20 Apr April 19th Weekly Devotional
Now the LORD had said to Abram: Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3
Abram (Abraham) was 75 years old when God told him this. He tells him to get up and leave his family, his father’s house, and go to a land that the LORD is going to show him. Abraham has essentially been promised that through his descendants, the whole earth will be blessed, not to mention he has been asked to leave everything he knows.
The issue is, Abraham doesn’t have any descendants, he is 75 years old, and his wife Sarai (Sarah) is barren. But verse 4 says, So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.
In Gen 13 we find Abraham inheriting the land of Canaan, and 14 years pass before Lot is taken into captivity by the king of Admah. Abraham takes his own personal army and goes and takes Lot back.
In Gen 15 Abram brings back up to God that he still has no heir, but God takes him outside and tells him to look up toward heaven and count the stars if he is able, and he told him “so shall your descendants be.” And Abraham believed, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Gen 15:5-6.
In Gen 17 Abram still has no descendants but God continues to promise him saying He will establish His covenant with Abram and his descendants, an everlasting covenant.
Then in Gen 18, the LORD appears to Abraham, and tells him that his wife Sarah will have a son. Sarah laughs, denies it, but the LORD knew she laughed, of course.
Gen 19-20 Abraham intercedes for Lot and his family before the city of Sodom and the others are destroyed, Abraham claims Sarah is his sister for the second time to the king of Gerar, which technically she is (half) as they have the same father, but different mothers.
Then finally, Gen 21:1-7, And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
25 years Abraham waited for God to fulfill His promise. 25 years really isn’t that long when compared to how long some would wait for the plan of God. Joseph waited 13 years from the time he was sold into slavery until he became governor of Egypt. Moses departed from Pharoah’s house to the land of Midian for 40 years before God called him back from the burning bush, then would spend 40 years wandering the desert with the complaining Israelites, still not entering the physical land of Canaan. David would wait 10-15 years from the time Samuel anointed him as king before he would assume the throne.
Simeon and Anna the prophetess would wait a lifetime at the temple before seeing the Son of God, Messiah, before they would die.
And Jesus Himself would wait 4,000 or so years from the moment the world began, and who knows how long before that, before He would come to the world, because of His and the Father’s love for the world, to offer up Himself so that we might be saved.
By faith he (Abraham) dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:9-10.
So in a busy week, are we waiting on the Lord’s plan, or are we pursuing our own plan? Wait on the Lord. “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”-Jesus
