HEAVEN & THE KINGDOM OF GOD [Pt 14 C] - Awe Hilary

HEAVEN & THE KINGDOM OF GOD [Pt 14 C]

..... Discovering Heaven.

[ ISAAC & ISHMAEL]

- Awe Hilary 

Pt 3:

The promise of fruitfulness and exceeding greatness [Genesis 17:6].

Pt: 7

The promise of the next in line who will continue God's expansionist agenda of this Convenant [Genesis 17:19, 21].

One of the request Abraham made to God concerning Ishmael, was for him to live before God, but God declined that request.

Genesis 17:18-19

[18]And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

[19]Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

This did not in anyway suggest that God hated Ishmael, because it was thesame God that saved him and his mother, Hagar, when their water was used up after been sent away by Abraham. [ Read Genesis 21:1- 22]

Genesis 21:17-19

[17]And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is.

[18]Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

[19]Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink.

God has always loved Ishmael, showing him mercy and empowering him to become a great nation, which emphasizes the fact that God is loving and merciful. However, the implication of that request by Abraham to God, was simply asking that the Covenant should come upon Ishmael, but God's Words cannot be broken. He already promised that Isaac would be the bearer of the Covenant, and He was obligated to perform it. 

In essence, God was revealing to all that His salvific work would not come through Ishmael, but the bloodline of Abraham through Isaac. Ishmael was empowered to be great, but there was no salvation with him, rather Isaac was the next in line to behold God's salvific statute in his generation, after his father, Abraham. 

The Covenant of God is representative of His authority, power, presence, blessings, and the provisions of God's inheritance to the Covenanted.

THINGS TO NOTE:

1. God's empowerment does not equal salvation. There are many rich men and women in the world today who have been empowered by God, but they are not saved.

2. God's salvific work has been defined, and it's our responsibility to align to that design, and not creating our own path. Religion creates its own paths which are not known to God, hence we must seek the true paths of God which were from the beginning.

3. The path of the Covenant of God, holds the secret to the true and acceptable worship of God. Where the Covenant of God is absent, worship becomes futile, hence to find God, look for the Covenant pathway. 

... TO BE CONTINUED.

Min. Awe Hilary 

#TheMessenger