Genesis, Message 20: The God of Abraham Seen in His Dealings with Abraham

My Great Delight in God's Word

Crystallization-Study of Genesis, Message 20

The God of Abraham Seen in His Dealings with Abraham

Abraham went through a lot of dealings from God in his life. Those dealings were very precious to him, as he grew up in the relational and experiential knowledge of God after each dealing.
In this message, I'm going to share some characteristics of God that we can observe in Abraham's experience of God's dealings with him.

God of Glory

² And he said, "Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
³ and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.'
⁴ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. (Acts 7:2-4 NKJV)

The first appearing of God to Abraham is recorded in the book of Acts. God revealed Himself to Abraham as the God of glory.
At that time, Abraham was living in the land full of idol worshipping. He must have been so familiar with many gods in the land. But when God appeared to him, he could immediately see something different in this God. There were no any other gods like Him. After this encounter with God, his life could never be the same.
Brothers and sisters, if you have never known this God, please come to Him, learn more about Him, and you will understand why Abraham decided to leave his homeland to follow this God. This God is so good, so glorious, so gracious and so awesome. Come and taste Him today!

Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? (Exodus 15:11 NKJV)
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (Psalm 34:8 NKJV)

But if you have already known Him, praise Him today. Don't be afraid that you will praise Him too much. That can never happen. Furthermore, follow Him, turn your eyes upon Him and keep beholding His glory. As a result, your life will be gradually transformed from glory to glory into His glorious image.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV)

God of Blessing

¹ Now the LORD had said to Abram: " Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.
² I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
³ I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
⁴ So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Genesis 12:1-4 NKJV)

Even though Abraham followed what God told him to do without hesitation, he failed to do it completely. He did not get into the good land, but dwelt in Haran. Moreover, he did not leave his relatives, but had them with him in his journey. Nevertheless, God did not and would never give up on him. He kept speaking to him. Here God spoke to him again, and give him the great promises concerning the land, the seed and the blessing to the world. This God is the God who loves to bless His people.
However, we know that we all are sinners, and God cannot bless us fully because of our sinful condition. Praise the Lord that He has already solved this problem for us. He did that because of the fact that, while He hates sin, He loves sinners. He came to die for us, to redeem us from the curse of the law. He even became a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us. And the greatest blessing one can ever has is God Himself as the Spirit whom we have received through faith! By having the Spirit dwelling within us, we can now experience our Triune God not only in an objective way (intellectually), but also in a very subjective way (experientially and relationally).

¹³ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree")
¹⁴ that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:13-14 NKJV)
For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:19 NKJV)

God of secret care for His elect

Soon after a peak of spiritual walk in Abraham life, he fell down. In time of famine, instead of trusting in God, he decided to come down to Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20). To save his own life, he committed a serious sin by lying that his wife was his sister, putting her life at risk. Even though God did not appear in the scene, He did work behind the scene out of His secret care for His elect. He protected the lives of him and his wife. He was still faithful even though he was not.
Hallelujah! What a privilege that we have the God who always cares for us. Even though many times we are faithless, He is always faithful. Even though we may not see Him and may even doubt if God really cares for us, please be assured that that God always does. He is always at work, and His aim is to work all things for good to those who love Him.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28 NKJV)

God of shield and great reward

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." (Genesis 15:1 NKJV)

After fighting with the kings to rescue Lot, and offending Melchizedek by denying the gift from him, Abraham became afraid of revenge from them. To comfort him, God came to him in a vision, starting the conversation with "Do not be afraid." Why should he not be afraid? Because God Himself would be his shield and his exceedingly great reward.
Brothers and sisters, are you afraid of someone and something today? Do not be afraid. Our God is our shield and our great reward! And here is one of God's wonderful promises for you.

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.' (Isaiah 41:10 NKJV)

God of all-sufficiency

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. (Genesis 17:1 NKJV)

After begetting Ishmael through Hagar, God did not appear or speak to him for a long time. God could not work the seed into him yet, because he was still too strong, even though he was over 86 years old already. God had to wait until he reached the point in which he realised he could not accomplish God's purpose using his own human effort or his natural strength. And that was when he was 99 years old. God then appeared to him again as the "El Shaddai," the All-sufficient God (rendered here as the Almighty One). All we need for the fulfilment of God's purpose is the All-sufficient One.
Brothers and sisters, do you know God as the All-sufficient One? Never try to serve God with your own strength. Don't try to help God produce the seed, bringing forth Christ. Only God Himself can accomplish His purpose in us and through us. Would you trust in the All-sufficient One today?

