Genesis 22:1,2

This is one of the most amazing, perhaps even appalling, chapters of the Bible. In some ways it seems terrible to us that God should tell Abraham to sacrifice his son, but we need to see what the real message of the incident is. God did not let Abraham sacrifice His son, even when God's command seems utterly impossible and seems to demand too much, we can trust Him. The supreme example of this, of course, is Jesus. Going to the cross was a terrible thing to do, but His Father raised Him from the dead, and His death and resurrection achieved freedom for us all.

It says that God tested Abraham. It does not say that He tempted him. As we work our way through the story we well see how utterly different Abraham is from the man we have seen in the preceding chapters. There is no hesitation in obedience, and instead of wondering how things can go wrong, he is always convinced that God will work things out. Abraham is a changed man. It is perhaps useful to view the story as God demonstrating just what His work in Abraham has achieved. And this is what He will achieve in all of us. He takes hold of our lives and transforms us into the people we were always meant to be. One day we may face the supreme test, but if God does bring us to that day, we may actually be amazed at how the faith in us suddenly springs to life and enables us to do the most amazing things.

At the outset Abraham had had to leave his own land, now he is to take his own son. God even "rubs in" the enormity of what He is asking of Abraham. Isaac is his only son, and is deeply loved by Abraham, and he is to sacrifice him as a burnt offering.

Moriah is the area of the temple mount (2 Chronicles 3:1) and is today occupied by the Muslim Dome of the Rock.

Genesis 21:22-34

Abimelek's earlier dealings with Abraham (where Abraham had lied about his wife) had led Abimelek to fear Abraham and his God. This had happened because God had intervened on Abraham's behalf, even when Abraham did not deserve it, and because Abraham had prayed for him at the end of the episode.

Abimelek asks for Abraham's blessing and Abraham gives it. This was in line with God's original promise to Abraham (Gen 12:2,3). Abraham gave Abimelek shepp and cattle as a sign that he had dug the well. The place was called Beersheba, which can mean "well of seven" or "well of oath". Beersheba was to become the southern most point of Israel. Abraham planted a tree as a memorial to the event.

Genesis 21:14-21

Abraham obeyed God quickly and sent Hagar and Ishmael on their way. Sometimes we need to jettison parts of our lives that we have been holding on to.

While Abraham is clearly the primary focus of the story, it is also clear that God has concern for Hagar and Ishmael, for the next verses tell of the suffering they endured. Hagar thought that Ishmael was about to die.

God called to Hagar and assured her that He had not forgotten them. Indeed He would make Ishmael into a great nation. He also dealt with the immediate problem, Hagar opened her eyes and there was a well of water. Ishmael grew up as God had promised.

Genesis 21:8-13

A great feast was held when Isaac was two or three. Ishmael mocked Isaac. Earlier Sarah had shown a distinct lack of spiritual insight, but here she shows a clear spiritual understanding of what was happening. Ishmael would never share in Isaac's inheritance, and was indeed a threat to it. What has been achieved through human effort will always mock what has been achieved by the grace of God.

Abraham was distressed by the matter. For although what had happened in Chapter 16 should not have happened, Ishmael was still his son, and so there was still an emotional bond. God speaks to Him, and tells him: (i) not to be so distressed; (ii) listen to Sarah; and (iii) He will still look after Ishmael. There could be no avoiding the fact that Isaac was the child of promise, not Ishmael. Yet God still took account of Abraham's concern for Ishmael. We need to appreciate the depths of God's concern and understanding. He had already decided to rescue Lot when Abraham had given up hope, He cares for Ishmael, even though he was a product of disobedience.

Earlier Abraham got into trouble for going along with Sarah's plans. Now he is told to listen to her, for now Sarah is thinking in line with God's ways.

Genesis 21:1-7

At last Isaac is born. The fruit of God's promise came purely as a result of His grace. Things happened just as God has said they would, despite the fact that Abraham and Sarah were both old. Age is no obstacle to God fulfilling his promises.

Abraham named his son Isaac, again as God had instructed him, and circumcised Isaac on the eighth day. When God does fulfil His promises it is important that we carry out any concomitant instructions that He gave us.

Before the laughs had been laughter of disbelief, now it is laughter of joy and amazement. The impossible had happened.

Genesis 20:1-17

Abraham has received a renewed promise from God, God has confided in him. Now Abraham seems to be just wandering around with no particular purpose, and makes exactly the same mistake as he did many years ago by saying that Sarah is his sister (see Genesis 12:10-20), even in the same sort of area.

Abimelek sent for Sarah, but God intervened and warned him in a dream. Abimelek was totally innocent in the situation, indeed it is Abraham who is at fault. God knew this, and part of the reason for His intervention was to stop Abimelek sinning. Now Abimelek could have continued in a huff and refused to listen to God, but instead he put things right as God had instructed him. If he had not done so he would have died, instead he would receive a blessing. We need to make sure that we do not act or react out of stubborness.

Abimelek inquired of Abraham why he had acted in this way. Abraham had reasoned that the people were godless. Now in this he was right, but that did not mean that they had no integrity. We too need to be careful of thinking that because people do not believe, or because they follow the wrong religion, there will be nothing moral about their behaviour. This is nonsense. There are plenty who call themselves Christians but act appallingly, and there are many who are not Christians but in many situations will act properly. While it is true that all human beings are sinners, it is also true that all human beings are capable of good acts.

Abimelek gave gave gifts to Abraham and Sarah, and Abraham prayed for Abimelek and his family. As a result his whole household was enabled to have children again. This shows that the incident must have taken some time to elapse in order for them to notice they could no longer have children. Note also that having children was the key area of breakthrough that Abraham and Sarah needed. Sometimes we have to bless others in the area of our need before God will open up the door for our blessing in that area.

Genesis 19:17-38

Abraham gazed over the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, no doubt wondering what had become of Lot. But God was looking after Lot. God cares for us more than we imagine.

It is ironic that having previously refused to flee to the mountains, Lot now does head there, being afraid to stay where he had originally wanted to go to (Gen 19:18-20). When we do n ot live by faith we are prone to live by fear, and will never settle.

As had Sarah earlier, Lot's daughters now conjure up a scheme for having children, this time involving sleeping with their father. So they got Lot drunk and implemented their plan. Both the earlier incident with Sarah, and the one here, is a warning against taking wrong actions in order to get pregnant. There is a very strong natural desire to have children, and feeling of lack if one cannot do so, but we need to be very careful that this does not lead us into sin. Similarly, men must not abdicate responsibility, as we are prone to do. Abraham did by going along with Sarah's idea, and Lot abdicated here by getting drunk. The result of all this was the Moabites and Ammonites, who were enemies of Israel.

Genesis 19:15-26

Lot was hesitant to take the escape route, but the angels forced them to leave. It tells us that God did this because He was merciful. Sometimes God has to force us to do things we are reluctant to do in order to rescue us from some situation. There is a time to stay and a time to stay. There was a time when the Israelites had to stay in Babylon, and to do otherwise would have been rebellion against God, but then came a time when it was imperative to leave. We need to make sure we are always attuned to God's voice.

The angels tell them to flee to the mountains and not to stop. This is familiar to Christ's instructions in Matthew 24:16-21. This was not advice, it was instructions to save their life.

Even so, Lot argued and the angels made concessions. Note also that the angels were not going to act until Lot was safe. Then the judgement began, but Lot's wife disobeyed and looked back, and so was turned to a pillar of salt. God is amazingly patient, but there comes a point where there is nothing else He can do.

Genesis 19:1-15

The destruction now takes place. The two angels (who, remember, looked like men) went to Sodom and met Lot. Lot demonstrated typical middle Eastern hospitality and offered to look after the angels. Initially the angels declined, but then accepted. So Lot prepared a meal for them. Meanwhile the men of Sodom demonstrated their depravity by calling for Lot to send the men out so that they could have sex with them (hence the term, "sodomise").

Lot's reaction is quite shocking to us. He, rightly declines to send out the visitors, but is quite willing to offer his daughters. Three things need to be said here: (i) the strong ethos of hospitality contributed to Lot's reaction; (ii) it is still totally unacceptable; and (iii) the Bible reports what happened, it does not condone it.

The people of Sodom were not to be dissuaded, and then used the fact that Lot was an outsider to build up anger against him. They were going to break the door down, but then the angels struck them with blindness. Then they speak to Lot and reveal their true purpose. This was twofold : (i) to destroy the city; and (ii) to rescue Lot and his family. Lot's son-in-laws thought the angles were joking. Given the demonstration of power they had just seen, they might have been more inclined to take them seriously. The angels seem to pay no attention to this, and urge Lot and his family to leave quickly.

Genesis 18:22-33

Two of the men, later identified as angels, left and went to Sodom, leaving the Lord and Abraham. Abraham now approaches the Lord. There is a mixture of freedom and reverence in his approach to God. He feels able to speak with the Lord and to discuss the coming events, but there is also a recognition that God is God and must be treated with reverence and awe.

