1:1 — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The Lord spoke the words that brought the heavens and earth into being; before that nothing other than God existed. Only He can create something out of nothing (Heb. 11:3). Think about all that occurred that first day—how He set the entire universe into motion by His power. Why? The Lord formed the world and everything in it to glorify Himself and so He could have a love relationship with us. And through creation, He shows us who He is and what He can do.
What the Bible Says About
The Holy Spirit and the Trinity
Look closely at Genesis 1:1, 2, and you’ll notice the Bible refers to “God” and “the Spirit of God” without making the slightest distinction between the two. It uses the two terms interchangeably. Have you ever wondered why?
It’s because the two are one! This is the first allusion to the doctrine of the Trinity in Scripture.
A little later in the creation story we find a second reference to the Trinity: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’” (Gen. 1:26). Now, to whom was God speaking? Whomever He meant, He (or They) clearly played a crucial part in the creation process: “Let Us make man.” So who was this mysterious “Us”? The only other beings then alive were animals and angels, and the Bible gives no indication that either group played any role in the creation process.
Fortunately, in the very next verse God clarifies who He meant: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). God did not create Adam and Eve in the image of animals or angels; He created them in His own image. Therefore, the “Us” in Genesis 1:26 could only refer to God Himself—that is, to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. There is only one God, but He expresses Himself through the three persons of the Trinity.
Within the eternal fellowship of the Trinity, the members of the Godhead have always enjoyed a deep, rich, and unbroken relationship of love with one another. When God created us, He wanted us to share in some measure of that fellowship; that’s why He created us in His image. By creating us to reflect His own nature, He made it possible for us to develop a deep and intimate relationship with Himself.
In this truth we come to the heart of who God made us to be. Our intimacy with God—His highest priority for our lives—determines the impact of our lives! So the closer we grow to Him, the more positive and lasting impact we can have on this world.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
1. Our intimacy with God—His highest priority for our lives—determines the impact of our lives.
1:16 — God made the two great lights.
Notice that there was light far before the sun, moon, and stars existed (Gen. 1:3). God’s Word makes it clear that He is “the Light of the world” (John 8:12), and that even when these celestial bodies pass away, “the Lord God will illumine them” (Rev. 22:5). They are temporary; He is eternal. We were made for an intimate relationship with God, and He will bring light to our lives if we’ll let Him.
1:22 — God blessed them.
It is God’s nature to “bless” the living creatures He creates. He always wants the best for them.
1:26 — Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
When God created us, He made us like Himself. Why? So we would have the capacity for close, personal fellowship with Him and so we could serve and glorify Him. Our intimacy with God is His highest priority and purpose for our lives, which is why the depth of our relationship with Him will always determine the impact of our lives.
Our intimacy with God—His highest priority for our lives—determines the impact of our lives.
One of our greatest needs is to know that we are loved. Each one of us has to feel certain, deep down in our hearts, that someone loves us, cares for us, and has our best interests at heart.
That is how God designed us. He wants us to know that He loves every one of us with a passionate intensity too deep for words.
God created human beings with fellowship in mind—first with Himself and then with others. But we cannot fully love one another until we have ourselves experienced the love of God. We experience His love when we willingly surrender to His call to be our Savior, Lord, and Friend.
There are at least three reasons God seeks our surrender:
• He loves us and desires our fellowship and worship.
As long as we hold something back from God, we cannot know Him completely or fully experience His love. When we surrender to Him, we get all of Him.
• He wants our service for Him to be effective and fruitful.
The more we know and love Jesus, the more effective our service will be. The closer we draw to God, the more impact our lives will have. The more energetically we nurture our relationship with the Lord, the greater the positive mark we will leave behind.
• He waits for the freedom to bless us.
God is omnipotent, but He will not violate His own principles. He draws us to Himself so we can experience His love and forgiveness. He asks for our willing surrender so that He can give us the best blessings He has to offer.
So why do we resist? With all this in mind, why does anyone resist surrendering to God?
Pride is the key reason most people resist surrender. They think they know better than God and that they can handle their lives better than He can, so they keep Him at a distance.
Others do not surrender because they fear what God will do (or not do) for them. They think that if they give Him control, He’ll make them do exactly what will make them most miserable.
Still others refuse to surrender to Christ because they believe Satan’s lie, which tells them that God is judgmental and will punish them for their mistakes.
All of this is completely false! God always has our best in mind. He will refuse us no good thing when we gladly submit to His will (Rom. 8:32). He tells us, “‘I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope”’ (Jer. 29:11).
It only makes sense to surrender to God, because when we do, we grow close to Him—His highest priority for us—and we begin to have an impact on our world.
Fulfill your destiny. Anne Graham Lotz once told an interviewer about the many trials she had faced in previous years, including her parents’ serious illnesses and her son’s battle with cancer. She finally came to the point where all she wanted was Jesus. “Just give me Jesus,” she declared.
Anne realized that if she had a personal, intimate relationship with the Savior of this universe, then whatever problems she faced, He would face them with her. He would bring a sweet resolve and a peace to her heart.
Is this the cry of your heart? Do you want to know the Savior and live in the fullness of His blessing each day? You can. David wrote, “They who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing” (Ps. 34:10).
When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, He not only forgave you but also made you into a new creature. You were no longer standing at a distance from God but were then able to draw near to Him.
