Genesis 21:22–34

Genesis 21:22–34

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A Covenant with Abimelech

22 And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore, swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.”

24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

25 Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech’s servants had seized. 26 And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today.” 27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

29 Then Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?”

30 And he said, “You will take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that they may be my witness that I have dug this well.” 31 Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.

32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. So Abimelech rose with Phichol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. 34 And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ge 21:22-34

• Transcript

  Hey, good morning friends. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. Let me jump on the computer and make sure everybody is able to join us live make sure we're recording. It will send us make sure we're going live. Make sure that we have everybody on text message sent. I think we're good to go. Well, good morning. Morning Morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions. So good to be with you. I don't know about you but I'm I'm gonna have really enjoy this cup of coffee. I don't need it. But I'm sure I'm thankful to the Lord for coffee in the early as well. Why don't we have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into Lord's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you woke us up this morning. You've given us a new day. A new day to marvel at who you are. A new day to hear from you. Father, we pray that as we read your Word this morning, you might be your teacher. open her eyes, Lord. Let us see and understand in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so, we are at Genesis chapter 21. And we're wrapping up that chapter today. Genesis chapter 21. It's chapter 21. started off really, really with a great answer the promise. And then we got into an ugly story. Now we get into a different type of story. Genesis chapter 21, beginning at verse 22. Let's go ahead and read God's Word together. No and it came to pass that at that time that a beam Allah and people the commander of his army spoke to Abraham saying, God is with you and all that you do. Now therefore Swear to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring or with my posterity. But that according to the kindness that I've done to you, you will do to me, and to the land in which you have dwelt And Abraham said, I swear. Then Abraham rebuked me Molech because of a well of water, which would be Molech servants had seized and a beam Alexa, I do not know who has done this thing. He did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today. So Abraham took seven sheep, or took sheep and oxen and gave them to a bee Molech and the two of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven Ulam to the flock by themselves. And then a bee Molech asked Abraham, what is the meaning of the seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves and he said, you will take the seven new lambs from my hand, that they may be my witness that I have dug this well. Therefore he called that place, bear Sheva, or bear Sheba because the two of them swore an oath there thus they made a covenant at birth Sheba. So a b Molech. Rose with people, that commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines. Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in birch Sheba, and they're called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines many days. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about be? What's the best verses summarize this and see, what do we call the doom in response to these words? Well, this is our second interaction with a beam aleck. Before we had come into contact with a beam like this was when Abraham was wandering around in the area of Gara. And let's see do well. He's this is the king where Abraham had told Sarah just tell him, you're my my sister. And we saw that God Himself was going to destroy the king of gara Abimelech because of this, and so now, seems like even though the treaty has been broken, and they're sent away, there's still some type of relationship between the two of them. And here, be Malaccan Pico, who is the commander of his army, come to Abraham, and they want to make a covenant, right. Are you going to deal falsely with us? Are you going to be shrewd like this forever? Are you going to be the type of guy that we can't really trust or do we need to put you under oath make an agreement with you make you swear come into covenant with you? That you actually want to deal honestly with us and with our land? I they have some suspicions about this guy. He's a he's a guy of great wealth. It's got a large household has over 300 servants who are willing to bear the sword for him. And so they want to know if this guy's our neighbor do we have Can we trust you and so they come into covenant with him. And as soon as they come into covenant with him, Abraham then confronts a beam like about a well now we might think, man, what is this about? They're fighting over well, well, yeah. In this area of the world, you better make sure that you have access to clean water. Water that's in a well that's coming regularly. And so he says, Your Ben sees that well for me, but I dug that well. It'd be more like says, I don't know what you're talking about, man. So I'm gonna set it up. I'm going to show you how valuable this well is to me and how much I'm telling you the truth and He takes from himself seven ewe lambs and he puts him to the side with a beam like as what it would do with these lambs. They said this is this is to show you how serious I am. And so he swears on it. And he calls a place bear Sheba or bear Sheva. This is well of the seven. So he names the well well of the seven in there at the well after this whole fiasco with the water source being an issue, which if you don't think it's a big deal, go read about the seven states right now in the Colorado River. But if you go and find out about that, you'll find out there's a big, big dispute right now about who gets access to the water. whose is whose and how will they conserve it? Anyways, the point being, after all of this, find something that we wish Abraham had done in the last story, the very end and there when he planted the tamarisk tree, he called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. What's the story about? Well, Abraham, the man of God, who is not a perfect man of God, as we have seen, comes into covenant with one of his neighbors, me Molech. And this is a land of the Philistines. The area that the Philistines would the sea peoples would inhabit and would eventually become a snare. I don't think that this is the same. I think that Philistines are see people. And so I think there's multiple migrations of sea people. I think when we're going to zoom out another 400 years. By the time we have the Exodus, we're going to have a different kind of wave of people that Joshua is interacting with. So as this is going on, what is this about? Well, this is Abraham coming into covenant with bear Shiva. And even though even though Abraham is not a perfectly righteous man, he does still have access to justice. He does still have a right to confront and be Molech about a well that he dug and he should have access to. I think, God, this is a case where you might think, well, that's really unfair. Well, first look, first, let's go to be calling or be what's the best verse? I have? Verse 33, underlined, and they're called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God, but let's get back to this idea of just because you're not a perfectly righteous person doesn't mean that you have no access to justice. Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? Could you imagine all your rights being taken away all your access? To justice, being taken away because of one foul deed? Now I know that there are some there are some deeds that God Himself as we saw earlier, if you murder someone, right if you take man's life by man's and so your life be taken, there are some aspects in which your criminal activity rises to the occasion in which there is capital punishment. But thank God that just because we are not perfectly righteous people, he doesn't strip us of all access to justice. Now we ought to pay for our in justices and that's exactly what he says. But this is where the heart of it is. Abraham knows who he must stand before. Abraham knows he does not by himself deserve God's grace. But Abraham knows that he serves the everlasting God and he calls on his name he calls on the name of the annual notice there are capital L capital O capital R capital D, this is a tetragrammaton JACC way or Yehovah. And he calls Yehovah the ever lasting God. El olam is a God without beginning and without end. The Abraham's days will be numbered. He is an old man. He still has faith and the God who lives forever. I trust in Him. We've gone through the story of Abraham so far and to be honest with you. Abraham is a squirrely dude. I have a I have a tough time. A lot of times with Abraham. I'm sure Jesus has a tough time. With Me too. I'm not saying give Abraham a break. But I'm saying we're also sinners. We also do sinful things. Praise God, that the everlasting God has come into covenant with us and has given us access to his justice but instead of the justice of His wrath that we deserve. By the blood of Jesus Christ, we have access to his grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. That you are the everlasting God without beginning without in the Alpha and the Omega. You are the one who was and who is and who is to come. Your days are without number four you created time. Lord, we thank you that you're the judge of all creation. Give us grace, and give us access to come before you. We pray that you would please care for us this day. Help us with the work that we have before us. In May we do it to your glory in Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll catch you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai