The story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice his son is understandably one of the most challenging events to understand in the Bible. But when rightly understood, it is one of the most beautiful stories foreshadowing God's loving sacrifice for us. It's important to keep in mind that God was in control of the situation the entire time, and He knew that Isaac would remain safe. God was using a "test" for Abraham that he would have understood culturally at that time -- to give up your son for the God you serve was the ultimate act of obedience. To be clear, God NEVER desires or requires us to make that sacrifice. But ultimately what this moment showed is a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come. God does not require us to give up our son, but He was willing to give up His for our sake. God Himself, in the incarnation of Jesus, is the ultimate provision. PASSAGE: Genesis 22:14 - "So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” PAUSE: Abraham and Isaac's encounter on Mount Moriah foreshadowed the Messiah's death on Calvary. May we never forget the Bible stories that ultimately point us to Jesus and the provision that he provided on the cross. At just the right time in history, Christ died on the cross for our sins and provided salvation to all who place their faith in him as their personal Savior. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, who provides a way to you and the forgiveness of sins. Allow me to see that you also want to provide for my daily needs. Thank you for all you do.
God knows exactly WHAT we need and exactly WHEN we need it. We so often cry out to God to help us in our times of desperation, but we need to remain attentive to recognize when He provides the answer right in front of us. It's easy to let our eyes stay fixed on the trial, the trouble, the pain, the heartache, but when we do that, we can miss what God is providing for us. No matter what situation you're going through, keep your eyes fixed on Him--the ultimate comforter--provider--healer--Savior! PASSAGE: Genesis 22:13 - "And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." PAUSE: Abraham lifted his eyes and saw a ram in the thicket. Too often, we live our lives with our heads down, feeling depleted and depressed. Abraham is an excellent reminder to lift our heads and see what the Lord will provide us. Lift your eyes and see the Lord. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, forgive me for all my doubts and confusions about life. I often keep my head down and fail to see where you work. Today, I look up.
God allows trials in our lives to accomplish two things. First, He desires to break the hold that our idols have on our lives. This is the process of detaching from secondary things that we have wrongly made the first thing (idol) in our life. But God’s purpose in allowing trials in our lives does not end there. Once He detaches us from second things, there is now the opportunity for us to truly turn to Him as our first thing--as our Lord! This is the essence of the Christian journey. Detaching from things that have a wrong hold on our life and attaching to God as our hope and our help and our everything. And the Lord specializes in providing for us in the midst of our trials--His wisdom and strength and presence that will deepen our faith in Him and will sustain us and grow us through the trial. And the amazing thing is that God’s provision for us is the provision of Himself! PASSAGE: Genesis 22:8 - "Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together." PAUSE: The God Most High is our provision and strength. When our faith is tested, we must trust that the Lord will provide. When our finances are low, the Lord will provide. When our marriage is on shaky ground, the Lord will provide. When our children wander, the Lord will provide. The Lord sees what you are going through and will provide what you need at the perfect time. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, grant me Abraham's faith. I strongly doubt I could do what Abraham did with Isaac, yet that is the type of faith I want. Increase my trust in you today!
John Calvin once said: “The human heart is an idol factory!” The twisted nature of our sinful hearts is to take good things like family, work, possessions, entertainment, hobbies and turn them into ultimate things. Our hearts make gods out of them and put them on the throne of our lives as the thing we truly live for. When we do this, we mistakenly come to believe that they can give us the sense of significance and security, safety and fulfillment that only Jesus Christ can give us. Imagine you are in Abraham's sandals and God has asked you to put to death the good thing in your life that you have made an idol out of. Can you be honest enough with yourself to identify what that thing in your life is? Usually, we downplay our idols or even live in denial that it is an idol. Ask Jesus to give you the courage and the faith to name your idol and then to put Jesus back on the throne of your life and to put your idol back down into its proper place. This is not an easy process and it takes time and great humility. PASSAGE: Genesis 22:2 - "Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” PAUSE: The Lord often tests us with potential idols we might place before him. Some of us love our family first, others our finances and possessions first, and many of us love our comfort and security, but the Lord wants to be first. Our number one priority as believers is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength. The Lord is a jealous God and desires our affection. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I love you and thank you for all the people and possessions you have blessed me with. Help me to keep you as my first love!
