Patriarch II:Son Of Abraham

Take your Bibles this morning and let's turn to Genesis chapter 26. Genesis 26. You follow as I read this chapter. Think about what God is revealing here. In terms of himself and us. Genesis 26, verse 1. and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, She is my sister, for he feared to say, My wife, thinking, lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebecca, because she was attractive in appearance.

When he had been there a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebecca, his wife. So Abimelech called Isaac and said, Behold, she is her wife. How then could you say she is my sister? Isaac said to him, Because I thought lest I die because of her. Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us?

One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants so that the Philistines envied him Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.

And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we. So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of Gerar and settled there. And Isaac dug again in the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.

But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found their well spring water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, the water is ours. So he called the name of the well Essek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitna. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it, so he called its name Rehoboth, saying, For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

From there he went to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father, fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.

When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzot his advisor and Phicol the commander of his army, Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me, and have sent me away from you? They said, We see plainly that the Lord has been with you. So we said, Let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you, and have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.

You are now the blessed of the Lord. so he made them a feast they ate and drank in the morning they rose early and exchanged and Isaac sent them on their way and they departed from him in peace that same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him we have found water he called it Sheba therefore the name of this city is Beersheba to this day Let pray Father once more we come to you with open hands and open hearts We come to you to ask that you would help us to understand, to recognize the nature of our God and our responsibility. Father, open this text to us now, we pray, for the sake of your name and for our good, in Jesus' name. Amen.

You know, the movie industry over the past 20 years has had a passion for sequels. Not content with Rocky, they have given us Rocky II, Rocky III, and Rocky IV. Jurassic Park gives birth to two new movies and if a child left at home while the rest of the family goes to Europe seems a bit unbelievable to you never mind, there's another one called Home Alone 2 now sequels of this kind often involve the same characters and the same plot lines I'm sure it saves time and effort when it comes to script writing and producing and all that sort of thing, not to mention coming up with the work of coming up with original ideas.

But as we read this chapter, it seems that the same plot that we've seen reappears and the same themes show up again. If someone made a movie about this chapter, they might call it Patriarch 2, Son of Abraham. right well the bible's goal in this approach is not to save time not to save money nor is it that it doesn't have any original ideas the same themes are deliberately repeated in the experience of isaac to emphasize the central message of abraham's life and that is god can be trusted to deliver what he has promised. God can be trusted to deliver what he has promised.

As you read this chapter, as I read through this chapter, surely you ask the question, why is this chapter here? Why is this chapter here? You see because when you read it carefully the events of this chapter chapter 26 precede the events of chapter 25 You remember what happens in chapter 25 The two twins are born Jacob and Esau and we read about how Esau sold his birthright for a pot of stew.

But when we come to this chapter, certainly there's no children. Rebecca would not have been able to be passed off as a single woman if she had twins trailing after her, right? So the events of this chapter precede the events of the previous chapter. Why is that, do you think? One reason this chapter appears, at least, is to show the incredible wealth that Esau gave up for a pot of stew.

That's at least one reason. You see just how wealthy Isaac becomes. And you see just exactly what Esau gave up for just a bowl of soup. But I believe the main reason the chapter appears is once again to reveal the covenant-keeping nature of God. That God remains true. God wants you to know that he will remain faithful to the covenant he made with Abraham.

Which, by the way, big picture, the covenant he made with Abraham then fulfills the promise of the conquering seed he made to Eve. And even though the generation has changed, God has not. We might even say even though the generation has changed, neither has man. Right? You see the same things happening. And because of the covenant, because of that covenant, God is not only the God of Abraham, He is the God of Isaac.

And so this chapter is here to tell us that. That God keeps His covenant. And that the God of Abraham is the God of Isaac. Now how can we know that? Well as you look through this chapter, I think three things appear that we need to recognize. We need to recognize the covenant promises of God.

We need to recognize the covenant protection of God. We need to recognize the covenant provision of God. Now the first thing this chapter challenges us with is to recognize the covenant promises of God, verses 1-6. Now, bear with me, I'm not going to read all those verses again, okay? So you recall, you look at the text as we take it apart. The first thing in the first six verses is that you recognize the covenant promises of God. that familiar scourge of famine hits the land again, just like in the days of Abraham.

And so Isaac heads for the green and fertile land of Egypt. He's on his way to Egypt, but at a critical juncture, as Isaac passes through Philistine territory, the Lord appears to him telling him not to take the high road to Egypt. He says, Isaac, dwell in the land that I tell you. Now, that's supposed to start ringing bells in your head. Because that sounds like Genesis 12.

Where God says to Abraham, Abraham, go and dwell in the land that I will show you. You see? This is the same God. It's reminiscent of God calling Abraham to dwell in the land that God would show him. And God repeats the promises that he'd made to Abraham. He promises to give this land to the promised seed.

He promises to bless Isaac, thus making his name great. Your offspring will be as numerous as the stars of heaven. Through your seed, Isaac, I will bless all the nations. all of them the same covenant God had made with Abraham. Now, why do you think he does this? Because he's going to keep that promise. He said, Abraham, I'm going to bless the nations through your seed.

But pay attention to a promise that gets special mention. It's found in verse 3. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands Note and I will be with you That isn so blatant in the covenant with Abraham You see, I will be with you. And why does God make Isaac the recipient of such great blessings?

Again, verse 5, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. he keeps or he he makes isaac the recipient of these great blessings because of the obedience of abraham the whole hearted obedience of abraham now this is not abraham doing good things and earning blessings for his descendants as we have watched abraham in these previous chapters we have seen this disobedience is nothing more than the outworking of his faith. It's the fruit of his great faith, especially when he listened to the voice of God at the sacrifice of his son. He even uses the same terminology here, because Abraham obeyed my voice, you see.

And so Isaac then responds in faith to this faithful God. He responds in faith. How do I know that? Verse 6, So Isaac settled in Gerar. Faced with the choice between the apparent foolishness of trusting God and the wisdom of his eyes and going to a land of plenty that wasn't struck by famine, Isaac chooses faith. He chooses to believe what God has promised.

By faith, he resists the temptation to flee to Egypt on the strength of the bare word of the promise of God, not the least of which is this, I will be with you. Well, Lord, if you're going to be with me, then I will trust you. Why does God remain faithful to you and me? Why does God remain faithful to you and me? make no mistake about it he remains faithful and he is your God and mine through the faithful obedience of another just as God welcomes Isaac into relationship with him for Abraham sake so God welcomes you for Jesus sake he is our God and He is faithful to us because another one went before us who obeyed God wholeheartedly the Lord Jesus Christ.

And by the way, this is not some begrudging love. Okay, I love you. I suppose I have to because I promised Him I would. It's not that kind of a love. It's a love that's born out of true faithfulness to his promise. I am glad God loves me because of Jesus.

I am confident of his love because of it. Because if God's love depended on me, I mean, you know, some of us may be sitting here thinking, I'm not so bad. Well, what are you talking about? Listen, if you would take all the evil things you've done, the wicked things you've said, and the horrible things you've thought, ooh, we talk about thoughts now. That's getting a little bit personal, isn't it?

If you wrap that all up in one package, if all of us, listen, think about this. If you could know me like I really am, and I could know you like you really are, we wouldn't even be sitting here together. If our love for each other depended on each other, if God's love depended on how well I was doing, there would be no hope. I'm confident in God's love.

I'm confident that God loves me because of Jesus. You see? I can be confident that God will love me tomorrow because He will have been faithful to His Son. He gave His Son a people. He sent that son to die for us, and for his sake, he loves us. Just like Isaac, for the sake of Abraham, becomes one of God's covenant partners.

