Genesis chapter 18

There are two things here: firstly there is Sarah and how she did not believe that she could have a baby, and then there is Sodom and what God was planning to do there.

With Sarah, she did not think it was possible she would have a son., After all, here she was a 90 years old, with Abraham even older, being in his 100th year. Whilst even today there are stories of men almost as old as Abraham having children, their wives are never 90, in fact if they are much about 25 that is something and, being completely cynical here, the men usually have pots of money. Bu here we have God telling Abraham that his 90 year old wife will have a baby this time the following year, and without the aid of IVF treatment too and all that entails.

But Sarah's age shows that this is something that could only happen because God took was involved. Even today, for a woman of 90 to have a baby is, as far as I am aware, unheard of. I know there are women in their sixties who go through IVF and stuff to have children, but by the time you are 90, you would be so much older, frailer, with less energy. Chances are, no matter how much you may have wanted children, you just don't have the energy at that point in your life. OF course, since they lived so much longer in those days, I reckon the aging process was delayed as well, but even so, Sarah was well past child bearing age and everyone would have known that. So for her to become pregnant and have a son would be a miracle that everyone would know about, there would be no alternative as it was just not possible for Sarah to have a child under normal circumstances.

God had promised Abraham and Sarah a family, and He had waited all this time so that people would know He was the Lord and that for Him, nothing is impossible.

There are times when it is difficult to believe, to have faith, to really trust God that things will work out. It is easy to sink into a depression, to become some downcast, worried and anxious that it seems like you are in one big black pit that just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Yet God never changes, He is the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow. He created the universe, the sun, moon and stars out of nothing. Jesus spoke the world into existence and the Holy Spirit moved across the waters (Genesis 1). If we truly believe in the existence of God, of His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, then we have to realise that a God who can create all that we see around us from nothing is more powerful than we can ever imagine. There is nothing that he cannot do, and nothing can stop him from doing whatever he wants.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, is too hard for the Lord.

Then there is the situation regarding Sodom. God told Abraham what he was going to do, how he was going to destroy Sodom so Abraham interceded on behalf of Sodom. He asked God whether is was fair to destroy the good people along with the bad.

Genesis 18:23-24 Then Abraham approached him and said: ‘Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? (NIV)

When God agrees that if He finds 50 righteous people in the city, He will not destroy it, Abraham then asks Him what He will do if there are 5 less only 45 righteous in the city. God agrees that if there were only 45 righteous, He would not destroy Sodom.

Then Abraham goes even further and asks what God would do if there were only 40 good people could be found. What if there were only 30 or 20 or even if there were only 10? Each time God responds by telling Abraham He would not destroy the city for the sake of those righteous people.

Genesis 18:20-21 God continued, "The cries of the victims in Sodom and Gomorrah are deafening; the sin of those cities is immense. I'm going down to see for myself, see if what they're doing is as bad as it sounds. Then I'll know. (The Message)

So here we have God coming down from heaven to check out Sodom and Gomorrah, to see if they are really as bad as He has heard and if they are, He will destroy them, yet Abraham has persuaded him not to do this if He can find any good people living there. Abraham interceded on behalf of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, just as Jesus intercedes for each of us before God. Abraham is an example of what we should be doing for others, interceding with God for our family, our children, our friends our neighbours, our towns and cities our nations, yet how often do we close our eyes and our hearts and tell ourselves that we can't make a difference, that nothing will change so why bother praying?

Yet prayer is one of the most important things we can be doing. It is not a case of "I can only pray", of being a failure if we can't give money, help out in some real, tangible way. Prayer changes things. It saved Lot here and it has saved many, many other people since then.

Genesis chapter 17

Here, God confirms the covenant between him and Abraham, telling him that he and Sarah will have a son, Isaac, who is the child of the promise, the covenant. Whilst Ishmael, the child of the flesh, will be blessed also, it is through Isaac that Abraham will be the father of many nations.

This is not the first time that God has talked about the covenant with Abraham. It is mentioned in chapter 12 and chapter 15, but here, it is all about to take place, with Isaac's birth foretold sometime in the next year. This is something that Abraham at the age of 100, with Sarah now 90, thought impossible. And initially assumed that God was talking about Ishmael. Yet nothing is impossible for God and I am reminded of God telling Moses "The Lord answered Moses, "Is the Lord's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you." (Numbers 11:23, NIV).

