120111 - Genesis 20-21 - Scandal of the outcast

S: Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. (Ge 21:10).
O: This story is troubling—and it's meant to be. Ishmael is now 14 years old (Gen. 17:24-25) - but it could be that in this time of great longevity, 14 is not as mature as our experience (see 21:14, 18 - proportionally if Abraham's 175 is like 90 is today, 14 would be like 7!) God wanted to be able to say "your ONLY Son," (22:2, c.f., John 3:16), and for the story to serve as the allegory Paul gives in Galatians 4:21-31.
A: The Law came because of transgression: marriage to the bondwoman of Egypt, a type of the world. The children of legalism do not inherit alongside the children of promise. But the children of promise who were born under previous dispensations, from righteous Abel to John the Baptist, had to wait for the promise to be fulfilled and for things like this to be explained. Still in our day, many things await explanation - but now as then, faith waits for the ultimate fulfillment.
P: Father, it's important for me to mark your promises, to see how they're working out and wait expectantly for their ultimate fulfillment. Build my faith to know specifics, see your hand and wait for that better country.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have all contracted the virus....

Last week and this weekend, I spent precious development time trying to rid myself of unwanted software on my coumputer called " Virtumonde ." Believe it or not, I'm pretty new to viruses and that kind of thing, coming from a background of developing on the Macintosh platform and using the Windows platforms to deliver product on. Well, this was a nasty wake up call to what Windows users have to deal with all the time. Virtumonde is called "Adware" and it's something that has sneaked on to your computer either by being installed along with some kind of trial software, or getting past your computer's defenses on the network. Its job is to watch what you do at all times with your computer, then occasionally pop up advertisements. In my case, most of the time, these advertisements were for anti-virus software. But they kept popping up an installation window for the software and beginning the installation even when I clicked, "no" for "do you w
Read more

2023—Week21: Ezra01-Nehemiah11; John19-Acts04

Ezra-Nehemiah 11 : In the Jewish Canon, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and, although the division in ours makes sense, it’s clear that they cover the same basic period. They form one answer to the question at the end of 2 Chronicles’ hanging question, “Therefore, who among the LORD's people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ISV) Yet despite their trust, the people are greatly weakened until the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Haggai and Zechariah, Ezra 5:1) encourage them. Ezra’s trust is clearly represented in 8:22, where he is ashamed to request a protective guard for the fortune in treasures he carries, instead trusting in the hand of God for protection. Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9, Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, and the people’s covenant prayer in 9:5-37 are the outcome. Faith precedes confession, because we don’t fully understand how badly we fall short until it’s revealed to us. Even then, we ne
Read more

1 Samuel 28-29; Psalm 106; Romans 10

  June 4 : In Job 34:14 and Psalm 104:29, the authors make the point that if God withdraws His Spirit, we die and return to the dust. In today’s three passages, I see how crucial His continual presence is in my life. He withdrew His Spirit from Saul, and it upended his reign and legacy. He sent leanness to the souls of the Israelites in response to their repeated concupiscence and whining at Him about what He was providing. The religious leaders in Israel by the New Testament times had been purified to some extent of yearning for carnal pursuits and of literal idolatry by the captivity’s exposure to a carnal and idolatrous culture, but they had become religious relativists, taking their extreme fastidiousness about the Law as evidence of their holiness, while ignoring the purpose of the Law, which was to make them dependent upon God, to be ready for His salvation, to long for the true holiness they couldn’t find in themselves. As Paul has said, I have to avoid the ever-present temptati
Read more