Day 9
Genesis 19:1-20:18; Matthew 7:24-8:22; Psalm 7:1-9
Well that wasn’t particularly easy reading today. A lot of tough stuff going on in the Old Testament.
The Soul Survivor blog talks about cities that have got to such a place where such action is normal, rape of innocent people who are visiting the city. As he points out, this is all about sin that hurts people. and the fact that it seems to be normal (“all the men from every part of the city” v4) is what is really worrying to God. And so the end result is that Sodom and Gomorrah are not spared. But in line with God’s conversation with Abraham, Lot and his family, the righteous people in the city, they are spared and allowed to leave for a local town.
The story moves on from this tough part to another odd one and that is Lot and his daughters in the mountains. Not an easy one to get our heads round. It could be said that the two daughters had inherited something of the fact that they had been brought up in Sodom. What leads on from this story is that two nations are born who neighboured Israel but would be at battles with them. The Moabites seemed to have a bit of an obsession with sex and the Ammonites were a cruel people and yet the name Moab should ring a bell. Ruth (she has a book all to herself which we will get to soon) is a Moabite woman and finds favour with the Lord. She ends up having a place in the family tree of both David and Jesus. On the whole however, the nations that descended from this story did not really “walk in the ways of the Lord”.
Our Gospel passage gives us a very well known story for today with the wise and the foolish builder. So many lessons and songs from Sunday school are going through my head at the moment. It is such a simple picture, such a simple story that we all know and yet it is that well known that it is easy to forget. But the simple truth of the story, that we should pin our lives on the word of God and rely on his word for everything, is something that we should never forget. It is with this instruction that Jesus finishes off the sermon on the mount and we move in to his healing ministry.
We see leprosy, fevers and all kinds of things healed and we see the faith of one man, a non-Jew, that surpasses the faith of all the Jews that Jesus has come across in his life. Now that is a challenge, imagine meeting a non-Christian who acts in such faith in Christ that shames everyone in the church – everywhere. Perhaps the people in the church need to step out in faith much more often. And I include myself in that. Let’s be known as people of real faith.
Well that wasn’t particularly easy reading today. A lot of tough stuff going on in the Old Testament.
The Soul Survivor blog talks about cities that have got to such a place where such action is normal, rape of innocent people who are visiting the city. As he points out, this is all about sin that hurts people. and the fact that it seems to be normal (“all the men from every part of the city” v4) is what is really worrying to God. And so the end result is that Sodom and Gomorrah are not spared. But in line with God’s conversation with Abraham, Lot and his family, the righteous people in the city, they are spared and allowed to leave for a local town.
The story moves on from this tough part to another odd one and that is Lot and his daughters in the mountains. Not an easy one to get our heads round. It could be said that the two daughters had inherited something of the fact that they had been brought up in Sodom. What leads on from this story is that two nations are born who neighboured Israel but would be at battles with them. The Moabites seemed to have a bit of an obsession with sex and the Ammonites were a cruel people and yet the name Moab should ring a bell. Ruth (she has a book all to herself which we will get to soon) is a Moabite woman and finds favour with the Lord. She ends up having a place in the family tree of both David and Jesus. On the whole however, the nations that descended from this story did not really “walk in the ways of the Lord”.
Our Gospel passage gives us a very well known story for today with the wise and the foolish builder. So many lessons and songs from Sunday school are going through my head at the moment. It is such a simple picture, such a simple story that we all know and yet it is that well known that it is easy to forget. But the simple truth of the story, that we should pin our lives on the word of God and rely on his word for everything, is something that we should never forget. It is with this instruction that Jesus finishes off the sermon on the mount and we move in to his healing ministry.
We see leprosy, fevers and all kinds of things healed and we see the faith of one man, a non-Jew, that surpasses the faith of all the Jews that Jesus has come across in his life. Now that is a challenge, imagine meeting a non-Christian who acts in such faith in Christ that shames everyone in the church – everywhere. Perhaps the people in the church need to step out in faith much more often. And I include myself in that. Let’s be known as people of real faith.
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