Discovering Destiny (Part 36): God Wants To Restore The Relationships You Thought Were Over
Updated: Aug 31
Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Peter 3:18 GNT“But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever.”
Luke 10:20 Mirror“It’s time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven’s perspective.”
1 John 3:10 Mirror“There is a very visible and vast difference between living one’s life from your God identity or from a fallen man’s mindset.”
Proverbs 25:2 NKJV“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
Jeremiah 29:13 NIV“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Genesis 35:27-29 AMPC“And Jacob came to Isaac his father at Mamre or Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. And Isaac’s spirit departed; he died and was gathered to his people, being an old man, satisfied and satiated with days; his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”
Supporting scriptures:
Genesis 28:20-21 AMPC“Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me food to eat and clothing to wear, So that I may come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.”
Genesis 27:1-2 NLT“One day when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for Esau, his older son, and said, ‘My son.’ ‘Yes, Father?’ Esau replied. ‘I am an old man now,’ Isaac said, ‘and I don’t know when I may die.'”
Genesis 28:15 TPT“Never forget, I am always with you and will protect you wherever you go. And one day I will bring you back to this land, for I will neither leave you nor fail to fulfill every word I have promised you.”
Ecclesiastes 7:8 NLT“Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride.”
Psalm 91:16 TPT“I will satisfy you with a full life and with all that I do for you. For you will enjoy the fullness of my salvation!”
Genesis 25:8-9 ERV“Then he grew weak and died. He had lived a long and satisfying life. He died and went to be with his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah. This cave is in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar. It was east of Mamre.”
Philippians 1:6 TPT“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
Matthew 5:23-24 AMPC“So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, Leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift.”
Hebrews 12:14 TPT“In every relationship be swift to choose peace over competition, and run swiftly toward holiness, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.”
Setting the Stage:
Yesterday, we saw Jacob go back to Bethel and fulfill his vow. God confirmed his name and said kings would come from him. Now watch where Jacob goes next. Genesis 35:27 says he “came to Isaac his father at Mamre or Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron.” Now go back to the vow from the night of the ladder: “So that I may come again to my father’s house in peace.” The vow had two parts. Bethel was the altar. Hebron was the house.
When Jacob ran from home, Isaac was blind and telling his son he was about to die. He would live decades past his own funeral announcement. The son who lied to his father as Jacob, the conniver, returned as Israel. Then Moses closes the chapter: Isaac lived 180 years, died “satisfied and satiated with days,” and “his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”
The two brothers who fought in the womb stood at the same grave. It was the second time that family had seen it: Isaac and his brother Ishmael had buried Abraham together in that same cave (Genesis 25:9). God did not just bring Jacob back to the land. He brought him all the way home, He kept every person in the promise alive until he got there, and He put the brothers back together. The relationships Jacob thought were over were the ones God restored.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God Wants The Altar And The House.
Yesterday we celebrated Bethel, and we should have. But look at the vow again. Jacob did not say, “If You bring me back to Bethel.” He said, “So that I may come again to my father’s house in peace.” Bethel was worship. Hebron was restoration. Genesis 35:27 says Jacob “came to Isaac his father.” He did not send a messenger or a gift. He went. God does not fulfill half of a promise, and you do not get to keep half of a vow.
How this applies to you:
— Ecclesiastes 7:8 NLT says, “Finishing is better than starting.” Anyone can start something. Actually, starting is the easy part. But finishing costs you the road in between. God wants you to have the spirit of a finisher.
— God will not settle for less than everything He said, and you should not settle for less than everything you vowed.
— Many Christians are committed to the religious part and conveniently overlook the relational part. Our God is looking for both. Jesus said that we prove we have a relationship with Him by walking in love with the people down here in this world (John 13:35). The Apostle John also taught that we should not claim that we love a God that we cannot see if we don’t love the people that we see down here every day. Relationships matter to God, and they should matter to us.
— Half-kept vows produce half-finished destinies. God wants you to keep the vows you have with Him and those that involve others down here in this world as well. In other words, your destiny involves horizontal worship and vertical relationships.
2. God Kept Isaac Alive Until Jacob Got Home.
Genesis 27:2 NLT says, “I am an old man now, and I don’t know when I may die.” Isaac said that before the goat skins, before the stolen blessing, before Jacob ran. Then came 20 years with Laban and years more at Succoth and Shechem. Do the math, and Isaac lived more than 40 years after he announced he was dying. There had to be nights Isaac lay in that tent thinking, “I will never see that boy again.” God had other plans. He kept the father alive until the son came home changed. This is the long haul again.
