SRC: The Pentateuch – Day 4

I find it very interesting and very reflective of who we are that in this chapter Abram decides not to wait on the Lord for an heir anymore but takes matters into his own hands.  Since Sarai is baren she tells Abram to have a child with her handmaid, Hagar and a whole mess of problems insues.  How often are we like this.  We have no patience with how things are turning out so we try to rush God and make things happen on our own.  And the problems insue.  If we learn to have patience and wait on the Lord, He will never fail in His promises.

Here we have the changing of the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah.  It is also in this chapter that God reaffirms His promise to Abraham that he will be a father of many nations.  God then displays His greatness in allowing Sarah and Abraham to have children at the age of 90 and 100, respectively.  Nothing is impossible for God.

If God were discuss with you the fate of the nation, like He did with Abraham in this chapter, would He find 50 righteous people in the nation?  What about your city/town?  Would you be counted as one of them?  What needs to change?

This chapter contains one of the saddest stories in Genesis and is proof that a godly Christian can fall into a lifestyle of sin.  Lot looked at the world and liked what he saw and kept moving towards it until he was so deeply involved with it he could not pull himself and his family out.  In one day, he lost all his “friends”, his wife, and his dignity with his daughters.  We need to be reminded that sin takes us farther than we ever want to go.

Once again, we see God taking care of Abraham even when he is doing his own things.  Abraham has chosen to lie to those around him so that he is not killed and yet we see that an ungodly man has more character and integrity than Abraham – the example of a righteous man.  When the world looks at you as a Christian, do they see any difference?