You see, we can have confidence because God remains faithful and true to his covenant. it. Yet as we continue reading, doesn't that just sound terrible? It's not as bad as it sounds okay It being mic that why it sounds so terrible Yet Isaac has to grow in his faith doesn he As we continue reading the story we see a man who by faith he stays in Gerar By faith, he doesn't go to the thing that makes sense, to a green and fertile land where there's lots of food.

By faith, he stays in this land and believes that God will provide. And yet, and yet, something happens here. Now, there's no doubt about it, Isaac was in a dangerous position. Let's at least give him that much. He lived as an alien in a foreign land without legal rights, without any kind of recourse. The possibility of violence against him from Gerard's inhabitants was ever present, and he feared for his life.

He feared that he would meet with a convenient accident to free Rebecca from marriage, A fear that was not irrational and not unfounded. He had plenty of reasons to fear. So when the men of Gerar ask him about his relationship with Rebekah, he decides he would rather risk giving up his wife than giving up his life. Okay? Now, he has heard the promise from God.

I will be with you and bless you. He now has another choice. Believe God and let the chips fall where they may, or adopt a strategy of deception and give God a little bit of assistance. Because why? Because God has promised. God has promised to bless the nations through the seed of Abraham.

Will you allow me to drink a little bit? I mean water. Where were we? I was making the point that God had promised to bless the nations through the seed of Isaac. And God had promised to be with him. Thus, even in the face of incredible danger, he didn't have to resort to self-protection by deception.

Because if God's going to remain true to his promise, then Isaac will have a child that will bless the nations. He doesn't have to worry about dying. And the big one is, again, that promise, and I will be with you. His faith in God's promise fails. And he lives in this faithless, disobedient way for some time. In verse 8 it says that he carried on this subterfuge for a long time.

He lived a lie for quite a while. You see, the promise seed is now in danger. Because if someone takes Rebecca as his wife, the promise of God to send the seed of blessing is void. Right? It's at this place that you must recognize God's covenant protection. His protection.

God protects the promised seed not by some divine miraculous intervention but by his providence you see this is the difference between what happened to Isaac and his father Abraham you remember Abraham was in the same country and he told the same lie and the only reason why and again God protected the seed because the king had taken Sarah into his harem. And so God miraculously intervened in a dream. But you don't see that here.

You don't see the king taking the wife, his wife, into his harem. So he's afraid of just the men around him. and God doesn't miraculously intervene with a vision or a dream to the king. He just arranges everything so that the king is looking out of the palace window one day and sees, as some of the other versions say, and I like this better, it says he saw Isaac laughing with Rebecca. it's actually a word that's a play of a play on the word of Isaac.

Remember Isaac means laughter? And the word that used there is a play on that But that still not a really good translation I think it the NIV I not sure if it the NIV or one of the older versions That says sporting He was sporting with his wife. Okay? Now, that doesn't mean that Abimelech looked out the palace windows and saw them playing catch. Okay? What that means is he saw Isaac and Rebekah relating to one another, not like a brother and sister relate to one another.

Okay? There was some caressing or something going on that you don't do with your sister. Okay? And so, he sees that and he knows there's something wrong here. There is something wrong. So he calls in Isaac.

He calls in Isaac and confronts him. Isaac offers his lame excuse, well, I was afraid I was going to die. And this Philistine king is angry because he knows what's at stake. What does he say to Isaac? He says, look, you could have brought guilt on my nation. And we would have had to pay a price.

Right? Let's look at what he says. Verse 10. what is this you have done to us one of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us so Abimelech warned all the people saying whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death so he issues a decree that protects Rebecca and Isaac and in the process protects the promised seed that's what you have to see Even though Isaac fails, God does not.

And all this is through the providence of God. God accomplishes His purpose not by a miraculous, divine intervention, but by the normal course of events that He has arranged so that all this comes to pass and His purposes are accomplished. That's providence. Providence is where God uses normal means as opposed to miraculous means to accomplish His purposes.

Okay Example of providence I going to tell the old old story of how I got here Alright A friend of ours, a former roommate of Becca's, was watching a commercial about dual herbicide on the television. And the dual herbicide has a guy in a parade saying, here we are in Creston. That's how we talk. Here we are in Creston, Iowa. Lynn says, Creston, Iowa, that's where Becca's from.

And Tim is looking for a church to minister in. So Lynn talks to Dale, who was a teacher with her, and who was also a deacon here, Dale Shaw. So Dale Shaw calls me and says, we're looking for a pastor, would you come and preach? Now, that's providence. God accomplished His purpose of getting a pastor for this church through the normal means. He didn't say, Tim Posma, go to LaRue in a dream.

Right? That's not what happened. That would have been divine, miraculous intervention. Instead, He used the normal means. That's what He does here. He uses not divine, miraculous intervention.

Here he uses just his providence to accomplish his purpose. But the point is, however he does it, God's going to remain faithful to his promise. He'll remain faithful to the covenant. So again, recognize the covenant protection of God. He proves faithful even when we prove faithless. We need to remind ourselves, at this point of Jesus, The one who did not fear man and who did not economize the truth to save himself.

Do you realize that? The fear of man did not control Jesus. He did not let those who would be against him keep him from his purpose. He didn't lie to save himself. He did not think of himself, but of the people God had given him. With no thought of protecting himself he saved an unrighteous unworthy people and restored them to God Listen Your lack of faith Your lack of faith in the God who is with us can never derail His gracious purpose It will never derail His gracious purpose.

Isn't it interesting? What would we have done in that situation? we would have thrown Isaac out and said I'm going to get another covenant partner you're not very dependable that's not what God does for the sake of Jesus he remains faithful and when we are faithless at times when we don't trust him we're not going to derail his gracious purposes there's protection and he will accomplish it the last thing we see which takes up the rest of the chapter is the covenant provision of God recognize the covenant provision of God we have seen his covenant promises we've seen his covenant protection now we see his provision recognize the covenant provision of God in spite of his failure then God remained with Isaac just as he promised because even in a land struggling with famine, what happens? Now again, he's faithful to Isaac.

He follows through on the promise. What happens? Isaac reaps a hundredfold what he sowed. Not only that, but he starts accumulating incredible flocks and herds and all of that goes with that. He starts accumulating all that. God gives him incredible prosperity and he makes his name great.

Alright? He makes his name great. And here we see God's provision, if you will, of prosperity. But prosperity brings with it its own dangers. God's faithfulness to us can oftentimes result in hatred towards us from people. God will remain faithful to us and that may cause people to hate us. you see the Philistines envied the prosperity and they started to harass Isaac they start blocking up the wells he needed for his flocks and eventually telling him to move away so Isaac now is between a rock and a rock In a hard place.

Now, He's got hostility to Him on one side, and He's got a waterless wilderness on another. You see? So, it's here or here. Either way, it's not a great choice. So He heads out into this waterless wilderness. He's cast into this waterless wilderness.

Now, what's the deal here? Does God give with one hand and take away with another? Is he playing games? No, he's testing Isaac's faith again. Will he go to Egypt? Or will he persevere in faith?

Will he see that there is more to God's covenant than the ownership of a piece of real estate? Will he recognize that God's ultimate blessings rest in more than material blessings? Will he recognize this promise? God is with me. Well, we see then that God provides for him. And Isaac responds in faith.

Because of God's faithfulness, he provides what he needs for existence. We can put it that way. As the Philistines fill in the wells, he continues on digging another. Now think about that. He keeps digging these wells. That is a sign of his faith.

That's the fruit of his faith. He believes in God's provision because he believes that no matter what, God will provide. So I'll just keep on digging wells if I have to. God will provide. You see, that's a sign of faith. You persevere in faith.

You keep moving. You keep going. And you might look to everyone else, you're just trying to survive. But you're not. You believe the promises of God. Alright?

You know, I can remember this. When I was working, and then I got laid off, and there was a baby on the way, practice when I did not have a job was this This is what my dad taught me If you don have a job your job becomes looking for a job So I get up every morning and I'd put on some fancier clothes than I normally would because, you know, you want to make a good impression. And I would just spend the day looking for work.

Was that a sign that I didn't trust God to provide for us? No! It was actually a sign that I believed God would provide. Right? So I would just go out, trusting God. And sure enough, in the worst economic times, this is back in the 80s, between Carter, when Reagan took over, and the economy just went south in a major way, there were no jobs.

I found jobs. Why? Because God's faithful. And so Isaac shows the same thing. He perseveres in faith. Right?

So on he goes. He digs. There's controversy. He names the well. He moves on. He digs another well.

First he re-digs Abraham's wells, giving them the names that Abraham did. They'd filled them in. He dug them up. They chased him off. He heads out to the valley. He moves on digging another well.

There's an argument with Abimelech's men. He names it contention. That's the word esek. Contention. On to another spot. Digs another well.

There's a fight. He names it enmity. Sitna. And he goes further into the wilderness. Far from being a blessing to the nations, It seems that they want to curse him and get rid of him as a nuisance. Doesn't look like blessing the nations at all, does it?

Now such persistent conflict might have worn Isaac down, but he believes God will provide. So he perseveres until at last he finds a well where no one's going to bother him. Does he say, look how lucky I am? does he say wow this is nice no he names it Rehoboth which means space and then makes a declaration of his faith in verse 22 For now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.

He believes God's going to bless him. Because now we've got space now. We'll be fruitful in the land. God provides what we need every day. God provides. so with confidence we can go out the fruit of faith knowing that he will provide and notice this notice this he doesn't just provide prosperity he doesn't just provide the things we need for everyday existence God finally we see here provides fellowship not finally the next three verses 23-25 God provides fellowship Isaac goes to Beersheba, where Abraham had dug a well, and there he meets with God.

God appears to him. God declares his faithfulness once more. God declares his faithfulness to him by repeating in particular two parts of the promise. I will multiply your seed, and once more, what does he say? I will be with you. I will be with you. and Isaac responds with worship.

Here's fellowship with God. Here is God with him. He builds an altar there. He calls upon the name of the Lord. Pitches his tent there. And they start to dig a well.

Now in the process of digging that well, Abimelech shows up. And here we finally see at the rest of this chapter that God provides peace. He provides peace. Abimelech makes an appearance. And he makes an appearance to make a covenant with Isaac. Now you see, he's doing that because Isaac is extraordinarily powerful.

And I believe Abimelech thinks, if we don't get a peace treaty with this guy, he's going to make trouble for us. Okay? He's going to make trouble for us. In fact, I think, when the whole thing is concluded, look at verse 31 in the morning they rose early and exchanged the oaths and isaac notice isaac sent them on their way and they departed in peace I find it interesting that the text does not say the king took leave but that Isaac sent them away.

We're talking equals here. God has so blessed this man that he is equal in wealth and power to the king of this area. Now one thing you might want to, you're thinking maybe. Maybe you're not, but I'm going to put the thought in your mind. This Abimelech who shows up to make a covenant, is that the same Abimelech that made the covenant with Abraham? And the answer is no, it's not possible.

That's 75 years earlier. It can't be the same Abimelech. So some scholars have said, see, they're just telling the same story, only changing a few details. No, not necessarily. Abimelech here may be a title like Pharaoh. Abimelech.

Abimelech in Hebrew is what it would be pronounced. And it means basically, my father is king. Okay. My father is king. So it's possible that that's a title or it could be a family name. Phicol, same thing with Phicol.

It could be a military title or a family name. But anyway, whatever it is, they come to this place where Isaac's ancestor had made a covenant with Abraham. And Isaac is surprised. Why do you think he's surprised? He threw me out. I thought you guys hated me.

Why do you want to come and make peace with me now? Of course, you notice Abimelech tweets, if we might put it charitably, tweaks the truth a little bit. Right? Well, we've done nothing but good to you. What? We've treated you well.