God with His human friendship

In Genesis 18, God came to Abraham in human form. That was the pre-incarnate Christ who visited him and had a sweet fellowship with Him. This could happen on the grounds of intimate relationship with God after terminating his own flesh through circumcision, and acknowledging God as the All-sufficient One.
Our God is the God who loves to have relationship with man. He does not want us to be religious Christians, but to be romantic ones who love Him and love to fellowship with Him. He is now knocking at the door. If you just open the door for Him, He will come in to you and feast with you and you with Him.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20 NKJV)

God with His trial

Concerning the seed, Abraham had to go through 3 main tests.

The first test - begetting Ishmael

To have the seed, instead of waiting for God's perfect timing, he decided to help God produce the seed through Hagar. That was successful, but not acceptable to God. The source of this seed was not from God, but from human effort, and the timing was premature. This resulted in God's silence for almost 13 years, before He appeared to him again in Genesis 17.
This experience teaches us that our own effort has no role in the fulfilment of God's eternal purpose. The best it can produce is Ishmael, not Isaac. We therefore must terminate our own natural ability so that God can fulfil His purpose through us.

The second test - praying for Abimelech

Soon after a sweet fellowship with God in Genesis 18, Abraham was tested again. In Genesis 19, he went southward to the land of Gerar. To save his own life, he again lied that Sarah was his sister. Because of this, God closed up the wombs of the house of Abimelech. To protect Sarah, God appeared to Abimelech in his dream one night and warned Him about Sarah. To re-open the closed wombs, he needed to have Abraham pray for them. Abraham therefore had to pray for the thing he himself could not have. That must be so difficult for him. But this was an important lesson that he must learn. The success of his prayer was not dependent upon his own achievement. The only source of every success is God. Abraham needed to see God as His heavenly Father, who is the source of everything.
This experience teaches us that we need to be totally dependent upon God, trusting only Him to accomplish His purpose in us and through us.

The third test - offering Isaac

After Isaac was born, God commanded Abraham to offer his own son, Isaac. Why did God do that? Was Isaac not the seed whom God had promised? Why then did He tell Abraham to offer the seed to Him? This taught Abraham that before he begot Isaac, he must see Him as the Father. Even after he begot Isaac, he still needed to see Him as the Father. He must not see Isaac as the source, and must not let Isaac replace Him who gave this son to him. He must always see God as the Father.
What does Isaac represent in our life? Isaac can be God's gifts, God's wills, or God's works. By themselves, they are good things. But they must not replace God in our hearts. They must not become what we cherish and care for more than God who gives them.
This experience of Abraham's teaches us that we need to always look to Him and know Him as the Father. We must not prioritise even God's gifts, God's wills, or God's works above our relationship with Him. We must not let them replace God.
I really appreciate what Oswald Chambers wrote about this, which correlates well with this lesson, saying "Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?"

Thank the Lord for these lessons we can learn from Abraham's experiences through the trials. And praise the Lord also that He is our heavenly Father who too loves His children to let them be the same. Because He loves us, He gives us various trials so that we will overcome and be made perfect and complete.

² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4 NKJV)

God as the Father

Altogether, the dealings of God with Abraham lead us to one conclusion. We must know Him personally and experientially as our heavenly Father.
There are two aspects of the word "Father" that we must see. On the one hand, with regard to our relationship with God, He is our Abba Father who cares for us, and we are His beloved sons. On the other hand, He is the Father of all things. He is the source of all things. Everything comes from Him and belongs to Him. We therefore are to trust Him. With Him, nothing is impossible.
May I end this article with the message given by Watchman Nee in his book "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

It is true that there are different levels in our service to God, and we can serve Him wherever we are. But the real question is, "What kind of service should we have in order to satisfy Him?" Those who satisfy God know the cross on the negative side and know God as the Father on the positive side. If our service does not have this knowledge, it lacks spiritual value. May the Lord be gracious to us to show us that everything God did with Abraham was to reveal Himself as the Father and the Initiator of everything.

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization-Study of Genesis, week 20.

• Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 35: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, chapters 3-5.

• My Utmost for His Highest, "It Is the Lord!." (http://utmost.org/it-is-the-lord)

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)