Today’s devotion for Blogging Through The Bible in 2020 comes from Genesis 35. Genesis 35:1-2 says, “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.’ And Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.'”

God has changed Jacob! The wrestling match that Jacob had a few chapters ago not only had a physical impact on Jacob, but it also symbolized a spiritual impact that God had on Jacob. Jacob is no longer being deceitful. He is now being a godly leader. This is the transformation that God does when a person surrenders to His grace and is saved.

The biggest takeaway from this story is the power of God to change us. The biblical word that is often used is the word repentance. To repent means to have a change of mind and a change of heart. It goes hand in hand with faith. When God saves a person two things take place. First, we recognize our sin and turn away from it (repent). The second thing is we turn to God, trusting in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the only way we can be saved (faith). One important thing to remember about repentance is this, it isn’t just a one time thing. Repentance is a lifestyle, it is something that we are to do every day. Every day we are to die to ourselves and turn towards Jesus in obedience. As we surrender ourselves, God is able to transform us into the person He created us to be, and to help us do the works He created us to do. In order for this to happen, we must surrender to Him. We must admit that we can’t, but He can. Have you repented of your sins and turned in faith to be saved? Is there something in your life that seems impossible to change? Just remember this, the same God who created everything we see, the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, lives inside of every born again child of God. While true change may be impossible for you and I, nothing is impossible for God!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s text for Blogging Through The Bible in 2020 is going to come from Genesis 31. Genesis 31:12 says, “And He said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.'”

This verse is Jacob relaying to his wives what God said to him in a dream. Jacob has been told by God to flee from father-in-law, Laban. Laban at this point has been dealing deceitfully with Jacob for the last 20 years. In many way, Jacob is learning what it was like for his brother, Esau, when Jacob was deceiving him. God comforts Jacob however by telling him that He has seen everything that Laban has done, and God promised that He was going to take care of Jacob and his family.

One of the realities of living in a fallen, sinful world is people are going to mistreat you, use you, and manipulate you for their own purposes. And as hard as it is to take, we need to learn to keep a proper perspective. In the grand scheme of things, what people do to us doesn’t matter in eternity. No one can keep you from loving and obeying God. They can make it hard and uncomfortable, but they are not able to change your standing with God. This is because only God can save us. In Romans 12:19, the apostle Paul writes, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay says the Lord.” Therefore, ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.'” Let’s try not to focus too much on the whole heaping coals of fire on someone’s head. God was communicating in that while they are trying to get a reaction out of you to accuse you; when you do the right thing, you turn their evil and malice back on them. The key part is where God says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” Jesus said in Matthew 5 that we are to “turn the other cheek.” It is admittedly hard to do this, because we feel taken advantage of, lied about, manipulated, and used. So how can we do this? We can remember what Jesus went through so that we could be saved. I’m not downplaying the hurt others have caused you in the past. What I am saying, is that regardless of what you have gone through, we have never been crucified unjustly. Turning the other cheek means that we are learning to trust Jesus for our life, and to trust that He sees what we did, said, and even our attitudes. When we seek revenge, we are demonstrating pride, believing that we can’t trust God to defend us. As Jacob said to his wives, “God sees it all.” That isn’t just talking about what other say, think, or do to us. It also applies to us. Therefore, we must ask God to help us keep our heart clean before Him in regards to others. God is big enough to handle it. He may not handle it the way we want Him to, and He may not handle it when we want Him to, but He is going to handle it. Will you and I trust Him to work it out His way, in His timing, for His glory? Or will we take matters into our own hands, and have their sin become our sin?

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s Scripture for our series, Blogging Through The Bible in 2020 is going to come from Genesis 27. Genesis 27:22 says, “So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.'”

Welcome to another episode of “As Abraham’s Family Turns.” There is so much of the book of Genesis that feels like something you would see either on a soap opera or an episode of the Jerry Springer Show. Abraham practiced deception on multiple occasions in his life, his son Isaac has done the same, and now Isaac’s youngest son, Jacob is following in his dad and granddad’s footsteps. Isaac is old at this point and he is near death. He had told his oldest son, Esau, to go out and hunt, bring back some food to prepare for him, and after he eats it then Isaac would bless Esau. Esau being the oldest, this is how it was supposed to go in his culture. However, if you remember back to Genesis 25, we see that God had prophesied that the older would serve the younger. And now here in Genesis 27, we see exactly how that is going to play out.

While Esau was out hunting and going to come back expecting to receive the paternal blessing, Rebekah hatches a plot for her favorite son, Jacob, to receive the blessing. Instead of going out to hunt for the food, Jacob merely had to go get two kid goats and bring them in. Then, his mom would cook them, and to fool Isaac, Rebekah put the goat skin over Jacob’s hands to make a blind Isaac think it was his hairy son, Esau. The crazy thing is this, it worked. But the interesting thing here is our verse today, Isaac questioned himself. He knew his two sons voices. But instead of listening to his gut and recognizing the voice, he fell victim to walking by touch. With his eye sight failing and Isaac trusting what he felt, the deception worked, and Jacob stole Esau’s blessing. What could this story possibly have to teach us in 2020?

The first lesson that I think we need to see here is the sovereignty of God. to be sovereign means to be in control of all things, at all times. Because He is the sovereign Lord, God can use anyone and anything to accomplish His purpose. This doesn’t meant that God was ok with the deception of Rebekah and Jacob. God will never condone sin. Rather, it is meant to show us that God can use anyone and anything to accomplish His purpose. Another lesson that I think we need to learn here is this, we need to spend time in prayer over decisions, not rush into them. One of the prayers that we should pray each day is for God to give us wisdom and discernment. Isaac had a feeling that something was going on, but instead of praying about it, instead of trusting what he knew; he did things his way. In today’s world we often hear the phrase, “just go with your heart” or “listen to your heart.” That would be great advice, except the Bible says that our heart is “deceitful and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). Because of our sin nature, our heart wants what it wants, and it seldom cares who gets hurt or how it has to go about getting what it wants. If we are going to walk in wisdom, we must pray to the Father of wisdom. God has all the knowledge we need, and He is waiting on you to ask Him. The last lesson from this story is about discernment. This goes along with prayer, because prayer is how God gives us discernment. But it takes it a little further. Discernment comes as we ask God what is right, and then we spend time in the Bible. The ability to look down the road and determine the possible outcome of a decision was make today is what the Bible calls prudence. This is something that we desperately need today in our culture. We need wisdom from God and discernment to know what is right, and then we need to practice prudence to see how a decision today could affect our future, and the futures of those around us.

Let’s no be in such a big hurry all of the time. Let’s take our time to pray and study Scripture, and to allow God to give us the wisdom we need for the decisions that we can make. As long as we follow God, we will never go wrong.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s post is going to come from Genesis 29. Genesis 29:25 says, “So it came to pass in the morning, that behold it was Leah. And he said to Laban, ‘What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?'”

The deceiver has been deceived! After tricking and manipulating his father and stealing what was his brother’s, Jacob has to run away. He comes to his uncle’s land. His uncle’s name is Laban. Jacob sees Rachel and it was love at first sight. He decides he is going to marry her. He goes and talks with Laban, and they agree on the terms for the marriage. Jacob is to work for Laban for seven years, and then he can marry Rachel. However, on the wedding day, Laban pulls a fast one. Instead of giving Rachel to be married to Jacob, Laban gives his oldest daughter, Leah, to be married to Jacob. Jacob doesn’t realize that he had been duped until the next morning. This is the first time Jacob is getting a taste of is own medicine, but it won’t be the last time. So what are the lessons for us in this?

One lesson that we can learn from this is how God uses everything as a means to prepare us for what He is going to do in us and through us. Jacob didn’t realize it at the time, but this was going to be the first step in God’s process of breaking Jacob of his deceitful ways. As we discussed in an earlier post, God uses every day situations to draw us to Himself. We will see the change that happens in Jacob in a few chapters, but this was the beginning of God changing Jacob. The other lesson that we should take away from this is the importance of being truthful. We need to be truthful no matter what, regardless of what it costs us, because in the end we will always pay a higher price when the lie is exposed. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon wrote, “lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight” (Prov. 12:22). Sometimes, it isn’t easy telling the truth, especially if it is going to hurt someone. But in the end, if we choose to lie, we will end up hurting them more in the end when they learn the truth. The final lesson we should take from this is to be a man/woman of our word. I can still hear my grandpa and dad saying, “Son, a man is only as good as his word.” Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes, and your no be no, for anything more than this is from the evil one” (Mt. 5:37). One of the hardest parts of life is this, people are going to lie to you at times. Truth be told, we lie to others from time to time as well. But, we can take joy in knowing this, God not only does not lie, but Titus 1:2 says that God cannot lie. Therefore, when we come to His Word, we can know whatever it says is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is why we should come to Him when we need wisdom, because He will reveal the truth about our situation, and point us in the right direction this time and every time.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s Bible passage is going to come from Genesis 26. Genesis 26:7 says, “And the men of the place asked about his wife. and he said, ‘She is my sister’; for he was afraid to say, ‘she is my wife’, because he thought, ‘lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.'”

