162 | When God Says Go and You Don't Know Where: God's Covenant and Promise (Genesis - Part 2)

Find the full episode here: LivingOnPurposeInChrist.com/blog and the companion printable resource here): PaulaBehrens.com/store

Have you ever prayed for something so long that you started to wonder if God quietly moved on? We sit in that ache and then walk straight into one of the most hope-giving stretches of Scripture: Genesis 12 through 25, where God makes a covenant with Abraham and asks him to move before he gets the full plan. I share why this “go without the address” moment is not just a Bible story but a practical picture of what faith looks like when you want certainty and God gives you the next step. 

We trace the long road between promise and fulfillment, including the messy parts Scripture refuses to edit out: fear, missteps, and the temptation to manufacture outcomes when waiting feels unbearable. Abraham and Sarah’s decades of delay raise real-life questions about God’s timing, unanswered prayer, and what it means to trust God’s character when circumstances do not cooperate. Then we watch the promise arrive with Isaac, and we revisit the altar moment where Abraham learns in his bones that the Lord will provide. 

A key turning point is a deeper look at the Hebrew word hesed, often translated “kindness,” but carrying the force of loyal love, covenant faithfulness, and steadfast mercy. That one word reshapes how we read Abraham’s story and how we interpret our own seasons of waiting, healing, and spiritual growth. If you need steady ground under your feet, this is a Genesis Bible study conversation that brings both theology and next-step encouragement. 

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Transcript

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When A Promise Feels Forgotten

Paula Behrens 0:01

Have you ever prayed for something so long that you started to wonder if God forgot about it? Not forgot like he's not paying attention, you know better than that, but forgot like maybe this particular promise, this particular dream, this particular ache in your heart, maybe it just isn't part of the plan anymore. If you've ever sat with that quiet, aching question, I want you to stay with me today because we're about to meet a man who waited 25 years for a promise God spoke over his life. Twenty-five years. And by the end of this episode, I'm going to tell you exactly where you can grab a printable Bible study and a step-by-step leader's guide that will let you sit with this story for as long as you need to. So don't go anywhere, because that resource is going to help you take everything we talk about today and actually live it out. Maybe even walk a small group or your family through it.

Series Setup And Practical Invites

Paula Behrens 0:58

Welcome back to Living on Purpose in Christ. I'm Paula, and today we're stepping into part two of our four-part journey through the book of Genesis. Are you finding it challenging to maintain your spiritual practices or yearning for a more peaceful, God-aligned day? I'm Paula, and I've been there too. Balancing spiritual habits with a busy life can be difficult. I longed for a deeper connection with God but struggled with consistency. Then I found the perfect approach. If you seek simple ways to deepen your connection with God, this podcast is for you. Please take a moment to follow the show, leave a review, and share with your friends who need a little biblical encouragement today. Hey, friend, I know how exhausting it can be to carry emotional stress that keeps surfacing in your thoughts, reactions, and decisions leaving you stuck in patterns you're ready to break but unsure how to move forward. I've walked that path myself, that cycle of pressing on while something deeper still needed gentle attention. That's why I trained with Dr. Benjamin Perkus, a clinical psychologist, and became a certified Aroma Freedom Technique practitioner. It's quite simple. We meet on a private Zoom call, a sacred space where we work together to uncover limiting beliefs and release emotional triggers while incorporating spirit-led biblical support. This gentle process can bring clarity, peace, and renewed confidence to your journey. Imagine moving forward with greater clarity in your calling, feeling more grounded and responding from truth rather than overwhelm. This is your invitation to make it doable today. Create room for healing and lasting breakthrough. Save your seat now for an Aroma Freedom Coaching Session at PaulaBehrens.com /coaching. That's Paula Behrens B-E-H-R-E-N-S .com /coaching (no spaces). It's time to start breathing peace into your walk with Jesus. Before we dive in, I have a quick favor to ask. If this podcast has been a blessing to you or helped you grow in your walk with Christ, would you take a moment to leave a review? Thank you so much. I truly appreciate your support.

Genesis Zooms In On Abram

Paula Behrens 3:18

All right, it's time to get started. Grab your Bible, dust off that journal, cozy up to your favorite beverage, and let's dive in. Last time we walked through Genesis chapter 1 through 11: Creation, the fall, Cain and Abel, Noah, the flood, and the Tower of Babel. That section of Genesis is enormous. It covers all of humanity, every nation, the whole sweeping story of how sin entered the world and how far it spread. But then something happens at Genesis chapter 12. The camera, so to speak, zooms in. God stops speaking to all of humanity in general and starts speaking to one man in particular. His name is Abram. And this is where the covenant story really begins. I think this shift matters more than we usually give it credit for. Because up to this point in Genesis, the pattern has been pretty discouraging. People rebel, things fall apart, God judges, and then it happens again. Adam and Eve, Cain, the generations before the flood, Babel, it's like watching the same sad cycle over and over. And then God does something new. He doesn't give up on humanity, he doesn't walk away. Instead, he chooses one man, and through that one man, he says he's going to bless all the families of the earth. This is Genesis 12, verse 2 and 3, where God tells Abram, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. That's the hinge point of the whole book. Humanity keeps wandering, God keeps being faithful. That's exactly the heartbeat of this entire four-part series, and you're going to see it play out again and again.

