat twelve princes, and I will make him a great nations. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” God was blind to Abram’s deed in the flesh with Hagar, and focuses on the spirit with Sarah and Abraham. Ishmael is 13 at this time.

Remember that Hagar was considered Abram’s wife, but God reminds him that Sarah is his wife, and it is through her that God will establish his covenant. But there is some interesting facts here. Ishmael will be fruitful, and will have twelve princes – so he too will have twelve sons, like the twelve tribes of Israel. These tribes will ultimately strive with Israel. We also find out that in a year Sarah will birth Isaac  which means laughter – and we will see that laughter comes into this family, for Sarah will also laugh.

There is obedience here, for Sarah and Abraham had to act out in faith to produce a child. Also we will see how far reaching this rejuvenation is because Abraham will have other children after Isaac.

What is interesting is that in verse 23 we see that Abraham immediately circumcised the men, the very same day. Oh that we would be so obedient. I know that often I spent time thinking about, contemplating, and at times out and out avoiding obedience in some areas.

A few thoughts cross my mind, 13 years of silence, does not mean that God was inactive. In Beth Moore’s study, The Patriarchs she talks about the new name of Abraham. It is the sound “ha” which is a breath (also ha, ha, ha is how we represent laugh – but I am certain that is not biblical). And she said that if you think about Adam – God breathed life into him, so with the extra breath sound – God breathed life into Abraham’s dead flesh. She pointed out that when we accept Christ, God breaths life into us.

She also points out that other tribes also circumcised their members, but that for Abraham and his seed, this was a very personal reminder of the covenant. One that they would observe daily.

Beth says on page 43, “Before circumcision, Abraham was unable to produce anything except by human planning and manipulation. After circumcision, Abraham experienced the divine miracle.” For us, when we circumcise our heart, we become fruitful with the fruits of the spirit.

Beth also points out that Abraham needed to stop seeing Sarai as a hang up, so by changing her name to Sarah, God helps Abraham to see her as a How this would happen.

Can a covenant be EVERLASTING, if there is a way to break it? No, so when God wants to make sure we can’t break a covenant, he makes it without our participation. We know that God holds His word above Himself, and He does not lie, so if He makes a covenant it will stick.

There are various ways to walk with God, We can Walk BEFORE as here, we can walk AFTER – as a servant, We can walk WITH – like Enoch, or we can walk IN – as in union, walk in Christ.

I am hoping to keep up my walk with God, but sometimes there is a sense of adventure that is frightening for me.

Hoping your Saturday is going well. I have to go and pick up my kids from a birthday party. Have a blessed day.

Heather

 

Hearing God’s voice seems to have provoked a chord in yesterday’s post. It is sooo true that often after we hear His voice we doubt, the wait seems incredible, and we sometimes wonder what we are to do and what God is to do. I think that part of building the relationship with God is learning through trial and error until we get closer to the truth.

I want to thank you for sharing what you shared because it gives me hope, and in searching out the following passages, I found some information that helped me to see something I am dealing with in a different light. God is so awesome when He instigates it to touch a person’s heart.

Hearing God’s voice sort of reminds me of a joke that sometimes comes across my path about a person stranded on a deserted island praying for God’s assistance. A rowboat comes by – and the man says, no thanks, God will help. A helicopter comes by to the same response, and a few other interventions. The man dies and goes to heaven and asks God why he didn’t answer the man’s prayer – and God said, “I did, I sent the rowboat, the helicopter, etc.”

When are we acting in our own strength? When do we wait on God? When is God waiting on us to take a step in faith? These are tough questions we all face. Although we are not doing discipleship classes right now, I remember a few passages from the Discipleship Handbook written by Pastor Don Moore, that might be helpful.

Whenever someone has a word of prophesy for us, or when we have a message from God for ourselves or for others, Pastor Don teaches that we have to know how we received the message.

Page 99-100 in the Discipleship Manuel (Note the Capital “S” denotes Holy Spirit, the lowercase “s” denotes our inner spirits which hear from God.

Hearing the spirits and the Spirit
     God’s ideas are spelled out in the Bible and are revealed in our spirits. Nothing can replace prayer time and times of meditation. Learning to quietly sit and just think on the Lord helps us to differentiate between us speaking in our minds and the Spirit of God speaking to our spirit, which speaks to our minds. The disciple must know the voice of his Commanding Officer.
     1) Our spirit’s voice (inward voice or inside witness) is not loud or even    commanding in nature. Our spirit’s voice has authority and comes to us as completed thought, not usually a string of words. Often, as my mind is reeling through details, my spirit waits for a pause and eases in a message. Sometimes it’s a different subject or an answer to a prayer that was days old. Sometimes it registers as an idea from God that is bigger than my own thoughts.
     There are ideas, revelations, truths that register on our spirits at selective times. These are often called “Rhema words” – living, spoken words that burst forth onto our minds from our spirits. These happen in prayer, praise, worship, and reading the Bible, or in sermons or songs. They get our attention from the inside of our hearts. Sometimes it is just a “knowing.”

     *There are no premonitions, intuitions, or psychic events,
        but only spiritual episodes that are birthed in our spirits or by God
            and you know who else (demons).

   Throughout this next section please note: lower case “s” in spirit denotes the human spirit, while capital “S” in Spirit identifies the Spirit of God.
     “We are spirits that live in a body and have living souls,” as Brother Hagin so aptly puts it. Our inner man (spirit) speaks to us, so we need to develop our listening skills. The soul is our will, personality, intellectual mind and our emotions. The soul is earthly, carnal and opposes both the human spirit and the Holy Spirit. Our emotions and logical-intellectual mind must be trained to hear and accept the voice of the Spirit. The soul can only be spiritual when it is dominated by a spirit that is ‘in tune’ with God’s Word and His Voice. From God’s Word and God’s voice there comes messages.
     Becoming a renewed mind and a Spirit-filled believer is to become an inward spirit listener. The message may be new, old, profound or truly simple. Our spirits know way more than our souls. This is the part of man that is most easily in touch with the ‘spirit realm.’ In error we have called it the subconscious, the super-conscious, psychic, deeper-self, Christ consciousness, etc. It is the inner-man, the hidden man of the heart, the spirit, true self and man’s message center.
     Though the message is not loud, it has authority, a ring of truth that demands focus and gives comfort if we listen to our spirit. This is the human spirit acting upon the mind.
     2) When the Spirit of God (Voice of God) speaks. He can be more dramatic and speaks aloud to the whole being. This is rare and is a very special event, which we cannot cause to happen: a supernatural God interrupting our natural day or night activities. This may occur by God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit or an agent–an angel of the above. This voice is very audible to the human ear. Others may hear a sound or rumble but only those intended to hear will clearly know what was being said.
     For example, God speaking on Mt. Sinai and Mount of Transfiguration.
     3) The Godhead or agent may speak but the voice is not naturally audible, it is spiritual. This voice registers upon our mind and spirit at the same instant – very dramatic, authoritative, attention grabbing, then inspiring and peaceful. This voice is God speaking to the inner man and mind of man but not the ear of man.”And the voice of the Lord came to me saying…”
     4) God or His agent speaks or has spoken in our spirit, our spirit tells or retells the message to our mind. This is often by dreams, vision,  and revelations. The mind is being reminded of what the spirits have exchanged or talked about. It can be instantaneous or delayed, as during prophesy. Tongues, interpretations, preaching, teaching, healing or during any anointed time of ministry. The Spirit speaks and leads. Our spirit follows and the mind plays catch up.
    To summarize: 1) Man’s spirit speaks to man’s mind-this voice is our own spirit speaking to our own mind. If we are born again, filled with God’s Spirit, then our spirit has in it the Words of God and the thoughts of God. Therefore, we are regenerated and can trust what our spirit tells us. Also, we can and should allow this voice to dominate and lead us. Not the emotions (flesh) or our minds, but our spirit (the inner man). 2. God speaks to man audibly. 3) God speaks to man in his spirit and mind, and 4) God speaks to man’s spirit, which speaks to man’s mind.
     We must learn how to hear our spirit and yield our will to our reborn spirit. We use words like “feel, instinct, premonition, vibes, voices” – these are all wrong, for it is a present knowing of an inner thought that registers on the person and is interpreted n the mind and translated into a thought or sentence.
     Finally, God is God and can speak to us any time and any way He chooses. We can hear from our spirit’s voice any time if we take the time to listen.
     **”The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD,
            searching all the inward parts of the belly.” (Prov. 20:27)
               Have you heard from  your inner man lately?”