If the lie of “she’s my sister” seems familiar, it’s because it is. You may be think that Genesis 26 is recounting the lie that Abraham told a few chapters back. While it is the same lie, this isn’t a recounting of Abraham telling it; this is Abraham’s son, Isaac telling the same lie. The amazing thing about this story is that the circumstances for Isaac are similar to what they were for Abraham when he told this same lie. Not only were the circumstances similar for both, but so was the reason for the lie. They told the lie to preserve their life.

I believe this story along with Abraham’s gives us two very important warnings. The first is we must guard our heart and life. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Our attitudes, words, and actions spring forth from what is in our heart. Jesus said in Matthew 15 that every sin begins in our heart. This leads to the second warning, and it is geared towards parents, but also other Christians. The warning is this, our words, attitudes, and actions don’t just affect us. What we say and do affects those around us. In Exodus 20:5, “For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” This doesn’t mean that God will punish the children for sins that their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents commit. In fact, God says that He won’t do that in Deuteronomy 24:16. What it means is that the consequences of our sin extend down for generations. The primary way this happens is that often what the parents struggle with, their children will struggle with to some degree if not even more than their parents. It reminds me of what I heard Pastor Jonathan Falwell say years ago, “what one generation does in moderation, the next will do in excess.” This certainly speaks to parents, and should give us pause in what we do, especially in front of our children. But it also extends to those who identify as Christians, because people are watching and listening to us. And in doing so, they are deciding what God is like, and is He worthy of their love and devotion. Therefore, when we gather together in the church building for worship or events, our children, teens, and others are listening and watching. I like how one of our Bible study teachers here at WBC put it; Adam said, “Kids in the church are looking around and deciding if they stay in church, what will they become like?” As I told him after he finished teaching that morning, “brother, that will preach!” It’s not meant to be a condemnation, but rather a loving warning from a loving heavenly Father that we are more influential than we think we are, so let’s influence people towards Christ.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s reading comes from Genesis 24. Genesis 24:26 says, “Then the man bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord.”

Genesis 24 is the story of Abraham sending his oldest servant back to his home area to find a wife for Isaac. While on this journey, the servant made a specific request to the Lord. The servant wanted to make sure that the woman he found for Isaac was indeed the one that the Lord wanted Isaac to marry, and the one who Abraham would approve of. Therefore, the servant asked, let the woman who comes to the well and gives me something to drink when I ask for it, and volunteers to also give water to my camels, let her be the one You (God) have chosen for Isaac.” God grants this request, and in doing so, the servant worships the Lord. It is clear that the servant isn’t a believer or hasn’t surrendered in faith to God. This is clear because he refers to God as “the Lord of my master Abraham” instead of simply referring to God as his God. Therefore, we see God using this event to draw the servant into a saving faith in God. While the servant thought he was going on a journey to find a wife for Isaac; God was sending the servant on a journey to find something greater than a wife for Isaac, God wanted the servant to find Him, and trust in Him.

There are a couple of important lessons for us in this story. The first is that everything God does or allows in our lives has a purpose. For the unbeliever, God is trying to draw you into a relationship with Himself. He will use anything He deems necessary to do so. For the believer, He uses circumstances, trials, difficulties, and even good times as a method to draw us closer to Him, and into a deeper dependence upon God. Therefore, we need to learn to evaluate what is going on in us and around us by asking the question, Lord what are you trying to show me or do in me through this circumstance? The second lesson we can learn is that God answers our prayers. On his own, the servant would have not had any way to know which woman was the right woman for Isaac. However, upon asking God to reveal His will, God does. I am convinced that the biggest reason we don’t see God move in our lives, our families, our churches, and our nation is not because God doesn’t want to, but rather because we don’t ask Him to. God is not playing some cosmic hide-and-seek game. He invites us to seek after Him diligently with our whole heart, and He even gives the promise that if we do we will find Him. What areas do you need to see God move in your life or your family? What is the church you attend asking God to do in them and through them? Have you asked Him? Let’s remember, we can do a lot after we have prayed, but we can’t do anything that will make a difference until we have prayed.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s Scripture for our yearlong series, Blogging Through The Bible in 2020, comes from Genesis 22. Genesis 22:5 says, “And Abraham said his young men, ‘stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

