Tag Archive for: Genesis

Simply put, Isaac is a type of Christ “obedient unto death” showing the world the picture of what would come some 1900 years later. Abraham illustrates the Father who “spared not His own Son.” The resurrection is illustrated in the deliverance of Isaac.

Not only do we see the picture of the coming sacrifice of God’s only son in this chapter but we also see the ultimate justification by faith. Was it by works or by faith that Abraham was justified?

James writes in James 2 verse 21, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

Now seeming to contradict James, Paul writes in Romans 4 verses 1 to 3, What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

So which is correct works or faith?

Well of course they’re both right because they’re talking about the same thing. James is talking about the works of faith not the works of the law. Paul is talking about the justification by faith from Genesis chapter 15 verse 6. “And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness”.

True faith is always backed up by how we outwork that faith. Do we do what we believe? Abraham most certainly did as we’ll see.

So we begin this incredible chapter, Genesis  22:1-2, Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  

Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 

We see that God tested Abraham. This wasn’t so much a test to produce faith, as it was a test to reveal faith. God built Abraham slowly, piece by piece, year by year, into a man of faith. This test would reveal some of that faith God had built into Abraham.

Can any of us imagine a greater test than this one?

The great Charles Spurgeon once wrote and I quote, “I cannot imagine a greater test than that which the Lord applied to Abraham. The Jews usually say that Abraham was tried ten times. Surely on this occasion, he was tried ten times in one.”

Abraham’s quick answer to the call of God is a wonderful example of how a man or woman of faith should respond to God. When Abraham said, “Here I am,” it meant that he was ready to be taught, ready to obey, ready to surrender, and he was ready to be examined by God.

God says “Take now your son, your only son Isaac.” God called Isaac “your only son Isaac”, when in fact Abraham had another son, Ishmael. Since Ishmael was put away from Abraham’s family as we saw in the last chapter, as far as God’s covenant was concerned, Abraham had only one son.

“Your only son Isaac, whom you love.” This is the first time that the word ‘love’ appears in the Bible and it describes the relationship between a father and his son, which also speaks of the relationship between the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus).

Every phrase of God’s command to Abraham must have been like a knife piercing every emotion inside him.

• Take now your son.
• Your only son Isaac.
• Whom you love.
• Offer him there.
• As a burnt offering.

God told Abraham to offer him as a burnt offering. This was not an offering that was burned alive, but one with the life first taken by sacrifice and then the body completely burnt before the LORD.

Abraham lived as a sojourner, a pilgrim, in the land of Canaan. The priests of many of the Canaanite gods said their gods demanded human sacrifice so the people of Canaan found nothing especially strange about human sacrifice, but Abraham had believed his God, El Shaddai, was different.

With this command, Abraham might have wondered if the God of the covenant and creator of heaven and earth, was like the pagan gods the Canaanites and others worshipped. By the end of this story, Abraham knew that God was not like the pagan gods that demanded human sacrifice. In truth, He was just the opposite.

Offering Issac as a burnt offering was difficult in yet another aspect because it seemed to contradict the previous promise of God. God had already promised in Isaac your seed shall be called that’s in the last chapter. It seemed at odds to kill the son who was promised to carry on the covenant when it had not yet been fulfilled in him. It seemed as if God commanded Abraham to kill the very promise God made to him.

Abraham had to learn the difference between trusting the promise and trusting the Promiser. It’s possible for us to put God’s promise before God Himself and feel it is our responsibility to bring the promise to pass, even if we have to disobey God to do it. This is precisely what Abraham and Sarah did with Hagar and Ishmael. It’s also what we do ourselves so often. It’s not our business to fulfil God’s promise, and certainly not to do anything that’s even minutely wrong in order to try and make God’s promises a reality. God fulfils His own promise in His own way and in His own time.

We must trust the Promiser no matter what, and the promise’ll be taken care of.

“Go to the land of Moriah… on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you”. There was a specific place that God commanded Abraham to go to. God carefully directed each detail of this drama. Many believe that the specific spot was later known as Golgotha where another Son would be sacrificed for the sin of the world completing the prophetic picture we’re being shown here.

Now we read verse 3,  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

There’s no sign of hesitation on Abraham’s part. He rose early in the morning to do this. Was it a sleepless night for Abraham or did he sleep in peace fully trusting God? If we try and see from the text what Abraham felt we’re disappointed because we’re never told that he balked or was anxious in any way. He simply believed God.

Abraham’s obedience showed

1. that he trusted God, even when he didn’t understand. Sometimes we say, “I’m not going to obey or believe until I understand it all,” but that’s to put ourselves on an equal standing with God. We simply cannot know everything about everything as God does.
2. that he didn’t debate what he should do or seek counsel or advice from others. He knew what to do and refused to delay what God had said.
3. that he trusted God, even when he did not feel like it. There is not a line in this text about how Abraham felt, not because he didn’t feel, but because he walked by faith, not feelings.

There wasn’t a word of argument or one solitary question that can be called hesitation. It’s as if Abraham’s saying God is God and it is not for me to ask Him why. He has said it so I’ll do it.

God trained Abraham for over 25 years or so, to bring him to this place of great trust. In just the last chapter, God asked Abraham to give up Ishmael in a less severe way. God used that, and everything else, to train Abraham and build great faith in him.

Verses 4 to 6,  Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 

And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” 

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.

Abraham came to the appointed place on the third day. The region of Moriah is associated with Mount Moriah, which is modern-day Jerusalem as we see from 2 Chronicles 3:1.

It took Abraham three days to get there, but remember that it was on the third day that Abraham received Isaac alive, back from the dead, as it were. That’s the way Abraham looked at it. Isaac was dead to Abraham from the day the Lord told him to sacrifice him and he was raised up on the third day. What an amazing picture we have here.

Abraham had three long days to think over what God had commanded him to do. This made the test even more severe.

“I will go yonder and worship,” says Abraham to the young men who accompanied him. This is the first use of the word worship in reference to God in the Bible. The Hebrew word shachah simply means, to bow down. While Abraham and Isaac didn’t go to the Mount to have a time of joyful praise, they did go to bow down to the LORD.

In the same sentence Abraham says, “And we will come back to you.”

Abraham fully believed that both he and Issac would return from the mount. He stated that both of them would come back.

Now, this doesn’t mean that Abraham somehow knew this was only a test and God would not really require this of him. Instead, Abraham’s faith was in his understanding that if he killed Isaac, God would raise him from the dead, because God had promised Isaac would carry on the line of blessing and the covenant. He knew this from when God told him “..for in Isaac your seed shall be called” in Genesis 21:12, and Isaac had yet to have any children.

God had to let him live at least long enough to have children. If Isaac were to die, there’s no other descendant left, and no possibility of any others to succeed him.

Hebrews 11:17-19 clearly explains this principle and I’ll read, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

Abraham knew anything was possible with God. This son that he is about to offer testifies to that greater than anything else in Abraham’s life. Issac is a living testimony to God’s power. But Abraham also knew God well enough to know that it was impossible for God to lie therefore it was impossible for God to break His promise.

To this point in Biblical history, we have no record of anyone being raised from the dead, so Abraham had no precedent for this faith, apart from God’s promise. Yet Abraham knew God was able. God could do it.

