Genesis 17:1-14

HAPPY “LABOR DAY!” As I write this, Emmy, Nathan, Beau, and Aunt Molly are on their way to the airport to fly to Salt Lake City. The plan was that they would meet the birth mom at dinner tonight, then tomorrow the doctor would induce the birth of our new granddaughter, Penelope. I guess Penelope did not want to be an April Fool, because Emmy called me at 11:15 p.m. last night to tell me that the birth mom’s water had broken! So, we’re reminded, once again, that our plans are not always God’s - and His are never thwarted! Please pray for the birth mom as she labors, then releases this baby. Pray that God will use this in her life to draw her closer to Him, and bless her for choosing life for this little girl. May she, like Hagar, see the One who sees her! Which brings me back to our study...

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”


Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” (vs 1-8)

Here God basically affirms the promises made in Genesis 12 and 15. Note that the one principle that surrounds this covenant is grace. This is all about what God will do for Abram and his descendants. In fact, God says, “....this is my covenant...”

This covenant, is an everlasting covenant. Even though the Jews were scattered from the area in 70 AD, God promised this land would still be theirs. In Ezekial 11:17 He promised, “I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.” Certainly, this regathering beginning in 1948, when the state of Israel was declared in modern times. However, they still do not fully possess the whole land of Canaan, the entire 300,000 square miles God promised them here in verse 8. One day they will, because God has declared it.

Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. (vs. 9-12)

Okay, this is painful to read. I’m sure men cringe when they read it! Why did God choose circumcision as the symbol of this covenant? Wasn’t there an easier way to demonstrate this covenant? Why not a pierced nose or the cutting off of an earlobe? Why not a tattoo??? Why the foreskin? And why at eight days instead of 13 years, which is when many cultures recognize the coming into manhood? I love Beth Moore’s take on this. God is not squeamish about the subject of circumcision, but He is, in fact, deliberate. This symbol of the covenant was NOT about coming into manhood or self-sufficiency. It was about complete reliance on our covenant-keeping God, and pointed to the blessing of the promise: offspring and lineage. This mark was not a publicly seen mark - it was, as Beth says, a private “reminder to the man himself that he belonged to God and that his strength, virility, and abliity to bear much fruit rested in the blessing of God Almighty.”


Indeed, when we receive Christ as our LORD and Savior, there is no visible stamping of a cross on our foreheads - it is our HEARTS that are circumcised (Rom 4:9-12, and Gal 2:15-21). The only outward sign to the world that we belong to God is our changed lives. And the ability to change our lives and bear much fruit rests completely in God. It is by grace from first to last!

Tomorrow we’ll look at the changes that begin from this point for Abram and Sarai. Good things are coming!

Genesis 17: 1

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Why am I just looking at the first verse of this chapter today? Well, truthfully, I’m running late and the cleaning lady is coming today, so, naturally, I need to clean up first! But, mainly, because there is so much here in just this verse, we could spend two days here! :)

Yesterday we saw Hagar head back to submit to Sarai - and she had her baby, Ishmael. Well, in this next chapter, Ishmael is already 13 yrs. old!! It had been more than 13 years since Abram had encountered God. What was God doing all that time? Had He taken a break? Had He forgotten Abram? Abram must have wondered if he had forfeited the blessing by taking matters into his own hands with Hagar. Jon Courson points out in his commentary that Abram is called the friend of God, so you have to wonder why the silence. Well, Courson says, it’s because he’s also called the father of faith, and faith grows best when we have to exercise it. It is in the silences, the hard times when we don’t FEEL the presence of God - when we have to just BELIEVE that He is with us and that He is still working on our behalf - that our faith is both challenged and strengthened.

Finally, God comes to Abram again and reminds him, “I am God Almighty.” This is the first use of God’s name, El Shaddai. The word El speaks of God’s might, His right arm of strength, while Shaddai apparently comes from the word for breast, signifying the nurturing love of God. He is both all-powerful and tender - He is not only ABLE, but He is also WILLING to be everything we need: our rock, our shield, our defense, our provision, and our Abba Father! We’re going to note that hist encounter between God and Abram is ALL about God and what HE will do. Twenty-four times we read “I will...” as God makes it very clear that this covenant He’s about to make is all HIS doing, even though Abram participates in it.

