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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 23 November 2024:
Genesis 21:1 — The Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.
The Lord always keeps His promises. As His ambassadors on earth, we must model His character by always keeping our promises.
“Ever since God promised the woman’s seed would crush the serpent in Genesis 3:15, we have been sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for this child to appear. At first we suspect that Cain is this offspring, but his murder of Abel makes it clear he is not the one (Genesis 4:1–16). Next we hope blameless Noah will vanquish Satan (Genesis 6:9). Although he is important in the Lord’s plan of redemption, Noah is soon disqualified as the promised son (Genesis 9:21). When the narrative shifts focus to Abraham, we expect the Lord to keep His word. But the suspense only intensifies. The patriarch jeopardizes his family (Genesis 12:10–20), fathers a son who will not be his heir (Genesis 16), and then finally risks having Sarah mothering a son with a man other than himself (Genesis 20). It is as if Moses wants us to join Abraham and ask: ‘Lord, are you ever going to keep your promise?’
Genesis is not only artfully crafted literature, it also reports actual history and confirms the faithfulness of the God of creation. In today’s passage there is finally a break in the tension when we read that the Lord, after years and years of waiting, “visited” Sarah and did as promised (21:1). To make sure we do not miss the point of this sentence, Moses tells us Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in their old age (v. 2). The Almighty has done the impossible; the elderly patriarch and his barren wife, who in themselves had no hope of having a son of their own, birth the one who will inherit the promise and pass it on to Abraham’s greatest Son (Matt. 1:1–17). This momentous event proves, as John Calvin says, that God ‘never feeds men with empty promises, nor is he less true in granting what he has promised, than he is liberal, and willing, in making the promise.’
Though it has been many years since the patriarch first met Yahweh, the Lord’s salvation now begins to bear real and everlasting fruit in Abraham’s life. As we wait on God to complete His good work in us today (Phil. 1:6), we too may have to endure what may seem like an eternity before He acts. But as Matthew Henry comments, ‘though [the Lord’s] promised mercies come not at the time we set, they will certainly come at the time he sets, and that is the best time.’
Our God is trustworthy, and He will surely fulfill all of His promises even if we may have to wait for the resurrection to see His kingdom in all its fullness. Our Father is faithful today to work in you and cleanse you of sin and to supply you with everything you need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Know that like He did with Abraham and Sarah, God will come through for you and will complete the good work He has begun in you (Phil. 1:6).” (Ligonier Ministries Devotionals)
Genesis 21:12-13 – And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also….
God also has plans for people you may dislike. Jesus commands us to love our enemies, and this means we must hope for the very best for them, beginning with their salvation, and pray that God would bless them as abundantly as He has blessed us, with the greatest blessing being Himself. We must also, in loving fellowship with our Lord, seek to serve as the instruments of God’s blessing into their lives by taking proactive action to serve them, loving our enemies with labors of love as the opportunities arise.
Genesis 21:23 — Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity.
Abraham’s trustworthiness came from his relationship with God. Abimelech called upon Abraham’s faith in God as the foundation of their relationship of trust. If someone doesn’t ground their integrity on fidelity to God, their integrity will always be in doubt because soon or later, self-interest will take priority over self-sacrifice. Ultimately, the unbeliever makes themselves ‘god’ at some point. When God isn’t the center of a nation, church, organization, or family, it is inevitably doomed. All hope is found in Jesus and only in Jesus.
- Micah 7:1-7 — The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand. 5Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
- Psalm 72:1-7 — Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor! May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 23 November 2024: Today, start writing down, collecting, the promises of God, and start living in accordance with their guarantee. Commit today to living like someone who has received more than all the blessings in the world, start living like someone who has received an eternal reward of all things!
- Romans 8:32 — He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
- Ephesians 2:7 — …so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 