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Daily bible study wayne blank6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() God’s description of the son she will raise didn’t sound so great to me! Check out Wayne Blank of Daily Bible Study – – says about the blessings of Abraham’s sons: He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” (Genesis 16:11-12 RSV). “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son you shall call his name Ishmael because The Lord has given heed to your affliction. When God reveals to Hagar that she has conceived a son: ![]() And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” (Genesis 21:12-13 RSV) “But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the lad and because of your slave woman whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your descendants be named. When God told Abraham to send Ishmael away: I don’t know or understand what He’s doing, but I know He sees. That part I still don’t get–was Abraham hoping they would die? That someone would pick them up? What? And now, when Hagar names the place, Jehovah-Roi–the God Who Sees–it is much more meaningful to me. Yet she and he were thrust into the desert with a flagon of water that obviously wouldn’t last long. She bore her master his first son and by tradition the son should have been in the line of inheritance and given honor. When you read the story of Hagar as a “small sidenote” to the sweep of God’s plan in history, it’s kind of easy to dismiss her pain and suffering–after all, God promised to bless her son (and obviously did–see the Middle East oil fields). I know that I have been challenged to re-read Bible stories I once read through like a novel and pay more attention to the people in them and their feelings and lives. I’ve wondered about whether God is trying to encourage me, or simply reinforce the truth that I now carry in my heart:Įven though He is watching, sparrows do fall. Since Dominic died, I have found an unusual number of bird’s nests knocked down from trees by the wind. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. God knows when a sparrow falls, but He doesn’t always stop it from happening. His eye IS on the sparrow.īut read the whole verse: “not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.” More than one song has been written to include the phrase, “His eye is on the sparrow”–meant to bring comfort in moments of fear.Īnd it is true. So do not fear you are more valuable than many sparrows.” But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ” Are not two little sparrows sold for a copper coin? And yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. Just a few chapters later, Jesus instructs His disciples as they go out to minister and encourages them with these words: It doesn’t guarantee that you won’t get cancer, that you won’t lose your job, or that you won’t suffer persecution from the enemies of God.Īnd it doesn’t spare you from burying your child. My own experience and that of many other faithful followers of Jesus makes plain that loving Christ does not protect you from the evil in this world. I would argue that they have it all wrong. They interpret this verse to mean that if your heart is set on God and His Kingdom, then He will give you the things that will make you happy and healthy. I have never subscribed to the theory that the Christian life is free of pain and suffering.Ĭhristian bookstores are filled with titles touting the path to joy and happiness, the way to wealth and material success.Īnd some of the claims of these authors and preachers rest on Jesus’ own words in the Sermon on the Mount:īut seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. ![]()
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