Day 10
Genesis 21:1-23:20
(21 | 22 | 23)
The start of the chapter sees God's promise to Abraham and Sarah fulfilled; Sarah gives birth to a boy, and he is given the name Isaac. Skipping ahead slightly to chapter 22, God asks Abraham to do the unthinkable; God asks him to sacrifice Isaac to him as a burnt offering. God asks Abraham to kill his son. I don't know how Abraham felt about the whole thing, but he probably wasn't best pleased; God had promised him that his descendants through Isaac would become a great nation, and that they would be numerous than the stars in the night sky.
Yet here was God, asking Abraham to kill Isaac. Now matter how he felt about it, Abraham seemed fully intent on going through with it. Just at the last moment, an angel told him to stop, and Abraham realised God had provided a ram that could be sacrificed instead. God tells Abraham that he had proven he feared the LORD because he did not hold back his son from God. God says he will bless Abraham's descendants and bless the world through them. God sometimes asks us to do this; to prove that we are willing to give up what is most precious to us for him. He doesn't do it to deprive us of having good things in our lives, he does it to remind us that our goal in everything we do should be to serve him.
Back to chapter 21, and we see God continuing to make promises about Abraham's son - this time, though, it's Ishmael. When he is forced to send Ishmael and Hagar away, God promises him that he will also make a great nation through Ishmael. An angel of God repeats the promise to Hagar. Sometimes, God's promises seem improbable. Hagar didn't have what we have now; the benefit of being able to see the story unfold over a few pages. If God's promise even made sense at the time, she had no real way of knowing if it would ever be realised. But she took it as comfort, and she carried on.
By the start of chapter 23, Sarah has died at the age of 127. Abraham wants to buy land from a Hittite to bury his wife. Abraham is well respected among the Hittites, and the Hittite who owns the land tries to give Abraham the land for free. But Abraham insists on doing things properly, and buys the land. This is obviously not the last time that burial site is used, and the fact that Abraham legitimately owned the land probably came in useful at a later date.
Matthew 8:23-9:13
(8:23-34 | 9:1-13)
Picture the scene. Jesus and the disciples are on a boat. It's a fishing boat, so it's a pretty big boat. Then a storm breaks out. Now this isn't one of those rubbish British storms with a couple of flashes of lightning and a few claps of thunder a mile away. No, this was a proper storm. So there's Jesus with his disciples in the middle of a proper storm. They're also on a lake. Again, this isn't one of those British fishing lakes where the shore is well within reach should anything happen. No, this is a flipping huge lake; so huge in fact that is known as the Sea of Galilee, and, according to Wikipedia, peaks at 21 km or 13 miles in length, and 13 km or 8.1 miles in width. Its maximum depth is 43 metres or 141 feet. So when a storm appeared out of nowhere over the lake, the disciples panicked. Despite the massive storm overhead, Jesus was asleep. The disciples wake him, and he rebukes the storm, causing it to instantly calm down. Before he did that, though, he asks the disciples, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" It's difficult, when confronted with a terrifying situation like this, to keep a level head. The disciples definitely did not. They panicked, completely understandably. But they forgot that God would protect them if they only asked for it. If they themselves had commanded the storm to stop in the name of the LORD, it would have done.
Two demon-possessed men encounter Jesus. The demons recognise Jesus as the Son of God, and plead for mercy. They ask to be driven into a herd of pigs, and Jesus grants the request, healing the men. Once they've moved, the demons cause the entire herd to run into the lake where they died. When the people in the town heard what Jesus had done, they were terrified and asked him to leave the town. At the start of chapter 9, Jesus is brought a paralytic man on a mat. Jesus tells him his sins are forgiven, causing the teachers of the law to say to themselves that Jesus was blaspheming; only two people can forgive sins; the person against whom the sin is perpetrated and God. If Jesus truly is the Son of God as the two demons said, surely he has that right. In order to demonstrate the authority he has to forgive sins, Jesus tells the paralytic man to get up and walk, which he does - because the man's sins were forgiven, he was able to be healed. Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and to heal; in order to receive forgiveness, all we need to do is ask!
Psalm 7:10-17
(7:10-17)
The start of the passage goes some way to explaining how Jesus was able to heal the paralytic; "My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart." Jesus forgave the man's sins, making him upright in the Father's eyes; as a result, he was able to save him, in this case healing him.
David continues to give glory to the God who is righteous, and continues to state that he can judge everyone. He also continues to list what will happen to anyway found unrighteous in God's eyes. I'm finding it difficult to say much more else, to be honest.