The story of Abraham and Isaac going up the mountain is a pretty familiar story to many people, including many who are not regular church-goers. For those who are not believers, this is a very strange story, because it doesn’t make sense why God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his son in the first place. Having the benefit of being able to read the rest of the story, we know how it ends. However, as a father, I try to put myself in Abraham’s shoes. The four children that God has given me are absolutely blessings from God. I love them, and I am willing to sacrifice my life for the safety of their lives. While I like to think, just as most Christians would, that I would be willing to love God so much that I would obey Him no matter what He asked me to; I have to admit, if He asked me to sacrifice one of my children to demonstrate my love and trust for Him, I would struggle and pause. Maybe this shows a lack of faith on my part, and if so, I praise God that He has revealed to me the lack of faith, and I pray that He would help me to grow in my faith so that my faith would not be lacking in anyway.

Then there is the flip side of this story, Isaac’s side. As a son, I have often tried to put myself in his shoes. While we often think of Isaac as a young boy in this text, the details of the story do not support that conclusion. Isaac was old enough to go and participate in sacrifices to God, and he was strong he enough to be able to carry the wood and supplies for the sacrifice. It is within the realm of reason to believe that Isaac was most likely between 10-13 years old at the time of this event. When we think of it this way, it somewhat changes the story for us. Isaac isn’t some small child just wanting to be with his dad, wherever his dad goes. He is what we call a pre-teen or maybe even a teenager. He was smart enough to recognize that they had everything for a sacrifice, except the sacrifice. Then we see him willing obey his father and lay down on the altar. I love my dad, but I think I might have a few questions for him if all of the sudden he is telling me to get on an altar because I am going to be a sacrifice to God as a demonstration of his love and devotion to God. Again, maybe that is revealing a deficiency in my faith. But it is in these two views that we learn some amazing truths about God, and ourselves.

One of the lessons we learn about God is His all-powerfulness. At just the right time, a ram not only got caught in a thicket, but it was close enough that Abraham could respond to God and go offer the ram instead of Isaac. From this we also get a glimpse again of a substitute being provided by God. When Abraham responds to Isaac, “God will provide Himself a lamb”, it truly takes on a double meaning. First, God is going to provide the lamb for the sacrifice. The second one is that God, Himself, is going to provide Himself as the sacrifice. And it is in this second meaning that we clearly see the picture of the cross come into focus. God’s plan from the beginning was to provide a substitute not only for Isaac, but more importantly for the world. That substitute for man was none other than God Himself. What God stopped Abraham from doing to Isaac on Mt. Moriah, God Himself did to His own Son at Calvary. Abraham’s sacrifice would have been for one person, himself. God’s sacrifice of Jesus was for the world.

What we learn about ourselves is ultimately where our faith is. I can’t imagine being Abraham. He is asked to not only sacrifice his son, but the magnitude of the sacrifice. Isaac wasn’t just any boy, he was Abraham’s son, the son of the promise. Do you think Abraham had some questions going through his mind on that three day journey? I know I would. Isaac was the promised son, how could God fulfill His promise to Abraham if Abraham had to kill the promised son? Again, this is pointing us to a greater fulfillment accomplished by Jesus. In Isaac, we see a steadfast love, trust, and devotion to his father. It was no small feat to put himself up on that altar and let himself be bound. In this way, Isaac points us to Jesus, who said that He came to do the will of the One who sent Him (John 6:38). As much faith as it took for Abraham to do what he did, it also took a tremendous amount of faith for Isaac to do what he did. This is the definition of worship. Abraham said in our verse, “the lad and I will go yonder and worship.” It is clear that Abraham believed that was he was going to do was an act of worship. To worship means to ascribe worth to someone or something. It is to declare through your actions that someone is bigger than you, greater than you, and that they are worthy of your love and devotion. As much as Abraham loved Isaac, he loved God more. Can the same be said of us?