 

Page 149 of the Discipleship Manuel

Patience in Prayer

     Finally, we need to look at the two aspects of waiting on the Lord. The first is waiting on the Lord quietly, in prayer. The second is quietly waiting on the Lord in patience. The Word admonishes the Spirit filled believer to speak mysteries to God through prayer in Tongues, and we are encouraged to pray to the Father even though He knows what we need before we ask. Little is said about what to do to hear from God, so we have a picture of us speaking to God, but of Him ever-silent as He sits in a lofty place, far away. This picture is grossly wrong, for the Holy Spirit, which is God, comes to dwell inside us, as does the Spirit of Christ. We invite Jesus to come and live inside us and somehow forget that He did accept our invitation. I have learned that we must take the time during prayer to listen for God’s response to bubble up on our inside. Our listening must continue after prayer time is over, for God will answer, but He is not required to answer at the moment we ask, because He is eternal and outside of time. There are spiritual factors that determine the timing of when God will answer us. Therefore, we must find the time to quietly wait. This waiting must be with expectant hope and Faith that our loving Father will answer. It is difficult to discern the answer in the noise of life, so with so much going on, so we must draw away to private places whenever we can. Many people miss God because they wait for the answer to come from other sources outside of themselves. This work happens in the way discussed above – prophecy, Word of Knowledge, etc; but in quietness we must learn to appreciate the wonderful power of the still small voice and the Rhema word spoken in our heart. This voice and the Rhema word register upon the mind with quiet clarity and must be focused upon by the carnal mind and repeated in our thoughts, in order to be recognized from God.
     Finally, God speaks to us as the thought we are not thinking at the time, or the revelation that shows up unexpectedly. Patience is learning to have quietness on the inside as we go through life. Paul calls it the peace of God that passes understanding. David calls it waiting on the Lord as in Psalm 27. In Psalm 27 we are waiting on the Lord with active patience. Active patience means we are looking everywhere for God’s answer but we are not disturbed or panicked. We have the quiet assurity that God has answered, and in a moment or two we will find the answer. We are waiting but active with expectant hope, and are confidently at peace – turning over every rock with Faith that the blessing is under one of these rocks!
     We constantly remind ourselves to be at peace and joy, as God knows our situation and is working it out for the best. These are two forms of quietness: prayer and patience, which make the difference between walking in the flesh and walking by the Spirit.
           I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses,
           And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
          The Son of God discloses.
          And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
          And He tells me I am His own;
         And the joy we share as we tarry there,
         None other has ever known.
                                                  Written by C. Austin Miles

 

Genesis 16

Have you ever tried to help God? God shows you a plan and you try to make it happen in your own strength? I sure have. Pastor Don often teaches that sometimes God will show you a vision for your future, a prophesy, but that doesn’t mean that it will happen tomorrow. There are many instances in the Bible where a prophesy could take years and years. One such example is Abram and Sarai.

Now, what Abram and Sarai did was traditional in their time, where their handmaiden would give birth to a child, and that child would become Abram’s, but in this case, by trying to help God, the repercussions of this act are still with us today. What we fail to factor in when we try to “help” God is that God has a timing system that also has to be met. Reading the Prophets, the Pharisees could have predicted to the day and hour when Jesus would come through the gates riding on his donkey. Had one year been added or subtracted from events, the timing would have been off. The same thing is true about the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, the timing had to be exact. Also, by God waiting until there is no earthly chance of a dead womb to produce a child, God guaranteed that there would be no mistaking of the miracle of the birth.

Although Abram made a mistake here, we see that his successes and failures at faith will ultimately give him the strength that will take him to the culmination of his faith – the offering up of Isaac.

Remember that Hagar was brought back from Egypt – the world, sin, the flesh.

In Genesis 16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.

Sarai was operating under a misconception, that she would not bear children. In fact she won’t for quite some time have Isaac, so she thought to help God by suggesting that Abram impregnate Hagar. Where Abram missed it here is that he heeded the VOICE OF SARAI. In retrospect, I am certain he wished that he had first consulted God about this plan. I certainly can learn from this that no matter what people tell me, if I don’t consult God first, I may be setting myself up for missing God’s best for me. It is a hard lesson to learn.

Pastor Don once told us that we don’t have to learn everything from our own experiences, while experience is a great teacher, it would be far better to learn from the mistakes of others in the Bible, and not repeat them in our lives.

Sarai gave Hagar to her husband to be his wife – again, while multiple marriages were the norm in that culture, it was not God’s best, nor God’s plan that people would marry more than one wife. God’s idea was listed in the creation of Adam and Eve and emphasized by Jesus, that two would become one. He never said three or four or more become one – just two.

It is human nature, but verse 4 points out that once Hagar conceived, Hagar despised Sarai, puffed herself up and felt that she was better because she had a child. And, I wish I could say it wasn’t typical of me, but there are times that I have done what Sarai does. She came up with a suggestion that failed, and says to Abram:

Verse 5 “Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.”

Granted, Abram should not have gone into Hagar, even if his wife suggested it. But here he acts correctly when he listens to Sarai. Abram gives Sarai permission to do with Hagar what she would. So she dealt harshly with Hagar, and Hagar flees from Sarai’s presence.

Again Abram made a mistake I suspect we all do, he did not pause to pray and ask God’s advice about the situation, he just acted. Sometimes the expedient action isn’t the correct one, and sometimes an action leads to repercussions down the road.

Here is an interesting pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus in Verse 7 “Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness by the spring on the way to Shur.” Notice how He addresses Hagar, He doesn’t not say, Abram’s wife, He says, Verse 8 “Hagar, Sarai’s MAID, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She explains her situation, and the Angel of the LORD tells her to return to Sarai and submit to her. And he gives Hagar a promise that has come true, Verse 10 “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”

We can see that came true, for Hagar’s descendants are the Arab Nations.

Here is the prophesy in verses 11-12 “Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

We will see this prophesy about his hand being against every man, for many of Ishamael’s decendants will be those who give grief to the nation of Israel from that time until now.

This encounter of Hagar with the Lord sort of reminds me of a shepherd leaving the 99 sheep (Abram’s family), and going after the one. Hagar was doing something illegal – running away from her mistress, and yet the Lord reveals himself to her, and gives her a promise. She will choose to obey him and go back to her mistress.

One thing that we will see often in the Scriptures is that when a person has an encounter with God, God reveals a part of his nature to them, and Hagar in Verse 13 tells God, “YOU ARE THE GOD WHO SEES. EL ROI in Hebrew. This encounter takes place at a well that will be called Beer Lahai Roi (The well of him who sees or the well of the vision of life). It is between Kadesh and Bered. Kadesh means holy and Bered means hail.

