Genesis 26

Frustration and fear are regular features of a world that is under the Lord's sentence of futility. Since the fall of Adam, God's most favored servants have had to navigate their way through many trials. Even the Lord Jesus Christ warned His disciples, “In this world you will have tribulation.”

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were greatly blessed by God, but they did face troubles. They lived in a hostile environment among nomadic tribes where envy might mean murder, and where everyday dangers were serious. As Abraham once had fears for his safety on account of his wife Sarah, Isaac now faced the warlord-kings of his day who might want Rebekah for their great harems.

Yet the promise of God is greater than the power of the greatest kings among men. God said to Isaac, “I will be with you.” The Lord reiterated to Isaac all the promises that He had spoken to Abraham. So Isaac followed the instruction of the Lord and stayed in the land of Canaan, yet he was afraid. As his father and his mother before him, Isaac and Rebekah pretended to be brother and sister rather than admit to being husband and wife.

Eventually the Abimelech of that time and place noted the close behavior of Isaac and Rebekah, and the two were found out. But rather than bringing upon them some harm, this awareness of the truth was regarded with surprising respect by the powerful man, and he announced to all, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

Isaac was blessed by God. The Lord protected him and his wife through serious situations of danger. He prospered them in places where they were strangers.

We are told that Isaac sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold in just one year. It was the Lord's determination to be true to His promise. Isaac would be blessed. This would not happen because the man was congenial or clever. The Lord blessed him. So Isaac became a very wealthy man.

With wealth can come significant troubles. The forerunners of the Philistines, who were already living in the land at that time, envied Isaac. They made trouble for him by trying to limit his supply of water, filling with earth all the wells that the servants of Abraham dug in earlier years. Isaac attempted to live at peace among hostile people groups. He moved to land that must have seemed less desirable to his enemies. When they wanted him to leave, he eventually left. He attempted to dig again the wells from his father's days, but those who hated his success continued to plague him. Through all of these challenging years, Isaac was trying to be a man of peace, yielding to others, and suffering their abuse, until he found a spot where they would leave him and his people alone. He received that place with thanksgiving and expressions of faith, saying, “The Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

God was with him, appearing to him again and reassuring him of the certainty of his covenant blessings. He spoke to Isaac of fear. God knows what we feel like when powerful people are antagonistic and chase us into situations where we are left alone only because others see our condition as undesirable. The Lord can prosper His people very well in such situations. Therefore, He says to Isaac, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.” Isaac responds with worship. Do your enemies trouble you? Have you been pushed someplace that was not your first choice? The Lord God is your friend. Fear not.

In this land of exile, despised by the people in authority, Isaac received a visit from Abimelech. Why wouldn't they just leave him in peace? This time the ruler had come to acknowledge the blessing of God in Isaac's life, and to make a covenant of peace. Now fear had fallen on Isaac's enemies, since it had become obvious to them that the Lord was the Helper of this son of Abraham.

This covenant between Isaac and Abimelech was sealed with a feast and with the exchange of public promises. The Lord continued to bless Isaac with water and prosperity. But Isaac's son Esau, whom Isaac especially loved, became entangled with the people of the land by marrying two of the local women. This disturbed Isaac and Rebekah.

The Lord is able to bless His servant even in this world that is under His judgment. Though God's enemies drive His chosen one into the most despised corner of creation, God will surely bless the one He has promised to bless.

There has never been a less desirable place to be than the cross of Christ. Those who were envious of Jesus of Nazareth and of the obvious blessing of God upon Him, conspired together to bring Jesus to a place of death. Though Christ came to Calvary through the hands of wicked men, it was also according to the plan of the Almighty Himself that our Savior occupied the worst space of all time, a Roman cross where the Lamb of God would take the sins of His people upon Himself. Yet God has made that place of shame into a glorious blessing. Out of defeat, the victory of resurrection has come to us. We can follow Jesus into lowliness and disgrace in our own lives with faith that even there, the Lord will surely bless His people.

Genesis 25

Even though a man may live a very long life beyond all of his companions, eventually every generation that has come must also go. Abraham, the man who fathered Ishmael by Hagar who was then given Isaac by Sarah, took another wife, Keturah, and fathered several children by her. After giving his other sons gifts, he sent them far away, but he left the rest of his possessions to Isaac, in accord with God's revelation to him that Isaac was the bearer of the promise for the coming generation. Then, after 175 years of life on the earth, he died, and his remains were brought to the same family burial plot where Sarah had been buried.

Meanwhile, not only would Isaac prosper, but as the Lord had promised, Ishmael would have a very notable group of descendants. His sons are listed here, and the author of Genesis notes that they lived in a certain region “over against all his kinsmen.” As with the descendants of Keturah, there is much that the Lord knows about all those who count Ishmael as their ancestor, yet recounting the progress of those lives will not be the direction of the the remaining chapters of this book. The promise of God through Isaac will be our chief interest. Why should that be? God is preparing a particular individual, a Seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. He will be a people and a person—a chosen person who comes from a chosen people, who unites to himself a far more diverse people. This Messiah will accomplish the eternal purpose of God, and he will come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The revelation of the third man on that list comes to Isaac's wife Rebekah before Jacob was born. Rebekah was originally unable to conceive a child, but now as a result of Isaac's prayer, the Lord has granted her twins. These two are struggling within Rebekah, and the Lord reveals to her the reason why. “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” This division, felt by Rebekah and announced by God, was shown forth in the birth of the boys. Jacob, the younger brother, came out grasping the heel of his older brother Esau's foot.

The order of their birth was very significant according to the customs of the day. Though it was only a matter of minutes, Esau was the firstborn, and had the rights of the firstborn, yet God had revealed to Rebekah that Jacob, the second son, would be the promised son of the covenant in his generation.

Despite this Word from the Lord to Rebekah, Isaac—the father of these two boys—preferred Esau. Rebekah, we are told, loved Jacob. When these boys grew up, they showed their character and priorities. Esau prefers a bowl of stew to his birthright, and speaks as if there is nothing for him to consider about his own life or the life of anyone else should he die. This is faithless and very short-sighted. Jacob tries to take advantage of his brother's hunger and spiritual foolishness to purchase Esau's birthright.

Though it may seem to us to be a childish prank, this is a significant episode in the life of these two young men. In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews calls Esau “unholy,” referring to the fact that he “sold his birthright for a single meal.” Jacob's actions were also revealing. Was he trying to secure through his own clever machinations what could only come to him through the hand of God? The Lord had already revealed the fact that the older would serve the younger before either child was born. Why was everyone rebelling against the prophetic Word that was spoken to Rebekah, or did she keep it all to herself, sharing it with no one?

