When you read your daily Bible reading, do you read silently in your head or read aloud? I'd like to encourage you to try to read aloud. I'm going to try to do that more and more. I believe I heard somewhere that this is supposed to help retention because we are seeing and hearing it. Makes perfect sense to me! Plus, sometimes words, phrases, ideas sound more striking to the ear, but could be easily glossed over by the eye. And, sometimes I have this terrible problem where I can read things silently and my eyes keep tracking the words line by line, but then I realize that I was thinking about something else at the same time and I have no idea what the last paragraph was about! But God's Word is too important to miss. Indeed, "The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times" (Psalm 12:6). So, I'm going to try whenever possible to read my daily readings aloud. I'll let you know how it goes.
May the Holy Spirit give us understanding and a strengthened faith today as we study the Word.
Read Psalm 12
Quote from Luther: "The 12th psalm is a psalm of prayer. It laments over the teachers who are always inventing new little discoveries and filling up God's kingdom everywhere with these new services to God. For where human doctrine once goes in, there is no stop or end to it; they increase more and more. These new inventions load down the poor conscience beyond all limit and work so that few true saints may remain. Against all this, the psalm comforts us that God will awaken his salvation, that is, His Word, which confidently storms against this work of straw. He will free the imprisoned conscience." Reading the Psalms with Luther, CPH.
Read Genesis 12
As we hear of this incredible promise given to Abram we must remember that he receives this promise only by the grace of God. Abram is no perfect human being, and we see that displayed when he and his wife travel to Egypt. Abram fails to trust in the Lord's protection (even though he just received a great promise!) and takes matters into his own hands. This is most certainly sinful. But we actually (strangely) receive comfort from this odd story being included in Scripture. Even the great Abraham made grave errors. Even Abraham who will be praised for his faith fails to trust. Even Abraham needs to be saved by grace through faith. And he is.
And more than that he is given the incredible promise in the first 3 verses of the chapter. More than one of professors at the Seminary liked to call this the "Great Commission of the Old Testament." Normally we call the Great Commission the verses in Matthew 28 where Jesus instructs the disciples to go and make disciples of "all nations." Well, in Genesis 12 we see something similar. Abram is told that in him "all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Now some might wonder what kind of a blessing this is. Does this mean that we are all blessed by the "Jewish faith?" Some assert this, but are greatly deceived. Or, those who are more universal praise Abram for being the father of the 3 major religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. But not only is this incorrect (Abram was a true believer, not some follower or starter of the lies of Islam or present day Judaism!) but it is a very damaging lie.
So what kind of blessing? Galatians 3:8 tells us "The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you.'" Paul makes it clear that this promise was about Jesus, and all people (Jew and Gentile) coming to faith in him! This is a promise of the Savior. This is a promise that salvation comes to the Gentiles through the Jews (that is, that the Messiah would come from the Jews).
What an incredible promise given even though Abram was sinful. And though Sarai was barren, God promises that Abram would be a "great nation." And God even says that to Abram's "offspring" he would give the land of Canaan, though no offspring yet existed.
In the coming days we will see the beginning of the fulfillment of these promises. And we recall that ultimately, the promises are not fulfilled by Isaac or other descendants, but only by Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Man and Son of God. He gave his life to save ours. We are justified by grace through faith. We now, with Abram, inherit the promise. We have a Promised Land guaranteed to us as well. Thanks be to God!
Ask Yourself:
I fail to trust, just like Abram failed. What does it look like in my life?
Is it hard for me to hold on with faith to the guarantee of our Promised Land (Heaven) through Christ? What can I do to cling more strongly to that promise?
Are the nations being blessed because of Christ today? Am I participating in that sharing of the blessing? How can I better share my faith?
Pray:
O Lord, our God, the Lord of hosts, guard us that we err not from the way of truth, and keep us from the temptation to sit where mockers sit. Preserve us in the faith of Your Son, and a walk of godliness all the days of our pilgrimage. Be with us when we must walk among the wicked, surrounded by so many evil examples, and keep us from evil. Amen.
Study with me tomorrow.
Pastor Jon
Soli Deo Gloria!
Questions today. Hard ones.
ReplyDeleteAbram was 75 when they left, so how old was his super hot wife? How old was the Pharoh who takes her as his?
Sorry, PJ (Pastor Jon) I'll have more OT questions, since I haven't studied it much myself.
Now, what's with Abram letting his wife go in this way anyway. I could never see this happening today, so it must have been more accepted in this culture, right? In this ancient culture, was sex seen as less of a big deal? Or am I getting this whole thing mixed up?
We see in Genesis 17:17 that Sarah is 10 years younger than Abraham. So, his "super hot" wife was 65 years old. We must accept the Bible as the Word of God, so we must conclude that she was either exceptionally gifted, or people aged slower back then. (Though we have seen the lifespan continue to decrease after the flood, they still lived longer than we do today).
ReplyDeleteShe may not have been beyond childbaring years at this point. She is most definitely at least 10 years later when she gives her maidservant Hagar to Abraham. She has given up hope. This is why later Abraham laughs at the promise (chapter 17), and Sarah laughs as well (chapter 18). But God has the last laugh, as we will see.
Sex would have been a big deal to them. There are some that theorize that there was no sex involved, that there was no way Pharaoh could not have "slept" with all his wives. But then why was the punishment so severe?
Abram wavered in his faith, and probably motivated by his love for his wife (and maybe a desire to save his own skin) he would rather have seen her with another man than dead. That's my best guess. I don't have all the "why" answers. But most importantly, we see that God carries out his plan of salvation, often in spite of us sinful humans.
Yeah, I get the aged slower part, but she is still 65 and like you said 10 years away from being too old for kids. So, the fact that Abram prepared for Pharoh lusting after his hot 65-year-old wife, and Pharoh actually lusting and taking her is surprising to me.
ReplyDeleteThis is before plastic surgery, right? :) I'm joking!