Genesis 23:19-20

So we see that Abraham purchased the field from Ephron.  The field was in Machpelah, literally translated “Portion”.  Interestingly the only portion of the Promised Land that God had allowed Abraham to actually own was the plot of land in which he buried his love and greatest desires.  As time would pass this area would become the place where his sons and daughters to follow would lay to rest as well. 

So too, the only thing we really possess, or the “Portion” we’ve been bestowed with here on earth is the free will to bury our ambitions and greatest desires safely into the hands of the author and perfector of our lives.  As we purpose our lives to be submitted to God’s will we will see that His blessings and promise will expand into the lives of our children and on and on it goes. 

As Abraham set that example and received the portion the trees of Mamre, translated “strength” became the place where God met and blessed Abraham’s children.  In the same way the places in which we bury our will and say, “Lord your will be done” are the places that God will bless and meet us, and as our children follow suite they will experience the same with the Lord.  What seemed like death to our greatest love and desires will become the launch pad for abundant and blessed life not only for us but for many to follow. 

Abraham didn’t fully see the fulfillment of God’s promise in his lifetime, but his kids did.  Because of his example and the way he laid all things to rest in the portion of the Lord, the generations to follow entered into the fulfillment of the Promised Land.  Listen up parents, as you obey the Lord and lay to rest your personal desires and ambitions, as you deeply invest into the Lord and the portion He’s given you, you’ll see that your children will follow suite and will receive the fulfilled promises and blessings. 

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth…Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

Hebrews 11:13-16

Don’t be discouraged folks; God isn’t slack on His promises.  You might not see all of the fruit of your life here and now, perhaps your children will see the blessing where you had to experience the death; the wonderful truth is God has prepared something abundantly more wonderful in heaven.  As we are faithful to receive this portion and invest into it we will see the return for eternity.

Genesis 1:6-8

Here in Genesis 1:6 we see God continuing to separate and make distinctions.  Through this separation of firmament and waters God shows His power to make order from disorder.  He powerfully forms purpose from seeming chaos.

When translated, the word for firmament meaning “Heavens”, also has a literal meaning of “stretching something” like when a metal worker hammers metal. Such a small tidbit of information, but like most small things, this tidbit is fully packed with significance. 

You see, metal work was familiar to the guys and gals who lived during the time Moses was penning the Creation story under divine inspiration.   The process of stretching metal is arduous.  The metal worker will strike the metal thousands of times spreading, stretching, and shaping the metal.  The amount of pressure determines how much it stretches.  Excessive hammering on the other hand is often a problem that a well trained metal worker will watch for.  Each blow is important and has a desired purpose.  If the metal is hammered excessively the metal will harden, become brittle, and difficult to shape.  Often to prevent this, the metal worker will put the metal aside for a time until he finds the metal to respond better to His technique. 

This is so applicable to our lives today.  Our destination is Heaven, every day God is fully molding and shaping us through the “blows” of life’s circumstances.  Our faith gets stretched, our relationship with the Lord and others gets shaped, and the things that pressure us, and hammer our thoughts, emotions, actions, and spirits are working into us God’s purposeful design for our eternity.  Here’s the thing many of us run into in this process, we just don’t want to respond to the Lord’s techniques of shaping us for eternity, because the Lord masterfully knows how to shape us, He will never “Hammer” us excessively, He will use the precise amount of blows needed to shape us perfectly (1 Cor. 10:13).  We’re not just here on earth for the heck of it.  God is actually shaping us here on earth for what is to come in Heaven.  

But there’s more!

The text shows the firmament divides the waters beneath and above. (Verse 6)  No matter who you are or where you’re from, everyone needs water.  Water is a necessity for survival.  In the bible water often represented the Lords blessing of abundant life and provision.  It’s found below in the ground, or high in the sky.  Water in the ground is exclusively found where a spring is flowing, and water in the sky is only found where precipitation gathers, the same is true spiritually.  The water in our hearts is exclusively found in the flowing spring of Jesus Christ (John 4:13, 14, John 7:38).  Jesus is and always will be the portion we need (Is. 61:7-8), the provision we cry out for (Phil. 4:19), and the life we long to abide in (John 3:15).

The fact is the Lord desires to shape us, which can be disheartening when we lose sight of the fact that there is purpose to the process.  When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we’ll find that surrounding our difficult moments God desires to draw out the blessings from the depths of our hearts and pour out His blessing from His floodgates above.