Yielding One Hundred Fold

by Lois Tverberg

Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him…Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us. – Genesis 26:12-16

Bountiful CropWe don’t read much about Isaac but that he dwelled in Canaan his entire life and prospered there. He lived in the south, near Beersheba, in the most arid area of the country. Drought was common, and a famine was in progress even when Isaac moved there (Gen. 26:2). Surprisingly, in these adverse conditions, the scriptures say that Isaac “reaped a hundredfold” – that the seed that he planted yielded 100 times the amount that was sown. This was an extraordinary harvest, and would have been even for places with more rain. Jesus probably was alluding to it when he described a seed sown in good soil that yielded a “hundredfold” (Luke 8:8).

Amazingly, in the midst of drought Isaac prospered, to the extent that the king of the region asked him to move away. He had inherited the blessing as his father Abraham, who had also prospered as a nomad in a hostile country that was prone to drought and famine. Looking ahead, we will see the same blessing for Isaac’s descendants whose numbers increased greatly in the land of Egypt. So much so, that they threatened Pharaoh’s leadership until they too were told to move away.

It is interesting that even in drought and hardship, God’s people prosper. This seems to be the an inherent part of the blessing that we have inherited from Abraham’s family. We, too, find that dryness makes us wise, keeps us thinking, and helps us focus on what is essential. Abundance lets us get flabby, wasteful, careless and lazy. Most importantly, when it is dry in our lives, we cling to God and pray frequently to him. It is then that he is most able to prosper us spiritually, to cause the seed that is growing in our hearts to yield 100 times more than what was sown.


Photocred: kaboompics.com

Abraham Believed

by Lois Tverberg

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. – Genesis 15:6

One of the most quoted verses about Abraham is Genesis 15:6; “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” This is a key verse in the discussion about being saved by faith apart from works, the central point of the Reformation. It was Abram’s “believing” that gave him righteousness in God’s sight. We have emphasized the importance of believing God’s promises, instead of working to earn salvation.

But it is important to understand that the key word, emunah, that we translate “believe” has a different emphasis in Hebrew than we tend to hear. In English and Greek, (as pistis), its primary meaning is to assent to a factual statement, to agree with the truth of certain ideas.

The word emunah does mean to have faith, but it has a broader meaning that has implications for what God calls us to as people of faith. It contains the idea of steadfastness or persistence. In Exodus 17 Moses raised his hands all day long until the Israelites won a key battle. It says that his hands remained steady (emunah) until sunset. In this sense it means
steadfast. God is also described using the world emunah in Deut. 7:9:

Abraham and 3 angelsKnow therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful (emunah) God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

If we look back at the verse about Abraham’s emunah, it should tell us that Abraham believed God’s promises and had a persistent commitment to God which showed in his faithful life, waiting 25 years for a son, and offering him back to God when he was asked.

This has implications about what it means to be a Christian. I used to wonder why God saved certain people just because they decided to adopt one particular set of beliefs over another. But as James pointed out, Satan himself believes that Jesus died for the sins of the world and that He is God in the flesh, and just knowing that doesn’t redeem him! But while Satan may have the right beliefs, he cannot say that he has emunah – a committed faithfulness to the Lord. What God asks for goes beyond an academic decision to believe that a certain set of facts are true. He wants faith in His promises that results in a steadfast faithfulness to Him.

Laughter of Relief

by Lois Tverberg

Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him… Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” – Genesis 21:1-7

Abraham was 75 years old when he abandoned all his security of home and family for God. It took 25 years for God to fulfill His promise to him to give him a son, and God had made many other promises that were still very far off. During that time Abraham and Sarah had wandered many miles and endured much worry and famine and even war.

The time had not been easy for either Sarah or Abraham. Sarah had probably lived a life of feeling worthless, because in her culture she had failed at the one thing that brought a woman stature. Even Abraham must have felt a great hollowness when he looked out on his vast wealth and thought that he might be handing it down to a servant when he died, and his name would die with him. Long ago he had bluntly said to God,

O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir. (Gen. 15:1-2)

Parent holding baby handFinally, God fulfilled His promise to give them a son and they named him “laughter,” Yitzhakh, Isaac. It’s a laughter of relief that is somewhat shocked and incredulous that God could finally do what He said. Their years of longing and waiting, and the miracle of having a child in their extreme old age would remind them for the rest of their lives of God’s rock-solid faithfulness.