In a way, you could say that this is the first “Woman at the Well.” For the woman at the well was a Samaritan, so the Jews would have given her a wide berth, as they would have a woman from Egypt. The Lord instructs her, gives her the Word of God, and she acts on it.

Hagar bears a son and obeys God, calling him Ishmael. Abram is now 86 years old. We will see that he loves Ishmael, and considers him the first born son, but we will also see that God has other ideas.

I will continue on tomorrow. If I am inconsistent in getting on the computer it is because there is a major computer situation that Jim is dealing with, so my time may be limited.

I am hoping this finds you all well. Tomorrow my son is hosting a “back of the bus” party for 15 of his friends (the number keeps growing). I suspect I will be very busy, but it will be fun for him. Hoping it doesn’t rain and praying that it is a fun-loving, peaceful party.

Heather

 

Genesis Chapter 15

Wouldn’t it be great if, after you make a right decision, after you ascend to the mountaintop as Abram did with his experience with Melchizedek, if you could just kick up your heels and stay there? Unfortunately, often after the mountain, we end up in the valley. I often think that those that I admire for their spirituality are constantly spiritual, but I suspect that we all have our valleys.

But first Abram, because he chose to honor Melchizedek, and kept his promise in obedience to God to take nothing from Sodom, Abram must have had some doubts, and God came to him and gave him encouragement. This is the first time “do not be afraid” shows up in the Bible, and we will find out that many, many times God will remind man not to be afraid. And this verse reminds me about the 91st Psalm.

Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Abram, seeing the years pass by asks God a valid question, but does not accuse God of not keeping his promises. God does not mind honest questions. Abram asks God in verses 2-3, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascas? Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”

In those days, servants were like members of the family. Exodus 21:6 talks about how a servant, at the end of his term, if he wishes can remain with the family by presenting his ear to the doorpost, and a nail is driven through. That servant is then part of the family. Eliezer, who will be the one to find the wife for Isaac, only then he will be listed in Genesis 24 as the oldest servant in the house – but it is Eliezer.

Now here is the cool thing: Eliezer  means God the comforter. El is the preface for “God”. and the second half of the name is to succor, comfort. This sounds remarkably like the Holy Spirit to me, and I wonder if Eliezer isn’t an earthly picture of the Holy Spirit. And the being nameless when he goes to find a wife for Isaac is kind of like the picture of the Holy Spirit – who speaks only of God not of himself, is a servant, and the Holy Spirit’s goal is to find a bride for Christ, which is why he goes into the wilderness to seek us out.

Back to Genesis 15, given his childless state and age, it seems to the physical senses like that is impossible. In fact, often in the Bible we see God working that way, against impossible odds. This way it is not something man can do, and God gets the credit due Him.

Again, Abram will choose to believe God, as it is shown in Genesis 4:6  says, and God will count that as righteousness. This is the Abrahamic covenant, and it was before the law. Abram did not have to do anything to be accounted as righteous. Genesis 15 4-6 God promises Abram that the heir will come out of his loins. Then God brings him outside and says, verse 5, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendents be.” Then the famous verse that the whole chapter hinges on, in my opinion. verse 6 “And he believed in the LORD, and HE accounted it to him for righteousness.”

I love little prepositions, notice he believed IN the LORD, and when we are saved we are IN CHRIST. It is only IN the LORD, and IN CHRIST that we are righteous. When we are IN our own wills, our own ideas, our own plans, we are unrighteous. So, are you IN or OUT. To be frank, I am sometimes in and sometimes out. My goal is to be in more and more each day.

I have heard a teaching on this passage about the stars that I am still considering, not sure, having to do with the constellations and how they show the gospel in their configuration. For example Virgo, the virgin (Mary), etc. And that this comment about the stars is in reference to reading the gospel message through them. I am not certain. I do know that God uses dust and stars – and we know that there are an infinite amount, unable to be counted.

Abram then asks God in verse 8, note it is not are you sure I shall inherit, but “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?

In my past, when I was still sorting out God, I would question His promises, assume that they were for others, not for me. I would want to see the outcome first, then believe. But that is not God’s plan, it is faith first, then in God’s timing (which often in my opinion is very long in the future), the outcome. But I used to often ask God “Why” and a wise person told me that I should change my question from “Why” to “How” How is a submission question, and leaves the way open for God to illuminate your path. (Those who do not know my past can check out my testimony).

Here is what is termed: THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

The first Covenant was the covenant that God made with Noah, with the rainbow, and promised that no more would he flood the earth. God did not exact a promise from Noah, it was a covenant that was solely from God – and in the same way, we will see that Abraham will be out cold when God cuts the covenant – it is a promise from God, Abram did not require a human response.

God instructed Abram to get a three-year old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. I find it interesting that Jesus was presented to the temple with turtle doves – but all of the above animals were those used in temple sacrifices. Although the sacrifices were usually yearlings – the large animals are all three years old. I wonder why. Could it be three days in the tomb? Jesus’ three year ministry? the trinity? there are a number of reasons, but the age surprised me.

Abram cuts the animal in half – putting one half on one side, one half on the other, leaving a path for walking through. This was called cutting covenant. The people would split the animals and walk through together to seal the bond. It was a serious and binding covenant. But notice what happens.

All day Abram sat waiting for God to cut covenant with him. Abram kept scaring away the birds, the vultures that came down on the carcasses. Isn’t that like with us, we have a promise of God and the vultures come trying to steal the promise. They tear at what was once dead, feasting on what we have been given. Abram fought these vultures off, and finally became exhausted, and as verse 12 states, “a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.”

Remember, how Adam had a deep sleep fall on him before Eve was created? Well, here a new way of walking with God, the walk of faith and belief, will be cut. It is cut by God, not by Abram. Abram is asleep, as we shall see when God walks through.

I am curious about the horror and great darkness. Does anyone have an idea of why that? unless it is that without God there is really no light.

Then God gives a prophesy to Abram that we will see come true. Here are the elements of the prophesy.

1. Abram’s descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. (Egypt)
2. They will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years. (Egypt)
3. God will judge that nation. (the various plagues)
4. Afterward they will come out with great possessions. (Moses and the Israelites were given gold, silver, and precious stones before they began the Exodus – really payment for their 400 years of slavery.)
5. Abram will go to sleep (die) at a good old age.
6. In the fourth generation they will return here – to the land – Exodus 6:16-20 shows that it was four generations.

First mentions, blood, word of the Lord came unto, vision, fear not, shield, believed, accounted, righteous, Adonai Jehovah.

Now, when the sun went down (which in Israelite timing was the beginning of a new day), God passed through (while Abram was sleeping), and he walked through and cut the covenant. He went through as:

1. a smoking oven – God’s wrath
2. a burning torch – God’s light and life

Listen to the extent of the land, from the river of Egypt (the Nile) to the Euphrates. and a whole list of ites – Kenites, Kenezites, etc. Israel does not hold all the land promised to them by God to this day.

But, because God said it, it will come to pass.

It is incredible to me, that just as with the gift of salvation, it is God who does the hard work. We accept the gift, believe, and then God graciously changes us to conform more with Him. What an awesome God we serve.

Hoping your day is blessed.

Heather

 Kelly challenged me to list five things no one knows about me. I am not going to tag anyone, but if you feel so challenged to list five things about yourself it could be fun. Here are mine.

1. I love old RKO movies, have since I was a child. Every Saturday afternoon I would find myself glued to the TV – and it was all black and white movies. I still find black and white movies fun. Give me a good Fred Astaire movie, or the Thin Man, or Charlie Chan, etc. and I am thrilled.