True worship comes from deep pain and sacrifice, and it’s not a sacrifice if it doesn’t cost of something. We must be willing to follow God’s lead no matter what. But we can know that the greatest blessings are birthed out of the greatest pains. And that anything we sacrifice on the altar as worship to God pales in comparison to His glory and His surpassing worth. Let us be challenged today to ask God to reveal any deficiencies in our faith, and ask for His help to grow us to the point that we see our lives as a continuous sacrifice to Him.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s passage comes from Genesis 20. Genesis 20:6 says, “And God said to him in a dream, ‘Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore, I did not let you touch her.”

I will admit, this is one of the “odd” sections of the Bible. Abraham has journeyed into the land ruled by Abimelech. Once again, Abraham and Sarah have conspired to lie and deceive someone in order to protect Abraham’s sorry neck. They have again told the lie that Sarah is Abraham’s sister. The reason you ask? Because Abraham was convinced that if Sarah said that she was his wife, the people would see her beauty, and want her for themselves; therefore, they would kill Abraham. One thing that is worth noting here, both of them are complicit in this lie. And later in the passage it is clear that every time they go to a new land, they plan on telling this same lie. Therefore, you almost feel sorry for Abimelech and his household, because they get caught up in the tangled web of deception spun by Abraham and Sarah. In fact, later in Genesis 20, we see that Abimelech’s wife and female servants are unable to have children from the time he took Sarah to be his wife. When God reveals what had happened, Abimelech pleads his case for God not to kill them. Was Abimelech about to commit adultery by sleeping with Sarah? The text certainly indicates that was about to happen. But then we see that God kept that from happening. I heard a pastor say one time, “my greatest enemy is the inner me.” Abimelech was ruled by his eyes (and hormones). Abraham was ruled by his need for self-preservation. Sarah as ruled by her desire to please her husband even though she knew lying was wrong. Despite enough blame to go around, we see the mercy and grace of God. Before Abimelech can commit adultery God warns him. Then God protected Abraham and Sarah, because Abimelech would have been within his rights to have them killed for lying and causing problems for his household.

There are two lessons I believe we can take away from this story. The first is our need for godly wisdom and discernment. It is natural and easy for us to follow the wisdom of the world. However, what we truly need is wisdom that comes from God, and discernment given to us by God. Just because a situation looks right doesn’t mean that it is right. Just because a decision seems obvious, doesn’t make it the right decision. We would be wise to heed the advice of Solomon in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He shall direct your paths.” If we are going to gain godly wisdom and discernment, we must be men and women of prayer, as well as, men and women of the Bible. The other lesson I see that we can take away from this story is an understanding that our sinful choices don’t just affect us, they affect other people around us. Because of Abraham’s sinful need for self-preservation, he made his wife a party to his lie and in this case he caused great suffering and nearly caused the death of people who had no idea of what he had done. In our sin nature, we like to believe that the decisions that we make are just about us, and that they don’t involve others. The reality is that is far from the truth. Our decisions not only affect us, but they affect those around us, and in many cases they affect those who will come after us as well. This is why we see God say in Exodus that He will visit the sins of the father to the third and fourth generation. This doesn’t mean that God will hold a man’s son, grandson, great-grandson, and/or great, great-grandson responsible for his choices. Rather, it means that the sins we struggle with, are often the sins that our children will struggle with. As I heard Pastor Jonathan Falwell preach one day, “What one generation does in moderation, the next generation will do in excess.” I would say that we are certainly seeing that in our nation right now.

What decisions do you need to make today? What sins do you need God’s help with in overcoming? The good news is, you can go to Him in prayer as His child, and now that He will hear your prayer, and He will answer it in His time and in His way. Let’s make sure that the wisdom that we seek for our daily lives is the wisdom from above.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s verse for Blogging Through The Bible in 2020 comes from Genesis 18. Genesis 18:!4 says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

God has again come to Abraham to remind him of the covenant that God made with Abraham. A covenant that through Abraham’s seed, he would make a great nation that would be a blessing to the world. The immediate fulfillment of this covenant is Isaac. However, it is also pointing us to the ultimate fulfillment, which is Jesus Christ. At this point of Genesis 18, Abraham and Sarah are very old. In fact, Sarah is around 90 years old and Abraham is 98 years old. They are well past the child-bearing years. Conventional wisdom says that God has not followed through on His promise. This is why God asks the question in the opening of our verse, is anything too hard for the Lord? He is calling Abraham’s attention to the fact that He is an all-powerful God. If He wants to overthrow the laws of nature that He created, He is able to do so. In reiterating His covenant promise to Abraham, God is also demonstrating His faithfulness to His children and to His promises.

