Category: Devotions

Today may be a day when you need some help making a decision. You need guidance. You don’t know which way to turn. So your morning prayer includes. ‘Help!’ He will.

We are reading the story of the choosing of a wife for Isaac, and Abraham’s servant has been given the task to go back home to find the woman.

“Then the servant left, taking with him ten of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaimand made his way to the town of Nahor. ¹¹ He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. ¹² Then he prayed, “Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ¹³ See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴ May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” (Genesis 24 v 10-14)

We can purposely position ourselves in the right place at the right time. He took his camels to the well in the evening, when the women drew water. There are things that you can do that would seem obvious and necessary in order to be in a position of clarity.

We can pray before we decide. The servant didn’t choose a wife, then ask God to bless his choice. He prayed first. He prayed before any women turned up.

We can be honest. The servant was specific. He didn’t simply ask for a wife for Isaac. God isn’t offended by our concerns of getting it right. He was looking for generosity. If someone wouldn’t oblige in letting him have water for his camels, he thought this would reveal something about her that wasn’t right for Isaac. In his prayer, he is asking for character.

Maybe you are at a similar well today. You need to make a decision. You may not have camels to water, but you have responsibilities. God can meet you there, between responsibilities and your need to know what to do about certain matters. He can even intertwine the two. God cares about this moment as much as you do. He is ready to meet you. All you need to do is position yourself and pray.

Regarding the promises of God for our lives, I have a question. When do we leave things with God, and when do we take action ourselves? We are going to read the next part of Abraham’s life, where he is intentional about protecting the promise and making sure it has space to live, while also being content to leave the outcome with God.

“He said to the senior servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. ³ I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, ⁴ but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.” ⁵ The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?” ⁶ “Make sure that you do not take my son back there,” Abraham said. ⁷ “The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. ⁸ If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” ⁹ So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.” (Genesis 24 v 2-9)

The arrangement of marriage for his son is Abraham’s protection of the promise God gave him. If Isaac married a local Canaanite woman, it could ruin the promised future for the next generations. Abraham takes control of the promise, not to change it but to preserve it. However, he also knows God is ultimately in control, for in answering, ‘what if she won’t come?’ he bows to the presence and sovereignty of God, ‘He will send his angel …’

We need the wisdom he demonstrated. To know when to hold on to the conviction we have, and yet to know to surrender to Him when things are beyond our control.

Who you bring into your inner relational circle is crucial to your future. Are they causing the promises of God to thrive within you, or do they drain you into disbelief? What matters most to you? The environment we place ourselves in will help shape our destiny.

God’s promises don’t eliminate our responsibility to make wise, intentional decisions. Be intentional about who influences your life and family, for proximity shapes destiny. Who we surround ourselves with matters.

Who you allow to influence you and the compromises you choose to keep not only impact your life now but also your future. Be diligent, and God will be your God and do what only He can do.

Don’t let go, don’t give up. You are on a journey toward a beautiful experience of looking back on your life and seeing the Lord’s blessings. This is the truth of the opening verse of this chapter,

“Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way.” (Genesis 24 v 1)

Not mostly. Not at every moment.

But in every way. What does this mean?

It isn’t a life without difficulty.

Without going into every detail of Abraham’s life, suffice it to say he had known barrenness, grief, separation, trauma, and his own sin and human weakness. Yet at approximately 140 years old, with another 35 years before he dies, he is ‘very old’ and ‘the Lord had blessed him in every way’.

What does it mean?

Was it his wealth? His blessings were tangible for sure. Possessions, land, the promised Isaac, God had been faithful. Yes. But there was more than that.

Was it who he had become? We have read of a man who, out of fear, lied about his wife. He became a man who could trust God even at the eleventh hour when raising a knife on the altar of his son. He had become aligned with God’s purpose for his life.

His story was definitely about delays, which must have felt like a denial. It was about diversions that actually turned out to be a wonderful destination. It was about losses and heartache that opened a new chapter of joy for him.

Sometimes understanding is only in looking back.

Being blessed in every way doesn’t always mean getting our needs met. It isn’t about being protected from every hurtful experience.

But it is about what we learn and who we become.

So that towards the end of our lives, after experiencing the good, the bad, and the ugly that life throws at us, everything is woven together in a beautiful tapestry, and it can be said, ‘the Lord has blessed us in every way.’

You may not feel blessed right now. Your life may be in the waiting season. You may have made mistakes and wonder how you can find your way through now. Hang on! Blessing isn’t always apparent in the present. This struggle will end. God is faithful. He will bring you through so that when you are very old, others can look at you and see the blessing of the Lord, in every way.

