GENESIS 21: Devotion

As promised, Sarah had a son: Isaac. Sarah had Hagar and Ishmael sent away but God preserved them. 

"God is in no hurry in the working out of His plans. Man may fret and fume, hurry and bustle, but Jehovah has all eternity at His disposal and works leisurely and with deliberation. Well for us to mark this attentively—"He that believeth shall not make haste."~Isaiah 28:16

(A.W. Pink)

GENESIS 20: Devotion

In Gerar Abraham said, "Sarah is my sister." King Abimelech took her but God threatens judgment upon him for taking her. Abraham is rebuked by the king and Abraham gives an excuse. Sarah is restored to Abraham.

"We learn three glorious lessons of God's grace. First, God, in His grace here, intervenes on Abraham's behalf. And that reminds us that God in His grace often intervenes on our behalf even when we are the cause of our own problem.

Second, we see here that God not only protects us by His grace, but God by His grace exposes our sin even while we are working hard to conceal it.

And finally, we see that God in His grace uses us for His glory in spite of ourselves."

(Ligon Duncan)

GENESIS 19: Devotion

Angels took Lot out of Sodom. The city was destroyed by fire and Lot's wife was turned to salt. His daughters had children from him.

"The life of Lot shows us that it is possible to have a saved soul and a wasted life. Lot would be saved, but his life would accomplish nothing, as in...

{1 Corinthians 3:15}

'If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.'

(David Guzik)

GENESIS 18: Devotion

Three visitors came and said that Sarah would have a son next year. Sarah laughed within herself at this promise. Sodom was very evil; Abraham pleaded with the LORD for the city.

"The problem was that Sarah’s laughter reflected her unbelief in the promise of God. By nature we all trust in ourselves most of the time, and in God only when we really have to. If we trust in ourselves, then we glory in ourselves. But God’s purpose is that we glory in Him alone. So through various means He graciously brings us to the place where we have no hope except in Him, so that we trust in Him and He gets the glory."

(Steven J. Cole) 

GENESIS 17: Devotion

God made a covenant with Abram, "My covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations." God renamed him Abraham and Sarai Sarah, then promised them a son. The men in his household were circumcised.

"From the very beginning, God had in view that Jesus Christ would be the descendant of Abraham and that everyone who trusts in Christ would become an heir of Abraham's promise. So it says in Galatians 3:29, "If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise."

(John Piper)

GENESIS 16: Devotion

God has promised Abram offspring over and over again but his wife Sarai has not yet born a child. Sarai takes matters into her own hands and offers her slave girl to Abram. Hagar conceived, then ran away, but an angel sent her back. Hagar's son was Ishmael.

"God is sovereign and we have a hard time accepting that.

We must not only trust God's promise, but we must obtain God's promises in the way, by the method which He says we are to obtain those promises."

(Ligon Duncan)

GENESIS 15: Devotion

The Lord promised Abram an heir and many descendants. Abram believed. He was told they will be enslaved in a land that is not theirs but would return.

"Abram reasoned not about the natural impossibility that lay in the way of the realization of the promise, but believed that God would act just as He had said. God had spoken and that was enough."

(AW Pink)

GENESIS 14: Devotion

The kings went to war and took Lot captive. Abram rescued Lot. Melchizedek blessed Abram and Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

"In contrast with how Abram acted in Genesis 13 Abram makes us proud of him here in 14, but it also reminds us that it may be easier to act heroically in a physical, military struggle than it is to act bravely when our faith is challenged. Abram's faith in the Lord was challenged in Genesis 13, and he failed. When Abram was called on to bear arms, Abram was ready to go. And I think that may be a warning to us. There are some things externally where it's easier to be brave than it is to be brave in things of the Lord."

(Ligon Duncan)

GENESIS 13: Devotional

Abram went up from Egypt with Lot. The two argued and Abram said separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Lot chose to make Sodom his home where it was watered well. Abram settled in Canaan. 

“In the end, he who sought this world lost it, and he who was willing to give up anything for the honor of God found it.”

(Alexander Maclaren)

GENESIS 12: Devotional

God called Abram out from his country, "Go. I will make you a great nation. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 

God is the sovereign God who calls men to Himself with authority. He didn’t suggest, “Abram, if you’d like a happier life, you might try moving to Canaan.” He commanded, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.” It was a command that demanded a response. Abram would have been in disobedience to the sovereign God if he had not obeyed. In the New Testament, the word “call” or “calling” is most often used of God’s call to salvation. It is not a helpful hint for happier living. It is the authoritative command of God. When Jesus began to preach the gospel, Mark 1:15 sums up His message: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” It was the word of the King calling rebellious subjects to quit their rebellion and bow before His rightful sovereignty. It is a command with serious consequences. If we disobey, the day is coming when the King with force will squash all rebellion and punish those who have refused to yield to Him. The gospel call isn’t a nice option if you decide that maybe Jesus can help you be happy. It is the authoritative command of the King, calling you to stop going your own way and to come under His rightful sovereignty. Once you have heard that call, as you have today, you must obey or you are in rebellion against the sovereign God."

