This morning in our Prayer and Practices group after praying for concerns in the world and for each other through those trials, we talked about waiting. We shared times we have waited for answers, many times for decades, and how we handled the many emotions that waiting for years can generate. Waiting isn’t easy. I…

In reading Genesis 28 I was drawn to Esau. Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and…

There are times when I can’t help but wonder what if. What if Rebekah had waited for the blessing from Isaac to Jacob that God had already promised her would be. What if she hadn’t taken matters into her own hands as we read in Genesis 27? She talked Jacob into tricking Isaac and a…

How can we bear to not sing of God’s love that is so beautiful our hearts are lifted up in hope and peace? When I contrast the world today with the problems we face and see glimpses of the world in Isaac’s time in Genesis 26 and see the same discord, the same animosity among…

In Genesis 25 after naming the sons of Ishmael, Abraham’s son through Hagar, who become twelve tribal rulers it says: And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them. v. 18. That’s what God said to Hagar while she was pregnant with Ishmael and had run away from Sarah: and he will…

Genesis 24 introduces us to the wonderful story of Rebekah and Isaac. First, we find Eliezer, Abraham’s senior servant and the one in charge of all he had v. 2. Can you imagine the blessing he had? We read about the faith of Abraham; Eliezer witnessed it firsthand. He witnessed the faithfulness of God. When…

In reading Genesis 23 I was struck by the sorrow Abraham must have felt at the death of Sarah, his wife. God had promised Abraham all the land he could see and ancestors as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sand on the seashore. Yet, in his time of mourning after her…

Genesis 22 records Abraham’s faithful trust in God, a powerful example for us, and I see the Father everywhere. God spoke to Abraham and said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I…

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Genesis 21:1. Sarah was blessed with a son, Isaac, in her and Abraham’s old age. Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” v. 6.…

Genesis 20 is a curious repeat of the experience of Abram and Sarai in Egypt with Abram telling people Sarai was his sister and not his wife. Instead of Pharaoh confronting Abram about why he said Sarai was his sister, Abimelek confronts Abraham. God had appeared to Abimelek in a dream. Then God said to…