The Lord visited as He said He would and did to Sarah what
He promised. After waiting 25 years for
the fulfillment of the promise, the Lord delivered at the time He chose. Surely they had thought that by now they
would have several children but that was not God’s plan or promise. We don’t know what Ishmael was doing but
laughing is only one option here, making sport of is another. Sarah perceived a threat and Abraham was
forced to send both Hagar and his son away and God agreed. It is amazing that this little family scene
in the middle of the desert could have such implications for our world today several
thousand years later.
Jesus claims to be from God.
The people are pretty sure they know He is from Nazareth and that they
know His parentage. If they do, how do
they explain what they have seen Him do?
Sometimes what we think know isn’t true.
Jesus promises that the one who believes has eternal life and that He is
the bread of life. They have proposed
that He do as Moses had done in providing food and Jesus speaks into that by
reminding them that manna isn’t eternal, those who ate it perished. His final words in this passage are the deal
breakers, “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my
flesh.”
Our attitude in faith is that there is a better day and a
better homeland awaiting us. The biggest
obstacle is that we are all, at heart, materialists. We want what we see, not what we can’t
see. We can set goals but we need to be
able to visualize the goal, what does it look like. We know what it means to be thinner, to be
muscular, to be wealthy, to have perfect spouses and perfect kids, but we have
a hard time visualizing something better than the world we know. We can only see and know that world by eyes
of faith. Faith calls us out of that materialistic mindset, enables us to take
great risks through trust in Him who created and upholds all things. Faith sometimes looks irrational,
wreckless. Faith should mean that we
make different choices than the world would make in a given circumstance, it
should mark us out and differentiate us from the world. It is people of faith who truly make a
kingdom difference.
For God alone, O my
soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
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