Pastor's Bible Study

The decisions we make can ultimately make us or break us. And the breaking can be so bad that there is no coming back. We can break our reputation, our marriage, our career, our future opportunities, etc. Genesis 13 teaches us some very important and practical lessons about decision making and choosing foolishly or wisely. What were the circumstances surrounding and the causes of Lot's poor choice? What can we learn from Abraham about making good decisions?

The Abrahamic covenant is a covenant where God promises Abraham the blessings of seed and soil, i.e. offspring and land. God promises to give Abraham a son (Isaac) through whom a nation (Israel) would be formed. God promises to give Abraham a particular seed (Jesus) through whom the whole would could be blessed with salvation. God promises to give Abraham a land that stretches from the Nile River to Euphrates River. The covenant God made with Abraham is eternal, unconditional, and nontransferable. It is foundational. Everything in the bible from Gen 12 to Rev 22 revolves around this covenant.

Abraham lived a life characterized by obedience that was the result of faith. The bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). It was the faith of Abraham that allowed him to be the friend of God.

We cannot be a lawgiver like Moses, a conqueror like Joshua, a king like David, or a prophet like Elijah, but we can be an Abraham by living a life of bold obedience. The journey to a bold obedience begins with FAITH. 

We can learn a great deal about victorious faith from both Joshua and Rahab. We learn that to live out a victorious faith, you must have a personal encounter with God (Jesus) and you must submit to His commands. When you do, you can experience a work of God that has no human explanation, like Joshua and Rahab in the victory and salvation God gave in the battle of Jericho.

Moses life of faith can be divided into three 40 year periods: 40 years of training in Egypt, 40 years of training in the desert, and 40 years of doing what he was trained to do in the previous 80 years. All along the way he had a faith that was tested and tried. He had to learn to war by faith.

If we’re going to follow in the footsteps of Moses, waiting, watching, walking, and warring in faith, then we should make the same decisions he made:  1) We must refuse to go with the flow of a sinful society. 2) We must leave the familiar to venture into the foreign.  3) We must swallow our pride and be willing to do the unusual.

Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph each had faith even unto the end of their days. But the thing the author of Hebrews zeros in on that they utilized their faith to extend a blessing to their children. Every parent has a God-given responsibility to bless their children. From the word “blessing” we get our word eulogy—“to speak well of.” There three lessons we can learn from these men of faith about blessing by faith.

1) The blessing is a spiritual tool giving hope to your children for the future

2) The blessing is another way of you worshipping God

3) The blessing is a means of interlocking the past with the future 

Abraham's faith was tested and tested and tested. Some tests he passed. Some tests he failed. But what we do see over time is a growing and strengthening and purifying of his faith. It is as if Abraham were enrolled in a school of faith. One of things that all students in any school have in common is tests. All students are tested to see where they are academically. Our walk with God by faith is a School of Faith. And in the School of Faith we, like Abraham, must have occasional tests, or we will never know where we are spiritually.