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Gen. 26:5  “because Abraham…”

The blessing to Isaac and Jacob comes not because of his own obedience, but rather because Abraham “obeyed My voice and kept My charge.”  

Famines have a way of striping us from self-righteousness, so we realize our goodness is nothing apart from Him.  When I was successfully employed, I had the accolades of others constantly feeding my sense of self-righteousness.  When things went right, there was applause. When events occurred, a host of like-minded friends were there to celebrate my success.  A desert, however, has little room for a gallery of onlookers.

Here we are alone, and in our famine we begin to realize that we really have nothing to bring to the table to earn God’s favor or the applause of others.  Instead in our silent habitations, we are tempted to hear a voice of condemnation listing our sins and reasons for failure. We are too lazy, incompetent, unfocused, undisciplined, or too tired to put up a fight.

In this emptiness, a fresh filling is desperately needed which states anew the power of the Gospel.  God loved and loves us when we are utterly unlovable. He provides a promise of forgiveness, restoration, and provision not because we have earned it; but out of the covenant with Jesus, the seed of Abraham, our righteous One.

I am delivered and sustained in famine not because of my reserves, careful planning and prudent use of resources.  Famine scorches my self-sufficiency. I realize how desperate I am for God to send rain from above or a well from beneath.  Around me is dry, barren earth; and even the most careful cultivation of my surroundings promises no relief without the dew and water of heaven.

Isaac, Jacob, all succeeding generations from the promise to Abraham have only to look to their father of faith to trace the reasons for their hope.  God may not be moved to do it because of me—but because of Abraham and a covenant of faith, He is obliged.

Abraham’s covenant is simply the Gospel of Christ.  What one Man did in obeying the commands of God is vicariously credited to my account simply because I choose to believe.  If instead I try to conjure up my own solutions, defend my own righteousness or work my way into a blessing; I am destined to wrestle eternally with God for His hand of grace.

Instead, the desert and the famine teach me only to believe.  Nothing of my own can make the desert flourish, but because of His Promised Covenant, my dry land can become an open stream

Gen. 33:4 “But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him.”

Esau was ready to forgive his brother the moment they are reunited. Jacob had foreseen a difficult process of reconciliation, a listing of past offences, a time to pay back all he had stolen; but Esau simply ran to meet his brother.

The story of the Prodigal and the story of the Supplanter is the same.  Even though we have deeply offended the Father or the brother, we are family.  “We should rejoice because your brother who was lost is now found.”  Luke 11.

Family never disappears.  God is on a rescue mission with the Son to restore all the brothers and sisters to the family.  He is seeking His children, and our place of belonging comes from this initial relationship with the father. Malachi 2:10-11.

Have we not all one Father?

Has not one God created us?

Why do we deal treacherously with one another?

God desires a reconciled family of believers.  To enter the promises of his blessings, we must take our Esau’s along, our spouses who we may have offended, our hurtful masters and wayward children all before the throne of grace.

This millennial generation is on a global quest to bring all of humanity into one community.  While their cultural diversity and “We are the world” slogans may be distorted by humanism, the longing for one voice of humanity is a desire of heaven.

As we approach eternity, more and more voices from every tribe, tongue, and people will join the chorus of Hallelujah.  The gathering of the nations is woven deep into the heart of God and echoes in the DNA of all of His children.

Rather than building walls between races and nations, we are called to run towards them, embrace them, kiss them and weep as Esau did to Jacob.  This call to the nations is the initial commission of the church and remains her lasting marching call.

Your movement is only going to be completely mature as you embrace the nations that are different from you and seek them to be reconciled to the higher purposes of God on the earth.

If Jacob and Esau can be reconciled, there is no gap too wide.

Gen. 25:21 “because she was barren;”  

If you are looking to start a ministry or movement, begin first to find the barren ground.  God loves to move among the unreached, hardened, dry, and forsaken sectors of society.  When Isaac looked at Rebecca, there was not natural hope that she would conceive, but in this place of desperation and dryness, the Lord poured out an answer to prayer.

The church of Jesus Christ is called to the dry places of the earth.  “The gates of hell” are her target, which shall not prevail against the Gospel message covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. In order to birth and bring to pass what God plans in these last days, we must be willing to step into the most forgotten and forsaken places to see life come forth.

The history of the church has been to go to the unreached.  Paul said his aim was not to “build upon another man’s foundation” (Romans 15:20) but to “to preach the gospel in regions beyond you. (2 Cor. 10:15) Jesus was compelled to go from city to city to the lost sheep of Israel and ventured to find other places that had not yet heard the message.  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but the sick.” (Matt. 9:12)

Martyrdom, persecution, and rejection have forever produced the most fertile soil for the Gospel, but we want to plant churches where life is rich, easy, and comfortable.  Perhaps the impotency and apathy of our modern church planting movement stems from our lack of desperation and realization of the barren state of affairs without God’s intervention.

A barren situation is the most fruitful scene for the supernatural to manifest.  We have seen in early works of God that our desperation turned into the manifestation of God’s power.  He opens and shuts the womb, I have said, but mainly opens.

If you desire to see harvest, do not find an already plowed field where a seed can easily sprout and grow.  That would be a natural pattern.  Instead, our faith and the faith of our Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob calls us to find the most unlikely, impoverished, hard, and barren land and begin tilling with hope that God will break up the fallow ground.  “For more are the children of the desolate and barren than the children of the married woman.”  (Isaiah 54:1)