Day 10
Genesis 21:1-23:20; Matthew 8:23-9:13; Psalm 7:10-17
One of the things that has struck me when we are reading a couple of chapters at a time is that there is so much to write about. I have been loving this look through the life of Abraham and his story is so big that we just can’t talk about all of it. Today we have seen the birth of Isaac, yet another massive player in the line of historic figures. Isaac the father of Jacob and Esau who will jostle in the womb and then do far more than jostle out of the womb. And Jacob goes on to wrestle with God and have a son called Joseph, (oh yeah, and 11 other sons too). And he spends a bit too much on a coat for one of his kids. When it comes to the memorable Old Testament stories, we are right in the thick of it.
If we go back to the actual passage for today there is the major story of Abraham taking Isaac to sacrifice on the alter all because God told him to. In all honesty we can struggle with this one, God testing Abraham and in such a drastic way. But what comes out of this test is a man who is devoted to God. We also see links with Christ. When Isaac asks about the sacrifice Abraham says that “God himself will provide the lamb” (v8) and indeed God does, both to save Isaac but also to save all human kind. Similarly when they translated the Old Testament into Greek they translated “your only son” (vv12 & 16) as “beloved son”. If we shoot forward to the Gospels we hear the words of John the Baptist “behold the lamb of God” (John 1:29) and then the words of God “This is my beloved son” (Matthew 3:17). This is one of those links where we see prophecy from people that we may not class as prophets.
What really spoke to me though in this passage was the sense of grief. A lot of people have died in our brief 10 day journey through the Bible and yet this is the first one where I have sensed grief in the narrative. The death of Sarah sees Abraham lay down next to here and cry. Proper “man tears”. We often fall into the trap that girls cry and men don’t. Well if you want to find one of the heavy weight men of faith, Abraham is it. Come on, he’s just nearly sacrificed his son for God, that is faith and he wept. Blokes cry. Big blokes cry. And then he needs a place to call his own to bury his wife. In politics today, embassy buildings are owned by the country they represent. The US embassy in London is actually a little bit of American soil in the heart of London, the British Embassy in Japan is a little bit of British soil in Tokyo. What Abraham, who has lived a nomadic life, wants is a little bit of soil that he can call his own to lay his wife to rest. Somewhere that will be his forever. When you have never had a proper home, you can quite understand why he wants it.
And then there is the Gospel. Calming the storm, driving out demons and healing paralytics. Everyday stuff really for Jesus. There has just been a massive amount of teaching in the sermon on the mount, Jesus the teacher, and here we see undoubtedly Jesus the Son of God. Ch9 v6 makes it clear that these doings are to show that he has all authority of heaven. Only the Messiah could do all of these things and here they are in quick succession, BAM, BAM, BAM. Calm the storm, drive out the demons, heal the paralytic.
Have you noticed though that the people don’t quite grasp who Jesus is yet but the demons know before he even speaks to them, they acknowledge him as the Son of God. Now demons like this would have been pretty scarred of angels, but when the Son of God walks amongst them, well they are beside themselves with fear. When we give our lives to Christ, we have the presence of Christ within us, do we show it in such away that people instantly recognise Christ within us?
One of the things that has struck me when we are reading a couple of chapters at a time is that there is so much to write about. I have been loving this look through the life of Abraham and his story is so big that we just can’t talk about all of it. Today we have seen the birth of Isaac, yet another massive player in the line of historic figures. Isaac the father of Jacob and Esau who will jostle in the womb and then do far more than jostle out of the womb. And Jacob goes on to wrestle with God and have a son called Joseph, (oh yeah, and 11 other sons too). And he spends a bit too much on a coat for one of his kids. When it comes to the memorable Old Testament stories, we are right in the thick of it.
If we go back to the actual passage for today there is the major story of Abraham taking Isaac to sacrifice on the alter all because God told him to. In all honesty we can struggle with this one, God testing Abraham and in such a drastic way. But what comes out of this test is a man who is devoted to God. We also see links with Christ. When Isaac asks about the sacrifice Abraham says that “God himself will provide the lamb” (v8) and indeed God does, both to save Isaac but also to save all human kind. Similarly when they translated the Old Testament into Greek they translated “your only son” (vv12 & 16) as “beloved son”. If we shoot forward to the Gospels we hear the words of John the Baptist “behold the lamb of God” (John 1:29) and then the words of God “This is my beloved son” (Matthew 3:17). This is one of those links where we see prophecy from people that we may not class as prophets.
What really spoke to me though in this passage was the sense of grief. A lot of people have died in our brief 10 day journey through the Bible and yet this is the first one where I have sensed grief in the narrative. The death of Sarah sees Abraham lay down next to here and cry. Proper “man tears”. We often fall into the trap that girls cry and men don’t. Well if you want to find one of the heavy weight men of faith, Abraham is it. Come on, he’s just nearly sacrificed his son for God, that is faith and he wept. Blokes cry. Big blokes cry. And then he needs a place to call his own to bury his wife. In politics today, embassy buildings are owned by the country they represent. The US embassy in London is actually a little bit of American soil in the heart of London, the British Embassy in Japan is a little bit of British soil in Tokyo. What Abraham, who has lived a nomadic life, wants is a little bit of soil that he can call his own to lay his wife to rest. Somewhere that will be his forever. When you have never had a proper home, you can quite understand why he wants it.
And then there is the Gospel. Calming the storm, driving out demons and healing paralytics. Everyday stuff really for Jesus. There has just been a massive amount of teaching in the sermon on the mount, Jesus the teacher, and here we see undoubtedly Jesus the Son of God. Ch9 v6 makes it clear that these doings are to show that he has all authority of heaven. Only the Messiah could do all of these things and here they are in quick succession, BAM, BAM, BAM. Calm the storm, drive out the demons, heal the paralytic.
Have you noticed though that the people don’t quite grasp who Jesus is yet but the demons know before he even speaks to them, they acknowledge him as the Son of God. Now demons like this would have been pretty scarred of angels, but when the Son of God walks amongst them, well they are beside themselves with fear. When we give our lives to Christ, we have the presence of Christ within us, do we show it in such away that people instantly recognise Christ within us?
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