2015-05-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
After having the first time in three years to rest for 35 days and traveling 7002 miles around the western and part of the southeastern parts of this country, I am refreshed in body and spirit, ready again to serve the Lord by writing to you. The Holy Spirit directs me to write about what circumcision means to traditionally Jewish people and what the Lord had to say to Abraham about it. This allows us to take a deeper look at this issue and that of obedience to Him. We must remember that in the consummation of the Abrahamic Covenant, only God walked through the pieces of halved animal flesh in GN 15: 17. “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot and a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.” Abram was in a deep sleep at the time. This was God consummating the covenant. When humans, out of impatience, take ill-conceived actions, there are consequences. Sarai was impatient to have a baby with Abram, but it didn’t happen. She got the idea to get him to have a baby with their handmaiden, Hagar. That is how Hagar conceived Ishmael, Abram’s first-born son. However, GN 16 tells us that jealousy arose between the two women, and that led to Abraham casting Hagar and Ishmael out of their camp. It was the beginning of trouble that still goes on today between the Jews and Ishmael’s progeny, the Arabs.
At the beginning of GN 17 in the first two verses (1-2), God tells Abram, “I am God Almighty [El Shaddai]; walk before Me and be blameless. I will confirm My covenant between Me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” God knew Abram’s heart, that this man would believe Him even though there hadn’t yet been children born to him and his wife. (4-5) “As for Me, this is My first covenant with you; you will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of nations.” What God had done was to tack on the first letter of His own name to Abram’s, a huge act of love and trust. (This can be seen in the Hebrew). God wanted a lasting sign of this covenant, a reminder of it to the Jewish people. (10b-12), “Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. For the generations to come, every male who is eight days old among you must be circumcised…” (14) “Any male not having this procedure will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
In modern times there has been a controversy about the wisdom of doing this procedure outside the traditionally Jewish community. I stand firmly in favor of it for health reasons (fewer infections, for example). Each new parent must make his own decision. I feel the same way about vaccinating young children for diseases like whooping cough, measles, etc., even though there have been people speaking out against it. Measles epidemics like the one which began inDisneylandcould have been averted.
GN 17: 15- 16, “As for Sarai, your wife, you are to no longer call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be a mother of nations; kings of people will come from her.” Once again, we get a picture of God’s loving and forgiving heart if we understand that the word “Sarah” in Hebrew means “Princess.” A princess is cherished, and God cherished Sarah by: 1) forgiving her for her impatience with the plan involving Hagar and 2) making it clear that kings would arise in her progeny with Abraham. Sarah and Abraham’s child of the promise isn’t to be born until Sarah is 99 and Abraham is 100 years old; that’s Isaac. But God keeps His promise not only in this couple’s progeny of human kings, but also in the eventual genealogy of the ultimate King, the Lord Jesus Christ. The latter’s genealogical line can be traced through the Bible from Adam [see GN 5; 9: 18-10; MT 1: 1-17; LK 3: 23-38]. For this and other reasons, we can begin to appreciate the lists of people mentioned in this genealogical line, rather than think they are boring and unnecessary.
The meaning of Hebrew names is important. Isaac means “He Laughed,” a clear reference to the laughter of Abraham and Sarah when the Angel of God (One of three visitors) to their tent, who told them they would be parents, even at their advanced ages [GN 21: 6-7]. This laughter was not an act of disrespect toward God, nor did it deny that “Nothing is impossible for God” [JER 32: 26; MK 10: 27; LK 18: 27]. Abraham and Sarah obeyed God and when Isaac was eight days old, he was circumcised [GN 21: 1-4]. God made His will for Isaac and for Ishmael very clear in GN 17: 18-21, which I hope you will read over. His covenant was clearly to be with the progeny of Isaac, even through He would leave the progeny of Ishmael blessed in other ways. Our God is a Promise-keeper, just, and fair.
PRAYER: O Lord, whenever we look to Your word, the Bible, we can’t help but see it as Your love letter to those who believe, a love letter to those who obey Your commands. PS 111: 10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding. To Him belongs eternal praise.” The word “fear” here means “reverence and awe,” not fright. The more we read Your word, the greater is the illumination for our path through life [PS 119: 105]. In the pressures of our daily lives, it is easy to get sidetracked and forget to offer You the praise and thanks Your deserve. We are trying hard not to do this. We use the words You gave the Psalmist, in PS 72: 18-19, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel! He alone does these wonderful things; praise His glorious name forever! May His glory fill the entire world.” Your word is filled with proof of Your power to do good and the wisdom/truth of all You command us to do. Because of the work of the evil one, many humans either ignore Your commands or never learn them well enough to learn from the mistakes of past history. Yet, You don’t give up on us. IS 1: 19-20 has wisdom which benefits all who attend to it. “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” In today’s times, this advice is just as wise as it was in Isaiah’s time, three hundred years before the birth of Christ. JN 14: 21 [Christ’s own words], “Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him.” Thank You and praise You, for making such love for us possible, despite our foibles. That is why we say these words in Christ’s holy/mighty name. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m charged by the Holy Spirit to write about more examples of how God uses His power to do good to encourage obedience to His will. Those who will listen will come to understand how doing His will leads to blessing and rejecting them leads to disaster. We’ll look at the cases of Isaac and Rebekah’s twins, Jacob and Esau. There is a matter of trust that also involves obedience to God’s will that is on my mind as I write this devotion. It is the matter of waiting until God’s time for something to happen or to change that is perfect. He alone knows when that is in each case. At this time, Iran is trying to develop nuclear power. It is an enemy of Israel’s, and it behooves us to understand the geography of the Middle East. Please look at a map of the area. If this development is allowed to continue, the outcome isn’t hard to imagine. Beniyamin Netanyahu of Israel has come to the US at the invitation of the Senate majority leader, and President Obama has refused to meet with him. His mission is to prevent an agreement involving our country and Iran that will favor Iran’s mission to eventually annihilate Israel. Please pray that this is a matter of God’s perfect timing, that Iran will be prevented from developing nuclear power, that there will be peace in the Middle East, and that eventually the president of the US will meet with Israel’s leadership and work out an agreement that complies with God’s will. Everything we know from the Bible is that God’s will is for Israel, the homeland for the Jews, to continue existing, as it has for the last 3000 years. In the meanwhile, we have been told, in IS 46: 9-10, “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’” We must not be afraid to recall God’s will, obey it, and know that He will honor His promises! Praise and thanks be to Him forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2015. All Rights Reserved.
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