Genesis 21:1 – 23:20
Good morning everyone! Hope the daily reading is going well… I started off sluggish but back on track now!
There is alot in today’s passages – From the birth of Isaac, the promised child to Abraham and Sarah; to the jealousy of Sarah leading to the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael; to the testing of Abraham’s faith and God reaffirming his promises to Abraham; to the death of Sarah and the cultural burial rites.
I am sure there are bits and pieces that I miss when I am reading because I don’t really understanding all about the culture of the day but something I realised this morning was the trust that Abraham had in God as he went up the mountain to sacrifice his son. In earlier chapters (even just in a few verses earlier), God had promised Abraham that he would become a great nation, living under God’s rule, THROUGH his son Isaac. I had never really thought much about this, because I knew that God did provide another lamb, but this morning, I realised Abraham didn’t blindly obey. Instead he had a deep trust that “God would provide”. In Hebrews 11:17 – 19, it discusses this deep trust – that Abraham knew God could raise the dead. Abraham trusted that God would fulfil his promises as he said, through Isaac and he trusted that God would provide another sacrifical lamb or would raise Isaac from the dead.
This passage shows God’s faithfulness to his promises and that the faith Abraham had and the faith we have is a gift from God. We don’t have the capacity to be faithful to God or to have a deep trust in Him – it is God working in us and in our lives for his purpose.
Any thoughts you had on today’s daily reading?
That’s it for me! Happy reading…
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