How this applies to you:
— God kept Isaac alive until Jacob came home, and He kept him alive until the brothers were restored. Only then did Isaac die. God timed the father’s funeral around the sons’ reconciliation.
— God does not just keep His promises; He keeps the people in the promise alive long enough to see them.
— The last time Isaac touched Jacob, Jacob was wearing goat skins and lying to his face. The next time, he was Israel. God gave the father the changed version of his son.
— Long life is not a number; it is living long enough to see what God said. David said it this way, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” (Psalm 27:13 KJV).
— God keeps doors open longer than you deserve.
— Genesis 28:15 TPT says God will “neither leave you nor fail to fulfill every word I have promised you.” Every word included “my father’s house,” and God got him there.
I will close this point with a quick personal testimony. When I was three years old, I was hit by a car. My mother, who had just lost her husband, thought she was about to lose her only son. She lifted me up and dedicated me to the Lord. The Lord healed my body and performed a documented miracle. During that time, my mother made a vow to the Lord that if he would spare me, she would take me to a particular church in the Dominican Republic as soon as her feet touched Dominican soil. She told God that she would take me there, dressed in all white, and offer me as an offering. A few months later, her father, my grandfather, was dying, and she got on a plane with me and took me to the Dominican Republic. She dressed me in all white, and when her feet touched Dominican soil, she told her brother (who had picked us up from the airport) that she needed to go to this church and offer me as an offering.
Her brother said, “No, we need to hurry up and get home because Dad is dying,” and she said, “No. I made a vow to the Lord: God will keep Dad alive.” They went to the church, offered me up as an offering, and then got home. God kept my grandfather alive until my mother got there. Part of walking with God and understanding your destiny is knowing how much God loves you. And just like God keeps His Word to us, he expects us to keep our vows to him.
3. Isaac Died Full, Not Just Old.
Genesis 35:29 AMPC says Isaac died “an old man, satisfied and satiated with days.” Those are the same words Moses used for Abraham. Not tired of days. Full of them. It is not the length of your days that matters; it is what you did with them.
How this applies to you:
— Isaac’s life was not easy: a barren wife for 20 years, famine, a son who deceived him, decades of blindness. Yet, he still died satisfied, because satisfaction comes from finishing the journey, not from the ease of the path.
— You can be old and empty, or you can be old and full. I prefer the latter!
— Philippians 1:6 It teaches us that God will finish what he started in our lives.
— I want to die empty and full at the same time: empty of everything God put in me, full of the days He gave me.
— The richest place on earth is the cemetery, because people die with God’s best still inside them. Isaac did not.
4. God Brought Both Sets Of Brothers To The Same Cave.
The last line of Genesis 35 is one short sentence: “his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.” Two boys who fought in the womb. One stole a blessing; the other swore to kill him over it. Now they are carrying the same father. Where did they carry him? Genesis 35 does not say, but Jacob does. Later, in Genesis 49, Jacob is on his deathbed, and he tells his sons to bury him in the same cave where his father and grandfather are buried, the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 49:29-31). That settles it: Abraham and Isaac were laid to rest in the same place.
Now go back one generation. Genesis 25:9 ERV says, “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah.” Ishmael had been sent away with his mother. Isaac was the son of promise. They lived in separate camps for decades, and God brought them to that cave to bury Abraham together. Then He did it again with Isaac’s sons, in the same cave. Twice in one family, God brought estranged brothers together at their father’s grave. That is not a coincidence; that is the heart of God. Relationships matter to God, and He will orchestrate your destiny so the people you thought you lost are standing next to you when it counts.
How this applies to you:
— God does not just restore your position; He restores your people.
— Ishmael was sent away, and Isaac was the promised son. Esau lost the blessing, and Jacob took it. God restored both pairs. No one in your family is too far gone for God to bring back.
— Reconciliation gives you things you did not know you needed. Jacob made peace with Esau because he was afraid of him. But he did not know that he was going to need him one day to help him carry their father.
— Hebrews 12:14 TPT says, “In every relationship be swift to choose peace over competition.” Jacob and Esau competed from the womb. At the grave, there was no competition left.
— In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, part of finding your destiny is opening your heart to all the relationships God wants you to have, even the broken ones He wants to mend.
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, thank You that You are bringing me all the way home!
I will not stop at the altar; I will finish the whole vow!
Finishing is better than starting, and I am a finisher!
It is not too late for me, because You keep doors open longer than I deserve!
You will not fail to fulfill every word You promised me!
I will die empty of potential and full of days!
Father, You care about my relationships as much as my assignment!
Father, You are restoring the relationships I thought were over!
I make peace with my brother before I bring my gift to the altar!
In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, I go all the way home, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
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