The Vision (11.15.24): God is with His Elect

 

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 21:9-34.

And God was with the lad (Genesis 21:20a)

God is with thee in all that thou doest (Genesis 21:22b).

Genesis 21 begins with the announcement of the birth of Isaac (vv. 1-8). The long-awaited promise to Abraham and Sarah is fulfilled. The threat of barrenness is overcome. God will keep his Word (Genesis 12:1-3). From Abraham would come a great nation, and by it all families of the earth would be be blessed.

The remainder of the chapter outlines two further threats to this promise.

The first concerns a threat from within, from Hagar and her son Ishmael, who stood as a potential rival to Isaac (vv. 9-21). Sarah says to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son” (v. 10). This was “very grievous” for Abraham to do, but the LORD assured him that he would make Ishmael “a nation, because he is thy seed” (v. 13).

The second concerns a threat from without, from King Abimelech whom Abraham and Sarah had previously deceived (vv. 22-34; cf. Genesis 20). Abraham, however, enters into a covenant with Abimelech, and they live in peace.

The threat averted, Abraham “planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God” (v. 33). The proper response when one recognizes the LORD’s gracious provisions in his life is worship.

Within Genesis 21 there are two statements in which what we might call the “Immanuel Principle” is given emphasis.

First, in Genesis 21:20 Moses says, “And God was with the lad [Ishmael].”

Second, in Genesis 21:22 Abimelech says to Abraham, “God is with thee in all that thou doest.”

God is with those through whom he has chosen to work. He is with his Elect.

There is a longing in man’s heart for God to be with him. We see that principle here, and it will find its greatest fulfillment in the New Testament.

In the fullness of time Christ would come from the seed of Abraham to be blessing to the nations.  One of his titles would be Immanuel:

Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Having died on the cross and risen again the third day, soon to ascend, he promised his disciples:

Matthew 28:20b and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The apostle John on the isle of Patmos had a vision of the new heaven and the new earth and of the new Jerusalem, of which he wrote:

Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

The one true God has been with his elect; he is with them now; and he will be with them at the end of the age.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle