Genesis 18:1-15

Abraham looked up one day and saw three men standing near the trees in front of his tent. He didn’t understand who they were, but he recognised they were holy men. He had a great respect for Holy men and directed Sarah to cook some bread and a servant to prepare a calf for them to eat. 

It appears that at this point Abraham did not recognise who these men were.

After the men had eaten they asked him where Sarah was. Abraham replied that she was in the tent.

The main man told him that He would be coming back in a year and Sarah would have a son. 

Sarah heard this and laughed to herself. How could an old woman with an old husband have any children?

The man asked why Sarah had made that comment. 

It would appear that at this moment both Abraham and Sarah recognised this man was God. Sarah was frightened and denied she had laughed.

God quite matter of factly replied that she did.

He didn’t punish her, but He didn’t allow her lie to go unnoticed.

We shouldn’t rush to condemn Sarah. We all do this. From childhood most people have learned to lie in order to keep themselves safe. But God knows our thoughts so lying doesn’t achieve anything.

Notice God did not punish her for lying. He appears to have understood the cynicism with which she greeted the pronouncement and given her understanding instead of harshness and judgement.

I have been through times where I am angry with God and tell Him that.

I have seen people I know go through the same thing.

Even David in the Psalms expressed his despair at the way God seemed to be overlooking him. Every one else got the good things and he was languishing on the run from Saul.

The thing is, God is patient. He will wait for you to come back. No finding excuses. He knows why you walked away and He doesn’t hold it against you.

Sarah may have disbelieved God and then lied about it, but she still had Isaac less than a year later.

We also often are angry at God, don’t want to talk to Him, don’t want to fellowship with fellow believers. But God knows our hearts. He knows that we will come back and He welcomes us with open arms when we return to Him.

Abraham didn’t initially recognise that one of the men was God. But as time passed he understood this was God. We will look more in the next blog into how he reacted to this.

The message I wanted to impress on you today is that God knows we get angry with Him. He understands that. He gently calls us back to Him and we usually respond. We may initially be unsure and disbelieving of His promises, but He is patient and honest and we turn back.

Never be frightened to be honest with God about how you are feeling. He knows anyway. Better to have that conversation and let Him respond. Take those gentle steps back towards God and He will welcome you gladly.

Genesis 17

In this chapter God changes Abram’s name to Abraham. He was 99 years old. God called him to walk before him faithfully and be blameless and God would make his covenant between Him and Abraham.

As part of that covenant God would greatly increase his numbers. He would become the father of many nations hence the name change to Abraham. 

He would be fruitful and the covenant established with Abraham would be everlasting.

Abraham’s part of the deal? He was to keep the covenant and his descendants were to do so as well. 

As we know from reading the Old Testament, Abraham’s descendants weren’t very good at keeping the covenant and were removed from Canaan.

God also set the covenant condition that the males in Abraham’s household were to be circumcised. This was to be a mark of the covenant. All male babies born in the future were to be circumcised.

Sarai was also to be called Sarah. She was to be the mother of nations.

Abraham laughed at the idea of a son being born to him at the age of 100 and that Sarah would bear a child at 90. Then he wished for Ishmael to live under God’s blessing.

God reasserted that Sarah would bear him a son called Isaac and he would be the one the covenant would be established with and all his descendants.

Ishmael would also be blessed but not have a covenant with God.

To honour the covenant Abraham that very day circumcised every male in his household as well as himself being circumcised.

This is seen as an outward physical sign of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. But by the time Jesus walked on the earth He was calling for people to have circumcised hearts. This was reiterated by Paul in his writings. 

Jesus was angry at the outward observances of the law and the increasing legalism that insisted on outwards displays of faith without any internal changes. 

Circumcision was of the heart. The changes that following Jesus bring about. A circumcised heart is the acknowledgement that the believer has accepted Jesus into their heart. The circumcised believer is more concerned with following Jesus than becoming caught up in legalism and neglecting the love and concern for others that God requires of us.

If you are more interested in legalism than social justice? Then your heart isn’t circumcised.

Abraham was a man of God. He walked according to God. He was caring and committed. He was not legalistic but he honoured God and obeyed Him. 

If we are to follow the example of this man credited as righteous then we also have to set out priorities to love God and follow His instructions on caring for others that are set out in those 5 books. 

It is worthwhile studying the first 5 books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and find the evidence there of God’s requirement for us to love others and commit to social justice. 

The harshness and judgementalism of many churches is not of God. Nor is racism that many who profess to believe in God follow.

The harshness, judgementalism and sometimes racism of many churches is a major contributing factor in people walking away from established Christian churches and even abandoning faith in Jesus and God completely.

When Abraham walked on the earth, his example and behaviour did more to turn people to God then away from God. 

