I am now sharing the story of Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, which is found in Genesis 15; however. I want to remind you that in the previous chapter, God told Abram that he would have a child who would come forth from his bowels. The scriptures do not indicate that Abram shared this word with his wife, Sarai, or whether he asked God if she would be the one to bear him a child. This left me with questions about Abram’s actions in chapter sixteen.
After being married to Abram for numerous years and living in the land of Canaan for ten years, Sarai, who suffered from barrenness, came up with what she felt was an acceptable solution. If Abram was willing to comply, she would use Hagar, her handmaid, to bear them a child, and after it was born, she would raise the child as her own.
When presented with this proposition, Abram complied and had sexual encounters with Hagar. Consequently, when Hagar realized she was pregnant, she treated Sarai with contempt. As to be expected, tension and conflict arose between Sarai and Hagar, and Sarai blamed Abram for the animosity she was experiencing. She said, “My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the Lord judge between me and thee.” Wanting peace with his wife, Abram told Sarai she could punish Hagar, and with his permission, Sarai abused Hagar, which caused her to run away.
It was by a spring in the desert on the road to Shur that an angel found Hagar and questioned her about her actions and plans. When she told the angel what she had done, the angel instructed Hagar. “Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.” He also revealed to Hagar that she would bear a male child, whose name was to be Ishmael, and that he would have many descendants. Ishmael would have a warlike disposition, live a turbulent life as a nomad, and continue to have confrontations with others.
This encounter with the angel was extremely meaningful to Hagar, for after it occurred, Hagar acknowledged that God saw her when she was feeling hopeless. She also named the well that lay between Kadesh and Bered “Beerlahairoi,” which means “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” Hagar returned to Sarai and bore Ishmael, Abram’s firstborn son, when Abram was eighty-six years old.
Historically, surrogacy is not a modern practice, for it was a common legal practice in the ancient Middle East. Women who lived during that time were stigmatized for their barrenness and treated with disdain by family and neighbors. Having children, particularly males, was a wish of all the women, as it gave them honor and built their esteem and self-worth. If, over time, a wife was unable to bear a child, the husband could take his wife’s handmaid or a concubine to fulfill the need for a person capable of bearing a child, and when born, the child would be considered the child of the mistress. Thus, we have Sarai’s suggestion. Commentators believe that Hagar was possibly given to Abram by Pharaoh when the family went down to Egypt during the famine, and Abram gave Hagar to Sarai as a handmaid. There was probably a congenial relationship between Sarai and Hagar; therefore, she was chosen as the surrogate.
Genesis 16:7 is the first mention in Scripture of an angel meeting with a human, and in verse 11, Ishmael was the first baby named before his birth. Equally important, he is considered the father of the Arab nation.
Here are the nuggets I gained from Genesis 16:
Longing makes you susceptible to poor judgment.
Being unfruitful does not give you the right to use others to produce what you could not.
Giving in to fleshy desires can lead to a life of regrets.
The solution to your problem should not be to follow the customs of your day.
Failure to ask essential questions can cause misguided actions.
When God speaks something to you, when in doubt, ask for clarification.
Rather than second-guess the will of God, ask Him for needed insight.
Own up to your mistakes.
God does not need your intervention to bring His promises to fruition.
Poor decisions can impact you for the remainder of your life.
God sees and hears those who are in despair.
God will seek out the forsaken, and He will send a word to sustain them.
Though you may not understand, God has a plan for your life.
Sometimes, you must revisit an undesirable situation.
Sometimes you have to live with your regrets.
Years have passed since God first spoke to Abram and told him, “I will make of thee a great nation” and, “Unto thy seed will I give the land,” yet he and his wife Sarai remained childless. Therefore, when the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and told him He was his shield and exceeding great reward, Abram questioned Him about being childless. Abram wondered if his steward, Eliezer of Damascus, was supposed to fulfill that position. God responded, “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”
God also told Abram that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Hearing this, Abram believed that which God spoke to him, and God considered him righteous on account of his faith.
God rehearsed with Abram what He did for him. Because He planned for Abram to inherit the land of Canaan, He brought him out of the city of Ur of the Chaldees. Wanting to be assured, Abram asked, “Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” As an answer, God tells Abram to prepare an offering of a three-year-old heifer, she goat, and ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. In his preparation, Abram divided the larger animals in half and laid them side by side; however, he placed the birds whole. Eventually, vultures attempted to devour portions of the offering; however, Abram scared them away.