Abraham took the wood … and laid it upon Isaac his son.” Remember that Christ carried His own cross. The fire here speaks of judgment, and the knife speaks of the execution of judgment and of sacrifice.

The two of them went together. This literally means the two of them went in agreement. Isaac did this knowingly and willingly. The phrase is repeated twice for emphasis. He was obedient to his father.

Now to verses 7 and 8 and we are of course in Genesis chapter 22,  But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 

And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. 

Abraham didn’t know how God would provide. He still trusted in the ability of God to raise Isaac from the dead, and he wouldn’t stop trusting just because he didn’t know how God would fulfil His promise.

We have a remarkable picture here of the work of Jesus at the cross, centuries before it happened. The son of promise willingly went to be sacrificed in obedience to his father, carrying the wood of his sacrifice up the hill, all with full confidence in the promise of resurrection.

Verse 13 tells us that shortly after this there was a ram that was caught in the thicket by his horns, and Abraham got that ram and offered it. Abraham says here that God will provide Himself a lamb.

But there was no lamb there at this time. There was a ram, but there’s a big difference.

The Lamb was not provided until centuries later when John the Baptist marked Him out and identified Him, saying, “… “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ” that’s in John 1:29. “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. It’s very important to see that Abraham was speaking out prophecy.

Abraham is now ready to offer this boy on the altar although he does not quite understand.

To verse 9 now,  Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 

Now, Isaac’s not just a little boy whom Abraham had to tie up. He is a grown man,

After this chapter, we are told in chapter 23 that Sarah was 127 years old when she died. When you put that together with this chapter, you find that Isaac was not just a little lad. Sarah was 90 years old when Isaac was born and 127 when she died. That means that 37 years elapsed here. Issac’s called a “lad” in this chapter, but he’s actually in his thirties, probably around 30 or 33 years of age. It’s another picture of Jesus who was 33 years old at His crucifixion.

Isaac could have overcome Abraham if it had come to a physical encounter, but Isaac’s doing this in obedience. The Lord Jesus went to the cross having said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” He went to the cross to fulfil the will of God. What an amazing picture we have here!

Verse 10,  And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 

What would you or I have said at this point?

This is a real crisis in Abraham’s life. God has brought this man through four very definite crises, each of which was a real exercise of his soul, a real strain upon his heart.

First of all, he was called to leave all of his relatives in Ur of the Chaldees. He was just to leave the whole group. That was a real test for Abraham. He didn’t do it very well at the beginning, but, nevertheless, the break finally came. Then there was the test that came with Lot, his nephew.

Abraham loved Lot—he wouldn’t have been carrying Lot around with him if he hadn’t. But the time came when they had to separate, and Lot went down to Sodom.

Then there was the test with his son from Hagar, Ishmael. Abraham just cried out to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before Thee!”

He loved that boy; he hated to be separated from him. Now Abraham comes to this supreme test, the fourth great crisis in his life where he’s asked to give up Isaac. Abraham doesn’t quite understand all the details for the very simple reason that God has told him, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.

Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead as we’ve seen in Hebrews 11:19, but as far as Abraham is concerned, he’s willing to go through with the sacrifice.

James wrote that Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son.

But hold on! Did Abraham offer his son? Does the Bible say that Abraham plunged the knife into his son? No!

Genesis 22:11,  But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 

verse 12,  And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Now God knows that Abraham fears Him. How does He know? By his actions, by his works; previously it was by his faith. God sees our heart. He knows whether we’re genuine or not, but our neighbours and our friends don’t know. They can only know by our works. That’s the reason James says in James 2 verse 20 that “faith without works is dead.” Faith has to produce something.

God tested Abraham. Any person whom God calls, any person whom God saves, and any person whom God uses is going to be tested. God tested Abraham, and God tests those who are His own today.

He tests you and me, and the tests are given to us to strengthen our faith, to establish us, and to make us serviceable for Him. This man Abraham is now given the supreme test, and God will not have to ask anything of him after this.

Genesis 22:13,  Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 

All the way from the Garden of Eden down to the cross of Christ, the substitution was this little animal that pointed to His coming and God would not permit human sacrifice.

But when His Son came into the world, His Son went to the cross and died: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ” Romans 8:32.

That cross became an altar on which the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world was offered. It is very important to see that.

Verse 14,  And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 

Abraham names this place which as we’ve said a great many people believe is where Solomon’s temple was built. Golgotha, the place of a skull, is right there on that same ridge where the temple stood. There Abraham offered his son, and it was there that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.

This is a glorious, wonderful thing to see. Abraham calls the name of this place Jehovah–jireh, meaning Jehovah will provide. Here’s where God intervened in his behalf.

Verses 15 and 16,  Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son. 

Here’s a question.

Did Abraham do it? No, he did not offer his son, but God says to him, “Because you have done this thing….” You see, Abraham believed God, and he went far enough to let you and me know what God already knew, and to let the created universe know that he was willing to give his son based on what God said.

And so God counted it to him as if he had done it.

Abraham is justified by faith, but he is also justified before men by his works. Works of faith. He demonstrated that he had that faith.

“since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Notice how God plays upon that, because He gave His only Son.

Through this incident, God’s making it clear that there’ll have to be a Man to stand in the gap, there will have to be a Man capable of becoming the Savior of the race if anyone is to be saved.

That’s the great lesson given to us in this chapter. Abraham said that God would provide Himself a Lamb, and they found a ram and offered it. But God did provide a Lamb nineteen hundred years later in Christ. God stayed Abraham’s hand and did not let him go through with the sacrifice of Isaac because it would have been wrong. God spared Abraham’s son, but God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up freely for us all.

Genesis 22:17-8 now, …blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” What “seed” is God talking about here?

If you go to Galatians 3:16, you’ll find that Paul interprets what the “seed” means: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” who is Christ.”

Here we have the Bible’s own interpretation of the “seed.”

Going back to the eighth verse of Galatians 3, we find that Paul says this: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.

When did God preach the gospel to Abraham? God preached the gospel to him when He called upon him to offer his son Isaac upon the altar.

God says here, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” and that seed is Christ. This is the gospel as it was given to Abraham.

Now, we have a habit today of assuming that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Old Testament worthies were great men but that they were not as smart as we are, that they didn’t know as much as we know.

However, Abraham knew a great deal more about the coming of Christ and the gospel than you and I give him credit for. In fact, the Lord Jesus said in John 8 verse 56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

So he must have known a great deal more than we realize. God had revealed much to Abraham, but the Savior was not yet come. We know today that He would not come for nineteen hundred years, but there on the top of Mount Moriah where Abraham offered Isaac was a picture of the offering and even of the resurrection of Christ!

After God called Abraham to offer Isaac, it was three days before he even got to Mount Moriah.

God gave Isaac back to Abraham alive on the third day; so that this is a picture of both the death and resurrection of Christ.

Paul says that God preached the gospel to Abraham, and certainly it was done here.

“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Today the gospel of Christ has gone out pretty much to all the world. There are many who have not heard, that’s true even in our own midst, but nevertheless, the blessing has come to all nations. And the only blessing the nations have is through Christ.

“Because you have obeyed My voice.” That obedience rested upon Abraham’s faith, and faith always will lead to action. “Faith without works is dead.”