There follows a series of exchanges where Abraham asks if God will destroy the city if a few righteous people are found, the numbers gradually going down from 50 to 10. Abraham argues that it would be wrong for God to destroy everyone if there even a few righteous people in the city. Each time the Lord agrees with Abraham, and Abraham calls off the exchange at 10.

Now what was Abraham doing here? Was he seeking to ensure that God did the right thing? Was God in danger of not doing the right thing? From other incidents in the Bible (eg Moses and God, Jesus and the Syro-Phonecian woman) there are times when God certainly appears to respond to the intervention of men and women. We should certainly not have a fatalistic view of life (sometimes a danger with some views of predestination), for it is clear that God wants people to do the right thing, and responds when we do so (look at Ninevah in Jonah).

However, in this case something else may well be at work. The key feature of Sodom and Gomorrah as far as Abraham was concerned was that Lot and his family lived there, and Abraham had a deep affection for his nephew. If we look ahead to Genesis 19:27-29 we see that Abraham was looking at the now destroyed city, and it says thatr God had remembered Abraham and brought Lot out safely. Maybe this whole prayer incident is a matter of Abraham really wanting to ensure God saved Lot, but being afraid to ask Him directly. Yet God knew what was really on Abraham's heart and answered the real prayer anyway. God is more aware of our concerns than we realise, and is more ready to answer than we think.

Genesis 18:20,21

God explains to Abraham that He is going to see if the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is as bad as it appeared to be. There are a number of interesting things here. One is that God has heard an outcry against the city. Elsewhere in the Bible it says that God hears the cry of the poor and the oppressed. When people are victims of evil they cry out, and God hears their cry. This is true whether or not the victims know who they are calling to, or if they are just calling out in agony. Anyone who oppresses the poor runs a great risk of incurring God's wrath. We usually think of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as being gross sexual sin, particularly of a homosexual nature. Now this is true, as the next chapter illustrates, but Ezekiel 16:49 shows that arrogance and a lack of concern for the poor was also a major factor, indeed the prime factor.

The next thing is that God goes to investigate. Now one might immediately say that surely God knew exactly what was going on, for He knows and sees everything. This of course is true, so why did He need to go and look? Perhaps it is that God always gives people a chance, or perhaps this was just for Abraham's benefit, and that of Lot. Ie the real reason was not so He could see what was going on. On the other hand perhaps it was to see how they would respond to Him. In the parable of the tenants it says that the owner sent various messengers, seeing how they would treat them. Finally He sent His own Son. The city did indeed treat the two angels very badly, and so He knew that the sin was very bit as bad as the outcry suggested.

Genesis 18:16-19

There is a great contrast between Abraham and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham is called God's friend. This is an amazing thing, and Jesus said that we too are His friends (John 15:15). No one making up a religious book would write these things, we should always read carefully what God says for it is truly amazing. God created us to have fellowship with Him, not to be distant. At the same time we need to remember that friends is only one of the descriptions of our relationship with God. He is our Father, He is also our Lord. We need to seek to live in the truth of all aspects of our relationship with Him. If we just see Him as a friend alone, then we will have a too familiar and casual relationship, if we see Him just as our Lord and ourselves as servants we will miss out the closeness and care of the realtionship God wants with us.

God saw Abraham as becoming a great and powerful nation. Note how God was looking far into the future. Indeed He was looking to the church, for it is believers in Christ who are the true descendants of Abraham. Moreover, God sees us having an important role upon the earth. It has always been God's plan to work with and through men. In the beginning He told Adam to fill the earth and subdue it, and He gave Adam the job of naming all the creatures. It is still God's plan to rule with and through us, and He achieves this through Christ. Now when we talk about ruling we may well feel a hesitancy or a reaction of some sort, because we associate it with the sort of corrupt or dictatorial rulerships that we see around us in the world. Instead we need to look at Christ, for He is the example of what Godly rulership and authority is all about.

All this will happen because God has chosen Abraham, and because He will see that these things are fulfilled. We are to seek to direct our families and those that we influence to keep the way of the Lord.

Genesis 18:1-15

It starts off by saying the Lord appeared to Abraham, then it says three men were standing nearby. This illustrates that the Lord can appear to people in various ways. Following the great cultural emphasis on hospitality, Abraham bows down to them, and invites them into his tent for refreshments. The visitors agree.