When evening time came, a dreadful feeling came upon Abram as he slept. Furthermore, God revealed to Abram that for four hundred years, his posterity would be in a foreign land where they would experience oppression, and God would judge the oppressors. After four generations, Abram’s posterity would leave that place with a great bounty. Abram would die peacefully at an old age.
When darkness increased, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between the sacrificial offering, and God made a covenant with Abram. From the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria, the land belonging to the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Girgashites would be given to Abram’s seed.
Historically, after returning from successfully battling the four Eastern kings in the previous chapter, the king of Sodom offered Abram a reward, which he rejected. In this chapter, God tells him that He will be his reward.
This was the second recorded instance of God making a covenant with humanity. Typically, when a covenant was made between two individuals in ancient times, the sacrifice was cut in half, and the individuals would pass between the halves. This covenant was a one-sided (unilateral) covenant for Abram watched while God acted on behalf of both of them. Abram could not break this covenant because he was a recipient and not a co-signer. God did it all.
Now, here are the nuggets I gained from Genesis 15:
God can bring hope into what appears to be a hopeless situation.
God does not want His children to fear, for He protects them from dangers seen and unseen.
God is the greatest reward an individual can receive.
Drive away the unwanted forces that would devour your sacrifices.
God shares with us both the good and the bad.
Receiving land is a blessing from God.
According to Genesis 14, there were five kings of Canaan who, for twelve years, paid tribute to Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. However, in the thirteenth year, they decided to stop doing so. In turn, King Chedorlaomer, with the assistance of three Eastern kings, waged a victorious war against the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the Emins, the Horites, the Amorites, and all the country of the Amalekites. Also, during the battle, some of the defeated soldiers, while attempting to flee, fell into the slime pits in the Valley of Siddim, while others were able to escape to the mountains. Consequently, the victorious King Chedorlaomer and his men conquered Sodom and Gomorrah, taking all of its possessions and food along with Lot and his household.
An escapee of the battle came to Abram and delivered the bad news concerning Lot and his household. Being the concerned uncle that he was, Abram gathered his three hundred eighteen trained servants together with his allies and pursued after the enemy. When he arrived at their encampment, Abram divided his group and successfully attacked and killed some of them, then pursued the others.
With his successful military venture, Abram brought back Lot, Lot’s household, the other captives, and all their belongings. The king of Sodom, along with other kings, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, went out to meet Abram. King Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, brought bread and wine to Abram and blessed him and God for delivering Abram in battle, and Abram gave him tithes from the spoils he obtained from the battle.
When the king of Sodom told Abam to give him the citizens of Sodom but to keep the spoils, Abram refused to do so. Abram said, “I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich. Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”
Historically, this is the first war recorded in the scriptures. It was a common international occurrence in the old world where coalitions of nations sought to plunder and subjugate land from those around them.
It is believed that Abram had an agreement with the Amorites, Mamre, Eschol, and Aner, which is why they joined him to fight against the Eastern kings. Upon returning from the battle with the recovered spoils, he did not impose his convictions on them but allowed them to decide if they wanted to receive the reward offered by the king of Sodom.
In Abram’s act of rescuing his nephew, he fulfilled the promise of Genesis 12:3 to be a blessing.
Melchizedek’s name means “king of righteousness,” and the blessing in the name of the Lord given to Abram by him is indicative of his priestly position. This is the first time a priest is mentioned in Scripture, and many believe he foreshadowed Jesus Christ in his dual role as King and High Priest. Additionally, Salem, the place of Melchizedek’s kingship, was the original Jerusalem, and Abram’s tithing to Melchizedek is the first time tithes are mentioned in Scripture.
Finally, here are the nuggets from this chapter:
Being in the wrong place can result in your captivity.
Some individuals will go to war when their family members are taken into captivity.
Training is necessary to support the success of a war effort.
Cognition of the giver of things offered to you is essential.
Attacking the enemy at night from various directions can lead to victory.
With the favor of God, you can win major battles.
When you have faith in God to bless and provide for you, your acceptance of goods from another source becomes unthinkable.
Thankfully, the Pharaoh of Egypt sent Abram and his household away without requiring Abram to return the sheep, oxen, asses, camels, men, servants, and maidservants he had been given. Abram departed Egypt unharmed and wealthier than when he arrived there. Genesis 13:2 states, “And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” Abram journeyed back to Bethel, the place where he had first erected an altar to God when he came into the land of Canaan, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
Not only did Abram prosper, but also his nephew Lot, which created a problem for the land, as it already had nations dwelling there and could not accommodate both of them. Consequently, Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen began disputing with each other, and to keep the peace, Abram suggested they separate. Abram gave Lot the first choice of the land, and seeing the fertile, watered plain of Jordan, Lot chose it. Unfortunately, Lot journeyed eastward and pitched his tent toward Sodom, where the inhabitants were described as exceedingly wicked sinners.
