The quality of our relationships with each other; those outside our family, those in our workplaces, and those with the church family begins with and depends on the quality of our relationship with God. 

God is the creator of relationship.  God is the sustainer of the relationship between God and mankind.  Sin cannot be a part of this relationship.  Sin must be removed from the equation of God and mankind in relationship.  So, God created a Plan for the reconciliation of relationship with Him.  Jesus, who is alpha and omega, from the beginning to end was that Plan.

Although God’s prophets proclaimed the importance of relationship with God, many refused to hear and live it.  Jesus was sent to show others how to be in relationship with God.  Throughout His time on earth, Jesus tenaciously explained in detail the depth of God’s desire to be in relationship with us—a relentlessly loving, intimate, wholly devoted relationship!  God wants us to love Him back purely because He first loved us!  (1 John 4:19) Jesus demonstrated the love of God daily as He related to all of humanity. 

Abraham’s relationship with God is extremely vital as he relies on God to lead him through some challenging and tedious moments with others. He will discover the joy and peace of going to God for direction and wisdom.

Genesis 21

The Birth of Isaac

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” ⁷ 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.”

Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away

⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. ⁹ But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰ and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

¹¹ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹² But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. ¹³ I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶ Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.

¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. ¹⁸ Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹ While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

The Treaty at Beersheba

²² At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. ²³ Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you now reside as a foreigner the same kindness I have shown to you.”

²⁴ Abraham said, “I swear it.”

²⁵ Then Abraham complained to Abimelek about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized. ²⁶ But Abimelek said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”

²⁷ So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelek, and the two men made a treaty. ²⁸ Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock, ²⁹ and Abimelek asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?”

³⁰ He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”

³¹ So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there.

³² After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines. ³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. ³⁴ And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Watching from the sidelines, we enjoy reading the story of God’s relationship with Abraham.  Abraham is growing in his faithful relationship with God while displaying his obedience to God.  Faith, love, and obedience are important, vital components of a relationship with God!

A great relationship with God must also include intimate communion and constant conversation.  Notice that Abraham has special places where He can meet with God, get direction from God, as He worships God! 

God helps Abraham with wisdom in family squabbles produced by resentment and bitterness, and guides him to make land treaties with surrounding inhabitants, while enjoying and celebrating God’s promised blessing of the birth of Abraham and Sarah’s one and only son, Isaac!  All in day’s work for God!

Our relationship with God through believing in Jesus, His Son is the most important relationship we will ever have!  God knows us from the inside out and outside in because he formed us in our mothers’ wombs.  He created each one of us to be in relationship with Him and with each other.  This relationship gives us blessed assurance that He is with us always, through good times and bad because His love, mercy and grace never changes for us. 

Even though Sarah doubted, God demonstrated his faithfulness by providing a son for her. God also took care of Hagar after she was forced to leave Abraham’s camp. God fulfilled his promises when conditions appeared hopeless.  God still does that for us today.  God will fulfill His promises, no matter how difficult our problems. Even when we don’t know how God will act, we must trust that He watches over us and is always at work.  When doubts arise, go to God.  When we make big mistakes and life appears to be headed for shipwreck, we must depend on our relationship with God who is already at work on our behalf! 

Seriously, are there any promises more comforting than God’s? When you feel anxious today, pause to pray in the Name of Jesus; “Lord, I trust in your faithfulness to change both my attitude and my circumstances. But even if you don’t change the circumstance, transform me; for my hope is in You.”

Lord,

Thank you for relationship.  Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds to think more like you, refresh our souls with you tender new mercies for today.  May our relationship be so tight and unwavering that we know instinctively that your Presence is with us always even when we don’t “feel” it.  May our hearts, minds, and souls be so in tune and in step with you that we hear the mere whisper of your voice as all other voices fade into the background. Yes, continually replenish the joy of your salvation at work within us.  We need you every hour of every day.  We can do nothing without you.  We don’t want to anything without you!  What a friend we have in you!  Lead us, Lord.

In Jesus Name, Amen 

God sent His One and Only Son, Jesus to reemphasize this loving relationship.  God’s Son also demonstrated how much we need God in relationship as the director of our lives!  Jesus also showed the world how to live in relationship with each other as He came “not to be served, but to serve.” (See Matthew 5-7) Eventually, according to Plan, Jesus also willingly sacrificed his life for ours so that our relationship with God could be reestablished forever.

God, in His mercy, gave all He had to “recreate” the relationship He desires with us.  How deep the Father’s love for us indeed!  Who we are in relationship to God affects all other relationships we will have with others. We are all created “in the image and likeness of God.”