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)