I Hear You

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

I HEAR YOU

Gen 17:15-27

15 God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her." 17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!" 19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year." 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him. 23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that same day. 27 And every male in Abraham's household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.

NIV

Just as the LORD God Almighty, whose name is JHHW, put his middle letter in Abram's name, changing it to Abraham, he now adds a letter to Sarai's name, changing it to Sarah. This change was part of the conversation the LORD had with Abraham as he came down to make a covenant with him: the covenant that included circumcision. The LORD told Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son, and that he should name him Isaac. That is a very specific revelation, including instructions. We do not know whether Abraham laughed out loud, but we can be sure the LORD knew he was laughing at both his age and his wife's age. Certainly, in the natural realm, Sarah, who had been barren all her life, now at ninety would conceive a son, seemed outlandish, almost unbelievable. Abraham seems to have struggled to believe, because he asked God whether Ishmael, his son, could be the one blessed. Interestingly, when Abraham asked about Ishmael, the LORD told him, "I have heard you," and blessed Ishmael so that he would father twelve tribes of people, but they would always struggle against the sons of Israel. Could we say it is all Abraham's fault for the everlasting conflict in the Middle East? However, today's lesson is in those words of the LORD: "I have heard you," and in the fact that when God finished speaking with Abraham, he went up from him. This gives us two wonderful truths. First, God visited Abraham; he came down to be present with him, and second, he spoke with him and listened to what Abraham had to say. God hears us also; he hears what we have to say. He loves us and wants to listen to our concerns,  our pains, our requests, what is on our hearts. But he also wants to visit with us, speak into our ears and hearts, and instruct us in his plan, just as he instructed Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son, and that they were to name him Isaac. God wants to speak to us; he wants to reveal truths to us; he wants to instruct us in the way we should go, what we should do, and how we are to do it. Although God heard Abraham, it was more important that Abraham heard God. We should learn to use our ears more than our mouths; we praise him with our lips, but sometimes we need to be still, be quiet, and listen, because God is speaking. That is when we need to say, "I hear you." 

A Sign

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

A SIGN 

Gen 17:9-14

9 Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner — those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."

NIV

Although this covenant and the sign Abraham was to do were circumcision of himself and every male in his household, family, servants, those born into his household, and those he buys from strangers. In Abraham's time, there was no Israel yet, for that would come through his grandson Jacob. However, Abraham was considered the father of all Israel. In the challenge with Jesus about ideas about the father, the Pharisees proclaimed, "Abraham is our father." The covenant is about the circumcision of the flesh; all Jews should follow that, as it was the covenant between God and their father Abraham. However, is it merely physical, and in our culture it is mostly normal that every male child is circumcised at birth, not when they are eight days old. In this postmodern society, physical circumcision has no spiritual context. Still, in a spiritual sense, it deals only with a sign among males, leaving women to belong to a male family. Yet, we are instructed that circumcision of the flesh is just that, and it defined who Israel was and is, but the true Israel are those who have circumcised their hearts. What does that mean? How can we cut away the cover over our hearts? Considering that circumcision of the flesh is the removal of a covering over the manhood portion of a male, we then would need to remove what covers the tenderest part of our heart, which includes everyone, men and women. That is, we need to expose the fullness of our hearts before the Lord. The question is what would be considered a covering over our hearts that must be circumcised? The other question is, if we do not circumcise our hearts, would we be cut off like those males who never circumcised their flesh? Would self-protection be one of those things that need to be removed? Our Attitudes are a reflection of our hearts, and our words come from what is in our hearts. Jesus made that clear: what goes into our mouths does not defile us, but it is what comes out of our mouths, for that is what is in our hearts. "As a man thinks, so is he." There are many coverings that we are told to rid ourselves of, and that would be the circumcision process of our hearts. Rid our hearts of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, or arguing, every form of malice, or gossiping, deceit, hypocrisy, unforgiveness, envy, jealousy, and pride, just to name a few. If any of those things cover our hearts, have we actually circumcised our hearts? We are told all of Israel will be saved, but we are also told those who circumcise their hearts are the true Israel. Let us be careful not to allow anything to cover our hearts.  Abraham's circumcision of the flesh was a sign of obedience; the circumcision of our hearts is also a sign. 