If you have drifted in your devotion to the Savior and feel as though you grow more distant each day in your relationship with Him, then pray that He will draw you near once more. He knows your weaknesses, and if you will tell Him that you want Him to take control of your life, He will come to you in a mighty way and bring hope and light to your situation, no matter how dark and hopeless it may feel (Is. 55:6, 7).
See the Life Principles Index for further study.
1:31 — God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
Everything that God made was not only “good,” but “very good.” Creation bears evidence there is a design—there are principles and laws that guide its function. For it to work together as it does, a mind greater than everything that exists must be behind it. All the good we see around us is nothing but an overflow of God’s generous heart (James 1:17).
2:2 — By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
God did not rest from His work because He felt tired and needed to regain His strength, but He rested because He had finished His creation and He wanted to give us a model to follow. Rest is part of His blessing.
2:15 — Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
God gave man work to do long before sin entered the world. Adam felt energized in his work because he knew God was present—exactly the same as with us.
2:18 — Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
God made us for fellowship, both with Himself and with other people. We can count on Him to meet our need for a deep, personal relationship.
2:20 — But for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
A significant delay occurred between the time God said He would give Adam a helper and the time He actually created Eve. There will be times when we have to wait for God’s blessing, but it’s always worth it!
2:25 — And the man and his wife were . . . not ashamed.
God’s intention for us has always been a deep, unrestricted intimacy with Him, with no walls between us. Sin has destroyed that intimacy, but Jesus reconciles us to God and makes a relationship with Him possible. And when we see Him in heaven, our relationship will be completely restored (1 John 3:2).
3:1 — He said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Satan often begins his temptations by questioning God’s commands and suggesting that obedience is not really necessary. Don’t fall for his trap! We do ourselves great harm when we believe that we will find greater blessing in doing our own thing than in obeying God. Obedience is necessary and always results in blessings.
3:8 — They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Sin fractures our relationships with God and with others. It creates a painful emotional distance and destroys the close fellowship the Lord intended for us to enjoy. Yet God created us to interact with Him and have an intimate relationship with Him. God desires that we walk with Him daily, enjoying the rich fellowship that He offers.
3:10 — He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Before he sinned, Adam loved to hear the voice of the Lord. After he sinned, that same voice made him afraid and prompted him to try to hide himself. But there is no hiding from God (Heb. 4:13).
3:12 — The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Sin impels us to blame others for our disobedience and folly, but God holds us personally accountable for what we do.
3:15 — “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”
God has a plan. From the very beginning of time, He moved history toward the Cross where Christ would restore sinful humans like us to rich fellowship with Himself (Rom. 5:15; 1 Cor. 15:22).
3:16, 17 — To the woman He said . . . Then to Adam He said.
Adam and Eve quickly found out that we reap what we sow, more than we sow, and later than we sow. God always follows through on both His promises and His warnings.
4:7 — “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.”
God told Cain that obedience always brings blessing, but Cain allowed his anger to lead him into terrible sin.
4:11, 12 — “Now you are cursed . . . When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”
Cain, like his parents before him, learned the hard way that you reap what you sow, more than you sow, and later than you sow.
4:16 — Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD.
What a sad note that Cain “went out from the presence of the LORD”! Although we were made to live in the presence of God, we can choose, as Cain did, to go our own way out of fellowship with Him.
4:23 — “For I have killed a man for wounding me; and a boy for striking me.”
Bad things happen when we refuse to repent of our sin. Adam and Eve’s sin led to a murderous son. Cain’s descendant, Lamech, killed a man merely for hurting him — and Lamech celebrated instead of repenting.
4:26 — Then men began to call upon the name of the LORD.
God wants us to call on Him throughout the day, not only to ask Him for things, but simply to spend time with Him.
5:24 — Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and then rather than dying, he was “taken up” into God’s presence. Why? Because he “was pleasing to God” (Heb. 11:5). The same occurred to Elijah, who “went up by a whirlwind to heaven” (2 Kin. 2:11). Does this suggest that we can be saved by our good works and obedience? Not at all. Scripture is clear: Enoch, Elijah, and all the dedicated Old Testament saints “gained approval through their faith” (Heb. 11:39). Although they did not live to see Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and resurrection, they “welcomed them from a distance, and . . . confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Heb. 11:13).
6:6 — The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Our sin grieves the Creator who made us because it stands against His very nature. God will always judge sin; He cannot merely ignore it.
6:8 — But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Why did Noah find “favor” in the eyes of the Lord? The next verse tells us: He was a “righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” We can find favor in the same way—by always obeying Him.
6:18 — “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark.”
Even in judgment, God displays His mercy. He acts in grace to save life even when He must act in holiness to take away life.
Life Examples
Obedient and Dry
Nothing indicated an approaching storm. Still, since Noah believed God, he prepared for the downpour God promised. His friends must have mocked him, but he built an ark (Gen. 6).
Obedience is the cornerstone to our faith in God. While Noah’s obedience led to God’s blessing and reward, the disobedience of his contemporaries led to their destruction. At the time of the flood, the physical salvation of mankind fell to Noah and his willingness to be used by God.
