07-19-2026 -PROTECTED, LED AND NOURISHED - EL SHADDAI - Genesis : 12-17

THE MESSAGE IS DISCERNING BY PASTOR

ROB INRIG FROM BETHANY BAPTIST

IN RICHMOND, BC.

++++

++++

I invite you to pray and make this prayer personal, and for whoever needs support in difficult times, we mention the names of those who are in need, and also pray for the members of the family and friends. You can also mention the name in need.

(Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G,  Stevie A, Socrates D, Sara’s mom H, Margarita G,  Rosy Ch, Patricia L, Lina J, Manuel D, Silvia H, Magda-, Miguel H.L, Alicia G, Margarita G, Brianda M, Alejandro M, Natalia M. Oscar N.D, Luis Carlos V).

I ask for your healing over every part of my life – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I ask that you make me strong and resilient for the days ahead. I know that you have a great purpose

for those who believe in your name.

Help me not to allow the distractions and struggles of my days to weigh me down to the point of exhaustion. I know that your desire is for me to live this life abundantly and free. And my greatest desire is to reflect your love and light to a world that so desperately needs your hope.

For those I love who are facing cancer or a hard diagnosis, I pray for your covering of healing and grace. I pray for your strength and your great peace to fill their lives, reminding them that you are close. Thank you, nothing is impossible with you. Thank you for fighting for us, and you are bigger than anything this world throws our way.

I lean fully on You, Lord, for You alone are able. We love you; We need you this day, and always. in Jesus name, Amen. (Thank you for your prayers, Lou)

++++

As believers in Jesus, most of what we hear on Sundays is oriented to what we read in the New Testament.  This should be the case because our relationship with God is totally dependent on Jesus, whose death on the Cross makes it possible for our sin to be forgiven so we could be made right with God. The incredibly great news that we aren't just made right with God but that we have a totally new and different relationship with Him. In this we are not just His creation, but through the saving blood of Jesus we have been made His children who will live with Him for all eternity.

But what God has to say to us didn't just start with what we read in the Gospels.  Which is to say, what we read in the Old Testament is important for us to understand, not just as stories but in understanding who God is and what His plans are for us.

A significant story in this is someone we are very familiar with, Abraham or as known for a good portion of his life, Abram. He grew up in Ur of the Chaldees, now known as Iraq. Here God comes to him with an amazing call, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonours you, I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed Gen 12:1-3.

Now don't be too quick to pass over what we just read.  Imagine if this were you. Your life going along as normal and then, God making Himself known to you in ways that defy belief.  Not just known but God who you did not know, calling you to a life completely different - a life lived in a different place, with a different people, following a different God.

These differences given with amazing promises but actually those seeming SO outlandish they would have been near next to impossible to believe. Chief among them would have been the promise that you, as Abram would be made, ‘a great nation’.

Sure, perhaps that possible to imagine as you look over at your kids, imagining their destinies. So smart. So gifted. Lots of kids, all with different qualities speaking so well of their promised futures ahead. This blessing coming to you and from you, your name meaning, ‘exalted father’.  That name summarizing a well led family, obviously affirmed every time you enter the market. A name repeated in conversation when others  compare their children with yours. There's only one problem, you ’exalted father’, have no kids.  Not one.  And as time’s been marching on - past your 20’s, 30’s, 40’s - now closer to your 80’s, there’s next to no chance of children on the horizon - especially with your wife’s calendar pages no different than yours. In the meantime, walking around bearing a name that continually mocks you.  

And yet given the promise, Abram believes in a future, humanly that he has no right to hang on to.  He picking up stakes and ‘doing as the Lord had told him’ :4, he leaves the life he's known to journey to a place he did not know all because he held to a promise. Travelled in a straight line, that journey was around 650 kms however, travelers followed the Fertile Crescent trading routes, along the Euphrates River and into the Jordan Valley, the actual ancient walking distance, closer to 800 or 1000 kms.

In the early steps of the journey, the Lord speaks again, making Himself known. We’re told when  Abram comes to Shechem, The Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, I will give this land Gen 12: 7. In this 3 things to note, 1^st God reaffirming He’s not left Abram, 2^nd there are children to come and 3^rd this walk will lead to forever land that will be given.

Abram, the call you heard was not wrong. In a journey of this length, no end in sight, Abram might have been tempted to question if he got it wrong. The challenge difficult enough if he were alone but others who also left everything are dependent on him. There would be the inevitable, Are we there yet’s? along the way as well as much more sinister doubts raised by a spiritual enemy whose goal is to plant doubt about this God who’d come to him. Those doubts heard loudly today.

I think this is the reason why Abram does what he does by erecting an altar to the Lord several steps along the way. These altars serving as concrete reminders of the Lord who spoke, of the Lord worthy of Abram's worship.  Reminders that are also to hold us in our silent times with God. 

Though I can't be certain, I wonder if what we read next, Now there was a famine in the land so Abram went down to Egypt 12:10 we see Abram diverting from what God told him. He certainly had been faithfully bold in setting out, leaving everything he knew behind and going to who knows where. Along the way, stopping to worship this God who revealed Himself to him. But while coming into this Promised Land, things not looking as promising as he might have hoped. Instead of overflowing abundance - famine.

WHAT WAS SEEN - nothing to encourage no food, no supply, no hope. Yet WHAT WAS SPOKEN, I will make of you a great nation. WHAT WAS SEEN - a place far different than the one left. Yet WHAT WAS SPOKEN, I will bless you meaning despite what is seen, My promise hasn’t changed. WHAT WAS SEEN - hardship, leading him to do what he thought best, going to a place different than where he’d been led. WHAT WAS SPOKEN, Go to the land I will show you, land you are to possess. These to remind us, hold to what God has spoken not to what we see

I'm sure Abram hadn't accounted for what he first encountered - reality far different than expectations. Abram no different than us. We thinking  that IF God tell us to do something then all should go well. God's leading shouldn't allow the hard places, the I can’t see You places. The ‘it's famine time’ places.

 Not liking what he saw - instead of staying in the place God told him he should go, he headed to Egypt, in the hope of finding better places. He listens to situational voices, to things he can touch and see rather than the Voice he has heard and been called to obey and serve.  The situation around him not looking good, he decided that he would find his own good.

Ever been there? Where what we see, what things around us tell us, have us on the move, we determining what our next steps should be - to make us happy, to give us what we want.

And why not? God has given us minds to evaluate and decide. To determine and to act. We aren't to be people of indecision and passivity. All true YET as God tells us, In everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God ...  I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you ... Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding but in ALL your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.  Phil 4:6, Ps 32:8, Prov 3:5,6.

So as we see Abram in Egypt, what happens?  It's here where he encounters difficulty far greater than any famine though that won’t show itself for a long time yet to come.

In a place he likely should not be, Abram moves from faith to fear, from trust to lie. He trusting God to look after an immense journey into the unknown, who then throws that trust away a few hundred yards away from a power he thought greater than the One in Whom he had placed his trust.  Because in this world, Pharoah is in charge.  Pharoah is who must be obeyed. 

And so he lies (which he will do on one more occasion) protect himself.  Abram forgetting that up until this time, when he had remained on the path God laid out for him, he walked in the protection of His Lord.  But reliant on his own strength, he makes decisions where lies ‘heard’ - Is God to be trusted, will soon be lies spoken. 

At this point in time Abram has made an unwise decision but not a tragic one. He was in a place

he should not be because he believed more in a famine seen than in the promise heard.

Abram allowed what he saw to change what He believed. And we are oriented to do the same. That the place we are in is unchangeable.  That the famine we are experiencing is never going to lift. That the pain I’m going through is never going to end.  So we decide what we should do.

But in Egypt something happened of far greater significance than any danger Abram faced by lying about his wife. That danger still being experienced today. Because it was in Egypt that a person was added to his family that would lead to the catastrophic. By appearance what looked as something good - a slave to make things easier for his wife became the doorway that would usher in immense pain that is still experienced today.  Genesis 12:14-18

One of the things we are told as Christians is that we are to, Walk by faith, not by sight 2 Cor 5 :7 yet our faith is not blind faith. God has given us clear things that we must see so we can be assured that what we believe is true.

He did this with Abram wanting  him to be certain the promise He made to him was true. This promise to His Chosen People is important for us to remember today, as opposition mounts against Israel. God affirms His Promise to Abram a number of times, in a number of ways. We may not understand it or ignore it but he promise remains. The firs what we read in Genesis 12 when Abraham is called, that references to: the land that is given, the nation it will be, the blessing it will enjoy, the protection it will be given and the worldwide impact it will have. then in Genesis 15 what's promised in Genesis 12 gets reaffirmed.

God again repeating the promise He had made to Abram, that an heir would be given, specifically a son, that from this son a multitude, its number as great as the stars would come and the land promised would be given. Further that God would be this people's protector - their Shield and this Shield would be their rewarder - He providing in abundance.

And Abram's response to this? And he believed the LORD and he counted it to him as righteousness :6.

Sure seems like this reaffirmation would be sufficient.  But as time goes by, he doubts, as do we.

Question? Have you ever been in the place where you believe while at the same time you struggle to believe? Where you know something to be true but you don't always feel it to be true?

Actually I don't need to ask because all of us have been in this place at different times. Where we want and sometimes need assurances for things of which we’re sure - sort of like ASSURANCES for our assurances when the rope we are hanging onto is feeling a little thin and we are wanting it to be more strongly reinforced.

Welcome to what Abram next asks, 0 Lord God, how am I to know I shall possess it?  Gen 15:8

In response God could have said, ‘Abram what more do you want? What I've promised, I have done. True, some things are still to come but have I failed in the leading I've already done?’

Have you lacked for anything?

But instead, God says, Let's cut covenant.   

A covenant - more than a contract. In simple terms, a contract is a legal document between parties. If broken, a penalty is paid and people move on.  A covenant is far more.  Breaking covenant is a violation of trust, breaking the legal and betraying the moral and relational, a far more grievous violation.

