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Byfield Parish
Church Devotional Guide For the week of January 24, 2010 Jesus Saw Himself in Genesis Prepared by: Dr. William Boylan Box 335, Georgetown, MA 01833 This devotional guide is designed to help you walk by faith. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing is the key to a living faith. When we come to worship prepared to hear from the Lord and primed to listen to scripture, our faith is strengthened. Copies of this devotional are available for the asking. If you know someone who could benefit, we would be pleased to send them a copy. Please include a self-addressed envelope with your request. |
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| Monday | |
To Read: Genesis 25To Know:“Isaac prayed to the Lord on
behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his
prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled
each other within her, and she said, ‘Why is this happening to me?’”
So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, ‘Two
nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you will be
separated; one people will be stronger that the other, and the older
will serve the younger.’”(Gen. 25:21-23) Every so often our youngest daughter reassured
herself that she really was our child. Her older brother, our
youngest son, was the villain. He delighted in her distress when he
told his little sister that we found her abandoned out in the woods.
There was something strange about the birth of Jesus. Jesus amazed
his hometown when he taught in the synagogue. It was known in
Nazareth that Mary was the mother of Jesus but Joseph was not his
father. Regarding the worshippers we read, “Where did this man get
these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given
him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t
this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?
Aren’t hiss sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
(Mark 6:2,3) In ancient Israel, no one was referred to as a mother’s
son and not his father’s son unless it was believed that he was
conceived out of wedlock. Matthew traces Jesus family line back to
Abraham. He begins his gospel, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father
of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and
his brothers…” (1:1,2) God the Word, the creator of all, was the Word become flesh in order to make his dwelling among us. (Jn. 1:1,3,14) Because Jesus was not only the true God but also a real man, he must have thrilled to read that the first three women in his family line were barren yet bore children Did it not strengthen the Lord to read that God can bring children into the world regardless of the impossibility facing barren women like Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachael? Is faith not strengthened when we believe that nothing is impossible to God. |
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| Tuesday | |
To Read: Genesis 26To Know:“Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.” (Gen. 26:18)
In a very real sense, Isaac lived on behalf of his father. He did what he had seen his father doing. As the son, he reopened the wells dug by his father Abraham. Jesus, God’s Son, said, ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (Jn. 5:19) After Abraham died, he could still be seen on earth in the person of his son. Isaac did again what his father had done. Unlike Abraham, God is not dead; nevertheless he is not to be seen on earth. God is invisible. In truth, he was seen on earth in the person of his Son. In our own time, we who believe in Jesus Christ are the sons of God. John wrote, “How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) We are sent into the world to manifest the will of the Father. That is what we ask when we pray the Lord’s prayer. ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9,10)
Just like the Philistines, who being the perennial enemies of the Israelites, undid the work of Abraham and intended to blot out his memory by changing the names he had given to his wells, the enemy is engaged in an age long quest to undo the work of Christ and blot out the memory of his name. The Christian life is Christ living again in us. To the Colossians Paul wrote, “…set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (3:1-3) Not only are we in Christ, Christ is in us. The mystery of the faith is this, “Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Col. 1:27) |
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| Wednesday | |
To Read: Genesis 27To Know:“Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing.” (Gen. 27:19)
What
thoughts went through Jesus mind when he read that Jacob swindled
Esau out of his blessing? Jacob entered the world grasping his
brother’s heel. From the womb, Jacob seemed to be conniving to take
Esau’s place. Famished, Esau sold his birthright to his brother for
a piece of bread and a bowl of lentil soup. Being Isaac’s eldest
son, Esau had a right to his father’s blessing. When Jacob subverted
his brother and stole his birthright, it was the second time that he
swindled his brother out of something that was rightfully Esau’s.
Jesus is our elder brother. Christ told a parable to show that he
was well aware that sinners were plotting to take his place.
“He
went on to tell the people this parable: A man planted a vineyard,
rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest
time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of
the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him
away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they
beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent
still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out. Then the
owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son,
whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.” But when the tenants
saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said,
‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw
him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Lk. 20:9-15)
Jesus
told this parable to his brethren. It was a warning regarding the
viciousness of what they were doing by plotting his death. The heart
and soul of the Bible is this that God’s Son, being fully aware that
sinners were his enemies, nevertheless gave himself to die like a
defenseless lamb. Paul writes, “…God demonstrates his own love for
us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rm.
5:8) Also, “…when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son…” |
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| Thursday | |
To Read: Genesis 28To Know:“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God’ this is the gate of heaven.” (Gen. 28:12,16,17) When Jesus read
of Jacob’s ladder, he doubtless saw himself. That is why Jesus said
to Nathaniel, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and
the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (Jn.
1:51) In Jesus, heaven
connects to earth. Presently, it is popular to believe that not only
other religious leaders but everyone else as well has automatic
access to heaven. As one who has conducted hundreds of funerals, I
cannot remember one where the mourners expressed the least doubt
that God was not eagerly waiting to greet the deceased. This they
believed regardless of whether or not their dear departed had any
interest at all in Jesus Christ. According to Christ, he is proof of
God’s goodness. Only one man who ever lived had the right to return
to God. Eligibility for
entrance into the presence of a holy God is a holy life. Except for
one human being, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.” (Rm. 3:23) That
lone holy man is Jesus Christ. No one was more convinced of his
unique holiness than Jesus Christ himself. Jesus proclaimed, “I am
the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.” (Jn. 14:6) Jesus saw himself in the Old
Testament account of the ladder in Jacob’s dream as the way for
earth and heaven to be joined? Jacob’s ladder is
instructive for men and women who know themselves to be in Christ.
Jacob identified the location of the ladder as the house of God. God
makes his home in the lives of his people. Jesus taught his
disciples, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father
will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
(Jn. 14:23) Because Christ is in believers even as believers are in
him, the ladder to heaven is the message of Christ by which sinners
reconnect to the Father in heaven. |
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| Friday | |
To Read: Genesis 29 |
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To Know:“When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.” (Gen. 29:31) Three times in three
generations God’s promise to Abraham appeared doomed. Abraham’s wife
Sarah, his son’s wife Rebekah, and his grandson’s wife Rachel were
barren women. When Jesus read that barren women were the beginning
of his family line did he realized that this was to prepare for his
birth? “Jesus,” we are told, “grew in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and men.” (Lk. 2:52) Is this not an astounding
revelation? Although Jesus was God incarnate, his humanity was
exactly like our own and he grew up the way we grow up. With the
passage of time, he became wiser and stronger. Is there any doubt
that Christ Jesus fed on the word of God? Was Jesus not greatly
strengthened by the knowledge that time and time again God overcame
the barrenness of the women in his family line to bring children
into the world through whom he fulfilled his promise to Abraham.
In Christ, God went far beyond making a
barren woman able to conceive. He granted conception apart from a
man to bring into the world the child who alone could save the
world. In his prologue, John states the great facts regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. We read that not only was Christ conceived miraculously but Christians too are born of God. “…to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (Jn. 1:12,13) To Read:Saturday:
Genesis 30 Sunday: Genesis 31 |
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E-mail to: mfowler@byfieldparish.org |
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