A Daily Walk

John Randall: Today on A Daily Walk from Pastor John Randall. Here's something I found out, guys, in walking with the Lord. He doesn't need my help. He really doesn't. I've offered many suggestions to God through the years. Like, "Lord, this, you have no idea how awesome this would be for you and me. But mostly you. But probably me." You come up with these things that you say and think. And God doesn't need my help.

Sometimes when we end up doing things in our own way, we end up having an Ishmael. It's a work of the flesh, not the spirit. You can produce something in the flesh. The flesh can produce something for sure. You can produce something, but those that are in the flesh can't please God.

Guest (Male): We welcome you now to A Daily Walk. Whether it's in the doctor's office or in traffic, we don't like to wait, do we? We grow impatient if we have to wait for something for 13 minutes. But imagine having to wait for something close to 13 years. That's what Abraham and Sarah had to go through. As our study of Genesis develops, we return to the story of Abraham and Sarah waiting for their promised son to arrive. After waiting for quite some time, they decide to take matters into their own hands. Big mistake. Here's Pastor John Randall in Genesis Chapters 15 and 16 with the details as we continue through the Bible.

John Randall: Chapter 15, verse 1. "Now after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward.'" It says after these things. After what things? After the battle, after the return home, after the blessing of Melchizedek, after the refusal of the deal with the King of Sodom. This is the fourth time that the Lord has spoken to Abram right here. He appears to him and speaks to him at a critical moment.

This is the first usage of the phrase "the word of the Lord." Shield. And the first time God reveals himself with the words "I AM." I AM. Ego eimi. Jesus made seven "I AM" statements in his ministry, and here we find the Lord saying, "I AM." Later on, the Lord would reveal himself to Moses there on the mountain. Moses would say, "Who do I tell them sent me?" "You tell them I AM sent me." When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees in the New Testament, they wanted to know who he was. He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." He took the title for himself. Here's the first mention of it.

He reveals himself to Abraham. "I am your shield. I am your reward." Abraham, returning from battle, I would imagine, having a little PTSD right here. I mean, this guy had just engaged in—this wasn't his normal way of living—having to go in and fight hand-to-hand combat with people. I can't imagine just coming back and thinking, "What happens if they regroup? What happens if those kings that we routed come back together and they come find me? How am I going to..." You can imagine all the things that are going through his mind.

He was afraid. How do you know he was afraid? Because God told him not to be. You only tell people not to be afraid who are, and he was fearful. But the Lord said, "Listen, don't be afraid and remember this: I'm your shield. I'm your protection. If I'm your protection, you're good. You might not have a massive army, but I'm with you. I am your protection. I am your shield. Not only that, I'm your great reward. I'm better than anything Sodom could offer you. I'm better than anything that anybody could give you. I'm it, Abraham. Don't be afraid."

We need to realize that the Lord is truly what we need, all that we need. He provides what we need. I love how in this moment of fear and concern and worry that the Lord shows up in those moments and just simply says, "Do not be afraid." By the way, that's not a suggestion. Did you notice that? That's actually a command. Don't. Stop that. Stop doing that. Stop thinking that way. Stop being so anxious about it because so often when we're anxious about it, it reveals something. We are not trusting the Lord in this moment. The fact that you're anxious and worried and scrambling and upset and uptight, it shows you're not resting. You're definitely not trusting. You're afraid. That's really what it is.

Don't do that anymore. You don't have to be afraid. Why? Because the Lord's with you. The Lord's with you. That's it. His presence. We have all that we need. Now, Abraham, I'm sure, was blessed to hear that the Lord was with him. I would be encouraged by those words to hear from the Lord. But he still had a question. In verse 2, he asks the question, "But Abram said, 'Lord, what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?'"

Then Abram said, "Look, you've given me no offspring; indeed, one born in my house is my heir." Abraham was concerned. "Lord, you made some promises to me a while back, and they still haven't come to pass yet. When's that happening?" He wanted to know. "Lord, you say you're my great reward, and you also told me that Sarah and I were going to have a child. We haven't had one yet. I'm just checking in with you. Is that still a go? Is that still going to happen? Are we still doing this? Is this going to happen still? Because we're getting older! Is it going to happen?"