Faith is not just believing the right things but it is walking in obedience to God based on our firm conviction of His righteous character and His ultimate plan for our lives. Central to this life of faith for New Testament Christians are the clear admonitions in Christ’s teachings in the gospels and the apostles teachings throughout the epistles. In virtually every conceivable aspect of life, God’s Word has given us God’s will for our attitudes and actions as Christ-followers. So, our version of “Here I am Lord” is our faith/choice to say to God, “I am all in with You Lord. From my inner attitudes to my outer actions, I am going to seek Your will through Your Word and Your Spirit and then in Your strength I am going to live it out, put it into practice. Because You are my Lord! You have purchased me with Your blood and my life belongs to You. Your agenda is my agenda.” And then go and do it! PASSAGE: Genesis 22:1 - "Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied." PAUSE: God tested Abraham! Tests are not meant to catch us off guard; instead, they are opportunities to prove to ourselves and others that our preparation is authentic. Abraham affirms to himself and other believers that his faith in the Lord is genuine. God is not interested in proving us wrong; instead, he desires to prove us right before him and those closest to us. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, change my perspectives on tests. Allow me to see tests and trials as opportunities to strengthen my faith and to show the world that my faith is genuine.
Join us each day for a devotional in the Patriarch series. Sign up for “Devotional Reminders” in The Chapel app’s notification settings. February 5 - Genesis 22:1 February 6 - Genesis 22:2 February 7 - Genesis 22:8 February 8 - Genesis 22:13 February 9 - Genesis 22:14
"I have some bad news, and some good news..." When you hear this, people often start by telling you the bad news, because the good news that follows solves the problem of the bad news. The Gospel message is no different! We are stuck in our trespasses and unworthy of a relationship with God by our own actions. That's really bad news. But there is good news that follows -- Jesus lived a perfect life and He IS worthy. Even though He did not deserve to receive any punishment, He took upon Himself the sins of you, me, and the whole world in order to share in His right-standing before God. He is ready to share that right-standing, innocent verdict with you. Follow Him, and His righteousness will be counted to you. PASSAGE: Romans 4:23-25 - "But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." PAUSE: The good news of Jesus Christ is that He was delivered up for our trespasses and that He was raised for our justification. When we believe in Christ, we believe in His death and resurrection. The result of that faith is that we are declared to be righteous. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we praise you for sending your Son to die for my sins. Thank you for raising Him on the third day as proof that His sacrifice satisfied your judgment against sin. Thank you for counting me as righteous by giving me the righteousness of Christ.
In the blink of an eye, Abraham was declared righteous! It wasn't from a lifetime of hard work and achievements. It wasn't from following a 10-step-plan for justification. It wasn't from anything he DID. In fact, it is the opposite. Salvation comes in the moment of surrender when we give up control and surrender in obedience to follow Christ. Abraham's belief/trust/surrender was not a work to boast about, but rather it was receiving the gift from God. Only by God, through God, from God do we receive the declaration of righteousness. He is the just and the justifier. (see Rom. 3:26). It is all because of Him--not our works! PASSAGE: Romans 4:2-3 - "For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” PAUSE: If getting saved is something we could earn through our good works, we would have something to boast about before God! But like Abraham, we are justified (declared not guilty) based on our faith and not our good works. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, forgive me for ever trying to show you my resume of good works, thinking that it would earn me a right standing before you. Thank you for your saving grace!
Righteousness is having a right standing before God based on living a life that is in perfect alignment with God’s holy standard or commands. Our core problem is that because of our sinfulness, no person can live a righteous life on their own in order to earn that right standing before God. We always fall short! (Romans 3:23). So, God designed a way that we can have that right standing before Him, not by earning it but by receiving it as a gift! When we stop working to earn it and simply place our trust in Jesus Christ, the One who is actually righteous (He lived a perfect & holy life) and who died for our sins, we are credited with His righteousness and thus given that right standing before God. In other words, we are justified (declared not guilty)! And once justified we are given a new power (Holy Spirit) in order to live a new life for the Lord. A life that is progressively victorious over sin and progressively in alignment with His good purposes for us. In other words, righteous! PASSAGE: Genesis 15:6 - "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." PAUSE: Abram models genuine faith. Faith entails trust in or confident reliance on God based upon the truthfulness of His words. This kind of faith always leads to obedience to His commands! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you so much that righteousness is not something we can earn because we would always fall short. But righteousness is credited to us when we simply place our faith in Christ!
God is absolutely faithful and powerful in fulfilling His promises to us! But we need to be clear about what God has actually promised us and what He has not promised us. He has promised to save completely those who come to Him by faith alone in Christ alone. He has promised to be with us and to never leave us nor forsake us. He has promised that nothing can separate His children from His love. He has promised that He who began a good work in us when He saved us will be faithful to complete it. He has promised to be about the business of transforming us to be more like Jesus in every aspect of our lives. He has promised us that he will use trials to test our faith in order to develop in us a persevering, maturing faith. He has not promised that the Christian life would be easy or that He would protect us from the difficulties and hardships of living in a fallen world, only that He would be with us in the midst of them, that we might shine for His glory. He promised that His grace would be sufficient for us no matter what we face. Thank You Lord! PASSAGE: Genesis 15:5 - "He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” PAUSE: What an incredible promise from God. He takes an old man with no children and promises him offspring beyond the number of stars. And what we now know is that God pulled it off just as He said! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, the only thing more amazing than Your beautiful promises is that You fulfill every single one of them every single time! Thank You, Lord!