This refreshment was no simple cup of tea and a biscuit, but Abraham and Sarah went to great lengths to prepare high quality food. Hebrews 13:2 tells us to entertain strangers for some have unwittingly entertained angles, possibly alluding to this incident. At the outset Abraham did not know who he was welcoming. In Abraham's day hospitality was greatly values, today our natural reaction is to be suspicious of strangers, perhaps we need to reassess this approach.

The visitors asked where Sarah was, and the Lord then said she would have a son. Note also that the Lord said He would return. Naturally it was impossible for her to have a son, but the Lord's presence makes anything possible.

Sarah heard this, and like Abraham in the previous chapter she laughed. The Lord knew that Sarah considered the promise to be a load of nonsense. If we are honest, there are things that God says that we doubt or find hard to believe, but we put on an act and pretend everything is OK. This really is stupid, as the Lord can see everything and knows all our thoughts. Far better to be honest with God and let Him sort us out.

Genesis 17:19-27

God's response is interesting. First, Ishmael will be blessed. Even though Ishmael was the result of disobedience on the part of Abraham and Sarah, God still cared for him. Secondly, God tells Abraham to name his son Isaac, which means "he laughs", Did God choose this name after Abraham laughed? Isaac would be a reminder that the impossible happens with God.

Most importantly, the covenant is through the line of Isaac, a point that Paul makes great play of in Galatians. God's plan will be fulfilled God's way, even though we may go on many unnecessary detours along the way. Now God puts a time scale on the birth of Isaac. Now God knew all the details when He first called Isaac, but only revealed them gradually. We need to learn be more confident in God. Often we fret because we cannot see how things are going to work out, but God has all the details worked out. God then left Abraham.

Abraham then acted in obedience and had his whole household circumcised.

Genesis 17:15-18

God's promises also applied to Sarah, his wife. Right at the beginning of Genesis it says that we were created in the image of God, male and female. Both men and women reflect the image of God. In the New Testament Paul says that there is neither male nor female in Christ (meaning that both are equal members of the body of Christ), Galatians 3:28, and Peter says that husbands and wives are both heirs of Christ (1 Peter 3:7).

Like Abraham, her name would be changed from Sarai to Sarah. Sarah means princess, but the meaning of Sarai is not clear. Sarah would be blessed and would have a son. Just as Abraham would be the father of nations, Sarah would be the mother of nations. So in all the ways both share equally in the blessing of God. See how much better God's plan is than the botch-up that Abraham and Sarah planned in Genesis 16.

You might think that after all this Abraham would have a little more faith, but this was not the case. He fell face down and laughed. He considered God's promises to be impossible, and thought that Ishmael was the only way the blessing could be fulfilled.

It is perhaps worth pondering how God appeared to Abraham in this encounter. Abraham is clearly not easily persuaded, and this tends to make one think that God did not appear to him in a dramatic way (eg as a glorious angel). When God speaks or reveals things to us it will often not be in a dramatic manner, but we will recognise His voice (John 10:4).

Genesis 17:9-14

Again we come to Abraham's part. Abraham and his descendants must keep the covenant. Then God describes the covenant as circumcision of every male child. God also describes it as an everlasting covenant, and says that anyone who does not keep it will be cut off from His people. It also applied to all people who were brought into the household. From all this it is easy to see why the Jews held it so dear, and why there were such fierce arguments in the early church.

There are two things that can be said immediately. One is that God here describes circumcision as the sign of the covenant, it is not the covenant itself. Then in Deuteronomy it becomes clear that it is circumcision of the heart that counts.

So what are we to make of all this? Just brush it aside as of relevance to the Jews only? No. While there is no need for us to be circumcised, the principles do count. It was a circumcision in the flesh, a change took place in their flesh. When we become Christians a change takes place in our flesh. New life comes into every part of our being, and our flesh is to be dedicated to God. If there is no change in our life, then the evidence is pretty compelling that we do not actually belong to Christ. It is impossible to be a Christian and not be changed.

Genesis 17:3-8

Abraham fell face down before the Lord. When we humble ourselves before the Lord He will speak to us. He has just told Abraham what Abraham was to do, ie walk faithfully and be blameless, now He says what He will do. A covenant has two parties, and both have obligations. Abraham would be the father of many nations, remember that at this point he was not even the father of one person (excluding Ishmael). Note that God says He has already made Abraham a father of many nations. God declares what will be, and then makes it happen (Romans 4:17). So he gives Abraham a new name, though it is only a small change in terms of letters. Abram means "exalted father", and Abraham means "father of many". For a long time his name must have seemed a mockery for Abram, for he was getting nowhere in the fatherhood stakes. God is not restricted by the past, nor how things seem to be. Through faith all things are possible. We should apply this to ourselves.