This may simply be the worst season of your life. The loss that you have suffered can weigh heavily. Perhaps you are in need, and it is becoming quite desperate now. It is possible that, in your vulnerable state, people are taking advantage of you. If you know anything of this, then it is your Machpelah place. However, you might also know that Machpelah is the place where God uses the enemy to open a door into a new season for your life. This is the story of Machpelah; it is an unusual approach to being blessed.

This name refers to a sacred site in Hebron, in the West Bank. It is a cave and the burial site of the patriarchs, and Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all share its central religious significance as the place where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives were buried. It means ‘double’ or ‘two-layered’ and probably refers to the structure of the cave.

Here is how it was purchased.

^“ Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵ “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekelsof silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” ¹⁶ Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants. ¹⁷ So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded ¹⁸ to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city. ¹⁹ Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.” (Genesis 23 v 14-20)

Let me bullet these points on what we have just read.

• Some believe that Ephron, a Hittite landowner, exaggerated the value of the land to Abraham, whilst at the same time saying, ‘don’t worry about it.’
• Abraham doesn’t try to talk Ephron down from the astronomical price; publicly, he just counts out the money and pays for the land.
• Abraham receives the deeds for the land and buries Sarah in one of the caves on the field – Machpelah.

Here’s what really happened. In one of Abraham’s worst moments of his life, he is knowingly taken for a ride with the value of the land, but he purchases it to bury his wife, and in doing so, he receives the first portion of the Promised Land that was promised to him by God.

There are times in our lives when the worst day becomes the doorway to the fulfilment of our promises.

Abraham wasn’t purchasing a piece of land with a cave for a burial site for his wife. He was going to own a portion of the Promised Land.

We need to think bigger and deeper.

Don’t take everything at face value. Abraham didn’t need a burial plot as much as he needed a stake in the ground, where he could anchor his story as a father to the nations. He purchased the Promised Land with grief.

At the end of the day, Abraham was 400 shekels poorer, and his heart was grieving for his loss, and yet on that day it was worth every shekel.

You may be paying a price today for something, and yet it could be God leading you to sacrifice yourself for something far bigger and in alignment with His promises for your life. That is the story of Machpelah.

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I was talking with a friend in Pakistan this past week, and their church has managed to free 4 families from bond slavery in the brick factories. Up to three generations ago, one of their ancestors accepted a loan, and it meant that it tied the next generations into slavery with no way of getting free.

We need to be careful who we accept gestures from, whether it be a loan or even a gift. No strings attached is never that simple.

We are going to read about Abraham’s wisdom in the next verses. Sarah has died, and he is looking for a burial plot.

“The Hittites replied to Abraham, ⁶ “Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.” ⁷ Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. ⁸ He said to them, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf ⁹ so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.” ¹⁰ Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. ¹¹ “No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I giveyou the field, and I giveyou the cave that is in it. I giveit to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.” ¹² Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land ¹³ and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.” (Genesis 23 v 5-13)

So why does Abraham insist on paying?

The simple answer is the same as the story in Pakistan. It would incur a debt that would entangle Abraham’s descendants for generations to come.

Abraham honours the gift but retains his autonomy and holds the title deeds independently.

Be careful who you accept help from. Don’t release your own dignity, freedom and future life.

Abraham purchased the first piece of the Promised Land through an honest purchase and not because it was given to him or because he had to fight for it.

The cost may be high, but the gift could be higher.

Many years ago, a Pastor I knew died far too young, despite lengthy prayers for his recovery from churches across the area. His congregation was devastated. During his illness, prophetic words declaring his healing had been placed around the church walls, alongside photographs of him—declarations of faith that God would restore him.

He wasn’t healed. He died.

Yet several months later, the prophecies and pictures remained on the walls. What had begun as declarations of faith had become a shrine—a monument to loss, to what could have been, to a future that never arrived. Though it was painful for everyone, the shrine had to be dismantled. Life had to go on.

The Pastor is remembered with honour. But the shrine is no more.

On my phone, I have many photos of dear family and friends who have died. I look at them often—sometimes laughing, sometimes crying at the memories they stir. But those photos don’t stop me from taking new ones. In fact, I have far more pictures of people who are alive than of the precious people no longer in my life.

That’s the difference. Memory allows room for the present. A shrine only has room for the past.

Let me continue with these verses.

“Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, “I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.” (Genesis 23 v 1-4)

Reading again v4 in the KJV, “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

Several years ago, I conducted a funeral for a certain church member. I remember the day we helped him get ready to move from his house to a flat. I had never been to his house before and was taken aback by its state. However, when I went into his bedroom, I realised why the years had not been kind to him and how he had let himself go, living with no purpose. Hanging outside the wardrobe was his wife’s dress; other clothes were gathering dust on a chair. His wife had died a few years previously, but it was clear he had never let her go. He could not move on. Grief had consumed him. He had stopped living life to the full. The past had become a prison, and he was wasting away inside it.

Sarah was Abraham’s failure: calling her his sister because of fear instead of trusting God.

Sarah was Abraham’s brokenness: he would be the father of many, but he couldn’t keep his own family together and had to say goodbye to Hagar and Ishmael.

Sarah was Abraham’s success: At 90, she bore him a son.

But now Sarah has died.

Abraham mourned for her.

He wept for her.

This was right. This was necessary. This was healthy.

Then Abraham stood up, declared she was dead and became determined to bury her out of his sight.

Notice the progression: mourn, weep, then rise and move forward. Abraham understood that while grief has its season, clinging to what is gone will drain the life from us. If we refuse to bury the past, it will bury us instead. We become like that church member—surrounded by what once was, unable to embrace what could be, slowly diminishing in the shadow of memory.

Let us not be locked up in the past, whether in failure, brokenness or even success.

Those times are gone now. They are dead.

We know how to mourn and weep. These are gifts that honour what we’ve lost.

But we must also learn how to bury things out of our sight. If we don’t, we cease to live genuinely. We become haunted by yesterday, unable to step into today. The past, left unburied, becomes a weight that crushes our purpose, our joy, and our future. God calls us not merely to survive in the grip of what was, but to live fully in what is and what is yet to come.

He is. Even when you cannot see it, He is working. This is His story, and He is writing it perfectly. Trust Him. He has got you.

In a short and unusual passage, we read a whole bunch of names. But there is something beautiful I want to show you.

“Some time later Abraham was told, “Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor: ²¹ Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), ²² Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.” ²³ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor. ²⁴ His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah.” (Genesis 22 v 20-24)

I emboldened it.

We have had Abraham being tested on the mountain, and now he is back in Beersheba, and we don’t really know what he is doing there.

Meanwhile.

What a beautiful word. We serve the God of the meanwhile. It means when you’re not looking or unaware, God is still working. Bethuel became the father of Rebekah.

Back home in Haran, Nahor, Abraham’s brother, has been growing a family. Through his wife, Milkah, eight sons have been born. One of them is Bethuel. This son grows and has a daughter called Rebekah. This is the Rebekah who will marry Isaac and be the mother of Jacob and Esau.

God is preparing the next chapter of His promise. Even before Isaac needed a wife, having been incredibly thankful for that ram caught in the thicket, God had made sure there was a bride ready for him. This wife will be from Abraham’s own family line and not a woman from the Canaanites.

God is working for the generations ahead.

Right now, where you are and in the situation you are in, God is working for you. You might not see it now. But if you simply hold on, trust Him, all things will work together for good.

We can ignore some passages and miss a wonderful treasure that encourages us all.

Something caught my eye yesterday when reading the passage of the story on the mountain.

“Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.” (Genesis 22 v 19)

Looking over the whole story again. The father and son leave the servants at the bottom of the mountain, carrying the wood for the altar. The son asks his father where the lamb is for the sacrifice, the faith needed for building that altar, no ram in sight, the son is bound to the altar, and the knife is raised. God stepping in, the dialogue with heaven, and the provision of the ram. It is all quite intense.

Then they walk down the mountain, and we don’t read of any conversation between the two. They return to the servants, they go home, and Abraham stays there.

No celebration. No displays. Just return home and stay. Continue life.

There seems to be a silence in the story.

I know, and I’m sure you do, after a season of intense faith stretching and challenge, there comes a period not of a victory lap but of quietness.

Only two people saw this spectacular moment. The people in Beersheba didn’t, nor did the servants at the base of the mountain. People might see a change in you because of the mountain, but they won’t see or understand what happened to you on that mountain. They see you before and after, but there are times when you, perhaps one other person, and God know what you have actually gone through.

You are back in the same place, the same job, the same routine, everything has changed within you, and you now carry an altar in your heart, but you have returned to the ordinary again; except for you, everything has changed. There is nothing ordinary about you. This last experience of not withholding anything from God has changed you forever.

You stay. However, you have moved on in your faith, and your previous experience with God will now fuel your approach to life.

Even if you were to tell people what had happened to you, they would probably not understand. Some testimonies need to be carried quietly. Perhaps the most significant test of faith isn’t on the mountain after all; maybe it is when you have arrived off the mountain, and you are back home, carrying something new in your heart.

Return home. Stay. Your world does not necessarily need the story of the great acts of your faith, but it does need the change those acts brought about.