Why did God make them wait for so many years? God chose Abraham because He knew he would “direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD.” This family was key to God’s promises to everyone on earth, and for those promises to happen, they would need to have great patience and enormous faith for generations to come. This was not because God was slow, but because God’s plan was so huge and far-reaching, it would take ages to come to pass.

The waiting that Abraham and Sarah experienced was only a tiny fraction of the waiting that would be the daily portion of many people after him. Abraham would tell his descendants his story, and they would know that God would be faithful. Through Abraham and Sarah’s long waiting, and God’s hilarious answer, we are reminded that God’s promises may be long in coming, but it is only because they are so much greater than we ever could imagine.


Photocred: fruity monkey

Hagar’s Plight

Hagar and an angel

by Bruce Okkema

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had
an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to
Abram, “Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing
children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children
through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
– Genesis 16:1-2

Hagar and an angelThe story of Hagar does not seem so strange to those who live in cultures where polygamy is common. In fact, our friends in Africa have explained the dynamics of this account because they still see it occuring within their present surroundings.

God had promised to make Abram into a great nation, but it wasn’t happening. He had already asked Abram once to do the cultural equivalent of giving up his inheritance by moving away from his country, his relatives, and his father’s house as we read in Genesis 12:

“Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; … ” Genesis 12:1-2

There was no greater desire than to have children, yet it had been more than ten years since they had left Abram’s father and Sarai had not become pregnant. She desperately wanted to resolve this situation so she did something which was common, offering her maidservant to her husband for the purpose of bearing children. Abram did not see this as irregular and went ahead with the suggestion.

We could discuss at some length the implications of what can result when we lose our patience with the Lord and take things into our own hands, but you can read the story in the rest of chapter 16. Our friends tell us that there is always inequity, fighting, mistreatment, or at least tension within families with more than one wife, and the children are usually put at odds.

Within our story, this began occurring already when Hagar became pregnant (verse 4). Sadly, the result was Hagar’s banishment to death in the wilderness. Can you imagine how she must have felt? She was a foreigner in a strange land, she had been faithful to Abram, faithful to Sarai, faithful to her yet unborn son, she had been used as a piece of property, and now she had been discarded like a piece of unwanted refuse.

The Lord had not been ignoring her abusive treatment and he sent his angel to her at her lowest moment. Not only did he bring comfort and deliverance, he promised her the greatest blessing she could imagine … that she would become the mother of a great nation as well!

Moreover, the angel of the LORD said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” The angel of the LORD said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has given heed to your affliction. – Genesis 16:10-11

We must never give up hope! Oh what a faithful, righteous, blessing God we serve!


Photocred: Rama

How Great is Peace

Torah scroll

by Lois Tverberg

So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out
and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the
LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, `Will I
really have a child, now that I am old?’ – Genesis 18:12-13

The Jewish sages of Jesus’ time up until now have sought wisdom about how to live by God’s law. In certain situations two biblical commands might contradict each other, and deciding which takes precedence determines what priorities we ought to have. For instance, a principle called Pikuach Nephesh says that any command of the Law (except idolatry, incest, and murder) can be violated if a life is at stake. It shows the preciousness of human life that it should not be lost over ceremonial law.

Torah scrollA question we might ask is how the two commands “Love your neighbor” and “You shall not lie” should be compared. If we are in a situation where telling the truth would hurt a person, should we say it knowing it would hurt them? Or is honesty always the highest value no matter what? The rabbis found an interesting answer in this story from Abraham’s life.

When Sarah heard that she was going to have a baby, she laughed that this could happen when her “master was so old.” God heard her thoughts, but when he quoted her, he didn’t reveal that she was laughing about Abraham’s age. Instead, God left those words out and said only that she was thinking of how old she was. If God would have quoted her exact words, it might have caused hurt between her and Abraham. The rabbi’s comment was, “How great is peace, that for its sake, that God Himself would modify the truth” (Talmud).

This observation in no way suggests that telling an untruth is fine in any situation, but it points out that sometimes brutal honesty just hurts people and is not as good as remaining silent or carefully saying things so as to preserve a person’s feelings. Sometimes we feel that others have a “right to know” about something said about them that would needlessly hurt their feelings.

But as Jesus says, the greater command is “Love your neighbor” and all other values that we have must be weighed against that one.


