Author: words and signs

16 “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering,”

 Genesis 22:8

 In this scripture we have the prophecy and promise that God would provide a just recompense for sin. Abraham was instructed to offer his son as a sacrifice, but he already knew that God would do a wonderful work of redemption for Isaac. God had always kept His promises to Abraham and Abraham trusted God completely. It made him the friend of God and because he believed, it was counted as righteous before God.

 God has also provided for us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world. The second person of the godhead entered this world and lived and died that we might be reconciled to God. God provided this through the covenant He made with Himself before the world was. God knew all that would happen and how we would utterly fail Him, so He purposed a way with Himself that would allow us to be forgiven and made new.

 Jesus became the sin offering for us when He died on the cross and His perfect sacrifice is enough for us. We can know God and be counted as righteous because of what Jesus has done for us. There is nothing more that needs to be done, only that we repent and believe, as Abraham believed, and we will enter into the joy of knowing God and being free from all sin and death. Hell has no more jurisdiction over us for we belong to the Father and none can take us out of His loving hands.

“I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”  

John 10:28

15 “He (Abraham) lived as a foreigner in Gerar.”

 Genesis 20:1

Gerar was a godless Philistine city which skirted the desert and provided refreshment for travellers. Abraham found himself there but he did not settle nor give his allegiance to it. It was not part of the earthly inheritance promised to Abraham.

We also have an inheritance from God as His elect people. We have all our citizenship in the heavenly country which is the New Jerusalem. We must not settle or put down roots in this world, for we are not of it. Abraham kept his life separate from the world and lived in faith towards God. He did not depend on the world to sustain him but rested his hope in the Lord. So also, we must not let this world infiltrate our thinking and doing but remain faithful to our Lord and God.

 Let us keep this world out of our life and separate ourselves from ungodly living and finding our satisfaction in the things of this life. Let us devote our days to the Lord and His Word and follow in the footsteps of our Saviour Jesus who left all for our sake. May the enticements of this present life sit lightly on us as we think of our heavenly inheritance. Our reality is more than the inheritance of the worlding which is only sin and death. We have been freed from all that.

“Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

 Galatians 5:1

 

 

14 “and the Lord did to Sarah as he had spoken.”

 Genesis 21:1

 The Word of the Lord is binding and will surely come to pass. God keeps all His promises to the godly and the unjust also. God had promised Sarah a miracle baby in the form of Isaac and God kept His promise for nothing is too hard for the Lord. Sarah had her baby boy at ninety years of age, and he gave her great delight. He was the son of promise and through his generations God would bless the whole world. The line of the Messiah would come through that family, and the very Word of God would be born into the world as its Saviour.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

 John 1:1

 The Word of God stands forever sure, and He will keep all His promises to you and bring you safely to the heavenly home, if you are trusting in Him. None of His words can fail and we have them written for us in the Bible. Jesus is the very Word of God incarnate, and we can trust Him for all the prophecies about Him have proved true. His Word never fails but will accomplish all that it says.

 

13 “Is anything too hard for the Lord?

 Genesis 18:14

 This is a certain rhetorical question for the answer is so obvious. We need to know who we are dealing with here. It is the Lord who made every living and non-living thing and has created the world we do not even know about yet. He is the mighty creator God and has all things under His control and jurisdiction.

 This is the God and Lord who made blind eyes see and deaf ears to hear. He raised the dead and calmed the storm on the lake. All things obey Him both animate and non-animate. He is the one who contracted himself to a small baby and entered our world to save us and make us His children. We are certainly lost without Him, and we need to bow our knees to Him the omnipotent God. He is the controller of all events and nothing surprises Him or catches Him off guard. He has complete control over all circumstances and plans the lives of His people with great care.

 We may think that our case is too difficult for Him and that there is no way out for us. We can lament our state and try to alleviate our own needs, but it is the Lord we must come to at all times and seek His guidance and will for our lives.

“For the kingdom is the Lord’s. He is the ruler over the nations.”

 Psalm 22:28

 The Scripture is full of this kind of statement, and we must take it to heart and put all our trust in this God, for He alone is supreme. 

 

12 “Sarah your wife will have a son.”

 Genesis 18:10

 God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would be the founders of a great nation and kings would be born from them in the future. Abrahm and Sarah found this very hard to believe because they were naturally past child-bearing years by a long way. They tried their own way to solve the problem and Ishmael was born but God said that he was not the son of promise. The line of the Messiah would be from Isaac.

 Abrahma and Sarah both laughed at the prospect of having a child in their old age but God was faithful. (Genesis 17:17. Genesis 18:12) God works according to His covenant and not according to the ways of the world. He delights to work contrary to human expectations and carries out His will according to His own purposes.

 God also promised another Son of promise, even our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

 Isaiah 7:14

 As Isaac was predicted so was our Lord Jesus 500 years before He was born, indeed the promises go back to the beginning of Genesis. Let us rejoice at the provision of the Lord and wonder at His ways.

 

11 “He believed in the Lord, who credited it to him for righteousness.”