2. When I lived in Chicago I was a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism, a group of people who studied Medieval History, dressing up in the costumes (no zippers, they had to be accurately made), and they would have wonderful feasts of medieval food. I belonged to the Dark Horde – the Mongol group of people headed by Yang the Nauseating – he used to be a chief accountant for a big company, and was also a science fiction author. We had fun, and used to go in costume to watch Samurai flicks, and then go and eat out at a Japanese restaurant in costume. Loved watching the looks on people’s faces. The people in the SCA were so involved that some made chain mail from scratch. That stuff is heavy and one of my fondest memories is when there was a local Chicago event, and a friend of ours brought his suit of mail, but had to go by the office first. He could not carry it, so he wore his suit of armor on the Elevated Train during rush hour carrying his briefcase. People were looking out the windows, looking at each other, reading – anything but looking at the one in the suit of armor.

3. Ever since I used to read Trixie Belden mysteries, I wanted to live in a house with a secret room. I used to feel the walls of my childhood home looking for a room to hide in. Never found one, but if I could ever build a house, I sure would put a secret room in it.

4. On Long Island I lived in a house that had a hidey hole (secret room) behind the sink for the Underground Railroad. On the floor near the front door were faint symbols that showed that this was a safe house. the house was so old that the basement had a tree trunk as part of the support for the upstairs floor.

5. I belonged to the Man From U.N.C.L.E fan club. That was my ultimate TV show when I was a teen. I thought David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin was awesome. Still like him.

Back to Genesis – You know, I spent about two years in a Kay Arthur study of Revelation, and it is amazing to me how much of what is in Revelation really started in Genesis. Sometimes I think Genesis is a lot harder then Revelation, so much to think about.

Differences between Abraham (A) and Lot (L)

A – walked by faith   L – walked by sight
A – generous, waived rights to land   L – greedy, picked best land
A – looked for city whose builder & maker was God L- chose man made city
A – Father of all who believe
A – Many Heirs and offspring inherit from him L – possessions destroyed in Sodom ended up living in a cave.

Well, here are some thoughts on Chapter 14. Looking up the meaning of the names does not seem to be so fruitful for verses 1-3 which name a large number of kings, who wage war. It seems to be a confusion of five kings against four kings. Four kings from the north (Shemites) and five kings from the south (Hamites) – recognize Noah’s other sons.

There is a whole battle plan of the kings. Ultimately in the valley of Siddim which was full of asphalt (slime) – the same substance that lined the ark, and the basket of Moses, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. Kind of shows you how a life of sin does not keep you ready for battle – either physical or spiritual. But they took Abram’s nephew, Lot, all the possessions and departed.

Abram hears about this and musters an army – 318 trained servants. This is some indication of how wealthy Abram is – and also how prepared he was. These servants were trained in battle, and the went in pursuit of the army to Dan – that is a march of 120 miles, so not only were they trained, but they were well taken care of and strong. One interesting point is that Abram, a man of faith, still kept a trained army. Perhaps we need to realize that we can have faith, but still be prepared.

Here is the first example of gorilla warfare. At night Abram  divides the servants and attacks and pursues Lot’s attackers. He brings back all the goods, his brother Lot, and the women and people. There are a couple of firsts in this passage, Genesis 14:1-17, this is the first time war is mentioned. and also, and in verse 15, the first time “Hebrew” is used in relation to Abram and his descendants. Hebrew means, one who crossed over.

Now comes an exciting part of the scripture, a character who is so obscure, and so enticing. I remember my first reading of the Bible trying to find out more about him – Melchizedek. We will see a contrast between two kings – the king of Sodom and Melchizedek. I am glad that Abram chose to honor Melchizedek, not the king of Sodom.

Melchizedek means King of Righteousness, his other name is King of Salem (which means peace), and he is called the Priest of God Most High. It is important to know that he is a priest of God before the Levitical priesthood was formed. He was before Aaron.

In checking Strongs I saw that the name Melchizedek comes from the root Melek – which means king, and Tsedeq - which means righteous, just, deliverance, victory, prosperity, and messianic king.

Notice what Melchizedek offers Abram, bread and wine (the components of communion) and with these he blessed Abram. Abram also tithed to Melchizedek – he knew who should be honored. Melchizedek is a gentile king and a priest – in the future no other king would hold the role of king and priest until Jesus.

In Psalm 110, David speaks of the Messiah as, in verse 4: The Lord has sworn and will not relent, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

This means that Jesus comes from a line that is far greater than the line of Levites. The Levites are under Him, for He comes from a line that is older. Hebrews 7 gives us more facts about Melchizedek.
*He met Abraham after the SLAUGHTER of the kings and blessed him.
*He was without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. This shows that he is most probably not a pre-incarnate visit of Jesus, but a distinct person.
*Abraham tithed to him.
*A case is made that he is greater than the sons of Levi, who have the priesthood and receive tithes from people according to the law, but they came from the loins of Abraham. But Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek who was not a descendant. And because Levi is a descendant of Abraham, by Jewish thinking, even Levi paid -through Abraham – tithes to Melchizedek.

Then Hebrews goes on to say that if perfection could be attained by the Levitical priesthood (and it wasn’t), then there would have been no need for Jesus to be born, Jesus who is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not the order of Aaron.

Now something that escaped my attention is that, according to Hebrews 7:14 “For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood.” Again, the Holy Spirit made me think of the Tabernacle (which is a great picture of Jesus if you look at the symbolism), and I checked in Numbers Chapter 2 to see where the tribe of Judah camped around the tent of the tabernacle. They camped in the East – which is the direction that Jesus will approach on his second coming. If you draw out the 12 tribes and put them around the points of the compass where they camped, for example on the east Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon camp – and put the numbers from the census for the tribes. you will find that on the east side is 186,400 people camped, on the north 157,000, on the south 151,500, and on the north 108,000. Those North – South are the arms of the cross, the base is the east and the smaller top portion of the cross is the west. Even how the tribes camped around the tabernacle form the cross, with the Holy of Holies being the center. I find that awesome – it is also what Balaam saw when he overlooked the camp from the mountain. God is an awesome God.

So a covenant that comes from Jesus is a better covenant than one that comes through the Levitical order, because Jesus has a continual and unchangeable priesthood. The Levitical priests had to sacrifice to make themselves pure to offer sacrifice to God. Jesus knew no sin and did not have to sacrifice to purify himself – he was the pure sacrifice. No Levitical priest could claim what Jesus could claim. Hebrews 7:26-28  For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.

I love the consistency of the Bible, if you look up the words Righteous and Peace. You will find that in a list of attributes the word “righteous” appears always before “peace.” See, in order to have true peace, we need to have a righteous life. Anything less will put stumbling blocks in our path towards peace. Now how do we get righteousness. There are two ways. Plan 1. Be perfect, never sin, flawless perfection for all one’s life (impossible). or Plan 2, righteousness through faith, covered by the blood of Jesus.

Contrast that to another king – the king of Sodom, who comes out to meet Abram. This king says to Abram – Genesis 14:21-24 Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons and take the goods for yourself. But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’–except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me; Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”

The king of Sodom wants people (souls), and offers material goods to Abram. Melchizedek offered spiritual sustenance to Abram – a far better gift for one who is looking for a city whose foundation is God.

I only want to focus on the first three words of chapter 15, “After these things….” After Abram made his choice between the kings, then God came to Abram in a vision. If you look at Revelation, you see the same term in Chapter 4 – after the church age – after these things…then John is in the throne room of heaven. Oh that we listen to God, but often He will not speak until we act righteously. A loving father cannot reward wrongful acts. I keep praying that my path keeps in the path God set for me.

Hoping you have a blessed day.

Heather.

