Day 11-Genesis 15

"Look up at the heavens and count the stars- if indeed you can count them... so shall your offspring be." Genesis 15: 4-5

"Abram believed the LORD , and he credited it to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6

This verse just stuck out to me so vividly. It's so simple, and yet so complex to us. Why? Simply believe that what God has promised is true, sure that sounds easy. But it doesn't! God takes Abram outside and shows him the stars and promises that Abram will have as many offspring as the stars.
Sometimes is so hard to accept the simplest promises.
Shortly after his belief is credited to him as righteousness, Sarai brings her maidservant to Abram in hopes of conceiving a child in that way.  They take the matters into their own hands.  How very human of them. To worsen it, once this poor woman is pregnant- which if you need a reminder, is what Sarai had hoped for- Sarai begins to despise her servant.
That bugs me. Why is it that vulnerable people are used and then abandoned so easily. Sarai, angered by what she forced Hagar into, mistreats Hagar and causes her to run away.

I hate this story for the cruelty and the sense of worth that is so obviously not applied to all life.

I also love this story.

After Hagar departs, an angel of the Lord finds her near a spring in the desert.

"You are now with child, and you will have a son.

You shall name him Ishmael,

For the Lord has heard of your misery.

Genesis 15:11

Ishmael means "God will listen"

He will always listen to our prayers, to our frustrations, our misery.. He will listen.

This is my favourite part in this story. 

 "You are the God who sees me, I have now seen the One who sees me." Genesis 15:13

Women were considered property.  Maidservants were property. Listen to what Abram says to Sarai, after He took a huge part in the whole pregnancy thing! "Your servant is in your hands.. do with her what you think best." v. 6

 Hagar, this mistreated, used human being who no one even considered worthwhile was seen by God. 

What a beautiful reminder from the Old Testament.  Even then, God saw every one of his children and loved each one. 

How many Hagars are in our world? Millions. God sees each one. He loves each one.  In our own ways, each of us is Hagar. Vulnerable, broken, alone, running away from our fears, hurts,.. perhaps used and disposed of by people that we trusted.

God Sees YOU. 

He Loves YOU.

He Yearns for YOU to know him. 

God sees you. He hears you.  You are not invisible. You are not unloved. You are not alone. 

I have been incredibly encouraged by this passage of scripture and it is my prayer that you will read it for yourself.

Day 10- Genesis 12-14

"Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.  All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.  I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."Genesis 13: 14-17

God's promises just keep coming.  Abram allowed Lot to have his pick of the land.  We all know Lot because of his narrow escape from destruction that we have yet to read. He chose to live dangerously close to Sodom and Gomorrah.  We see in verse 13 that "The men of sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord."
He was playing with fire.


What a contrast between Lot and Abram; one chose greedily, and the other chose to trust God and waited for God to reveal his plan to him.  Abram was blessed because of his patience and trust that God would follow through on his promises.  Not only that, but God added to his former promises. 


In chapter 12, after God's first set of promises, Abram built an altar.  Here in chapter 13, he built another one after God's second set of promises.  Noah also built an altar in chapter 8, but it is before God's promises to him.  
Altars have a significant meaning throughout the Old Testament.  
Altars were a reminder.  Not only for those who built it, but for any who encountered it.  All who saw the altar were reminded of God's faithfulness and goodness.  Building altars were a response to God's faithfulness (living through the flood in the ark and God's promises to Abram, and as we read on through the Old Testament- we will see more examples)

This was an act of worship. 

We have an altar in our church, and it is just a piece of furniture. We treat it as just a piece of furniture.  The worship teams puts water bottles on it, there's a big old school bible with yellowed pages nicely placed upon it.  It's never read.  During Christmas time, the advent candles are lit upon the altar.  It sits in front of the cross.  Sometimes, people even step on it to adjust the cloth on the cross.


What a wasted opportunity to be reminded of God's promises, his faithfulness to his children, and His greatness!


When I thought of this piece of furniture sitting in my church, I began to reflect on my life.  What are the altars in my life? Have I even made an effort to have altars? What responses have I made in worship and thankfulness for God's faithful love and mercy to me? 


If I have made an effort to make an altar, it eventually becomes like the altar in my church.  It just sits there meaninglessly, and I put God's faithful acts on that altar and distractedly step on them as I reach for the meaningless things I strive for.  


It's way too easy to forget God. 


How quickly we forget.


What faithful acts and gifts of love and mercy from God have you forgotten? Choose to be reminded of His eternal love and faithfulness today. 

Day 9- Abram in Egypt

Because of a famine, Abram took his family to Egypt.

Before they entered Egypt he says to Sarai, his wife, "I know what a beautiful woman you are.  When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'this is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live.  Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you. " 12:11-13

First off- this woman was 65 years old by this time! It's incredible how different the age span was then, for her to be in the prime of her life at the age of 65..

We just read God's promises to Abram, and He still needs to learn that God will protect him.  How quickly we forget!

As a girl, I wonder what was going through Sarai's mind at that point.  Could you imagine if you husband came up to you and said, "I know you're beautiful, please tell them you're my sister so that they will take you in the Pharaoh's harem so that I can live and be treated well."
Scripture doesn't say anything about what happened to Sarai while she was in the Pharaoh's palace.  Abram received gifts, cattle, sheep, and servants from the Pharaoh because Sarai was there.  I can't even imagine what that would've been like. Harems were not always about sex.  It was also about status.  The man owned the most beautiful ladies in the country.  There are so many questions...How long was Sarai there? Was she terrified? Was she mistreated by the other women?

I read the stories in the bible and am reminded to be grateful to live in modern day Canada.  To imagine living in a time and a place where women are basically considered property, and are treated as such...
I just can't.

As Sarai is in the Pharaoh's palace, God follows through on his promise to protect Abram and his family.  He inflicts diseases on Pharaoh and his household. I love how God reveals the truth to the Pharaoh.  The Pharaoh  summons Abram and challenges him, "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?" v18
The Pharaoh then sends them on their way.  This Pharaoh was smart- he knew not to mess with God.  I wish there was more respect for God's power nowadays.  It seems that we forget that He not only created the world, but He also wiped out humankind except for one man and his family because of the world's wickedness.
The richness of the awe and respect for God in the Old Testament is something that I find refreshing.

Some people call it legalism when in fact, it's really the fear of the Lord. We should have more of it in our bones. We forget who He is. We should not forget his mercy and grace- and delve into a life of works, but we should not sit back and pretend that God is like our golden retriever dog who loyally protects, loves and follows us. Yes, He loves us unconditionally;  He sent his son to be executed in a gruesome way so that we could accept his mercy and grace.  He did that because He is so great and good, that we are not worthy without Jesus.

God is all knowing, ever present and all-powerful.   Don't forget the awe- in Awesome God.

Day 8- Genesis 12

It has been a while since I blogged about my readings.  My deepest apologies, I'll try and catch you up on each one!

"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you." Genesis 12:1

A clear message. One without a specific destination- only one command: Leave.

It reminds me of my year in Bible School.  As the year drew to an end, I had been planning to either continue on or pursue further biblical education through YWAM. I prayed and prayed for guidance.  What did God want from me? I really wanted to go back to CLBI.

One thing was clear. "Don't go back to CLBI"
It wasn't because it was a bad school, or a place where God surely was not.  I couldn't sort it out. And I spend the whole summer wrestling through what I would end up doing. Everything was unsure, but the only thing that was clear was that I wasn't to go back.

It is one thing to be called to leave one place to arrive at another.  It is another thing to be called to leave a place with no destination in mind.

This is what Abram did!

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. " Hebrews 11:8

 And of course, we look at the promises from God that come right after his command to leave and why wouldn't he go?

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.  

I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will surely curse;

and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." 

Genesis 12:2-3


(An interesting note is that this covenant can be broken into seven parts. The perfect and whole number.
Also note that there is no condition on Abram's part of this covenant.  These are unconditional promises from God.)

The city where Abram was living at that time, Ur, was a highly advanced city.  It was very settled and would have had the opportunities and benefits of being a modern and advanced city. 

It also had all the evils and temptations of a city consumed by greed and idols.  Abram's father, Terah, worshipped the idols in that city. 

*(As I travel through the Old Testament, I have been putting together parts of Jesus' story that have always been there and I never connected them.  We know that Jesus' ancestry comes from Abraham, which means that in Jesus' lineage, we have Terah- the idol worshipper as well.)  

Living in the setting of a wicked and depraved city, with a patriarch who worshipped false gods, Abram could've lived a very different life.

Yet God called him. 

May you find encouragement today in knowing that God does not call people and bless them according to where they are from, but because of where they are going. It's not about where you've been, but where God is taking you.

What is He asking you to leave today?