This would be an everlasting covenant, and applied not just to Abraham. God repeats it to Isaac and Jacob, and Paul says in Galatian 3:29 that we inherit the promises. The covenant involved both the people and the land. He would have many descendants and they would have somewhere to live. Likewise Jesus came to give us life, and life to the full (John 10:10).

Genesis 17:1-2

Abraham now meets God again. This is some dozen years or so after the Ishmael incident, there is no record of God speaking to Abraham in that period. One can also imagine how his relationship with his wife was going as well, and also what Abraham was thinking about himself.

Whatever the case, God had not forgotten Abraham and Sarah. In fact God was about to be even more explicit about His promises.

God said to Abraham, "I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers". What does it mean when God says "be blameless"? Abraham was clearly not blameless, nor was he about to become perfect, so I doubt it means that God expected him to live perfectly. So maybe it means he is to get over the guilt. This does not mean his behaviour does not matter; neither that the past has no effect (for it certainly would have an effect), nor that he could do what he liked in the future. For Abraham had to be faithful. It does mean that he is not to be living under a continual cloud of guilt, letting the guilt paralyse him. We are to do the same. We are to live as blameless, for because of Christ's death on the cross we are cleared of all sin, we are to live as free. Paul is a prime example of this. He was, as he refers to himself, the chief of sinners, having persecuted Christ and His church, yet in his life we find that he seemed to have no "hang-ups" about this. He knew perfectly well how bad he had been, but he also knew the effect of the cross and got on with serving the Lord.

We are to walk before the Lord, we are to live in His presence, not under a cloud. Then we will increase greatly in numbers. People will be attracted to a church of people who are living in the freedom of the Lord.

Genesis 16:6-16

Despite what 1 Peter 3:5,6 says, Abraham seems to be the submissive one here! He gives Hagar over to Sarah, and Sarah mistreats her. In all this Hagar is the most innocent, for she was at the whim of her master and mistress, and the type of "transaction" that had taken place was actually quite legal at the time.

While Sarah may have mistreated Hagar, God was looking after her and He sent the Angel of the Lord to see her. He instructs her to return to her mistress and submit. He also promised her many descendants, though these descendants. He would watch over Ishmael, but Ishmael would not have an easy time of it, nor would he give others an easy time.

Hagar had a son and Abraham gave him the name Ishmael, following the Lord's instruction.

It is important to note that God has concern for Hagar and Ishmael, even though they are not of His Abrahamic covenant.

Genesis 16:4,5

Although the plan worked out exactly as intended, ie Hagar had a son, everything then went wrong. The relationship between Hagar and Sarah broke down, and that between Sarah and Abraham was severely damaged. This is a reminder of the seriousness of sexual sin. The world tries to treat sex as a purely physical act, as indeed did Abraham and Sarah, but it is not just a physical act. Sex has spiritual and emotional effects. any "morality" that ignores this fact is doomed to lead to disaster, as indeed we see all around us today.

Hagar began to despise Sarah, since she had Abraham's child she had a new status. Sarah blamed Abraham for all this. Now it is worth remembering whose idea this was, Sarah's. Abraham just did as he was told, amd yet he gets the blame! Maybe Sarah wondered what had gone on in the bedroom between Hagar and Abraham, and wondered if he had treated it as more than a purely functional exercise.

Sarah really had no one to blame but herself, but it has always been human nature to seek to put the blame on someone else. We need to beware of ourselves doing this, for it can have very serious consequences. However, Abraham also has responsibility. He did not have to do what Sarah suggested, he could have said no. We cannot escape responsibility by saying we only did what someone else told us to do.

This incident illustrates many features of human failings and should serve as a warning to us.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that 1 Peter 3:5,6 describes Sarah as submissive. This incident should disabuse us of any notions that a submissive wife is little more than a wall flower. Whatever failings in Sarah may have been exposed here, she certainly had character.

Genesis 16:1-4

After all the revelation, words and encounters with God in chapter 15 you might have thought that Abraham was now sorted out and would march effortlessly on to the fulfilment of God's purpose for his life. Nothing could be further from the truth, for Abraham and Sarah are about to make one massive mistake. Indeed one which ahs had consequences ever since.

Despite God's promises Sarah and Abraham still had no children, so Sarah came up with a plan for fulfilling the word. Abraham would sleep with the servant girl, called Hagar. Now we do need to remember that social structures were rather different then than they are now, and this wasn't quite such an outlandish idea that we would imagine it to be today. Moreover, it would seem to fulfil the word of God, for God has said Abraham would have a son from his own body, and this is indeed what would happen if the plan worked, for the child would be biologically from Abraham. By the way this is warning against intricate analysis of bits of God's word, particularly prophecy. The spirit of what God says, and the character of God are equally important guides to interpretation and understanding as the minutiae of the word itself, especially if one tries to argue from what God did not say.