With the departure of Lot, God revealed to Abram that all the land he could behold to the north, south, east, and west would be given to him and his posterity, which would become numerous as the dust of the earth. God instructed Abram to traverse the length and breadth of the land, which he continued to do during his lifetime.
This chapter ends with Abram for now settling in Mamre and building an altar unto the Lord.
Historically, the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelled in the land before Abram and Lot arrived, thus limiting the pasture for the animals. As the patriarch of the family, Abram had the right to choose which section of land he wanted first; however, he generously allowed Lot to do so.
Lot left Adam with a hilly and mountainous terrain that was arid and rugged, depending on seasonal rainfall and being less fertile than the location he chose. In time, Lot’s location was destroyed by fire, while Abram’s land was the one promised and blessed by God.
Note the direction of Abram in this chapter. Abram goes up to Cannan after going down into Egypt in chapter twelve. Also, while down in Egypt, there is no record of Abram communing with God.
Here are the nuggets from this chapter:
Even in our mistakes, God causes men to bless us.
After deliverance, return to the place of worship and promise.
Above personal gain, prioritize peace and unity in your relationships.
When you realign yourself with God, build an altar and give thanks.
If there is strife among family members, be the peacemaker.
In the midst of conflict, be willing to seek peace.
Seek to resolve family conflict.
Just don’t choose something because it looks good.
What looks pleasing to the eye may actually be detrimental to your future.
Prioritize peace and unity in our relationships above personal gain.
Everything that looks good to you is not good for you.
When making a decision, get direction from God first.
Put God first wherever you go.
To avoid disaster in the future, consult with God first.
As you journey through life, walk in fellowship with God.
Before settling in a place, investigate the surroundings.
From time to time, God will remind you of the promises he made to you.
Earlier in this twelfth chapter of Genesis, we saw after hearing six covenant promises from God, Abram responded to God’s instruction and left his country and journeyed to a land that God showed him. Also revealed was the fact that despite God telling him to get away from his kindred, Abram took his nephew Lot and his household with him.
Upon arrival in Canaan, God appeared to Abram and informed him that his seed would be given the land. Abram stayed in Canaan until there was a famine, and then he left Canaan and went down to Egypt.
Sarai was a beautiful woman, and Abram felt the Egyptians would kill him and take Sarai, so he told her while in Egypt if questioned to say she was his sister. As he expected, the princes of Pharoah saw how beautiful Sarai was, and they told Pharoah, who in turn took Sarai. In payment for Sarai, Pharaoh gave Abram sheep, oxen, asses, menservants, and maidservants. Nevertheless, God caused great plagues to beset Pharoah’s house because of the displacement of Sarai.
The scriptures do not reveal how Pharaoh realized Sarai caused the plagues, nor does it tell how he realized Sarai was Abram’s wife. It does share that Pharaoh confronted Abram about Sarai being his wife, returned her to him, and sent him away without harm by him or his men.
This chapter disclosed how Abram went from faith in God to fear of man, and in doing so, he put his wife’s life in jeopardy. Fearing for his own life and acting unadvisedly, Abram places Sarai in a dangerous position. Sarai had to cover him when Abram, the head of the household, should have been protecting her. If not for the intervention of God, Sarai might have ended up being violated by Pharoah.
Recognize, spiritually speaking, that when Abram left his place of promise, he went down. While in Egypt, Abram did not build any altars to God. Nevertheless, the province of God willed that Sarai’s worth bring riches to Abram, which allowed Abram to gain wealth. Finally and most importantly, despite Abram’s faulty choices, God delivered him and his family.
Here are the nuggets I extracted from this blog:
No matter what negative situations are happening, stay in your assigned place.
If you have faith and trust in God for one thing, you can trust him in all things.
Trust God for your daily provisions.
Prayer and direction from God are necessary prior to making moves.
Fear for your life can make you forget the promises of God.
Married people sometimes lie for their mates.
Denying marital status can lead to adultery.
When you are out of your assigned place, you must make unwanted adjustments.
When you are out of your assigned place, you enter dangerous territory.
When you are out of your assigned place, your family can be compromised.
When you are out of your assigned place, those around you can suffer.
Your employed subterfuge can lead to unwanted consequences.
Despite your failings, God is present to deliver.
