Thursday, September 17, 2020

Daily Devotions, Genesis 17, 18. The Promise of God and a Man Who Would Barter With The Lord

 


 Daily Devotional, Genesis Chapter 17, 18

The Promise of God and a Man Who Would Barter With The Lord

Genesis Chapter 17, and 18 bring out a number of interesting topics. One of the reasons I encourage you to do your own study is to check out and discover the things God wants to  show you. I always pray before studying Scripture, Lord, show me something in this passage. The amazing thing to me is He does.

In this reading we see Abram and Sarai have their names changed by the Lord to Abraham and Sarah. We see as they enter their old age that God still hasn't forgotten the promises he made them regarding having children and their ancestors being more numerous than the stars in the sky. We even see that Sarah is beyond child bearing years but God reminds Abraham, that He is God and can do as He chooses, including giving them a son to be named Isaac. 

In the process, God makes Abraham promise that he will do right for the remainder of his life. It is if you will a sort of contract or covenant between the two. As we may guess, we see that God is faithful in the things He promises. We also see that sometimes there are conditions to those promises, It is a sort of contract that is called a covenant. 

God after leaving for a brief period of time returns to tell Abraham that within a year that Sarah will have a son. She laughs at the suggestion. She knows her age, she even lies about the laughter but God reminds her who He is and of the promises He has made.

After Abraham spends time with the Lord they take a walk towards the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah along with what I believe are angels. The Lord states that He wants to see for himself how bad things are there. The Lord makes it known, that His plans are to destroy the city. An interesting thing takes place here, we see Abraham's compassion for the cities and people. He barters with the Lord, if they have 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 good people will God not destroy the cities. It's an interesting exchange. God responds favorably each time, showing a willingness to show mercy but also a willingness to listen to Abraham and his passion for others.

Do we keep our promises to God? Do we love others enough to be compassionate towards them. Do we barter or ask God for things? I'm certain that if we will we will answer these things honestly but we need to remember, just like Abraham, we better understand who God is. Each time Abraham asked God for a favor, he did so with an understanding of who God is and had a bit of fear and concern about asking those things. We also must understand who God is. We must not forget His power and authority. Of course we have the Bible to help us understand the nature of God and the directives He gives us in order to experience joy, purpose and ultimately relationship with God.

We need to remember that with Christ we are not saved by works, but, as James states in the book of James, faith without works is in reality non existent or dead. God is willing to help us, work with us, keep His promises to us, are we willing to show our appreciation and do our part? 

To see Genesis Chapter 17 and 18 Click the following link:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+17%2C+18&version=CEV

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