01.18.2010

Day two of the doubled up readings, please bear with me. Genesis 21-24, Psalms 11, 12, Proverbs 11, 12, and Matthew 14, 15.

In Genesis, we start with the miracle birth of Isaac. And a note, the Lord tells Abraham to listen to his wife. This was in reference to casting out Hagar and Ishmael. Next up Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son and heir, Isaac. He has Isaac carry the wood for the burnt offering, probably unaware that it was him that was to be offered. And Abraham tells his two men, to wait with the donkey and he and his son would be back after their worship service. Was Abraham confident or lying as he has done in the past; to put them at ease? The Lord is pleased with His servant and spares Isaac and promises not to ask for human sacrifice. Similar to Isaac, Jesus had to carry the wood of His demise up the hill also. But Jesus' sacrifice was more than human. Next we have the death of Sarah, and the divinely orchestrated marriage of Isaac and Rebekah. What a great story.

Psalms 11 leaves me a little confused. It is a Psalm of David, and he asks how he can flee, and then goes into the judgment of the Lord on the wicked; fire and brimstone. Psalms 12 on the other hand, sounds almost more like a proverb, with a compare and contrast of worldly wisdom and the Lord's wisdom. Man's wisdom involves politics as usual and the Lord's wisdom is of true value.

Today's Proverbs are 11 and 12, both of which give a number of compare and contrast senarios differentiating between the righteous and the wicked. A couple of the ones that struck me, Proverb 12:1. I really need to learn to accept correction. And Proverb 12:4, an excellent wife is the crown of her husband. Christ is the Groom and the church is the bride, and if we as a church are excellent, we can be the crown of Christ. That would be marvelous.

And to the New Testament, we have Jesus feeding the multitude and a demonstration of a lack of faith and understanding from Jesus' disciples. It is amazing, that after forsaking their lives to follow Jesus just from a command, the disciples still do not seem to know who He is. He has told them who He is, John the Baptist proclaimed who He was, they have seen his miracles, even just prior to their latest demonstration of a lack of faith and understanding. Jesus had just fed over 5,000 people with a couple loaves of bread and a little fish. Then he sends them off on a boat and follows after on foot, across the water. They're shocked and Peter wants another sign. So the Lord complies, and orders Peter to walk on the water. When the wind blows Peter's faith away, he begins to sink, and Jesus catches him. Then they proclaim Him the Son of God.

In the past two days reading we've seen the Lord act on requests of his servants. The Lord promised Abraham he would save the cities of Sodom or Gomorrah for the sake of ten righteous inhabitants, after proclaiming his judgment on them. He was willing to stay his hand on the request of a faithful servant. Again, Jesus is implored to command Peter to walk on water, to prove who Jesus is. And He does. The Lord has demonstrated that He is willing to listen to the requests of his followers.