Genesis 20:1-18

Abraham experiences déjà vu when he introduces his beautiful wife to the local king. In a situation similar to his experience in Egypt, Abraham is faced with the same decision as before.

Stuck in a Rut

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Abraham moved south to the Negev and lived for a while between Kadesh and Shur, and then he moved on to Gerar. While living there as a foreigner, Abraham introduced his wife, Sarah, by saying, “She is my sister.” So King Abimelech of Gerar sent for Sarah and had her brought to him at his palace.
Genesis 20:1-2

Reflect

Although Abraham is one of our heroes of faith, even he repeated the same mistakes. Abraham had used this lie to protect himself before (Genesis 12:11-13). By giving in to this temptation again, he risked creating a pattern. Sin is often a rut created over time. He risked making a habit of lying whenever he suspected his life was in danger. Abraham had his own selfish priorities at heart.

No matter how much we love God, some ruts are especially difficult to resist. These are worn into our hearts with a lifetime of behavior. As we struggle with these sins, we can be encouraged to know that God is breaking up the ground of our hearts just as he did for Abraham (see Jeremiah 4:3-4). But this can be painful. It certainly was for Abraham.

God later tested Abraham when he asked him to sacrifice Isaac. God did not want to watch Abraham fail. He wanted to deepen Abraham’s capacity to obey and thus to develop his character. God wanted to rearrange Abraham’s priorities.

Respond

What situation is requiring you to have faith right now? When we are tested, we can complain about the pain, or we can rejoice that God is at work in our hearts. Are you willing to believe that God is at work?

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Streams in the Desert – May 3

And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered (Joel 2:32).

Why do not I call on His name? Why do I run to this neighbor and that when God is so near and will hear my faintest call? Why do I sit down and devise schemes and invent plans? Why not at once roll myself and my burden upon the Lord?

Straightforward is the best runner–why do not I run at once to the living God? In vain shall I look for “deliverance anywhere else; but with God I shall find it; for here I have His royal shall to make it sure. I need not ask whether I may call on Him or not, for that word “Whosoever” is a very wide and comprehensive one. Whosoever means me, for it means anybody and everybody who calls upon God. I will therefore follow the leading of the text, and at once call upon the glorious Lord who has made so large a promise.

My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. He who makes the promise will find ways and means of keeping it. It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels. I am His servant, not His solicitor. I call upon Him, and He will deliver.
–C. H. Spurgeon

Genesis 19:1-29

God tells Abraham that he will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s home, so Abraham pleads for mercy. But the destruction will not be stalled any longer, so God sends angels to warn Lot and his family.

Fair Warning

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The angels questioned Lot. “Do you have any other relatives here in the city?” they asked. “Get them out of this place—your sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone else. For we are about to destroy this city completely. The outcry against this place is so great it has reached the Lord, and he has sent us to destroy it.” . . .

When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful.
(Genesis 19:12-13, 16)

Reflect

God promised to save Sodom if only ten innocent people lived there (Genesis 18:32). Apparently not even ten could be found, because the angels soon arrived to destroy the city.

Lot hesitated to leave the city, so the angel seized his hand and rushed him to safety. Lot did not want to abandon the wealth, position, and comfort he enjoyed in Sodom.

The story of Sodom reveals that the people of Lot’s day had to deal with the same kinds of sins the world faces today. Lot was so content to live among ungodly people that he was no longer a believable witness for God. Instead of shaping his environment, he had allowed his environment to shape him. Do those who know you see you as a witness for God, or do you just blend into the crowd? Lot had compromised to the point that he was almost useless to God.

Respond

We can easily criticize Lot for being hypnotized by Sodom when the choice seems so clear to us. To be wiser than Lot, we must look out for the ways our culture attracts us and causes us to hesitate in following God.

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Streams in the Desert – May 2

 

The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom rules over all (Ps. 103:19).

Some time since, in the early spring, I was going out at my door when round the corner came a blast of east wind–defiant and  pitiless, fierce and withering–sending a cloud of dust before it. I was just taking the latchkey from the door as I said, half impatiently, “I wish the wind would”–I was going to say change;  but the word was checked, and the sentence was never finished.

As I went on my way, the incident became a parable to me. There came an angel holding out a key; and he said: “My Master sends thee His love, and bids me give you this.” “What is it?” I asked, wondering. “The key of the winds,” said the angel, and disappeared.

Now indeed should I be happy. I hurried away up into the heights whence the winds came, and stood amongst the caves. “I will have done with the east wind at any rate–and that shall plague us no more,” I cried; and calling in that friendless wind, I closed the door, and heard the echoes ringing in the hollow places. I turned the key triumphantly. “There,” I said, now we have done with that.”

“What shall I choose in its place?” I asked myself, looking about me. “The south wind is pleasant”; and I thought of the lambs, and the young life on every hand, and the flowers that had begun to deck the hedgerows. But as I set the key within the door, it began to burn my hand. “What am I doing?” I cried; “who knows what mischief I may bring about? How do I know what the fields want! Ten thousand things of ill may come of this foolish wish of mine.”

Bewildered and ashamed, I looked up and prayed that the Lord would send His angel yet again to take the key; and for my part I promised that I would never want to have it any more. But lo, the Lord Himself stood by me. He reached His hand to take the key; and as I laid it down, I saw that it rested against the sacred wound-print.

It hurt me indeed that I could ever have murmured against anything wrought by Him who bare such sacred tokens of His love. Then He took the key and hung it on His girdle. “Dost THOU keep the key of the winds?” I asked. “I do, my child,” He answered graciously. And lo, I looked again and there hung all the keys of all my life. He saw my look of amazement, and asked, “Didst thou not know, my child, that my kingdom rules over all?