The apostle Paul uses this revelation to Rebekah as proof of God's electing love. He draws upon Malachi, who would record these surprising words by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.” God made a choice between these two boys before either one had done anything good or evil. That choice had implications not only for them as individuals but also for the nations that would come from them. Esau would be the father of the Edomites, and Jacob would be the father of the Israelites.

Hope comes to us through Jacob, not through Esau. This should not shock us. We have already seen that God made a distinction between Ishmael and Isaac. In this chapter we know that Isaac was treated differently than the son of Hagar and all the sons of Keturah. The Lord has His plans. Who can accuse Him of wrongdoing or stop His powerful hand?

Any blessing or security for any of us, including the joy of even one good meal, comes to us from the gracious provision of Almighty God. But God has more for us than just one meal. Through Jesus, the chosen Redeemer, the Lord is gathering His people from all the nations of the world. His story is not about the strong taking advantage of the weak in order to grasp what is not theirs by right. The power of His death on the cross is the way that God has chosen that the last shall be first according to His great electing love.

The blessings of Jesus' resurrection come to us by God's eternal decree. They are not won by our clever schemes. We receive His love as a gift, free to us, but very costly to Him. Through Jesus, we have come to know that there is more to life than what we are able to see with our eyes or grasp with our hands here below. We believe in heaven and the resurrection of the dead.

Matthew 17

The Lord Jesus Christ has promised us a glorious kingdom. We believe; Lord, help our unbelief. We perhaps think that it might help our faith if we could see a glimpse of that kingdom now. This is precisely what Jesus gave to Peter, James, and John. The last words of the prior chapter were, “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” The fullness of the Lord’s coming in His kingdom will not occur until He returns. Peter, James, and John tasted death a long time ago. But only six days after Jesus made them this promise, He gave them a wonderful glimpse of the glory of His coming and of His kingdom in this event called the transfiguration.

In this kingdom-coming miracle, Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus Christ, who shined as a personification of the glory cloud of God. At this time, the era of the Law was coming to a close, and the new prophetic Elijah, John the Baptist, had already completed his work of pointing to the Messiah. Yet Moses and Elijah were still alive in some other realm. Somehow their presence was known that day and was visible to the disciples, who clearly did not know what to do. Unless this appearance was completely misleading, we must conclude that heaven is a real place, a place from which visitors could come, although a place that we cannot normally see. Men like Moses and Elijah appeared to be aware enough about the events of redemption transpiring at this turn of the ages for them to have a conversation about these things with the Son of God.

The glory cloud of God then was suddenly manifest as a separate presence from the Son of God, and the voice of the Father spoke in their hearing. The words were very important for our consideration. The Father confirmed that the man known to many as Jesus of Nazareth, presumed to be the son of a man named Joseph, was in fact the Son of our heavenly Father. This Jesus was called the beloved Son. There was nothing lacking in Him or offensive about Him that would cause His Father to turn away from Him. The Father was well-pleased with Him, and apparently wanted His disciples to know this and to hear this explicit instruction: “Listen to Him.” It is amazing, then, that the Father would later turn away from the Son, when atonement was made for our sins.

This was a terrifying and deeply impressive experience for these men, one which Peter and John referred to in their writings that were recorded for us in the New Testament. It was Christ who was able to calm them at that time, as He spoke of His coming resurrection. The Son of Man would be raised from the dead. They would be witnesses not only of this glorious transfiguration, but of post-resurrection appearances of Christ as well.

These men did not understand the timing of future events and were trying to make sense of it all. They had seen Elijah on the mountain, but was not Elijah to come first before the Messiah? The expectation that people rightly had of a preparatory Elijah-like ministry was correct, but this had already happened in the prophetic work of John the Baptist. People did not recognize him for who he was, and they did to him what their forefathers had done to the earlier prophets. John’s suffering and death needed to inform their expectations concerning what would happen to Jesus, for He too would soon suffer at the hands of men. They needed to listen to the Son of God about this, and about everything, as the Father had commanded from heaven.

Soon they were down again with the rest of the disciples and those who needed healing. The contrast between the present heaven and the present earth was well displayed in these events. Moses and Elijah do not live here any more, but we do. And there are other people here, and they need help. Here we have the effects of the fall and of God’s curse. Here we also have opportunities to walk by faith, to obey God, and to serve Him. It was not easy for Jesus to be here, and it will never be easy for people of faith to live in a faithless and twisted place. If we are to be followers of our Lord, we must listen to His words. We need the kind of listening that moves outward in love, seeing God do the impossible.

No matter how God would choose to work wonders through His church today, this earth still awaits the glory of the Lord, the glory that we will see after death, the glory that will descend upon the earth from on high when Christ returns. Until that time, this is still the place where the Son of Man was killed by men, but it is also the place to which He will return in the resurrection age. It is the place where the rulers of this world collect taxes to do what they will do, and we try our best to be peaceful and law-abiding. But it is a fact that we are the sons of the coming kingdom, a kingdom that is in some ways here already in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the subsequent movement of His gospel across the globe.

If we could just climb a mountain to get to heaven now, we would do so. We could be with our reigning Lord, the One who is the visible glory of the invisible God. We could see people like Moses and Elijah, and talk to those who are alive in that place, embrace them as completely healed people, eat with them, laugh with them, work with them, and rest so very well. But there is no mountain like that for us to climb. Yet Christ Himself is with us and in us, and He is the One upon whom angels from heaven descend to earth and ascend back to that realm above. We are in Him, and He is in us. Therefore glory is not so far away after all, and today is another day to walk in faith, a day for waiting and serving in a glorious hope, a hope perfectly secured for us in the Word of Christ, and in His death and resurrection.

Matthew 16

In the days of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ attracted large crowds because of His tremendous healings. A blind man by the side of the road would have known who to turn to by now in order to receive sight. People had heard that there was a man from God who performed amazing works. Yet the leaders of the Jews spoke to Jesus as if He had done nothing to demonstrate who He was. They asked Him to show them a sign from heaven, as if he had not already cleansed lepers and caused the lame to leap for joy.

The Lord could have performed an amazing miracle at that very moment, but He did not come in order to stand before a Board of Approval from the Pharisees and Sadducees, so He did not comply with their wishes. He did use this opportunity to say that they were unable to see the signs of the time of the Messiah all around them. They prided themselves in being able to predict the weather, but they could not see that a new gospel age was being born in front of their faces. The ultimate sign would soon come, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an event He cryptically refers to here as the sign of Jonah. That Old Testament prophet spent time like a dead man in the belly of a fish and began a new life when he found himself again on dry land. Christ’s body would soon rest briefly in the grave, but the sign of a new age would come with an empty tomb.

The Pharisees did not understand the meaning of His words, but then there was much that even the Lord’s disciples did not understand, and Jesus spoke to them more plainly. Our Lord warned His disciples that they must beware of the teaching of the leading Jewish parties of their time. In different ways these religious groups had embraced such serious errors that their teaching could not be safely received. It was a dangerous leaven that could soon spread throughout the Lord’s followers. As Christ warned His disciples on this matter, they very mistakenly came to the conclusion that He was making some point about their need for physical bread; this after the Lord had twice shown His ability to supply bread to thousands of people.

Yet it was at this moment, when the disciples seemed to be so confused, that Peter actually confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, and the Son of the living God. This was absolutely right and was something that could only have come to him by God. The church would be built upon Christ, the true and only Rock, as both Peter and Paul would later write in their letters. He is the cornerstone, and the apostles will be the foundation aligned with that one perfect Stone, rejected by men, but chosen and precious in God’s sight, Jesus Christ. The church that is built upon that apostolic foundation has been granted by her Lord the sacred task of receiving people into her number and declaring their sins to be forgiven according to the Word of Christ. All who would believe in Him are called to profess their faith before God and man, for this Jesus is the divine Messiah, who alone can save us from our sins through His atoning death for us.

It is this last part that Peter immediately rejects, for when Christ speaks to His disciples about His coming suffering, His death, and His resurrection, Peter takes Him aside and has the audacity to rebuke the one He just called the Son of God for suggesting that He would soon die. Jesus is uncompromising in His rejection of Peter’s unholy sentiment. His earlier confession had come from heaven, but this rejection of the cross comes from hell, and the one who speaks it, speaks for Satan.

The cross is the way of God for the Messiah and His followers, but it is not the way of the world. The true followers of Jesus must travel in this way of the cross. They will embrace the death of Christ for them as their only hope, and they will follow in a kind of sacrificial living, since the call of our King will be a call to suffering and even death. We must be willing to face loss now, since we believe that the Son of Man has not only died for us, but He will return from heaven for us. He will come with angels in the glory of God, and He will judge the living and the dead, repaying them according to their deeds.

This is the story of the real Kingdom of God. That kingdom will one day come in glory, a glory that a few of the disciples will shortly see with their own eyes at the transfiguration of Christ. That miracle was a glimpse into heavenly light. We do not live in heaven right now, but we live with the assurance that heaven is real, and that it is better to be in the number of those who are headed toward heaven than to have all that the world can offer us many times over.

The theology of the Pharisees and the Sadducees would never lead anyone to a cross. They surely wanted the crown, but they would get that crown through careful obedience in accord with their own laws or through the cultivation of relationships of influence with the right sort of people. But this is not the way that the kingdom of heaven comes to men. That kingdom comes through a cross and a resurrection. This is the life that has saved us, and it is the life that we are called to live even now, a life that was most powerfully testified to through the real sign of Jonah.

Matthew 15

The religion of the Pharisees and the scribes had over time become a religion full of man-made traditions. Especially prominent among these traditions were rituals concerning washing. These were so firmly imbedded within the mindset of religious Jews, that it was generally thought by the people of the day that this way of cleansing was the God-fearing way of life. For this reason, many asked Jesus about this issue. It seemed obvious to them that the leader of a movement that professed allegiance to Israel’s God would certainly keep the established traditions of the elders concerning ceremonial washing.

In answer to their concerns, the Lord first exposes the fact that they have grown used to preferring their traditions to the explicit commandments of God. We need to notice that Christ shows again the depths of God’s Law, while the Pharisees emphasize outward rituals that could easily be followed by those who had no real love for God or for people. He turns to the fifth commandment, and rather than minimize the obligations of the Law through traditions that defined ways of guaranteeing that someone could be sure to look holy, Jesus teaches us that our obedience to God includes caring for our elderly parents when they are in need. It is the height of anti-religion to figure out outward ceremonies that feign devotion to the Lord, and then to allow one’s parents to suffer without any help that could have been given to them.

This does not follow the heart of a God of mercy—it is man-made hypocrisy. Old Testament prophets often spoke against such practices. Jesus says nothing new here in exposing this kind of behavior. Isaiah had forcefully pressed this point centuries earlier when he distinguished between the Law of God and the commandments of men. Those who focus on the latter at the expense of the former misrepresent God and only pretend to serve Him when their hearts are very far from Him.

He then returns to the matter of unclean hands, the specific issue that the Pharisees had addressed. Our Lord indicates that the uncleanness that they need to concern themselves with is not the supposed outward uncleanness that comes from a lack of attention to ceremonial washing traditions. Instead, it is the inward uncleanness of sin that originates in our depraved hearts, an uncleanness which soon finds expression in our speech and our lives. This is the most serious problem of being unclean that we could ever have, and no amount of water-sprinkling will ever take such a deep problem away.

The disciples of Jesus were very concerned that the words of Christ had offended the Pharisees. It should be of far greater concern to all of us that we offend God when we give ourselves over to idolatry and man-made ceremonies. Jesus speaks plainly about the dead-end pathway of Pharisaic Judaism. It is not the way of life. It is the way of blind men leading other blind men, all the while pretending that they can see better than anyone else. One of the purposes of Christ in His ministry is to show to all that the way of the kingdom of God is very different than this.

In contrast to those who are so sure of their righteousness but are actually far from the kingdom, Matthew then relates the story of a Gentile woman, desperate for the mercy of Jesus Christ. At first it appears that she will be rejected precisely because of her Gentile heritage. Yet it quickly becomes clear that our Lord has only seemed to dismiss this woman, and His initial response has brought forth from her a wonderful humble statement of faith in Him. Yes, she knows that she belongs with the dogs, yet the dogs around the table of Jesus could certainly lick up the crumbs of the floor, and a crumb from the table of this Jewish Messiah is all that she would need that day. She finds not rejection but abundant mercy. She was not alone in finding help. Matthew tells us that there were many desperate people who received powerful healing as our Lord displayed His love and mercy to the weak.