The Name Change

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE NAME CHANGE

Gen 17:1-8

17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers." 3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

NIV

Who would not fall face down if God Almighty showed up and appeared to us? And yet, here we are with God Almighty, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and we walk around as normal, doing our daily stuff, as if nothing special is happening, even in our religious world. Abram fell face down, and the great I AM, God Almighty, tells him to walk before him and be blameless. We know we are blameless because of the blood of Jesus, but we cannot be sure our daily walk is blameless, for we still struggle with the self and its flaws as we allow various temptations to influence our attitudes and behaviors. The LORD God Almighty confirmed his covenant with Abram and changed his name to Abraham. We know Abraham means father of many nations, but the facts surrounding a covenant are impressive. Historically, when two men made a treaty, or covenant, with each other, especially a blood covenant, they would exchange middle names, the middle letter of their name, cut their palms and bind them with two ropes. Within the language of Abram, God's name would have been spelled JHHW, unpronounceable, unspoken because that name is too holy, too righteous. However, when God Almighty appeared to Abram to confirm the covenant, he placed one of the middle letters of his name into Abram's name, making it AbraHam. That is so awesome, yet God Almighty, the great I AM, through his Son, Jesus, has made a new covenant with us, and the proof is that he poured out His Spirit upon us, filling us with his presence. Now we have the grace of God, his divine influence upon our hearts, and we should be reflecting that in our daily lives. God gave the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession to Abraham and his descendants, and He promised to be their God. We have the promise of Jesus, the promise of the Holy Spirit as an everlasting presence in our lives, but we are His possessions, and He is still our God. He changed our names from self to son, or sinner to saint. 

No Room for Misery

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

NO ROOM FOR MISERY

Gen 16:7-16

7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered. 9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." 10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count." 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:

"You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."

13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

NIV

Although Hagar was Egyptian, the LORD did not withhold from her visiting or speaking the truth into her life. Interestingly, the LORD already knew everything that had happened and was happening in Hagar's life. Yet, his first communication with her was a question: "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?"  The story continues, and the LORD directs her to return to her mistress and submit to her. Does any of this relate to our lives? We should notice the LORD tells her to name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. The Hebrew word Ishmael means "the LORD hears." We should understand that the Lord also hears our hearts' cry. We may not be in the same misery that Hagar experienced, but there are many forms of misery. However, we can be assured that as we go through those times when we feel a sense of misery, the Lord hears our hearts. He already knew Hagar's misery, and he already knows ours, or that we will experience some. That is not to say we must feel misery, for we can live with joy; in fact, we can live full of peace and joy. When Jesus said that he was the vine and we are the branches, and about the Father's love, he told us that he gives us his joy and puts his joy in us, so that our joy will be complete. Hagar knew only misery, not that joy. We should remember when those times come when we might submit to misery, feeling alone, left out, not experiencing or sensing the presence of the Lord, not receiving a healing or some other blessing, that Jesus put his joy within us. We know we are redeemed; our salvation is secure in Jesus; he will come back to take us where he is, so why should we want the pain of misery when we can have the joy of Jesus? We sing that we have the joy, joy, joy down in our hearts, where? Down in my heart, we've got the joy, joy, joy down in our hearts to stay. Because the joy of Jesus is there to stay, there is no room there for misery. 