Look at the Lord's response. "And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, 'This one,' that is his servant that he spoke of, 'this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.' Then he brought him outside and said, 'Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And he said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.'" Wow, that's amazing. Takes him outside. "Abraham, listen. I have a plan. It's going to happen. But come out here. I got to show you something. All right, you see those stars up there? If you can count those, that's how many descendants you're going to have."

That's a lot of kids. Abraham's like, "We need to get started. I mean, this is a lot." But I love Abraham's response. It says here, "And he believed in the Lord, and He," that is the Lord, "accounted it to him for righteousness." He believed it. If the Maker of the stars tells you that you're going to have more kids than the stars, then you should believe it. He said it; that settles it.

Of course, Abraham did have many descendants, both physically, but also spiritually. The nation of Israel would come from Abraham; they would be his descendants. But also, the spiritual descendants of Abraham are those—and we've been studying about it in Romans. If you've missed it, you should go back and listen because I feel like we're just right alongside of each other right now, Old and New Testament. But just to bring you in on it, this section right here, Abraham believing what God said, it was accounted unto him for righteousness. His faith expressed in the promise of God, God said, "You are declared righteous." Not because of what he did, but because he believed.

The Apostle Paul picks up on that in Romans and talks about the fact that we are saved by faith, justified by faith, just like Abraham was. He believed. Here it is. That's why he's called the Father of Faith, because right here God said it, he believed it. We, in the same way, God said it, this is how you're saved, this is how you're born again, I believe it. And that's how I'm saved because of what Christ did, saved by grace through faith. It's a gift of God. This is where Abraham expresses his faith to the Lord. I encourage you to read over that in Romans; there is this beautiful parallel that Paul draws for us from the book of Genesis in order that his readers might understand.

But he believed God, and it was accounted unto him as righteousness. But Abraham still has some questions. He believed the Lord. Then He said to him, verse 7, "I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it." And he said, "Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" Because you remember, God said He gave it to him, but he hadn't really received it. He lived like a tenant in his own land. He just went back and forth, the length and the breadth of the land he had walked and camped out in and built altars here and there on the sides of it. But how would he know that it was actually going to be his? "Okay, I see the stars." But he needs to know.

God is so gracious. Notice what He says in verse 9. "Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." So he goes and collects it. It says, "He brought all these to him and they cut them in two down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other, but did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away."

What is all that about? Today, we think about making an agreement with somebody, we sign on the dotted line. We sign our name, that makes it official. There are stamps involved, fingerprints sometimes. You sign it, it makes it official. But in this day and age, in this culture, when they made a contract that was binding, there was a sacrifice involved that made it legal. This would be the equivalent of going to the courthouse, signing a notary, and making it legal. Kind of like Jeremiah did in Jeremiah 34:18.

Abraham wanted to know that God would make good on His promise. How would he know? By a sacrifice. There are sacrifices that were made, and they're split in two. Meanwhile, while he's waiting, he's driving the vultures away. They're attacking the carcasses. That was his job; just keep the vultures off. That's what he did.

But notice what happened in verse 12. "Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram, 'Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them, and they will afflict them for 400 years.'" He's talking about what's going to go down in Egypt many years later. "And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

The Lord's giving Abraham this preview of things yet to come—a prophetic word of what's going to happen. "Abraham, here's how it's going to go down. You're asking me about the land. Here's what's going to happen: your descendants are going to be in bondage." What's that talking about? It's talking about what would happen there in Exodus when they were in Egypt, and they would cry out for a deliverer. For 400 years plus, they would be waiting. God would eventually fulfill His promise, and they would be delivered.

Moses would be raised up. Interesting, by the way—Moses is writing this. He's writing the book of Genesis. He's talking about this prophetic word that was given to Abraham that was fulfilled through the guy who's actually writing it. But it's going to happen, and eventually, it did happen. He's looking back writing what took place, or what was told in advance, and that the people would come out and eventually inherit the land.

Verse 17: "And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'" They're all there. They're all given over to Abraham and his descendants.

Abraham wanted to know, "How can I know that this promise that you've made, that I've believed, is good? How do I know that you're going to make good on this promise?" By a sacrifice. A sacrifice was made, and that was how Abraham would know that God would keep His word.

Do you have a desire to know if God is going to keep His promises to you? Are you wondering, "Lord, are you going to make good on this promise that you've made? The hope of heaven? The promise of your love? How can I know for sure?" Because God made a sacrifice. He made a sacrifice of His own Son. If He made that sacrifice, He's going to make good on His promise. Just like the sacrifices were made here, which, by the way, all of the sacrifices of the Old Testament point to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Did you know that? If you ever find yourself leaping through Leviticus because you don't want to read it, listen, all the sacrifices point to Christ. They're all about Him. It reminds us of that. So here the sacrifice had been made, and Abraham could know, "Lord, you're going to do it." He made a covenant that was binding, solidifying the promise that He had made. Friend, if we ever find ourselves doubting whether God is going to make good on the promises that He's made, here's what we need to do: look back to the cross. Look back to the sacrifice. He's proven it. There's nothing else that He could do to prove that He would fulfill His promise than what He has already done.

Now, you think Abraham's got that. Great word. "Thank you, Lord." I mean, the Lord's the one that did the sacrifice. He cut in two; his only thing was just beating off the vultures. I think that's what we have to do. Vultures come in all different sizes. The devil sends vultures: "Oh, God didn't mean that promise for you, kiddo." Whack! Hit the vulture out of the way. No, He made a promise to me. I'm not going to listen to—this is me hitting vultures, by the way—the thoughts of the enemy trying to rob us, come in and mess up the sacrifice. Oh, no. It's gone. You fight off the vultures, friend. Beat those things down. Don't take those thoughts captive. Demonic vultures.

So you think Abraham's got it. We're good. God made the promise; it's good. "Sarah, you're not going to believe it. More than the stars. This is exciting. We just had a sacrificial thing, and God's doing it." Oh, but wait. Chapter 16. "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, 'See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.' And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai."

Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went into Hagar, she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you!" That backfired right away. "I gave you my maid into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me."

Wow. They're waiting. They had the promise, but it hadn't happened. By the way, God's delays are not His denials. Just keep that in mind. If God has you waiting, it's not because He's not going to do it; He just might have you waiting for it and doing something in you before He accomplishes it. But here they are waiting. God had called Abraham to take a step of faith at age 75. He left. He told him he's going to have all these descendants. Genesis 13, God's speaking. Genesis 15, God's speaking. God just made this big covenant. This is so great.

Ten years go by. Nothing's happened. There hasn't been any visitations or words lately from the Lord. Nothing's happened. Still no descendants for ten years. God had said, "I'm going to do this," but nothing had happened. Now, entering into Chapter 16, Abraham's about 85 years old, Sarah's close to 75, and the barrenness remains. The older she gets, the less likely that she would be physically able to have a child. It's becoming a medical impossibility. In her mind, "We got to do something. I think God needs our help. I think we should probably try something."

"Abraham, I'm thinking that—remember that girl we picked up in Egypt? Remember that place that I almost... yeah, remember that? Okay, that girl, I think you ought to have a baby with her." We're going to have it by proxy. In that culture, apparently, someone could have the child, and then they would be your baby. So, "Okay." Abraham just goes along with it. They get together, and we find out that the problem was with Sarah and not with Abraham.

Suddenly, you find that the tables have turned. They were supposed to live by faith, and God's will must be fulfilled in God's way and in God's time. But they doubted. When you doubt, there's that tendency to try to help God out, to move things along. "Maybe I'm just being idle and I should do more. Maybe I haven't done enough. Maybe I haven't made enough calls, or maybe I haven't prayed enough, or maybe I haven't done this. Maybe I should just pound on that door. Maybe I should blast it open with dynamite. Maybe I should..." You come up with all these things. God's saying, "No, that's not how it's going to be."

But you know something? God will honor the decision you make. So they run right through the will of God, and they think, "Oh, look. We accomplished what we always wanted. We have a baby." But this isn't God's plan. This wasn't the way God wanted it to be done. This is the way they wanted it to be done. Because they had grown impatient with the plan of God, they sought to help it along.

