- With, Bless, Multiply
Genesis 26:24 And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.
The same promise is repeated to Isaac, the same promise given to him earlier and the same promise as the one given to Abraham. The promise to Isaac comes with the addition of the words, “I am with thee.” The blessing and multiplying of seed is the same part of the promise given to Isaac’s father Abraham.
God will bless Isaac. God is present everywhere, but He is present in a special and personal way to bless. (God may sometimes be present to judge or curse.) God comes into our lives from time to time to be with us to bless. Though He is always with us, as promised, at times He will come to be with us to bless. This sense of the Presence of God actually happens more often than we may even be aware. Sometimes we can look back on an event and say, “God was there.” We often miss these God sightings because we see only what we see. We miss seeing God in other people and in human events because we don’t see the spiritual activity behind it. Just so, many people missed the God in human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth because He looked just like another plain human being, for He truly is human. It took a special event, like the Transfiguration and other miracles, to see what was really going on.
When God comes into our lives to be with us to bless us with His presence we don’t see the angel or the Presence of the Spirit. “We entertain angels unawares.” If the eyes of the heart are open to God’s presence to bless we can say, “God is here,” instead of remembering an event and saying, “God was there.” Nonetheless, the Lord promises to be there always, whether we sense it or not, and we may take this promise and call upon Him whenever we need to. He is there to hear our prayer.
“Withness” does not only mean around or nearby; it also means in. The Spirit of God dwells within. This is the wonderful promise of the NT repeated by Jesus many times. Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit so that He may always be with us, fulfilling the promise given to Isaac. Jesus’ presence is the fulfillment of the promise in our lives. So we pray and believe: “Hallowed by Thy name, Thy kingdom come.” When we pray this prayer we expect the Lord to be with us to bless.