Genesis 21:1-23:20
(21 | 22 | 23)
The start of the chapter sees God's promise to Abraham and Sarah fulfilled; Sarah gives birth to a boy, and he is given the name Isaac. Skipping ahead slightly to chapter 22, God asks Abraham to do the unthinkable; God asks him to sacrifice Isaac to him as a burnt offering. God asks Abraham to kill his son. I don't know how Abraham felt about the whole thing, but he probably wasn't best pleased; God had promised him that his descendants through Isaac would become a great nation, and that they would be numerous than the stars in the night sky.
Yet here was God, asking Abraham to kill Isaac. Now matter how he felt about it, Abraham seemed fully intent on going through with it. Just at the last moment, an angel told him to stop, and Abraham realised God had provided a ram that could be sacrificed instead. God tells Abraham that he had proven he feared the LORD because he did not hold back his son from God. God says he will bless Abraham's descendants and bless the world through them. God sometimes asks us to do this; to prove that we are willing to give up what is most precious to us for him. He doesn't do it to deprive us of having good things in our lives, he does it to remind us that our goal in everything we do should be to serve him.
Back to chapter 21, and we see God continuing to make promises about Abraham's son - this time, though, it's Ishmael. When he is forced to send Ishmael and Hagar away, God promises him that he will also make a great nation through Ishmael. An angel of God repeats the promise to Hagar. Sometimes, God's promises seem improbable. Hagar didn't have what we have now; the benefit of being able to see the story unfold over a few pages. If God's promise even made sense at the time, she had no real way of knowing if it would ever be realised. But she took it as comfort, and she carried on.
By the start of chapter 23, Sarah has died at the age of 127. Abraham wants to buy land from a Hittite to bury his wife. Abraham is well respected among the Hittites, and the Hittite who owns the land tries to give Abraham the land for free. But Abraham insists on doing things properly, and buys the land. This is obviously not the last time that burial site is used, and the fact that Abraham legitimately owned the land probably came in useful at a later date.
Matthew 8:23-9:13
(8:23-34 | 9:1-13)
Picture the scene. Jesus and the disciples are on a boat. It's a fishing boat, so it's a pretty big boat. Then a storm breaks out. Now this isn't one of those rubbish British storms with a couple of flashes of lightning and a few claps of thunder a mile away. No, this was a proper storm. So there's Jesus with his disciples in the middle of a proper storm. They're also on a lake. Again, this isn't one of those British fishing lakes where the shore is well within reach should anything happen. No, this is a flipping huge lake; so huge in fact that is known as the Sea of Galilee, and, according to Wikipedia, peaks at 21 km or 13 miles in length, and 13 km or 8.1 miles in width. Its maximum depth is 43 metres or 141 feet. So when a storm appeared out of nowhere over the lake, the disciples panicked. Despite the massive storm overhead, Jesus was asleep. The disciples wake him, and he rebukes the storm, causing it to instantly calm down. Before he did that, though, he asks the disciples, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" It's difficult, when confronted with a terrifying situation like this, to keep a level head. The disciples definitely did not. They panicked, completely understandably. But they forgot that God would protect them if they only asked for it. If they themselves had commanded the storm to stop in the name of the LORD, it would have done.
Two demon-possessed men encounter Jesus. The demons recognise Jesus as the Son of God, and plead for mercy. They ask to be driven into a herd of pigs, and Jesus grants the request, healing the men. Once they've moved, the demons cause the entire herd to run into the lake where they died. When the people in the town heard what Jesus had done, they were terrified and asked him to leave the town. At the start of chapter 9, Jesus is brought a paralytic man on a mat. Jesus tells him his sins are forgiven, causing the teachers of the law to say to themselves that Jesus was blaspheming; only two people can forgive sins; the person against whom the sin is perpetrated and God. If Jesus truly is the Son of God as the two demons said, surely he has that right. In order to demonstrate the authority he has to forgive sins, Jesus tells the paralytic man to get up and walk, which he does - because the man's sins were forgiven, he was able to be healed. Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and to heal; in order to receive forgiveness, all we need to do is ask!
Psalm 7:10-17
(7:10-17)
The start of the passage goes some way to explaining how Jesus was able to heal the paralytic; "My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart." Jesus forgave the man's sins, making him upright in the Father's eyes; as a result, he was able to save him, in this case healing him.
David continues to give glory to the God who is righteous, and continues to state that he can judge everyone. He also continues to list what will happen to anyway found unrighteous in God's eyes. I'm finding it difficult to say much more else, to be honest.
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