Photocred: http://jamieshear.com

The God of the Covenant

God's Covenant with Abraham

by Lois Tverberg

So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half… When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram. – Genesis 15:9-10,17-18

God's Covenant with AbrahamWhen God reveals Himself to humanity, He uses images and customs that are already known rather than asking people to do something they don’t understand. Here, when God made a covenant with Abram, He asked Abram to bring five animals, sacrifice them and make a path between the halves of their bodies. God was using a method of making (literally “cutting”) a covenant that was well known in the ancient near east. Typically both parties would walk through the path of blood to take the covenant upon themselves. Then part of the sacrifices would be cooked and eaten in a covenantal meal, to celebrate the new bond of friendship between them.

Ancient covenants were not just business arrangements, they were more like marriages, where the lives of both parties are bound together to each other. It is thought that part of the imagery of this ceremony was that they were merging their lives together by walking through the same blood, which represents life. It is also thought that the ceremony is a way of promising that if either party does not fulfill his end of the covenant, that his life would be forfeited, like that of the animals.

One thing that is unique about this story is the idea that a god would make a covenant with a person or nation. Many Israelite practices were like those of the neighboring tribes – their sacrifices, the style of their temples, their laws and other customs. But the idea of a god making a promise and binding Himself to a people was unthinkable, and no ancient stories record anything like this outside the Bible. In contrast, the “gods” of the myths of the time were always capricious, unpredictable and frequently unfair. The difference between the true God and other tribal deities is profound, because He is a God who makes a promise and keeps it for eternity.

It is also interesting that this ceremony is modified from its original form to say something else about God. Normally both parties pass through the peices, both committing themselves to the covenant. Here, only God passes through the pieces, as if He is making a unilateral promise to fulfill His covenant, no matter what Abram does. His constancy and faithfulness are unwavering, and thankfully not dependent on the fickleness of humankind.


Photocred: Phillip Medhurst

Lot’s Choice

Lot leaves Sodom

by Lois Tverberg

Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
– Genesis 13:10-12

Even though the Lord makes Abram wait for years to have the thing he most longs for, a son, God starts to bless Abram materially immediately by multiplying his flocks and Lot’s too. At a certain point, Abram’s and Lot’s families have to part ways because their flocks are too large for the land that they have for them.

In this story, the difference between Abraham and Lot’s character becomes very obvious. Abraham graciously offers Lot first choice of the land, and Lot immediately takes advantage of the offer to choose the best and nicest for himself. In doing so, he abandons Canaan, the land God promised them in order to choose what was, in his opinion, better.

Interestingly, Jewish commentaries point out that the way Sodom is described is a subtle commentary on what it is really like. It looks like the “garden of God,” meaning the garden of Eden. They point out that even though Eden was paradise, it was the place of human disobedience from which humans finally were exiled. Sodom will be the same way – it is a place of great disobedience to God from which Lot will have to leave when God’s judgment comes. Next, Sodom is compared to the land of Egypt in beauty. But the Egyptians were known for their sexual immorality, and Abram feared that they would kill him to get his wife. That is another picture of Sodom, which is known for its sexual perversion. This is a hint, once again, to what Sodom is really like.

Then, Lot gets pulled in entirely into the life of Sodom – when he moves there, he doesn’t just camp away from people where his sheep can graze, he moves close to the city people who are known for their perversity. Lot was even involved in city affairs, “sitting in the gate” (the community center of the city), fully a participant in an evil culture.

Lot leaves SodomLot was truly foolish. He abandoned the good things God had offered to choose something that at first glance seemed better. But while it was attractive on the surface, underneath its appearances, it was a place of sin and rebellion. Not only did he choose it, he sank deeper and deeper into sin once he had moved there. Because of Lot’s foolish choices, he lost all of his inheritance, all of his wealth, and he even lost his wife when he had to flee. Unlike Abraham who lived not by sight, but by clinging to God’s promises, Lot ran after what looked good on the surface, even though it would later cost him dearly.

Aren’t our own choices too much like that sometimes?


photocred:  Wellcome Images

Cain’s Crime, God’s Response

Cain Cries

by Lois Tverberg

“And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Gen. 4:8-9

When we read this story, it isn’t clear to us why God chooses to accept Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s. The text says that Abel brought some of the fat portions of the first born animals of his flock, and to an ancient Israelite, that would have meant the absolute best of the absolute most precious animals that he had.

