I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
When Sarai was about 75 years old, she gave up all hope of giving Abram a son. So, she convinced him to have sexual relations with her maid servant Hagar. Hagar became pregnant. After some trials and difficulties, Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. This entire incident illustrates our human tendency to try to accomplish things on our own rather than wait for God to work it out according to His plan.
When Abram was 99 years old, God appeared to him once more. God told him that He would make a covenant with him. As part of that covenant God promised to make Abram the father of many nations and changed his name to Abraham. In addition God promised to be the God of Abraham’s descendants and give them possession of the land of Canaan. In response, Abram and his male descendants must be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah. Then He told Abraham that He would bless Sarah and she would give Abraham a son.
Abraham had trouble believing that he would have a son when he was 100 years old or that Sarah could bear a child at 90. The idea caused Abraham to laugh to himself in disbelief. So, Abraham asked God to fulfill His promises through Ishmael. God responded that no, Sarah would bear Abraham a son. Abraham was to name this son Isaac, which means “he laughs”. God promised to bless Ishmael, but His covenant with Abraham would be fulfilled through Isaac. When God departed, Abraham gathered all of the men of his household and they were all circumcised on that day according to the covenant which God had made with him.
This passage shows us that God does things that we find hard to believe, things that make us laugh when someone suggests that they will happen. Nevertheless, God calls us to believe him. Abraham had trouble believing that what God was promising would happen, yet he acted in faith and followed God’s commands. I desire to do the same when God gives me direction.
Jesus tells us not to do our good deeds in order to receive acclamation from other people. Nor should we do things in order to cause others to think we are religious people. When we pray our purpose should not be to impress other people with our righteousness, but rather to communicate with God. Further when we pray Jesus tells us not to babble and talk on and on, repeating ourselves. God knows what we need. Jesus then gives us an example of how we should pray. The prayer starts with acknowledging God’s greatness and asking for His will to be done, a recognition that what our wishes are subordinate to God’s will. Then the prayer asks God to meet our basic needs. The next clause asks God to forgive us our sins in the same way and to the same degree with which we forgive others. Finally, the prayer asks God to keep us from falling into temptation and to deliver us from evil. When He is finished giving the prayer, Jesus points out to those listening that if we forgive those who sin against us, God will forgive us. But if we do not forgive those who sin against us, God will not forgive us our sins.
The passage concludes with Jesus telling us that material wealth is temporary. He tells us that we will be better off if we put our focus on things with spiritual value, things which will never lose their value. If we focus on material wealth, our hearts and minds will be focused on this world. If we put our focus on spiritual wealth, our hearts and minds will be focused on God and doing His will. We have to choose, one or the other. No one can serve both God and money (or anything else). If we do not choose, we will find ourselves hating one and loving the other, or vice versa. Notice, that Jesus is telling us that it is not a good thing for us to hate money any more than it is a good thing for us to love money. Jesus does not teach us to despise money, nor to hate it. He teaches us that we must not worship it, we must not make it the center of our lives.
The psalmist turns to God for rescue from his enemies. He calls on God to protect him from those who pursue him, but only to the extent to which their anger against him is unjustified. This psalm is an important lesson for us, we can count on God to protect us from evil and from the troubles which beset us. However, we must acknowledge our sins and repent of them. God will not rescue us from the consequences of our sins. If we have sinned, we have to be willing to accept the consequences. If we repent and turn from our sins, God will forgive us and provide us with relief going forward. If on the other hand we continue in our sins, we will continue to experience the escalating consequences of those sins until we face utter destruction. God is just and will allow the traps the wicked set for others to rebound upon them and bring them destruction.
If we want to be successful servants of God we need to seek out wisdom and knowledge, understanding and insight. If we seek wisdom and insight with all of our being, we will come to a true understanding and fear of God. Anyone who seeks wisdom and understanding with all of their being will come to fear the Lord and gain a deep knowledge of God.