“Over all, my Lord!” I answered; “then it is not safe for me to murmur at anything?” Then did He lay His hand upon me tenderly. “My child,” He said, “thy only safety is, in everything, to love and trust and praise.”
–Mark Guy Pearse

Genesis 18:1-15

After God reaffirms the covenant to Abraham, heavenly visitors repeat his promise that Sarah will bear a son, but Sarah cannot believe it.

Punch Line

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He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground. . . .

Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”

Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”
(Genesis 18:2, 10-15)

Reflect

Abraham eagerly welcomed these visitors, as did Lot (Genesis 19:2). In Abraham’s day, a person’s reputation largely depended on his or her hospitality—the sharing of home and goods. Even strangers were to be treated as highly honored guests. Meeting another’s need for food or shelter was and still is one of the most immediate and practical ways to obey God. It is also a time-honored relationship builder.

These visitors brought specific news about Sarah and a baby boy. Because Sarah was over ninety, she thought the prediction was laughable. But when confronted about her response, she responded, “I didn’t laugh.”

Sarah lied because she was afraid of being discovered. Fear is a common motive for lying. We are afraid that our inner thoughts and emotions will be exposed or our wrongdoings discovered. In response to Sarah’s unbelief (and laughter), God says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The obvious answer is, “Of course not!”

Respond

Nothing is too difficult for God. Make it a habit to insert your specific needs into God’s question. “Is this day in my life too hard for the Lord?” “Is this habit I’m trying to break too hard for him?” “Is the communication problem I’m having too hard for him?” Asking the question this way can remind you that God is personally involved in your life and nudges you to ask for his power to help you.

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Streams in the Desert – May 1

God that cannot lie promised (Titus 1:2).

Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then rejoicing to know that it is true, and just resting because God has said it.

Faith turns the promise into a prophecy. While it is merely a promise it is contingent upon our cooperation. But when faith claims it, it becomes a prophecy, and we go forth feeling that it is something that must be done because God cannot lie.
–Days of Heaven upon Earth

I hear men praying everywhere for more faith, but when I listen to them carefully, and get at the real heart of their prayer, very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight.

Faith says not, “I see that it is good for me, so God must have sent it,” but, “God sent it, and so it must be good for me.”

Faith, walking in the dark with God, only prays Him to clasp its hand more closely.
–Phillips Brooks

The Shepherd does not ask of thee
Faith in thy faith, but only faith in Him;
And this He meant in saying, ‘Come to me.’
In light or darkness seek to do His will,
And leave the work of faith to Jesus still.

Genesis 16:1-16

God has promised a child to Abram, but both Abram and Sarai become convinced they must figure out how to make this happen.

Waiting for God

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Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)
(Genesis 16:1-3)

Reflect

Sarai was following a common practice of that time when she gave Hagar to Abram as a substitute wife. But at the same time, Sarai took matters into her own hands by doing this.

Abram was also acting in line with the custom of the day, but his action showed a lack of faith that God would fulfill his promise.

When we take over God’s role, we don’t give faith the chance to grow. Waiting on God can take a long time. In Abram and Sarai’s case, time was the greatest test of their faith and willingness to let God work in their lives on his schedule. Sometimes we, too, must simply wait. When we ask God for something and have to wait, we can be tempted to take matters into our own hands and interfere with God’s purposes. Like Abram and Sarai, we might fail along the way. But God is patient with us like he was with Abram and Sarai.

Respond

What situation have you been trying to control? How can you wait for God’s timing?

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 4:6).

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Streams in the Desert – April 29

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are (James 5:17).

Thank God for that! He got under a juniper tree, as you and I have often done; he complained and murmured, as we have often done; was unbelieving, as we have often been. But that was not the case when he really got into touch with God. Though “a man subject to like passions as we are,” “he prayed praying.”  It is sublime in the original–not “earnestly,” but “he prayed in prayer.” He kept on praying. What is the lesson here? You must keep praying.

Come up on the top of Carmel, and see that remarkable parable of Faith and Sight. It was not the descent of the fire that now was necessary, but the descent of the flood; and the man that can command the fire can command the flood by the same means and methods. We are told that he bowed himself to the ground with his face between his knees; that is, shutting out all sights and sounds. He was putting himself in a position where, beneath his mantle, he could neither see nor hear what was going forward.

He said to his servant, “Go and take an observation.” He went and came back, and said–how sublimely brief! one  word–“Nothing!”

What do we do under such circumstances?

We say, “It is just as I expected!” and we give up praying. Did Elijah? No, he said, “Go again.” His servant again came back and said, “Nothing!” “Go again.” “Nothing!”

By and by he came back, and said, “There is a little cloud like a man’s hand.” A man’s hand had been raised in supplication, and presently down came the rain; and Ahab had not time to get back to the gate of Samaria with all his fast steeds. This is a parable of Faith and Sight–faith shutting itself up with God; sight taking observations and seeing nothing; faith going right on, and “praying in prayer,” with utterly hopeless reports from sight.

Do you know how to pray that way, how to pray prevailingly? Let sight give as discouraging reports as it may, but pay no attention to these. The living God is still in the heavens and even to delay is part of His goodness.
–Arthur T. Pierson

Each of three boys gave a definition of faith which is an illustration of the tenacity of faith. The first boy said, “It is taking hold of Christ”; the second, “Keeping hold”; and the third, “Not letting go.”