Cain brought some of the produce of his field, but no mention is made of it being the first or best, suggesting that Abel offered his sacrifice with enthusiasm, but Cain offered it out of a sense of social obligation, with an eye toward what he would get in return, in comparison to his brother. It appears that God knew their hearts and responded accordingly, but in Cain’s eyes, it looked as if God had arbitrarily favored his brother over himself. God chooses whom he will bless, and sometimes that is a mystery to us. We sometime see God’s kindness toward others as favoritism and it makes us angry.

Cain CriesThis story has a great irony, however, because in punishment, God’s grace extends to Cain too. Cain has taken his brother’s life and certainly merits death for his actions. But not only does God spare Cain from the fate that he gave his brother, he promises to protect Cain from harm and repay anyone who tries to harm him. God is being amazingly merciful to a man who was forewarned about the evil that he was about to do, does it anyway, and then brazenly answers God’s question about his brother with, “Why should I care?”

The irony is that Abel appears to merit God’s favor, but because Cain had the slightest doubt of God’s choice of favoring him, he is angered. But Cain, who has no merit of all, receives even greater grace from God. How unfathomable is God’s kindness!

We should learn that while we all can compare how God has blessed others in comparison to ourselves, to do so only leads to jealousy and hatred. God sometimes chooses and we can’t see why. But we also know that God’s choosing extends to the most unworthy, and extends even to the one who merits least of all, which is often ourselves.


Photocred: Jastrow

My Brother’s Keeper

Abel is Dead

y Lois Tverberg

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. – Genesis 4:9-10

We often miss the major point of biblical texts if we don’t take into account the wording and poetry of the story. Often, a word is repeated over and over in the story to make a point in a subtle way. The first time we read the word “brother” in the bible (ach, in Hebrew) is when Eve gave birth to Abel after first having Cain. It says, “Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel,” (Genesis 4:2) showing that the first person in all of the Bible to be a brother to someone else is Abel, and the first person to have a brother is Cain.

Interestingly, in the next several verses, the word brother is repeated seven times, and the middle time is in God’s question, “Where is Abel your brother?” The writers were very sensitive to word repetition and pattern, and to repeat a word seven times emphasizes its centrality to the story. Abel is DeadThe unspoken message is that God’s question, “Where is Abel your brother?” is central and very important – Abel is the first brother, and the only brother to Cain, and he is responsible for him. Cain’s response, the first words after Abel’s murder, shows that he has rejected his responsibility to his one and only brother.

The Bible often uses the first of a kind to represent all of that kind, as Adam is the first and representative man. So the take-home message of this story is that all who are human are our brothers, and we are our brother’s keepers. The minute we forget that, sin starts to crouch at our door and we start moving down a path toward evil that may even lead toward murder.

We might think that this is self-evident and not something to be reminded of. But modern culture today emphasizes our individuality to the point of amazing self-centeredness. Materialism and consumerism prey on answering every need of ours, and pornography feeds the desire to use others’ bodies for our own pleasure. Every possible convenience is available to us, showing us that the world will obey our every whim. As a result we become self-centered and short-tempered in our relationships with others, expecting everything to go our way at all times. Only when we are reminded that other humans are our brothers, and that we must love our brothers as ourselves, will we begin to live as God wants us to.


Photocred: Art Renewal Center

Noah Was a Righteous Man

Noah releases dove

by Mary Okkema

He named him Noah and said, ‘He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.'” “These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. – Genesis 5:29, 6:9

Noah releases doveWould that each of us could have an epitaph as the words spoken of Noah. Recently our daughter performed a vocal solo of epitaphs by Slonimsky. They ranged from stirring and amusing to thought provoking. It helped us think of what would be said of us after we die. But listen to the these words spoken of Noah: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.”

The hope of Noah was that through him God would comfort the race and alleviate the effects of the curse that was brought about by the fall of man. One could believe that Noah was the new Adam, the answer to what had happened in the previous chapters of Genesis and the wickedness that surrounded Noah. He was quite a contrast with those who lived around him as the phrase “blameless in his time” infers.

Noah’s father, Lamech named him with the foresight of the comfort to be brought through him. His name has the root meaning of “comfort.” It is said that “when a righteous person comes in to the world, goodness comes in to the world.” (Talmud: Sanh. 113b) Can this be said of each one of us? The following scripture verses describe righteous people during life and not just as an epitaph. Pray that they can be said of us:

The righteous is a guide to his neighbor, But the way of the wicked leads them astray. – Proverbs 12:26

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. – Deuteronomy 6:5

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. – Mark 12:31