Not only were their afflictions removed by the Messiah, but once again a large crowd of people found their needs supplied as the Lord gave bread to thousands. All of these miracles were great displays of the glory of Christ and the bounty of His coming kingdom. From whom does all this powerful help for the unworthy come? The God who extends mercy to us through His Son is not only a God of compassion—He is also a God of justice. The same Christ who healed the sick and who gave us glimpses of a much better day beyond the curse, was the Jesus who would fulfill all righteousness and later die as the perfect Lamb of God.

It is only from the blood of this Lamb that we can be truly clean. It is only from His great work of sacrificial love that we can know anything close to permanent healing. The proper attitude of the one who wishes this kind of extravagant blessing is not a proud insistence on some supposed claim of ceremonial righteousness, but a great cry of thanksgiving. Such praise can only come from the humble who are poor in spirit, who recognize they have no recommendation in themselves that could justify such a glorious redemption, and who see the great worth of even a crumb of mercy granted to us from the table of the Son of God.

Genesis 24

Not only was Abraham grieving over the death of his wife; so was Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah. His mother was gone, and his father Abraham was getting old.

Abraham knew that it was important that Isaac find the right wife. One generation leads to the next, as the Lord blesses. The choices that young people make regarding wives and husbands are very important to the future of their families.

Because he understood the way of mankind and the calling of God upon his son, Abraham sent his servant on a mission to identify the right woman for the future of the Lord's work in this extended family. Abraham sent a trusted servant back to his home country, a man who knew that it would only be by the hand of God that the right woman would not only be selected, but also that she and her family would agree to her departure. She would be called to live as Isaac's wife without ever having met the man she would marry.

Abraham solemnly instructed his servant on two very important matters: He should not find a wife for Isaac from the Canaanite women around whom they lived, and he should not take Isaac back to the land of the Arameans when he went to find a wife. Isaac would live in the land that God had revealed to him, Canaan, but his wife would absolutely not be a Canaanite.

Abraham counted on the help of heaven to guide his servant to the right girl. Abraham's servant had no recourse but to turn to God for His supernatural aid in a task that seemed very likely to result in failure.

Abraham's servant went back to the land in Mesopotamia from which they had come so long ago, but he did not go empty-handed. His master was a wealthy man, and he used that wealth in accord with the customs he understood. Even today there are many lands where one who seeks a bride must bring the bride price. This was the case in Abraham's day as well.

But Abraham's servant was seeking more than money could buy: the blessing of God that cannot be purchased. He sought God in prayer and asked for a confirming sign. The right woman would show care not only for him as a thirsty man in the desert, but she would take initiative to care for his camels. Anyone can think what they wish about this test, but the proof of the process would not come in a woman showing commendable care for the beasts, but in her willingness and the willingness of her family to give a favorable response to the man's unusual proposal.

The Lord led him to just the right place at just the right time. Of all the girls in the ancient Near East, Rebekah, a relative of Abraham, came to that very well as soon as Abraham's servant finished his prayer. She took care of his thirst first, but then also drew water for his camels.

Decisions of marriage are never just the private concerns of a boy and a girl. These are family matters and even community concerns. Even to this day, traditional marital rites reserve a special opportunity to show approval for this relationship by the father of the bride, the relevant religious authorities, and the public more generally. Rebekah's family would have to agree with this plan, and they would insist that Rebekah show her own willingness to go to another land to be the wife of a man whom none of her immediate family had ever seen.

Abraham's servant does not delay in revealing his errand and in seeking the approval of the girl's family in this important mission. The men who seem to be in charge of Rebekah's family hear the story of what has transpired, and they note the hand of God in all that is taking place. This is the key for us in every step of significance in our lives. Is this thing from the Lord? Do we have the patience to wait for God's good provision?

Rebekah's brother and father give their consent, but is it still provisional? We will not really know what is happening here until Abraham's servant is allowed to go in peace with the woman who will be the mother of Esau and Jacob. It is the next day when that clarity comes, when Abraham's servant insists that he must go back to his master. They try to delay him, but he will not agree. Then the matter of Rebekah's full willingness to go immediately is addressed. Will she actually leave her family and her home and be the wife of Isaac? They call her and ask her. This blessed provision is not concluded without her full agreement. Yes, she will go. The Lord has blessed this great endeavor. The girl who gave water to the camels will be the mother of the man who will be Israel. From her line shall come the Shepherd of all the Lord's sheep.

When she says, “I will go,” a new chapter in the history of salvation begins. They send her away with words of blessing that fit this great occasion. When Isaac sees this beautiful girl who is his wife, he is comforted in his grief from the death of his mother.

The history of the Lord's people is a wonderful love story. It is the account of a holy union between the Prince of Peace and His glorious bride, the church. We have been brought into such an astoundingly advantageous marriage! This has surely come to us entirely by the hand of God. This costly wedding, paid for by the precious blood of our holy Redeemer, is not against our will. The Spirit has oriented our hearts toward a new and better home. We have happily agreed to our blessed relationship with Jesus, and He has brought us near to Himself with joy.

Genesis 23

Sarah died in the land of Canaan after 127 years on this earth. Where did she go after that? Was her soul extinguished with the death of her body? Jesus once said that God is the God of the living. God said to Isaac in Genesis 26 after Abraham had died, “I am the God of Abraham your father.” Present tense. He is the God of a man who is. Abraham is. Sarah is.

When Sarah died, she died as a stranger and an alien in a foreign land. After so many years of following Abraham as he followed the Lord, her husband did not even own a burial plot in the Promised Land. Therefore he went to the people of Canaan and bought a plot of land.

How humiliating. When you lose someone you love, and their souls go to be with the Lord, their bodies remain on earth. Many people say they don't care what happens to their bodies after they die, but this is not considerate to the living. People who love you will want to know that they have done everything they can to show respect for the body of the person they have loved. We cannot keep our loved ones' bodies alive any more, but we can dress them nicely, respectfully, place them in an appropriate coffin so that people can come to say goodbye, and then have a dignified ceremony to celebrate together what we believe about heaven and earth. But then what do we do? What do we do with the bodily remains of the ones we love? God has told us the truth that our bodies return to dust. We bury our loved ones according to passages like this, and we place our hope in God who raises the dead.

Meanwhile Sarah is alive in heaven with the Lord, with angels, and with many people who have trusted God and finished their days on this earth. We who love and miss those who have died feel the emptiness and the loss. We may praise the Lord, but the Lord who cried at the grave of His friend will understand if our “Hallelujah” is cold and broken. We cannot do much for the ones we love in our grief, but we would like to show our tender care for the bodies we have loved by burying our dead with dignity.

