I took some time off from posting because I’ve not been on top of my game. I apologize. I was, however, mulling over the last 5 chapters I read and what they meant to me, what spoke to me.

Usually it’s a verse or two that captures my heart and I just know God’s talking to me. I’ve had people ask me how I know this. My answer is simple: I know it to be so when I go back and read the posts I’ve written and I remember none of what I’ve written. It’s like I’m reading it for the first time. There are a few here and there that struck me so deeply that I cannot forget them, but the majority of them I don’t remember writing. That’s how I know it isn’t me saying what I want to say, it isn’t me manipulating God’s Word to fit what I want it to say for my own personal reasons. I’m always careful as to what I write and I always ask Jeff for his input, always after I’ve posted, and he always agrees with what I’ve written. That’s another indicator to me that it isn’t me manipulating God’s Word because Jeff is the best man I know when it comes to one who seeks after God’s own heart.

This time, however, I was impressed with a simple thought of love. Abraham’s love for Sarah, their love for their child, Isaac. Isaac’s love for his parents, and his love for his wife, Rebekah.

Abraham loved Sarah so much that when they thought they wouldn’t have children, he accepted her wishes and took her maid and had a child with her. Then, when they had Isaac and Hagar was getting…high and mighty…when Sarah asked Abraham to kick her out of the home, he did so for he loved Sarah.

Abraham loved GOD so much that he was willing to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac. Where else do we see this image? You see, Abraham knew, he KNEW God promised him that, thru his seed, Isaac, his descendants couldn’t be numbered. It isn’t until the New Testament that we learn that in Abraham’s inner thoughts he reasoned within himself that God would simply bring Isaac back to life because he KNEW God doesn’t break His promises to His people. Due to all of that, he was faithful in his love to God and God provided the sacrifice for him.

Abraham loved Sarah so much that when she died he sought to buy a tomb to bury her in. He was a stranger in a strange land at he bought a field with beautiful trees and a tomb to bury his beloved Sarah in. Although the person who owned the tomb, which is all that Abraham initially asked for, said he’d give Abraham not only the tomb but also the field as well, Abraham declined. He wanted to pay for her final resting place. It was important to him. He paid 400 pieces of silver, which in those times was a lot of money. So you could say he spared no expense for her final resting place.

Abraham loved his son so much that in his old age he sent his servant back to his homeland, to his relatives, to find Isaac a wife. He wanted to find a bride for him of his own people. Abraham’s servant did as he was instructed and when he reached Abraham’s homeland, the servant prayed to the Lord, asking Him to show him which woman He wanted to wed Isaac. Immediately we see Rebekah come into view.

When Rebekah comes to Isaac, she sees him walking in the fields and asked who he was. Upon learning it was Isaac, she covered her face with a veil and went to him. In Genesis 24:67b it says “He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.”

When Abraham died, he had 8 sons but he gave everything he had to Isaac. Before he died, he gave gifts to each of his other sons and, “sent them off to a land in the east, away from Isaac.” I believe this was also done in love for Isaac, but also for his other sons. For Isaac because it keeps his brothers from coveting what was rightfully his, and for Abraham’s other sons to not feel anger upon seeing all that Isaac had compared to them. This isn’t, to my knowledge, written about in the Bible, but I kind of wonder if the brothers born after Isaac were given enough to be satisfied and sure to have a good footing in their lives.

So, what do you think? Do you see what I see? A common thread of love running thru these chapters? Please, read them for yourselves! Sleep well, my friends.