All these chapters here are reminding me about having faith, about trusting in God, no matter what. Trust and believe, for the arm of the Lord is not too short and for Him, nothing is impossible.

So the Lord promises Abraham:

Genesis 17:1-8 Abram fell face down, and God said to him, 4 ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.’ (NIV)

The significance of the change of name is that whilst Abram means exalted father, Abraham means father of many.

But God isn't just promising Abraham a family, many descendants, He is also promising that He will be Abraham's God and the God of his descendants . This is God choosing Abraham above all men, and promising Him everything. Yet what has Abraham done to deserve this? He is no one special. Yes, he listened to God and moved with his family on God's command, but in reality, Abraham had done nothing before then to mark him out, to make him stand out above the crowd. He had certainly done nothing to deserve any preferential treatment, you might say he had done the opposite in view of the lying he did about Sarai and not telling Pharaoh she was his wife. Yet God had His hand on Abraham showed him His favour.

In the same way God has shown us His favour. Look at what we have because of Jesus. WE have eternal salvation as everyone who calls on Jesus' name will be saved. What have we done to deserve this? Why should God allow His only Son to pay the price for our sins, our mistakes, our errors? Yet He has. He knew from before the world began that this would be the only way, that this would be the price that had top be paid to give us salvation yet just like Abraham, we have done nothing to deserve this, nothing to warrant any special treatment. But Abraham was counted as righteous because of his faith in God, and we are counted as righteous because of our faith too.

Then Abraham circumcises every male in the household, both free and save, born into the household or purchased form outside. This is a symbol, a sign, of God's covenant with Abraham, something that every Jewish male carries as a reminder of what God promised Abraham.

Genesis chapter 16

Having no children was a serious matter. If you were a man, it meant that you had no heir, and if you were a woman, it meant that you had failed as a wife. The mark of a successful wife was a brood of children running around her so to have no children clearly demonstrated your failure (despite the fact that as we now know, it could very well have been the man's fault there were no children!).

Sarai had waited years, absolutely years and still she had no children and no sign of one coming, other than the word of the Lord. So, she did what many wives did in her position in those days, gave her maidservant to Abram so he could get her pregnant, and then the child would be treated as if it was Sarai's. She ran out of patience with God, could see (and feel ) her advancing years, and decided to take matters into her own hands.

How often do we do that? We know what God wants of us, but things are moving too slowly, that promotion hasn't come, the children are not turning out how we expected, the husband/wife God has promised us seems like a far away dream so we try and sort things out ourselves. We apply for other jobs, take a firmer hand with the children, join a dating agency and so on. We rush on regardless of want God wants.

Maybe the waiting is for a reason. Maybe, like Abram and Sarai, it was to show beyond any shadow of a doubt that God was behind Sarai getting pregnant. Maybe it is because we need to grow, to learn, to experience certain things before we move into what god has planned for us. Maybe when we rush into things, we are not ready, we don't know enough, we haven't the necessary expertise or understanding.

I look at my children and see them getting moody and grumpy at times, and I see a reflection of how I was at the same age. I see how they see things in black and white, one way or another and no compromise. Yet now I have been through the things I have experienced, I know there are reasons behind the way people act, that there are grey areas, times when there is no right or wrong answer. Yes, I know some people are rude, ignorant, self seeking all the time, but there others who come out with a sharp word, a hurtful word only because they themselves are hurting. You never know why people say what they say, do the things they do, only God know theirs hearts, so I try not to judge people when they look a certain way, when they say mean things, when they are rude, uncaring, spiteful. I am not always successful, I can tell you, but you don't know what a person is going through, what their experience of life has been, so until you do, how can you judge why they are behaving the way they are behaving?

Anyhow, getting back to Sarai and Abram, after Hagar became pregnant, she started to become full of her own self importance. After all, look at her, she got pregnant when after umpteen years Sarai had never even had a glimmer of being pregnant. The relationship between Sarai and Hagar was not just a mistress/servant one any longer. They had both slept with the same man, yet only Hagar had become pregnant. So Hagar started to despise Sarai and treated her with contempt.

What did Sarai do? She went straight to Abram and told him it was all his fault!!!!!