Sarah was dead, and Abraham was still alive on earth, and he had no place to his name that he could use to bury his beloved wife's body. So he went to buy a piece of land according to the customs of his era. He mourned for her. He wept for her. But then he went to get a small piece of land to do the right thing.

In doing this small task, the purchase of a suitable piece of ground for a family burial plot, he had to do what missionaries all over the world must do as they travel in lands that have become their temporary homes. He had to humble himself before the people of his day and follow their cultural practices. This is the only way for us to get by. As we do this, we have an opportunity to live honorably even when we may not feel like we can take another step. In buying this land, Abraham was respectful of the memory of Sarah, he was respectful of the people around him, and he was respectful of the promises of God, who is the God of the living.

Through this public and appropriate procedure, Abraham lived out his faith at a time of great personal loss. It may not seem like very much of a spiritual victory for this man to be able to speak to the people around him, finding the right price through a system that was polite and cordial toward others. Sometimes being able to stand and to keep on going in faith is worth noting.

The end result of this transaction is that Abraham owns his first piece of land in Canaan. He was a wandering Aramean, but now he owns a plot of ground in what will be Israel. That ground will hold the remains of his wife Sarah. She would be buried there in the hope of the coming resurrection.

When Jesus came to that land as the long-expected Messiah, the great descendant of Abraham and Sarah, He came as a citizen of a better Promised Land than Canaan could ever afford. He sojourned during His days of suffering in order to be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. He Himself confessed to those who were following Him that He had no place to lay His head.

Yet He was given a cross, and He was willing to own that tree of death for us. He did not wander anymore once He came to that tree, yet ultimately death could not hold Him. For a time His body was kept in the borrowed grave of a rich man. Yet He did not need that space for very long.

In three days, Jesus rose from the dead. After He had taught His disciples and displayed the reality of the resurrection with man-convincing proofs, He went to the true Promised Land of heaven in order to make a place for us.

For now we live in this world of death here below. Yet in Jesus Christ, we are already in the heavenlies. While we remain here for a few decades, we try to live in a peaceful way with those around us. We try to show appropriate respect for both the living and the dead. If we must choose, we will leave the dead to bury the dead, and we will follow the Man of resurrection to our true heavenly home.

In all that we do, we testify to the truth that Christ has won for us a resurrection life in a world beyond the present day of tears, a world that is. In that place Abraham is, Sarah is, and most of all, Jesus is. One day there will be a final resurrection at the reclamation of the earth. That is why we respectfully bury our dead, and that is why we continue to live as people of life in a world that is passing away.

Genesis 22

Through all the challenges of his new life, God has been with Abraham, showing him the way of faith, and helping him to stand in a day of trouble. The Lord has blessed His servant. But now, after the gift of the promised son has been given, the voice of the Lord instructs Abraham to do the unthinkable: “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

The mountain chosen by God for this sacrifice would have a great future significance for the people of God, since at a later moment of crisis God would reveal this place as the site of His temple in Jerusalem. Centuries later it would be on the outskirts of this same city that the Son of God would die for our sins. The story of the sacrifice of a beloved Son begins here, with this heart-breaking instruction to Abraham.

Abraham obeyed the voice of God as an outworking of his faith in God. What was he thinking as he moved ahead to obey the awful Word of the Lord? God had made promises concerning Isaac, promises that required that the boy would live. Now the Lord was commanding that the boy be put to death. God would provide somehow. The Lord's servant reasoned that God could raise the dead. See Hebrews 11:17-19.

So Abraham rose early in the morning. He took steps of trust in God. When he left his young men behind on the last leg of his journey to the appointed spot, he and and Isaac went on alone. But he spoke these words of faith to his servants: “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” I and the boy will come back to you. Abraham knew that this was the way it had to be. God would not abandon His promises.

When young Isaac questioned his father about the absence of the animal for a sacrifice, Abraham replied, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” This is what the Lord did at the very last moment, when it was clear that Abraham was ready to obey in full the Lord's instruction. The Lord provided a substitute.

Everything that we believe about the way of salvation finds its center in this horrific episode. That ram in the thicket that was given through the voice of the Lord, stands for the one Substitute provided by God to take the death that was coming against us according to His Word.

“Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” We hear those words and see the provision of a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. But at the decisive moment when Jesus was on display on the cross before the watching world, there was no ram in the thicket to take His place. He is the Lamb of God. No one stopped the hand of God that day, and the Son of God willingly and knowingly took our place, completing what Abraham and Isaac never had to do.

As with Isaac, the promises of God required that Jesus live. Abraham's reasoning concerning resurrection, revealed in Hebrews 11, found its perfect fulfillment in the Savior who died and rose again from the dead.

The Lord has provided for us in the death of Christ, and yet Jesus lives. Two thousand years before, Abraham was commended as a great man of faith, showing the reality of his living trust by the fruit of obedience that flows from a heart that believes the Word of the Lord. God will bless Abraham in this walk of living faith. As He has promised before, He repeats again, the Lord will bring a great host forth from Abraham. All the people groups of the earth will somehow be blessed in the gift of Abraham's son.

We now see in the brilliance of resurrection light what Abraham saw so long ago in the day of shadows. Jesus is the promised Savior. He is the true Isaac, but He must actually die. He is the ram in the thicket, but He is really a Man. He is also the beloved Son of God. The Father will suffer too in the death of His Son. According to the Lord's great plan for mercy, the Father must face what Abraham was finally spared, and the Son will, with full knowledge, take a penalty that Isaac could never have begun to fathom.

Meanwhile, life must go on now with Abraham and Isaac. And life continues in the world around them. Generations will come into being, with all of the people whom God creates playing the parts designed by the Lord who loves us. If they see anything at all of His great purposes, they only see in part. He knows it all, and His purposes will surely be accomplished. The death of His own Son assures us of the seriousness of His intention to accomplish all His holy will.

Genesis 21

God made a solemn promise to Abraham and Sarah, and at the time appointed, the Lord visited Sarah, and she bore Abraham a son in his old age. The Lord is faithful. He keeps all His promises. Before the birth of Isaac, the Lord sent an angelic destruction team to Sodom and Gomorrah. Also, before the child of promise was born, Sarah was rescued from the harem of the king of Gerar. In other words, their time of waiting was dangerous and eventful, but at the appointed time, the baby with the name “Isaac” or “he laughs” was born.

Abraham's new son was marked with the sign of the Lord's covenant in accord with God's earlier command to Abraham. They had been through so much, but now the Lord had truly placed laughter in their hearts as they looked at the miracle baby whom they held in their hands.

