Monthly Archives: January 2013

Day 11: A Royal family

Genesis 25-28

It was God’s plan from the beginning to preserve a family from which the promised savior would come. The entire world’s survival depended on this family’s survival… All seemed lost when Cain killed Abel – but God knew that the promise would continue through Seth. We follow this family, the royal family line, through Seth and then 10 generations to Noah. It goes through Noah’s son, Shem, and then 10 generations to Abraham. And the drama heightens as we see the very family that God had chosen to carry the blessed seed – threaten God’s plan with their faithlessness. Yet, God’s faithfulness overruled.

God’s promise passed from Abraham to Isaac:

“I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Genesis 26:3-5).

Then Isaac and Rebekah had twin boys, Esau and Jacob. Which son would carry the promised seed? Isaac wanted Esau, but God’s choice was Jacob. Family dysfunction took center-stage as Rebekah manipulated, and Jacob deceived so that Isaac’s blessing was passed to Jacob instead of Esau.

It’s always been a mystery to me how God uses imperfect people to carry out his good plan. God had always planned for Jacob to receive the blessing from Isaac. And God carried out his good plan in spite of Jacob and Rebekah’s deceit and manipulation.

Jacob, whose name meant “heel-grabber” or “cheater” had spent his life striving to receive this blessing. Nancy Guthrie writes in her book The Promised One, “Jacob wanted the right things. His desire was for the blessing of being in the line of the Promised One. But there was no sign he wanted God. There was no reaching out for God but only grabbing for God’s blessings.” God, because of His faithfulness (not because of Jacob’s faith), extended His original promise that He gave to Abraham – to Jacob:

“I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13-15).

What do I learn from these chapters?

  1. God is faithful and good.
  2. Man… not so much.

Just like Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, we are in desperate need of God’s grace. Thankfully, this family’s faithlessness could not thwart God’s plan to bring the promised savior. That’s good news to me…. because it teaches me that my faithlessness will not hinder God’s plans in my life – just like your faithlessness will not hinder His work in yours. He is the Lord.

Day 10: The Healer

Matthew 9

This is another chapter filled predominantly with scenes of Jesus’ healings. Which leads me to a question…

Why doesn’t Jesus heal the way He healed when He walked the earth? Have you ever tried to count how many people He healed in the gospels? He heals 6 people in this chapter alone! When you take into account sweeping statements like “He went from town to town healing and teaching,” we can surmise that one of Jesus’ primary acts on earth was to heal. Why did He do it then and not now? We all have stories of people dying from cancer, struggling with a chronic illness, suffering from a disability. Why doesn’t GOD HEAL??!!!

I have an answer. It’s actually a very satisfying answer. I learned it from Nancy Guthrie, author of Hearing Jesus Speak Into Your Sorrow. The answer is found in the story of the Paralytic…

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men (Matthew 9:2-8).

My gut reaction to this story is usually disappointment – which reveals my lack of understanding. I have a tendency to think, “How in the world does forgiving his sins help this poor paralyzed man? I want to shout, “HEAL HIM! DON’T FORGIVE HIM!” Oh, how wrong I am…

My daughter, Anne, suffers from a severe traumatic brain injury. If God came to me and gave me a choice…  “Would you rather me heal Anne spiritually so she’ll live forever in heaven with a perfect body? Or would you rather Anne be healed physically, right now, but knowing that she wouldn’t be able to go to heaven?” Well, I would choose for Anne to be whole in heaven.

Jesus healed on earth to give us a physical representation – a word picture of sorts – of how he heals us spiritually. When we have a saving faith, we are healed for all eternity. Our current bodies are broken and temporal. Sometimes He heals us physically and sometimes He doesn’t. But really, God cares more about our eternity with Him than our ease and comfort on this earth. God knows the TRUE, BIG picture which we don’t see clearly…

Sometimes, God chooses not to heal because when we are broken physically, we are better able to see our spiritual brokenness. Jesus says in this chapter,

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means,  …I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13).

God loves the broken-hearted, and the humble in spirit. He must have seen this brokenness in Matthew – as He called him to be a disciple and chose to dine at his house (Matthew 9:9-11). Matthew, a hated tax collector, turned to Jesus as his only hope. Jesus lifted him out of his hateful, lonely lifestyle and gave him a new heart with a new purpose and hope. He does the same for me. And he does the same for my daughter, Anne. Why? He is the healer!

Day 9: The promise continues

Genesis 23-24; Matthew 8

Yesterday, we saw the small beginnings of God fulfilling His two-fold promise of legacy and land to Abraham… Isaac is born and Abraham buys a well.

