BRING GOD’S PEACE RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE

When people speak of you, do they acknowledge what you are bringing to the place where you are? Your neighborhood? Office? Community? Relationships?

ABRAHAM’S CONTRIBUTION

Abraham had been on a journey from the land of Canaan (now Israel) to Egypt and back. In this period, some perilous things had happened, but God had brought him and his family through each moment.

This season was capped by the birth of his promised son, Isaac, and the joy this brought to his home. In Genesis 21, he now comes to a place that would be called Beersheba (in southern Israel). He navigates a difficulty with the king there and settles down to live for a while.

And then, we notice this beautiful little travelogue …

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.  And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days (Ge 21:33–34)

HE PLANTED A TREE

The tamarisk was a tree that gave shade and was often planted in the wilderness by water and by settlements. It indicated that Abraham was enhancing the land on which he would settle for a while. It may have been 10-15 years that he remained in Beersheba, for in the next chapter we read of Abraham taking Isaac to be sacrificed on Mt. Moriah in that classic test when he was a teenager.

HE WORSHIPED GOD

But also, Abraham boldly and beautifully worshiped God. He “called on the name of the Lord.” He had known God by many names, but now he knows Him as “The EVERLASTING God.” This side of God’s character indicates the rest, security, and stability that only our eternal God can bring.

Abraham had lived quite a life, and now he settled down for a season in the shade of the tamarisk tree to watch his promised son grow up, and worship the eternal God who had blessed and provided for him at every turn. In so doing, Abraham brought the peace of God into his family and his world and acknowledged, without question, that all of this had come from his great God.

Do those around you observe the same? Are you bringing the peace and stability of God into every place where God leads you? Do people find rest and shade in your presence, and do they hear you witness to the great God you serve? Someone around you may need exactly that today.