All this was ten years after they had been in Canaan. The action they took was so understandable, though so wrong as well.

Abraham agreed and did what Sarah had suggested. Sarah even gave the servant girl to Abraham. Abraham slept with her and she became pregnant. So the plan has worked.

The next issue of EastEnders will come tomorrow! (For non-UK readers, EastEnders is a soap opera. I don't watch soap operas, but the the Bible oftem comes up with much better story lines!).

Genesis 15:12-21

Abraham fell into a deep sleep and was immersed in a "thick and dreadful" darkness. Again this is a strange thing to happen. Why did God do this? If you or I asked God to give us a message the last thing we would expect is for Him to send a terrible darkness, we would probably attribute it to the devil!

God then foretells the four hundred year exile that Israel would experience in Egypt. Abraham would die in peace, but all this would happen sometime later. After the exile the Israelites would return with many possessions. This of course is what indeed did happen. Moreover, while in Egypt the Israelites multiplied in great numbers.

Perhaps the point is that God's promise to Abraham concerning the land was that his descendants would inherit the land. Abraham would have a son, but the land part would not be fulfilled in his lifetime. Maybe Abraham was wanting this part to be brought forward, but needed to come to terms with the fact that this would not be so.

Afterwards God consumed Abraham's offering and confirmed the covenant with him. Abraham's offering was acceptable to God, showing that he himself was acceptable to God.

It is worth noting that here a generation is equivalent to 100 years, elsewhere in the Bible it is taken to be 40 years. This should be a warning against putting too rigid a time scale on any prophecies regarding generations.

Genesis 15:8-11

It now transpires that Abraham wondered how he would ever get possession of the land. For all of us there are times when God's promises seem totally unrealisable. God asked Abraham to bring some animals and birds, presumably as a sacrifice. It is interesting that when we want assurance from God, He often asks us to do something, eg Jesus asked Peter to come to Him when He was walking on the water. Why is this? Perhaps it is because when we do this God can affirm that He is with us. You see when we sinned we rebelled against God and said we could live without Him. This of course was not true, and as live longer and longer without God we lost confidence, because we find that things do not work (we do not work!).

When we come back to God we know that we have sinned. We have built up a track record of failure, which breeds an expectation of failure within us. We also know that we have rebelled against God and it takes time for us to appreciate the extent of God's forgiveness. So God needs to rebuild our trust and confidence in Him. We need to learn that when we do things that are in obedience to God then we can be totally confident that He will be with us and will honour us, and fulfil His word.

Nor does this mean that we need a direct word from God or the Bible on every little thing. God promised to David that He would be with him in all that he did. If we look at the life of Jesus He just lived in such confidence in His Father. If our hearts are right then we can live in confidence that the Lord will be with us.

God wants His children to be secure and confident in Him.

Genesis 15:5-7

Things would be infinitely greater than Abraham imagined, for God took him out to see the stars and declared his descendants would be more numerous than these. Earlier (Gen 13:16) God had said they would outnumber the grains of sand in the desert. Abraham was so focused on his immediate problem, but God saw way beyond this. Sometimes God can speak to us about things that will happen when our immediate problems have been overcome, without making any or much mention of how they will be overcome. This can be very frustrating! Indeed God never told Abraham how his problem of childlessness would be overcome, merely that it would be. Many times in the Bible we are told not to worry about things or not to be anxious. We find this very difficult to do, but we need to learn to do it. The best place to start is with the problem you are facing right now. Our natural self will tell us that the problem cannot be solved, and that it would be utterly irresponsible not to worry about it. Even if your natural self does not do this, friends and relatives will! But we need to learn to be different and to learn to live differently. So try refusing to worry about your problem. At first it will be very difficult and you may feel you are not getting very far, but keep at it. Then one day you will see that God is actually true to His word, and that peace has replaced fear and anxiety.

Abraham believed God, and and counted this as righteousness. Genesis 15:6 is one of the key verses in the Bible. Because Abraham believed God, God knew that His plans would eventually be fulfilled in Abraham. Now we might think that from now on everything would work out OK, but as shall see in the next chapter this is far from the case.

God then reminds Abraham that it was He who brought Abraham out of Ur. Maybe Abraham wondered at times if he had been right to leave Ur, but God assures him that He was with him.