When the child was weaned, his father Abraham invited everyone together for a celebration. On that occasion there was someone else who was laughing, not at the wonder of the gift of Isaac, but in mockery at this favored half brother. Sarah saw the son of Abraham and Hagar, Ishmael, making fun of her boy, and she did not like it. She said to Abraham words that the Apostle Paul would quote two thousand years later: “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”

God confirmed the words of Sarah, instructing Abraham to do whatever Sarah said to him. As the Lord had made clear, the promised seed would come through Sarah. There would be a separation between the seed of the slave woman and the seed of the free woman.

Our deepest problem with slavery is not the scandal of one person owning another person. It is the bondage that comes to us because we are slaves of sin. The singular seed of Sarah, Isaac's greatest descendant, Jesus Christ, has delivered us out of that bondage. All who live by faith in him are counted as children of freedom. Those who reject the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, no matter how wonderful their ancestry may be, are still slaves of sin. They stand with Hagar and her son, and must be cast off. Thus those who have their physical descent from Sarah may sadly reject the Jewish Messiah and find themselves to be children of spiritual slavery. But those who are descended from Hagar and Ishmael may find life in Christ, and may be counted as the true spiritual descendants of Sarah.

God had a plan for both Isaac and Ishmael. Both would be great nations. But no man's eternal hope comes from his ancestry. Either we are sons of God through Jesus Christ, and thus children of the promise through faith in him, or we remain in the bondage of sin.

Many people may applaud the Law of God with their minds, but only one Man has kept the Law with His life. He is our only hope. We need to be connected to Him. Jesus had no physical descendants. He died as a man who had never fathered a child. Yet He has looked upon millions of spiritual descendants with love, and all kinds of people who have descended from Shem, Ham, and Japheth have been given the name Christian. Through Jesus they are a part of God's family.

Through His promise of special care for the descendants of Hagar and Ishmael, God hints at His intention to extend eternal hope to all the nations of the world. Now for the second time, the Lord has affirmed that the great multiplication of the descendants of Ishmael will be a part of His eternal purpose. Surely it is the Lord's plan that many from their number will be represented in the new heavens and the new earth, where there will be a great multitude from every tribe and tongue and nation.

As Abraham awaits the further fulfillment of the Lord's promises to him that will only come to pass after his lifetime, Abraham does what he can to live out his days in peace with the neighbors who are around him. The Lord has blessed Him greatly, but he is not to be just another mighty man on the earth who uses his wealth and numbers to force other nations to do his will. He wishes to live as a free man in all godliness and honesty among other clans who would also be free. He is willing to swear to this lifestyle of mutual peace and liberty among the other peoples where he journeys.

Some may deal with him falsely, as did happen when Abimelech's servants repeatedly stole the precious gift of water from the people of Abraham. Yet despite these difficulties, Abraham attempted to live at peace with everyone. His day was not a day of conquest against the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. That special picture of God's eternal judgment would come at a later time. Abraham was to be a man of peace. He would defend his family against enemies as he did when Lot was captured, but he would not be a man that sought advantage over quiet neighbors through force.

Abraham traveled through a land that God had promised to him. During his lifetime he lived as a stranger, facing many dangers and attempting to live as a good neighbor to others in a place that he could not secure even for himself. Eventually one of his descendants would secure for Abraham and for all the true children of promise an everlasting land in the heavens. Christ, the King of Peace and Eternal God, was the one casualty in that war that has won for us our freedom. But now He lives again forever and ever. We have been delivered from the ultimate house of bondage and are citizens of the very best Promised Land because of Him.

Matthew 14

Jesus gained notoriety because of the miracles that He performed. These miracles were signs of who He was and of the resurrection kingdom that He would bring, but these future gifts were of less interest to people than the prospect of immediate relief from their troubles. This is what most people wanted from Jesus. There was at least one person who was not interested in Jesus for this reason. His biggest issue was his own guilty conscience. When he heard of the miracles that Jesus was performing, he became convinced that Jesus was somehow John the Baptist, the man whom he had killed, now risen from the dead.

Herod had a guilty conscience because he knew that when he ordered the beheading of John, he had sent an innocent man to his grave. John was a nuisance to Herod. Through his preaching he had tried to interfere with Herod’s marriage to Herodias, the wife of Herod's brother Philip. Herod was afraid of John while he was living, and he was afraid of John after he died. This is not because John was a man of obvious power. It was because Herod knew that John was a prophet, and he was apparently afraid of what a righteous prophet might be able to do, even after he death. Here we discover more about Herod’s belief system: He believed that a righteous man could rise from the dead, and this did not comfort him. It frightened him.

The details of the death of John are disgusting. His story is a lesson in how entanglements with immoral women destroy a man, leaving him weak and afraid. Here was the mighty Herod being ruled by his passions, whether by his dancing step-daughter or by his scheming sister-in-law now become wife. Before long, a great servant of God was dead, and the man who wore the crown was afraid that he might come to life again.

These upsetting events are a display of the wickedness of this world, a place where a righteous man may die at the hands of a powerful tyrant under the thumb of a dangerous woman. The death of John the Baptist sent the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ, off by Himself to pray. Jesus was a man of prayer, and trials can be signposts to such men that send them toward God and not away from Him. Yet it was not easy for Jesus to be alone anymore, since so many people turned to Him as their answer for their considerable immediate problems. They followed Him, and He had compassion on them. He healed them. This is good news for us. His displays of power did not come because the crowds were so smart in their understanding of Jesus, but because the Son of God was compassionate toward them in their need. This is our Savior and King. He cares for you.

This care included not only the taking away of their infirmities. He fed them when they were hungry. He did this through the miraculous provision of food from the most meager supplies. By this He showed something to us of the life to come. There we will not be left hungry. Today many people are hungry, and they sometimes find themselves without the means to care for their families. Jesus knows this, and He will provide for us, though we may suffer greatly in very many ways in this age. His care and His power will surely meet our needs according to the dictates of His wisdom at just the right time, and He certainly will bless us with food. Even now He is the bread of life to us, but there is much more blessing that He has already secured for us that we will yet see in the resurrection age that is coming.

This Christ who assures His followers of great future blessings is powerful to bring about all of the promises of God. He displays His control over creation by walking on the water, that water that symbolizes the tumultuous world that we now live in after the fall of mankind in Adam. We can turn to Him even now and have courage and hope. Peter and the other disciples were not comforted when they saw Him walking on the water; the sight frightened them. The only way that any peace came from this situation was through the hand of Christ taking hold of the sinking frame of His follower, Simon Peter. We who believe can still cry out to Him, “Lord, save me.” He is still able to calm our hearts. We do not realize the strength of unbelief and doubt even within the lives of those who are followers of Jesus Christ. We are only kept from foolishness and dissipation by His hand that is still powerful to save.