The ark merely foreshadowed the eternal salvation from sin that is ours through Jesus Christ. Just as Noah’s faith saved him and his family, so our faith saves us today. We are saved by grace through faith and not by good deeds (Eph. 2:8, 9). Building the ark did not bring Noah any closer to the Lord—but his obedience and faith in God did. The minor point was that it kept him safe and dry.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
2. Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.
6:22 — Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.
Noah displayed his righteous character by doing exactly as God had commanded him—even though building the ark must have seemed ridiculous to his neighbors. Yet trusting the Lord means looking beyond what we can see to what He sees. And because Noah was obedient, God spared his life.
8:1 — But God remembered Noah and . . . caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.
God always remembers His people, not merely to recall their existence or names, but to act in grace toward them . . . even if they must wait for Him to act.
8:20 — Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and . . . offered burnt offerings on the altar.
The first thing Noah did after leaving the ark was to prepare for worship. If we want to grow our relationship with the Lord, we too must make worship a priority.
8:22 — “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
God’s promises mean the difference between life and death. Even when things look darkest, we can rely on His trustworthy Word.
9:6 — “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.”
Murder is a terrible crime because God made human beings in His image. It shows an utter contempt for God and the life He has given mankind. Jesus later emphasized that treating others with malice and unforgiveness is just as great an offense (Matt. 5:22).
9:12 — God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature.”
When God makes a promise, He does not want us to forget it. Therefore, He often gives us some tangible sign or pledge to memorialize His promise.
9:21 — He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent.
Even righteous and blameless people like Noah do foolish things. But God is so gracious that He calls us to repentance so that we might once more enjoy the fullness of our relationship with Him and His blessing.
11:4 — They said,“Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name.”
God always opposes pride wherever it raises its head. If we want to advance God’s kingdom, we must not strive to make a name for ourselves, but rather humble ourselves before the Lord and exalt Him (1 Pet. 5:6).
12:1 — “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.”
God always connects obedience with blessing, even when He does not describe the full details of what that blessing may be.
Answers to Life’s Questions
How can I become a more obedient child of God?
Obedience is a major characteristic of a person who is mighty in spirit. Generally speaking, obedience characterized the faith of Abraham from his first encounter with God until his death.
1. We grow in obedience by having faith in the sovereignty of God.
If we fail to believe in God’s sovereignty, we will find it difficult to obey Him. Abraham based his relationship with God on his confidence that God would do what He had promised (Rom. 4:20, 21). Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and responding in confident trust (Rom. 10:17). We will learn to trust Him as we study and meditate on His Word.
2. We grow in obedience by waiting for God’s timing.
God is very time conscious—not in terms of minutes and seconds, but in regard to our acting in obedience according to His schedule. Throughout Scripture we find Him moving in “the fullness of the time” (Gal. 4:4). He is neither early nor late. He is always right on time.
3. We continue to grow in obedience by refusing to subject God’s plan to “common sense” or the reasoning of the world.
Some things God requires may look ridiculous from a human perspective. He told Abraham that he would have a son through whom He would bless the entire world. Yet the Lord allowed Abraham’s obedience to be severely tested—first by requiring him to wait nearly a quarter of a century before providing the promised provision, and later by requiring him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. God knew the motive of Abraham’s heart. It was one of obedience. When it came time to complete the sacrifice, the Lord was the one who provided a ram to be used in Isaac’s place.
4. We grow in obedience by promptly responding in obedience.
If you long to obey God, you will not hesitate when He tells you to do something. Many times we fail to obey God because we fear the consequences. Yet He never requires us to do anything outside His will for our lives. Our only responsibility is to obey; God’s responsibility is to take care of the consequences of our obedience.
Our sensitivity to God’s will increases as we obey Him. Along the way, He provides glimpses of the blessings waiting for us. God always blesses obedience. You can trust Him, obey Him, and be blessed. Or you can disobey Him and spend the rest of your life wondering what He would have done had you obeyed Him. Once you glimpse the blessings of obedience, however, the consequences no longer matter.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
12:2, 3 — “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing . . . in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
God fulfilled His promise to Abram both through the nation of Israel and through his descendant, Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:1; Luke 3:23, 34). Through Christ, every person in every country of the world has the opportunity to be blessed with a relationship with God (Acts 3:25, 26; Gal. 3:7, 8; Rev. 5:9; 7:9, 10). Although Abraham could never have imagined the amazing way God would fulfill this covenant, he always trusted the Lord, which is why Galatians 3:6 reports, “Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
12:7 — The LORD appeared to Abram.
The Lord appeared to Abram only after he obeyed His voice by leaving Ur and traveling to Canaan. As Abram’s faith grew, so did the details of God’s promise to him.
12:10 — Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there.
Men and women of faith must endure hardship, just like anyone else. But if we will trust Him, God will use our adversity to deepen and strengthen our relationship with Him.
12:18 — “Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?”
Abram had to learn that trusting the Lord means looking beyond what we can see to what He sees. God cannot use our half-truths or empty promises in order to protect and bless us. Instead, He wants us to obey Him wholeheartedly and trust Him to take care of the consequences of our obedience.
13:4 — And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
We have no record that Abram “called on the name of the LORD” while in Egypt, where he got into trouble. How much better off we would be if we would learn that prayer is life’s greatest time saver!
13:8 — So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.”