Today’s reading we see Abraham purchase a full-fledged plot of land (in Canaan, of course) that contains a cave in which to bury his wife, Sarah. We also read of the miraculous way in which God provides a wife for Issac. Rebekah is kind-hearted and full of faith. She is a good wife for Issac. God’s promise to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars and to give them the land of Canaan continues to unfold…

It’s fun to fast-forward in history to Matthew 8 where we see Jesus  in action. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of all of God’s promises. And in this chapter we read several stories of Jesus’ healings… First the leper, then the centurion’s servant, then Peter’s mother-in-law.

And then there is a scene painted in just one sentence that boggles my mind… Jesus is in the home of Peter and

That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick (Matthew 8:16).

Can you imagine the flurry of people scampering to Jesus to be healed? I would have been one of them. I would have done anything, anything, to get my brain-injured daughter in front of Jesus. I would have bowed low and begged him to heal my daughter. I know, because I do this everyday.

The very next verse, Matthew refers back to Isaiah’s prophesy of the Servant:

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4).

Just as he showed compassion to the crowds and healed their diseases… He has borne my grief and carried my sorrow. Even though He has chosen not to heal my brain-injured daughter immediately, he is still healing her – it’s just slow. Waiting on God builds godly character, and ultimately the healing of our souls is infinitely more important than the healing of our bodies. But we’ll talk more about that tomorrow :-)

Day 8: The promise begins

Genesis 20-22; Matthew 7

The Lord was good to Sarah and kept his promise (Genesis 21:1 CEV).

In these chapters of Genesis, we see the small beginnings of God fulfilling his promises to Abraham!

  1. First, we see the birth of Isaac, the first fruits of the promise that God will make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars.
  2. Second, we see Abraham purchase a well in the southwest region of Canaan (Genesis 21:31-37). This is significant because it is the first time we read of Abraham abandoning his nomadic lifestyle to become a land owner, and that small bit of land just happens to be in the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants.

God does surely keep his promises… which had to be Abraham’s only comfort as he made the agonizing trek up the mountain to sacrifice his son, Isaac, the promised son. And as Abraham showed his willingness to obey, God provided a ram in Isaac’s place …the blessed ram.

This morning, my husband, Eric, pulled our son aside and recounted the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. He pointed out that Abraham was only able to obey because he trusted in the goodness of God. Then Eric asked our son, “Do you trust me?” Wide-eyed, our son answered confidently, “Yes, daddy.” And then Eric explained to our son that he was getting too big for his bike and asked him to give his bike to his little sister.

Our son, holding back tears, agreed to give away his most prized possession. Why? Because he trusts his daddy, and he knows that his daddy is good.

What our son doesn’t know is that Eric has been meticulously saving and an even bigger and better bike will be delivered in just two days. But think about how much more grateful he’ll be when he receives it, and how his trust in his daddy’s care for him will be deepened and enlarged in his heart. And hopefully this experience will equip him to obey God when it’s hard and doesn’t make any earthly sense.

…which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)

Day 7: The meticulous, kindness of God

Genesis 18-19; Matthew 6

For the last few days, Matthew’s readings have been from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ sermon makes me very uncomfortable.

Jesus takes the Old Testament law – which was barely attainable – and makes it completely out of reach.

  • Old Testament says: Don’t kill anyone. Okay, I can manage that.
  • Jesus says: Don’t get angry at anyone because you’re committing murder in your heart. Uhhhh. That’s impossible.

Ahhh… the heart. Jesus is shining a magnifying glass on the state of the heart. Ultimately, He wants good actions to flow from the righteousness of the heart as opposed to performing good works to mask the darkness of the heart. Jesus wants us to be convicted… so we will turn to Him to do what we cannot do – NOT change our hypocritical behavior, but change trust Jesus to change our hearts.

Genesis 18 is the story of the Lord visiting Abraham and again promising him a son through Sarah. This time, however, many years have passed (since Abraham first heard the promise), and Sarah is past the age of child-bearing. Sarah overhears the promise and laughs, and God answers…

“Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Changing Sarah’s anatomy to open her womb was an easy task compared to changing the darkness of a sinful heart. But I ask you… “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Indeed, nothing is too hard for our God!

For me, this change has happened slowly… moment by moment, choice by choice, so that after years have passed, I can look back and see the slow work of grace in my life. The more God changes my heart from dark to light, my eyes are opened to even more darkness that resides in me. God is merciful and only shows me what will not send me into despair. For if I saw too much at once, I would become hopeless, and lose heart. God is meticulously kind. Thank God.

A great example of His meticulous kindness is seen in his conversation with Abraham about saving the city of Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33). On first glance, it seems like Abraham is negotiating with God, but a pastor explained the passage the opposite way…. God is meticulously expanding Abraham’s heart to be more compassionate.

Abraham: would you destroy the city if you found 50 righteous men?
God: No. I will save the city for 50 righteous men.
Abraham: How about 45?
40?
30?
20?
10?

God conforms Abraham’s heart to be closer to His own. He makes Abraham more compassionate. He does it slowly. He does it meticulously. He does it kindly.

Day 6:Relentless help

Genesis 15-17; Matthew 5:27-48

“Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great” (Genesis 15:1).

God made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham lived in the tension between faith and doubt – between belief and unbelief. Just listen to the narrative…

  • Abraham questioned how God would give him descendants since he had no children.
  • God promised that Abraham would have a son and his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.
  • Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
  • Abraham waited for God to fulfill his promise of a son. He got impatient and slept with his wife’s servant, Hagar, and Hagar bore him a son.
  • God reappeared to Abraham and reaffirmed his promise of a son from his wife, Sarah. He restated his covenant promise and instructed Abraham to be circumcised along with every male in his family as a sign of this covenant.
  • Abraham “fell on his face and laughed to himself” at the thought of his wife, Sarah, bearing him a son. But he obeyed the difficult command of the Lord to circumcise his household.

Do you see the ebbs and flows of faith in Abraham’s life? I can totally relate. It reminds me of the father who cried to Jesus… “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

My life is filled with the responsibility of caring for a disabled child. This responsibility is relentless. It never goes away. It causes me to long for relief – to long for heaven. I need help from God to fulfill my responsibilities with joy and gratitude. Thankfully, God’s help to me… his grace toward me is also relentless. It never goes away. Even when my faith ebbs and flows, God continues to fulfill His promises to me. His promise to never leave or forsake me. His promise to work all things for my good. His promise to conform me more into the likeness of Jesus. His promise to give comfort and peace. His promise. His promises. They never fail. They are relentless.

Day 5: Legacy & Land

Genesis 12-14; Matthew 5:1-26

Legacy and Land. That’s God’s promise to Abraham in the beginning of Chapter 12. It was some promise. Abraham’s legacy is fulfilled in Jesus. We won’t see the promise of land fully fulfilled until God brings forth the new heaven and the new earth. That will be something. It almost seems too good to be true. almost :)

I used to get very confused reading the Old Testament… because the writers of the old testament seem oblivious to the fact that the main characters do stupid things. It took me a while to realize that those people really did do stupid things and it was okay for me to notice.

Abraham is a great example right here in chapter 12. He just made a most extraordinary act of faith by packing up everything he owned (which was quite a lot) and moving the whole crew down to the land God would show him. How’s that for obedience in the face of ambiguity? Wow. But then Abraham seemed to forget his God when traveling down to Egypt to escape the famine. He lied to Pharaoh and allowed Sarah, his wife to be taken into Pharaoh’s house as his wife! What? It just doesn’t make sense. How could the great Patriarch of the Faith do something that stupid? I’ll tell you how… he’s human.

It’s actually refreshing. I can identify with Abraham… at least his stupid parts ;)

We learn more about Abraham in the following chapters. First, i noticed how rich Abraham was. He and his nephew, Lot, had so much livestock and herdsmen that the land could not support both of them and they had to separate. Later, Lot got captured by a foreign king and we read of Abraham’s war effort to save Lot and all of the people (Gen 14:14-16). The language is heroic. It sounds like a scene from Braveheart!

But as Abraham was returning home from battle, he met a mysterious King. He was called priest of God most High (vs. 14:18). Abraham instantly recognized him as one with authority as he bowed and offered the King a tenth of all the spoils. The writer of Hebrews identified this King as a forerunner of Christ (Heb 7). This King, named Melchizedek, challenges my “Braveheart” image as he reminds me that Abraham only found success in battle because of God. Melchizedek said to Abraham,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

God gets the glory for Abraham’s victory. God gets the glory when He rescues Abraham from stupid choices. God gets the glory for Abraham’s great faith. I wonder how God gets the glory in my life??

Day 4: Family Ties

Genesis 9-11; Matthew 4

Genesis 9 echoes Genesis 1. As the earth emerges from the flood waters, it’s as if God has performed a re-creation. He gives the same mandate to Noah and his sons as he gave to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

Then we see Noah following in the way of Adam and Eve as he makes a sinful choice in Genesis 9:21. Once again, curses flow (Noah curses his son, Ham) …but so do blessings.

