The Lord is awe-inspiring, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Genesis 26:7,
“When the men of that place [Gerar] asked him [Isaac] about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ because he was afraid to say, ‘She is my wife.’ He thought, ‘The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.’”
As noted earlier, Isaac follows Abraham in the deception about his wife, calling her his sister. He does so to protect himself as he is afraid, because of his wife’s beauty, that he might be killed so she could be taken by a man of that place.
The worst of this deception in the account is that it just follows God telling Isaac to stay in this land, that he would be with Isaac and bless him and that he would give Isaac numerous descendants and bless all nations through him. Talk about a lack of confidence in God!
So, how does God “punish” Isaac for such a lack of confidence in his promise to him that Isaac felt he needed to lie to protect himself? We don’t read of any! In fact what we do find is that God goes on to bless Isaac, just as he promised! The account goes to great length to describe just how much God blessed Isaac that we read of the Philistine king, Abimelech, making the trip to establish a treaty with Isaac because they had all become afraid of him; God had blessed him so much!
What are we to make of this? It certainly brings to light that when God works with us, we recognize that he always does so knowing we are weak, sinful, unreliable and unworthy of him! This certainly dispels the notion that God is involved in our lives because we are “good enough”! He isn’t active in our lives because we are “godly” or morally superior or more knowledgeable of him. No, he is active in our lives in spite of all of our shortcomings and failures.
The beauty of God’s mercy, kindness, and the riches of his grace are painted on the canvass of our shortcomings, failures and sinful condition. In sharp contrast to the drab background of our weaknesses is the brilliance of color and beauty of his goodness and grace toward us! All he asks of us is to embrace him in faith. Isaac, like the rest of us had his faults. Isaac, like his father, Abraham was a man of faith, and also like his father (and the rest of us) had his shortcomings as well.
I’m certainly not saying God rewarded Isaac’s lack of confidence at a crucial point in his life; God blessed him in spite of it. And I’m not saying we don’t reap what we sow; we do. What is on my heart this morning is the recognition that when I fail God and disappoint myself and others, I can still acknowledge that my wonderful God still loves me. His grace is still mine and my future will always be certain with him. When I think that my acceptance by God was purchased by my Savior on the cross, I scarce comprehend how far reaching that is!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your theme of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We’d love to hear from you!
(314) 814-8486
This electronic transmission and any documents accompanying this electronic transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender. This information may contain confidential health information that is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. The authorized recipient of this transmission is prohibited from disclosing this information to any other party unless required to do so by law or regulation and is required to delete or destroy the information after its stated need has been fulfilled. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or takinf of any action in reliance on or regarding the contents of this electronicallytransmitted information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this E-mail in error please notify the sender and delete this message immediately
No comments:
Post a Comment