Abram took the easy option, and just told Sarai to do what she wanted. He wanted a quiet life, he didn't want any fuss and bother, arguments between Sarai and Hagar disrupting his peace, he just wanted to be left alone. He wasn't prepared to sort this out himself, even though probably the while household knew what was going on and had been going on for some time. Abram did the equivalent of hiding behind his newspaper, hiding away in the garden shed, or disappearing to the office and left Sarai and Hagar to it.

So Sarai treated Hagar so badly that she ran away.

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar and told her to go back, that God would take care of her and increase her descendants so there would be too many to count. The angel foretold:

Genesis 16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility towards all his brothers. (NIV)

Ishmael would be a freeman, free to wander where he wanted, and his name means God hears. Hagar in the desert when she ran away named the Lord "the one who sees", so in just one chapter, God is named as the one who sees and hears. Ishmael represents the child of the flesh, the Mosaic covenant, and Isaiah, the son of Abram and Sarai, or Abraham and Sarah as they become, is the child of the promise, the child of the Abrahamic covenant. Even today, the children of the flesh persecute the children of the promise, reaping the consequences of what happened when Abram and Sarai gave up waiting for God and took matters into their own hands.

It is easy to decide we know best, to take matters into our own hands and try to sort things out for ourselves yet we need to have patience and to wait on God. This is often easier said than done, and I know this from personal experience as I would rather get up and do something, to sort out the problem, rather than sit back and wait.

It is a case of having faith and trusting in God no matter what is going on around us, of believing that God will fulfil whatever he promised, no matter how unlikely it may sound. And after all, since a day is as a thousand years to the Lord, that means that ten years in our time is only 14.4 minutes in God's…..

Genesis chapter 15

Genesis 15:1 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram.     I am your shield, your very great reward.’ (NIV)

We have just seen Abram march with 318 men to attack four kings and their armies to recover his nephew, Lot, all Lot's worldly good, the servants, the womenfolk, and then confront the king of Salem, and yet the first verse here is God telling Abram not to be afraid.

I'm reminded of Elijah after he had routed the prophets of Baal. He was filled with the Holy Spirit:

1 Kings 18:46 The power of the Lord came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. (NIV)

Then the very next thing that happened, when Jezebel found out what had happened to her priests:

1 Kings 19:1-3a Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.  So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, ‘May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.’  Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. (NIV)

After a monumental victory against the forces of satan, being filled with the Holy Spirit and running ahead of the king's chariot to the Jezreel, Elijah is overcome with fear, with doubt, with worry. Isn’t that just what happens when something amazing happens? You have the initial euphoria, the joy, but then you start to think that you don't deserve it, that something's bound to go wrong, that surely it was a fluke, a one off, you couldn't do that again or maybe they got the wrong person, it should have been someone else who had this award, was recognised for that achievement?

it’s a case of having the adrenalin flowing, of being filled with the /Holy Spirit and then wham,. When the immediate danger has passed, your body relaxes and then the enemy slips in again, ready to start spreading the doubt, the anxiety. But look how quick God is here. Abram has barely time to blink and God is reassuring Him, and what words of reassurance He uses too. He is Abram's shield, his very great reward, just as He is our shield, our very great reward.

As with Elijah, God reassures, and does not condemn. Elijah had been out in the hot sun all day, built and altar, got rid of 450 priests of Baal, ran all the way to the city at speed and his body would have been exhausted. God did not condemn Elijah, berate him for being a coward, for running away, for forgetting all that God could do. Instead, He gave him food and drink, made sure he had rest and then spoke gently to Elijah, re-commissioning him for the work ahead.

But just as God reassured Elijah and is here reassuring Abram, so He reassures each one of us in the same way. We may not be prophets like Abram and Elijah, but the word of God can come to us too. It may be in a vision, it may be in a dream, it may be through the very clear audible voice of God or it may be through words in the bible, through the actions and words of others, or a sense of what God is saying to us. God uses all sorts of different ways to communicate with us, and we need to be open to hearing His voice, in whatever form it may take.

It is a case of having a close walk with God, of not turning to Him just because the next problem has occurred, the next worry is on the horizon and coming up fast. We need to walk with God at all times, to share things with Him, how we are feeling, what we are doing. I know He knows all this already, but like in every relationship, conversation goes two ways. How can we expect to hear from God if we never talk to Him ourselves? Why should God make an effort to talk to us when we only talk to Him in an emergency, when there are problems?

God is there in the good times and the bad times. We were never promised an easy life being a follower of Jesus, but what we do have is the promise of reward when we get to heaven. But we need to live our lives like God is walking right by our side (which He is) and to be talking with Him all the time. I always think that if I spent more time in prayer, more time taking to God, I wouldn't get so het up about things, so anxious, so worried at times.

Genesis chapter 14

So, here we have Lot being taken captive by the four kings of Shinar, Ellasar, Elam and Goiim and having everything he had taken too. When the news of this is brought to Abram, he gathers together all 318 of his servants (hardly a vast army) and marches off to rescue Lot. Abram splits his men into small groups (guerrilla warfare?) and they attack at night, recovering all the plunder, Lot, his servants, all the women and people.

Then on his way back home, the king of Sodom comes out to greet Abram and Melchizedek, the king of Salem and the priest of God Most High, brings him bread and wine and blesses him. In return, Abram gives him one tenth of all the recovered plunder.

Then the king of Sodom tells Abram to give him back the people but keep everything else himself. Abram tells him that he doesn't want the king to be able to say that he made Abram rich, so apart from the shares for the men who accompanied him, he gave everything back to the king of Sodom.

Melchizedek held a feast in honour of Abram, as bread and wine were the royal food and rink of the day. Both Melchizedek and Abram worshipped God, and they both ascribed his victory to the blessing of God on Abram.

Firstly, this all shows great trust in God by Abram. He only had 318 men with him, yet he was prepared to take on the armies of four kings, who would have had considerably more than 318 men. It either shows great foolhardiness or stupidity in thinking he could win, or else great faith in God, trusting that he was doing the right thing and God would grant him victory. Abram doesn't strike me as being a foolish man, so it can only be faith in God.

Secondly, it just shows that not all that looks good is beneficial. Here, Lot chose what he considered to be the better land and yet here he is being captured and taken prisoner, all his worldly goods lost to the four kings until his uncle comes to rescue him. Sometimes, there are hidden dangers lurking unseen and we need to be aware all the time of what is going on around us. Just because something seems like the safest option, doesn't necessarily mean that it is.

Thirdly, both Melchizedek and Abram worshipped the same God, and they both gave the honour and the glory to Him. It would have been easy for Abram to think he was a great soldier, that his planning the battle tactics had won the day, his skill had resulted in the successful rescue of Lot and everyone else. But he knew that the hand of God was on Him, that his success came form God, and it was to God that the credit rightly belonged.

Melchizedek was a king and high priest:

Hebrews 7:1-3 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him,  and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means ‘king of righteousness’; then also, ‘king of Salem’ means ‘king of peace’. Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest for ever. (NIV)

Looking back at my old journal on Genesis, these are my notes from four years ago:

There are several theories regarding Melchizedek, about whom very little is known (hence the theories!):

1. He is a respected king of that region;

2. Melchizedek may just have been a title for all kings of Salem at that time;

3. He was Shem (this is from the Rabbinical teachings and since Shem died aged 600, this was, apparently, 13 years after the death of Sarah and 10 years after Rebecca and Isaac married);

4. He was a type of Christ, so we can learn about Christ from the example of Melchizedek; and

5. He was the earthly appearance in bodily form of the preincarnate Christ.

So I googled Melchizedek and found the following:

Melchizedek is not so much a name as it is a title or designation of honor. It is a position or office that has to be filled by a worthy candidate. The term is a transliteration of two Hebrew words, melek and tsedeq. The Hebrew melek means king and tsedeq means righteousness. Therefore, the term "melchizedek" means literally, "king of righteousness." Because a king is always preeminent in his jurisdiction, whoever Melchizedek was, he had to be preeminent in righteousness. He had to be the "king" of righteousness.

But since no one is righteous except God (Matthew 19:17 Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.), that is an indication that Melchizedek was Jesus. I mean, here is Abram, chasing after these kings, rescuing Lot, recovering all the goods that have been taken and then returning home, and he just gives away one tenth of it all to a complete stranger. What is more, the king of Salem, Melchizedek, specifically goes out to meet Abram, and does not wait for Abram to come to him.

