COV LIFE BLOG

Genesis 20-21 – God Preserving Abraham

Mark the form of the promise, And I will remember my covenant. God does not say, ‘And when you shall look upon the bow and you shall remember my covenant, then I will not destroy the earth,’ but it is gloriously put not upon our memory, which is fickle and frail, but upon God’s memory which is infinite and immutable. The bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant. O it is not my remembering God, it is God’s remembering me which is the ground of my safety. It is not my laying hold of his covenant, but his covenant’s laying hold on me. Glory be to God. The whole of the bulwarks of salvation are secured by divine power and even the minor towers which we may imagine might have been left to man are guarded by Almighty strength. Even the remembrance of the covenant is not left to our remembrance for we might forget, but our Lord cannot forget the saints whom he has graven on the palms of His hands. It is with us as with Israel and Egypt. The blood was upon the lintel and the two side posts, but the Lord did not say, ‘When you see the blood, I will pass over you,’ but ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over you.’ My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is God’s looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all his elect, since it is impossible for our God to look at Christ, our bleeding surety, and then to be angry with us for sins already punished in him. No it is not left with us even to be saved by remembering the covenant. Not a single thread of the creature mars the fabric. It is not of man, neither by man, but of the Lord alone. We should remember the covenant, and we shall do it, through divine grace; but the hinge of our safety does not hang there. It is God’s remembering us, not our remembering Him; and hence because it is God remembering us, the covenant is an everlasting covenant.

Charles Spurgeon

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MEDITATION ON THE SERMON PASSAGE
Read Genesis 20-21.

Even in the midst of struggles with doubt and sin, we see God preserving Abraham. In the midst of your struggles, how can you walk by faith knowing that God in preserving you as well?

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
Lamb of God by Vertical Church Band