Monthly Archives: January 2009

Genesis 17:1-4

1When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4″Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

The first phrase of Genesis 17 is “When Abram was ninety-nine years old…”. The last verse of the previous chapter says “Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.” There are thirteen years between any recorded communications from God to Abram.

Was the silence caused by Abram’s sin regarding Hagar? It seems so. The first thing God says to him is “walk before me and be blameless…” God had told Abram that he would make him great. He told him that he would be the father of a vast multitude. Abram, it seems, thinks that the only way God can keep His end of the deal is for him to help him out a little with the details.

One can hardly blame him. Who of us would think that two parents in their eighties would be able to conceive. Imagine Abram lying in bed at night wondering how in the world this “father of a great nation” thing is possibly going to happen. And he concludes that maybe God wants him to conceive with someone other than his wife. But God had given no indication that it would be with another woman.

Abram took matters into his own hands without consulting God so God closed off communications for thirteen years. We must never run ahead of God.It will make things worse. It will create a barrier between us and God.

The beauty of this story of course is that God does not forget His covenant with Abram and even though thirteen years seems a long time to us, we are reminded in this account of the great faithfulness of God. He keeps His word, He cannot lie and He will not start with us. What a relief for Abram it must have been when God finally spoke to him again.

Whatever it is that tempts you, know this. It is not worth interfering with the relationship between you and God. The pain of that will be greater than the pleasure you get from sin. At least it will if you are a real believer.

Genesis 16:1-12

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!” 6But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

7The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11And the angel of the LORD said to her,

“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
because the LORD has listened to your affliction.
12He shall be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

Sarai comes up with a plan for Abram to have a child by her servant Hagar and he agrees to it. Hagar’s response to her pregnancy is to hold Sarai in contempt. She now sees herself as better than Sarai and is not shy in letting Sarai know it. What a dreadful piece of work this is.

And yet who of us is immune to it and who of us has not done the same thing or at least had the same attitude? We attempt something that succeeds and we get filled with ourselves and treat others as if they are lower on the scale of people who should be paid attention to. Our children become successful and we think that we are better than those whose children did not. We find a mate and think that means we are more attractive, more entertaining, more captivating than those who remain single. The list is endless. Hagar forgot that had Sarai not come up with the idea it is unlikely that she and Abram would have ever got together.

But the amazing thing in the story is verse 7. The Lord seeks Hagar out, finds her, comforts her and pronounces a blessing on her that is similar to the very covenant He made with Abram. This is grace. This is what should cause us to rejoice. What it certainly should not do is focus on how Hagar should never have received such a visit from the Almighty.

God showers the undeserving with mercy. This is a characteristic of God that eventually sends His Son into the world to redeem sinners much worse than Hagar from eternal wrath.

What a gracious God! What a picture this account is of great grace. What a foretaste of the cross of Christ, for make no mistake; the reason God can ignore Hagar’s wicked attitude to Sarai is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Have a look at Romans 3:23-27. Utterly mind blasting.

Remember that if you are saved at all it is because of free undeserved grace because of the mercy of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look down on no one. They are not worse sinners than you and they are just as redeemable. Pray for their conversion and give them the Gospel.

Proverbs 7:1-5

1 My son, keep my words
and treasure up my commandments with you;
2 keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
3 bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
5to keep you from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words.

Proverbs 7 – A warning to a son regarding sexual immorality and those who invite them to it. But it is also a metaphor regarding wisdom and folly. Folly entices with desirable things. It dresses up to look attractive. It deceives. It is out to rob you while pretending to be for you.

The metaphor is perfect. How the world chases after that which will ruin it. It is the height of foolishness and no one whose senses are really about them will fall for it. But the whole world does fall for it and in their wisdom they declare themselves to be fools. Don’t be a fool. Don’t fall for the trinkets and glitter that the world has to offer in money, comfort, and instant gratification. It is short sighted and foolish.

In verse 14 the woman says to the young man

14 I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;

This is the saddest thing of all and it abounds today. Fools run away from God while appearing to be religious and faithful. They go to church, say the prayers, sing the songs and manage to even fool themselves that they are pleasing to God. This is true foolishness.

We live in times when it is very easy to play the hypocrite. But God is not mocked. He looks to the heart. Nothing in all creation is hid from Him.

Today, come into true wisdom. “It is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And shed every trace of hypocrisy. Fix your eyes on Him and be truly wise and faithful.

Jesus Christ is true wisdom. He and He alone is the way away from folly.

Psalm 128

1 Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
2You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the LORD.

5 The LORD bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
6May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!

Verse 2 – You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands
Christ was on no fool’s errand. His work produced fruit. That numberless multitude is all due to the work of Christ. He produced it and He shall reap the benefits of it. That crowd shall sing to the praise and glory of God for eternity.

Verse 3 – “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine…”
Jesus does not just save us to get us to a better destination than we were originally headed. He saves us to go and bear fruit
Verse 5 – “The Lord bless you from Zion”
The work of Christ will bring great blessing upon Jerusalem. One day there will be a new Jerusalem and it shall forever prosper.

Is it a stretch to interpret the Psalm 128 this way? We need to be extremely careful with it, but given that this whole Book from Genesis to Revelation is about Christ we need to be looking to see truths about Him in it.

When Paul calls the rock that Moses hit to give water to the people of Israel, Jesus, he is doing something very odd to our way of thinking. Without Scriptural support we need to tread very carefully with this type of interpretation.

But it is no doubt true that there is much about Christ in the OT that we often miss. We dare not put Him where He does not appear, but we miss tremendous blessing when we fail to see Him where He genuinely is. And He is in more places than He is not.

Psalm 128

1 Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
2You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the LORD.
5 The LORD bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
6May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!

Look at Psalm 128 as a Messianic, a Psalm about Jesus Christ.

Verse 1 – Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord
We do not think of Jesus being a “God-fearer” but when we consider how fearing God is defined in this Psalm we see that He indeed was. Verse 1 tells us that it is to “walk in His ways”.

No one ever walked in the ways of God more or better than Jesus did. And He will see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. The blessedness to the holy Son of God for his obedient walking in the ways of the LORD while He was here on earth is the salvation of a numberless multitude from all corners of the world.

It is because of Jesus’ perfect obedience to all the Law of God that He is our perfect sacrifice for sin.

If you are a believer, you should read verse 1 with great gratitude. Jesus resisted every temptation for the glory of His Father and – for your salvation.

Today, think much about the fact that the reason you belong to Christ is because He is the perfect One who alone was able to be offered as the perfect sacrifice for your sin.

Don’t know Christ? Your sins must be paid in full. You cannot do that. The only Perfect One is Jesus Christ. You need His life and death counted as yours. Come to Him today.

Genesis 15:1-6

1After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

After Abram wins a battle against incredible odds God comes to him and tells him not to fear. Winning a battle was one thing. But what has gotten Abram in a state of fear is not losing his life in a battle.

It is the fact that many years have passed since God promised an heir for Abram and his biological clock is running way over its limit. “Don’t fear” God tells him – “I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

God says “Do not fear” many times in the Bible. And never does He tell people that they are talented, strong, or sufficient in any way. Never does God say “Do not fear, your enemies are small”. The reason people should not fear is always because God is with them.

This life is not about us. It does not matter how strong we are. It does not matter if the biological clock has expired. It does not matter how greatly the odds are stacked in favour of the enemy. What matters is whether God is with us or not.

God is not with you? You should be terrified. God is with you? You need fear nothing, not even those who could hurt you, ruin you, kill you.

It is not about us. God has saved us for His glory. He keeps us for His glory. He gives us things to do for His glory and we need fear nothing, not even those who can only kill us. We are to trust God, knowing that our lives are in His hands and that “mortals are immortal here until [our] work is done”.

Genesis 14:18-20

18And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19And he blessed him and said,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
20and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

Hebrews 5:7-12
7In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek was “priest of God most high”. This before the Mosaic Law dictated the requirement about priests.

Melchizedek was not a Levitical priest and this is important as an illustration in Hebrews to show that Jesus is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Jesus’ priesthood is not the temporary levitical priesthood of the Mosaic Law. His priesthood predates that Law and continues on past that Law for eternity.

Jesus, our Great High Priest has made sacrifice to God for us, offers that sacrifice to God for us and now intercedes as a priest for us. Melchizedek performed the work of priest for the people of Salem in that he interceded for them to God, probably offered sacrifice to God on their behalf and presented it to God for them.

The Mosaic Law does not introduce the concept of sacrifice for sin, nor does it expiate sin. It points to the eternal priestly work of Christ. It is a shadow of the greater reality (Heb. 10:1).

Jesus Christ is the perfect, eternal, Mediator. There is and cannot be anything better. Melchizedek is a picture of Christ Himself in a way that even the Levitical priesthood could not be. And we have Him by faith alone. This is the greatest marvel that can possibly be and it should cause us to fall on our knees in gratitude and in praise.

Jesus is a priest. He is a priest forever. We cannot approach the Holy Creator without a mediator. And we have One – forever.

Today, if you are a believer, do not forget that you are forgiven, you are not destroyed, you are able to pray, you have eternal life, you are forgiven and always being forgiven, because Jesus Christ is your priest. He is the only priest you have and the only one you need.

Now then, go and live for Him in the power of that incomprehensible grace.

Genesis 12:10-20

10Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

17But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

The Bible is unique in its honesty with the sins of the heroes of the faith. Abraham is the greatest of all the Old Testament. Nevertheless, we are given an account in Genesis 12 that tells of him concocting a plan that included lying about who Sarah was, possibly involving Sarah in sexual relations, concubinage and who knows what else, because of his fear of Pharaoh.

We should not rejoice that Abraham did these things, but we should be drawn to see that even Abraham needed the grace of God. No one, not even the greatest hero of the faith in all the Old Testament, escapes the need for the death of Jesus Christ in order to be saved from his sin.

Abraham was a sinner saved by grace and because of his faith in God was credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, just like everyone else who will ever make it to glory with Him. All who were saved in days gone by, are being saved now, or will be saved at some point in the future, are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

What a marvel the work of God, in Christ, is. How can we not live for Him? And how can we not strive for the purity that all who have Christ as their hope strive to attain?

Today, take some time to truly meditate on the Gospel of free grace and rejoice that God has done all that can be done to bring you to glory.

Genesis 12:1-3

1Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The call of Abram. The Genesis account focuses now on the man it has been taking us to for seven chapters. In this family line will the promise of deliverance from the consequences of Adam’s sin, be accomplished.

God comes to Abram (to become Abraham later). This should not be overlooked. People like to think of Abraham as a godly man whom God rewarded by making him the father of a great nation. This is not the case. If God had not taken the initiative and come to him, Abram would have remained in the city of Ur, worshipping gods that did not exist and perishing outside of God’s mercy.

God came to him. Abraham was chosen by God out of mercy. It was an act of grace. And the act that Abram needs is for the Son of God to come and pay for His sins. And that is what Christ will come and do for Abraham.

No one, not even the greatest of the heroes of faith, escapes the need for the death of Jesus Christ in order to be saved from his sin. Abraham was a sinner saved by grace and because of his faith in God was credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, just like everyone else who will ever make it to glory with Him. What a marvel the work of God, in Christ, is.

Today, rejoice that salvation from sin is an act of the mercy of God through faith in Christ alone. If it required anything from us, we could not make it. Demonstrate your joy with humble obedience.