God will afflict people to get you where you belong.
When you are delivered, return to your assigned place.
This blog is the beginning of a new series that I will be sharing on the life of Abraham. I have found him to be a man of faith and fears. Additionally, I have found that his life offers many teaching and learning experiences for believers, leaders, marriages, and families. It is my prayer and hope that as you read the blogs, your life will receive direction and be enriched. The format I will be using is first, I will share the story, then give additional historical information if there is any, and finally, I will give the nuggets. Once again, I pray you will be blessed as you read.
We first heard of Abram in Genesis 11, which shared his lineage that revealed he was a twenty-generation descendant of Adam and a tenth-generation descendant from Noah, who was alive for fifty-eight years of Abram’s life. Shem, Noah’s son, begat Arphaxad, and he begat Salah, who begat Eber, who begat Peleg, and who begat Reu. Reu begat Serug, who begat Nahor, Abram’s grandfather, and in time, he begat Terah, who was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Abram was raised and married to Sarai in the land of his nativity, Ur of the Chaldees, before his father took Abram, Sarai, his daughter-in-law, and Lot, his grandson, on a journey to the land of Canaan. However, when they came to Haran, they took up residence there, and it was here that God spoke to Abram and instructed him to separate himself from his family and go to a land that He would show him. By obeying this instruction, Abram’s descendants would become a great nation, and his name would become great; he would be blessed and be a blessing. Furthermore, those who blessed Abram would be blessed, and those who cursed him would be cursed, and finally, through Abram, all families of the earth would be blessed.
Genesis 12 reveals that Abram obeyed half of God’s instruction when he took his nephew Lot with him. So, at age seventy-five, with all of their substances and households, Abram, his wife, Sarai, and Lot left Haran and went to the land of Canaan. Upon arrival in the plain of Moreh, God appeared to Abram and said, “Unto thy seed will I give this land.” In response to this word, Abram built an altar for the Lord. Journeying on, they moved unto a mountain on the east of Bethel where Abram built the second altar and called upon the name of the Lord.
Here are the additional historical notes:
Abram, whose name would be eventually changed by God to Abraham, was a major patriarch in the Old Testament who was also called the Father of Faith by Paul in Romans 4.
Abram was born during the Dispensation of Human Government, and when he obeyed God’s instruction and went into Canaan, the Dispensation of Promise began.
Abram’s father, Terah, was an idolater and polytheist (worshipper of many gods).
According to Acts 7:2 – 4, God appeared to Abram in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and told him to leave his native land and family before he moved to Haran (Syria) with his father. From the Genesis 11:31-32 recording, it was revealed that Abram did not leave his family until his father died, and God spoke to him again with the same instructions.
God promised Abram headship, blessings, prestige, divine reciprocation, and a redemptive seed.
Here are the nuggets:
Old age does not exempt you from being called by God.
Sometimes, it is challenging to break family attachments.
Sometimes, years pass before we obey God’s directive.
God will call you out of your comfort zone and send you into the unfamiliar.
God will separate you from your idolatrous family members to establish a relationship with you.
God graciously calls you and blesses you.
God gives promises.
It is God who makes your name great
Unordain connections will produce future problems.
God will give you that which belongs to the ungodly.
Matthew 6 is part of the teachings that Jesus did with His disciples on the mount. In the first part of this chapter, Jesus talked about alms, praying, which included a format on how to pray to the Father, forgiveness, fasting, the heart, materialism, worry, and lastly what to seek first.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” In the two verses prior to this He expressed three thing that people worry about, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” Additionally, Jesus ends with this, “For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. “
We are living in a time when people face a multitude of concerns that go far beyond basic needs like food, water, and clothing. Today’s worries include health care, inflation, federal budget cuts, racism, educational disparities, addiction, personal debt, unemployment, crime, deteriorating infrastructure, climate change, and famine — to name just a few. Thank God, all of these worries, according to 1 Peter 5:7, can be cast upon God, for He cares for us. All that is needed is for us to prioritize our actions and be intentional in doing so. Put God first, and understand that in a kingdom, what the king legislates, his citizens obey, and the result of obedience is blessings. So, read the Word, obey it, and then rest knowing God knows and cares.
This week, I had the privilege of teaching a class called “EXPLORING DANIEL,” and in it, I shared information on Daniel chapters nine and ten. While preparing for this class, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me about the undeserved credit we give Satan. We blame him for every unfortunate thing that happens to us. Some things are God-orchestrated, Satan and his evil spirits cause some things, and some things are self-inflicted. I believe what I shared with the class is worth repeating, so I am sharing it in this blog.