Own it

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

OWN IT

Gen 16:1-6

16:1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me." 6 "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

NIV

Whose idea was it that Abram took Hagar and was intimate with her, so that she conceived? It was Sarai who put that into motion. Hagar was her maidservant, meaning she had no rights and had to do as her mistress desired or ordered. Yet, after Hagar became pregnant, she began to despise Sarai. We don't know exactly why, but we wonder if Hagar was fine with getting to be intimate with her mistress's husband, but she was not counting on getting pregnant, although that was Sarai's purpose for giving her to Abram. The story, or the point that is a lesson for us, is how Sarai responded. Once what she had purposed happened, she blamed Abram because of the way Hagar was acting toward her. He would have nothing to do with it, telling her Hagar was in her hands, not his. This is your own fault; don't blame me. We are right back to Adam blaming Eve, and Eve blaming the serpent. We should understand that if, for any reason, we fall on hard times, it is nobody's fault but our own. All too often, we hear people blame the government for charging us high taxes, for the price of this or that, or for their inability to get ahead. Who is in charge of our lives? Do believers blame the Lord because they are experiencing difficult times? Do we have nothing to do with how our lives play out? We do not think Sarai consulted with the LORD before making her choice that caused her pain. How many choices in life do we make without consulting the Lord? We are not just pawns in his heavenly chess game; he has given us the freedom to choose or to make mistakes all on our own. So then, when we make that mistake, we need to own it, not blame anyone else, including the Lord. There is no excuse good enough; it was our choice; we need to own it. 

Being Still

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

BEING STILL

Gen 15:7-21

7 He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it." 8 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" 9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon." 10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates —  19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."

NIV

This is the moment the LORD made a covenant with Abram. The three animals, each three years old, have significance because three is perfect; it represents the triune God. Cutting them in half was a cultural way of the time for making a peace covenant between two parties. Abram must have known that when he was given those instructions by the LORD, there was going to be a covenant. However, there is something very important for us to notice. When the sun set, Abram fell into a deep sleep; a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. In other words, Abram was in some kind of trance,  completely void of any thoughts of his daily concerns with life. This is when he was visited by the LORD, who spoke to him and made the covenant. Some people wonder why they have never heard the voice of the Lord. That is not to say that we always hear his voice, but we wonder if the reason we do not hear from the Lord is that we have become too preoccupied with the concerns of life. Psalm 46:10 puts it in the right order. First, we must be still; then we can know he is God. What does "be still" look like? God caused Abram to be still, to be in a deep sleep. But we may not experience that kind of sleep, but we still must quiet our hearts and our minds if we are going to hear from the Lord. He is not going to break in while we are so busy with ourselves, our own cares, concerns, worries, or pleasures. When we are so wrapped up in selfness, we will never be still enough to know he is God. Although we understand the new covenant through Jesus, we cannot survive as believers with just knowledge. If we are going to not just survive, but live abundantly, we need to quiet ourselves, listen, meditate on the Lord, and we will know he is God. He will confirm himself to us, show himself in a way that we will know who he is, and we might just hear his voice. 

What A Reward!

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

WHAT A REWARD!

Gen 15:1-6

15:1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:

"Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." 4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

NIV

We should focus just on the fact that God told Abram that he was his shield and very great reward. Is that not a promise for us as well? We know that God is our shield; he is our protection, our protector against the forces of evil. We know that he clothes us in his armor, which includes the shield of faith.  If we think that our faith is the shield, we are sadly mistaken, for whom do we have faith in? We also know that faith is a gift from God, as he gives every man a measure of faith. So we would have to believe the shield of faith is God himself. He is our shield, but we must stand behind that shield; we must believe in God. First, we should believe that he is our very great reward. We wonder how much we struggle in this life to receive some kind of reward. These earthly rewards could be financially based or emotional, such as recognition, prestige, or being looked up to (pride-based), or success in varied areas of life (self-based). However, the only reward that is worth everything is knowing God, for he is our very great reward. Everything we struggle to obtain in this world will all fade away, vanish, disappear, and literally perish. However, God, our very great reward, is eternal. Secondly, we should note that Abram believed the LORD. The Hebrew does not include the word "in"; it simply states, "Abram believed the LORD." That is the basis of our lives. It may be good to say that we believe in God, or we believe in Jesus, but then many people who do not know God, or who are not living for God, may say they believe in him, but who believes God is the question. If we believe God, then our lives should reflect that fact. We do need to be careful about being distracted and starting to believe other things that we think are important.  Because Abram believed the LORD, he was credited as being righteous. We know that Jesus is our righteousness; therefore, as we are in Christ, we are credited as righteous. What a reward!