(Steven J. Cole)

GENESIS 10&11: Devotion

Family history of Shem, Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah. One named Nimrod founded Babel where the people began building a great tower for themselves, but God scatters them over the whole earth and confused their language. 

"God’s will for human beings is not that we find our joy in being praised, but that we find our joy in knowing and praising him. His will is not that we find our security in cities but in God whom we gladly obey. 

So God's response to the presumption and arrogance of man was to make it harder for man to communicate and thus to unite in God-belittling global plans. God has built into the world a system by which the pride of different groups of people restrains the pride of other groups of people. God knows the immense potential of human beings created in his own image. And he has given them amazing liberty to exalt themselves and design their own security systems without trusting him. But there are limits. Thousands of languages around the world and thousands of different peoples limit the global aspirations of arrogant mankind. 

The praise that Jesus receives from all the languages is more beautiful, because of its diversity, than it would have been if there were only one language and one people to sing. “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10). “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10).

(John Piper)

GENESIS 9: Devotion

God blessed Noah and set the rainbow as a sign that He would never flood the earth again. 

"As the rainbow is the joint product of storm and sunshine, so grace is the unmerited favor of God appearing on the dark background of the creature’s sin. As the rainbow is the effect of the sun shining on the drops of rain in a rain cloud, so Divine grace is manifested by God’s love shining through the blood shed by our blessed Redeemer."

(AW Pink)

GENESIS 8: Devotion

The flood abated. Noah sent out a raven and two doves. When the earth was dry God called them all out of the ark. Noah built an altar.

"Noah was now gone out into a desolate world, where, one might have thought, his first care would have been to build a house for himself, but he begins with an altar for God. He begins well, that begins with God."

(Matthew Henry)

GENESIS 7: Devotion

Noah and his family went into the ark with two of each creature. And God shut the door. It rained for 40 days, the earth was covered. All creatures with the breath of the spirit of life outside the ark were destroyed.

"Noah did not have to shut the door on anyone’s salvation; God did it. After the same pattern, it is never our job to disqualify people from salvation. We let God shut the door."

(David Guzik)

GENESIS 5&6:

Family history of the line of sons from Adam to Noah. Humankind corrupted the earth with evil. God decided to destroy them. But Noah found grace and God had him build an ark to be saved from the flood. 

"God’s saints are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), and little as the world realizes or appreciates it, the fact remains that it is the presence of God’s people here which prevents the mystery of iniquity coming to a head and preserves mankind from an outpouring of God’s wrath."

(AW Pink)

GENESIS 4:

Eve's sons made offerings to God. Only Abel's was acceptable, so Cain killed him. Abel's blood cried out and God sent Cain away. Cain complains of the severity of God’s judgment.

 “One of the clearest marks of sin is our almost innate desire to excuse ourselves and complain if we are judged in any way.”

(James Boice)

GENESIS 3:

The serpent deceived the woman; "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." she and Adam ate from the tree. The earth became cursed, and God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden.

"Notice how Satan puts a wall between holiness and happiness. He in effect says your adherence to God's standards is going to keep you from true fulfillment, true happiness, true satisfaction. If you will reject God's standards you will find happiness and satisfaction. That is Satan's strategy always. He's always saying, if you follow those rules that God gave you, it's going to ruin your life. Whereas God tells us that there is an inseparable connection between holiness and happiness, between obedience and satisfaction, between doing the will of God and receiving a blessed eternal reward. Never forget that Satan will always work against you by trying to get you to buy the lie, that holiness will keep you from happiness. The truth could not be further from that. Only in holiness do we find perfect happiness."

(J. Ligon Duncan)

GENESIS 2:

God formed a man and gave him the garden in Eden, except for the tree of knowledge. Adam was alone so God made a woman as his partner.

"The tree was prohibited so that man might not trust in his own understanding, cast off the yoke of God, and make himself the judge of good and evil. Therefore, abstinence from the fruit of one tree was a kind of first lesson in obedience, that man might know he had a Director and Lord of his life, on whose will he ought to depend, and in whose commands he ought to acquiesce. And this, truly, is the only rule of living well and rationally, that men should exercise themselves in obeying God. So by eating of this fruit, man substituted his own finite self as the standard of right and wrong, replacing God’s perfect Being as the standard."(John Calvin)

GENESIS 1:

God created the heavens, the earth and everything that lives. He made humankind in his image, and gave them charge over the earth.

Each of us must come to terms with the God who made the universe and who made us in His image. Either you submit to Him or you must believe what Darwinist George Gaylord Simpson said: “Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind.” But believing that God doesn’t exist does not make Him cease to exist. He is the living God who, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth. Perhaps you’re afraid to come to Him. There is sin in your life, and like Adam and Eve after they sinned, you’d rather hide from Him. Listen to the words of Jesus Christ, who claimed to be sent by God to die for our sins and that someday He will judge every person: “He who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). 

(Steven J. Cole)