Abram counted a good relationship with his nephew as more important than his own material prosperity. He didn’t have to worry about his possessions because he had seen that no one can ever outgive God.
14:20 — “And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
The mysterious priest Melchizedek reminded Abram that God had given him the victory. Even though it was Abram’s men that did the fighting, God was the one who was in control, and He is the author of all blessings.
15:1 — After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision.
God developed His relationship with Abram in many ways. Sometimes He spoke to Abram, sometimes He appeared to him, and here He communicated His will through a vision. Why? Because the Lord wanted the man who would be the father of His chosen nation to love, trust, and obey Him—a faithful example to all the generations that followed (Gen. 18:17–19; Rom. 4; Gal. 3:6–9). God will do whatever it takes to show us His will because our intimacy with Him is His highest priority for our lives.
15:6 — Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Even when Abram did not see how God could fulfill His gracious promise to him regarding an heir, he trusted the Lord anyway. He looked beyond what he could see to what God could see.
15:13, 14 — “Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. . . . And afterward they will come out with many possessions.”
God warned Abram about the Egyptian bondage his descendants would endure even before Isaac was born. Why would God knowingly allow His people to endure such suffering? Because He wanted to teach them to trust Him. Brokenness, difficulty, and disappointment are often God’s ways of preparing us for maximum usefulness and blessing. When we trust Him, we learn He is faithful and always keeps His word. The prophecy concerning Israel’s exodus and their plundering of the Egyptians came true just as God promised (Ex. 3:21, 22; 12:35–41). Later, these possessions would be used to construct the tabernacle (Ex. 35:21–29).
15:16 — “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
God is more patient than we can imagine. He would wait over 400 years to give the land of promise to His people because the wicked Canaanites had not yet reached the point of no return (2 Pet. 3:9).
16:4 — He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.
Sarai found out the hard way that whatever we acquire outside of God’s will often turns to ashes. Her plan to raise a family through Hagar misfired badly.
16:9 — Then the angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.”
Hagar needed to learn to trust God and obey Him—even when saying yes did not seem reasonable. We are never victims of our circumstances. The Lord can bring blessing out of the gravest situation. He never wants us to run from our problems. He wants us to face them with His help.
17:5 — “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.”
Even before God fulfilled His promise to Abraham to give him a son through Sarai, He said, “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” God’s promises are so reliable that He can speak of their future fulfillment in the past tense! Trusting God means looking beyond what you can see to what He can see. You may not know how God will fulfill His promise to you, but you can be assured that no matter how difficult the task or how impossible your circumstances look, He surely will. He kept His word to Abraham, and He will be faithful to you as well.
17:17 — Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
God promised Abraham at age 75 (Gen. 12:4) that He would make him into a great nation—and then made him wait a quarter of a century to fulfill that promise. But God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him!
17:23 — Then Abraham . . . circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the very same day, as God had said to him.
Abraham obeyed God, even when it caused him and his family great discomfort. Because he believed God, he obeyed God. Sometimes submitting to God’s will involves sacrifice and pain in your life as well, but obey Him anyway. You may not understand how God will bless you through it, but He will. And you’ll be glad you trusted Him.
Life Examples
Laughing All the Way to the Crib
Sarah probably smiled to herself as the words of her husband rang in her ears. How could she believe the outlandish story? “God spoke to me!” he had said. “He promised to make me the head of many nations—me! A man of 99 years! And He is going to do it through you!”
Sarah’s reaction to the news her husband had given may have been similar to something we have felt. She laughed. “I am 90 years old; I am no longer capable of giving you children. There must be some mistake!”
But there had been no mistake. God challenged her with the words, “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14). Nine months later, the birth of a baby boy provided the answer. God loves doing the impossible. And the only requirement for Him to work in our lives is faith that is right in line with the truth of His Word.
Sarah’s story represents something much greater than one woman’s experience. It demonstrates God’s unrelenting pursuit of each of us. Despite her faults and persistent lack of faith, Sarah witnessed God turn the “impossible” into reality, and so can you.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
18:14 — “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?”
Things that we find impossible to do, God finds very easy (Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37). That is why we can trust all of His promises. We do not have to understand how He will fulfill them; we have only to believe that He will and then obey Him.
18:19 — “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”
God took this opportunity to teach Abraham a very powerful lesson about the blessings of obedience and the consequences of sin. The “way of the LORD” is to do “righteousness and justice.” When we walk the Lord’s path, as Abraham did, He blesses us with the delightful benefits of His promises. However, God could not overlook the sinfulness of Sodom — and He showed that when we give ourselves over to sin, it leads to destruction (Rom. 1:18–32; James 1:15).
18:25 — “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
We can rest assured that God, “the Judge of all the earth,” will always do exactly what is right. We never have to fear that He will make a mistake or suffer a lapse in judgment.
19:9 — “This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.”
When we refuse to repent of our sin, we may become self-righteous and easily offended when someone suggests we are in the wrong. But if we cater to our sinful flesh, we will reap nothing but judgment and destruction.
19:24 — Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone.
Everything Lot had gained during his time in Sodom, he lost in an instant. What we gain outside of God’s blessing is not worth having and eventually turns to ashes.
19:29 — Thus it came about, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow.
God spared Lot’s life because of the request of righteous Abraham. Our prayers bring mightier results than we may ever know.
19:36 — Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.
