Devotional

Genesis 16:1-6

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Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And 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. So, 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. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And 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!” But 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. Genesis 16:1-6

Impatience with God leads to all kinds of mischief. First, Sarai blames her wanting on God. Then she gets Abram to use her servant, Hagar, as a surrogate. When Hagar conceives, she attempts to supplant Sarai as the alpha female. Sarai blames this on Abram, who tells her to do whatever she wants to Hagar, and the child is forgotten. It was nobody’s finest hour.

Waiting on God’s promise is one of the hardest things we must do. It is natural for us to start conniving some way to hurty the process along, but the end of that are consequences that last generations.

Genesis 15:13-16

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Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Genesis 15:13-16

God knows the end from the beginning. He will be giving the land to Abram’s decendants after they have served another nation for 400 years, AND when the Amorites are so bad they deserve to be removed from that land. So, Abram’s trust in God does not only extend to the day he finally has a son. It goes on to his son’s decendants.

How many of us are concerned only for our own lifetimes? Our own comfort? God wants us to be blessed into the future as well as all eternity. Whether your children are of the flesh or the spirit, God has a promise to you for them. But the promise belongs to those who believe. And those who believe hold fast to the promise, even when it seems impossible.

Genesis 14:17-20

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After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said,

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

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Genesis 14:17-20

This is often cited as the proof that tithing existed before the law was given by Moses. What is different is that there was no law compelling Abram to give. He could have just “tipped” the man of God with a few coins, out of politeness. But he decided to value the man of God, and God himself by extension, by treating him as a partner.

Contrast this to the way Essau treated the blessing of the first born, trading it for a bowl of soup. Thousands of years later, Jesus commended the widow who gave all she had, though it was little, rather than those who were rich and gave more out of their abundance, but not sacrificially. The widow esteemed the blessing of God above her own life, but the rich gave to impress others.

Our giving is an act of worship to God. Is he our partner, or do we treat him as our waiter.

Genesis 13:14-18

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The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. Genesis 13:14-18

After Abram graciously let his nephew, Lot, choose which land he wanted, he settled in the land of Canaan. That meant it was the land of the Canaanites. But someday God would use Abram’s decendants to displace the Canaanites, whom he would judge for their idolotry. This would be many years in the future, but God knows the end from the beginning. Many years after that, Abram’s decendants would also be driven from the land for doing the same things. God is holy, and he expects to be honored.

Genesis 12:1-3

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Now 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. 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. 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.” Genesis 12:1-3

There seems to be no particular reason for God’s choice. Noah was chosen for his right standing with God in a sea of wicked humans. In this case Abram is chosen and given the opportunity to distinguish himself by his faith.

Genesis 4:1-5

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Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. Genesis 4:1-5

Most of us know that Cain killed his brother, Abel. But why? God regarded Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain’s. Why not? This was the first recorded offering man makes to the Lord, but it is safe to say that by now many had been made. Cain and Abel were either adults or older adolescents by this time, and there was probably a pattern already set for what was an acceptable offering. The only other sacrifice recorded was when Adam and Eve sinned. The Lord slew an animal and made clothes for the couple from the skins. That animal was the first blood sacrifice for sin, and Abel’s sacrifice was after that pattern. And since it’s safe to say there had been other sacrifices since then, Cain and Abel had seen this pattern and understood why. Cain decided to do something different, that did not commemorate the substitutionary sacrifice for sin.

Today, we all have the same choice. We can either honor the sacrifice Christ made for us, or, we can make our own sacrifice. Maybe you believe that doing your best is all that matters. Although doing your best is a good thing, it does not take away sin. And sin is what separates us from God, not our to-do list.

Genesis 3: 2-5

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And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:2-5

The serpent was right. Their eyes would be opened, and they would be like God, except for that whole disobedience thing. To the innocent humans, the serpent was pitching knowledge, and being like God. I mean, it wasn’t the Tree of Evil, it was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good…and evil. You could even call it the Tree of Compromise.

As long as I can remember, experiencing evil has made you worldly-wise and more grown-up. What teenager hasn’t said, “I don’t care what mom says. I wanna make my own mistakes!” Or, “Dad hasn’t smoked dope or snorted cocaine. What does he know?”

Even in the church, we turn a blind eye to evil. We have totally rejected the ministry of the prophet because hes, “harsh and judgmental.” You can be too good, but you can never be too evil. This is because the knowledge of evil is so corrosive that it eventually corrupts the good. And it’s the reason God will exclude all of it from heaven.

Genesis 2:5-9

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When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:5-9

God set the stage for man to be able to choose Him from the beginning. But that choice does not come until after the woman is made from Adam. I believe Satan waited until he could temp someone who, perhaps, had gotten the command second hand. Adam had, after all, gotten to name all the animals. God must have warned him about the tree and it’s fruit.

In this way, we are all like Eve. We only know God’s commands and warnings and promises because they are in a book that was written long ago. The command is no less valid, but it seems to carry less weight be than if we had heard it ourselves. Disobedience plunged the world into darkness. The Good News is that Christ’s act of obedience brings light to everyone who believes. You did not have to be there at the cross to get the benefit.

Genesis 1:1-5

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I have been posting Bible verses on Facebook for a few years as I read through it. I just finished and I’m starting again. It was only a few months ago that I started adding my commentary to the verses I chose. It was my wife’s suggestion because it would give some context to why I chose them. And it was a great idea! So, I will be starting to repeat them here on my blog. This will make them easier to find and search for particular chapters. Eventually, this may be useful to you. In the meantime, this is my personal devotional made public.

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:1-5

This, the beginning and what we think of it, can determine our eternal destiny. It is the place where many of us decide who or what God is. To believe the Bible’s account of creation is to believe in a God who is above and beyond creation, and not just a part of it. He creates light before the sun comes on the scene. Everything He does defies our minute understanding. Or, you make God a mere force, impersonal, that must bow it’s knee to your understanding. The Bible gets thrown out as evidence, and you are left trying to explain everything on your own.

“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.” -Werner Heisenberg, Nobel Prize for physics, 1932.