promise

God never forgets.

God never forgets.

EXODUS 1

I was so intrigued by this statement in the first chapter of Exodus: "Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt." (vs 8)  This astonished me! Certainly, some time had passed in Egypt, but a new king came to power who did not know about Joseph? This was the man who had single-handedly come up with the plan to rescue Egypt (and all the surrounding nations) from famine. How could anyone forget about Joseph?!

God fulfills promises creatively.

God fulfills promises creatively.

GENESIS 36

The land of Canaan had been promised to Jacob and the future Israelites. It was the Promised Land, the land that God planned to give to the descendants of Abraham. However, the rivalry between Jacob and Esau could have put a wrench in things. Instead of trusting God to fulfill His promises in His own time, Jacob devised a way to get what he thought was rightfully his (the birthright and his father’s blessing). Esau was initially jealous and angry and even sought to kill his brother.

God blesses without condition.

God blesses without condition.

GENESIS 28

There is something so interesting in this chapter, and it is the comparison between God’s promises and our promises.

As Jacob is journeying to find a wife, God renews His promise to make a great nation from Jacob’s descendants. He says, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

God's timing is different than ours.

God's timing is different than ours.

GENESIS 23

As I was reading this chapter, it dawned on me that the first part of Canaan that Abraham possessed with a burial plot. That seems rather odd, doesn't it, given what God said in Genesis 15:18-21? "On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.'"

God is funny.

God is funny.

GENESIS 17

There are so many things I could write about God from this chapter of Genesis, but I’ve just got to write about God’s sense of humor. Are you sometimes lulled into thinking that God is a stern, distant Deity who frowns over you as you trudge through life? Even if you picture Him as one who wants to have a relationship with you, are you tempted to think that He is more like a harsh, exacting parent who keeps a watchful eye on His children, lest He see any hint of indiscretion?

God thinks big.

God thinks big.

GENESIS 13

Have you ever measured out a cup of sand and tried to count the grains? It might take a while. According to some highly unscientific research I did on the internet, depending on the size of the grain, the number of grains of sand that fit into one cup is anywhere between 2 and 15 million. Wow! Millions of grains of sand in just a single cup. Now imagine how many cups of sand there are in a desert. We can’t even count that high!

God is a stalker.

God is a stalker.

GENESIS 9

I know, I know. Stalker has such a negative connotation these days, but if you read the book of Genesis, you might see it in a different light by the end! If you want to try something interesting, read it for yourself, as much as you can in one sitting. There's one thing that keeps happening over and over—God, running around, making covenants with people. By the time you get to the end, God sort of looks like a stalker, but a good stalker—one who's just interested in blessing people.