 

Good Morning – Weather report today: one teen dark and stormy, one teen neutral, other teen uncertain, he is still asleep. Sigh. I am public enemy number 1 because I insisted my daughter attend her 8th grade graduation. It doesn’t matter that my husband also insisted, I am the enemy. I am praying for peace.

I have a question for you. We seem to be on the Jehovah Witness hit list, and people are coming frequently to our house. My husband is polite, takes their literature, listens and then they leave. I have also at times been there, been polite, listened, asked questions, then pointed out to them that I am born again, that I do not agree with their understanding of Jesus and the Bible, that they are wasting their time trying to convert us. But they seem to think that my husband is a prime target, but he is Catholic and does not agree with them either.

Well, last time they brought in the heavy guns. We used to have a woman and her trainees. Now we seem to have attracted a man with the woman and the man I suspect is a pastor/elder or whatever they call their higher ups. He gave me two Bible passages. I was talking with him about how I have a personal relationship with Jesus, that since I have had Jesus in my life things are so much better. I pointed out that my main disagreement with Jehovah Witnesses is that they do not believe that Jesus is God – I pointed out the difference in our Bibles regarding John 1:1. Well he gave me two passages, 1 Corintians 15:20-28, and 1 Cor. 11:3, these talk about the body of Christ, with Christ being the head, under God. I am trying to figure out how best to show that that does not imply that Christ is not God when he comes back (he came back two days later but we were heading out the door and Jim couldn’t talk with him). I thought of Revelation 22:13 that shows that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. Then I thought about asking him if he was married-he is a husband; does he have a child – he is a father; is he a pastor/elder or what kind of employee he is. And then point out that when he is acting as a husband that does not negate that he is also a father and pastor. That God can be Jesus, Holy Spirit, and God, and it is the same God.

Do you have any ideas of how to respond in love to them? Obviously telling them point blank that they are wasting their time trying to convert us isn’t working. My husband does not want to point blank tell them not to come. So I keep praying for them, but I feel sort of inadequate dealing with them. Maybe the reason they keep coming back when it is apparent that it is futile is that the Holy Spirit is trying to plant some truth into their philosophy. But I suspect that they think that they can make an inroad into our house through Jim – but I suspect that will not happen because Jim does know that Jesus is God. They have their own mindset regarding the Bible, so I suspect my questions and thoughts may not even be listened to. I also invited them to Living Word Chapel’s Bible study and she says that she is uncomfortable around Pastor Don, hmmmm wonder why. Any help is really appreciated.

Later today I will try to add more about my Genesis reading. I am finding that I like Abram/Abraham so much because he gives me hope when I make a mistake in my life, that God can still use me inspite of myself.

Heather

This is a continuation of yesterday’s study, Genesis 12 & 13. We left off with Abram finally in Canaan, camping between Ai and Bethel

Genesis 12 Verse 8 tells us. And he moved from there to the mountains east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Now AI means – heap of ruins (AI was on the east)
         BETHEL – means House of God.

Yesterday the Holy Spirit reminded me, that the Holy of Holies in the Temple was toward the West, and the door to the Temple was toward the East. So, when we enter the temple from our Ai’s we leave the heap of ruins and move toward the Holy of Holies in the West – which is the House of God. Abram was still sort of straddling, between the two, but I find it so interesting that the Temple layout is sort of hinted at here.

It seems that God has been testing Abram. The first test was the fervor of Abram. Would Abram get up and leave his country and family. He passed but just barely this test because, while he left his home, he brought along his father and Lot.

Now we come up to the second test that God gave Abram – and he didn’t do too well in this test, in fact, the failure in this test still has repercussions for today. The test was how much did Abram rely on God. At this point in his life, Abram did not do so well, but later he will learn from this lesson and score 100.

The test: Famine. Genesis 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there for the famine was severe in the land.

He did not trust God to provide food for him in a land suffering from famine, so he goes south to Egypt. Often in the Bible Egypt is a synonym for sin, and it is in Egypt that Sarai will acquire a handmaid named Hagar, which will profoundly affect history.

I think that when times are tough for me, I too often seek out an Egypt solution for my problems. It seems like I need to “do” something, grasp at straws. While God does not want us to idly wait for people to help us, He does like us to consult Him first about what we should do.

Abram also did not trust God to protect him while he was in Egypt, and had Sarai lie and say that she was Abram’s sister. Now a woman who is over 70 years old must be very beautiful if she is attracting the eye of Pharaoh. She was taken to Pharaoh’s house, but God protected her in her obedience to her husband. Genesis 12:17 “But the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife?”

God must have revealed to Pharaoh that Sarai was Abram’s wife. Why did God plague Pharaoh, not Sarai and Abram, for this deception? God had to do this because Sarai was to birth Isaac, and Isaac was part of the Messianic line – Sarai’s womb could not have been polluted by a pagan Pharaoh. Yet, because of Sarai, Abram was treated well – coming away with sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels. After Pharaoh discovered the deception, he sent Abram away with all that Abram and his wife had.

It seems, on the surface,  that Abram did very well with this deception, and in fact he will use the lie again in similar circumstances, and get rebuked for it. The problem is, this detour of his netted nothing productive. A person does not sin against God alone (miss the mark), Lot also came down to Egypt with Abram, and Lot too received lots of possessions. Instead of relying on God, Lot will choose the easy, quick way to success, choosing to reside in a city (but that is for later). And of course one of Sarai’s handmaidens was Hagar – who will later birth Ismael. Abram’s well-intentioned move to Egypt to flee famine will have many negative repercussions. But before I can point a finger at Abram, I have to look at myself and see how often I have fled to Egypt to save myself from an uncomfortable situation. It is so easy to get caught up in appearances instead of relying fully on God.

By the way, Abram was not exactly lying about Sarai being his sister. Genesis 20:12 But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. She was his 1/2 sister. It is a half-truth, but another name for half-truth is lie.

Well, Abram gathers Sarai, Lot, and his many possessions and servants and moves on up (north) and guess where he lands.

Genesis 13:3-4 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.

Right back where he started. This reminds me of a funny CD by Anna Russell, who tells the stories of many of the Operas, explaining them, but in a way that has you rolling on the floor laughing. This is the closing line of her description of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, that after so many hours, they end up back where they started.

In an opera comedian’s CD that is funny, but really it is sad, for the time that Abram spent in Egypt was wasted. Anytime we take a detour in our lives to Egypt, we waste time. And I am, with my age, learning that there is precious little time to waste. It still saddens me that I spent 40 years in an Egypt. But God was gracious and brought me back to Bethel in spite of myself.

When we look at our lives and realize that we are in Egypt, we sometimes have to return to where we lost the mark, where we last camped with God, and seek God there. Letting Him direct our steps. God will patiently wait for us to come back to where we are supposed to be.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes it is easier to receive the call from God and act on it than it is to stay where God wants you to be once you get there?  The excitement of the adventure of getting to where you are called is fun. The day-to-day grind of living out that call is tough. It is tempting to move, but if God is not in the move, it is easy to get lost. I have to learn to stay in Canaan, not to stray.

It is also interesting that some things that people will consider a blessing (all the goods and servants that Abram brought back from Egypt) are not a blessing for others. God knows what we need, and it does not always correspond to what we want, or to what the world deems is necessary.

All those possessions that were brought back from Egypt caused strife in Canaan.

Genesis 13:6 Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Cannanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.

Well this is God’s Test Number 3, how would Abram deal with Lot. Abram passes with flying colors – showing humility and trust in God’s provision. But notice – the strife occurred because of the abundance of livestock-where did they get the livestock? Egypt. So that detour of Abram to Egypt still had repercussions even though Abram was back in Canaan. Often, while we get right with God, we still have consequences that we have to deal with because of our straying from God’s plan for us.

