Do You Believe the Lord Will Bring You into a Spacious Place? (A Bible Study on Genesis 26:22-26)

God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, over and over in Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments. God is establishing his covenant through these families; God’s chosen people is created – these families become the Israelites. And we, through Christ, are the new Israel as believers. As Galatians 3:18 tells us, “we are all one through Christ Jesus.”


*WHAT DOES IT SAY?*

Genesis 26:22-25
He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”

23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”

25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.

-- There is so much humanness playing out in these verses - arguments, playing favorites, lying! Humanity makes mistakes, even God’s chosen people. Isaac lied about his wife just like Abraham did.

-- Just because you are struggling or in conflict, doesn’t mean you are outside of God’s favor.

*WHAT’S THE BACKSTORY?*

-- There is a famine in the land, but God tells Isaac to stay in the land and promises blessing.

-- Both Abraham and Isaac fall prey to being scared about their wives’ beauty and lies about them – a pattern of lying for self-protection (and not trusting God).

-- God’s chosen people are not perfect. Isaac and Rebekah, and their children, lie and manipulate. Human family disfunction is playing out.

*WHAT DOES IT MEAN?*

-- “The Lord has given us room.” This phrase points to the idea of “a spacious place” told to us in scripture, such as in Psalm 118:5. “When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place.” We are most likely to sin any time we get into a scarcity mindset – there’s not going to be enough for us, that God is not actually going to provide, that God is not trustworthy to make sure we’re going to be okay. We see this in Abraham and Isaac’s lives.

-- A world of anxiety exists when we believe we must protect ourselves and our stuff. When we do this, we become small people. OR – we can have a centered place in us, a spacious place – where we trust what God is doing and will do for us. Do you believe God will bring you into a spacious place?


*WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ME?*

-- Does your family still struggle with generational sin? You’re not alone. These patterns of living are as old as the stories in the Bible. God still faithfully shows up and works in the people who trust him – not the people who are necessarily righteous. We have to deal with pain caused by other people’s sin, and our own.

-- God is faithful even when we mess up. 1 John 3:16 – we can keep coming back to God, every day, to experience God’s spacious place for us.

-- The priority is your availability. Are you available to God? Do you put God’s plans in front of your own? “God, what you want is more important than what I want. What you want leads to spacious places, so I’m going to want what you want.”

A simple prayer for today –

“God make me aware of your presence, make me available for your interruptions. Make me purposeful on my path and restful in the spacious place of your grace. Amen.”

WANT MORE?

Check out Nicole’s book Help! My Bible Is Alive: 30 Days of Learning to Love and Understand God’s Word - https://www.amazon.com/Help-My-Bible-Alive-Understand/dp/1641580216

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