7/1/18 – Genesis 14, Genesis 15, Genesis 16 – Matthew 5:43-48, Matthew 6:1-24 – Psalm 6

Gen 14:14,15 – When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 

It’s strange, but sometimes the pictures in our heads don’t line up with the truth in Scripture. Often, when picturing Abraham (Or Abram at this point) – I imagine a guy in the desert in a tent with his small family. But when we read his story – it’s a very different picture. We read of a man who had a lot of wealth – a lot of livestock and here we can see a decent sized army. And a successful army too. He goes to rescue Lot and succeeds in a great victory. He was a man who seemed to have it all – expect for a legacy. In chapter 15 we read that he is still childless.  He’s an old man at this time, yet God makes a covenant with him, that he shall have a son and his offspring will number like the stars.

We can seem to have it all, but still be in lack – but God knows our needs. And He’s not ignorant to them. He’s faithful.

Gen 16: 1,2 – Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Abraham and Sarah didn’t want to wait for God’s promise of a son. The result? Ishmael, the son of Hagar. The conflict between Ishmael and Isaac is still played out today. I know that if you don’t hear from God, you want to just go ahead anyway. Sometimes we take no answer at all as permission.

God plans his timing for a reason. What those reasons are, we may not understand – but to jump ahead without him will have consequences. It may mean the promise is delayed. It may even cause problems further down the line than you’d ever have thought possible. While waiting for Isaac – impatience brought along Ishmael. They wanted a shortcut – but life is not that simple. Their impatience and there desire to take the situation into their own hands showed a mistrust of God and put them off track. God still gave them Isaac… but they’d shown themselves to be unfaithful.

Don’t make an Ishmael. Wait on God.

Matt 5:45 – For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Have you ever said, or ever heard anyone say – when something goes wrong… “Ah well, it rains on the righteous and unrighteous alike?” To mean, God lets bad things happen to good people and bad people? When you think about it, that’s really odd theology. And totally out of context. Let’s just think about what this is saying about the love of God for a second.

He makes His sun rise on the good and evil alike. That’s pretty self explanatory. We all like sun. But rain… remember this is not England that Jesus is saying this in. In England we grumble around the rain. It’s a bad thing when it rains. In a farming culture in the middle east…. rain is good. Rain brings life. Rain brings crops. Rain is needed. Rain isn’t God sending a bad thing – It’s God sending a good, life giving thing.

In other words, both for good people and bad people – God does good, live giving things. He doesn’t withhold the sun from the bad. He doesn’t withhold the rain. These life giving gifts are for all. Why? Because even when we were enemies of Christ, God still loved us. God loves those who oppose Him. And He doesn’t withhold the good things of this world from them. And He wants us to be like that.

Psalm 6:6,7 – I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief;

Ever felt like that? You are not alone. take encouragement – even when you are at your lowest – you are not experiencing anything new. This is the Psalm of someone who messed up. Big time. It start with an asking of God not to rebuke him in HIs anger… this is someone who is seriously low because of what they have done. It sounds like he’s cried until the tears had run dry.

But he knows something. God has heard his plea. God has accepted his prayer. God is faithful and promised not to leave us. We can have our pity parties… but every party has to end. When we too, are down like this – we need to remember how good and gracious our Lord is.