Genesis 21:22-34 KJV
22 And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest:
23 Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.
24 And Abraham said, I will swear.
25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.
26 And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing; neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
29 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves?
30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
31 Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.
32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.
34 And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.
Welcome to KJV Cafe. Thanks for taking time out of your day to listen. Each episode of the Cafe is dedicated to studying the Bible verse by verse from Genesis through Revelation. Your host here at the Cafe is Bible teacher, Clark Covington. Looks like the coffee is hot and ready, so let's get started. Amen, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to Cafe Pastor Clark Covington. Your Bible teacher here today. Good to be here. Hopefully you're doing well. Having a great day. Great week. We are right back in the Word. I got my coffee here. I'm ready to go. Hopefully you are too. We're in Genesis 21. And we're going to try to get through this here. Genesis 21. And there's a dispute. So there's a peace treaty made between a bimilek, King of Garar and Abraham. And then Abraham reproves a bimilek because of this well water that was taken. And a bimilek claims ignorance. And then we'll pick up in verse 27. And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them unto a bimilek. And both of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven u-lams of the flock by themselves. And the bimilek said unto Abraham, what mean these seven u-lams, which that is set by themselves? And he said, "For these seven u-lams shall thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well." Wherefore we call that place, Spershiba? Because there they swear both of them. Thus they made a covenant at Spershiba. Then a bimilek rose up and Fachal, the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philstines. And Abraham planted a grove in Spershiba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines land many days. Okay, so that's the end of Genesis 21. And what we'll do here, we'll look at the u-lams. So what is a u-lam? There were seven of them that Abraham set apart. And they're a young, usually unweened female sheep. So like a baby sheep, right? And you have the u-lam there in the number seven. Seven, God's perfect number is number of completion. And it is significant because Abraham sets aside these u-lams and says, "This is so you know that I dug this well." Right? It is a memory. It is a memorial. I mean, in a way, it's kind of like a trade, right? Like he's saying, "Here, I'm giving you these." So every time, you know, there's a debate, you say these seven represent it, right? And certainly there was a witness there because you know Fachal was there, right? And so we see that God has created significance around this land. For example, at the end of the chapter, it mentions that Abraham has a grove. Well, how could you have a grove without water? So that well there is actually able to provide for what will grow there in memorial and honor to God, which what we'll do is we'll take a break and we'll touch more on this idea of creating a memorial to God in our hearts when we come back. You're listening to KJV Cafe. We encourage you to look us up on your favorite podcast app and subscribe to our channel on YouTube. Now let's get back to some more in-depth Bible study. You know, when I was young and unlearned of the ways of the faith, if you will, I went into a very large church and in the church, it looked like a modern-day building, maybe an office building or convention center or something. And I remarked, "There's no crosses in here." You know, it didn't look like I grew up in the north right outside of New York City and the churches that I had seen and been in were very ornate. You know, had the crosses, the stained glass windows, the statues, all that. And I didn't mind the look of it. It was very airy and nice in there. It was, you know, well done, if you will. Nice place. And it was explained to me at that time, well, we don't have crosses in here because we don't have, we don't create idols, right? We don't have any carved images, anything that we are bowing down to because God is who we bow down to. He's who we worship. And that goes along with the idea in the scripture that God desires to be worshipped in spirit and truth, right? And so I realized then that, yeah, it was more of a heart issue, an issue in my mind and my heart, not like something I could do where I would go and cross myself a certain time or throw something into a bowl of water or light a candle. Now, I know that there are different memorials and like at Christmas times, you know, all these churches, they like candles and so forth. I get that, but generally speaking, the theory here is that God's a spirit, right? And so we shouldn't make these man-made things to worship him because it was detestable to God in the Old Testament and that Christ died on the cross at Calvary and shed His precious blood so that we could be saved by what? By simply believing in Him. And all we are to do is believe. You can fill up with the Ethiopian eunuch. You know, we want to know what it needed to be saved. You said, you need to believe. Before you even baptized, you need to believe. Baptism is a public profession of faith, but the belief is what matters. So we understand that Jesus Christ, He goes to the cross willingly for our sins. He dies for our sins on the cross at Calvary so that we could be saved. That's the idea of the substitutionary death, the atonement, that we being sinful, me, like Clark, okay? Clark Covington, right? I am sinful person. Today I am. Yesterday I was. Tomorrow I will be. And when I was young, Lord knows how bad that was. And Christ took every sin past, present and future on His shoulders for me and went to the cross and willingly, obediently died for me. The most horrific death men could ever die. The Bible says He drank that bitter cup of sin. And then He was risen again the third day from the grave. And as He was risen again from the grave, He now is allowing us to be forgiven because He is born again if you will. And now He's in His resurrected body. He walks the earth 40 days and 40 nights. He's seen by over 500 and then He sends up to heaven. He's at the right hand of the Father even today. And so when we believe on what Christ has done on the cross, that's called the finished work, that He died for our sins, like I believed Christ died for my sins. You believe Christ died for your sins, right? When you believe that and that He was risen again, when you believe that truth, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, that we have a sin that we can't pay, that a holy God requires the blood for the sin of mankind, that Christ paid that price on Calvary. When you believe that, you're saved. That's it. You're saved. You don't need to go to the stained glass window, to the cross, to this thing, to that thing. You're saved. You're born again. You're new in Christ. You don't need a theological degree. You don't need money. You don't