In Genesis 15 we read of the covenant God made with Abram. A covenant was represented by blood, where animals were killed, cut in half, each part put on either side of a passageway. Those making the covenant then walked between the split animals, symbolically swearing, ‘May I become like these dead animals if I fail to keep my oath.’ By this both parties were agreeing to their responsibility to do their part in keeping covenant.

But when God made this covenant, He did something very different. He put Abram asleep and then He, God, passed through these animals by Himself. God took the full responsibility of the covenant upon Himself. The covenant He made with Abram was based entirely on God's faithfulness to do what He promised - a promise made that would be sealed with blood.

God cutting this covenant is NOT conditional. It's not impacted by us messing up. It's not based on us doing our part. Not based on us being continually faithful. NOT based on if we prove, if we do, if we earn then God will do. Our requirement is to believe that God will do what He said. It's within this context of covenant, God reveals another of His names, I am EL SHADDAI - God Almighty 17:1, His assurance that He is a covenant keeping God, faithful to do what He said He will do.

SHADDAI meaning Almighty - not subject to our limitations. Saying to Abraham - what I am saying for your life in the human is impossible BUT understand I am God of the impossible.  Saying to you and me - I do what you cannot.  You just need to step into what I have done.

God not bound by what we ‘know’ or think. Not bound by what the supposedly 'wise and informed’ say He can do. He not bound by the laws and order of nature He established enabling our world to run. He not confined by limitations. He God Almighty. 

But Almighty doesn't fully tell the story of what Shaddai means. The core of the word is shad or breast, which conveys the nurturing relationship a mother has with her infant child.  EL SHADDAI - mighty to nourish and protect. His provision given from His nature to love. The ancient rabbis referred to Him as the "all-sufficient One." The early church made sure this name was right out front in the Apostle's Creed: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty...

Abram, in what I have promised to you, I am not just giving a people, I will nourish them, I will protect them, I will provide them with what they need.  What My heart wants to do, My might enables Me to do.

Abram, the promise given you is certain which is what you and I are to lay hold us as well. In Genesis, God declares: Is anything too hard for the LORD? 18:14.  In Corinthians, As surely as God is faithful, our word to you does not waver between "Yes” and "No.” For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between "Yes” and “No.”  He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God's ultimate "Yes,” He always does what He says. For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "Yes!” And through Christ, our"Amen”(which means "Yes”) ascends to God for His glory. God placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first instalment that guarantees everything He has promised us   2 Cor 1:18-22.

Our faithful God, who when life drain us dry, is there to nourish us, to give us strength to overcome the things that have depleted us. Our God, who when we feel that we have been set aside, unimportant and unseen, is there to draw us close and assure us of His intimate knowledge of all the things that plague us and defeat us.  If you want testimony of this when life was at its hardest just ask Job. Of the 48 occurrence of El Shaddai in the Old Testament 31 are in the book of Job. God showing Himself in the nitty gritty of life.

And remember Abram who for years would have felt misnamed and missed over? Whose name could have felt a cruelty. Until God, in the human, exalted father he was not.  God changing his name to what was ahead, Abraham - father of a multitude.  You and I also in the here and now, not seeing the abundance of what is promised.  The famine hard.  The journey hard.  The unseen truth?  The Promised certain, I will do what I have said.

God's plan for a man and his wife beyond anything thought possible.  That plan still in play today. Of a child and a nation and a land. And in that place and through this nation, a child who would come who would redeem a world gone wrong. God's plan from the beginning of time.

God’s plan will never be thwarted, will never be knocked off course, will never be in need of readjustment.   God planning everything - in what was first seen - the functioning of the planets, the movement of the tides, the implantation of the sound waves, the pathway of our circulatory system. The immense, seen and unseen. The smallest of smalls - much unseen. The mysteries - some of their complexities now understood, others still eluding us.  And His plan to come, just as certain.

All these and more reminding us - He is EL SHADDAI, God Almighty yet this Almighty who wants to be: found, known and trusted because of His love.

EL SHADDAI - nothing outside of His planning or knowledge. Not one thing of your life or mine a surprise to God.  Some of this confusing.  Some hard.  Some of it unwelcome.  Not wanted but allowed.  God not coercing us, demanding that we worship Him but inviting us into His love.  

But don't miss this, even as we deal with these, God’s plan has already been put in place - His rescue from the pain and the mess.  His triumph as God Almighty over sin and death.  God determining before the foundation of the world, that a Lamb would be slain. God providing the answer before Satan created the problem.

And the strange - Jesus meeting our ugliness by taking our ugly, our wrong, our sin on Himself - He taking on our ugly that would lead Him to a Cross and a Tomb in order to provide us with Beauty.  All accomplished in the Beauty of His resurrection.  The glorious and spectacular resurrection exceeding any definition or depiction of beauty that can be imagined.  All part of God's promise and plan.  

So though you don’t see it, don’t

walk away from the Promise. 

Far greater glorious is coming.

www.bethanybaptist.bc.ca