I was talking with a friend the other day who is deeply engaged with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – a good thing if you’re a recovering alcoholic! My friend said he couldn’t understand fellow alcoholics taking issue with AA policies and the Big Book.

Why would you mess with something that saved your life? – A recovering alcoholic

I’m in the process of memorizing Psalm 119. It may take a while since it’s 176 verses! (It’s not quite as daunting as it sounds. It’s divided into 22 stanzas of 8 verses each, and each half (four verses) is about the length of average verses that I have memorized.) Anyway, I’m through the first six stanzas, moving into the seventh where we find this declaration:

This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your word has given me life. (Psalm 119.50, NKJV)

“Your word has given me life.” Just as AA and the Big Book saved my friend’s life, so God’s Word, and, more importantly, the God of the Word, is saving my life.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because

All flesh is as grass,

And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.

The grass withers,

And its flower falls away,

But the word of the LORD endures forever.”

Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. (1 Peter 1.22 – 25, NKJV)

I find going through Genesis at the leisurely pace of one chapter per day gives me time to notice things I had raced past before. For example, the promise of Isaac is explicit in the section ending in Genesis 18.15. Isaac’s birth isn’t recorded until Genesis 21. What’s in between?

First, the destruction of Sodom and the sordid story of Lot and his daughters (Genesis 18.16 – 19.38). I wrote about the prayer lessons from that account. But do we need chapter 20? It’s yet another story about Abraham’s lying about his wife:

From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” (Genesis 20.1 – 3, ESV)

What’s fascinating about that is in Genesis 26, we have a grown-up Isaac doing exactly the same thing in the same place:

So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance. (Genesis 26.6, 7, ESV)

Like father, like son! It’s the opposite of what Abraham was supposed to be doing, as we wrote yesterday. Again, as with the previous lying episode, if I were compiling stories about the chosen nation and Abraham, its patriarch, I would have left that out!

What can we learn?

• Abraham’s assumption about Abimelech and his people was wrong:

And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’” (Genesis 20.10, 11, ESV)

• God gives us the freedom to make choices (as in Abraham’s deciding where to live) and sometimes, at least, protects us from the consequences of stupidity.
• It’s obviously not a requirement that God works through only perfect people! If you think you’ve disqualified yourself by bad behavior, think again.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace… (Ephesians 1.7, ESV)

There is another little gem tucked into the account of Abraham’s conversation with God about Sodom. God is speaking:

For I have chosen him, 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 to Abraham what he has promised him. (Genesis 18.19, ESV)

There it is, a simple job description for Abraham:

• command his children and his household after him
  • to keep the way of the LORD
  • by doing righteousness and justice…

We’ll see tomorrow that Abraham didn’t always do a good job of that…nor did I despite a framed version of this poem, attributed to James Gibbon, that hung in my office:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deuteronomy 6.4 – 7, ESV, emphasis mine)

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6.4, ESV)

I left us yesterday with a challenge to pray because “nothing is too hard for the Lord.” The story of God’s destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, which follows immediately in Genesis 18.16 – 19.29 contains an interesting perspective on prayer.

First we have the conversation between God and Abraham in Genesis 18 concerning the impending destruction of Sodom. You remember the story, where Abraham says, “You wouldn’t destroy the city if 50 righteous people were found there, would you?” And he works it from 50 all the way down to 10.

There are a couple of immediate lessons there:

• God is pleased for us to make a case in our prayers.

Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18.25, NKJV)

“Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” Moses does the same in asking God not to destroy the Israelites for the sake of his promises to the patriarchs (see Exodus 32.7 – 14).

• God gave Abraham information about his plans: “Should I hide my plan from Abraham?…I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah…” Abraham uses the information God gave him about the destruction of Sodom not as “nice-to-know” but as fuel for prayer. We could do the same even when we listen to the news. Is it entertainment only or should events in the world inform our prayers?

But there’s another lesson. Abraham prays that the city of Sodom would be spared, but it was not. However, the Lord sent two angels to get Lot and his family and drag them out of the city. The commentary on that action is in Genesis 19.29:

But God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe, removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain. (NLT)

But Abraham never asked for Lot’s safety. His words had to do with the Lord not destroying Sodom. But the text says, “But God listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe.” So Abraham’s real request was not for Sodom, it was that his nephew Lot would be delivered. God worked past the words to the heart and granted the real request.

That’s a real comfort, isn’t it? That when I pray, God knows what I really want (and what I really need) and works in that direction, regardless of the specific thing I’m asking for. It’s right in the introduction to the Lord’s prayer:

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6.7, 8, ESV)

We wrote yesterday about the unbelief of both Abraham and Sarah, an unbelief shared with Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, as recorded in Luke 1. But there is something else that Abraham and Sarah’s story in Genesis 17 & 18 has in common with Luke 1. Look at the angel’s promise to Mary:

For with God nothing will be impossible. (Luke 1.37, NKJV)

God said essentially the same thing to Abraham when he doubted that Sarah could bear a son:

Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18.14, NKJV)

What “impossible” thing are you asking God for? I have several family-related things on my list. I’ll keep you posted.