Most believers know that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, and unfortunately, many ascribe these traits to Satan; however, Satan is none of those. Satan was an anointed-created cherub who was called Lucifer before his pride and rebellion against God caused him to lose his heavenly position.
Those angels that joined in with his rebellion are now part of Satan’s kingdom, who, with demonic spirits, carry out his bidding. Satan has a throne, and it is here that his forces gather to report world events and receive their diabolic instructions. You see, Satan can only be in one place at a time. If his forces did not report to him what was happening, he would not know. On the other hand, God’s presence is everywhere in this galaxy and beyond; God is omnipresent. He does not need anyone to tell him what is happening in the world He created.
God has the capacity to know all things and everything. He knows the smallest minute details to the greatest. He knows everyone who lived on this Earth, when they were born and when they died. God knows your pain and your joy. Presently, 8.2 billion people live on Earth, and God knows them all. If we all prayed to Him at the same time, He would hear all of us at the same time.
Satan’s knowledge is limited to his experiences and the information he receives, and I don’t think he has the capacity to retain information similar to God. Additionally, Satan cannot read your mind. The only way he knows what you are thinking is by the reports he receives on what you said and what you did from those evil spirits assigned to you.
Whereas God can say or think something and then make it happen by himself, Satan cannot act on his own; he needs help to carry out his wishes. To assist him, he has fallen angels, demons, princes, powers, rulers of the darkness, and those who carry on spiritual wickedness. I know Satan wishes he was, but he is not omnipotent.
After saying all this, let me close this blog with this. Since we understand Satan can only be in one place at a time, when we are following the words of Jesus found in Mark 16:17a, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils” stop trying to cast out Satan who is not present, he is not there, Instead ask God to help you discern the demon that needs to be cast out and then call its name and cast it out. Remember Satan is not is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Stop giving him credit for doing things that He can’t.
This Sunday, the world will celebrate Easter, and some people acknowledge it as the day Jesus Christ arose from the grave. Others celebrate it as a day of giving candies to children, and the candy industry loves that because, after Halloween, Easter is the second holiday that sells the most candy.
Just as the children are happy to receive these treats, believers are elated by the gift of life that Jesus provided for us. And to know that you were in the mind of God even before your inception helps you to realize how special you are,
In the beginning, Adam and Eve failed to obey God’s instruction to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which was in the Garden of Eden. Their actions introduced sin into the earth, but God had a redemptive plan which He told the serpent in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Adam and Eve’s action took them out of the Dispensation of Innocence and brought them into the Dispensation of Consciousness. In this dispensation, the man was told to do well; however, Genesis 6: 5, 11-12 states, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” These wicked, corrupt, and violent actions of man caused this dispensation to end with a flood that killed man, beast, creeping thing, and the fowls of the air.
The next dispensation was the Dispensation on Human Government, and God told the inhabitants that lives in this dispensation in Genesis 9:1, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Instead of doing these men decided to build a city and a tower, whose top reach into heaven, and make a name for themselves lest they be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. So, God confounded man’s language that they were unable to understand one another’s speech, and this scattered them abroad.
This moved men into the Dispensation of Promise, where God chose to bless a man named Abraham and make his descendant a holy nation unto Himself, as stated in Genesis 12:2 and Genesis 15, where God made a covenant with Abraham. Abraham’s descendants stayed in the land of Canaan for three generations until a famine occurred, and they went down into Egypt and resided in Goshen. They ended up staying there for 430 years, grew into a great nation, and were enslaved by the Egyptians.
When God delivered them out of Egypt by the hand of Moses. He took them into the wilderness, where He gave them laws, statutes, and commandments to follow, and this became the Dispensation of Law. This dispensation, which lasted almost 1500 years, went from the children of Israel at Mount Sinai to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ crucifixion fulfilled the words spoken to the serpent in the garden, and it ushered in the Dispensation of Grace in which we presently live. By grace are we saved through faith; not of our works, lest we should boast; it is the gift of God to all that would accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I thank God that I am one of the persons who gladly accepted Jesus as our risen Savior. If you have not made that decision, I pray you won’t delay, but you will do it now as you read this song, “Up From The Grave He Arose,” written in 1874 by Robert Lowry
- Low in the grave He lay, Jesus, my Savior,
Waiting the coming day, Jesus, my Lord! - Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus, my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus, my Lord! - Death cannot keep his Prey, Jesus, my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus, my Lord!
Chorus
Up from the grave He arose, With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
The Teacher's Pick 