The biggest lesson for us to takeaway from this verse and story is that we must learn to take God at His word. The writer of Hebrews says, “But without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). It doesn’t matter what a situation looks like. God can move and He can change things as well as people at any time. Who knows what God will do as we trust Him and take Him at His word? But we will never know until we start trusting Him and taking Him at His word. If God has said it, He meant it. If He has promised it, He will deliver it. Because the answer to the question, is there anything too hard for the Lord, is a resounding, no there isn’t anything too hard for Him! What are you praying about? What are you begging God to do in your life right now? Where are the places in your life and those around you that you need to see God move right now? Take them to the Lord in prayer, and trust that He will answer in the right way and the right time.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin

Today’s text for Blogging Through The Bible in 2020 comes from Genesis 16, and the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Genesis 16:2 says, “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.”

Abraham and Sarah were still waiting on God to fulfill His promise to them of giving Abraham an heir. However, like many of us today, Abraham and Sarah became impatient. Therefore, they decided to come up with a plan of their own. Another way that we are like Abraham and Sarah in this story is that when things didn’t go well, Sarah blamed Abraham and in a sense, Sarah blamed God for what was going on. We love to blame others for our poor choices don’t we? Instead of being patient and trusting in God’s timing, Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands. The results of this disastrous decision are still being felt in the world today, because the conflict in the Middle East largely surrounds the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. Let this serve as a lesson for us, the decisions that we make don’t just affect us. Our decisions often affect those around us, and they can affect our lives and our families for generations to come.

There is another lesson to be learned here. That lesson is that we need to trust God’s timing and His Word. While it may have seemed like a long time since God made His promise to Abraham, in the context of eternity, it hadn’t been that long. God never said when He was going to give Abraham an heir, He simply promised that He would, and that the heir would help produce many descendants, and that Abraham’s family would be blessed and be a blessing to the world. It’s important that we not try to force God’s hand, or put God on some arbitrary timetable. We instead must learn to trust in God’s timing, because His timing is always right. This is the second time in just the first 16 chapters of the Bible that weak leadership is displayed that results in disastrous consequences. The first of course was Adam not protecting and leading Eve, and the resulting fall of mankind into sin. Here, instead of trusting God’s timing, Abraham gives in to his wife. No, it’s not wrong to listen to your wife. In fact, Scripture would encourage husbands and wives to work together through studying Scripture and praying together when it comes to decisions for themselves, and their family. The issue here is that Abraham listened to Sarah and chose her decision over God’s word. Regardless of who they are, anytime someone’s wisdom goes against God’s Word, we must reject it. So I can I know that I am following God’s will?

If we want to be in God’s will we need to do two things at a minimum. The first thing is, we must pray. When it comes to making a decision, there isn’t always a right or wrong choice. Sometimes, it is a decision between something good and something better. Therefore, when we are praying, we want to pray specifically. If we have a feeling or belief in what we think is right, we could pray something like, Lord, I believe that you are calling me/we to do ___________, is this your will or am I supposed to wait for something better? There isn’t anything magical about those words; rather, it is praying specifically about the decision. The second thing we should do at a minimum is read the Bible. A lot of times, what we “feel” is right is often not what God says is right. Other times, we have made our decision and just want to make it sound spiritual, so we ask God to bless our plans regardless of whether or not He has directed us to do it or not. One of the easiest ways to make sure that we are following God’s will is to be in God’s Word. Prayer is us talking to God about what is on our heart and going on in life, and the Bible is how God talks back to us. Therefore, these two things go hand in hand. When we are opening our mouth in prayer, we should do so with an open Bible in front of us.

The last lesson for us in this text is on leadership. We are a nation and a world that is starving for genuine, godly leadership. In God’s design, that leadership must begin in the home. This mantle has been laid on men. Not because we are somehow better or that women are not capable of leadership. It has to do with the order of creation, and who God gave the responsibility of looking out for Eve at creation (see 1 Tim. 2:9-15). God has called us as men to be loving, compassionate, selfless, sacrificial, and servants for our families. We must strive to know God and to obey Him.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin