Friday, May 9, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Genesis 25-27
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 54
Key Verse
Genesis 26:24 — “And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.”
Devotional Thought
Abraham dies at a hundred and seventy-five, “full of years,” and his sons Isaac and Ishmael—the son of promise and the son of the handmaid—stand together at the cave of Machpelah to bury him. That brief scene is one of the quiet wonders of Genesis: old rivalries laid to rest in the same tomb as Sarah. Then the story narrows to Isaac, who prays twenty years for a barren wife, and to Rebekah, who conceives twins who struggle in her womb. Esau comes out red and hairy, a cunning hunter; Jacob comes out gripping his brother’s heel, a plain man dwelling in tents. By the end of the reading, Jacob has traded a bowl of lentil pottage for a birthright, dressed himself in goatskins, lied to his blind father, and stolen the blessing—while Esau cries with “a great and exceeding bitter cry.” This is a family in which everyone is grasping something.
And yet God is in it. Before the twins were born, the LORD told Rebekah, “the elder shall serve the younger.” The promise did not depend on Jacob’s cleverness or Rebekah’s scheming; it rested on God’s word. That does not excuse the deceit—the brokenness in this household bears bitter fruit for decades—but it does show us something steady: God’s purposes are not undone by human failure, nor accomplished only through human virtue. He keeps His covenant even when the covenant family is a mess.
Notice, too, how Isaac digs again the wells of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped with earth. He reopens what was buried, gives them back their old names, and when the herdsmen strive with him he simply moves on—Esek, Sitnah, and at last Rehoboth, “for now the LORD hath made room for us.” There is a whole spiritual life in that: sometimes faithfulness means digging again what others have filled in, and trusting God for room to be fruitful.
Psalm 54 sounds the same note from another angle. David, hunted and betrayed, cries, “Save me, O God, by thy name,” and then, “Behold, God is mine helper.” He does not pretend his enemies are not real; he simply refuses to face them alone. That is where we live too. In May, with gardens going in and school years ending, our days are full of ordinary striving—some of it honest work, some of it the quiet grasping of a Jacob. The good news of this passage is that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still the helper of those who call on Him, and He is not finished with any of us yet.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you grasping and scheming for something God has already promised to give—and what would it look like to wait on Him instead?
- Isaac reopened the wells his father had dug. What spiritual inheritance or practice has been “stopped up” in your life that God may be calling you to dig again?
Prayer
O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we come to You as people who often grasp what we ought to receive, and scheme where we ought to trust. Forgive our deceitful hearts, and teach us to wait on Your promise rather than run ahead of it. Like Isaac, help us to dig again the wells of faith that have been filled with the earth of neglect and busyness. Like David, be our helper when trouble rises against us, for we cannot save ourselves by our own name. Give us room to be fruitful in this season, and let our lives, however ordinary, become altars where Your name is praised. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 54:1 — “Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength.”