Our God is the God of our father, the God of Abraham. He is the God of glory, the One who appeared to us and called us out unto Himself as the good land to walk in and enjoy. He is also the God who blesses us – He blesses us with God in Christ as the Spirit, and He makes us a blessing to the ones around us.
Our God is a personal God, a God who can be experienced and enjoyed in our daily living. However, is the God of Abraham OUR GOD?
Lot spent a lot of time with Abraham: he left his own country and family to be with his uncle, he traveled with him, he was rescued by him from the kings who captured his city, and he was interceded for by his uncle Abraham and therefore was rescued by God out of Sodom. However, the God of Abraham was not the God of Lot, and Lot never returned to Abraham to join him and enjoy the blessing and the promise.
We may hear about the God of our fathers, we may read in the Bible concerning how wonderful He is, and we may see in the lives of our parents and those around us how much they enjoy and experience God – but is the God of Abraham our God? Do we experience God as the God of Abraham?
Did we experience the appearing of the God of glory? Were we called by Him in His appearing? Did we enjoy God’s blessing in our personal and intimate time with Him? Is God real to us in our daily life? We need to experience God and know Him as the God of Abraham in many aspects, and Abraham’s experience of God needs to become ours in our Christian life.
In the stage of learning to live by faith, Abraham experienced God as the God of the earth (the One who promised to give the land of Canaan to him and to his seed), the God of secret care for His chosen ones (when God saved him from Pharaoh’s insulting his wife), as the God of comfort and encouragement (when Lot left him, God promised Abraham a seed and the land for his inheritance), and as the Most High God (the Possessor of heaven and earth, the One who supplies us with all our daily necessities).
We need to advance in our experience of the God of Abraham by experiencing Him as the God of the earth, the God of secret care for His elect, the God of comfort and encouragement, and God the Most High.
The God of Abraham is the God of the Earth
In God’s second appearing to Abraham in Gen. 12:6-7, He spoke to him and promised the land of Canaan to him and to his seed. The God of Abraham is the God of the earth: He owns the earth and the entire earth belongs to Jehovah (Psa. 24:1).
God promised Abraham that he and his seed will inherit the entire land of Canaan, from the Great Sea (the Mediterranean Sea) to the Great River (the Euphrates). The inheritance of the physical land of Canaan is promised to the seed of Abraham, the Jews, the people of Israel.
Even though today there are disputes, conferences, negotiations, and meetings on where are the real boundaries of the land of Israel, when the Lord Jesus will return as the unique seed of Abraham, He will clear up the situation and bring the people of Israel into the inheritance of the entire good land!
God as the Possessor of the earth, the Landlord of the earth, owns the whole earth and is pleased to give to His friend, Abraham, the good land.
Spiritually speaking, God has promised and He will do it: Christ as the Spirit, the reality of the good land, is ours for our enjoyment day by day! We simply need to enjoy Him in spirit by exercising our spirit! As part of the corporate seed of Abraham, we as believers in Christ inherit the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the reality of the good land for our enjoyment, supply, and realm to live and be in.
The God of Abraham is the God of Secret Care for His Chosen Ones
Even though God appeared to Abraham again and again, and even though His promises and supply was so rich, Abraham failed again and again. After God called Abraham the first time, he didn’t react immediately: his father took him and moved him out of his country, and it was after the death of his father that he moved to the land God showed him.
Later, as he was learning to live by faith, Abraham betrayed his wife in Egypt (almost losing her when the Pharaoh took her to himself, since he said she is his sister, see Gen. 12:10-20). It was a shameful thing for Abraham, but God was working behind the scenes secretly taking care of Abraham, His chosen one. Eventually, Abraham got out of this situation not in shame but with many riches, being sent away by Pharaoh.
We have our ups and downs, we have God’s appearing and enjoy Him – and then we fail, but in all our ups and downs God writes His history. He is being experienced and enjoyed by us, He becomes our God, and He writes His history within our history, a divine-human history that counts in His eyes.
He secretly cares for us even when we think we’re completely lost or when we fail miserably. He brings us through failures and makes us victorious through Christ, the One who loves us. How precious to know and experience the God of Abraham as the God of secret care for His elect!
The God of Abraham is the God of Comfort and Encouragement
After Lot left Abraham and chose the green plains around Sodom and Gomorrah, God appeared to Abraham again and promised that the land as far as he could see will belong to him and to his seed (Gen. 13:14-17).
The God of Abraham is the God of Comfort and Encouragement
In His fourth speaking to Abraham God promised him the land of Canaan as far as he could see in four direction, and He promised to make his seed as numerous as the dust of the earth. When his own family left him and he was alone in the hilly land, God came to Abraham as the God of comfort and encouragement and promised him the seed and the land.
The way God comforted and encouraged Abraham was by promising him that his seed cannot be counted (as the dust of the ground) and the whole land he could see will be his and his seed’s. Even though throughout history the four major empires were acting as “four kinds of locusts” to kill and eat up the people of Israel (see Joel 1:4 and footnote), the descendants of Abraham are still as many as the dust of the earth.
Actually, the physical descendants of Abraham (the people of Israel, the Jews) are as the sand on the seashore and the spiritual descendants of Abraham (the believers in Christ) are as the stars in the heavens.
Today we need to let Christ as the unique seed of Abraham be wrought into us so that He may be brought forth through us for His increase (Gal. 3:16; 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19), making us the corporate seed of Abraham. Also, we need to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit so that we may be filled with Him and constituted with Him for His corporate expression (see Col. 1:12; 2:6-7; Gal. 3:14; 5:16, 25).
The God of Abraham is God the Most High
Another aspect of God that Abraham experienced is that He is God the Most High, Possessor of Heaven and Earth. After Abraham fought for his brother and released him from the captivity, he was met and blessed by Melchizedek the priest (Gen. 14:17-20) and he realized that his God is God of the Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth.
God provided Abraham with everything he needs for his living, and so he didn’t need to take his share of the spoils of war – God was His source of supply.
Our material possessions, our daily food, our clothing and all the things we need physically, all are supplied by us in a faithful way by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth. He provides all that we need. We don’t have to fight for them or try to get them: we simply need to experience God as our supply, our source, and our everything.
He comes to us to give us bread and wine for our refreshment and He constantly supplies us with everything we need to live a God-man life in the church life for His corporate expression.
After we fight to slaughter God’s enemies and release the brother in captivity, Christ comes to us to be our supply and refreshment, and God is the Most High One to us, the Possessor of heaven and earth. May we know and experience God as such a One day by day!
Lord, You are the God of the earth and You provide us with everything we need to live the Christian life in the church life for the fulfillment of Your purpose. Thank You for Your secret care for us: even in our failures and defeats You care for us and cause all things to work for good! Thank You for being the God of comfort and encouragement to us, coming to us to promise that Christ will be wrought into us for Him to be brought out in us as the seed, and that all-inclusive Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit is our allotted portion! Praise You as God the Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, the One who constantly supplies us with all the daily necessities. May we know You and experience You as such a One, the God of Abraham, in all these aspects!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The History of God in His Union with Man (ch. 7), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 8 / msg 8, The God of Abraham seen in His dealings with Abraham.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God hath not promised skies always blue, / Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through; / God hath not promised sun without rain, / Joy without sorrow, peace without pain. / But God hath promised strength for the day, / Rest for the labor, light for the way, / Grace for the trials, help from above, / Unfailing sympathy, undying love. (Hymns #720)
# All my sicknesses I bring Him, / And He bears them all away; / All my fears and griefs I tell Him, / All my cares from day-to-day, / All my strength I draw from Jesus, / By His breath I live and move; / E’en His very mind He gives me, / And His faith, and life, and love. (by A. B. Simpson, Hymns #564)
# That God is there for me tomorrow, / As He is for me today; / That He’ll take my cares and sorrow, / And He’ll wipe them all away; / There’s no crisis that He can’t bear, / There’s no storm He can’t abate; / He’s my God, He’s my God. (New song on, He is My God)
# God has set the land before us, / And the land we will possess… / We have eaten unto fullness, And with joy we bless the Lord, / For the good land He has given; / Faithful to His promised Word. / Here we find there is no lack— / Never, never we’ll go back! (Hymns #1166)
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