It often seems to us that the events of the Old Testament are remote and have nothing to do with our lives today. But this is not true at all! The events of Abraham’s life are like Chapter One in our personal faith story. He is the model for us of salvation through faith alone and he is the starting point of God’s promise and plan that finds its conclusion in Jesus Christ our Savior & Lord. There is a direct line from Abraham to Jesus and then from Jesus to us! PASSAGE: Genesis 15:1 - "After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." PAUSE: After Abram rejected the offer from the king of Sodom for victory and the spoils of war (14:21-24), he is ready to receive the promise of God’s great reward. A reward that starts with a son then leads to a nation (Israel), then culminates in all the nations being blessed through him in the person of Christ! PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your plan of salvation that You initiated with Abram and culminated with Christ! Thank You that Abram’s reward is ultimately our reward!
Join us each day for a devotional in the Patriarch series. Sign up for “Devotional Reminders” in The Chapel app’s notification settings. January 29 - Genesis 15:1 January 30 - Genesis 15:5 January 31 - Genesis 15:6 February 1 - Romans 4:2-3 February 2 - Romans 4:23-25
If we are not giving God our first and our best, we are giving Him our leftovers. Think about it this way--each day, you only have so much energy to divide up between all of the things you need to do. If you spend too much energy on one thing or another, you will be functioning only on what's left over at the end of the day. Maybe you wake up at 4AM to workout, go to work for 12 hours, miss dinnertime, and come home just in time to put the kids to bed. You are incredibly hard-working, but your energy output is lopsided. You are likely giving your first and your best to exercise and work, but your family is getting the leftovers. When we give to God--whether it's our time, energy, or finances--we need to be intentional about giving to Him first! PASSAGE: Proverbs 3:9-10 - "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine." PAUSE: Authentic and genuine faith believes strongly in a give-first mentality. Trusting in the Lord begins when we consistently and practically give back to the Lord our total financial blessing, not our leftovers. Our faith is inept if we try to negotiate or justify giving anything less than the best of our blessings. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for how you have blessed me. I want to show my gratitude by giving you the best of my blessings.
Who are you calling inferior?! We live in a culture where it's easy to misunderstand statements like this in Scripture, but I want to quickly walk you through it. The priest (and king) Melchizedek, in this moment, received an offering (tithe--a tenth) from Abraham, so Melchizedek placed a blessing on him. Abraham's future descendants, the Levitical priests, would also collect a tithe from their people. This passage tells us that the future Levitical priests (inferior) were blessed by Melchizedek (superior) through the blessing he gave to Abraham. The Levitical priests are inferior because they are mere men who will die, but Melchizedek is described as a type or foreshadowing of Christ (the priest and king who will rule forever). We need to recognize in our lives that all the blessings we have are from God. There is no work we can do or any tithe we could give to earn that blessing. We don't receive the blessing because we are superior, in fact, it's the opposite. We are blessed by the free gift of salvation when we come to a humble position of saying, "Lord, I am inferior and incapable of saving myself. I need you!" PASSAGE: Hebrews 7:7 - "It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior." PAUSE: The encounter of Abraham and Melchizedek reminds us of who God is and who we are. All our blessings are in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3), which should cause us to worship and trust him with our lives. Christ is the superior, and we are the inferior; everything we have is a blessing from Christ. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help me to stay humble and faithful. Help me realize that all my spiritual and financial blessings are because of you, not me!
How big is your God? How powerful is your God? If you have over-fixated on CNN or Fox News it may seem that the world is out of control and that God is not in control. My friend, do not be deceived! If your God is the God revealed in Scripture, then He always has everything under (His) control! Yes, the Lord gives the world over to its own devices and the Lord gives the devil a certain amount of latitude to deceive the lost. But the Kingdom-building work of God is unstoppable and not even the gates of hell can slow it down. In His sovereignty, the God Most High has already written “the rest of the story”, and already won the final battle. And He is sovereignly, lovingly leading your life with the goal of transforming you to be more like Jesus in your character and in your love capacity. O God, You alone are worthy!!! PASSAGE: Genesis 14:22 - "But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath" PAUSE: The God Most High is mentioned three times in this section. Abram and Melchizedek had a spiritual alliance that God was sovereign and that the Lord created the heavens and the earth. Faith is built upon God’s sovereignty. PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I, like Abram and Melchizedek, praise you as the God Most High. Help me to trust in your sovereign love and faithfulness.