If you’ve read Genesis before, you know that Abraham’s son’s name, Isaac, means laughter. And if you had asked me where that came from, I would have said, Isaac’s mother, Sarah, laughed when promised that she would bear a son at age 90:

The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’” (Genesis 18.10 – 13, ESV)

But Sarah wasn’t the first to laugh. Back in Genesis 17, God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah and promised (again) that she would bear a son:

And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Genesis 17.15 – 17, ESV, emphasis mine)

They both laughed in unbelief. But there’s a lesson there, too. Stay tuned.

And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” (Luke 1.18 – 20, ESV)

Genesis 17 has several significant events. Here are the first two: another confirmation of the promise and changing Abram’s name to Abraham:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 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. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17.1 – 8, ESV)

It’s all there: nations, an everlasting covenant with God, and the land.

The next new thing in Genesis 17 is Abraham’s part of the covenant:

And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. (Genesis 17.9 – 11, ESV)

“Every male…shall be circumcised.” It’s an odd sign, I think, but what I think is irrelevant. Two things stand out to me:

• Abraham obeyed immediately

When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. (Genesis 17.22 – 23, ESV, emphasis mine)

• The requirement of circumcision did NOT carry over to Gentile believers in Jesus.

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question….Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God… (Acts 15.1, 2…19)

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but…

• keeping the commandments of God (1 Corinthians 7.19)
• faith working through love (Galatians 5.6)
• a new creation (Galatians 6.15)

There’s more in Genesis 17. Stay tuned!

As we follow the adventures of Abram into Genesis 16, he’s had all those promises of becoming a nation and inheriting the land – promises that God guaranteed without Abram’s help. There is a problem, however. Abram and Sarai (their names get changed to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17) don’t have any children.

No problem, right? God said he would do it, and he’ll do it. All we have to do is wait. Nope. Sarai gets the bright idea that they need to help God out:

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived… (Genesis 16.1 – 4, ESV)

And, incredibly, God promises to bless Hagar’s offspring also:

The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” (Genesis 16.10 – 12, ESV)

Genesis is the book of beginnings, and here is the beginning of the Arab nations, many of whom are doing very well (witness the World Cup’s being played in Qatar last month). So there is blessing, as God promised, but there are also centuries of conflict, political and religious. And this blessing includes Muslims coming to faith in Jesus in droves. This Newsweek article from 2019 captures some of it.

I have no conclusions. I’m just making observations. It certainly appears that Abram and Sarai were wrong to try to help God out, but God has woven even that indiscretion into the tapestry of God’s story. And I guess one lesson is, always do the next right thing, which includes loving ALL of our neighbors: Jews, Arabs, whomever.

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,… (Philippians 3.13, ESV)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22.34 – 39, ESV)

I try to make every blog in the Ewellogy meaningful, but I’m not sure I’m going to succeed with this one, but this is too…something…not to share. See what you think.

I received a text from my good friend Thomas the other day. Thomas and I met in a discipling relationship for several years before he and his wife, Danielle, went to North Carolina so she could work as a nurse at the Duke University hospital. Here’s a sentence from the text, a sentence I didn’t understand:

I take you with me on every underwater adventure at sea.

Say what? Then he sent a clarifying picture:

I’m pretty sure that June and I have never before had SCUBA tanks named for us!

GOD formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul! (Genesis 2.7, MSG)

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD! (Psalm 150.6, ESV)

Before we continue Abram’s story in Genesis 16, I want to go back and pick up something from near the beginning. I’ve always thought this paragraph was sad:

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. …Now Lot, who was going with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while living together, for their possessions were so abundant that they were not able to live together. (Genesis 13.2 – 6, LSB)

This shows that Abram and his family believed in private rather than communal property. It’s a little surprising when you think about it: two members of the same family, living as nomads, you’d think their property would be communal.

But it wasn’t. It seems sad that their wealth prevented community. “Their possessions were so abundant that they were not able to live together.”

It seems this attitude continued even to Isaiah’s day:

Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. (Isaiah 5.8, ESV)

Dwelling alone…that’s what Abram and Lot did.

That makes the early church’s attitude that much more surprising. The first Christians, the Acts 2 Christians, were Jews, descended, of course, from Abram (later called Abraham). So they would have believed in private property. However:

All those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. (Acts 2.44, 45, NAS)

And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. (Acts 4.32, NAS)

I’m just reporting…not advocating! However, those of us who are wealthy (most people reading this blog) could probably stand to be a little more open-handed with our possessions. Think how many families have been divided, for example, by will-readings!

Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12.13 – 15, ESV)

Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6.17 – 19, MSG)