In this passage, we see that God, in His sovereign grace, chooses what is least in the world to be His victorious people, ultimately culminating in Jesus who “was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3) to be the Seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.

In this passage, we see the providential hand of the Lord in providing Rebekah as His appointed bride for Isaac in order to continue the line of the seed of the woman. In His covenant faithfulness the Lord has provided the church as a Bride for His Son, Jesus Christ. Though it may seem like the church is losing, we can confidently entrust our existence to the Lord's providential care.

In this passage, we see the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise to give Abraham and his offspring the Promised Land. Even when it looks like evil and injustice are at home on this earth, we can have confidence that God will fulfill His promise to provide His people with a homeland, "a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13).

In this passage, we see that God tests His people for our good and for His glory. We don't tend to think about tests in this way. But we can be comforted by the fact that the God who tests is also the God who provides. The question is: Will we trust and obey Him?

In this passage, we see a series of three seemingly disconnected stories. But what the birth of Isaac, and what God's protection of Hagar and Ishmael, and what Abraham's treaty with Abimelech reveal to us is that we can take comfort in the fact that God will do what He has promised.

Even though the city of Sodom has been destroyed, the spirit of Sodom is alive and well, even in God's people. In this passage, we see that God isn't content to just take His people out of Sodom, but that He is also taking Sodom out of His people.

In this passage, we note "the kindness and the severity of God" (Romans 11:22). Severity because a holy God must punish sin, and kindness because God has shown us where certain behaviours lead. Before we come down too hard on the wickedness of Sodom, we need to look into the mirror of God's Word and examine our hearts and see if there is any wicked way in us.

In this passage, we see that the God of the Bible is good, that He is the Judge of all the earth, and that He will do what is just.

In this passage, we see that the God of the Bible is great, that there is nothing too hard for the Lord, and that the Lord loves to do the impossible. Do you have a great God?