We've sent you off in peace. All this kind of stuff. It's just wrong. I mean, what he says there is ridiculous. Verse 28, if you want to see it. Verse 28, the last part.

So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you that you will do us no harm. Just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and sent you away in peace. Liar, liar, pants on fire. I mean, that is an out and out lie. That is not what happened. That is not what happened.

But Isaac clearly displays the principle of not returning evil for evil. My guess is he did raise an eyebrow maybe. What? But, he didn't return evil for evil. Why? Because, right?

He believes God is with him. He doesn't have to return evil for evil because God is faithful. God is faithful. God is faithful. now of course when everything's done and they have the covenant meal together and they swear their oaths they're off and just as they're getting out past the property the servants come in and say hey we found water right another well it's turned out well it turned out well it's turned out that's right that's the proper terminology it's turned out well you see God was faithful to him right and so he names it Shabbat which he renames it just like he did before he renames this well with the name that Abraham had given it you remember it was here at Beersheba that the other treaty was concluded and so he renames it just like Abraham in the same name that Abraham had Now here the question Why does Abimelech want peace Look at verse 28 The Lord is with you There you see it again.

The Lord is with you. Verse 29. The Lord has clearly blessed you. That's why he wants it. Isaac's life pointed to the God with whom he walked. Isaac's life pointed to the God with whom he walked.

And so God provided peace. Now this book, the book of Genesis, wants you to see more than a man at peace with his neighbor. It wants you to see more than that. the promise that God made to Abraham is being fulfilled it's starting to be fulfilled the nations find blessing from the seed of Abraham it shows that by his lifestyle his peaceable nature and God's blessing Isaac has demonstrated the fundamental truth of Emmanuel.

God with us. God is with us in His people. He's with His people. You see, His life pointed to God. They recognized it. And so Isaac becomes a blessing to this nation.

You see, we all know where this is going. What's the ultimate fulfillment of that promise? It's in Jesus. It in Jesus isn it He the seed that going to bring blessing to all the nations But in the process of getting there we see pictures of it all along the way until finally it comes to Jesus and we see it completely fulfilled, ultimately fulfilled. So what we have is a picture here, the beginning of that fulfillment.

Isaac, the seed of Abraham, the seed that will bless the nations, is now blessing this nation. when you walk out of here today what do I want you to think about just this recognize God's faithfulness recognize God's covenant promises recognize God's covenant protection recognize God's covenant provision now here's the thing God is still a covenant kind of God. And He has made a new covenant. A covenant that was ratified with the blood of Jesus.

Every covenant had to shed blood. The covenant, the new one that Jesus came to give us was ratified with His blood. Do you think God will remain faithful to that covenant? you see we've got a whole history of the faithfulness of God here's one more brick in the structure of that story God is faithful those of you who have never come to Christ understand this when you place your trust in Jesus when you abandon all dependence upon yourself and say Lord God I want to be reconciled to you and I know the only way is to cast myself on Christ you can be sure that God will forgive you Because God will be faithful to the covenant promise He made to forgive our sins.

You can be sure from then on that God will never leave you and never abandon you. Because He made that covenant and He'll do it for the sake of Christ. Therefore, you can have great confidence in that. Believer, you recognize the covenant promises of God. That's the only thing that will keep you going. You know what I would say to you?

The faithfulness to God is the seedbed of our faith. How can I trust God? Why should I trust God? Why should I put my faith in God and what He says? because He has been faithful and will continue to be so. And believer, He ratified that covenant with the blood of His Son. You can be sure that God will remain faithful to you.

God is a covenant-keeping God. Father, thank You once more for another Lord's Day together. thank you that we have had the privilege of seeing you at work thank you for your word which doesn't merely reveal doesn't tell us stories but actually reveals your character and reveals the kind of God you are Lord help us to be confident in your faithfulness help us to become people of faith we ask this now in Jesus name Amen