Abram has been building a lot of spiritual muscles. He has 1. Listened and obeyed the call of God, 2. Learned that in trials it is God’s faithfulness we need, not leaving for Egypt. 3. That you have to beware of Egypt in your life, that it will just cause you problems, sometimes far reaching. 4. Faith is not a single journey to a place, but it is a continual relationship with God. and 5. You don’t sin alone. Sarai brought back Hagar, and Lot brought back a taste for possessions.

I was not certain about the line Canaanites and Perizzites – Canaannites seem to dwell in land, Perizzites belong to a village but beyond that I don’t know. Sometimes God puts a line in that is puzzling – I suspect there is depth of knowledge there, but I haven’t found it out. One thought that crossed my mind is that those people in the land were witnesses to Abram’s and Lot’s conflict. They would observe that outward behavior, and maybe draw false conclusions about God. Our actions with each other do impact non-Christians, and it is good to keep in mind that even when you don’t realize it, people are watching how a Christian would deal with a troubling situation.

What blesses me is how God uses this strife between Lot and Abram to effect His purpose. I don’t like strife personally, and we are to learn to live peaceably, but this is a good example of what satan meant for evil, God turns to good. Remember, God’s original instruction to Abram was to leave family and home, and go where God wants him to go. Abram brought along his father and Lot. Well Lot will now make an exit. This strife will cause Lot to go one way (in more ways than one), and Abram to go the other. FINALLY, Abram is in full obedience of the first directive of God. Now He can take the next step. Here is where Abram’s humility and trust in God’s provision kick in.

Genesis 13:8-9 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen: for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

Here is where the conditioning of Egypt kicks in for Lot. Genesis 13:10-13 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.

We will later see that Lot sits at the gate in Sodom, and will have to be rescued from there before a massive destruction. Notice – Lot saw the easy, watered land with cities. And chose to go there. He moved EAST – remember east is the way towards the heap of ruins (exactly what Sodom would become). Notice that Lot’s criteria for picking was also that it was like the land of Egypt.

SODOM means Burning
GOMORRAH means submersion
ZOAR means insignificance.

Oh, Lot is going to Zoar for sure, because his line of descendents will end up in insignificance. He really bought the deception of Egypt, and will end up suffering for it. Perhaps that is why God wanted Abram to leave Lot and move to Canaan. Perhaps it was because Lot had this materialistic bent, but it could also have been to protect Lot from Egypt. It always amazes me how much God has things in control. He guides things to the correct outcome, in spite of our choices. I just wish I could learn to trust Him more and make the right choices, instead of landing in Egypt so much.

Notice, God then will speak to Abram after Lot splits.  Sometimes God cannot show us things until certain unsavory circumstances are out of our life, sometimes the vision or thought is for us alone. Even Jesus spoke in parables that He later explained to the disciples, but many were not aware of what Jesus was teaching.

Genesis 13:14-18 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are –northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise and walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.

MAMRE means vision, strength, fatness, an oak grove, vigor
HEBRON means association, communion.

And what was the thing that Abram built, an altar. He will leave the surface of the land populated with altars. Now, Abram was to travel and walk the land, claiming it for him and his descendants. So often God gives us land (spiritual land and physical ministries) but we don’t fully walk them. We plop ourselves down in a spot instead of moving out and claiming the whole of what God has for us. I also think that right now there is such a push on Israel to give up the land to Palestine – this is not God’s plan. I don’t think Israel ever fully claimed the land that God gave them, and they certainly did not obey God in destroying all the opposition – and today that has come back to haunt them.

I have to give Abram and Sari kudos for their faith and trust in God. It must be hard to visualize descendents as much as the dust on the earth when you are old and  your wife is barren. To his credit, Abram did lead a nomad’s existence, but even in that there are still many lessons for him and us to learn from his experiences.

God will lead him to wander the land and in that wandering He will refine Abram in much the same way that God led the Israelites around the wilderness to prepare them for conquering the Promised Land. Even though we don’t always understand the path God has for us to take, there is a purpose in it. But I don’t trust that enough, I still want a detailed roadmap, with rest stops clearly marked. God has other ideas.

I was just proofreading this and was blown away by how much God was showing me today. This could be a life-work for me, to try to live out this teaching, and I fail so much at doing that. I am sure glad God is there guiding, for without Him I could get so lost in the wilderness or caught in Egypt.

Hope you have a great week.
Heather

 

Oh, I am excited. Today was one of those wonderful days when the Word of God had so much to say to me. As you will probably figure out, I am back in Genesis, and when there is no Bible study from Pastor Don, you get to hear what God is saying to me where I am in the Bible. Today wowed me. In our church many people are delighting in looking up the meanings of names of various Bible places and people as part of examining the passage. So today I used Strongs and did that with Genesis 12 & 13 and was blown away as the Holy Spirit showed me a connection I hadn’t seen before. And of course this passage, as often is the case, is right in my face about what I am working on in my life.

From what I am seeing Chapter 12 is where the Bible starts getting particular. Chapters 1-11 seem to cover almost 2000 years, and the rest of Genesis is just about 400 years in 39 chapters. So it is more detailed. I remember once telling Pastor Don that I was amazed at how many times the Israelites made the same mistake over and over again. He pointed out to me that the Bible covers such a vast expanse of history – 4000 years in only 1189 pages (my Bible) that God was very careful about what examples he gave and just like the news, He covered the most important points. So while these people in the Bible might have done hundreds of things right, God will show us where they missed the mark so we can learn about the mistakes without repeating them ourselves. God had to be very careful about what He wrote, to cover the important details.

So, now the Bible will focus on Abram (later to be called Abraham), and he is by far one of the most important of the Old Testament Patriarchs, his name is mentioned over 70 times in the New Testament. What I find interesting about him is that he is one man that is elevated in all the major religions on earth, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and he holds one of the most unique titles in the Bible, one I wish to aspire to: Friend of God.

Chapter 11:31 And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.

Now to Chapter 12:1-3 Interesting first line of verse 1 (Caps are mine) “Now the Lord HAD said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This is a cool blessing that applies to us as we are spiritual descendants of Abram, and are part of all the families of the earth. But notice in verse one that the Lord HAD (past tense) said to Abram – to leave his country. He must have heard that command in Genesis 11 or before, and is now responding. But notice something. God also said, leave your father’s house, and family. What did Abram do? He took his father and Lot. Lot, as you know is the cause of many of the problems that we still face today. Imagine what life would have been like if Abram had fully obeyed God.

Just like me, sometimes I hear a command from God, and do not completely do what He commanded, ultimately that leads to some consequences that I could have easily avoided had I obeyed more fully. I think sometimes I am guilty of half-hearted obedience, forgetting the important fact that if God has a plan for me, His plan is His best for me. I stopped here and prayed that God help me to obey Him more completely. Yet, I can take comfort that God still blessed Abram even when the obedience wasn’t perfect.

Where did Abram Go? he went from Ur of the Chaldeans (which is east of the Euphrates) to Haran which is only 1/2 way to the land of Canaan, and still east of the Euphrates.

Ur was an idol worshipping country and we can infer that Abram was a gentile, who worshipped idols. His faithfulness to God would cause him to be known as Father of the Faithful, but he came from pagan roots. Given my past, it is so good to realize that God can change a pagan to someone faithful to Him and use him greatly. I think I appreciate Abram in this reading of Genesis because he is so like me, so like us, in that he makes mistakes, sins, asks forgiveness, and God continues to use him, mistakes and all.

Sometimes it is good to use other parts of scripture to explain things that aren’t clearly spelled out where you are reading. So Stephen in Acts 7:2-6 gives us a clue. “And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And form there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.”

