Bible Society of South Africa

Lord of all – 7 July 2020

By Ben Fourie

Bible text(s)

Genesis 15

God's Covenant with Abram

1After this, Abram had a vision and heard the LORD say to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I will shield you from danger and give you a great reward.”

2But Abram answered, “Sovereign LORD, what good will your reward do me, since I have no children? My only heir is Eliezer of Damascus.

Genesis 15:1-2GNBOpen in Bible reader

Adonai – Yahweh, Sovereign Lord or Lord my God. Abram could not have chosen any greater name. Adonai was the name most Israelites used to avoid using the name “Yahweh” as we have seen in a Verse-a-Day earlier this month. In this passage, Abram used both names. He was unsure of God’s motives. God promised that Abram would be the father of a great nation, but now he was advanced in years and still childless. To him, the promise must have seen hollow indeed, especially since he and Sarai were well past normal child-bearing age. When he used both these very sacred names, it must have been from the depths of despair.

Abram knew the names of God, but he did not know that for the One behind the names, nothing was impossible. Amongst all the video clips that I have received these past three months, there was a song by Lynda Randle called “God on the mountain”. It is worth watching on YouTube. I want to quote the following from this song: “Life is easy, when you’re up on the mountain, you’ve got peace of mind, like you’ve never known, but things change, when you are down in the valley. Don’t lose faith for you’re never alone, for the God of the mountain is still God in the valley, when things go wrong, He’ll make them right. And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times, the God of the day is still God in the night.”

Abram, and us as well, get to realise who God really is every single day and what he can do. Another translation for Adonai is Master. God is indeed Master of our lives, when things go well, but also when we are down in the valley. We are so prone to think that God has forgotten his promises, but we never need to worry about that.

Prayer: I want to say thank you that I have been able to experience You as “God with me” this past month. Amen

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