The sinful plan of Lot’s daughters was disastrous. Although they managed to preserve their father’s family line, in so doing they created two nations who became vicious enemies of God’s people. The Moabites and Ammonites were eventually sentenced to complete destruction (Zeph. 2:8, 9).
20:9 — Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him . . . “You have done to me things that ought not to be done.”
Sometimes God uses the ungodly to rebuke and correct His own people. He does so to remind us that we can trust Him in all circumstances, however dangerous they may seem.
20:17 — Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids.
The times when Abraham stands the tallest is when he gets on his knees in prayer. The same is true for us.
Life Examples
The Man of Endurance
Call Abraham not only a man of faith (Gal. 3:9) but a man of endurance.
It is as if the starting gun sounded in his life when God promised him that he would have a son in his old age. But year after year came and went and Abraham and Sarah still did not have the answer to God’s promise. Yet the Bible tells us Abraham “believed in the LORD” (Gen. 15:6).
Abraham kept the eyes of his heart firmly set on the Lord.
Two years flashed by, and still no child.
Still he continued to trust God.
Despite a stumble at mid-race (Gen. 16), Abraham ran a faithful race. For 25 years he kept in step with God, until at last, at age 100, he and his wife, age 90, had a son (Gen. 21:1–3).
Why the long wait? Apparently, God wanted Abraham (and us!) to learn the connection between waiting, trust, and hope (Ps. 33:20). And that hope, the apostle Paul reminds us, prompts us to wait on God “with perseverance” (Rom. 8:25).
Even if that means running the longest marathon of our life.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
14. God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
21:1 — Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had promised.
God always keeps His promises, no matter how impossible their fulfillment may seem. And every promise He keeps is an expression of His grace.
21:6 — Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
The name “Isaac” means, “He laughs”—a reference not only to the skeptical laughter of both Abraham and Sarah in response to God’s promise of a son, but also to their joyful laughter at Isaac’s birth.
21:16 — For she said, “Do not let me see the boy die.” And she sat opposite him, and lifted up her voice and wept.
Hagar discovered that we learn more in our valley experiences than on our mountaintops. Only when it seemed as though all hope was lost did she find her ultimate hope in God.
21:33 — Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.
Abraham knew the Lord as “the Everlasting God” — faithful from the eternal past and trustworthy forever without end (Ps. 90:2; 93:2; Is. 26:4). We can count on God to keep all His promises because, as He says, “I, the LORD, do not change” (Mal. 3:6).
22:1 — Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham.
God permits testing for all of His children, including His own Son, Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:1; Heb. 4:15). For Abraham, this had to be a dark time. But it lasted only long enough for God to accomplish His purpose in His servant’s life. When we face hardship, the first question we should ask is, “Lord, what do you want me to learn?” He will show us exactly what we need to know.
22:5 — 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.”
Abraham expressed confidence that both he and Isaac would return alive to the servants, even though he intended to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son. Abraham obeyed and trusted, though he did not understand (Heb. 11:17–19).
22:13 — Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.
When we obey Him, the Lord assumes full responsibility for our needs. Here on the mountainous land of Moriah, which surrounded what would later become Jerusalem, God provided the ram for Abraham’s sacrifice. Likewise, He provided the Lamb that was necessary for the forgiveness of our sins—Christ Jesus—on this very mountain, on the heights known as Golgotha (John 1:29; 19:17; Heb 9:22).
22:14 — Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”
The Lord will provide—always. He may surprise us, He may perplex us, He may make us wait. But He will always provide exactly what we need, when we need it.
22:18 — “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
God fulfilled this promise to Abraham through Jesus Christ (Acts 3:25, 26; Gal. 3:7, 8; Rev. 5:9; 7:9, 10). Romans 4:3 tells us, “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Likewise, we are to have faith in God and believe “in Him who justifies the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5) — Jesus Christ. God always blesses obedience, and obedience always follows genuine faith. If we do not obey, it is because we do not truly believe (Heb. 3:18, 19).
24:1 — Now Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in every way.
Would you like to be blessed in every way as Abraham was? Then you must follow Abraham’s example of trust and obedience, for that is the way to great blessing.
24:7 — “The LORD, the God of heaven . . . will send His angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.”
When we walk in faith and obedience, God sends His angels ahead of us to make sure we arrive at His place of blessing for us.
24:12 — He said, “O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness to my master Abraham.”
The servant of Abraham fought his greatest battle on his knees, and in doing so he won a great victory even before he opened his eyes. God loves to answer the selfless prayers of His people!
24:26 — Then the man bowed low and worshiped the LORD.
When God answers our prayers, worship is the only proper response.
24:40 — “He said to me, ‘The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send His angel with you to make your journey successful.’”
Abraham saw his relationship with God as a long walk—slow, steady, full of twists and turns, but ending up at a wonderful destination. We should see our relationship with the Lord in the same way.
24:50 — Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The matter comes from the LORD; so we cannot speak to you bad or good.”
When we see a direct answer to prayer, we are wise to listen for His instruction and, if needed, get out of the way and allow Him to finish His good work.
24:63 — Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening.
Isaac must have learned the value of meditation from his godly father, Abraham, who clearly taught his son that intimacy with God is always life’s highest priority.
25:18 — They settled from Havilah to Shur . . . in defiance of all his relatives.