A Call Without a Map

Paula Behrens 5:12

Here's what gets me every time I read this. God tells Abram to leave his country, his people, and his father's household, and go to a land that God will show him. Notice what's missing there. God doesn't tell him where, he just tells him to go. I don't know about you, but I like a plan. I like to know the address before I put it in the GPS. And Abram is 75 years old when he gets this call. He's not a young man setting out to make his mark on the world. He's a man who has already lived many years of a life. And God asks him to uproot everything based on nothing more than a promise and a direction to start walking. This is where faith starts to look less like a feeling and more like an action. Abram believed God enough to pack up. He didn't need every detail, he just needed enough to trust the next step. And I think that's such a tender picture for those of us who are waiting on God for something right now: a marriage to be restored, a child to come home, a job to open up, healing in our body. We want the whole map. God usually gives us the next step. And can we just be honest here for a second? Abram didn't do this perfectly. He wavered. There's a moment in Egypt where fear gets the better of him and he lies about his relationship with his wife Sarai to protect himself. Scripture doesn't hide that. I actually find that comforting because it tells me God's covenant faithfulness was never based on Abram's flawless obedience. It was based on God's character. That's good news for you and me too.

The Long Wait and the Strange Detour

Paula Behrens 7:02

Now here's where the story really slows down, and where I think so many of us live spiritually. God promises Abram he will become the father of a great nation. But Abram has no children, and chapter after chapter goes by, and still no child. At one point, Abram and Sarai get tired of waiting, and Sarai suggests that Abram have a child through her servant Hagar. It's a very human solution to a divine promise. When God doesn't move as fast as we'd like, we tend to try to help him alone, don't we? We take matters into our own hands, and it usually creates complications we didn't anticipate. That's exactly what happens here, and it creates tension in that household that echoes for generations. But God doesn't abandon his promise even when Abram and Sarai stumble. God renews the covenant. He changes Abram's name to Abraham, meaning father of many nations, and he changes Sarai's name to Sarah. He tells them again that they will have a son together. And Sarah, listening from inside the tent, laughs, not because she thinks it's funny, but because it sounds impossible. She's 90 years old. And then in God's timing, not Abraham's, not Sarah's, Isaac is born. His name literally means he laughs, a permanent reminder that God turned their disbelieving laughter into laughter of pure joy. If you take nothing else from today's episode, take this. The promise did not fail. It was delayed according to God's purposes, not His forgetfulness. And later in the story, God asked Abraham to offer Isaac, the very son of promise, back to him on an altar. Abraham obeys, trusting that God would provide. And at the last moment, God provides a ram in the thicket. Abraham names that place, the Lord will provide. That test and that provision becomes one of the clearest pictures in all of the Old Testament of God's heart toward his people. He asks for our trust, and he always, always provides.

A Short Word Study: Hesed (חֶסֶד)

Paula Behrens 9:29

I want to slow down on one Hebrew word from this section of Genesis because I think it will change how you read the whole Abraham story. The word is hesed (חֶסֶד), and you'll see it show up again later in Genesis when Abraham's servant prays for success in finding a wife for Isaac and asks God to show hesed (חֶסֶד) to his master. It's often translated as kindness, but the translation barely scratches the surface. Hesed (חֶסֶד) carries the weight of loyal love, covenant faithfulness, and steadfast mercy all wrapped up into one word. It's the kind of love that keeps showing up even when the other party hasn't earned it or doesn't deserve it. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek in what's called the Septuagint, the translators often reached for the Greek word eleeō (ἐλεέω) to carry this idea, a word usually rendered mercy. You recognize that root later in the New Testament in places like the Beatitudes, where Jesus says, Blessed are the merciful. The thread runs all the way from Abraham's story to the Gospels, tying together God's unwavering covenant love. Here's why this matters for your life today. Abraham didn't earn the covenant. He didn't perform his way into God's promise. God's hesed (חֶסֶד) toward him was rooted in God's own character and God's own choice to bind himself to his people. That's exactly the kind of love God has toward you right now in whatever season you're walking through. Not love that depends on you having it all together, but love that is steadfast because of who God is.

Waiting With Confidence And Next Steps

Paula Behrens 11:19

So here's where we land today. Abraham's story isn't really a story about a perfect man of great faith who never doubted. It's a story about an ordinary, flawed man who kept walking, kept trusting, even when the waiting stretched for decades. And it's about mostly a God whose covenant faithfulness never once wavered. If you're at a season of waiting right now, I want you to hear this. God is not slow, he is not forgetful, he is not finished with the promise he spoke over your life. Now, like I promised at the beginning, I want to invite you to go so much deeper than we could go in this one episode. I've put together a full printable Bible study on this exact section of Genesis chapters 12 through 25, and it walks through key passages, the major theological truths tucked into the story, what it reveals about the heart of God, practical ways to apply it to your own life, a deeper word study, reflection questions, and journaling prompts to help you sit with it and let it really take root. And if you lead a small group, a Bible study, or even just want to walk your family through this, I've included a step-by-step leader's guide to make that easy for you. You can find it by visiting PaulaBehrens.com /store and looking in the "Printable Resources" section. That's Paula Behrens B E H R E N S .com/store (no spaces), and look for the "Printable Resources" section. Grab part two of the Genesis series today, and if you haven't already gone back for part one, that one's there too. Okay, I'll see you in the next episode where we will head into the lives of Isaac and Jacob and watch God continue to keep his promise generation after generation.

Closing Thoughts

Paula Behrens 13:17

Thank you for tuning in today. And remember, just like setting biblical boundaries, it's okay to say no to things that don't serve you well, like that third piece of cake at the church potluck. If you've enjoyed this episode, we would truly appreciate it if you would take just a few moments to follow the show and leave a review. Also, prayerfully consider investing just one hour to deepen your faith and nurture your spiritual growth. Schedule your call now at PaulaBehrens.com /coaching. That's Paula Behrens B-E-H R E N S .com /coaching (no spaces). Be sure to check the show notes for all the links. Join us next week as we continue to discover how to live on purpose in Christ. Until then, keep leaning into him and walking in his wisdom. See you next time.