Back in the garden, after God finished cursing Adam, Eve and the serpent, He made a promise – a promise that one day, a descendant of the woman would destroy the serpent. In some ways, the rest of the Old Testament is the story of God preserving a family line for Jesus. Cain killed Abel, so God gave Adam and Eve another son, Seth. The promised descendant would come from Seth. Years later, Noah emerges as a descendant of Seth, and God preserves Noah’s family.

Noah curses Ham, but blesses Shem. As we read forward to Genesis 10, we see even more genealogy, and we see that Abram (whose name was later changed to Abraham) is a descendant of Shem (11:26).

Matthew 1 traces Jesus’s family line all the way back to Abraham. In today’s reading, Matthew 4, we see the promised descendant of the woman, the one who will crush the serpent, face the same temptor. Jesus is the new Adam, but unlike the original Adam, He overcomes and does not sin. Instead of curses… blessings flow – and we are the benefactors!! This is good news. This is the gospel.

Day 3: What good is the flood?

Genesis 6-8; Matthew 3

Genesis 6-8 is the story of the flood. The idea of God destroying the earth causes me to wrestle… really wrestle with God’s goodness. I’ve struggled to see how God’s goodness is revealed in destroying every living thing on the earth (except those few on the ark). Seriously, what good is the flood?

I believe God has patiently endured my questioning and given me not just one, but several glimpses of his goodness in this passage of Scripture.

  • Firstly, I believe God gave the world the opportunity to repent and be saved. Think about it… It took Noah and his sons a VERY long time to build that ark. Scholars debate on the specifics, but it was somewhere between 75-100 years of building. Don’t you think news would have spread about this crazy guy building this humongous boat? Don’t you think Noah tried to warn people of the coming flood? They had a chance to repent, believe and be saved… But they didn’t. And they perished.
  • Secondly, (and this is a hard one for me) every living thing deserved to be destroyed. The bible says “every intention of the thoughts of [man’s] heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God showed his grace by preserving a remnant.
  •  Thirdly, (and I love this) I see God’s tender, personal care for Noah and his family in verse 7:16, “And the Lord shut him in.” God, himself, shut the door to the arc and protected them from the deadly flood. He, personally, saved them.
  • And finally, Noah’s story is both a warning and a joyful proclamation to us. Just as those who were in the ark were saved from the flood… If we are found “in Christ” we will be saved from the judgment that is to come. God, in his mercy, warns repetitively throughout Scripture that there will be judgment for those who do not turn to Jesus for help. None of us are good enough to earn entrance into heaven. Jesus offers us a trade: we get his perfect record, and he gets our tarnished one. As a result, he received the punishment we deserve, and we get the reward that only he deserves. This is good news. This is the gospel.

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Day 2: A far reaching choice

Genesis 3-5; Matthew 2

To me, Genesis 3 is the saddest chapter in the whole bible. Adam and Eve’s disobedience destroyed the perfection God intended and now every human who has ever lived on this earth knows the “fallenness” that is this world. Theirs was a choice with far-reaching consequences.

But have you ever wondered… after Adam and Eve ate the fruit and were hiding from God in shame, why would God (who is all-knowing) ask, “Where are you?” Not to sound irreverent, but doesn’t that seem like a stupid question? God totally knew where they were. And then God goes on to ask more questions he already knows the answer to: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

I’ve always wondered why God asks these questions, and not long ago, I was reading a book by Nancy Guthrie, and she gave me a very satisfying answer…

Here we see one of the first pictures in Scripture of what our God is like personally. He takes the initiative to seek after sinners. …God didn’t question the Serpent. There was no need for that since there was no possibility of his redemption (Guthrie, The Promised One, pp 74, 75).

God seeks after sinners because he longs for us to repent. He desired for Adam and Eve to repent, but “instead of making a brokenhearted confession, [Adam] offered an excuse” (Guthrie, The Promised One, p 75).

Amid this extreme sadness, however, God delivered a shocking promise –  that a descendent of the woman would defeat the serpent. This promise acts as a backdrop for the rest of the Old Testament. For the Old Testament can be read as the story of God preserving a family line from which Jesus would be born. Right from the beginning, we see this royal line threatened as Cain killed Abel and Cain walked away from God. But God’s plan was always that Jesus would not descend from Cain or Abel. God gave Adam and Eve a third son, Seth, and it was from him that the promised royal descendent would come!

In today’s New Testament reading, we see the promised descendent in danger of being killed by the evil king, Herod. But God, who purposed to preserve his royal line throughout the Old Testament was not thwarted by the plans of an evil king. He warned Joseph in a dream to escape south to Egypt until the threat had passed.

God’s plan of redemption could not – and will not – be overcome by the serpent. Jesus was born! Jesus was crucified. And Jesus will come again!