What an interesting piece of information this tells us. Number one, The call of God happened to Abram when he was in Mesopotamia (Ur of the Chaldeans) and that he stayed in Haran until his father died. I have to tell you, I highly respect Sarai who had to move with her husband. I can’t even imagine my reaction if Jim would come home and say, God told me to pack up and move, we are going to be migrants, camping in a tent. When asked where we would go, imagine my reaction if He told me, I don’t know, God will show me. I am honestly not certain I would have enough faith to follow such an obscure call. I would most certainly prefer to have a marked map with DETAILS. What faith both of them had!!!

Now God APPEARED to Abraham, he walked with Noah and Adam. I am curious if there is any difference in that, and the cloud of glory, how incredible. I honestly hope that one day, in Heaven God has videotapes of all of these great events. I would love to see them. I keep reminding myself, when I find myself critically examining one of the Bible character’s actions, that they were doing their thing in real time, without the benefit of hindsight and others’s awareness of the outcome of their actions.

It seems that God really likes us to act in faith. First there is a call (for Abram that occurred when he was in Ur), then Abram picked up and obeyed (he moved his family to Haran – partial obedience, but still obedience), then God revealed Himself to Abram. Frankly, I would like it to be in reverse order. A wonderful revealing that leaves no room for doubt, then I would obey, but that doesn’t seem to be how God works with people in the Bible, so I suppose that is how He works with us today, expecting us to act in faith without the details I would so like to have..

But just like me, Abram heard the call, and moved a bit – 1/2 way, not all the way. It took the death of his father to get him uprooted and moving again (but he still took Lot with him an act of disobedience that would have far reaching repercussions). I have noticed in my life that there are times when I cling to the old, familiar favorite, and it takes a sort of death to pry that out of my hand and get me to take the next step. Obedience is hard, but sometimes holding onto the past, the things we are comfortable with, and then the necessity of them having to die in us so that we move on is even harder. I wish I would learn to step out in faith more. This is so key to what Pastor Don was saying on Friday, about how we often do not stay long enough on the altar of sacrifice to burn off the old and make room for the new that God has for us. I really mess up when I think I know better than God what is best for me, it is then that I suffer the most. Now for a bit of excitement, the altar of sacrifice, the death of the old, here are a few meanings of names to knock your socks off!

UR – comes from the root word in Hebrew – charar – or Flame
HARAN – means parched or desolate
TERAH (Abram’s Father) – means Delay
CANAAN – means lowland coming from a root meaning humble

I really think the Holy Spirit has a sense of humor. Abram stayed in Haran (parched and desolate) because of his Father (delayed from going where God wanted him to go), and he left Ur (the fire), but did not make it to Canaan where he could get refreshed and renewed by humility to God.

Well Abram finally moves on towards Canaan. Joshua 2:2-3 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.” Most probably the moon god sin was the God of Ur. And notice that God said, “I”, it wasn’t Abraham who moved, it was God who moved Abraham.

Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations; whose builder and maker is God.

Do you notice what is omitted in the Hebrews’ account? Abram’s disobedience, his mistakes, his foibles, his 1/2 obedience. God only put into the Hall of Faith those actions that Abram did in Faith. I suspect that God takes notice of every time we act in faith, and that holds more weight than our mistakes, which when repented of are separated from us as far as the east is from the west. That is a comfort to me because I certainly make enough mistakes.

What is interesting is that if you put Nahor and Abram together and compared their lifestyles today you would see that Nahor built cities, and Abram was a nomad. By earthly standards Nahor would seem to be successful and Abram a bum. But by God’s standard it is Abram who is the successful one, for Abram was looking for a city who had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Basically, Abram dwelt in tents, was a nomad and a pilgrim. The only piece of property he would own would be a plot of ground to be buried in, but the permanent structures that he built were altars to worship God.

What is also interesting is that God promises Abram that he would be a blessing. It is God who will make the blessing. The blessing does not depend on Abram’s conduct, which is not above reproach. It is God’s faithfulness that bestows blessings on us, who are sinners. It is not our works or righteousness that does it. Blessings flow from God.

Notice that the promise is that God will bless those who bless him, and curse those who curse him. Jesus spelled that out too, in Matthew when he talked about the judgement of the sheep and the goats – where those who did not help his sheep were cursed. A look at history shows how much God keeps his word in this. Ham sinned against his father and was reduced to being part of a minor nation, The Greeks were successful until they desecrated the temple, then Rome took over – when Rome leveled the city of Jerusalem, Rome fell, Spain ruled until the Inquisition of the Jews, and then failed, Germany lost a war when they set out to destroy the Jews. I suspect that the rise and fall of nations will continue to occur based on how well they treat Israel. Our country should be very careful about how they deal with Israel. The climax of God’s blessing will be Revelation 5:9 when all the nations (those who accept Jesus) stand before the throne of God, and Jesus begins to open the seals on the title deed of earth.

Galatians 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’

Back to Genesis 12 – So Abram got up and moved on, bringing Sarai, and Lot. Lot will cause a lot of trouble (sorry, couldn’t resist).

So where did Abram go? He went in verse 6 – to Shechem (which means back and shoulder – reminds me [Heather] of Jesus and his back bruised for us, and carrying the cross on his shoulder). near a trebinth tree of Moreh (which means teacher, instructor and if you look at the origin of the name that meaning is former rain!- as in former and later rain). It was there that God promised him (after Abram obeyed and came to Canaan) that God would give Abram and all his descendants the land. Now remember – Abram was over 75 years old, and his wife was also old and they had no child. And the first act that Abram did in Canaan was to built an altar to God (just as Noah built an altar after he left the ark.).

Now verse 6 has an interesting phrase, “And the Canaanites were THEN in the land.” I haven’t been able to figure that out. Is it just that Abram is now in Canaan, so now the Canaanites were there, or were there others in the land. Not sure of this.

Anyway, here is the thing that blew my mind this morning: Where did Abram camp? Verse 8 tells us. And he moved from there to the mountains east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Now AI means – heap of ruins (AI was on the east)
         BETHEL – means House of God.

The Holy Spirit reminded me, and I checked it out. That the Holy of Holies in the Temple was toward the West, and the door to the Temple was toward the East. So, when we enter the temple from our Ai’s we leave the heap of ruins and move toward the Holy of Holies in the West – which is the House of God. Abram was still sort of straddling, between the two, but I find it so interesting that the Temple layout is sort of hinted at here.

I think I will stop here, because this is so long, but I can’t wait to share more tomorrow. How far reaching are the consequences of our half compromises with obeying God, and how easy it is to fall back into sin when we don’t fully give ourselves on the altar of sacrifice.

This is cutting me to the quick, and convicting me greatly.

Hoping you are having a wonderful Sunday.

Heather

Thank you again for keeping me in your prayers, they are highly coveted. Pastor Don taught today’s Bible study and it was, as it often is, a study that touches on areas I need to work on in my life and an interesting tangent.

1 Cor. 6:17-20  But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  v 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s.

The tangent: A question was brought up regarding verse 20. What makes our Bible study interesting is that often there are other translations of the Bible present. Some have NIV, others Amplified, others King James, Pastor Don uses NKJV, and some have NASB. What we noticed was that the words in verse twenty, “and in your spirit which are God’s”  is left out of some translations. Pastor Don directed us to look at the bottom margin of the Bible where the abbreviation NU is. He pointed out that that shows that there were differing translations of the Bible, and people picked which one they thought was best. Someone asked then, how do we know which translation is the best. He said that we have to have the Spirit and the Word line up. But often a person who is translating will pick the words that best suit the belief system that they are following. So, if you are picking a Bible it is also important to look at who is translating the Bible.

What Pastor Don was telling us makes me want to find a good book on the history of the Bible. King James was not enthused about following all the precepts that the Catholic Pope was saying was required, so he wanted to read the Bible himself and let the people read the Bible to see exactly what was said. So he sent knights around to gather up old Bibles by hook or crook and bring them back to his kingdom. The knights collected more than 1000 manuscripts. He hired 100 poets and 200 scholars to translate the Bible into King’s English. Before that, the Catholic church had the Bible translated from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. But by having the Bible put into English, more people could read and study the scriptures. Needless to say, the Catholic church of that day was not enthused with this plan.

Pastor Don pointed out that when Paul or an Apostle sent a letter to one of the churches, people would copy that letter and disseminate it around the known world, so that the other churches would have the benefit of the teaching. With so many copies around, a comparison of manuscripts would show what was common to most, and what wasn’t. So if a person, for whatever reason chose to leave out a few passages or add something, comparison of that with other copies of the document would show that something was missing or inserted. By having so many copies of the Bible around, it made it easier to know what was included. It also made it easier to show which scriptures were false texts, not to be included in the Bible.

So, when Bibles are translated today, it is possible to leave out certain passages such as that line in verse twenty because a person could say, “It isn’t in all the translations.” and put a NU at the bottom of the page. Some pick something that is just in a few manuscripts and include that if it fits the philosophy of the translator.  But Pastor Don says that this is where the Spirit and the Word must agree.

A few weeks ago someone pointed out that the term “Lucifer” isn’t in the original Hebrew text of Isaiah. And so the passage should be translated a bit differently. Pastor Don stated that he taught that person that this is a case where a word is used in translation to provide clarity and the Spirit of the Word is there. Then Pastor Don said, imagine if there was a janitor who was paid clean a church. This janitor is lazy, and tricks others to clean the church for him, often getting them to pay him for the privilege of cleaning the church. To express that idea you could say it was a “Tom Sawyer” action. So in writing that in a passage you could say that “when that Tom Sawyer influenced person then suggested…..” Everyone would know what was meant by Tom Sawyer, even though the words may not have appeared in the original text.

Even the Peterson Book I am reading indicates this, that most people can read the scripture and come away with something that supports what they want to have supported. The goal of reading and studying the Word should be having the Spirit and the Word agree, and coming away with the life changing, spirit-filled, life-giving inspiration of the Word of God that God wants us to have to effect changes in our life.

When we are born again, we are joined to Him with one Spirit, Our inner Spirit joins with the Holy Spirit, and our flesh body will begin to come under subjection to the Spirit Body. And it is when the Spirit takes precedence over the fleshly body that renewal occurs.

So often the church focuses on the outward sins that a person displays and while the person’s behavior needs to come in line with the Word of God, the focus should not be on the flesh battling the flesh, but on the power of the Holy Spirit guiding a person and giving them the strength to battle the flesh. If a problem is only attacked in the flesh, much like a New Year’s resolution, the problem will not be won. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to help a person conquer their sinful natures.

We are to glorify God in Body and in Spirit. We tend to put the natural first, but the source of all we are is the Spirit. (God formed Adam of the dust, and then breathed the breath of life, the spirit, into him to give him life).

The text we used is 1 Corinthians 15:35-50 This talks about the glorious Body, how the dead are raised up. And it talks about first you die (in body, to self, to ego), and then you are raised up with a new Body (Spirit, glorified). v.44 “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. …v.49 And as we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man…v. 51 …We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”

On one level this passage talks about the rapture, but there is another truth embedded in this passage, one that explains how we become new creations in Christ. That those fleshly, earthly desires die, so that those desires which are of Christ will grow stronger and live in us, renewing us and creating in us a new being.

Flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of God, but the Spirit. An inheritor is not a renter, we own what we inherit. When we accept Christ in our lives we are all changed. Some are changed instantly, others take time. But what happens is that the Spirit in us starts affecting our bodies. We are learning how to listen and be guided by the Spirit.

Pastor Don used the example of dieting. He said that if we approach a diet in the flesh, looking at diet plans, making resolutions, we are most probably going to fail in the diet. It is only when the Spirit enters in that we stand any chance of succeeding. That the Holy Spirit, if listened to, will guide us to make right choices. Then it becomes the choice of the person, who will you listen to, the earthly, fleshly choices or the Holy Spirit choice which offers life and liberty.

Often the Church misses the mark by just focusing on the outward behavior, the actions of a person, the rules and regulations that they should live by. When really, the real changing factor is the Spirit within a person.

Ephesians 4:22-24 “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. 

In some translations of the Bible the word conduct is translated “conversation.” In word studies Pastor Don says that he often includes all the possible meanings in a teaching so that the Holy Spirit can work on a person and reach them where they need to be reached. But if you consider the word conversation in the above passage you can see that what we say also affects what we do. Our tongue, as Proverbs tells us, is a very powerful weapon, it can tear down and build up. And out of the contents of our heart, our mouth speaks. There is a power in words.

One other thing to be aware of is that when we make a decision that lines up with the Word of God, satan will come in to try and put a monkey wrench in the works, with doubts, temptations tailor made to test our resolve. So that the battle really needs to be focused as verse 23 says, “in the spirit of your mind.” For it is there that we begin to gain some control of our fleshly instincts.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Pastor Don asked us what was entailed in a sacrifice in the Old Testament times. It involved the burning of an animal on the altar of sacrifice. The fire on this altar was never quenched, so anything burnt would have been reduced to ashes (dust). Pastor Don then pointed out that when God is dealing with an issue in our lives, most of us get off the altar of sacrifice too soon, before that issue is completely destroyed by the fire of the Spirit. And that action on our parts ensures that we will repeat the same destructive behavior. We would do better to stay on the altar of sacrifice until God has completely dealt with the issue, no matter how uncomfortable that is for us.

The King James translations for reasonable service, is “spiritual work.”

He asked us, why do we allow the flesh to turn us into a worrier, and not bring to God our needs and let God renew our minds. Often we live off of good ideas, never tapping God ideas. Good ideas will get us only so far. God ideas can transform us to something we can’t begin to imagine.

When God gives you counsel your flesh isn’t going to like it. When we let the flesh regain control, it is important to go to God, confess our sin, and get back onto the track that God has set for us. He said, that as a pastor, those people who tend to hate him are those who heard Godly advice based on the Scriptures that he gave them, and they chose to ignore the advice. Their lives are in a mess, and they blame Pastor Don. Those who choose to listen to godly advice, based on the Word of God, and in faith attempt to apply the advice usually see that there was truth in the words, and they are not the ones that end up hating their pastor.

2 Corinthinans 7:9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

We have to remember that God has a plan that is based on eternity. At times our flesh will suffer godly sorrow as we become conformed to God’s eternal plan. But it is a good sorrow, one that leads to repentance and real change in us.

There is a mis-conception about Christians that needs to be addressed. Christianity is about joy, real joy. Many think that it is drudgery to submit to God all the time, obey God, and live a life of sacrifice. What they don’t realize is that there is a lot of fun in doing things God’s way. He releases us from the shackles that hold us back, he gives us real liberty, and a life that matters. It is not work, it is not drudgery. God loves us, loves us individually, and He wants us to become the best that we can be. Why would we settle for a limited, earthly vision of our own, when we could choose an incredible vision that God has for us?

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Praise God for lovingly guiding us to become these new creations IN CHRIST. And He uses our Holy Spirit to guide us.

Tomorrow I will share something from Peterson’s book that complements this teaching. I seem to not be having much time on the computer these days, and have been running around way too much.

Hoping you are having a great weekend. I will try to get to your sites over the weekend.

Heather