need to be a member of church. You don't need to, even really frankly, be the best person, right? Christ said, "I didn't come to save the healthy. I came to save the sick." You just simply need to believe. You simply need to believe that Jesus died for you. And when you trust Him as Savior, you are truly born again. That's it. You just pray and say, "Lord, Jesus saved me. Lord, I'm a sinner and I know I can't do it on my own. I can't make up for my sin, but you did it on the cross at Calvary. So Lord, if you'll save me, Lord, please, if you'll save me, I'll live for you, right? I'll turn from my sin. I'll live for you." In Jesus' name, amen. You pray that prayer. You're saved. And once you're saved, you're new in Christ. And once you're new in Christ, the old things pass away. Now you have the Holy Spirit living within you. Now your name is written down in the Lamb's book of life, never to be blotted out, never to be erased. You're secure forever in heaven. There's a place for you in heaven forever. The Bible says to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. So as soon as you die, you'll be with God forever. The only judgment you'll face is a judgment of reward, like at the Olympics when you get a medal, you'll be there and you'll be rewarded for the things you did out of the working of the Holy Spirit for God, right? You'll get heavenly rewards, crowns, if you will, amen. Nothing bad. It's all good. And it all comes by simply believing. It's by grace alone through faith alone. In Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing else. Nothing. Nothing works. Not your pedigree. Not your good looks. Thank goodness. Not your size. Thank goodness. Can you imagine? You know, not being perfect. None of it. You're saved by grace. Now, once you're saved, okay, and you're living for God, how about this memorial that can be made in your heart? Abraham made this memorial. Beersheba. Beersheba plays a very significant role with Isaac, Jacob, so forth, it's a very significant place. Finally, looking up on Google maps, it's called Beersheba. It's in the Negev, the desert area there. It's still there, amen? It's still there. It's in the south, you know? So from Dan to Beersheba is an old saying, and that is a way of saying from the north to the south, all the land of the Promised Land, it's about 270 miles. It's still there. And so as Abraham made a memorial for God, we should in our hearts too. There have been times in my life. There's a few of them where I faced difficult circumstances beyond anything that I had ever faced. There's probably many of them, honestly, but it's something happened, whatever it was, you know, whatever it may be, leaving church, leaving church to plant a church or about to just, you know, go in the doctor for a medical condition and falling down and then feeling better after I fell. Whatever these little examples are, which are, these are true, but whatever they are, you mark that memorial and you say, God, you did something here. And I don't want to forget it, you know, being saved, you know, never forget. I practically ran to the altar. I was ready, man. I didn't understand half of the Bible, but I was ready to be saved. I understood. I couldn't do it on my own. I understood. I wanted to be with God, amen? And I believe, you know, with all my heart, that was when I got saved, even though it took me a long while to figure things out after that. And by figure things out, I mean to get a hold of the idea that you need to be separate from the world, right? And that is when things change drastically for me, separating from the world and spending time in God's Word, spending time with God's brethren and so forth, getting away from the things of the world. That's when I really saw the Lord work in my life and I believe Lord will work in your life as you practice those things too. But regardless, I believe I was saved there at 22 years old, practically running down the pile, make that an altar in our hearts, a well in our hearts, a memorial in our hearts. The day we're saved. And maybe that day is for you, amen? Make that a memorial in your heart. Make it a memorial in your heart when there's something happening and God delivers you from that thing. Abraham, I'm sure, was rejoicing because I'm sure he was grieved that there was conflict over the well. And now he's rejoicing because he got it resolved and God did it. God brought the king to him. He made a memorial there. He planted a grove. That is the kind of thing, I believe, that pleases the Lord, right? You drive down the road and you see a big cross in the farmland there and they lighted it up so nicely. That's not idolatry. That's not something bad. They're saying I'm making a memorial here for God, nothing wrong with that. And so again, we walk this line where we're not to just have a bunch of statues we bound out bow down to, which by the way, this is considered an eastern area here in the world. And if you look at Eastern religions, I mean, go into any kind of Chinese restaurant and so forth, they'll have at least the little carved statue in the corner. Sometimes they have full blown altars built out full blown stone statues, massive idols, literal idols, those idols are still here today and people still worship them. I see it, you know, candles lit and all kinds of stuff. So that's not good. We aren't to have idols like that, but at the same time, how can we build a memorial in our hearts, in our minds that we can turn to, especially when times get tough and think about what God's done for us. And you see that so much through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, you see so much of this, whether it's Jacob's ladder, you know, whether it's Isaac as well with the issue with the wells and the resolution of the issue, whether it's Abraham here. You see so much of this, and you can go and look like you can go to Bereshiva today. You can look at pictures online. You can see this is a real place, amen. And so it should be real to us. God is real and he is near and we should work to spend time with him and ask him if you don't quite know, ask him, Lord, what kind of memorial would you have me to create? And I'm sure he would give you something. And again, I'm speaking mostly in the idea of the inward, you know, in your heart, in your mind. Maybe it's when your child was born. Maybe it's when you were delivered from a disease. You know, maybe it's when you were delivered from a bad boss or an abusive relative or whatever it may be, you just thank God and you say, God, you did something there. God, I couldn't have done that. Oh Lord, look how you worked there. How often does God work and we might even recognize it if we recognize it at all. And then we forget all about it. Let us not be like that. Let us recognize God's strength and power as Abraham did here in Bereshiva in the wilderness there. Abraham did it there. Let us take that as an example for us and let us think on that today. God is so good. He is so awesome. Give him all the praise and glory. We're going to get on to the next chapter, Genesis 22 of the next episode. Tune in then. Thank you for listening. God bless any man. Thanks for spending time with us today at the Cafe. We would love to hear from you. You can email Brother Clark directly at Clark@EnduringPromise.org. See you again tomorrow, same time, same place.