I mean, did Abram really expect to meet anyone? After all, he was on his way back from an amazing victory, having succeeded in pulling off the impossible, and was probably longing just to get back home, have a hot bath, put his feet up and have a glass of wine (or whatever he did to relax!). Yet in the middle of nowhere a king comes out to greet him, brings him some bread and wine and then blesses him.

The cynical view is, of course, that Melchizedek had heard of all that Abram had done and did not want to be the next one of Abram's "hit list" so went out to keep the peace. But then surely if this was the case, Melchizedek would have assumed that Abram and his men were worn out from the battle and would attack them himself, not go and take bread and wine?

I think this is all symbolic of Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God, he is the one who created everything, and without whom was nothing made, and he does not just sit around waiting for people to turn to him. You meet Jesus in all sorts of places and through all sorts of people, often when least expected.

Genesis chapter 13

Sometimes, it is easy to get so wrapped up in what you are doing, in work, in family, in doing things for the church, that you fail to see what is going on around you. You don't appreciate how things look from the outside and you don't realise the impact what you are doing is having on others. Or maybe it is a case of wanting to protect what you have, to look after it, nurture it, no matter what is going on outside.

Here, Lot and Abram had become so rich, had so many flocks, tents, servants and so on, that there was not enough room for both of them. The servants had taken to fighting amongst themselves - Lot's servants against Abram's servants, as each one tried to get the best land, the closest position to the water and so on. There they were, surrounded by enemies on all sides, and they spent their time bickering amongst themselves.

When you consider it, they were just behaving like a typical family. My boys will often disagree, tease each other unmercifully until one of them gets really upset, yet let anyone from outside the family step in, and woah, they stand as one! I think when the bible talks about things like this, it is so refreshing. God doesn't hide the way people are, He doesn't dress up the Old Testament heroes to make them look good, perfect, better than the rest of us. We read of Noah getting drunk, Abram and Lot's servants fighting, David's sons trying to kill one another, and there is also rape, murder, incest in the bible. God doesn't say these things are good, He just tells it like it is. So when we read of Abraham, Moses, Peter, and others, we read of their good points and their bad points, they are not held up to be superheroes, wonderful men and women who always did the right thing no matter what, perfect Christians who never strayed. No, we see them as they were, real ordinary people like you and me, sometimes getting it right, and sometimes getting it wrong.

Then again, Isn't the fighting between Abram's and Lot's servants typical of the church at times? Everyone being so busy to protect their position, their ministry, their roles that they don't realise how it looks from the outside, how non believers see it and how it gets reported in the press? Here, when the Church of England says nothing about a particular matter, everyone criticise the church for not speaking out. Then when the Archbishop of York does say something, he gets criticised for either what he has said or what he has left unsaid. Then you also have disagreements within a church (like we had here at a local church a while ago, when half the congregation left to go to another church) and disagreements between denominations.

What a message that sends out about the church, concentrating on the disagreements, the upsets, the negative things. Where is the love we are supposed to show? What about all the work the church is doing in this country and overseas? The people being helped, the starving, the homeless, the hurting? I guess good news makes bad press.

And here with Lot and Abram, it was a similar thing. I bet all the Canaanites and Perizzites could see was the two lots of shepherds quarrelling over who got to the water first, who got that piece of land over there to graze their flocks on and so on. They were a family, uncle and nephew, and yet they were fighting all the time (or at least the servants were).

I love what Abram did here. He didn't as the elder, the patriarch in the family, choose the best land, the biggest area, the one with the best water supply. He could have easily done this as it was his right, but instead, he chose to split everything 50:50, and what’s more, he gave Lot the first choice. Lot himself wasn't slow in coming forward either. He eyed up the surrounding land and saw the lush pastures of the plain of Jordan, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and chose to take these as his portion.

Genesis 13:10-11 Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God's garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east. (The Message)

To be honest, it sounds like he took the easiest option. He saw that the land stretching out looked like God's garden, well watered and presumably fruitful (not something to be sneezed at in the Middle East) yet with the bright lights of the cities nearby, and it looked like the best of both worlds. Beautiful countryside to live in, earn a living from and yet with the attractions and amenities of the city nearby. Yet the attractions of the cities caused all sorts of problems for Lot later….