This hand has especially reached out to lift us up through the cross of Christ. There we were saved from a trouble that we could not handle. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, knew what we needed, and He provided for us in ways that no one else ever could. While He can grant us immediate relief from everything that ails us, He has His sights set on a bigger goal than our present ease. He has come into our lives to heal our guilty consciences and to give us a hope of participation in resurrection blessings when we will have the fullest communion with Him. His plan for the achievement of that greater goal often includes our embracing some measure of present discomfort with faith in the One who has reached down to us and embraced us in our sin. Through Him we have been made well, not only for a moment, but forever.

Matthew 13

Jesus taught with parables. He was not the first to do so. We find examples of parables in the Old Testament prophets. What was unique about the way that our Lord used parables was that He did not explain their meaning to the crowds, but only to His apostles.

The Lord had attracted great crowds because of His amazing healing ministry. He was displaying truths about the kingdom of heaven through great acts of mercy. But when the time came to speak about the kingdom, His method of teaching was often judgment speech, a way of teaching that concealed as much as it revealed. He began by telling a story about a farmer planting seed in four different soils, but He only explained the story to His disciples later in the passage. The crowds were left without an explanation.

It should not surprise us that the Lord’s disciples were puzzled by this teaching ministry. They asked Him why He taught in parables. His answer, quoting the prophet Isaiah, was very clear and forthright, yet we still find it puzzling because we have trouble agreeing with it. We cannot fathom why the Lord would teach in such a way that would leave so many without real understanding. He told His disciples that He taught this way because it had not been given generally to the crowds to understand the message of the kingdom. To get the message was a gift, and only the disciples had been given that gift. In fulfillment of Isaiah, this teaching was a part of the Lord’s plan of judgment against His Old Covenant people. It was not God’s intention to continue the Old Covenant way of life. It was not His intention to heal their nation at that time. Thus He intentionally taught them in such a way that would leave many confused.

He did explain the parable of the sower and the soils to His disciples. The story was about hearing God’s Word. Not everyone who would hear the Word of the kingdom clearly proclaimed would receive it in the same way or with the same fruitfulness. Four responses were contained in the story. The first group did not understand the message. The evil one snatched away the Word from the consideration of the hearer before it could have any fruit. In the next two cases the Word was heard, but there was no lasting yield. In one case, trouble and persecution came, and the person fell away. In the other case, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches crowded out the Word before there was any real good that came from it. It was only in the final case of the good soil that the Word had its way. The yield would still vary in that case, but there would be a yield. In all cases the Word was the same, but only in the final case was there any lasting kingdom fruit.

Other parables were also recorded in Matthew 13. The Lord talked about wheat and weeds, about a mustard plant where birds found a home, about a woman hiding leaven in a flour container, and about many other things. By teaching in this way, Christ was speaking great truths that had been hidden since the foundation of the world, but He was doing it in such a way that was consistent with the sovereignty of God, revealing His truth to those whom He had chosen. In a way this was very much like the prophets. These stories, like so much prophetic material, were given largely for our benefit. These were things that would be much more fully understood once the kingdom had more fully come, after the events of the cross, the resurrection, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the church. The meaning of these parables of the kingdom became more obvious after years of preaching the gospel, just as many prophetic texts were also easier to consider after much progress of the Lord’s kingdom throughout the world. The parables still teach us truths about the church, truths concerning matters that would have been very difficult for anyone to understand until the church had more fully arrived.

Now we do see some very important principles of kingdom life in these verses. We know that within the baptized church there will be some who are not elect. This matter will certainly be corrected when the Lord returns at the final resurrection, when He comes with His angels in judgment and salvation. Until that day, we have been forewarned that the devil will be working much mischief right within the church. We are told of the great worth of the kingdom, despite its small beginnings. We learn that the kingdom plans of the Lord will be overwhelmingly successful, and that we would be wise to give up everything that we have for the prize of heaven and the great resurrection age to come.

The disciples claimed to understand many of these things when they were privately instructed, yet the time would eventually come when this great Teacher of parables would be abandoned, even by them. It was then that the most important kingdom seed would be planted through the Lord's willing gift of the kingdom for our salvation.

The message of the kingdom, and of the great events necessary for our redemption, was wonderfully displayed and concealed in the Lord’s parables, just as it was in the entirety of the Old Testament Scriptures. We have the privilege now of considering these truths in the light of the cross, the resurrection, and even centuries of gospel proclamation. We are blessed to be able to use these good words, both new and old, for the glory of God. What was once a matter that was largely concealed can now be all the more wonderfully revealed through the preaching of the Word and the gathering and perfecting of the elect who are being brought into the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 12

Earlier in this gospel, our Lord gave us a very helpful exposition of the moral law as part of the Sermon on the Mount. In that message it was obvious that Jesus was not casual about the requirements of the Law of God. It was plain from His treatment of several of the Ten Commandments that He believed that the requirements of the Law were more substantial and far-reaching than most observers considered. He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. How is it, then, that Jesus is made to look as if He were light on law when compared to the Pharisees?

The case before us at the beginning of Matthew 12 provides us with a helpful display of the difference between Jesus and His detractors. Both of them claimed to believe in the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” This law commands six days of labor per week and a seventh day of a special spiritual and restorative resting. The Pharisees had become very specific about this and many other divine commands in an effort to make the Law more clearly keepable. In doing this they had taken from the tradition of commentary from rabbis over the generations, and had begun to treat these words as if they were from God Himself. Therefore, they considered the casual plucking of grain for the relief of hunger to be harvesting, and therefore working, and therefore prohibited.

The Lord’s response to this challenge was to direct them back to the Scriptures and then to His own person. David, when he was being harassed by Saul, had recognized that feeding his men took precedence over the matter of restricting the eating of holy bread to the priests. Also, the priests needed to work in the temple on the Sabbath, so everyone would have to acknowledge that the prohibition of work on the Sabbath was not intended by God to be absolute. The temple was more important than Sabbath in a sense. The needs of the temple had to be met, even if that meant working on the Sabbath. Before them now was Temple, Priest, and King. His disciples were an extension of Him, just as David’s companions were an extension of him. Even if one granted the idea that this plucking of grain was working, it was wrong for the Pharisees to miss the duties of mercy, duties that were above the ceremonial requirements of sacrifice. The disciples were guiltless. The Pharisees were guilty for condemning them. This was the word of the Man who knew Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath, an amazing, if subtle, claim of divinity.

He went on to fulfill the Sabbath through His great acts of heavenly restoration. The Pharisees were so far from appreciating the kingdom of heaven that they could not grasp the wonder of what Jesus was doing in restoring the health of the weak. Our Lord did not back down from the truth and beauty of the Law of God for even a moment. Those who were so sure that they were keeping the Law rightly became increasingly determined to kill an innocent man who was bringing true Sabbath wholeness to the oppressed. He was the fulfillment of prophetic Messianic expectations. He was the true Servant of the Lord, who would bring justice and peace even to the Gentiles. A bruised reed He would not break. The true Son of David and His apostolic team would move forward to resurrection victory.

The Pharisees became increasingly desperate over the matter of Jesus, anticipating what would be the major religious conflict in the Jewish world after the ascension of Christ, the conflict between Pharisaic Judaism and Christian Judaism. These two movements had a very different understanding of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, as well as very different opinions concerning the definition, interpretation, and right use of divine Law. In their desperation they once again claimed that Jesus was an emissary of Satan who was casting out demons by the power of the Lord of demons. The silliness of this kind of thinking was easily exposed. It was the Pharisees who were showing their dedication to evil in their careless and foolish words.

Standing before them was One who would show who He was through His resurrection, referred to here cryptically as the sign of Jonah. Christ would come forth from the grave as Jonah came forth from the belly of a great fish. He would go to the grave as a result of His work as our propitiatory sacrifice. Yet the grave would not be able to hold Him. Here was one greater than Jonah, and greater than Solomon. This evil generation and her leaders would have to answer to God for their rejection of the only Savior for sinners.

Jesus was displaying Himself to be the Word of God, coming from the perfection of the Father’s heart of love and justice. Out of the abundance of His heart, God had spoken, and the Word was the Lord Jesus. The Pharisees were a very different word, coming from a lawless source.

The choice between these two movements could not be clearer. The answer for any who would follow God must always be to truly hear and obey His Word. Those who will be moving toward safety are the ones who will do this. There must finally come a time for all of us when we will decide whether we will try to condemn the Lord with His enemies, or whether we will obey Him with His friends. May His mercy so rule in our lives that we will yield to the One who is the glorious and final Word.

Genesis 20

Abraham experienced many events over the course of his life, events that changed him, shaping him into the man he would become. A number of those events concerned the people around him, especially his nephew, Lot, and Sarah, his wife. This chapter describes an event involving Sarah, an event so strikingly similar to one that took place in Egypt in Genesis 12, that we might wonder how it is possible that this man could still be living in fear rather than in faith after God has shown him so much. Abraham was the leader of God's chosen ones. He had seen the Lord's destructive power over the cities of the plain. How could he not be moved by the power of that display to follow God in a better way than he did when he first began this amazing journey of hearing the Lord?

We should not be so surprised. The Lord's best servants may fall into the same sins repeatedly. The reason for this lack of progress is that the same idolatry still has a powerful hold over us. What is more shocking than a repeated pattern of sin is when the power of God rids us of our faithless fear and causes us to walk in the joy of the Lord. That is astounding! Through the entire pathway of familiar sin, God is with Abraham, and He continues to bless him as the chosen man of faith, despite his obvious failings. That is good news!

This passage contains the first use of the word “prophet” in the Bible. God identifies Abraham as a prophet, even though it is someone else who has a special dream from the Lord. That dream was a frightening word of caution and correction, and the man who received it was the King of Gerar, who had the common royal name Abimelech, which means “my father is king.”

This Abimelech had taken Sarah into his harem. Abraham, in fear that he might have been murdered if people knew that he was Sarah's husband, asked her to go along with the half-truth that Sarah was his sister. God warned Abimelech, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” It is Abimelech who converses with the Lord, defending himself in the dream, but it is Abraham who is God's prophet, His chosen spokesman. The king pleads his own innocence and integrity, yet he will have to go before the Lord's chosen man, Abraham, the man behind this problem, in order to be saved from the wrath of God. Abraham will pray for him, and the death that had come among his people will be turned to life. This king must humble himself before the Lord's prophet. If not, he will die.

The king hears and obeys the voice of God, and he speaks of what he has heard to those around him. They are all filled with the fear of the Lord. This story is not given to us primarily as a guide to our morals. Of the two men, was Abraham the more honorable? Yet God will not turn away from His promise to this man.

Here we have powerful grace. The lower man is lifted up as the Lord's chosen mouthpiece; the one through whom the blessing of God will flow to the nation of Gerar and to her king. The man who was higher in the eyes of his people, Abimelech, will be frightened before Almighty God and before the agent of God's Word, Abraham. The first will be last, and the last will be first. No one can stop this. No one is in a position to judge it. It is the sovereign will of the Ruler above all rulers. Everyone must bow before Him and receive the blessing that He provides through His appointed representative.

Abraham admits the truth of his fears of what would happen to him as he journeyed among the kingdoms of the world. He has not been a great protector of his wife. Someone else has stepped into that holy place to be the good husband. Abraham did not bring that dream into the heart of Abimelech by night. God did. Abraham did not fill the hearts of the people of Gerar with fear. God did. Abraham did not save Sarah, the future mother of Isaac, from disgrace and danger. God did. God showed Himself to be the Husband of the church. He was her Protector. He was the Being who filled the hearts of dangerous men with fear.

Shouldn't Abraham be disciplined by the Lord who had instructed him in another place to walk before Him and be blameless? Shouldn't he face some consequence for trying to save his own neck at the cost of serious danger to Sarah? Shouldn't he face some calamity that would be an example to us of the danger of idolatry, since he seemed to fear man more than God? Yet there is not a word of this in the account that we have in Genesis. On the contrary, the entire episode ends with Abraham alive and safe, Sarah alive and safe, and their estate more bountiful on the way out of Gerar than it was on the way in. And Abraham's prayers for the healing of the nation of Gerar were heard and answered.

God loves the church. He is her great Husband. Where Abraham failed to show sacrificial love for his bride, Jesus has more than made up for what was lacking. He gave the full measure of devotion for us, and He has spoken peace to the nations through the merit of His life and death. His Word is sure. He is the true Man of God. Everything that is lacking in Abraham, and in you and me, is more than made up for in the perfections of the great Husband of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ.