Genesis – It Is Finished

Wise home builders — Rebecca

I have to confess that I didn’t always think Rebecca was a very wise home builder. I thought she was a bit manipulative “deceiving” Isaac. And for favoring one child over the other. But a few years ago as I was working on my Proverbs 31 Bible study and looking at all of these different women, I began to see Rebecca differently. I believe I began to see her through Abba’s eyes… and I hope you do too.

Rebecca had been barren for 20 years. And now, her pregnancy was not an easy one. The Bible says the babies struggled within her. The Hebrew word for struggled means to crush or oppress. It sounds like a violent word. I’ve had 4 babies and they all moved around a lot while I was pregnant and occasionally kicked really hard. But it wasn’t a violent moving around. I can’t even imagine what that must’ve felt like. She wanted to know why this was happening to her….

So Rebecca inquired of the Lord (Genesis 25:22). This is the first time that a woman is mentioned as “inquiring of the Lord.” That tells us a lot about Rebecca’s relationship with God. Something didn’t seem right to her about this pregnancy. God had blessed her with a baby after 20 years and it didn’t seem “normal” to have sorrow or trouble with it (Proverbs 10:22)….. there was a violent warring going on in her womb. She obviously had a personal relationship with God and wanted to hear what He had to say on the matter.

In Genesis 25:22-28 tells us that Rebecca inquired of the Lord and He answered her with his plan for the Jews – she had 2 nations at war in her womb. He said they would be divided from birth…. two nations, two kingdoms. The Hebrew word for nations is goyim, which means both Jewish and Gentile nations. The Jewish nation of Israel will be from Jacob, and the Gentile nation will be from Esau (later the nation of Edom). One people will be stronger than the other because Israel will be stronger than Edom. And the older will serve the younger (Second Samuel 8:12-14) because Edom would be enslaved to Israel.

Romans 9:10-13 emphasizes the importance of God’s word to Rebekah. Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose in election might stand, not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” The LORD’s choice of Jacob, the younger, to inherit His covenant promise was made before the boys were even born. This showed that the choice did not depend on what either did. This was not about birth order but rather Divine election. Jacob’s destiny was to produce the lineage that the Deliverer would come…. to be an heir of the Promise (Hebrews 11:9).

After she had given birth, it says Isaac loved Esau and Rebecca loved Jacob. This is more than just parental favoritism over children. Rebecca understood the importance of God’s word to her. She chose what God had already chosen. In order to understand this, we have to look at the natures of the two sons.

Esau

Genesis 25:27 gives two descriptions of Esau…..

cunning or skillful hunter
a man of the field.

He was a skillful hunter. This isn’t referring to him as a rugged hunter. A manly man. An outdoorsman like Daniel Boone. It isn’t a positive characteristic. Another man earlier in Genesis is described as a skillful hunter… Nimrod. Josephus said of Nimrod that he “excited them (the people) to such an affront and contempt of God.” The meaning of Nimrod’s name is “rebel” or “let us revolt.” He had contempt for the plans of God and he hunted men, enslaving them in his rebellion. Esau was a man of the field who knew entrapment. “Knew how to trap” in the Hebrew implies that he used superficial righteousness to trap with his mouth/words. Basically, he may have talked the talk but he didn’t walk the walk! He was a man of the flesh who knew how to deceive. He was a man ruled by his carnal nature… by his senses.

Esau was a man of the field who knew entrapment. “Knew how to trap” in the Hebrew implies that he used superficial righteousness to trap with his mouth or his words. Basically, he may have talked the talk but he didn’t walk the walk! He was a man of the flesh who knew how to deceive. He was a man ruled by his carnal nature… by his senses.

He sold his birthright for a bowl of stew! Genesis is not the only place we are told that. It’s mentioned in Hebrews 12:16 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. In this verse he is described as godless and immoral…. a fornicator and profane. Fornicator would refer to idol worship. He had married foreign, idolatrous Hittite wives. Profane refers to people unfit to access (to know) God because they approach Him apart from faith. Esau didn’t know God. He gave away his birthright… the verb literally means “to give it away.” In Genesis 27:34 the fact that he is so upset over Jacob having the Blessing indicates that he had an understanding of how powerful The Blessing was and yet still gave it away… he had an understanding of its power but not a care for it. It meant nothing to him.