So we’ll leave of there today friends and next time we’ll continue with Abraham’s story. Until then may God bless you and comfort you with His unchanging Word.

So we’ll leave of there today friends and next time we’ll continue with Abrahams story. Until then may God bless you and comfort you with His unchanging Word.

Then we saw how Lot showed hospitality to these strangers and took them into his home to stay the night but the homosexual crowd demanded that Lot release the visitors to them so that they could sexually assualt them.

Now we see the outcome of that whole sordid incident and we see the final result of these evil cities. I’m sure most of us will see the similarities to Sodom and Gomorrah in our own society today.

For a recap let’s start today at Genesis 19:4-5 again,  But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. 

And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men which came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may know them. The crowd wanted to have homosexual relations with Lot’s visitors.

This is a sickening scene that reveals the degradation of this city of Sodom.

When Lot went down into the city of Sodom, he didn’t realise what kind of city it was. He got down there and found out that perversion was the order of the day, and he brought up his children, his sons and daughters, in that atmosphere.

Earlier in Genesis when he’d pitched his tent toward Sodom, he looked down there and had seen the beauty of the area and its potential for his livestock. He would have seen the folk as they were on the outside, but he hadn’t seen what they really were. The sin of this city is so great that God is now going to judge it. God is going to destroy the city.

Let’s draw a sharp line here. There is a new attitude toward sin today. There’s this igrey area where sin is not really sin as we once thought it was. The church has compromised until it’s pitiful, even to the point of homosexual ministers.

The idea today seems to be that you can become a child of God and continue on in sin. God says that’s impossible, you simply can’t do that, and this city of Sodom is an example of that fact.

Paul asks the question: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” And the answer is “God forbid,” or, Let it not be. That’s Romans 6:1-2. The idea that you can be a Christian and go on in sin is a tremendous mistake, especially to make light of it, and accept it as good and normal as is being done in this case.

This is what they were doing in Sodom and Gomorrah and God destroyed these cities.

Now if we don’t believe in God and His justice and we believe there’s no judgment of sin then just carry on doing what you like, however, you’d better be absolutely sure you’re right!

And don’t say that we have a primitive old fashioned view of God in Genesis and we have a better, more enlightened and modern view today.

We need to grasp a reality that even many churches today have not grasped. That reality is that society’s views of what’s right and wrong may change, political views may change, the education system’s views may and even the church’s views may change but GOD NEVER CHANGES. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. What He judged so harshly in the past He’ll judge again in the future. We must never lose sight of this. We can’t argue that Jesus received sinners so it’s alright to live any way we choose. He certainly did, but when He got through with them, He’d changed them. The harlot who came to Him was no longer in that business. When she came to God, she changed. That is the thing that happened to other sinners. A publican came to Him, and he left the seat of customs. He gave up that which was crooked when he came to the Lord. If you have come to Christ, you will be changed. Many people write and try to explain to me that we are living in a new day and I need to wake up. My friend, we are living in a new day, but it just happens to be Sodom and Gomorrah all over again.

To Genesis 19:6-7 now,   So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 

The men of Sodom were outside the door, asking that these guests in the home of Lot be turned over to them. Lot said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly.” Lot has fallen so low that he even identifies with them as brothers.

That is the way Lot looked at it, He’d been down there in Sodom a long time. But despite how low Lot had fallen he did not see the sin of these men as a kind of new morality. It was just old sin and it was wicked in Lot’s eyes

This was the consequence of Lot’s having settled in the midst of a godless and wicked people. Lot, having gone out and locked the door behind him in order to protect his guests, confronted a mob that had gone crazy with unnatural lust. His plea, in which he begged them not to act in such a wicked manner, fell on deaf ears.

To Genesis 19:8  See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.” 

Lot was willing to sacrifice his own two daughters to this mob, their virginity and all. He was willing to turn his own two daughters over to the mob that they might do what they would to his two daughters, and yet seeking to protect the two men who are strangers to him.

The men of Sodom showed a shocking demonstration of depravity, but we’re just as shocked at the willingness of Lot to give up his daughters to the mob as we are at the sinful desire of the mob itself.

Lot’s offer to the mob was horrible and can’t be justified even when we consider the low place of women in the pre-Christian world and the very high place of any guest in one’s home. Under the sacred obligations of hospitality, it was often understood that a guest was to be protected more than one’s own family.

This was a difficult argument for Lot to make. He and the men of Sodom had a completely different standard for deciding what was wicked and what was not. The men of Sodom thought they were pursuing pleasure, and didn’t care a lick that Lot thought it was wicked.

More and more in today’s world the guide for sexual morality is to simply do as one pleases to act on what feels good.

Verse 9  And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.” So they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near to break down the door. 

“And they said again, This one fellow came in to stay here, and he keeps acting like a judge: …” You see, Lot was advancing in the political arena there. These men are in effect saying, “Look at this bloke. He came to us for a stopover and now he wants to be a political power over us and have us do what he thinks is right. Let’s do even worse to him than we’re going to do with his visitors.

Verses 10 and 11,  But the men (that’s the visitors) reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. 

And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary trying to find the door.  

If Lot’s guests had not done this, both they and Lot would have been destroyed, because that was the intention of the men of Sodom.

Now we move to Genesis 19:12-14, Then the men (that’s the angels) said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! 

For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” 

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city!” But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking. 

Lot’s in a very bad situation.

He’d spent years in the city of Sodom and he’d learned to tolerate this sort of thing, even though he recognises it as wickedness.

He had seen his sons and daughters grow up, and they’d apparently married among people with those ethical standards.

When Lot got this word from the Lord to leave the city, he went to his sons–in–law and said, “Let’s get out of here. God is going to destroy this city.” They laughed at him and ridiculed him.

Just the same as the people you and I try to warn about God’s plan for this world they took his warning as nothing more than a big joke.

This man was out of the will of God in this place, and he had no witness for God. When we go down to the level of the world around us, my friend, we don’t influence them for good. We don’t show them the Lord. We just become one of them and then when we do speak we have very little or no credibility.

If it weren’t for 2 Peter 2:6 to 8, which we read before, we’d think that this man Lot wasn’t saved, but remember according to those verses Lot never enjoyed it down there in Sodom. Now that he is going to leave the city, he can’t get anyone to leave with him except his wife and two single daughters.

This sordid section of Genesis gives us the creeps in it’s many aspects of depravity but in another sense it gives us great joy to know that despite the appalling state that Lot had fallen into he was saved from the terrible day of judgement. Our joy comes from knowing we also have continually failed in our walk with God but despite that He’ll never leave or foresake the one whose trust is in Him and Him alone.

Now we’re in verses 15 and 16,  When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 

And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 

Notice Lot lingered.

Too much of Lot’s heart was in Sodom, so he didn’t have an urgency to leave the city. A lack of urgency to obey God (even when it’s necessary and good) is a common sign of compromise and a backslidden condition.

Lot was God’s man in spite of everything. As we’ve just said if we only had the Book of Genesis, we’d probably not believe that Lot was saved, but since Peter calls him a righteous man, we know that he was. Lot had become righteous because he’d followed Abraham’s example and he believed God, and he had offered the sacrifices. God extends mercy to Lot, and he now believes God and gets out of the city.

Verses 17 to 19, So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords!

Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.

