Verse for the Day, 19 March 2014.

Genesis 17:1-8  When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,  (2)  that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly."  (3)  Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,  (4)  "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.  (5)  No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.  (6)  I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.  (7)  And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.  (8)  And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."

 

In verses 1-2 God issues Abram an impossible command, God tells Abram to be perfect, to walk and live in complete sinless perfection and upon doing so, God will then make His covenant with Abram. Abram is immediately disqualified, he cannot do it for one day, never mind a lifetime. The covenant would be broken before it even began. The only way Abram can enter into this covenant with God, is if Abram is counted as perfect by God, if Abram is made righteous in God’s sight. To our joy, we know that this had already taken place, for Abram in faith had believed and trusted in the sovereign promises of God, believing that God is able to do that which is impossible, that God and God alone is to be believed upon, trusted and served. When Abram responded in faith and belief in Genesis 15, we are told that God from that point on counted Abram as righteous, as one who is now pleasing and acceptable in God sight, as one who has recognised their own inability and God’s ability to bring them salvation. The result of this all is that God has entered into a covenant relationship with Abram, Abram is now a part of the people of God, one under God’s favour, blessing and eternal promises. This all serves to set the scene for the coming of Christ, the great work he would do and the results of this great work for all who would believe.

 

For those of us who believe in Christ, we have all had a Genesis 17:1-8 moment, when God did an impossible work in our lives, counted us as righteous, entered into a covenant with us, brought us into the people of God and made us His everlasting possession. The impossible demands of God, satisfied by Christ and applied to us! What a good, gracious and glorious God we serve!

 

Our good, gracious and glorious God, our hearts are filled with praise today, for You have done the impossible in our lives. You have taken people who are filled with sin and imperfections and counted them as righteous, made them in Your sight as blameless and perfect. You have taken those who were estranged from You and brought them into Your very own family, to live under Your blessing for eternity. May Your receive all the glory, honour and praise, for You alone are worthy of it. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 12 March 2014.

Genesis 16:1-6  Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.  (2)  And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.  (3)  So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.  (4)  And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.  (5)  And Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!"  (6)  But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

 

On Monday we were reminded of God’s covenant with Abram, we noted that it was one which required faith and trust, as well as perseverance from Abram and Sarai. This promise would not come to fulfilment overnight, it would take numerous generations to come into being. Abram and Sarai become impatient with God’s timing, wisdom and sovereign will. This impatience, doubt and lack of trust leads them both to make very foolish decisions. Sarai effectively encourages Abram to commit adultery with Hagar, in the hope that Hagar will then conceive a child. Sarai fails to think about the consequences this decision will have upon their marriage, and upon any potential child born as a result of this. Foolishly, Abram listens to Sarai, Abram like Adam, fails to stand against the sinful actions and requests of his wife. Abram takes Hagar and in the course of time she becomes pregnant. Sarai becomes filled with bitterness, anger and jealousy, and she turns against both Abram and Hagar. She seeks even to absolve herself of her responsibility in this whole matter. In another act of foolishness, Abram then permits Sarai to treat Hagar harshly, to the point that Hagar had to flee for her life, and for the life of the child growing within her.

 

To us as we read through this passage, their sin, folly and failure to trust God as well as the consequences of all this is clearly evident. We shake our heads in disbelief, possibly even shock at the choices they made. It all seems so clear to us as outside observers.

The question is, how many people when they look at our lives would say and react in precisely the same way?

Sin has a power to blind our eyes and dull our minds, so that what might be crystal clear to others is blurry to us. “It sounds good, it looks good, it will achieve the same end result, I have their permission, therefore how can it be wrong?” We need to be diligent in our watch against sin, and we need to be equally quick to flee from it, rather than indulge it in thought, thinking that we call walk away at any time. As Psalm 1 teaches us, walking, lingering in sin, leads to standing, which leads to sitting, a quick look, becomes an action, which then becomes a pattern and course of life. God has given us the aid of His Word, His Spirit, His Church and prayer, let us employ all these means in our battle against sin.

 

Holy Father, help us by Your grace to see sin when it first appears, gives us the strengthen to turn away from it and recognise the danger it presents. Help us to diligently and daily take hold of all the means that You have given us to aid us in our battle against sin. Most of all, help us to trust in You and not in our own foolishness. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 10 March 2014.

Genesis 15:13-16  Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.  (14)  But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.  (15)  As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.  (16)  And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

 

In this chapter, God enters into a covenant with Abram. This covenant is based upon the promises that God has made to Abram, the promise of countless descendants and a vast and fruitful land. They are promises that are incredible and impossible! They are promises that call Abram to place all his faith and trust in God to bring the impossible to pass. These promises do not just require faith of Abram, they also call upon Abram to persevere, to wait upon the Lord and to trust in God’s sovereign timing. Abram lived to see three of his descendants, according to promise of God, Isaac, Jacob and Esau, furthermore at his death Abram owned only a field and a cave. Hardly a countless nation of people, or a vast land! However, God does not hide His works and purposes from Abram. In this passage as God makes this covenant, He tells Abram that he will not live to see this, nor will Isaac see it come to fulfilment, in fact, this very land that God has promised to Abram, his descendants will leave it and will be oppressed for over 400 years. It will only be after this time that the promise shall begin to come to a greater fulfilment. God makes a promise to Abram, a promise which Abram will not see come to pass, but one he must in faith believe will come to pass.