Tomorrow we’ll get into the actual covenant, but we need to first remember that it is only a valid covenant because the One who makes it is El Shaddai, our Almighty God! If you feel like you have been in a period of silence from God, and you are not sure WHAT, or even IF He is doing anything in your life, hold on! You may just be in for an encounter of your own. And the best place to meet Him? In His glorious Word!!

Meet you here tomorrow!


 

Genesis 16: 8-16

And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” (vs.8-9)

Whoa! Go back and submit to someone who is mistreating her??? I would not want to draw generalizations about staying in an abusive relationship here, but why on earth is God asking Hagar to do such a thing? Talk about a hard choice to obey! She would have to completely swallow her pride and go back to face the one who was tormenting her - with an attitude of submission - and not just to God through obedience, but to Sarai herself. God tells Hagar specifically to submit “to her.”

Have you ever worked with or for someone who was truly a difficult person in your life? Are you related to a difficult person and you feel justified in NOT going back? OUCH! Been there! I don’t know what difficult thing God might be asking you to do, but I do know that He never asks us to do something without also providing us with the ability and means to do it. Look at what He promises Hagar:

The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” (vs.10)

Okay, that should soften the blow of having to face humiliation and possible harassment. That’s a pretty exciting promise! Then God gets very personal and specific:

The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael or the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” (vs. 11-12)

Now, as an expectant mom, wouldn’t you want to hear that your son is going to be loved by all and wildly successful? Would you want to hear that he is going to be a rebellious, stubborn, angry kid, always ready for a fight?? Well, hidden in there, as a word of great comfort, is the name of her son, Ishmael, which means God hears or, as Beth Moore puts it, Yahweh has been attentive to your humiliation. Beth points to the prophecy of Ishmael’s destiny not as a curse, but as a matter of fact. And, surely, the legacy of the Ishmaelites is one of continual fighting and upheaval. Boy! Are we seeing it in today’s headlines!

Beth Moore also points out that after God has given Hagar a name, Hagar turns around and gives God a name, El Roi, the God who sees me, for she responds to his promise, saying, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (vs. 13)

God sees this pathetic servant girl who had despised her mistress and then run away to the desert. He sees her anger, her desperation, her humiliation, and her fear. He knows all about the ugly attitudes within her heart. Yet He very intentionally and compassionately seeks her out to let her know that He sees and still loves her deeply. Hagar finally had what she needed to go back and submit to Sarai, for she knew for certain that God would be with her and that He had a plan for her and for her son.

Isn’t this just the most exciting chapter? God sees us and He has a plan. Whatever difficult thing He calls us to, He will also walk us through. He has our futures laid out on His drawing board and He will deliver us through it all. What are you facing today? A scary medical procedure? A future without a loved one? A financial disaster? The loss of your job or home? Are you being asked to submit to a difficult boss - or even a difficult husband? Trust that situation or person with God. He is the God who sees us!
 

Too much to take in all at once...

This has been a couple of weeks of roller coaster emotions! We returned yesterday from San Jose, where my nephew’s funeral was on Friday. We drove up with heavy hearts, but anxious to be reunited with my entire family, who were coming in from all over the country. It was so wonderful to be with them all and to be comforted by everyone’s love and presence. I’ve truly seen this week how important little things like a facebook post or a card or flowers or e-mails or hugs can be at a time of grieving. Grief shared is certainly lessened by the joy of fellowship!

On our drive up, we stopped for lunch in San Luis Obispo, where both of my girls went to college ten years ago. As we were returning to our cars to continue the journey, Emmy and Nathan received a phone call from the adoption agency telling them that they have been matched with a baby girl who is being born this coming Friday, so they need to be in Salt Lake City this coming Thursday! The joy I felt watching Emmy and Nathan and Beau rejoicing and praying together was beyond anything you can imagine! They have waited a long time!