This is Esau. He had no ethics or faith, no scruples or reverence. He had no regard for the good, the truthful, the divine. He was totally worldly, totally secular, totally profane. He married foreign women who worshipped other gods and they were a source of grief to his parents… in Hebrew, it says they were bitterness to his parent’s spirits. Even later he added to those wives one of Ishmael’s daughters. He had no love for God or the things of God.

Jacob

I think Jacob has gotten a bad rap over the years. He’s often described as deceitful, a schemer, and stealing the Blessing from Esau. But how does Holy Spirit describe Jacob in Genesis? After all, His opinion is the only one that matters. Genesis 25:27 says he was a plain man who dwelt in tents.

The Hebrew word translated as mild or plain is “tam” meaning complete, pious, perfect, undefiled, and upright. “Tam” is one of the most common words the Bible uses to refer to being wholeheartedly devoted to walking with God. This word is the opposite of our English word “hypocrite.” He was a man wholeheartedly for God….. sincere in his love for God. This is the Holy Spirit’s basic assessment of Jacob’s character.

He was a man of integrity who dwelled in tents! The writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 11:9) says their choice to dwell in tents was an act of faith! He, like Abraham and Isaac, chooses to focus on the Promise of God. So from this we know he was a man of faith. Another character trait of Jacob’s that we see is in chapter 27 when he is pretending to be Esau. He is kind and gentle. In verse 19 he asks Isaac to please sit up and eat compared to verse 31 when Esau speaks to his dad he just tells him to sit up and eat.

His name has been defined as “deceiver” but actually, it means heel. Because as they came out of the womb, Jacob grabbed Esau’s heel. It doesn’t strike me as a negative word. Remeber they were struggling (crush or oppress) together in the womb. It sounds like Jacob was Esau’s determined pursuer…. the one who would overtake and dispossess him. Hosea 12:3 mentions it and calls it strength. Rebecca named him according to his destiny….. according to the prophetic promise she had from God.

Rebecca’s intervention

Rebecca like Eve and Sarah held onto God’s Word. She guarded and protected what God had told her.

Rebekah is often blamed for the partiality or favoritism she manifested for Jacob. I don’t believe that’s true. She believed God. She loved Jacob because Jacob was the Lord’s preference. … Rom 9:13 God says Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated…. speaking of two opposing nations. An opportunity presented itself and she took it. In Genesis 27 it says Isaac was going to bless Esau his firstborn as soon as he came back from hunting. She heard this and then responded in faith.

I’m not sure why Isaac was going to bless Esau with the Blessing. Esau had already married two Hittite wives and made life miserable for Isaac and Rebecca. Didn’t Isaac realize that with idolatrous wives it would be difficult to produce the lineage of the Promised Deliver? That because of idolatry Esau wouldn’t be able to walk in the Blessing that Isaac was giving to him? All I can determine is that Esau was very cunning and very deceptive and had Isaac completely bewitched. But regardless of why Isaac was ready to bless Esau, Rebecca was aligned with God’s choice. Holding onto and acting on the promise God had given her.

Rebecca sided with God’s preference. She recognized Jacob as the chosen son… just like Isaac had been the chosen son. Holding onto and acting on the promise God had given her. Faith requires action. And Rebecca acted on her faith. When God blessed her with pregnancy and it wasn’t going so smoothly, she sought God to find out why. This showed great faith and strength of spirit. There is no reason not to think that when it seemed like Esau would receive the Blessing that God had promised Jacob that she again sought the Lord in prayer. That may have given her the confidence she needed to pursue His promise.

She was a woman who had the faith to ask for guidance and who had the faith to follow it; because of her faith, she was able to be a great co-laborer with God and influence the whole course of history. She was protecting a lineage. She continued to protect it by sending Jacob away when Esau plotted to murder him. And also by sending him to find a godly wife instead of an idolatrous Canaanite wife. Rebekah was a wise home builder risking deception to follow God’s promise, and His plan unfolded exactly as He had told her.

Are you watching over the words God has spoken to you? Protecting His promises over your family at all costs…. even if your actions and character are misunderstood? Are you co-laboring with Him to see His plans unfold exactly as He has told you?

~ Robin

Wise home builders — Eve

The wisest of women builds her house, (she saves her household with her wisdom) but folly (lack of good sense or judgment) tears it down with her own hands” ~ Proverbs 14:1

Yesterday I began a blog post series on “A Woman’s Purpose” entitled Wonder Woman. God created us as women in His image and likeness. I didn’t grow up with that understanding. I didn’t grow up in church, so everything I knew about a woman’s purpose came either from TV or from observing my parents relationship.

My dad was a good man. A good provider and protector of his family. He was however extremely chauvinistic and domineering. My mom, while she was a strong woman, she was very submissive. That was what the expected roles in marriage. They grew up in an era where women didn’t have many career options, and in marriage, the man was the supreme head of the house… there was no equality. I, on the other hand, grew up in the era of Mary Tyler Moore, Charlie’s Angels, and Laverne & Shirley… all independent women who had freedom, careers and no husband to submit to.

So, not surprisingly, I wanted a life different from my mom’s. I moved out on my own at 19 because all of those women in the tv shows lived on their own. I wanted a career, and I didn’t want to get married until I was 30… after becoming self-sufficient, living a life that I wanted…. having freedom and not being told what to do by a domineering husband.

I believed that women kind of got the short end of the stick. That our purpose was to live a life of submission… never questioning our husband’s absolute authority or decisions. I realize now that God created us in His image and likeness…. that we are as Proverbs 31 calls us “virtuous women” or “women of excellence”.

Proverbs 31 became very special to me in my late 20’s. Steve (my husband) read it to me before we started “officially” dating and told me that it described me. In his eyes, I was the Proverbs 31 woman. Of course, after marriage and babies, I began to have a love/hate relationship with the Proverbs 31 woman. It seemed so far out of reach…. this woman appeared to be a type of wonder woman! Unattainable for someone like me!! It seemed like I was always falling so short and that God had set the bar too high for me. It looked like a domestic checklist, and I wasn’t exactly Martha Stewart!

But then God began to give me the revelation that it is a picture of who I was created to be and it’s how He sees me “now”…… not someday when I get it all together.

Phil 1:6: being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you (me….Robin) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

There are 150 words in Hebrew in this poem (Proverbs 31). The word “female” in Hebrew is nekeiva (nun-kuf-beit-hei). This number, when represented by Hebrew letters, is nun kuf (the first two letters o the word female in Hebrew). The last two letters in the Hebrew word female is beit hei which is a spelling for the Hebrew word “bah” which means “within her”.. literally 150 in her.

So, the word for female, nekeiva, can be read as “150 within her.” All the words, all the meaning, all the potential and all the beauty of the 150 words is within us as women. I don’t have to strive to become this woman, it’s already in me waiting for me to walk in the revelation of it. We are right now fully equipped by God to be what our husbands need to excel and to prosper as men of God.

In the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, there is a scene where the two older women are talking to the younger woman about their power/strength as a woman. They tell her that “the woman, she is the neck and she turns the head whichever direction she chooses.” While it’s funny, there is truth to it. We as women are the neck… either to manipulate it by turning it the direction “we” choose or to be the support system that allows the “head” (our husbands) to function in full mobility.

The term “woman of valor” is only used in the Old Testament to describe Ruth. There are, however, other women in the Bible who were beautiful women of excellence in their families. They were wise builders of their homes… protecting the seed.. securing their future generations. Hating evil and loving righteousness. Respectfully opposing their husbands when the need arose to protect the direction of God in their lives.

One of those women is Eve. I know, I know we tend to only remember that she sinned and caused the fall of man in the Garden. She chose to believe the enemy instead of God. But after leaving the Garden, Eve held on to what God said in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

This was her promise! A seed would come forth from her…. a seed that would hate evil and love righteousness. A deliverer would come from her!

She held onto the promise of God and spoke it forth…

Genesis 4:1 reveals to us that when she gave birth to Cain, she had the promise of God before her….. she knew she had acquired this child from the Lord. She sounds like she fully expected that the promise was fulfilled when she had her first child. Here was the offspring that would crush the enemies head!

Hebrews 10:23 tells us to “hold fast to the hope set before us”…. Eve was doing just that by naming the son Cain. The name Cain basically meant “I’ve got him” or “here he is.” Most likely Eve thought that Cain was the seed that God promised, the deliverer who would come from Eve.

Obviously, this didn’t prove to be true. But Eve continued to believe……

She persevered with what God had said even after she was wrong the first time

When Cain killed Abel her expectations of the “promised seed” came to naught. Later, when she bore Seth she exclaimed, “For God has appointed another seed.” She held fast to hope of the promise.

With Cain, she was expressing her faith in God’s promise. In Hebrew, it reads kaniti ish et-Adonai, “I have gotten a man – namely, the Lord“. This expressed her hope that this child would be the promised Deliverer in the flesh form of a man. At some point, she noticed the differences between her sons. She would’ve noticed that Abel, not Cain, was a lover of righteousness. Perhaps he was the seed. After he is murdered her hope is restored through the birth of Seth.

She said of Seth, “God has appointed me another seed, instead of Abel” She seemed to have an understanding when she gave birth to Seth that God had assigned another seed for her. The promised Deliverer would not be brought forth from her but rather she would give birth to an appointed seed. And that seed that would produce a lineage that would one day give birth to the Deliverer.

The next couple of verses in chapter 4 tell us that through Seth’s descendant’s men began calling on the Name of the Lord. They had faith in God as the Faithful One…. keeping His covenant promise with them. And they began proclaiming who He was in their lives.

Eve was a wise builder of her home… of her future generations. She is a beautiful example to us of a woman with steadfast faith. A woman of excellence…. directing her family in the promises of God. She looked ahead to Christ and His redemption of mankind.

Are you holding on to the promises of God… holding fast to hope? Speaking out His promises over your families lives? Even when you miss it….. continuing steadfast until you see the manifestation of it?

Next blog post we’ll look at Sarah

~ Robin

Wonder Woman

This is the first in a series of blog posts about “A Woman’s Purpose.” It’s important that as women we see ourselves as God sees us… as He created us to be. A couple of weeks ago my daughters (both young women now) told me that I was a combo of Wonder Woman and Belle (on Beauty and the Beast). Great compliment from my girls. They see me as strong and powerful and yet at the same time compassionate and kind. I love that!

We are Daddy’s girls. We belong to Him. He took special care in creating us… each of us uniquely reflecting Him.

When we can begin to see ourselves through our Daddy’s eyes we will fulfill our destiny as women of God… Kingdom women. And as a result, our marriages, families, churches, cities, and nation will all be stronger because of it.

true beauty

Because there is nothing more beautiful than a woman who knows who she is IN CHRIST.

We are beautiful, powerful and created on purpose as women!

We were created with a purpose..….

to reflect the image of God… His glory!
to have dominion… dominion is when a person uses their influence to cause those under them to flourish.
to be a life giver… Adam called his wife Eve which means “the life-giving one.” We are to release life….
- One of the ways we release life is through our words
  - Prov 18:21 “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
  - Romans 4:17 “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.”

God loves His daughters. He created us differently than He created men. He took great care with us! We are the grand finale of His creation… His masterpiece…. His pièces de résistance!!

In Genesis 2:20-22 God creates a suitable helpmeet for Adam. Woman was “built” not formed like Adam was. Formed means to press and form into shape as a potter does with clay. Built is to be “skillfully formed”.…it’s an architectural plan or pattern, including all the details of arrangement and decoration.

According to Jewish tradition, “The woman came out of a man’s rib. Not from his feet to be walked on. Not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal. Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.”

Our Daddy has a special love for His girls. He wrote an entire Proverb about us women to show us what we look like in His eyes. I used to not like Proverbs 31 because it seemed like such an unattainable goal!! How could I possibly be all those things that this woman is?? But God didn’t give us a picture of a woman that we couldn’t be! He didn’t even give us a picture of a woman we should strive to become. What He did give us in this picture of the Proverbs 31 woman is a picture of a woman we already are…. what He sees when He looks at us.

We don’t have to strive to become this woman… she is not an ideal that we are trying to achieve. All her qualities are already in us waiting for us to walk in it. The Proverbs 31 woman in the Hebrew is described like this…. “who can find powerful, mighty, vailiant woman?”…. Synonyms for these 3 words include wielding power, superhuman, influential, strong, unafraid and brave. Wow!

proverbs 31

This woman in its simplest translation is a warrior. God is saying with this Proverb… this is who you are woman of God!! Powerful, mighty, brave, strong, and influential. The reason we don’t walk in these characteristics or see ourselves like this is because we’ve allowed others to tell us who we are.. we’ve allowed they’re negative words to shape us and to define us.

It’s time we start allowing the Word to mold us into the women He has called us to be. A great place to find out who we were created to be is to go back to Genesis.

Adam was incomplete without her. The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. NIV Gen 2:18… we were created as a “good” thing… as something good for men. Someone to help him and someone suitable for him.

ezer kenegdo

Helper in this verse is a weak translation… it’s more powerful in the original Hebrew.. it means to be a life saver. In Hebrew suitable helper is ezer kenegdo. The word “ezer” is a combination of two words meaning to rescue or to save and also meaning to be strong. Literally an aid, a help, a guard, and a protector. One who offers assistance…. a kind of ”wall builder” or “gate keeper”.

Helper, or “ezer”, is not an inferior role to a man. God Himself is called our Helper (or our Ezer). Ezer describes aspects of God’s character – He is our strength, our rescuer, our protector, and our help! And this was His word choice to describe us as women. We were made to be a vessel of the “ezer” strength of God. It is a remarkable thing to co-labor with Him as women….. as a helper even as God is our Helper.

The word suitable is “kenegdo” in Hebrew and means “what is in front of” and also “according to” and translates as equal and adequate to himself or similar. God made a ‘power’ or ‘strength’ [ an ezer] for the man who would in every way ‘correspond to him’ who would ‘be his equal’. Who would be a source of strength to him on the same level, face-to-face

“Ezer” is used to describe a warrior who continually fights for the right and who is never intimidated by evil or by darkness…..a warrior on behalf of God’s kingdom, joining the man in battling the darkness, advancing God’s kingdom, and watching his back. She was never designed to just be “man’s assistant.” Ezer is a military image… a shield, a defense. She is the man’s intercessor, she is his shield and defense in battle. She is to guard his relationship with God, support him when he embraces God’s direction and respectfully oppose him when he does not.

But what about women who aren’t married? What does it mean to be a helpmate if you are single? An Ezer is not a wife.. “ezer” is a helper… a shield, a defense. An ezer is one who comes alongside another and brings strength to others.

Proverbs 14:1 The wisest of women builds her house, (she saves her household with her wisdom) but folly (lack of good sense or judgment) tears it down with her own hands”.

How does a wise woman build her house? Remember she’s a kind of wall builder or gate keeper…She guards and protects her family… including her future generations. She “builds” in them the Kingdom of God….she builds in them a love for righteousness and a hatred of evil.

Romans 13:12 says, we must wake up, rise up, remember who we are, and confront the evil in this world with light. It’s time as women to wake up and rise up. To know who we are IN CHRIST. To walk in the Light declaring that evil has no access to our homes or our future generations.

Let’s go back again to Genesis. Why did Satan approach Eve instead of Adam? Remember as an ezer, Eve was Adam’s protector… his help and rescuer. She was the gatekeeper. Adam was right there with her… the Hebrew implies he was close enough to touch her. Satan knew if he could deceive Eve, he could get to Adam

After the fall… God curses the serpent in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Enmity means to be an enemy; to hate as one of an opposite tribe; to be hostile. God, in essence, said to the serpent. “Women will be your enemy. They will hate you and be hostile toward you from this day forward. Furthermore, the hostility women have toward you will be reproduced in everyone they give birth to and one day a woman will give birth to the Savior of the world who will stomp on your head so hard it will bruise His heel.”

God put hostility or hatred between the serpent and the woman. Between in the Hebrew comes from a word meaning discernment. It’s going to take discernment on our part as women to recognize when the enemy is in our midst and trying to wreak havoc in our homes. Discernment is keen perception or judgment. It is to understand the plans, intent, thought or motive. Discernment goes beyond the obvious to hear the spirit

Discernment is keen perception or judgment. It is to understand the plans, intents, thoughts or motives of another. Discernment goes beyond the obvious and hears the spirit behind things that are said or done.

rooted in christ

To grow in discernment, we need to be renewing our minds in the Word of God… getting the mind of Christ functioning in our minds.. to be guided by His thoughts, purposes, and intents;

There are some women in the Bible that were wise builders of their homes… protecting the seed.. their future generations. Hating evil and loving righteousness and making sure their families walked securely.

In my next few blog posts, we’ll look at some of those women.

~ Robin

No Hebrew word for obey

I was reading an article by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and he said that there is no Hebrew word for “obey.” I always just assumed the actual word ‘obey’ was in the Hebrew Bible….it’s translated in our English Bibles, and it’s definitely in most sermons that are preached. I did some further research, and sure enough, there is no word in Hebrew for our English word ‘obey.’ The word translated obey in our Bibles is the Hebrew word “shema.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against obedience, and I’m definitely not advocating for disobedience. I am one of those people that obedience just comes naturally to. I was an extremely obedient kid… to the point of losing a cat once… but that’s another story for another blog! I also like rules…truthfully I LOVE following rules and setting them. In fact, my kids and husband call me the rule maker! I’m sure they mean it as a term of endearment… right??

Just as there is no Hebrew word meaning “obey,” there also is no English word for shema. While this Hebrew verb translates as “hear” it means much more than just hearing or listening. The King James Bible chose the verb ‘to hearken’ rather than hear. But now, nobody hearkens anymore so the English translators of the Bible didn’t know what to do with this verb. So they translated it as ‘obey’.

keys bible

But “obey” poses a problem…before we obey we usually go through a 3 part process.

We hear what God says
we evaluate the command based on our understanding
we make a choice to obey based on our evaluation.

That’s a Greek mindset to understand first then obey. But God doesn’t give us instructions in order that we might understand Him! He gives His instructions to us that we might live life well… Proverbs 10:17 “Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life.”

There are 613 commandments in the Old Testament and 1050 commandments in the New Testament. With so many “commandments” you would naturally assume that obedience is what God is requiring. But He’s not looking for obedience from us the way we understand obedience.

Webster’s Dictionary defines obey as to do what someone tells you to do or what a rule, law, etc., says you must do. Some synonyms are to submit, to keep, to comply, to be governed by, bow to, do one’s bidding, do what is expected, do as told, to take orders. Lots of English synonyms for a word that’s not even in the Hebrew language.

IF NOT OBEDIENCE — WHAT IS GOD LOOKING FOR?

So, what does God require from us? He’s looking for shema levot….for hearing hearts. A hearing heart is a heart that is intent on… or committed to… doing whatever God commands… whatever He asks from us. And most importantly a hearing heart is rooted in love (Deut 11:1; John 14:15; 1 John 5:3).

The first time “shema” appears in Scripture is in Genesis 3:8. “And they heard (shema) the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

Adam and Eve had just sinned and eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This scripture shows us God’s response to them in spite of their sin… in spite of them not following their hearing hearts and doing what God required of them. God came walking through His garden in the cool of the day.

The word walk is halak; it has the idea of moving or going as opposed to just sitting there. The term “cool of the day” wasn’t just added as a poetic phrase, the word cool is the word ruach which is the word for spirit.

Immediately following their disobedience they “heard”(shema) the Spirit of the Lord in the Garden ready to walk with them… eager to enjoy fellowshipping Spirit to spirit with them. They heard His Spirit come into the garden desiring to be with them like always.

To hear (shema) is hearing with understanding, attention, and with a response. Response to what? To come to Him and walk with His Spirit as usual. Allowing the wind of His Spirit to blow over them and make things right.

Our translations then tell us that God said “where are you?” Actually, in the Hebrew it is a Semitic idiomatic expression meaning “he is nowhere.” God wasn’t asking a question; He wasn’t asking where Adam was. He was crying out “Adam is nowhere in My heart.”