The passage we will read below is for everyone who knows what it is to walk with God with no provision and no sign of provision, just a raw and straightforward faith that God is in control of everything. All that may be in your hands right now is what you are being asked to give away. Your time, energy levels, finances, the pain and heartache of a situation, these are your experiences, and God is silent. The hope of provision only exists in your heart, and you now know that faith hurts, at times, it costs us everything.

“Abraham looked up, and there in a thicket he saw a ramcaught by its horns. He went over, took the ram, and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” ¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspringall nations on earth will be blessed,because you have obeyed me.” ¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.” (Genesis 22 v 13-19)

There are times in our lives when we have to scale a mountain-sized experience that we have never travelled before. I could list several examples and then even miss the one you are experiencing right now; there are that many. The walk of faith is different for us all, but one thing is the same: it is a walk of difficulty.

Abraham and Isaac had walked three days carrying the wood. They had built the altar. Abraham had placed Isaac bound on the altar. The knife was raised.

Where was the ram? When had God provided the substitute?

Only after the knife was raised.

We can all scale mountains carrying the provisions of God with us. Anyone can do this. But there are moments in our lives when the ram doesn’t appear in the first chapter or the middle chapter, but in the end of the story, the final moment, when God steps in. It could be the final minute of the eleventh hour when we hear a call from heaven, look up and see the provision of God for our life.

If Jehovah Jireh had appeared at any time before this final second, Abraham would have been spared the time, energy, grief, confusion, and perhaps several emotions that we would totally understand. Faith has to travel through all those experiences to arrive at the provision.

Often, we want the provision without the mountain, and we certainly wish to have it as we journey on it.

The blessing to Abraham came after he was willing to sacrifice the promise of the blessing. Faith is sometimes not about venturing into a new season but letting go of what God has given you in the last season. Not withholding what is in your hand is faith, and this releases what is in God’s hand.

Faith is not always victoriously loud; it is sometimes quietly hurting you as you wait for God’s provision. But faith will see it if you remain confident in God. Hang in there!

Why would God ask such a thing? Even in a world where child sacrifice was taking place in the worship of Molech by the evil Canaanites. Is this a test? If so, surely this is just a horrible one?

“But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. ¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” (Genesis 22 v 11-12)

For me, this story raises more questions than I am comfortable with. Yet embedded within it is a sense of deep faith and the power of testing.

The story is too brief. We don’t read of what was going through Abraham’s mind when he received the command to sacrifice his only son, the promised child, the miracle boy. We don’t hear of his angry exchange with God or a sleepless night beforehand. We don’t hear of him telling Sarah. We speculate about what the 3-day journey was like and what they discussed. When Abraham was tying his son to the altar with ropes so that he couldn’t move, our anger rises because it is just plain wrong not to be. The text doesn’t tell us anything. We make our own minds up about those things.

There are so many things that we cannot understand about God. If this story is real (I believe it is), then it is beyond our comprehension. Any form of child abuse is evil. Why would God test Abraham like this? Why would God ask to receive back what had initially been given to Abraham? Sometimes it isn’t easy to understand, never mind agree with, a friend’s testimony of what God is leading them into.

So what do we do with this?

Bearing in mind that this is the epitome of ‘Don’t play with fire or you might get burnt’, is this story about either or both of these two points?

a) God letting Abraham realise that He is not the God that the Canaanites worship – He does not accept or desire child sacrifice.

b) This foreshadows something greater when the horrible story is carried out in its fullest. God sent His Son, Jesus the Lamb, who was tied to an altar for the sins of the world; there was no substitute ram, which we will read of tomorrow.

So what am I pondering on in prayer this morning?

Here I am

It’s the first thing he said when God called to him at the beginning of this story. It’s a provocation for you and me today.

Here I am

Here I am. I’m here. I have many questions but I am here. You know my heart. You know my desires. You know my concerns. But I’m here God. I’m right here. I’m listening.

Here I am. In what seems to be the greatest testing challenge of my life. I am here willing to be obedient to you. I have many questions. But I am not the great I am. I am just here.

Here I am. I believe in you. I’ve been looking for a ram, a substitute, another way out, but I cannot see one, not yet. I am here fully engaged, reluctant, slow and not knowing if this is a test or not, but I’m here.

Here I am. Available. Listening. Ready to respond. Knowing you are faithful. Knowing you are a Holy God. Knowing you have given me promises for my life.

I am here. The words ‘Here I am’ are on the tip of my tongue waiting to speak them as soon as you speak first.

Here I am. These three words will remain with me for the rest of my life. A reminder of my faith in you, not to you, but to me.

Here I am. I withhold nothing. Here you can have my all but I am listening for my name.

‘Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am”

His provision is sufficient. The test is over. He knew all along but I went this way for me to know, God is more precious to me than what God has given me.

Here I am.