So the family that was in mourning found a reason to be glad! The service was beautiful, and, yet, it was so hard to watch Justin’s three siblings and two of his sisters-in-law getting up to speak, knowing how deeply they feel his loss. Even with that, they managed to be funny and celebrate his life. Later, our entire family spent a day just being together and watching old videos (laughing hysterically), telling stories, and renewing our love for each other. It was so wonderful to see all of the grown-up cousins all together and to see the next generation all running around and taking care of each other. My nephew, Jared, the doctor, explained my sister Jodi’s condition of multiple myeloma and gave us great hope that the procedure she faces this week will be successful and provide her with a good prognosis. We are holding onto that hope! It was hard to say good-bye and head for home! We know that we left Stephanie and her three precious boys and the yet-to-be-born baby to begin a new life without their husband and father, and that breaks my heart. Please keep your prayers coming for both Justin’s family and for Jodi!

Now, in the week ahead, we will prepare for the arrival of baby Penelope! Because I am leaving next Monday to take students and some parents to Washington, DC over our spring break, I will not be able to be there to greet her in person. However, Aunt Molly is going with them! I’m now heading into parent confernce week, with report cards miraculously completed! Thank you, LORD! As life goes on, so does our study in Genesis, and I promise to get on with that tomorrow...
Love you all!
 

Genesis 16:7-8

Today we are at one of the most precious scenes in the Old Testament:

The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.


Let’s deal with the first issue: who is the “angel of the LORD?” Well, both Jon Courson and Beth Moore give reasons why we can assume this is God Himself, but I love that they aren’t dogmatic - and Beth, in her study, asks the reader to look for evidence from scripture that could confirm or deny that. So, I just looked down to verse 10 where the angel makes a promise to Hagar:

“I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”


In my mind the pronoun, “I,” is a pretty clear indication that the angel is, indeed, the LORD. At any rate, this visitation is incredibly meaningful. Note, that Hagar was NOT seeking God - in fact, she was in the middle of running away from the “family of faith.” No, she was not looking for God, but He was looking for her! Here she is, in her lowest moment, pregnant and without any idea of what she should do, and how like our precious LORD to come to this defeated woman, whom He calls by name. Just like the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), and the woman caught in adultery (John 8), the LORD shows His special love for the “least of these,” those who are weak and hurting. As Courson says, “After all, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who left the ninety-nine to find the single sheep who had gone astray...He goes after the one. He goes after Hagar. He goes after you.”

And how like Him to ask her a question when He already knows the answer. He did not need to know where she had come from and where she was going, but He wanted her to think about it. Beth Moore addresses her reader here, “Dear One, very often God initiates intimacy with us by raising fresh questions. Hard questions. Even questions that have no earthly answers. But the search leads us to heaven’s door. God often causes us to search ourselves, asking us to articulate what we’re feeling and why we’re making some of our present choices.”


So, I’m wondering, what question is He asking you? What is it He wants you to ask of yourself? Are there some attitudes that He seeks to change in your heart? Boy! I know I can use an attitude adjustment! There are so many times in a day when I’d just love to run away and have a good cry or just be free of the constant pulling in a thousand different directions. Life is messy and it is tough. There are many times throughout our lives when we find ourselves isolated in a desert like Hagar, wondering what in the world we will do next. Or maybe not even caring... Then He comes alongside - often through the word of encouragement of another, or just with a quiet whisper of His love, or in a fresh reminder from His Word - and we realize that He still seeks us. This relationship is entirely His doing!

He came to a pagan, runaway slave girl - He will come to you!

 

Genesis 16:3-6

Back to Sarai and Abram! Oh, and now we get to add the third party: Hagar!

So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. 


Oh boy! We talked about Sarai’s problem with manipulation last week, but I just wanted to quote Beth Moore on this passage, from her study, The Patriarchs. First, she reminds us that women by “nature tend to be nurturers, straighteners, fixers,” and that God wired us to be “suitable helper[s]” for our husbands . (Gen 2) However, Beth says, “Satan prides himself on tangling our wiring until the outcome is a knotted counterfeit of God’s wiring. Help tangles into manipulation with the slightest rerouting.” What Sarai did was in keeping with the cultural custom of the day, but it was not within God’s standard for marriage.

We don’t know if Hagar was beautiful, but we are certain she was younger than Sarai. And when she became pregnant, she began to disrespect Sarai, for, after all, SHE was providing Abram with a child. It was finally dawning on Sarai just exactly how badly this had turned out. Adding a pregnant, younger woman to this household was NOT a good thing! In fact, Beth Moore point to Proverbs 30:21-23 to prove that this would have been a disaster for all:

“Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a servant who becomes king, a godless fool who gets plenty to eat, a contemptible woman who gets married, and a servant who displaces her mistress.”


There must have been fireworks in this tent! And then came the blame game! Sarai says, “May the LORD judge between you and me,” obviously thinking Abram bore the responsibility. And she was correct that, as the spiritual leader of the household, and as the one who so eagerly accepted Sarai’s plan over God’s, he was ultimately responsible. However, there was certainly enough blame to go around here, eh?

Note the nasty attitude, though, that both Sarai and Abraham adopted. They didn’t even call her by name, but referred to Hagar as Sarai’s “slave.” In fact, the callousness with which Abram dismissed Hagar is pretty shocking: “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Abram very passisvely gave Sarai license to oppress Hagar, and that’s just what she did! YIKES! How did our two spiritual parents get to this point? By NOT trusting God to do the job! Oh, that we would learn to give Him the reins and relax as His plan unfolds, instead of stepping in to help Him along! And the ramifications? They are still being felt to this day with the tension between the Jews from Isaac’s lineage and the Arabs from Ishmael’s. More about that later...

Off to work!

 

There's nothing anyone could have DONE...

“There’s nothing anyone could have DONE...”

This phrase keeps going through my mind this morning. We received the information back from the autopsy on my nephew, Justin, this weekend. He died of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). Basically it’s a ventricular fibrillation that causes an electrical problem, and the heart stops, killing the brain within 30 seconds. No one and nothing could have changed the outcome. There is some comfort in that, don’t you think? No one can feel like “if I’d only just...” At 35 he was just taken. And he felt no pain. As his brother, Jared, put it, “He kissed Stephanie goodnight and that was his last memory.”

There’s nothing anyone could have DONE...

The reason that is resonating with me this morning, is that it is exactly what our pastor said yesterday at church. We are going through the wonderful book of Romans - the book that absolutely changes lives - and he has been speaking out of the first three chapters for the past few weeks. As he puts it, in referring to these chapters, “Paul is telling us the bad news, before giving us the good news, because you can’t appreciate the good news, unless you know the bad news.” In a very organized way, Paul points out that NO ONE is righteous in God’s eyes, NOT ONE. ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard of righteousness. That’s the bad news.

Our pastor gave the example of the challenge to swim from Southern California to Hawaii. He said that we have some amazing swimmers in our area - many of Olympic caliber. So, if we were told we all must swim to Hawaii, there are some who would only make it a few yards before they would drown. Certainly the Olympic types would swim much farther - even miles, but, they, too, would drown before making it to Hawaii. ALL would come short of the goal. Well, if our goal is to get to God, no matter how good we are, no matter how self-sacrificing or attentive to religious activity, no matter what we DO, we will never meet God’s standard of righteousness. Again, that’s the bad news.

The good news? Jesus has DONE it for us. By His obedience to His Father, by His death on the cross and His resurrection, He has DONE it. And, as our pastor says, that is the difference between ALL other religions and Christianity. All other faiths are built on the idea that we must DO something to get to God: meditate until we reach our inner god, do humanitarian works, perform certain sacraments or say certain prayers, assume a particular posture when we pray, say the right words, address God in a certain manner, etc., etc., etc... But as Paul clearly teaches in Romans, there’s nothing anyone could DO. Thank you LORD, for our wonderful savior who pronounced it as DONE, when He said from the cross, “It is finished.”

Have you been feeling under the burden of what you must DO? Are you craving assurance that you are right with God? Just accept what Jesus has DONE for you and receive the gift of salvation, which is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Read through the book of Romans - read the bad news, then rejoice in the good news!

We are making our plans to head up to San Jose for Justin’s funeral, which is on Friday. Everyone is coming from all over the country - and Jodi and Ed arrived yesterday in Chicago, to get further tests done on Jodi, before flying out here on Wednesday with their son Jared and his family. Please pray for travel safety for all of us. Apparently, we will be driving up in the rain on Thursday. Pray for sweet Stephanie and her boys and the unborn baby, that God would just surround them with comfort, strength, and peace. We are all anxious to finally be together - and although the circumstances are horrible, this is what family is for - to mourn together even as we rejoice together.

Love to you all, and many thanks for your prayers!