 Genesis 15:6

 There are no works of merit or righteousness that we can give to the Lord as a sufficient offering. We are thoroughly contaminated by sin and must be cleansed by something on the outside of us. Good works can never save us for we are full of sin and are so used to it we don’t even realise. Only when God starts to impress upon us our sin do we see our need and therefore our need of a Saviour. It is very difficult to preach the gospel in these days for we do not want to hear anything that undermines our personal confidence, but we cannot be saved until we see our need.

 It is painful for us to come to God because we must understand our position before Him and it is not good. We are unacceptable to God and need daily forgiveness and cleansing. Mostly we do not want to hear this for it is offensive to us as people, however we cannot bow our knees to the Saviour of the world unless we first grasp our need.

 Abraham saw His need and responded in faith to God. This is what pleases the Lord, obedience, repentance and faith. These are not on our agenda, and we need a mighty work of God in our life to allow us to see this need. Abraham did many good things but the crown of it all was his faith and this is what he is commended for. So likewise with us, we must put all our faith and hope in the sacrifice on the cross if we are to be cleansed from our sin.

 

10 “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

 Genesis 15:1

 God reveals Himself to Abraham and confirms the covenant of peace between them. Abraham was a wanderer with many riches and flocks to his entourage. He supported many peoples in his riches and protected his family from all attacks. Abraham could afford to be bold, for the power of God was with Him and God promises him great blessings as Abraham lives for Him.

 God is the shield of Abraham and all who follow in his footsteps as the people of God, trusting in the power of God to meet all needs and protect from all enemies. God is the hight tower to which we can flee in times of trouble and pain. There is no other God like the God revealed in the Bible and we give all our trust to Him who never fails His people. Abrahma was instructed by God to not be afraid and to walk confidently in the commandments of the Lord. So we too can gain full assurance of faith as we walk obediently and closely with our Lord.

 What do we seek in life? Are we looking to this world for strength and protection? Let us look a way to our God and find Him to be our all in all. There is no other Saviour and as we look to Him, we are rescued for the errors of the age and the disappointments of this life.

 

9 “And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.”

 Genesis 13:2

 Here in this scripture we have the man who was known as the friend of God presented to us as a man of great wealth. Such is the blessing of the Lord on all those who follow Him, are obedient and put their full trust in Him. Those who follow the Lord are fully provided for.

“The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”

 Psalm 34:10

 God promises full provision for us and will supply all our needs and more, out of His tender love and care for us. How much we have and enjoy at the hand of our loving God. Do we count our blessings and feed our faith through the knowledge of the Lord? Abraham was able to support the life of all that came with him out of the godless culture of Ur. So also we escape the godlessness of this life and are found rich in God.

 God does not set one human above another, but calls out to each person to repent and believe. This is the call for each of us that we will find ourselves in the kingdom of Christ and heirs of God with Him. Such is our great inheritance and we should live in the light of that. Abraham did and was known as the “friend of God.” He honoured God above all and gave a tenth of his wealth to the Priest Melchizedek and we also give of our riches to the Lord. Let us live in great confidence that the Lord will always provide and make us rich in Him.

 

8 “let’s make a name for ourselves…”

 Genesis 11:4

 The sons and daughters of humankind are always seeking acclaim and to make a name for themselves. The Lord is over all but somehow we think we can better ourselves in the schemes of this fallen world. The people on the earth had common language and sought to make a name that they could be proud of and somehow to reach to God. Mankind is always in this frame and seeks to make its own way to God through its works and ways. We are full of pride and self-seeking and think that we can make our own way to heaven. This was the thinking on the earth at this time. God is not honoured by us and so He confused the language so that the peoples will seek Him and not each other.

 We are filled with conceit in our natural selves and do not consider the requirements of a holy God. We mistakenly think we can reach out to Him on our terms and not according to His grace. We are not gracious and so seek earthly ways to reach heaven, which is impossible. Only faith pleases the Lord and only humility is acceptable to Him who owns it all.

“Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.”

 Hebrews 11:6

 Without faith it is impossible to please God and we cannot find Him on our own terms. We come to Him in repentance and faith and look to His power to save us and not our own devices.

 

7 “Then God remembered Noah”

 Genesis 8:1

 What a treasure we possess that our mighty God should think on His people and regard every one of them. The thoughts of God towards His people are constant and ever. There is not a moment that He is not thinking of our wellbeing and planning our lives for His glory and our good. The godly servant of the Lord, Noah, was not forgotten but God delivered him and his household from the flood. God will deliver us also if we will hide our life in Christ and follow in the way of holiness.

 God does not forget His people even though we are forgotten and sidelined, yet His mercy to us is ever sure and He will give us ways to serve Him and witness for Him. Noah was hidden in the ark and so we also are hidden in the ark of Christ. He is our great saviour and can shelter us from the storms of life and make us fruitful for His glory.

 Do you desire that God should remember you? Think of the thief on the cross who asked Jesus on the cross beside him to remember him.

 

“He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Luke 23:42-43

 Surely God will look upon all who call on Him in truth. The way is open for you to come today.