The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 22:1-18 (day five)

“for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭21‬:‭12‬
Don’t know about you, but I have honestly wondered if I could have had the faith of Abraham demonstrated in the Re:Verse text this week. As Aaron pointed out, no scripture to refer to. There were no sermons to encourage or exhort him. No community of faith surrounding him.

What was Abraham thinking and why?

I believe he was thinking that Isaac was going to die as a sacrifice, and that God would raise him from the dead ? Hebrews 11). How? Why? Because God had promised Abraham that his descendants would come through Isaac. Let me write that again… God had promised Abraham.

That’s all Abraham had. Ultimately, that’s all he needed- God’s promise. Abraham completely trusted God’s promise. Maybe one of the takeaways for me (us) this week is to recognize and remember the promises of God.  So, I am looking at scripture with a renewed sense of determination and expectation to sense and see the promises of God. Practically, I will look for key words (WILL/SHALL) spoken by God and Jesus. I will underline and circle them, asking the Holy Spirit to encourage and strengthen my faith in the promises of the Lord found in the scriptures.  Parents, tell the promises of God to your children/grandchildren. Some promises were made specifically to individuals like Abraham. But there are so many made to believers and children of God. Lord, help me find, trust, and act of Your promises.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 22:1-18 (day four)

Can you imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind when God asks this of him? We don’t know all of Abraham’s thoughts here, or how he came to terms with this command from God, but we do know that he came to a place of faithful resolve. Look at the language he uses –

In verse 5, Abraham states in faith that Isaac will return, “Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Again in verse 8, Abraham has faith that God will provide, “Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

Abraham was fully prepared to obey the Lord, and equally full of assurance that God would provide. Abraham had walked with God and knew these things to be true: God is faithful, trustworthy, and good. He had faith that somehow, this command from God would further testify to these truths.

How is God calling you to obey? You can do it in faith knowing that he is faithful, trustworthy, and good.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 22:1-18 (day three)

“God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

Isaac’s spiritual formation occurred in a family who interacted with heaven regularly. Therefore, whether he was a child, an adolescent, or a young man at the time of these events (the Bible doesn’t specify his age), Isaac understood sacrifice, and he would notice anything amiss. But Abraham’s reply to Isaac’s question was not a diversionary tactic employed to keep Isaac in the dark. Abraham meant what he said. Life with God over the better part of a century had taught Abraham that with God, things were always better than he had imagined. By this time in his life, Abraham knew he could go where he did not know because he had come to know intimately the one calling him to go. That faith experience further formed Isaac that day.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 22:1-18 (day two)  He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” vs. 12

Most of you know that I spent many years in the classroom as a choir teacher. It was my training and my dream to teach. When God began to pull at my heart to leave the classroom to serve in the local church. I was not, initially, eager to obey. My path had been set before me, and my prospects were exactly what I had dreamed about. The Lord reminded me of Numbers 9:15-23. Wherever the cloud went, the Israelites were to follow. Where the cloud was, there was the Lord. It helped remind me of where I ultimately put my trust. Not in my wants and desires, but in the footprints of the savior. Abraham is remarkable in that he didn’t have scripture to fall back upon. His fear (read trust) in the Lord came from some very real encounters throughout his life that he was willing to shape his decision making upon. Are you trusting the Lord today? Even when he gives you an uncomfortable assignment, you can trust him.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 6:5-22 (day seven) 

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  vs 5

How wicked must the world have been at this time for God to have to hit a reset button? I look at the world today and begin to ask myself, how much more wicked can it get? I find myself in moments of despair saying, “Lord Jesus come quickly!” However, if this was as wicked as things could get and there was no turning back, God would intervene. That means that God can redeem this world.  He is not ready to hit the reset button yet.

His answer to me when I say, “Lord Jesus come quickly!” is always, “If I came today, your neighbor would go to hell. What will you do to fix that?”

Even if this world may seem lost as it has ever been, our job is not to dwell on when Jesus will fix it, but to get out there and fix it ourselves with His power within us. We can hit the reset button!

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 6:5-22 (day six) 

“Then the Lord saw…”

The first time we read these words God looked and declared all of that he had made “good.” (Genesis 1:31) When we read it for the second time in Genesis 6:5, God is not so pleased by what he saw; he declared the deeds of men wicked and their thoughts “evil.” But “he saw” (there it is again) something different in Noah. Clearly, Noah stood apart from all others because he “walked with God.” (v. 9)

God used Noah to begin anew; kind of like a new Adam. It wouldn’t take long for Noah to fall just like Adam. That’s what happens when you walk in the wisdom of men.

Where Adam and Noah failed, Jesus succeeds. When God saw his son, he declared, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17, 17:5)

In other words, “This is my son and he is GOOD.” Be grateful for the eternal goodness of Jesus. In his goodness, he is recreating a brand new humanity that will forever walk with God.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 6:5-22 (day five) “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Passages like these help shape our view of who God is.  The name given to God later in Genesis is “El Roi”- The God Who Sees. When we consider that God sees “everything”, it can be comforting (Psalm 139) and/or unsettling (Genesis 6:5). However God does not just wait and watch, He acts and engages the human heart. Presses toward repentance and mercy. He also judges and delivers consequences when hearts are hardened. My great hope is to feel and find God’s favor and friendship. But, it is also to ask El Roi (like the Psalmist), to help me see my heart and mind as He does because He sees and knows me best. And when there is wickedness, lead me to repentance and forgiveness. All possible because the “God Who Sees” is also the God who out of His kindness acts and provides repentance and forgiveness (boldly approach the throne of grace).

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 6:5-22 (day four)

Stories like this often make us think of the anger and wrath of God, and understandably so. But when we read the story of Noah in light of New Testament, it’s the compassion of God and the love he has for his people that really shines through. The people on earth were hurtling themselves towards destruction, and God intervened.

John 15 says this, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit…As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me…If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

God didn’t just trim a branch in this story of Noah, he uprooted the whole tree, so to speak. But we know that God is always dealing compassionately with his people, even when they’re hurting themselves through sin. Noah abided in the Lord, and he withstood the painful, difficult pruning. We, too, can abide in the Lord, knowing he’ll tend to us compassionately.

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 6:5-22 (day three)

“The end of all flesh has come before me.”

God’s magnificent creature, the human being, was hurtling towards extinction. This was not clear to man, but it was clear to God. God allows evil; indeed, a sound philosophical argument can be made that if evil were not possible, the universe as we know it would not be possible. If the human creature is to have a will, evil is always an option. But God does not allow all evil; he has set a limit. Scripture reveals this limit in passages such as Matthew 24, where Jesus, speaking of Jerusalem’s destruction and last things, declares, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.” God will not allow the destruction of the human race. He saw destruction coming in Noah’s day, and he acted to save.