Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Have you ever seen a situation where abundance is a liability, a burden, maybe even a significant problem? That’s exactly what happened to Abram and his nephew Lot. Remember yesterday we saw they left Egypt with great abundance and Genesis 13 tells us it soon reached a point that the flocks and herds they had were so numerous they could not find enough pastureland, so they had to separate! (Gen. 13:5-7)
Wise, old Abram, now in his early 80’s, gave Lot first choice and Lot chose the land which appeared to him to be the most fertile even though it was near cities which were soon to become deadly famous, Sodom and Gomorrah! (Genesis 13:8-13)
As Lot gathered his shepherds, separated his flocks from his uncle Abram’s and headed off toward the horizon, God spoke a very special promise to Abram: “Look around from where you are, to the north, south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring FOREVER. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you!” (Gen. 13:14-17)
Do you hear two great promises from God to Abram in those words? On this day, as Abram watched his nephew walking away, God deeded to Abram a specific region of land, a land we know as Israel; and God promised a huge people group who would be Abram’s descendants and would occupy that land. But at that moment Abram was old and he had no children! But one thing Abram did have was a growing TRUST in the God who made these promises!
Only a few years later, Abram had another very significant encounter with God. Genesis 15:1 tells us: “After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward.” Well, that sounds great, but it appears Abram was getting frustrated with God making promises but not seeing any change in his situation. While God had promised Abram would have many descendants Abram was getting older by the day and his wife was barren, and therefore Abram actually questioned God, perhaps you might say even with an attitude!?
The record says: “But Abram said, ‘Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me NO children; so, a servant in my household will be my heir.” (Gen. 15:2,3) Abram was telling the truth. Realizing their advanced ages, Abram and Sarai had both come to grips with the harsh reality that they would never have children, and all their estate would pass to their servants, with Eliezer, their most trusted employee, likely being given the role of Trustee of their estate.
Did you notice Abram mentioned Eliezer’s hometown, Damascus? That is the same Damascus, as the capital of Syria in our day. I presume Eliezer may have been hired by Abram as they migrated from Harran, passing by Damascus on their way to Canaan, as we saw in Gen. 12:4,5.
But God welcomed Abram’s skepticism and responded with an experience Abram would never forget: “Then the word of the LORD came to Abram: ‘This man Eliezer will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.‘ God took Abram outside and said ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars – if indeed you can count them… So shall your offspring be!” (Gen. 15:4,5)
What do you see when you look up into the sky on a cloudless, moonless night, especially if you are away from man-made lights? And if you pick up binoculars, what do you see? And if you look through a telescope what do you see? Abram could only see with his naked eye, but you and I know there are BILLIONS of stars out there in the God created atmosphere! Have you ever stepped into an observatory and looked through a huge modern telescope, especially at night? That was the scope of God’s promise of descendants to old, childless Abram!!
Now would you agree that promise is way, way beyond extravagant! For an old man it’s near lunacy! That’s why the next line in Abram’s story is so significant: “Abram believed the LORD and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Gen. 15:6)
If you like to mark your Bible, you should put a box around those words. Why? Because Abram blazed the trail for any and all other humans to be accepted by God and granted eternal life in heaven, BEFORE Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross! Paul confirmed this in Romans 4:18-25!
You see my friends, for us in 2025 it requires the same amount of Abram faith to believe Jesus, God the Son, came to earth, lived a perfect life, gave His life on the cross, died and rose again so you and I could be forgiven of our sins… as was the amount of faith for old Abram to look up into the sky and believe God could somehow give him descendants more than all the stars he could see in that night sky!
In eternity future, when heaven is filled with ALL those whom God welcomes to eternity with Him, there will be two groups of humans in heaven… those who believed God as Abram did in Old Testament times; and those who believed God came here in the person of Jesus Christ to give His life to save them from their sin.
Please also notice God reconfirmed His land Covenant with Abram in Genesis 15:18-20 this time giving some boundaries and acknowledging the land already had many inhabitants, but the land was deeded by God Abram and his descendants. Do you see the correlation to the ongoing land battle in Israel and surrounding territory in our day? These verses are where that land debate begins!
Genesis 16 is a very significant part of God’s “Grand Narrative” story for both Abram and Sarai grew impatient waiting for God’s promised miracle of children in their old age. As was customary in those days for barren wives, Sarai offered one of her servants to be a surrogate mother, to have a child with Abram who would then be raised by Sarai as her child. Hagar, by the way, was Egyptian, (Gen. 16:1) thus we assume Hagar was hired by Sarai during that precarious time they were in Egypt fleeing from the famine as recorded in Genesis 12:10-20. Jealousy naturally arose between Hagar and Sarai and Hagar fled while pregnant, but as you read Genesis 16, you’ll notice God reached to frightened Hagar, assuring her that God was watching over this situation and even giving Hagar the name for her son, Ishmael. In return Hagar gave God a new name: “El Roi” which means, ‘You are the God who sees me’! (Gen. 16:13-16)
As we close today, can you celebrate the God sees you even though there are 8.5 billion of us humans? And God knows everything about you and your circumstances in life? And God can see the future clearly and knows how HE would like to guide your life and mine for HIS great glory and our great good. Let’s worship Him as we reflect on that with this new song…
Today’s Scripture: Genesis 15 & 16.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Genesis 16
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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