The Lord established His covenant with Abraham and provided both a sign of the covenant and an obligation to the covenant for Abraham and his descendants. In our text we will discover that the true people of God are not from natural birth, but from a miraculous birth that comes from the promise of God and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. 

Thirteen years have passed since the birth of Ishmael and the Lord appeared to Abram again. In the Lord’s appearance, He identifies Himself as God Almighty, gives Abram a command to follow and reconfirms His covenant with a sign and a seal. We learn five truths about the Lord’s covenant with Abram and see how it finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ.  

As we continue to follow the life of Abram, you will notice the “ups and downs” of Abram’s faith. In our text today, Abram’s faith is at an incredible low, where both Abram and Sarai doubted the word of the Lord. Sarai complains, Abram complies, and Hagar ended up a casualty. Yet the Lord in His grace intervened and revealed Himself to Hagar giving her an instruction and a promise. 

In our text today, the Lord revealed Himself to Abram in a vision, where the Lord identifies Himself in terms of His relationship with Abram. Reaffirms His promises to Abram and seals His promises with a covenant. Abram responds to these promises, by believing in the Lord to fulfill these promises. As a result, the Lord credited it to Him as righteousness. 

In the separation of Lot and Abram we are going to see the foolishness of Lot looking around and seeing the lushness of the land on the other side, not knowing that evil was lurking nearby. In contrast we are going to see the faithfulness of Abram looking up, trusting the Lord, and waiting for the Lord to fulfill His promises to him. 

At times Abram displays great faith as He is trusting the Lord to fulfill His promises, but then in our story today Abram displays a lack of trust in the Lord’s protection and provision. Yet, despite Abram’s lack of faith, the Lord remained faithful in keeping his promises. For the Lord’s faithfulness in keeping His promises to Abram did not depend on how Abram behaved, but on the fact that the Lord called Him and made those promises to Him. 

In Genesis 3-11, all we have read is God’s curses upon humanity, but now starting in Genesis 12 we read about God’s blessing. We learn that the Lord is the source of this blessing, Abram is both the recipient of, and the conduit of this blessing and the nations are the beneficiaries of this blessing.

In chapter 11, we discover both the source and the reason for the forming of the nations. One of the things we are going to discover in our passage is how it mirrors the first human family in the Garden of Eden. Yet despite man’s wickedness, the Lord graciously intervenes to restrain their wickedness, and continues His rescue mission through the promised seed. 

Chapter 10 presents a panoramic view of an expanding human population in terms of clans, languages, lands, and nations. Rather than skipping over it, we need to pause and see the forming of nations, and what it reveals to us about God. 

The Bible is the story of how God rescues His people from sin and death. In Genesis 9, God continues to unfold his redemptive plan through Noah and his sons for the hope of a savior to be realized in the eventual coming of Jesus Christ.  

Throughout the narrative of the flood, we continue to see the Lord’s mercy and provision. In our text we see how Noah responds to the Lord’s mercy and provision, and the Lord making a promise to Noah and his descendants. 

As we read the narrative of the great flood, we are reminded of the Lord’s judgment. The reason why the Lord is executing His judgment is because the Lord has declared based on substantial evidence that the earth is corrupt, and every creature has corrupted its ways and that humans have filled the earth with violence. The Lord is not executing judgment on an innocent world, but on a guilty, corrupt, and violent world. In our text, we will discover five truths of the Lord’s judgment. 

If God has declared the world to be corrupt and God has announced its impending judgment, what hope is there for man to escape the corruption of evil and God’s judgment? It is only by God’s grace through His provision that He makes for us that we can be saved from the corruption of evil and God’s impending judgment. For Noah believed in God’s promises and provision and Noah obeyed God’s instructions and commands.

If man is corrupt and evil all the time, and God sees and grieves over man’s wickedness, and declares to destroy man because of his wickedness, what is man’s hope to escape corruption, the spread of evil, and God’s just judgment? 

Following the account of human sin and death, we come across a unique genealogy. The genealogy of Seth stands in contrast to the genealogy of Cain. In this genealogy we see the continuing effects of sin, and the faithfulness of God’s promise of providing a seed from the woman to defeat their enemy. 

After sin is introduced into creation, we see in the story of Cain and Abel how it takes deadly effect. That is, despite multiple warnings from God, Cain becomes consumed by sin and kills his brother. And with Abel’s innocent blood calling for justice, sin seems to have secured its victory over creation as it spins further out of control. But when all hope seems lost, the Lord reminds us how one day sin will be conquered. He reminds us that one day, innocent blood would be spilled once more, this time upon on a cross taking upon the sins of the world, past, present, and future. And that blood too would cry out, not for justice, but for grace!

Before the entry of sin, the man and woman enjoyed the presence of God without shame, enjoyed the gracious provision of God, whereby they were exercising their dominion over it and the garden was flourishing because the man was caring for it. The man and woman enjoyed their relationship with one another, since they recognized their distinctive identity and roles. But once sin entered through their rebellion it would fracture these relationships. 

The man lived with his wife in harmony in the beautiful garden that God had provided, fulfilling the commission of God, enjoying the provision and presence of God, and obeying the command of God. In the deception of sin everything changes, as man begins to believe a lie about God, and focuses on what he can gain and neglect on what he will lose. He acts on that lie and rebels against God by wanting to be like God, declaring what is good and evil for himself. 

Genesis 1-3 provides the foundation for biblical manhood and womanhood, which has been distorted, misunderstood, and misrepresented because of sin. In our text we are going to look at the account of the woman’s creation that demonstrates that God is the one who establishes the value of women, the role distinction of women, the uniqueness of women and the relationship between the man and woman.