Month: January 2026

Over and over from Genesis three to Genesis 20 we have seen how sin corrupts and people do not learn. Abram did not! We must! First Abram left the land that God promised and went to Egypt in a time of famine. He lied about Sarai and Pharaoh caught him in that lie. Now Abram concocts that same lie again back in the Promised Land. He fudges the lie, Sarai is complicit and again Sarai pays the price. We want to scream at Abram and ask him why? There is a verse in Proverbs that explains the reason: the fear of man is a snare. [Prov 29:25] And Abram faced it with Abimelech. Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What prompted you to do this thing?” Abram’s response is clear: “Because I thought, ‘Surely no one fears God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.” 

Fear is the tool Satan uses when we fail to follow God’s explicit commands. He used it in the Garden with Eve and he used it again in the life of Abram and he uses it in our lives as well. Fear is the proper response to what is dangerous to us but when we allow the fear of others to encroach our mental or physical  space, it is wrong. 

Has Satan used the fear of man as his spear to cause you to not trust God? Repent of it and turn to God for times of refreshing. 

The tragic story that is presented here is a reminder that what God hears the cry of our hearts and sees our life struggles. Hagar was an Egyptian slave that Abram brought back to the Promised Land when he failed to honor Sarai as his wife. God had told Abram that he would have a child but impatience bore its fruit and he succumbed to it. How often do we become impatient and succumb to the call of our human nature. First it was Eve and now it is Abram; how about me or you? 

The slave Hagar was taken from her homeland, her family and her freedom. No wonder then that after this that she ran from Abram’s tent and cried in the desert. Seeing her alone, God saw and heard her cry. He promised her a child as she sat in the desert. Sometimes God allows us to enter the desert where we can be alone with Him. In that place Hagar said: “ So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!”[ Gen 16:13] Hagar called God “El Roi” the God who sees me. Encouraging words to one who is suffering the mistreatment of her personhood. 

Perhaps you are in the desert with tears flowing. Beloved, God sees your pain and He hears your cry. Listen for His voice and obey Him for He has a blessing waiting for you. 

God told Abram to leave his home and go where He would send him, to the land of Canaan he went, but note: Abram continually journeyed by stages down to the Negev. How like us, we move from here to there. There is a key word here: continually. That speaks of restlessness. Why are we restless? Why do we pick up and move constantly? How different was my mother-in-law. Her favorite saying was: “I was born in NY and I am going to die in NY” and she did just that. But Abram having left Ur moved to Haran and from there he moved “continually.”  

God told Abram that He would give this land to him, yet in his first test, he failed. A famine happened and he moved to Egypt. Abram was restless and he failed to trust God for the land of Canaan’s provision —even in a time of famine. How about us? Are we restless? Are we content? Take a lesson from Abram: trust God in all circumstances for He is the Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. 

How many generations are present in your family today? Moses, in writing the book of Genesis, noted the generations of several of Adam’s children, the most notable is the line of Shem. How about you? It is fun to look at those who are present now and you can share with them the history of their relatives. But, what happens when a generation dies as has happened recently in our family? That history if not recorded dies with them. Perhaps that is why the popular Ancestries.com is a popular website. People yearn to know about their relatives that make up their family line, good or bad. So what can we learn from this reading today? God placed the first generation to live outside the beautiful garden of Eden. It was not His design but sin separated them from the Holy God. From there they did as God said: multiply and fill the earth and today there are multiple generations that can look back centuries.

Stop today and consider those who have gone before you and give praise for those whose lives mirrored God’s perfect design: to love and worship He who is the generator of generations. 

Yesterday we read about the glory of God in creation and were overwhelmed by His goodness and beauty. Today what was beautiful is marred by the disobedience of one followed by the disobedience of another and so on and on. 

The voice of the serpent captivated Eve and she succumbed. So too with us when we succumb to his voice. When the serpent comes to us, do we stop and ask, is it truthful? Is it beautiful? The serpent said what God had said was not true. That is his way and the consequences are separation from God. 

Whose voice do I/we listen to? When we finished Revelation we read: “Then I heard the altar reply, “Yes, Lord God, the All-Powerful, your judgments are true and just!” [Rev 16:7] What John wrote centuries ago and what Genesis tells that God is truth and that has not changed. 

And so God records what took place “in the beginning.” Today being the first day of 2026, we are “at the beginning” of a new year with fresh expectations and thoughts. It is marvelous to think that God was at the beginning and His description of all that took place is marvelous in our eyes. We stop and glorify Him for He was and is and always will be. He said it and it became. 

As you begin this new year what are your expectations? God planned a perfect creation and a special orchard in which He placed man. What must it have been like? We can only imagine for God is perfect and holy. Do you know Him? Are you ready to explore His creation with us today?