Genesis 15:4

Abraham's assessment of the situation was entirely reasonable, for he did indeed have no children, and there seemed to be no prospect of there being any. Nothing had changed in this area since God had first spoken to him.

However, God saw things differently, and He promises Abraham that he would indeed have a son, and the son would come from his own body. Ie God would Abraham precisely what he desired, and what God had promised. This has two lessons for us. Often we look at situations and it seems hopeless, but of God has spoken then we need to look at things differently. God loves doing the impossible. However, the key thing here is that God had spoken to Abraham about the matter, we need to beware of imagining that God has said something. There is a difference between faith and wishful thinking, faith must be based on God's word.

The second lesson is that God was going to fulfil His promise in the best possible way. Sometimes when we have been asking for something we try and make things up to be an answer, or we try and find some convoluted way of saying our prayer has been answered, or trying to answer it ourselves. We will see a tragic example of this in the next chapter. When God says He will do something He will do it in a good way, and His love for us goes way beyond what we imagine.

Genesis 15:1-3

If you think about it, what God said is actually rather strange. Abraham has left his homeland, has shown his trust in God for his material wealth, and has shown courage in fighting several kings in order to rescue Lot. So why does God need to tell him that He is his shield (ie God is his protection)? Moreover Abraham is absolutely loaded. He left Haran with a number of goods and seems to have been continually accumulating wealth ever since. So why does God need to tell him that he is Abraham's great reward? Abraham has clearly shown that he knows God is the one who provides for him.

Verse 2 contains the answer. Abraham did have fear in his heart and did not consider himself truly prosperous, for he had no heir and so a servant would inherit all his wealth (or so it seemed to him). Now passing on your inheritance is still important today (one of the reasons why many people object to inheritance tax, it is not just "greed"), but was doubly so in Abraham's day. Moreover, God's original promise to him could not be fulfilled if he did not have a son.

You see God sees the heart, and knew exactly what He was saying in verse 1, and how relevant it was to Abraham. Moreover, the purpose was to bring Abraham's fears to the surface. Sometimes we can think we have to pretend to be "alright", but God would far rather we brought out doubts and fears directly to Him rather than allowing them to fester, then He can deal with them.

Often things happen that bring stuff in our life to the surface. Some event happens, or someone preachers a word that we wish we had never heard! But our Father loves us, and when He does things that bring our failings to the surface it is not done so he can condemn us, but so that He can heal, restore and teach us.

One final point on this. To an outsider looking at Abraham he would seem to have it altogether, everything going well. In fact there were deep issues at work in his heart. We often look at other Christians and might think they have everything sorted out, while we have a host of problems. This is usually not the case. It is also one of the reasons why we should always pray for our leaders, we might think they are so much more mature Christians than ourselves, but they need prayer just as much as anyone.

Genesis 15:1

Again the word of the Lord came to Abraham. This is the third time God has spoken to him. The first was when He first called Abraham, the second was after Abraham had shown faith by letting Lot have the first choice, and this time is after Abraham has shown faith by rescuing Lot, receiving the blessing from Melchizadek and refusing to receive anything from the king of Sodom.

Often we want God to speak to us, thinking that after He does this we will act in faith. But here Abraham acts in faith, then God speaks to him, leading him on to further revelation. The most important thing to do is to live and act according to the things that God has already given to us. If we want more faith then we need to live by the faith we already to have, if we want to hear God more clearly, then we need to act and live by what He has already said to us (and He has said an awful lot to all of us in the Bible!). If we live by the understanding we already have God will increase our understanding even more.

Genesis 14:12-24

We now come to what is the main point of the story. Abraham learned about what had happened. On hearing the news he got together a small army and went to rescue Lot. He was successful in this and recovered Lot, his people and his possessions.

This illustrates further aspects of Abraham. He had a degree of bravery. we are not told how many soldiers were in the opposing camps, but it seems fair to assume that he was outnumbered. It also demonstrates concern for Lot.

One of the other kings, the king of Sodom, came out to meet Abraham. Melchizadek also came out to see him. Melchizadek is one of the most obscure characters in the Bible. As well as here, he is referred to in Psalm 110 and in Hebrews. Melchizadek brought out bread and wine and the parallel with the Lord's Supper is clear, and in Hebrews he is seen as a precursor of Jesus. Abraham gave him a tenth of everything.

The incident is an example of God's earlier promise that Abraham would be blessed.

The king of Sodom was there when this happened and offered to let Abraham keep the goods (presumably some of these had been taken off the king). Abraham, however, refuses. He wanted the world to know that it was God alone who made him rich.

