Isaac Calls on the Name of the Lord

June 22, 2025 Background Scripture: Genesis 26:1 - 33 Lesson Passage: Genesis 26:24 - 33 What should we do when people who were friendly towards us suddenly turn against us? How should we respond to people who don't want us around and yet they still want to be on good terms with us? Today's lesson provides some helpful insights for us by examining some recorded history about Isaac. Isaac has the least written about him in the lineage of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since the announcement of his birth prior to his mother conceiving him, Isaac has been a key link in the patriarchal lineage. Isaac preserved the faith tradition inherited from his father, Abraham, and passed it on to his son, Jacob. Like his father, Isaac built altars to worship God in the places that became his homestead. His servants also dug wells in those places to provide water for them and his flocks and herds. Some wells his servants dug again because the servants of Abraham dug them previously. However, after the death of Abraham, the Philistines had stopped them up. As stated in last week's lesson, Isaac was raised by his father, Abraham, to have a relationship with God and to know the proper way to worship Him. He had witnessed the relationship that his father had with God. As an adult with his own family, Isaac carried on the faith tradition he had learned from his father. That was important in the narrative for today's lesson. God had started interacting with Isaac and assuring him that the covenants He made with Abraham were renewed with him. God promised to protect, prosper, and provide guidance to Isaac. Not only did Isaac see God's hand in his life, but his neighbors had observed the same. Isaac became very wealthy, and his neighbors felt threatened by it. As a result, they became jealous and fearful of Isaac and asked him to leave their area. Isaac did not leave because he felt threatened. Isaac had a great number of servants who could defend him and his property if he had chosen to remain there. However, Isaac was a humble person who feared God and did not want to quarrel with others. Therefore, Isaac left the area and traveled to another location. He experienced similar hostilities in the new location. Isaac's travels continued until he arrived at another location. The Lord appeared to him the same night and assured him that he was with him. Wherever Isaac traveled, God was always with him and caused him to prosper. Isaac built an altar there and worshiped God as he had seen his father do. He also pitched his tent there and his servants dug a well. These activities suggest that Isaac saw this location as a place where finally he could treat it as a homestead. It was after these things that the king of the Philistines who sent Isaac away from his previous homestead came to him along with a friend and the commander of his army. Their visit was not expected since they made it clear that they did not want Isaac around them. Isaac inquired concerning their visit seeing that they had sent him away from them in hatred. They assured Isaac it was a mission of peace. They acknowledged they had seen that the Lord was blessing him. They were there to seek a peace agreement between them. Isaac made a feast for his visitors and entertained them overnight. (When the Lord is blessing you, you can treat those who hate you as honored guests.) The next morning, they swore an oath with one another, and Isaac sent them away in peace. After they departed, his servants came and told Isaac they had dug another well and found water. Isaac understood that it was the Lord continuing to bless him. He named that well to commemorate his experience like his father did in his lifetime. Isaac named it "the well of the oath", Beersheba. Robert C. Hudson June 5, 2025

Abraham Makes an Offering

June 15, 2025 Background Scripture: Genesis 22:1 - 19 Lesson Passage: Genesis 22:1 - 14 I believe God created mankind in His image and according to His likeness for one ultimate purpose: God desires to see a reflection of Himself when He looks at His physical creation. No other part of the physical creation is described as in the image and likeness of God. Sin disrupted the will of God because it marred the spiritual image and likeness of God in mankind. God will not allow sin to be the final state of His creation. Despite sin, the bible reveals some individuals who showed remarkable faith in God by displaying unwavering confidence in what God speaks. Abraham is first among this class. As God revealed Himself to Abraham, Abraham drew closer in his relationship to God while remaining reverent towards God. God shared some incredible plans with Abraham, and Abraham believed what God said. Even when God's plans went totally against Abraham's life experiences, Abraham chose to believe and trust God despite his contradictory experiences. In today's lesson, God created a scenario that allowed Him to view a reflection of Himself thousands of years before it occurred God caused Abraham and his wife to conceive and bear a son when it was physically impossible for them to do so. God did not permit any other offsprings to remain with Abraham. Then, God asked Abraham to offer that son to Him as a burnt offering. God emphasized to Abraham that this was now his only son. The bible does not record that Abraham showed any reluctance, or reservations, to do as God had spoken. Situations such as this clearly set Abraham apart from all others in matters pertaining to God. Abraham gathered some wood and fire to use for the ceremony. He took it along with his son and two servants to a mountain where God sent him. When they arrived at the mountain, Abraham told his servants to stay with the donkey while he and his son go worship. Abraham told his servants that he and his son would come back to them after worship. Abraham laid the wood for the offering on his son, and he carried the fire and a knife. His son noticed they had everything required for worship except a lamb to be killed and offered as the burnt offering. It is clear from his son's observation that Abraham had carried his son to worship with him before. Abraham had trained his son in the proper way to worship God. Abraham told his son that God would provide His own lamb for a sacrifice. Upon arrival at the location, Abraham set up an altar (perhaps by stacking some stones). He placed the wood on the altar and then tied his son and laid him on the wood. When Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son, the Lord called out and stopped him from proceeding. It was sufficient; God had seen a reflection of Himself staring at Calvary about two thousand years beyond that moment. When Abraham looked behind him, he saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham took the ram and used it as an offering to God. Abraham named that location Jehovah-Jireh, which means "The-Lord-Will-Provide". Abraham and his son returned to his two servants as he told them they would. The Lord had provided what was needed for the offering and Abraham had provided what God wanted to see. Abraham's faith was remarkable, and it was tested at extreme levels few, if any, could bear. Abraham was called the friend of God and the father of all who believe in God. This lesson is an example of why he deserves both titles. Abraham's faith was not the abject compliance of a slave. It was willful obedience. Later, God told Abraham's son that Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws. He was God's friend. Robert C. Hudson June 5, 2025