In the same way as Lot and Abram settled their differences, we in the church also need to settle our differences. It's not a case of one denomination being better than another, of one church in a town being the best one, we are all servants of God, and we have all been called in one way or another. Just because I go to an evangelical/charismatic church doesn't make me better than my neighbour, who goes to a Church of England church or vice versa. Each person is different, unique and will have different ways of worshipping, of giving praise to God. It's not a case of one way being better than another, of God only listening to our prayers if we say them in this way, or that way, of a service only being done right if we use the Book of Common Prayer, and so on. God sees into the heart of each one of us, and we need our hearts to be right with God, not man. We need to love the sinner but hate the sin, let our faith work through us, the love of God to shine out from within and to really be disciples of Jesus here on earth, not people whose disagreements are always being reported unfavourably in the press and who are continually gossiping about others, trying to maintain the status quo or improve our standing in the church.

Genesis chapter 12

The thing that struck me here was Abram's faith, and how it is such an example to me. Firstly, he just upped and left everything when God called him. There was no hesitation, no worrying over whether he was doing the right thing, whether or not he was imagining God has spoken to him or not. He just packed everything up and went, taking his wife, servants and family plus all the livestock, everything. Then he also made altars everywhere, as a reminder of all that God had done for him and as an act of worship.

I want a faith like that, one where there is no room for doubt, for worry, for stress, where I instinctively know when God is speaking to me and trust him implicitly, even when I don't know what is going on. I want to have altars in my life to remind me to worship, and as a recognition for all God has done for me.

Yet what a difference when Abram got to Egypt, and told Sarai to lie and say she was his sister, not his wife. Ok, technically, she was his half sister, since they had the same father, but really, Abram was just trying to save his life since as Sarai's husband, his life would have been in danger because Sarai was so beautiful that Pharaoh could have killed Abram to get Sarai and Abram's riches. This shows the exact opposite of what happened when Abram packed up and went to Canaan. There, he just obeyed and trusted. But here, he relies on his own skills, his own scheming to keep out of trouble and just look at the mess that got him into. He was prepared to allow his own wife to be taken into Pharaoh's harem and to accept gifts for this as her brother. He doesn't even consider God, or ask him what he should be doing, he goes right ahead and tries to sort things out as best he can as he is fearful for his own life.

Interestingly, he also spares no thought for Sarai, he gives no consideration as to how she might be feeling when told to go and live with Pharoah, leave the marriage bed and go be with another man. Self first, last and always, that sounds like Abram, ignoring others and trying to save his own self even at the expense of others. But I suppose times were different then, women were not important,

Isn't that just like us? We have moments of great faith and then the next day, it can be completely the opposite picture as we try to do things on our own, without even bothering to ask God what to do, and end up getting in a right mess. I think thought that there is a difference between asking God for help and guidance and in not thinking for ourselves. God gave us minds, abilities, skills and we have our own judgment. It is not a case of asking God for guidance on everything (should I have another cup of coffee, is it ok to go take a shower now, can I go shopping tomorrow, or whatever) but of seeking guidance in the things that matter. And yes, finding a parking space may well matter so I'm not criticising for asking for help in things like that. Different things are important to different people at different times.

But it is a case of always being on the same wavelength as God, of trusting in Him no matter what our personal circumstances. Not always an easy thing to do, and you only have to look at Abram to see that. One day he trusts God completely, packs up his bags and moves his entire family miles away because God says so, and the next day, he schemes, plots and lies, completely ignoring God in the process.

Just like we do, I do. It's easy to trust God when things are going well, when we have that well paid job, when the children are doing well, when whatever we do turns out well. But what about when there's no money for the bills, when we lose the well paid job, when the children misbehave and get into trouble with the authorities or fail their exams, or when we or a loved one or close friend is diagnosed with a life threatening illness? It’s not so easy to trust God in the bad times, yet we are called to do this.

I think the example of David is a great encouragement here, because there he was anointed king of Israel by Samuel, and yet he was on the run for his life from Saul for years. And yes, there were days when he was down, despondent, but each and every time he turned to God. You only have to read the psalms he wrote to realise this. He was a man after God's own heart, even though he messed up, committed adultery and had someone killed. His heart was right with God, just as Abram's was, even before he became Abraham, the father of many nations. And I think that is an example I need to follow, to make sure my heart is right with God and to be always looking to Him, to trust Him no matter what is going on around me.