Genesis 14:1-12

God had given Abraham a promise, but the events of the world went on regardless. However, these events served to make Abraham's name know to surrounding world, as we will see later. When we look at the world all sorts of things happen, and men have many plans in their hearts, but as Proverbs says, it is the Lord's will that prevails. Jesus tells us not to be anxious when we hear of wars and rumours of wars (Matt 24:6). We do not need to understand everything that happens, nor do we need to waste our time to see how every little event somehow fits into some "end time theology" ("waste of time theology" might be a better name for it.) What does matter is how we live in situations. If we are continually serving God and seeking Him then He will guide us in the right direction (Matthew 24:46).

One set of kings were trying to put down a rebellion, then some other group of kings got together and tried to fight them. In the midst of this Lot got caught up in events and was taken captive, along with his possessions. If we try to live by our own wisdom then we will indeed be at the mercy of events, if instead we live by faith and obedience we will find that we are protected and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 13:10-19

Lot's approach is an illustration of just judging by appearances and relying on our own wisdom. He looked around and the area of the Jordan looked good. This decision was to get him in all sorts of trouble. We should live our lives in constant communion with God and seek His guidance on all things. This does not mean we never make any decisions ourselves, but that we commit everything to Him (Proverbs 16:3). For we need to recognise the limits of human wisdom. Until a couple of years ago many schemes would have looked like financial winners, but now the world is in financial turmoil. We do not know what will happen tomorrow.

Lot's choice also indicates that we should look at the moral character as well as "hard financial facts". For the people of Sodom and Gomorrah inhabited the land and were wicked. They may well have been prosperous at the time, but the Lord's judgement was about to hit them. It is important to be righteous on the decisions we make, not just astute in worldly terms.

Abraham had entrusted himself to the Lord, and now receives his reward. The Lord appeared to him and told him to look all around. God promised that all the land would be given to his offspring. So this included the land Lot had taken. It is far better to entrust ourselves to God's goodness than to rely on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Note that Abraham did not know God was going to do say this when he gave Lot first choice. We need to know the character and heart of God, as well as relying on particular promises.

God also expanded His promise to Abraham. His descendants would be more numerous than the grains of sand in the desert. God then instructed Abraham to walk through the land. This was before God gave him the land. We need to imagine and ponder upon the things that God has promised to do before He does them. We need to visualise the promise. You see we are not to live just according to the way things are, but also to live according to the way things will be. Conversely, we are not to become totally unreal and start living in fantasy! There is an enormous difference between living in faith and living in fantasy. Someone who is living in faith will be fully aware of the current realities, but equally aware of God's promises. Faith sees beyond the immediate situation.

Having had a significant encounter with God (okay, I know its difficult t imagine an insignificant encounter with the Lord!) Abraham marked the event by making an altar. This was to become a guidepost in his life.

Genesis 13:1-9

Abraham left with Lot and all his possessions. He had become very wealthy, both in livestock and silver and gold. He then returned to the place where he had built the altar and called on the name of the Lord. It is interesting that when he left the altar to go to the Negev things started going wrong, indeed Abraham himself started going wrong. Now that he has returned we will see things starting to go right. This is not because of any "magical" effect, but because he is now calling on the name of the Lord. This is not a one-off thing that we do, but a lifestyle. We need to call upon the Lord at all times.

Lot was also wealthy. In fact they had so much wealth between them that the land could not support them both. There was such competition for resources that their herders were forever quarrelling.

Abraham decided to resolve the situation, and did so in a manner that demonstrated his faith in God. He simply said they should separate and let Lot have first choice. When God has given us something we have no need to hold on to it. If we detect a grasping or fearful attitude within ourselves, particularly over material goods, especially money, we should watch out. It is the Lord who supplies all our needs, we do not need to be aggressive, or grasping, or manipulative, or hoarding. When (for I guess most of us have wrong attitudes at some time on these matters) we find ourselves having wrong attitudes we should resist them.

We will see that Abraham is a curious mixture of great faith and great faults. He demonstrated great faith here, as he did when he chose to leave Haran in the first place, and he will do so on occasions in the future as well. Yet he also demonstrated many faults, as in lying to Pharaoh, a fault he would alter repeat, and is struggling to believe God about having a son. In this he is just like us. For most of us there are areas where we know how to live by faith and obedience, yet we have other areas of our life where we really struggle. This is normal, and God fulfilled His promises to Abraham. Likewise, if we carry on following Christ His promises will be fulfilled in our lives.