This is not a picture of an angry God who is looking for Adam so that he can punish his “disobedience”… this first look at sin for us is a picture of a caring Father so sad that His son left His heart.

Today let’s have hearing hearts, let’s respond to Him, walk with His Spirit, committed to doing whatever He asks. Today let’s be hearers and doers.

~Robin

Abraham’s Journey part 3….. from Abram to Abraham

abraham in hebrew

So in our last 2 blog posts, Abram has been on a journey with God… a journey towards his destiny… a journey of finding the Abraham that God created him to be. This journey required that he leave behind his father, his family, and his country. God wanted to be a Father to Abram and to transform Abram into Abraham, the father of many nations. First, though he had to be taught what a true father is…. his father was not teaching him about a covenant relationship with God but rather covenant relationships with idols. Abraham made the choice to leave and set out on this journey to Canaan.

Abraham made the choice to leave and set out on this journey to Canaan.

He took his wife Sarai with him and all their cattle and servants that they accumulated in Haran… and verse 4 says that Lot went with him. In the Hebrew it says Lot walked (halak) with him…. halak means to live following a manner of life, to follow the precepts of God, to follow after. Lot was following Abram who was following God… reminds me of 1 Cor 11:1 when Paul told the Corinthians to “follow him as I follow Christ” or “imitate me as I imitate Christ”.

Jump ahead 5 chapters to chapter 17 and Abram is now 99. It’s here that God gives Abram a token… a sign of the covenant He made with him in chapter 15… after he rescued Lot and gave a 10th of all (tithe) to Melchizedek. This was a covenant of grace… Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. It’s here also that God reveals himself to Abram as El Shaddai….the God who is enough… Who is able and is everything we need. It also comes from a root meaning “to pour out”…I am that God who pours out blessings, who gives them richly, abundantly, continually.”

Then He tells Abram to walk before him and be blameless. At first glance, this looks like God is giving Abram a command in order to reap the blessings of the covenant. … to walk (halak), to follow after Him and to be complete, whole and if he can do that he can walk in the Blessing.. But remember back in chapter 15:17 “God caused Abraham to fall asleep, and then He came down in the image of a smoking

But remember back in chapter 15:17 “God caused Abraham to fall asleep, and then He came down in the image of a smoking fire pot and flaming torch and walked through the separated halves of the sacrificed animals by Himself”…… God was committed to upholding the covenant.. to blessing Abraham and his descendants whether they were faithful or not. It was a covenant established on grace, not works. God upheld both sides of the covenant… His and Abram’s.

God was telling Abraham to walk with him, to follow after Him and He (El Shaddai) would make him complete and whole… and would pour out The Blessing on his life abundantly and continually.

And finally, it’s here that he changes Abram’s name to Abraham. God added the Hebrew letter “hei” to Abram’s name. Hei is the 5th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is a number for grace, goodness, and favor. It speaks of revelation and light. It is also the wind, breath…the Spirit of God…blowing on us. It is the divine breath of God breathed into Adam releasing His life into Adam. Adding hei to the end of a noun allows it to be fruitful and productive – it is the transforming power of the Spirit.

All of this was added to Abram when he finally became Abraham at the age of 99. God poured out on him… added to him... grace, goodness, favor, revelation, light and of course the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to be fruitful and productive. Abram became Abraham – a man whose destiny is wrapped up in and made manifest through the work of God’s Spirit.

We also receive a new identity when we follow after God and walk in covenant with Him… we are now IN CHRIST…. we are then able to walk complete and whole, blameless before God…. in the completed, finished work of the Cross and Resurrection and we receive the Holy Spirit… Who transforms us, equips us, helps us, making us fruitful. We are new creatures IN CHRIST through grace and empowered by Holy Spirit to walk out our God given destinies…. Gal 3:14, Gal 5:22-23, Rom 8:14, 1 Cor 12:4-11, Eph 3:20 and Eph 3:1-16 just to name a few scriptures. The letter “hei” is all about GRACE…..the infusion of the very BREATH or LIFE of God within us.

Today allow Him to introduce you to your new self… to the you IN CHRIST, a new creature that never existed before!

~ Robin