Dr Paul Allen

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar” (Gen. 16:1). The real test of fidelity is not whether we will believe in but whether we will believe God. Anyone can confess that a higher power exists, and in fact, routine surveys indicate the vast majority of people do believe in the existence of a supreme being.  However, precious few believe the God of the Bible will actually do as He says. Too many people do not stake their entire lives on His Word even though He has never been anything other than true to His promises. Even those of us who do live for Him act as if we do not trust Him on occasion. If anyone should have had unwavering confidence in God, it was Abram. After all, the Lord provided for him in Egypt (12:10–20), enabled him to save Lot (14:13–16), and blessed him through Melchizedek (vv. 17–20). And as if this were not enough, Yahweh visibly swore an oath to keep His promise to Abram (chap. 15)....

The Brazen Serpent, by Benjamin West; among the overthrown, an unmistakable reference to the Laocoön (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “For with you is the fountain of life ; in your light do we see light.” Psalm 36:9 There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without him, and he therefore takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, that he may drive us to himself. It is a blessed thing to live at the fountain head. While our skin-bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael , to go into the wilderness; but when those are dry, nothing will serve us but “God sees me.” We are like the prodigal , we love the swine-troughs and forget our Father’s house. Remember, we can make swine-troughs and husks even out of the forms of religion. They are blessed things, but we may put them...

English: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. Česky: Jákob zápasící s andělem. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Judges 2:1-5. Yahweh speaks because the people inquired of him (1:1, which we shall call oracular divine speech ). But now Yahweh speaks, via his intermediary, on his own initiative (which we shall call non-oracular divine speech, and which occurs again in Judges only in 2:20–21; 6:7–10; 10:11–14). As with other passages of Scripture, Yahweh and his angel/messenger are interchangeable: “Now the angel of the Lord … said, ‘I brought you up from Egypt .’ ” Compare, for example, the story of the angel/messenger finding Hagar in the wilderness (Gen. 16:7), the conversation that follows between the two (Gen. 16:8–12), and Hagar’s words, “So she named the Lord who spoke to her” (Gen. 16:13). Here is a case where God himself appeared in the form of a human being, one who could be seen by a mortal. One instance of oscillation between Yahweh and his angel/intermediary that includes an a...

Zadkiel was said to be the Angel who prevented Abraham from sacrificing his son, Isaac. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "By faith Abraham , when he was tested, offered up Isaac , and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back" (Heb. 11:17–19). Apart from Christ 's obedient sacrifice, probably the greatest act of faith in fear and trembling recorded in all of Scripture is the obedient response of Abraham when God commanded him to sacrifice his son Isaac. This occurred after God had given Abraham a promise of future generations through Isaac and after God had made him wait many years for the birth of Isaac. In the interim, Abraham had taken steps to make sure that this promise was fulfilled with the aid of his wife Sarah , who, regarding herse...