He Appeared

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

HE APPEARED

Gen 26:23-35

23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham." 25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well. 26 Meanwhile, Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. 27 Isaac asked them, "Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?" 28 They answered, "We saw clearly that the LORD was with you; so we said, 'There ought to be a sworn agreement between us' — between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD." 30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace. 32 That day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, "We've found water!" 33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.  34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

NIV

We have several little nuggets we could chew on for a while, the first being that the LORD appeared to Isaac. We wonder because it was night did the LORD appear in a dream, or a vision, or did the LORD appear before Isaac in a physical sense. The Hebrew word translated as appeared only gives us more reason to think the LORD appeared in person, for that word means, to see, to have vision, to look at, to regard, and much more all in the same sense of seeing with the eyes. Although this was all before Jesus came to earth as one of us, and after his ascension he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, so in that sense, we have the Living God, the LORD always with us. Thus, he would unlikely need to appear before us to inform us of his blessing. Yet, how wonderful Isaac must have felt to have a visit from Yahweh, to see him and hear his voice. Of course, others in the New Testament have heard the voice of God. On the day Jesus was baptized in the river Jordon, when the Spirit descended upon him like a dove would descend, and the voice of the Father telling all that were there Jesus was his Son with him I am well pleased. Then Peter, James, and John heard the voice of God within that cloud that enveloped them, telling them Jesus was His Son and they were to listen to him. So, it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that the Lord God could speak directly to us, on occasion when we need a very specific direction in our lives. Yes, we can have the urging of the Spirit within, but when God needs to tell us something important for the future of his kingdom, telling us he has healed us, is moving us to someplace, or telling us where we should worship. God can do that and much more for nothing is impossible with Him. We cannot ever try to put God in a box, making our feeble effort to limit his power in our lives. If God wants to appear before us, all we can do is praise his name, worship him, bow down before him, low to the ground, in total reverence and humility. We can imagine the awe that must have filled Isaac as Yahweh appeared before him and spoke directly to him. We know that no one can look upon the face of God and live, although Moses did as we are told they met face to face, that was after God told Moses no one could see his face and live when he hid him in the cleft of a rock and passed by him. Nevertheless, we can be sure that when God wants to appear before us, he will, we cannot stop it, nor can we persuade him to appear. Let us always live in His presence anyway, as he is living within us.