But here's something I've found out, guys, in walking with the Lord: He doesn't need my help. He really doesn't. I've offered many suggestions to God through the years. Like, "Lord, this, you have no idea how awesome this would be for you and me. But mostly you. But probably me." You come up with these things that you say and think. And God doesn't need my help. Sometimes when we end up doing things in our own way, we end up having an Ishmael. It's a work of the flesh, not the spirit. Oh, you can produce something in the flesh. The flesh can produce something for sure. You can produce something, but those that are in the flesh can't please God. "But look what we made!" "Yeah, what you made, not what God did."

The last thing I want to do as it relates to ministry and my life is look at what I made. No, look at what Jesus did. Look at what Jesus does. Well, quickly now, after this, the angel of the Lord—you'll see that Hagar is basically—Sarah gets upset with whom? Abram. Wow, that totally backfired. We don't have enough time to touch on that with husband and wives, but I'm just saying it's in the text. It's there for another time.

But the angel of the Lord—she ends up sending her away, treats her harshly, and she flees for her life. It says, "The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness by a spring of the water to Shur, and said, 'Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from? Where are you going?'" She said, "I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." The angel of the Lord said to her—by the way, notice this: it's the angel of the Lord, not an angel, the angel of the Lord. Again, many people believe, and I would be included in this, a picture of Christ in the Old Testament: the Angel of the Lord.

So there's the Angel of the Lord. He found her by a spring, and she responds and says, "I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress." And then he said to her, verse 9, "Return to your mistress, submit yourself under her hand." Then the angel of the Lord said to her, "I will multiply your descendants." The angel of the Lord said, "I'm going to multiply your descendants"? Only God can multiply descendants. The angel of the Lord—just follow it—"I'll multiply your descendants exceedingly so that you shall not be counted for a multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, 'Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has heard your affliction.'"

Here's what he tells her. How about this, moms? Imagine this little birth announcement: "He shall be a wild man. His hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all of his brethren." He's going to be wild, and he would be. The descendants of Ishmael are still at war with the descendants of Isaac to this day. This plan backfired way down the line.

But look at verse 13, and we'll conclude. This is so beautiful, what a beautiful place to end. "Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, 'You are the God who sees.' For she said, 'Have I also here seen Him who sees me?' Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. Observe it, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named his son whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. And Abram was about 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram."

How beautiful this is, to think that she had been forgotten and she had run for her life, and there she is thinking it's over. The Angel of the Lord shows up and speaks to her, and she responds and calls Him, "You are the God who sees." What a blessing it is tonight to know that there is a God who sees. He sees whatever it is that you're in the midst of tonight. Maybe you made a mess of something. The Angel of the Lord didn't have to come to Hagar; He didn't have to come to us. But He sees, He knows, He's concerned. So many people just want to be seen. God sees us. He's the God who sees, and He ministered to her need and gave her counsel. Maybe you're thinking, "Lord, do you see tonight?" Friend, He sees you. He loves you so much He can't take His eyes off you. He sees, and He knows.

Guest (Male): Don't help God out, but wait for the promise. A good word for us today on A Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall. What you heard today is one part of a study in Genesis, a message entitled "Rescue Mission." You can hear it again at adailywalk.org or download our church app so you can listen through your mobile device. Just search for Calvary South OC. You'll also find us on most of the major podcast platforms.

When a listener takes the time to write or call, it really blesses us more than words can tell. And yes, Pastor John reads your emails and your letters. The Lord deserves all the credit for anything good that comes from and through this ministry, and it's an opportunity to praise and thank Him for what He's doing. Share a praise report or a prayer request at adailywalk@gmail.com. That's adailywalk@gmail.com.

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Here at A Daily Walk, we make it our goal to please God in all we say and do. If you believe in what we're doing and would like to get behind us, we would very much appreciate your prayers and financial support. Yes, God has proven to be faithful to provide where He's guided us, and we look to Him and to you to help us continue. To make a donation today, drop by adailywalk.org or call 877-242-0828. We're going through the Bible with Pastor John Randall on A Daily Walk. Don't miss a moment of the journey through Genesis right here. This program was brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.