The promises of God always come true, whether those promises concern delightful or unpleasant things. Genesis 16:12 predicted this very outcome—that Ishmael would “be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers.”
25:21 — Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.
At many key points in Scripture, God grants a childless woman a family, often in response to prayer. Why give His people such a difficult burden? Perhaps because brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum blessings and usefulness.
25:34 — Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
In “despising” his birthright, Esau proved himself “godless” (Heb. 12:16) because he considered filling his empty stomach more important than the spiritual promises of God to Abraham. To avoid making Esau’s grave mistake, always remember the H. A. L. T. principle. Whenever you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, be very careful because you are especially vulnerable to sin. Before making a decision, stop and seek God. The more you give in to your feelings of weakness and look for ways to fill your needs apart from God, the more you’ll reap the terrible consequences of it.
26:5 — “Because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
God remembered Abraham as one who obeyed Him—and therefore Abraham provided his descendants with the greatest possible legacy.
26:7 — He said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife.”
Our children learn from us not only our wise habits, but also our foolish ones (Gen. 12; 20). We spare them much heartache when we model for them a consistent life of faith.
26:28 — They said, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you.”
When God blesses His children, sometimes even the ungodly can clearly see it (Prov. 16:7). When we live in a way that invites the blessing of the Lord, that blessing can spill over to our neighbors.
26:35 — And they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
God’s people are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14). Disobedience to this command causes tremendous and unnecessary heartache.
27:41 — So Esau bore a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
Jacob knew little peace in his life because he often used deception to get what he wanted. It is only when we obey God—trusting Him and waiting for His blessings—that we will have peace (Phil. 4:6, 7).
28:8, 9 — So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac; and Esau went to Ishmael, and married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael.
By this marriage, Esau tried to demonstrate that he wanted his father’s acceptance. However, there’s a world of difference between outward compliance to gain favor, and an inward desire to do what is right. Instead of pleasing Isaac, Esau married a descendant of Ishmael who would lead him away from honoring God—just as his Canaanite wives had.
28:15 — “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
God will always stay with us and keep all His promises to us, even when we go through the storms of life. When we wonder if He’s really there—He is!
29:35 — “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she named him Judah.
Leah hoped to find happiness, first in the love of her husband, then in the blessing of sons. Yet by her fourth child she began to realize that lasting contentment can be found only in an intimate relationship with God.
30:2 — Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
When Rebekah tried and failed to have children, her husband, Isaac, prayed for her (Gen. 25:21). Abraham had done the same for Abimelech’s household (Gen. 20:17). But Jacob had not yet learned to stand tall on his knees in prayer.
30:27 — But Laban said to him, “If now it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined that the LORD has blessed me on your account.”
The blessing of God has a way of spilling over to others.
31:29 — “It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’”
Laban did not know the Lord—he knew Him only as the God of Isaac’s father. Yet the Lord protected Jacob from the harm Laban wanted to do to him. Our God is sovereign!
31:42 — “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so He rendered judgment last night.”
Jacob finally began to understand that being deceptive so that he could receive God’s blessings never works. Instead, he began to trust God, which requires looking beyond what he could do in his strength to what God could do and accomplish in and through him.
31:53 — Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.
When the passage calls God “the fear of his father Isaac” (see also Gen. 31:42), it declares that God is not only loving, but just; not only gentle, but strong—what Romans 11:22 calls the “kindness and severity” of God.
32:9 — Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me.”
Jacob had learned to pray effectively by basing his petitions on the promises of God. He knew he could win this battle only through prayer.
Life Examples
Wrestling with God
The story of Jacob alternately comforts and confounds. For while we could look upon many of his decisions with contempt—and even wonder why God would so favor such a man—it equally reassures us to realize that the God who extended grace to Jacob also extends it to us.
In a famous episode described in Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles with a powerful stranger whom he later concludes is God. Some scholars believe that Jacob wrestled with the pre-incarnate Christ; others consider the opponent an angel. Still others suggest that Jacob wrangled with God only in prayer. In any event, the nation Israel received its name from Jacob, whom God renamed “Israel,” meaning, “He struggles with God.”
Despite his many failings, weaknesses, and subsequent sorrows, Jacob was loved by God. And through his strange wrestling match, he provides us with a model of the effort required for effective prayer (Col. 4:12).
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
8. Fight all your battles on your knees and you win every time.
32:31 — Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.
Jacob’s wrestling match left him with a painful limp but also with a better understanding of God. God renamed him “Israel,” meaning “He struggles with God,” or perhaps “a prince with God.” Because of this painful encounter, Jacob took a great spiritual leap forward.
33:11 — “Please take my gift which has been brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have plenty.” Thus he urged him and he took it.
We should be glad that God does not deal with us on the basis of our own righteousness, but on the basis of His boundless grace. He blesses us because of who He is, not who we are.
35:2 — So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments.”
God calls for our exclusive allegiance—not allegiance to God and something or someone else, but allegiance to God alone. He will accept no other kind of loyalty.
37:4, 5 — His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.
Here begins Joseph’s story—and also the onset of his troubles. When God reveals His will to you, others may not understand what He is doing and may criticize or oppose you because of it. However, obey Him anyway. The trials you go through may be difficult, but they are necessary to mold you into the person God wants you to be. And like Joseph, you will be able to say to those who are against you, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Gen. 50:20).
37:18 — When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.
The brothers’ jealousy grew until their only thought was about how to rid themselves of Joseph. So they did the unthinkable—they sold their young brother into slavery. Envy is a very dangerous and destructive emotion. It will trap you—tormenting you unmercifully, undermining your relationships, and saddling you with relentless guilt if you ever act on your feelings (Gen. 42:21, 22).
39:2 — The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
Joseph is a prime illustration of the truth that through God’s love, power, and wisdom, we can learn through adversity and take our greatest leaps forward spiritually through our troubles (Is. 30:18–21).
What the Bible Says About
While God requires us to work, at the same time, He leads others to pay us a fair wage for the work we do. We find a marvelous example of good compensation for hard work in the life of Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. Joseph’s spiteful brothers sold him into slavery to some passing merchants, and eventually the young man became the property of a powerful Egyptian official. Yet despite Joseph’s slavery, “The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. . . . Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge . . . the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph . . . So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge” (Gen. 39:2–6).
Joseph did not own the large Egyptian estate he managed. Yet he had full run of it. Even though he was in a difficult place, God was using Him, and he was fully in charge of his master’s property. He lived well, ate well, and dressed well. He had all of his material needs met. Why? Because the Lord caused his master to deal with him favorably. And the same can be true of your life.
If you are giving your best effort at work and are trusting God to give you wisdom in all of your endeavors, then watch for the ways in which the Lord will cause others to bless you.
Second, the Egyptian received blessing in return. He had no worries or concerns while Joseph managed his household. Joseph had proven himself worthy of his trust.
God calls you to give maximum effort in your work and to do all you can to earn the trust of those who work with you or who supervise you. How can you motivate yourself to reach this high standard? The best way is to consciously acknowledge God’s presence in every area of your work. The knowledge that God is with you as you work will energize you every day!
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
4. The awareness of God’s presence energizes us for our work.
39:9 — “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”
Joseph understood that any sin we commit is really an offense against God (Ps. 51:4) and that all the work we do is done “as for the Lord” (Col. 3:23). Of course, any opportunity we have to serve God will bring times of testing along with it. These trials keep us dependent upon the Lord and loyal to Him. Joseph was faithful, and it cost him greatly. Yet God did not forget Joseph’s obedience, and at the proper time, He blessed him abundantly (Gen. 39:23; Gen. 41:14–57).
Answers to Life’s Questions
The life story of Joseph clearly illustrates that God sometimes grants permission for adversity to enter our lives so that He might accomplish an ultimate good.
Jacob didn’t try to hide his lopsided love for Joseph, his son by his favorite wife, Rachel. So when Joseph shared two dreams with his brothers—dreams in which Joseph took center stage and his brothers bowed low to serve him—they started looking for a way to destroy him.
One day, Joseph’s brothers secretly sold him into slavery. Eventually, he became the slave of Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Joseph quickly rose to prominence in his new position, but when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of rape, Joseph found himself being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
Even there, in total confinement, he rose to a position of leadership. When he correctly interpreted the dream of a royal servant, Joseph hoped that his fortunes were about to change. But the man promptly forgot him for two long years. Not until Pharaoh himself needed someone to interpret a troubling dream did the man mention Joseph (Gen. 39–40).
At the right time, God reversed Joseph’s adversity.
After he had correctly interpreted the dream, Pharaoh ordered him released and placed in charge of the Egypt’s granaries. Later, Joseph used his new authority as prime minister to help his family through a severe famine.
After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers feared that he might try to pay them back. “But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive”’ (Gen. 50:19, 20).
In looking back over his life—even the dark and painful events—Joseph realized that God had been in charge the whole time. Nothing had happened to him apart from God’s will and divine plan.
In the same way, when you belong to the Lord, any adversity you experience remains subject to the Lord’s power and grace. He never stops being in charge of your life. He never loses authority over you or over the circumstances that affect you. God is always in control.
Therefore, you must realize that, on occasion, the Lord permits adversity to enter your life. But He always uses adversity to fulfill His purposes in your life.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
39:21 — But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
Even when Joseph was thrown into prison on false charges, God was with him and blessed him in that dark place. So the young man learned not to think of himself as a victim, but as a child of God.
Life Examples
Waiting and Trusting
God doesn’t always meet our needs immediately or in a way we expect. Why not? Because often He is redirecting us or preparing us for something new. The life of Joseph in the Old Testament provides a perfect example of this.
Although Joseph had visions that he would one day be a great ruler (Gen. 37:6–10), the accomplishment of those dreams took a very long time. In fact, before God raised Joseph up, He brought him to the lowest point imaginable—locked away in prison for years on false charges.
Why did God delay so long before freeing Joseph from his chains and putting him in the seat of power? Answer: So that a greater purpose might be accomplished, namely so that Joseph could learn to depend upon the Lord no matter what his circumstances were. And because of his faithful obedience and trust during the darkest times, God was able to deliver Joseph’s entire family and the nation of Egypt from a terrible famine (Gen 45:5–8).
In a similar way, while God is in the process of redirecting our lives, sometimes He delays meeting certain needs. Why? So that His greater plan for us—and for others—might be accomplished.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
41:1 — Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream.
Joseph languished in prison for two more years before he gained his freedom. Yet he did not blame God but continued to serve Him. Joseph learned, as we must, that God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
41:16 — Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
We never truly advance our interests by shining the spotlight on ourselves. Godly men and women realize and eagerly declare that God is the true source of all wisdom and achievement.
41:46 — Now Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.
By the time Joseph rose to power in Egypt, he was 30 years old—it was perhaps a dozen or more years after his brothers sold him into slavery. No doubt he felt disappointed during those years, but he never gave in to discouragement—he never lost hope that God would help him.
42:5 — So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
God used a famine to bring together the fractured family of Jacob. What we see as disasters, God can use for good (Rom. 8:28).
43:12 — “Take double the money in your hand, and take back in your hand the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks; perhaps it was a mistake.”
Here we see that God had transformed Jacob. Whereas he began his life using deception to get what he wanted, God molded him into a man of integrity who dealt honestly with others.
43:23 — “Be at ease, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks; I had your money.”
Even the steward acknowledged God’s role in providing for Jacob’s sons. Although probably an Egyptian who worshiped the deities of the region, he was no doubt influenced by Joseph’s great devotion to the Hebrew God and all the good that flowed from Joseph’s faithful relationship with the Lord.
45:4, 5 — Then Joseph said to his brothers . . . “Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
God calls us to have a forgiving spirit. Knowing that God remains in control of all that happens to us releases us to forgive others.
45:7 — “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.”
God never asks any of us to sit down and wait idly for Him to vault us into success. He asks us to trust and obey Him day by day and to learn the lessons He sets before us.
Answers to Life’s Questions
Why doesn’t God answer my prayers sooner?
If God hears our requests and loves us so much that He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us, then why does it appear to take Him so long to respond to some of our most urgent requests? Carefully consider the following eight reasons. The delay may be caused by:
1. Our doubt
God wants us to trust Him—to go to Him with our needs without doubting His love, power, and provision for us (James 1:5–8). Always remember, with faith, all things are possible (Mark 9:23).
2. Our attempts at manipulation
If we try to control or manipulate God, we should not expect answers to our prayers (1 Sam. 13:9–14). He is the Master; we are the servants.
3. Wrong motivation
Neither self-centered requests nor those tinged with evil intent will receive an answer (James 4:3). God refuses to partner with our lusts or our schemes.
4. Our disobedience
Our sin can prompt God to withhold His gracious hand (Ps. 81:10–12). When we disobey His commands and refuse to repent, He will give us over to the stubbornness of our heart. He will withdraw His favor and wait to answer us until we are willing to deal with our sin.
5. Our lack of responsibility
God cannot be expected to compensate for a lazy or negligent person (Prov. 19:15). The Lord has His work to do; we have ours.
6. Rejecting God’s method
Don’t turn away God’s means of supplying your need merely because it doesn’t fit your expectations or criteria (Josh. 6). A man named Naaman almost made this mistake—and it would have cost him his health (2 Kin. 5:8–14).
7. God’s redirection
Sometimes God is in the process of redirecting us or preparing us for something new (Gen. 37; 39–50). God loves to do fresh, exciting things with His people (Is. 43:19).
8. God’s desire to teach us
God may want us to focus on our spiritual and eternal needs so that we will learn to trust Him in all things and for all things (Is. 48:18).
Even when God delays His answers, He instructs us to keep on praying (Luke 18:1–8). He also wants us to trust Him at every turn in life. Prayer is an act of faith because when we pray, we are essentially saying, “Lord, You know all things and I need Your wisdom, strength, ability, and peace. Without fail, God answers when we call to Him.
See the Life Principles Index for further study:
46:4 — “I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again.”
Once he heard God’s promise, Israel found the strength he needed to do a difficult thing. The Lord’s Word is an immovable anchor in times of storm.
47:30 — “When I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.”
Jacob wanted to be buried in the land that God had promised to Abraham and Isaac—where he belonged. Jacob realized that their stay in Egypt would not be permanent. Eventually, God would fulfill His covenant and lead his descendants back to the Promised Land. Later, Joseph would make the same request with the same confidence that God would do as He said (Gen. 50:24, 25; Heb. 11:22).
48:11 — Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face, and behold, God has let me see your children as well.”
God often blesses us in ways far beyond anything we can imagine (1 Cor. 2:9; Eph. 3:20, 21). This is why it is always crucial that we submit to His plans and purpose for us.
48:15 — He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day.”
When Israel called God, “the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,” he proclaimed that every good thing we have comes from the hand and grace of God.
49:10 — “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
Israel foresaw that the Messiah, Jesus, would come through the line of Judah, and that He would be both the King and the Judge of the whole earth.
50:20 — “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
Sometimes God allows us to go through difficult times, even as a result of the wicked actions of others. Yet whatever we have to endure, no matter how unfair or unjust, we can be sure that God will use it for good (Rom. 8:28).
50:24, 25 — “God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob . . . and you shall carry my bones up from here.”
Just as Jacob wanted to be buried in the land that God had promised to Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 47:30)—so did Joseph (Ex. 13:19; Josh. 24:32; Heb. 11:22). He encouraged his brothers, reminding them that God would fulfill His covenant and lead their descendants back to the Promised Land. God always keeps His promises.