It’s interesting that when Rebekah initially revealed to Jacob her plan to trick Isaac, Jacob’s response wasn’t, “Mother, that’s terrible!” It was, “But Mother, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I have smooth skin” (The Message). His initial thought was how they would get away with it, not how diabolical the plan was. Upon learning that his brother had robbed him, Esau said, “Not for nothing was he named Jacob, the Heel” (The Message) a term we still use in the twenty-first century to refer to someone who’s up to no good.
When Abimelech, his friend, Ahuzzath, and Phicol, the commander of his troops, went to see Isaac, Issac asked them, “Why did you come to me? You hate me: You threw me out of your country” (The Message). Their response? “We’ve realized that God is on your side. We’d like to make a deal between us...” (The Message). Isaac’s foes wanted to be on his good side because they recognized the Hand of God on his life and they didn’t want to be on the wrong side of that partnership. Do people see the Hand of God on our lives? Do they desire to be in our good graces because of this? Remember that David tells us in the 110th division of the Psalms that God will make our enemies our footstools.
There’s a little statement, tucked away in Genesis 25:18. The Message bible translates that verse, “The Ishmaelites didn’t get along with any of their kin.” Back in verse 12 of chapter 16, an angel had told Hagar that her son would “Always be stirring up trouble, always at odds with his family. (The Message). The NKJV says, “His hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” Sobering words to consider in 2019.
Abraham wanted Isaac to marry a woman from among his own people. I find this peculiar, as God had taken Abraham away from his people to begin with. In any event, that’s where Rebekah came from – Abraham’s family. Interestingly enough, it was family that brought a great deal of drama to the table. There was Rebekah, herself, who, because of her trickery, was responsible for the rift between her sons. Rebekah’s brother, Laban, with his trickery, caused contention in the home of Jacob. Family!
In Genesis 16, Sarah, interpreting how she thought God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, suggested to her husband, “God has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid. Maybe I can get a family from her.” (The Message). Did Sarah think she was helping God out? Did she really believe that she was the one who knew how this promise was going to pan out? Who knows? What we do know is that before the chapter even ends, Hagar’s insolence towards Sarah on account of her pregnancy had made Sarah so angry she “dealt harshly” with the girl, and Hagar ran away. By chapter 21, after God, in His own time – without any human intervention – blesses Sarah with baby Isaac, Sarah says to Abraham, “Get rid of this slave woman and her son. No child of this slave is going to share inheritance with my son Isaac.” (The Message). Now, whose idea was it for Abraham to sleep with Hagar? Ah, yes. It was Sarah’s. A decision she later came to regret. A decision that brought a great deal of pain, especially, I would imagine, for Abraham who had to choose between his sons. We have to remember that we never know better than God does, and unless He explicitly asks for our help, we need to step aside and let Him work. Oh, and His timing is always perfect.
I’ve often marveled at the account of Abraham haggling with God over the threshold of good people needed to spare Sodom, but in reading The Message bible’s translation of this event, Eugene H. Peterson interprets what verse 22 of Genesis 18 renders in the New King James version as “Abraham still stood before the LORD,” as “Abraham stood in God’s path, blocking [H]is way.” Abraham wouldn’t let God walk away from him! Can you imagine that?! I think it’s unbelievable! Abraham took the role of interceding on behalf of the residents of Sodom very seriously. Could it have been because his nephew, Lot, and his family lived there? Perhaps. Whatever the motivation, this story shows us how critically important intercession can be. Christ does it for us, and we have been given the privilege of doing it for others. Just as God lowered his threshold from 50 righteous to 10 when Abraham asked, we are assured that He hears and responds to us. Verse 29 says, “When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.” (The Message)
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped, the evidence of things not seen.” When God promised Abram that a son from his own body would be his heir and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the night sky, it would be at least 20 years or so before Isaac made his appearance, but, as the song goes, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me.” Because Abram was willing to take God at His word, hoping for a son of his own, in the absence of any evidence save the word of God, God “accounted it to him for righteousness.”
Terah took Abram, Sarai, and Lot and set out from Ur, bound for Canaan. He never got there. When the family got as far as Haran, they settled down, and that’s where Terah died. Eventually, it was Abraham who settled in Canaan, which ultimately became the Promised Land of his descendants. Many times, children will bring to fruition what their parents began.
Isn't it interesting that sometimes we can dish it out, but we can't take it? Cain murdered his defenseless, innocent brother. In. Cold. Blood. Yet, when God pronounced that he would be "under a curse and driven from the ground" (Gen. 4:10 NIV) as well as a "restless wanderer on the Earth" (verse 12) he complained that the punishment was more than he could bear. Really, Dude?! You kill your brother in a jealous rage, and now YOU'RE upset because you're being sent away?! Now that's some serious chutzpah. He wanted from God what he refused to extend to his brother. Mercy. But God is not like man. He's gracious. So, He offered Cain what he did not deserve, promising, "...if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." (verse 15) What unmerited favor!
When God says something will happen, something will happen. Rain didn't begin to fall immediately after Noah and his family entered the ark. Nothing happened for a full week. I would imagine that they had to endure the taunts of those on the outside, not to mention their own misgivings and possible contentious exchanges. But the rain did come. Forty days' worth of it. I'm sure that Noah's faith must have been tested during those seven dry days. He had to rely on his prior experience with God and His trustworthiness to get him through that rough patch. We have to do the same. When our faith is tested, we have to remember that when God says something will happen, it will happen, and He ALWAYS has the last word.
Contact with evil kills! The result may not always be loss of life, and it may not always be immediate. Evil kills relationships, confidence, peace, vision... It kills!
It’s interesting that when Rebekah initially revealed to Jacob her plan to trick Isaac, Jacob’s response wasn’t, “Mother, that’s terrible!” It was, “But Mother, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I have smooth skin” (The Message). His initial thought was how they would get away with it, not how diabolical the plan was. Upon learning that his brother had robbed him, Esau said, “Not for nothing was he named Jacob, the Heel” (The Message) a term we still use in the twenty-first century to refer to someone who’s up to no good.
When Abimelech, his friend, Ahuzzath, and Phicol, the commander of his troops, went to see Isaac, Issac asked them, “Why did you come to me? You hate me: You threw me out of your country” (The Message). Their response? “We’ve realized that God is on your side. We’d like to make a deal between us...” (The Message). Isaac’s foes wanted to be on his good side because they recognized the Hand of God on his life and they didn’t want to be on the wrong side of that partnership. Do people see the Hand of God on our lives? Do they desire to be in our good graces because of this? Remember that David tells us in the 110th division of the Psalms that God will make our enemies our footstools.
There’s a little statement, tucked away in Genesis 25:18. The Message bible translates that verse, “The Ishmaelites didn’t get along with any of their kin.” Back in verse 12 of chapter 16, an angel had told Hagar that her son would “Always be stirring up trouble, always at odds with his family. (The Message). The NKJV says, “His hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” Sobering words to consider in 2019.
Abraham wanted Isaac to marry a woman from among his own people. I find this peculiar, as God had taken Abraham away from his people to begin with. In any event, that’s where Rebekah came from – Abraham’s family. Interestingly enough, it was family that brought a great deal of drama to the table. There was Rebekah, herself, who, because of her trickery, was responsible for the rift between her sons. Rebekah’s brother, Laban, with his trickery, caused contention in the home of Jacob. Family!
In Genesis 16, Sarah, interpreting how she thought God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, suggested to her husband, “God has not seen fit to let me have a child. Sleep with my maid. Maybe I can get a family from her.” (The Message). Did Sarah think she was helping God out? Did she really believe that she was the one who knew how this promise was going to pan out? Who knows? What we do know is that before the chapter even ends, Hagar’s insolence towards Sarah on account of her pregnancy had made Sarah so angry she “dealt harshly” with the girl, and Hagar ran away. By chapter 21, after God, in His own time – without any human intervention – blesses Sarah with baby Isaac, Sarah says to Abraham, “Get rid of this slave woman and her son. No child of this slave is going to share inheritance with my son Isaac.” (The Message). Now, whose idea was it for Abraham to sleep with Hagar? Ah, yes. It was Sarah’s. A decision she later came to regret. A decision that brought a great deal of pain, especially, I would imagine, for Abraham who had to choose between his sons. We have to remember that we never know better than God does, and unless He explicitly asks for our help, we need to step aside and let Him work. Oh, and His timing is always perfect.
I’ve often marveled at the account of Abraham haggling with God over the threshold of good people needed to spare Sodom, but in reading The Message bible’s translation of this event, Eugene H. Peterson interprets what verse 22 of Genesis 18 renders in the New King James version as “Abraham still stood before the LORD,” as “Abraham stood in God’s path, blocking [H]is way.” Abraham wouldn’t let God walk away from him! Can you imagine that?! I think it’s unbelievable! Abraham took the role of interceding on behalf of the residents of Sodom very seriously. Could it have been because his nephew, Lot, and his family lived there? Perhaps. Whatever the motivation, this story shows us how critically important intercession can be. Christ does it for us, and we have been given the privilege of doing it for others. Just as God lowered his threshold from 50 righteous to 10 when Abraham asked, we are assured that He hears and responds to us. Verse 29 says, “When God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham and first got Lot out of there before he blasted those cities off the face of the Earth.” (The Message)
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped, the evidence of things not seen.” When God promised Abram that a son from his own body would be his heir and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the night sky, it would be at least 20 years or so before Isaac made his appearance, but, as the song goes, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me.” Because Abram was willing to take God at His word, hoping for a son of his own, in the absence of any evidence save the word of God, God “accounted it to him for righteousness.”
Terah took Abram, Sarai, and Lot and set out from Ur, bound for Canaan. He never got there. When the family got as far as Haran, they settled down, and that’s where Terah died. Eventually, it was Abraham who settled in Canaan, which ultimately became the Promised Land of his descendants. Many times, children will bring to fruition what their parents began.
Isn't it interesting that sometimes we can dish it out, but we can't take it? Cain murdered his defenseless, innocent brother. In. Cold. Blood. Yet, when God pronounced that he would be "under a curse and driven from the ground" (Gen. 4:10 NIV) as well as a "restless wanderer on the Earth" (verse 12) he complained that the punishment was more than he could bear. Really, Dude?! You kill your brother in a jealous rage, and now YOU'RE upset because you're being sent away?! Now that's some serious chutzpah. He wanted from God what he refused to extend to his brother. Mercy. But God is not like man. He's gracious. So, He offered Cain what he did not deserve, promising, "...if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." (verse 15) What unmerited favor!
When God says something will happen, something will happen. Rain didn't begin to fall immediately after Noah and his family entered the ark. Nothing happened for a full week. I would imagine that they had to endure the taunts of those on the outside, not to mention their own misgivings and possible contentious exchanges. But the rain did come. Forty days' worth of it. I'm sure that Noah's faith must have been tested during those seven dry days. He had to rely on his prior experience with God and His trustworthiness to get him through that rough patch. We have to do the same. When our faith is tested, we have to remember that when God says something will happen, it will happen, and He ALWAYS has the last word.
Placing blame and refusing to accept responsibility were two of the first recorded sins.
Very little good can come from rallying with the Enemy.
Contact with evil kills! The result may not always be loss of life, and it may not always be immediate. Evil kills relationships, confidence, peace, vision... It kills!