 

We have the benefit of Scripture, and therefore we know that God was true to His promises and covenant with Abram, some 400 years later a vast number of people, estimated to be well over 1 million, all descendants of Abram, returned and started take possession of the land. It was through Abram’s descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, that men and women from all nations, tribes and tongues were brought into the people of God and are still being brought into the Kingdom of God. 

 

These verses challenge us to wait upon God, to persevere and to trust in His sovereign timing. As the Apostle Peter tells us, the Lord does keep His promises, His timing is not our timing, but it is the best timing, we need to trust and wait upon God, understanding that even if we do not see it come to pass in our life time, God will always keep His promises and perform the work that He in His sovereign will has decreed to do.

 

Lord God, the God of Abraham, the covenant keeping God, we rejoice in the fact that You have brought the promises and covenant You made with Abram to pass, for it is through this promise that we have received salvation in Jesus Christ. We thank You that Your timing and will is always best, best for us and best for your glory. Help us to persevere, to wait upon You and trust in Your Sovereign timing, believing in faith that You truly do work all things for our good and Your glory. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 7 March 2014.

Genesis 14:18-20  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)  (19)  And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;  (20)  and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

 

Melchizedek is one of the most mysterious characters in all of Scripture. We know very little about him, and yet he is held in high regard. When it comes to passages and characters such as these, we need to submit ourselves to the sovereign knowledge, wisdom, purposes and plans of God. We need to remember that the book of Genesis, is just that, a book about beginnings. The beginning of creation, of mankind, of the Gospel and of the means and ways through which God will work all things so as to bring this Gospel to pass. Melchizedek appears at this point in accordance to the sovereign purposes of God. He appears to establish another priestly line, apart from the Levitical priesthood. He also appears so as to show that this priestly line is superior, this is made clear by the fact that Abram “tithes” to Melchizedek, which as we learn later in the New Testament, Hebrews 7, is a symbol that demonstrates this superiority. All this is done in preparation for the coming of Jesus some 2000 years later. Jesus we are told comes in the line, the priestly line of Melchizedek, for Jesus like Melchizedek is not just a priest but is also a king. As a result of this Jesus is the great high priest, who can do a work that no other priest could do, offer up his life as a once for all offering for sin. In doing this Jesus fulfils all the promises, covenants and prophecies made about him, for they spoke of a King who would reign forever, but also of a Priest, who would make a great atonement for sin and of a Prophet who would reveal God to us in the fullest manner. Jesus is all three.

 

Our many questions with regard to Melchizedek are never answered, he remains shrouded in mystery. When we come to such passages, events and people, our role is not to try and answer all the questions, but to rather in faith accept the fact that we cannot understand all the ways of God. As Moses would later say in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” We may not understand Melchizedek, but we should thank God that He has worked through human history so as to bring about a salvation that is perfect in every manner and is therefore able to save us completely and eternally. We should also realise that as finite humans, we will never be able to fully understand God and His ways. God is infinitely higher and wiser than us, and that is exactly the way it should be. Melchizedek may be mysterious to us, but he is not mysterious to God, God know for what reasons he established Melchizedek as a priest and king and it was God who purposed that Abram and Melchizedek should meet. It is all a part of God’s will and work, which has led to a great salvation for us and glory to His name.

 

Sovereign Father, You are higher than the highest heaven, Your thoughts are above ours, Your ways unsearchable and at times unknowable. We praise You today that even though we do not understand Your ways, will and works, You have carried them out in wisdom and to their perfect end. We thank You that because of these sovereign and mysterious works You have established a perfect, complete and eternal salvation for us through the Lord Jesus Christ. May we through passages such as these learn to trust You and Your will for us, even when we do not understand it. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 6 March 2014.

Genesis 13:14-17  The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,  (15)  for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.  (16)  I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.  (17)  Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you."

 

Abram and Lot have gone their separate ways, Lot has selfishly and foolishly chosen the land to the east that is lush and fertile, but also plagued with sinfulness. Abram remains in the dry, semi-arid land of Canaan. Upon Lot’s departure God continues to expand the promise He made to Abram. While Lot may have chosen the land to the east, that land will never belong to Lot, Lot and his family will have to flee from there in the time to come. But in the case of Abram, the land upon which he now stands, and the land that he can see all around him, will belong to him and to his descendants. Abram will not receive this land by means of human agreement, Abram will not have to pay vast sums of money to take ownership of this land. This land will be given to him by God! Not only will this land be given to him by God, but God will populate this land, it will be a land filled with people, people descendant from Abram. How incredible this must have sounded to Abram, who was at this point a nomad in the land, he did not own one acre of land, nor did he have a single child. He is landless and childless, but now God promises to him that the land upon which he stands will be his and it will be filled with his descendants.

 

God has made an equally incredible promise to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been brought into a family, kingdom, inheritance and eternity that was simply impossible for us to ever attain to. One far greater and more glorious that we could have ever imagined. We have not had to pay for it, or earn it by the sweat of our own brow, it has been given to us by God, given in all its fullness. We enter into God’s Kingdom as full children of God, as rightful heirs. God is our Father, heaven is our home, and we have access to it for all eternity. This promise of God to Abram, serves to paint a picture and point us to the work that Christ would do and the wonderful promise that it would bring us, the promise of a new land, a new kingdom, a great inheritance and eternal blessing.

 

Our loving heavenly Father, thank You for this wonderful promise that we have in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to be constantly mindful and thankful of this promise and to prepare ourselves for the day when it shall come to its ultimate fulfilment. May we live now as citizens of heaven and children of God. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 5 March 2014.

Genesis 12:10-13  Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.  (11)  When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, "I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance,  (12)  and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.  (13)  Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake."

 

On Monday it was mentioned that we could see in Abram’s life the blessings and rewards of trusting God, and the results and consequences of doubting God and relying on ourselves instead. These verses illustrates this very point. Abram and Sarai travel to Egypt out of necessity, there is a great famine and they travel to Egypt to seek food and relief. Abram fears for his life on account of his wife, for she was beautiful in appearance. This statement is quite astounding for not only it is proved true when Sarai is taken by Pharaoh because he saw that she was beautiful, but we must also consider the fact that Sarai was not a young woman in her early twenties! She was in her late sixties, maybe even in her seventies!

 

When Abram and Sarai made the decision to travel down to Egypt, knowing that Sarai was a woman of exceptional beauty and would thus draw the attention of Pharaoh, they had a choice to make. Would they trust God to protect them or would they take matters into their own hands? Sadly, they took the path of doubting God and self-reliance. The result, what they feared most came to pass, Sarai was taken by Pharaoh. Despite Abram and Sarai’s lack of faith and trust, God doesn’t forsake them, He still shows Himself to be faithful and true to His promises and intervenes, rescuing them both. It comes at a cost, both to Pharaoh, his household and to Abram. Pharaoh and his household are afflicted with plagues and Abram is revealed to have been deceptive and his lies are exposed.

 

God is revealed as being both just and faithful. The sinful actions of men are exposed and dealt with, but in the midst of that sinfulness God remains faithful, even gracious in sparing Abram and Sarai the full potential consequences of their deceit, doubt and lack of trust in Him. We face many similar situations whereby we are presented with to choice to either trust God, or take matters in to our own hands. We can know that when we do choose to take matters into our own hands and as a result wander in sin, God will deal with the sin, it will be exposed and we will be called to account. In His grace, He doesn’t abandon us, but remains faithful, thus as He exposes our sin and calls us to account, He also holds forth His grace and faithfulness, urging us back to repentance and trust in Him.

 

Merciful Father, thank You that You are a faithful and enduring God. We acknowledge that so often we take matters into our own hands, many times with disastrous results. We are filled with thankfulness that You intervene and on occasions the results of our sinful actions are not as severe as they could be. We praise You that that in these times You remain faithful and true to Your promises and to us, prompting us by Your Holy Spirit to repentance and to return to trusting You. Help us today when we face various choices and decisions to demonstrate that we trust You and desire to follow Your will  and Your Word. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 3 March 2014.

Genesis 12:1-4  Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  (2)  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  (3)  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."  (4)  So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

 

These verses contain truly incredible promises that reflect the sovereignty and grace of God. We need to remember that Abram, like Noah was not chosen by God because they were godly, righteous men. Abram’s family were idol worshippers, until God revealed Himself to Abram and radically change Abram’s life. That change was but the beginning of God’s workings with Abram. In these verses Abram is given the command by God to leave his homeland, his extended family and travel to a land that God will show him. Faith is immediately required of Abram, and Sarai, for they are being called to embark on a journey without knowing the destination. Further faith is required when God promises to Abram that he will have many descendants, that from Abram a great nation will arise. We see the measure of faith required to believe in the this promise of God when we read in Genesis 11:30 that Sarai had no children and was not able to have children, she was barren. God reveals Himself to Abram and then calls Abram to faith, to trust God to do what sounds to the human ear as utterly impossible.

 

That same God has revealed Himself to us through His Son, His Spirit and His Word, He has radically changed and transformed our lives and that day of our salvation was but the beginning of God’s workings with us. God may not make the same promises to us as He did to Abram, but God does call us to demonstrate the same faith and trust that He required of Abram. Abram’s life from this moment forward displayed times of great faith and trust and at other times doubt and self-reliance. The rewards, or the results and consequences are revealed and thus they serve to encourage us all the more to faith and trust in God. Let us live in reliance upon God in this new week, demonstrating that our faith and trust lies in Him to work in us and to continue to do the impossible.

 

Lord God, the God who has revealed Himself to man, how we thank and adore You today for radically changing our lives through the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not yet fully appreciate what it means to be counted as a child of God. We thank You to for all the wonderful promises You made to us on that day of our salvation, promises we know that will come to pass. We pray that as You call us to have a greater and deeper faith, trust and reliance upon You, that You would by Your Spirit, enable us to respond in the right manner, for our good and for Your greater glory. Amen