What can you do to demonstrate God’s love and acceptance more and legalism less?

Lamentations 3:19-24

“I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,
    the taste of ashes, the poison I’ve swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—
    the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there’s one other thing I remember,
    and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

“God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
    his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
    How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
    He’s all I’ve got left.”

Before I continue with studying Genesis, I want to pause to consider Abram’s continued search for his own solutions to his childlessness.

This morning I came across this passage in Lamentations. This is written by the prophet Jeremiah and speaks of his utter dejectedness at the horrors God put him through.

Here he speaks of how that felt.

I wonder if that is how Abram felt after the excitement of fighting those who had overwhelmed Sodom and taken his nephew and household prisoner? After this Abram had returned home and sat wondering if this was all his life was going to be. Remembering that he had no son to be his heir.

As he spoke to God and felt deflated and overlooked.

Maybe this is how Hagar felt when she fled Sarai’s ill treatment and sat down in her fear and dejectedness. 

Abram didn’t have the big picture of what was going to happen in the future. All he knew was the promises God kept that didn’t seem to be coming true any time soon. He didn’t have the words of Lamentation, they were written many centuries later, but he had a lesson to learn.

Jeremiah continued in verses 25-33:

“God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
    to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
    quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
    to stick it out through the hard times.

“When life is heavy and hard to take,
    go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:
    Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.
    The “worst” is never the worst.

“Why? Because the Master won’t ever
    walk out and fail to return.
If he works severely, he also works tenderly.
    His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.
He takes no pleasure in making life hard,
    in throwing roadblocks in the way:”

Abram was yet to learn that God would keep His covenant with him.

Abram couldn’t read Lamentations to give him comfort and guidance, but we can.

We can read these words and allow ourselves to feel the sadness, weakness, grief and fear in our own lives. We can be honest about how much we are hurting and how much we feel God has deserted us.

Jeremiah expressed his sadness, weakness, confusion, pain, fear and desperation. He clung to hope but there was not much else left for him to hold on to.

And he found the strength to hold on.

May you read these words and heed them so that when you are in need, you can recall them.

If you are in that place now, may these words give you encouragement.

Genesis 16

Abram’s story is one of constant reminders from God of His plans for Abram, and constant lack of faith from Abram. Here was a man credited as righteous, who consistently lost faith in God’s promises.

In this chapter of Genesis, Sarai tells Abram he must have a child without her. She hands over her maid Hagar to carry a baby instead of her.

Abram could have refused. He could have told Sarai that God had promised him, even made a covenant with him. He could have stood firm in his belief in God’s fulfilment of His promise.

But Abram did not refuse. He was as doubting as Sarai. 

He had a child with Sarai’s maid Hagar.

When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she despised her mistress and looked down on her. 

Abram wasn’t going to get involved in this fight. He absolved himself of all responsibility and told Sarai to deal with her maid herself.

So Sarai mistreated Hagar and she ran away.

You can run from humans, but you cannot run from God. He sent an angel to speak to her. The angel told her to go back to her mistress and put up with the abuse. 

So Hagar did as she was told. 

When the boy was born, she named him Ishmael as God had instructed her.

Ishmail was born when Abram was 86. It would be many years before Abram was given the son God had promised he would have.

Despite this, God still credited Abram as righteous.

For me, this act is the act of a very patient and forgiving God. One who watches us do things ourselves and does not hold it against us. One who watches as we fail to trust Him and responds with love and understanding. 

When I see how Abram didn’t really believe God would fulfil His promises, I realise we all lack that trust and faith in God. If Abram, who was considered great and righteous by God, failed to have enough faith then how can we expect to be any better?

The amazing thing about this chapter is that God was still watching over Abram and his household. He didn’t just turn His back on Abram.

A number of years ago I had a friend who had been a pastor in a church. There had been one disaster after another and she was so hurt and angry at what had happened to her that she was angry with God. For years this woman of deep faith refused to attend church. She went from being a pastor to not attending church at all. In time God restored those aspects of what she had lost that she needed most and she felt safe to worship God again.

God is our role model of faith. But we know we lack the ability to be that faithful. And when we doubt God and even draw away because we feel abandoned and hurt, He is patient and understanding. He waits for us. There is no condemnation, just love and patience. 

Abram waited the best part of 20 years for God’s promise to arrive. How long must you and I wait for God’s promises? Are you prepared to wait that long? Am I prepared to wait that long? 

I wonder what Abram learned in that period of waiting? What can we learn in our period of waiting?

May we cling to that rock and believe, no matter what happens. We don’t have to be thrilled about what is happening. We may even feel angry with God. But may we cling to the rock and not give up our belief in God.

May we have that sense, as Hagar did that our God is the God who sees us.