Even after all that’s happened Lot didn’t want to leave. He would reluctantly get out of the city, but he couldn’t make it to the mountain.

Verse 20, See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.” 

This city was a little place called Zoar, and that’s where Lot went. You see, he came out of Sodom, but he didn’t come clean even out of there. And, of course, he got into a great deal of trouble there also.

Poor Lot! He was in the worst of all possible places. He had too much of the world to be happy in the LORD, and too much of the LORD to be happy in the world.

Verses 21 and 22 where Lot is sort of arguing with the Lord.  And he (the Lord) said to him, “See, I have favoured you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 

Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

Verses 21 and 22 where Lot is sort of arguing with the Lord.  And he (the Lord) said to him, “See, I have favoured you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. 

Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

The angels seemed far more urgent to rescue Lot and his family than they were to be rescued. This is strange, but common in spiritual things.

Lot appears pathetic and whimpering in his prayer, especially in contrast to the boldness of Abraham in Genesis 18.

I cannot do anything until you arrive there says the angel. This answers Abraham’s question, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25). God, bound by His own righteousness and honour, could not bring this judgment on Sodom until the few righteous people were rescued.

So Lot ends up in this tiny city of Zoar. The name Zoar means small or insignificant.

Gen 19:23  The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. 

Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. 

So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 

God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we’re told two things, one concerning his wife and the other concerning his daughters. Concerning his wife we read in chapter 19 verse 26  But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 

This is an important lesson for us today.

Many of us Christians talk about how we want to see the Lord come, but we’re not living as if we mean it. Especially in the Western world, most have a nice home with a big-screen tv which we watch as if addicted. We have boats, caravans lovely furniture, 2 or 3 cars, and every conceivable trinket.

However, when the Lord comes, my friend, we’re going to leave it all! Everything. Let’s ask ourselves a question. Will it break our hearts to leave all of this down here?

I dare say most of us would love to stay with friends and loved ones whom we want to be with. And then there’s our interests and hobbies that we want to continue. I guess if we’re honest we hope the Lord will just let us stay here a while longer. But don’t we also want to be able to say that when He does call, we’ll not have a thing down here that will break our hearts to leave, not one thing? We love our home so would we be happy to just go off and leave it? How do we feel about that? Mrs Lot turned and looked back, and this is one of the explanations.

The other reason that she looked back is simply that she didn’t believe God.

God had said, “Leave the city, and don’t look back.” Lot didn’t look back; he believed God. But Mrs Lot didn’t believe God. She was not a believer, and so she didn’t really make it out of the city. She was turned to a pillar of salt.

Now, we’re not going to go into the story of Lot’s two daughters in Genesis 19:31-38. It’s as sordid as it can possibly be. Let’s just say that Lot didn’t do well in moving down to the city of Sodom and troubles were his constant companion.

He lost everything except his own soul. His life is a picture of a great many people who will not judge the sins of their own lives and apply 1 John 1:9 to them so they can be clean.

They’re saved, “yet so as by fire.”

The Lord has said in a very definite way that if they’ll not judge their sin down here, He’ll judge it. Apparently, that was the case in Lot’s story.

Let’s conclude this chapter by looking at Abraham. What did Abraham think of all this?

Let’s look at Genesis 19:27-28,  And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 

Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. 

When Abraham looked down toward Sodom, he must have been sad.

He probably didn’t know whether or not Lot had escaped. He probably learned about it later on.

When he looked down there, he was more than likely sad for Lot’s sake, but Abraham had not invested a cent down there. When judgment came, it didn’t disturb him a bit because he wasn’t in love with the things of Sodom and the things of the world.

Remember that we’re told in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.”

If we look at Sodom through Lot’s eyes we’d see it as a place where we can be prosperous and have all that our heart desires just like Lot’s view of this world today would be.

If we look at Sodom through Mrs Lot’s eyes we’d fall in love with it. All the glitter and the social scene and the choices to fulfil all that we desire, just like we’d see the world today through her eyes.

If we look at Sodom through Abraham’s eyes we’d see nothing at all to attract us there and we’d have nothing at all invested in this world.

Finally, if we see Sodom through the Lord’s eyes we’d see nothing but sin in its extreme, just as God sees this world. It’s only His Grace and Mercy and His desire that not one be lost that keeps Him from His soon coming judgement.

Much of the church today is not looking at the sin of sodomy as God looks at it.

Political correctness and public opinion have all but covered up God’s view of sexual perversion.

What should the attitude of the Christian be toward homosexuality? Even Lot in his day said, “You are doing wickedly.” And God judged it. As a child of God, we should know that we can’t compromise with this thing. The world indulged in it by first calling it a sickness. Then the world called it normal and a choice that every person has a right to make. It’s a sad fact that today we first overlook evil. Then we permit evil. Then we legalise evil. Then we promote evil. Then we celebrate evil. Then we persecute those who still call it evil.

It’s also vital for us to note that inside every person who practices homosexuality, just as with the thief, the murderer, the liar and the adulterer, there’s a spirit and soul whom God loves so much He gave His Son to die for.

Genesis 19 is a very important chapter for this present generation we’re living in today.

Genesis Chapter 20 is another of those chapters that you’d like to leave out.

In it Abraham repeats the same sin which he committed when he went down into the land of Egypt and lied concerning Sarah, saying, “She is my sister.” It’s the same sordid story, but this chapter is put here for a very important reason.

Abraham and Sarah are going to have to deal with this sin before they can have Isaac, before they can have the blessing.

Until you and I are willing to deal with the sin in our lives, we’ll put a barrier to God’s blessing for us.

Let’s just take the high points of chapter 20.

Genesis 20:1-2  And Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and stayed in Gerar. 

Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 

This is quite interesting. Was Sarah still beautiful? Well, at this time she’s almost ninety years old, and she’s still beautiful. How many of us senior citizens can qualify in this department?

Abraham is getting a long way south in the land. He’s gone beyond Kadesh–Barnea where the children of Israel later came up from Egypt and refused to enter the land.

Abraham has gone down to Gerar, where he lies about Sarah again.

Abraham’s confession makes this chapter important and reveals the fact that Abraham and Sarah can’t have Isaac until they deal with this sin that is in their lives and, of course, it goes way back.

We jump now to Genesis 20:11  And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife. 

Abraham is now talking to Abimelech who is greatly disturbed that Abraham would do a thing like lying about his wife.

Again, Abraham was not trusting God. He felt that he was moving down into a godless place, but he finds out that Abimelech has a high sense of what is right and wrong. Abimelech puts tremendous value upon character and apparently is a man who knows God. Poor old Abraham doesn’t look real good by the side of Abimelech here.

To verse 12  But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife

Abraham lets it all out. He says, “To tell you the truth Abimalech, it’s only half a lie. Sarah is my half sister, and she is my wife.”

Verse 13,  And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is your kindness that you should do for me: in every place, wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.” 

Abraham didn’t have complete confidence and trust in God when they started out, so he and Sarah made a pact that anywhere they went where it looked as if Abraham might be killed because of his wife, Sarah would say that Abraham was her brother.

Abraham and Sarah thought that that would keep Abraham from being killed. They used that pact down in Egypt, and here they’ve used it again.

This sin must be dealt with before God’s going to hear and answer Abraham’s prayer in sending a son.

Isaac will not be born until this is dealt with.

There’s the sin of the lie here but also we see that even after these great and mighty encounters with the Lord Abraham still has trouble believing.

We so often get this picture of Abraham being so far above our puny faith. We see him as the father of faith, which he is, but we also see him many times as just like us. No matter what magnificent revelation we have of God we still fall into unbelief just as Abraham did.

We also see the absolute necessity of judging sin in our own lives, and there is no blessing in their lives? If we would confess our sins and deal with the sins that are in our lives, there’ll be little or no blessing.

Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:29-32, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” Blessing is withheld from the church and from the lives of many believers because we will not deal with the sin in our lives. Again 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

This 20th chapter of Genesis is a tremendous spiritual lesson.

“I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. ”

What kind of covenant did God make with Abraham? An everlasting covenant. If it is everlasting, it’s still good today. God promised you and me everlasting life if we will trust Christ. That’s an everlasting unbreakable covenant God has made.

In this episode we see God confirming to Abraham what He’ll do and how Abraham and His seed, which includes by extension you and me, can individually be partakers of this promise.

We start today from Genesis 17:8,  “Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

God has made a covenant with these people that’s an everlasting covenant and, since it’s everlasting, it’s not going to be broken, and it’s not going to expire. Their possession of this land of Canaan is not a lease for a particular term it’s an everlasting possession.

The Hebrew people have occupied that land on three occasions. It is theirs, but the important thing is that they occupy it only under certain conditions. On each of these three occasions, the conditions for occupying the land were broken by the nation and they were put out of the land. However, we must note that even though they were put out of the land it was still theirs.

First off, God sent them down into the land of Egypt. We’ll see this happening later in Genesis. They went down there a family of about seventy and came out a nation of at least one and a half million. After 40 years of wandering they possessed the land again under the leadership of Joshua and Caleb.

They were put out of the land again at the Babylonian captivity because they went into idolatry and were not being the witness for God they God intended them to be. We’ll see these events later.

We find that they again went out of the land in A.D. 70 after they’d rejected their Messiah.  God predicted that three times they would be put out of the land and three times they would be returned. They’ve been returned twice. Both those returns were amidst a national turning towards God. Now, many bible commentators and prophecy enthusiasts see the 1948 declaration of the modern state of Israel as the third return of the nation to the land. But is it? They’ve never been back in anywhere near the state they were promised. In the next and last time, the final return, they’ll occupy the full 300,000 square miles they were promised not just little pieces here and there. They’ll also be at peace and not constantly fighting a host of enemies just so they can hang on to the small piece they currently occupy. Also, they’ll recognise and worship King Jesus their Messiah who, incidentally will rule on the throne of David at this time and they’ll never go out of the land again. In the Millennial rule of Christ, God gathers and brings back the nation Israel into the land. Many books both in the Old and New Testaments relate to this re occupying of the land and we’ll examine them all as we go on.

And now we reach Genesis 17:9-11, “And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 

This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.”

Now we come to this mysterious ritual that started right here.

It’s quite likely that the countless millions of males that have undergone this ritual have no idea of its origins or its meaning.

So, what is it and how does it affect us today? Well, there is the natural, physical aspect of circumcision as well as a spiritual aspect. Both are a badge or a mark of the covenant. Abraham’s natural descendants didn’t circumcise themselves in order to become members of the covenant, they did it because they had the covenant from God. It’s a badge and a mark of the people that have been separated unto God. The spiritual significance is that of people who have cut off the fleshly life and are living after the Spirit.

Circumcision occupied the same place that good works occupy for the believer today. You don’t perform good works in order to be saved; you perform good works because you have been saved. That makes a whole world of difference.

The ritual of physical circumcision became the most important rite as far as the Jews were concerned, however, they made the mistake, as people so often do, concerning rituals as identifying the ritual for the reality.

The reality is a matter of the heart. God wanted a people that were separated from their flesh in their heart, people who were spiritual and spiritually minded who would serve God in the Spirit. It was to be symbolized by the cutting away of the flesh. God was and still is, seeking people who would cut away the fleshly mind and the fleshly heart and serve God in the Spirit, but they began to look at the physical ritual rather than the spiritual, and that ritual became all important while the experience of the changed heart was simply not there. This made the physical ritual totally meaningless.

How does circumcision relate to the Christian today?

Well as we often do, we look to the expert in the relationship between Judaism and the Christian today, Apostle Paul to enlighten us.  In Colossians 2:11  Paul writes, In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 

Paul is telling the Colossian Christians and you and me today, to get rid of that which is outward, Stop relying on customs, rituals and traditions. The real circumcision is the New Birth. He also explained this to the Galatians in Galatians 6 verse 15 and I read, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.” You and I become new creatures when we come to Christ and trust Him as our Savior. We rest in Him; we are identified with Him.

Now to Genesis 17:12,  “He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant.”

We should notice here how meticulous the record concerning the birth of Christ is. All the law was fulfilled in connection with the birth of the baby Jesus. It’s recorded that He was the son of Abraham, the natural descendant of Abraham, and the son of David. He was in the royal line that stretched right back to Abraham and came down through Issac, Jacob and King David as was meticulously stated throughout the scripture, then, on the eighth day after His birth He was circumcised. He was “born under the law,” Paul says in Galatians 4:4.

To verse13,  “He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.” 

Again, circumcision is the badge of the covenant. They didn’t do this in order to get the covenant; God had already made the covenant with them. This is so important. The same thing is true today. Many people think that, if they join a church or get baptized, they’ll be saved. No, friends, you don’t do those things to get saved. If you are saved, there’s great merit in both joining a good church, and being baptised, but you don’t do them to get saved. How vital this is. The baptism or christening of a baby will not bring it salvation and neither will confirmation or any other ritual cause you to be saved.

Genesis 17:14, “And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” 

The fact that there were those who disobeyed didn’t have the slightest effect against the covenant. Practically the entire nation disobeyed when they came out of the land of Egypt. However, that disobedience simply meant that the individual would be put out but, as far as the nation’s concerned, no individual or group could destroy this covenant which God had made with Abraham and his seed after him. It’s an everlasting covenant. The man who had broken the covenant was put out, but the covenant stood. That is how incredible it is.

Genesis 17:15,  “Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. “

Her name was Sarai before; now it’s changed to Sarah.

Verse 16,  “And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” 

If old Abraham is going to be a father of nations, then Sarah is going to be a mother of nations.

Verse 17,  “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 

Old Abraham just laughed. Not the laughter of unbelief but the laughter of just sheer joy that this could happen. You’ll understand if you’ve ever had this experience where every now and again through our lives, God does something for us that is so wonderful that we just feel like laughing. You don’t know anything else to do but to laugh about it.

This was something unheard of. There was “the deadness of Sarah’s womb,” and Abraham was “dead”, meaning dead to the possibility of ever fathering children.

Notice how our friend Paul describes this in Romans 4:17-22 and I’ll read, “(as it is written, “I HAVE MADE YOU A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 

Abraham believed in God, and he is absolutely overwhelmed by the wonder and the goodness of God.

But then, all of a sudden, Abraham thinks of a little boy, his little boy, Ishmael.

Genesis 17:18 now,  “And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” He’s saying may Ishmael live under your care or your special blessing.

Verse 19, “But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant. “

Abraham is attached to Ishmael, he loves him. He was fourteen years old when Abraham sent him away as we’ll see a little later on in chapter 21. Possibly, Abraham never saw him again. Whatever we may think of Ishmael; he was Abraham’s son, and Abraham loved his son. It was a heartbreak for him to have to give him up.

Abraham probably thought many, many times, “I made a huge mistake in taking Hagar.” You see, that was a sin that not only plagued him but that entire land. We, none of us, get away with sin. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap,” says Galatians 6 verse. A man doesn’t reap something similar to what he’s sown, he reaps exactly that which he sowed. And old Abraham is certainly reaping.

God says to Abraham, “No, I won’t accept Ishmael as the promised heir. Everything surrounding his birth was wrong.” God never approves polygamy. As we’ve discussed before, just because somethings’s recorded in the Bible doesn’t mean God approves of it.

To verses 20 to 21 now,  “As for Ishmael, I will bless him also, just as you have asked. I will make him extremely fruitful and multiply his descendants. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 

But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.” 

God holds fast to the promise that He’s made. He’s not going to be put off or change His mind in any way at all. He is going to do exactly what He said He would do. He is going to answer bless Ismael by making him a great nation as well, with many descendants, but He will not make Ishmael the heir of the promise.

Notice how God speaks. He speaks as if Isaac were already born and is there with them. He speaks of things that are not as if they are—and it is going to be next year.

The truth that God “calls into being things that were not” is expressed in various ways in various translations: For example, the King James version says, God “calleth those things which be not as though they were”, The English Standard version says, “calls into existence the things that do not exist”, The New American Standard has it as “calls into being that which does not exist”, while the New English Translation says,  “summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do”.

All translations mean, however, that God has the ability to create out of nothing. The New Living Translation says,  “creates new things out of nothing” or simply “creates new things” as translated by the Contemporary English version. The “nothing” in this verse would be the deadness of Sarah’s womb, and the “new things” that God creates would be Abraham’s offspring. God gives life to the dead and creates something from nothing.

Friend unless we accept this the entire creation including you and me and the universe we live in will be an unsolvable puzzle and each piece of that puzzle will be wild speculation that fails to fit with the other puzzle pieces making an impossibly confused picture. Once we do accept this everything fits together logically and perfectly.

Verse 22, “When God had finished speaking, he left Abraham.”

God’s saying to Abraham, “You might just as well keep quiet. I’ve already decided this.”

There are things that you and I might as well stop petitioning the Lord for.

There are times when you’ve said enough and you don’t need to say any more. Sometimes people just pester the Lord in prayer when they already have the answer, which, of course, is No in the majority of cases! We must always remember that “No” is often the answer to our prayer.

God says to Abraham, “Let this alone, now. This’s enough; you needn’t mention this anymore. I’ve not accepted it, and I don’t intend to.”

God’s going to hear, and answer, other prayers of Abraham. God certainly listens. However, in the case of His covenant, He’s making it with Isaac, not Ishmael and that settles it, and it’s futile for Abraham to try to change God’s mind.

Many people today pray about things that God just doesn’t intend to answer.

Let’s hear the Words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 6 verses 7 and 8, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” The New Living Translation brings it into today’s language by saying, “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” 

Now let’s read Genesis 17:23-27, “So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. 

Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 

And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 

That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.”

As we’ve already seen, circumcision is the badge of the covenant which God has made with Abraham.

Now, some may ask, “Why was Ishmael included?”

Well, God Has promised that Ishmael is going to be a great nation also. He’s included in the covenant in that sense, but he’s not the one whom God had promised to Abraham at the beginning.

He’s not going to be the father of the nation that God will use and the nation through which the Messiah will come.

Now we come to Genesis chapter 18.

Until we get to the New Testament, we may wonder why the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of Genesis are included in the Bible, especially amidst the story of the covenant God made with Abraham.

They deal with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Chapter 18 is a long chapter in which God tells Abraham about the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham intercedes on behalf of the cities of the plain.

This can be seen as an illustration of the blessed Christian life, a life in fellowship with God.

But in chapter 19, down in Sodom and Gomorrah with Lot, we’ll see another picture of another Christian life, a shipwrecked one, and it’s all because of a decision.

Unfortunately, we have both kinds among Christians today, those living a blessed life and those that aren’t. There are many shipwrecked Christian lives that are completely out of the will of God.

These shipwreck Christians have NOT lost their salvation, but they’ve lost everything else. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:15 they’re saved, quote “yet so as by fire”.

To Genesis 18:1, “Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. “

Abraham is living down in Mamre, and he’s an old man.

Verse 2, “So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground,” (He’s a very gracious, hospitable man) verses 3 and 4,  “and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. “Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.” 

It seems strange to us to tell a visiting stranger to wash his feet and come in, but this is probably the oldest hospitality based custom known.

Remember that in the Upper Room our Lord washed the disciples’ feet and there’s a wonderful spiritual message there.

Here Abraham says, “Wash your feet.” It was a token of real hospitality when someone came into a home to have him take off his shoes and wash his feet. They didn’t take off their hat, but they did take off their shoes. Wouldn’t it make you feel at home to take off your shoes, wash your feet, and rest yourself under the shade of a tree? Abraham is royally entertaining these men.

And now Genesis 18:5-8,  “And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” 

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” 

And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. 

So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.” 

This is a marvellous way of entertaining. Abraham has prepared a sumptuous meal. He took a little calf, a servant killed and prepared it, and the chef probably barbecued it. They possibly had veal steaks or veal roast with all the trimmings that went with it. “And he took butter, and milk”! Abraham entertains these three guests with a real feast.

Then we find that these guests are royal guests.

In the New Testament, it is suggested to us that “… some have entertained angels unawares” that’s Hebrews 13 verse2. That was Abraham. He didn’t know whom he was really entertaining.

We’ll leave off there until next time when we’ll get involved more deeply in Abrahams’s feast and learn of a terrible mission these three guests are on.

Until then my friends may the lord be with you and bless you in coming in and in your going out.

It’s important at this point to say something about Bible translations. We base this Home Group study on the New King James version simply because it’s easier to read for many people especially those new to the Bible. In today’s world, most new believers are not familiar with the speech of the time the Bible was translated into English.

However, the easy way’s not always the best way and this is true right here in chapter 5. I’m going to read again from the New King James version and then from the “Authorized” or the King James version.

Genesis 15:5 from the New King James reads, “Then He (God) brought him (Abram) outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

Genesis 15 verse 5 from the King James reads, “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”

Notice the difference? “Descendants”, plural against “Seed” singular.

At first glance, you’d think it was the same thing just portrayed differently but God’s painting a picture here that’s much more than we first realise.

So, first, how do we know that God meant this verse to read “seed” singular? Well, we can look to the greatest scripture teacher that ever walked the earth second only to the Lord Jesus Himself, the great apostle Paul.

In Galatians chapter 3 Paul strongly takes the Galatian Christians to task for slipping back from what Paul taught them, that salvation was by faith only. They’d started going back to the belief that salvation had to be “earned” by following the Law. But the part of chapter 3 that should stand out for us is verse 16. and I read, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” who is Christ.” In this verse, the word “Seed” is used rather than descendants, even in the New King James version from which I’ve just read.

So, what’s going on here?

We, as modern-day Gentiles, don’t understand the subtle differences and deeper meanings in the original Bible languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. These languages have many devices that give far deeper insight into what the writer meant. They were much more descriptive than our language today. However, God’s not left us in the dark. He’s given us the Holy Spirit who reveals all things to us, mostly through the teaching of the Apostles and by explaining scripture in different ways in different places.

Between Genesis 12:2 and Genesis 15:6, God’s promised Abram both a physical and a spiritual offspring that would come from his body. First, He’s promised Abram a great physical nation, the nation of Israel. This nation will be made up of a vast number of individuals that cannot be numbered. The spiritual nation, The Seed, singular, is Jesus Christ. He would also come from the physical nation of Israel in the form of a man, but He’ll also be from God. One in perfect unity with God. In fact, God in the flesh. This is the one who will fulfil the promise God made to Abram in Genesis 12 verse 3, “And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The Seed, singular, is also made up of a body. The parts of that body that make up the whole are all those who have believed God as Abram did. If you and I are believers of what God has promised then you and I are critical parts that make up the seed. There’s a great number of us, in fact, we’re numbered as great as the stars.  And since we’re all one in Christ you and I are “The Seed” singular even though we’re individual personalities.

A crude but helpful example is our own body. It’s one body but made up of countless individual parts. Some may look similar such as the right eye and the left eye, but each is absolutely unique. Each part is required to function properly and in perfect harmony with all the others in order to make the body function as it should. When those body parts start to fail we start to lose some, our bodies cannot function perfectly. Take another example, a crowd. It’s one entity yet made up of many individuals. Society is another single entity made up of many different individuals, each one making up the whole. What a great mystery the Body of Christ is. Only God can know the mechanics of how He put this together. All we’re called to do is believe.

So, these wonderful verses subtly, yet clearly refer to both the physical offspring of Abram as a whole group, a nation, the Nation of Israel and, at the same time to the seed who would come from that Nation, Christ and in that seed You and I as believers are included, and we are numbered with the stars.

Did Abram know this? Yes if we look at John 8:56 where Jesus is debating with the Jewish leadership about who He was He said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Then in Galatians 3verse 8 Paul says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations shall be blessed in you.”

Here we have an explanation of why Abram, then Abraham, obeyed God in offering up His son His only son. We’ll see this in a little bit. He knew he was acting out prophecy. He was painting a picture of the greatest act of all history, the offering up by a loving father His only son as a sacrifice for the sin of the world.

And now we come to one of the greatest verses in the Bible, Genesis 15 and verse 6, “And he (Abram) believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”

Abram believed in the Lord and He (The Lord) counted it to him for righteousness. Abram simply believes. Here we have the foundation of the Christian belief.

Paul expands on this in Romans 4:1.

“What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? (Found here means to get or to obtain). For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. In other words, he might be able to boast to us humans about how good his works were but not to a perfect and Holy God. Reading on in verse 3  For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt, But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,” Abram just simply believes God, nothing else. He accepted what God said and believed God. He knew his own works could never create what God had promised him. He knew he could never produce a vast offspring from his own 80 year old body and Sarai’s barren womb, much less give that offspring a vast land for eternity. He knew that if ever one tiny aspect of this promise was ever to be a reality it had to be made to happen by All powerful, Almighty God Himself.

That’s the way to salvation. To believe that God has done something for us. That Christ died for us and rose again and God will declare you righteous by simply accepting Christ.

We also see in the 3rd chapter of Galatians there’s that same great truth. let’s read in verse 3, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” We also see in verse 6 just as Abraham “BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Now verse 9, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

The faith that Abraham had made him faithful but he’s not saved by being faithful, he’s saved by believing God and that’s vital for us to grasp. The gospel was preached to Abraham, or Abram as he was still called and Abram believed. Abra is saved the same way you and I are. There’s only one way to salvation, through believing God. Not believing IN God that He exists but believing what He says. There simply is no other way.

Abram saw Christ by the eye of faith, and then he saw the multitude that would believe in him, the seed of Abraham, the father of the faithful.

The faith which justifies and makes righteous focuses on the person of Christ, not just theory or concepts. If our faith simply believes in a principle or rule or a creed it won’t save us.  A great deal of confusion in Christian teaching could be avoided if it could simply be seen that faith grasps a person, not a doctrine or a tradition or a ritual. Even when the person is revealed through doctrine, tradition and ritual, it’s Him, and not the doctrine, that faith holds on to. Whether God speaks promises, teachings of truth, or commandments, faith accepts them because it trusts Him.

When our faith believes that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them, we are believing in much more. When our faith turns to God in human flesh and rests, confidently, on him and Him alone then that is what justifies us. When we choose to believe God in spite of our feelings and emotions and in spite of our own view of the situations of our lives, that’s the faith of Abram.

Now we see that Abram is a practical man. Even though he’s the father of the faithful, there’s no Law as yet, there’s no ritual of circumcision, there’s no written scripture and Abram, this man whose whole life up to the last few years was surrounded by false Gods and pagan beliefs, wants to know how God will seal these promises to him.

We read verse 7, “Then He (God) said to him (Abram), “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.””

Verse 8, “And he (Abram) said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” 

Here’s what God told Abram to do. Genesis 15 verses 9 and 10, “The LORD told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. 

Again, Abram is a very practical man. He believes in dealing with reality. We all need that reality in our Christian walk. What’s the point in clinging to that which is not real? Romance and reality! Let’s start finding out what’s real and living according to that reality.

Abram wants to know something, and he would like to have that something confirmed in writing so to speak.

Here we see the wonderful relationship between God and Abram. God doesn’t cause thunderclaps to explode overhead and lightning bolts to blast down at Abram. We don’t hear God roaring so the whole universe can hear it, “How dare you question me? I’m God.”

No. God with all his Grace and Mercy and all His loving kindness gently gives Abram the assurance he’s after. He’s going to make a covenant with Abram. It’s a more sure and more binding covenant than any we make in our world today. God told Abram to prepare a sacrifice.

He was to get a heifer, a she goat, and a ram and divide or split them down the middle and put one half on one side and one half on the other.

The turtledove and the pigeon he did not divide, but put one over here and one over there.

When men made a contract in that day, this is the way they made it. In a trade or a purchase, they would prepare a sacrifice in this manner.

Each of the parties joined hands and they stated their contract, and then they walked through the sacrifice.

In that day this was exactly like going to court with documents to be signed by a notary public in our day.

So we see that God is using the legal procedure of that time with Abram.

In Jeremiah 34:18 we have a reference to this custom of that land, not just among these people, but among all peoples in the day.

The method in that day was to take the sacrifice and divide it, and the men would then make the contract.

Notice Abram got everything ready according to God’s instructions.

 Let’s read verse 11, “And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.”  

We can picture the scene. Laying all over the ground are these slaughtered carcases. You’d have been well aware of what you were doing. You’d be completely familiar with this process of making a covenant.

Abrams waiting for God to turn up and perform his part, which was to walk through this mess with him. The old crows and the gulls and the buzzards are all swooping down on it all and Abrams running around shooing them away.

Now notice what happens.

Verse 12,  “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.”

Here we have God putting Abram into a deep sleep.

But hold on, Abram’s got to walk through this sacrifice with God to complete the covenant. But God’s putting him into a paralyzingly deep sleep.

Well, this is a most unusual covenant, not from the method that was used but because God’s going to walk through this prepared covenant sacrifice by Himself.

Abrams not going to do a thing. This covenant is all God’s promise to perform the covenant. Abram is going to have no part to play in its fulfilment except to believe. Only believe.

This is exactly what took place on a cruel cross on a hilltop in Judea 200 years ago.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The Son agreed to come to the earth and die for the sin of the world, your sin and mine. And whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Now where were we in the making of that covenant? We had no conditions to fulfil. We weren’t even born yet. When we were born we were paralysed just like Abram was. We were paralysed, in a horror of deep sleep by our sins.

God’s not requiring Abram to do a thing. Let’s say God had walked through that covenant sacrifice with Abram and God said, “Well Abram, if you say your prayers every night you’ll fulfil your part of the covenant and what I have promised I’ll do.”

You know what would have happened. Abram would have forgotten to pray one night, probably the very next night, and the covenants now collapsed, it’s broken and God’s released from His promise.

No, God’s only asking one thing of Abram just as He’s asking only one thing from you and me. Believe. Believe that what God says will come to pass no matter what the circumstances.

This contract is all on God. None of it’s on man. If God were to break this covenant the entire universe would instantly cease to exist. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that it’s the Word of God that upholds all things. One of the things it’s impossible for God to do is lie, so says Hebrews 6 verse 18.

Now verse 13, “Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.”

In the scripture, it’s predicted that these people would be put out of the land and into captivity 3 times.

It’s also predicted that they’d turn back to the land. and they did return.

In the year 70 AD Jerusalem was conquered and sacked by the Roman general Titus Vespasian and more than 1 million 100 thousand jews died. The rest were scattered throughout the world. Then in 1948 Israel once again officially became a state and the Jewish people flooded back to the land, even though they’re a long way from occupying all of it and in the way God promised. However, that time will come.

To verse 14, ” But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end, they will come away with great wealth. ” God certainly kept his word there.

Verse 15, “Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.”

Abram of course, won’t see this slavery.

Verse 16, “But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

God’s saying to Abram I can’t put you in this right now because I love the Amorites also and I’m giving them a chance to turn to me. He gave them 400 years to do that. The only one that did turn to him was the Canaanite harlot Rahab. She simply believed God and she was saved.

Verse 17, “And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. “

Both of these, the smoking oven, which is kind of fire pot, and the burning torch speak of Christ. The smoking oven or firepot speaks of His judgement while the burning torch speaks of Him as the light of the world.

Verse 18, “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.” 

Again the King James has descendants as Seed.

Now we come to Genesis chapter 16. This chapter is, quite frankly, a bit of a letdown.

We’ve seen Abram in chapter 15, as the great father of faith. We tend to think Oh, if only I could have that level of faith and we admire Abram for the way he simply believes God. But Abrams not perfect and now we see that he’s no different from us. He has a lapse of this great faith, and that lapse has to do with his wife to Sarai and Hagar, the Egyptian maid.

We see here the unbelief of both Sarai and Abram, and the birth of Ishmael. What a letdown after the wonder of the last chapter.

Let’s pick up at Genesis 16:1, “Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.”

Abram got two things down in the land of Egypt which caused him a heap of trouble: one was wealth, and the other was this little Egyptian maid.

Verse 2, “So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” 

What Sarai was suggesting was a common practice of that day. When a wife couldn’t bear a child, there was the concubine.

Now, let’s not for a moment think that just because this is written is written in scripture that God approved it. God certainly did not approve of this at all.

There are many things written in the Bible that God is against. There’s an old saying, “Everything in the Bible is truly stated but everything in the Bible is not a statement of truth.

This was Sarai’s idea, and Abram listened to her. He’s basically surrendering his position as head of the home here, and he’s followed her suggestion. It’s going to cause trouble for everyone involved not only at that point in time but right throughout the ages right up until today.

Verse 3, “Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.”

This Egyptian maid, Hagar, becomes Abram’s concubine, and it’s certainly not according to God’s will. God’s not going to accept the offspring at all—He didn’t, and He wouldn’t. Why? Because it was wrong. We mustn’t ever say that God approved of this however, it’s in the record because it is an historical fact.

Verse 4, “So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. “

See, the troubles already started. Hagar said, “I’ve mothered a child of Abram, and Sarai couldn’t do it.” Can you not clearly see the tensions between these 2 woman? Hagar looked down on Sarai, and Sarai despised Hagar and poor old Abram’s right in the middle. It probably made the running down of the armies of the kings outside Sodom seem like a walk in the park for him.

To verse 5, “Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.” 

This verse is important because it emphasises what we’ve already said. God did not approve of this. God says that it is wrong, and now Sarai sees that she has done wrong.

“My wrong be upon you”. She is wrong, my friends. God won’t accept this, and it’s going to turn out to be a real heartbreak to old Abram.

But, you see, Abram and Sarai are not really trusting God as they should. And before we condemn them remember, Abram’s nearly ninety years old and Sarai’s eighty and never been able to bear a child. They’ve come to the conclusion that they are not going to have children. Would we have done better? I doubt it!

Sarai probably rationalised and said, “Maybe this is the way God wants us to do it, after all, it is the custom of the day.”

It was the custom of that day, but it was contrary to God’s way of doing things. As we’ve already said, if we think that just because something’s recorded in the Bible God approves of it.

The moral side that you and I read into this is not really stated here in the historical record. Abram and Sarai were brought up in Ur of the Chaldees where this was a common practice. The moral angle is wrong but it’s not the worst thing. The terrible thing was that they just didn’t believe God. The wrong that they committed by Abram taking Sarai’s maid Hagar was a sin, and God treated it as such. But in the context of the Bible, it was the unbelief that was the major sin here.

A great many people who visit that land today can’t understand how it could be called a land of milk and honey. Well, in the Book of Deuteronomy we learn what caused the desolation that is seen there today. But it was a glorious land in Abram’s day.

However, there were periods of famine, and Abram left the land and went down to Egypt during such a time.

As Abram neared Egypt, he recognized that he would get into difficulty because of the beauty of his wife.

So, he said to Sarai,

Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee [Genesis12:13].

“Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister.” That was half a lie, as we shall see. Half a lie is sometimes worse than a whole lie, and it certainly was intended to deceive. Abram’s fears were well founded because Pharaoh did take Sarai.

We know from the Book of Esther that in those days there was a period of preparation for a woman to become a wife of a ruler. And during that period of preparation, God “plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues,” and let him know that he was not to take Sarai as his wife.

And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had [Gen_12:18-20].

God, you see, was overruling in the lives of Abram and Sarai, but God did not appear to him while he was in the land of Egypt.

In the next episode, we continue on in Genesis chapter 12, we’re well and truly implanted on this second bank which we’ll stay on until Chapter 50.

In these first eleven chapters of Genesis, we’ve seen the Creation, the fall of man, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. These are four great events that covered that long span of years.

Now we move to personalities and individuals. Many are great people, and many are not but all are vital pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that will have every single piece perfectly set in its rightful place. The result reveals a wonderful picture of man reunited with God for an eternity, just the way it was designed to be.