Now we get to our story of the tricking to get Jacob the blessing as well.  Isaac loved Esau, and even though he knew God had told Rebekah that Esau would serve Jacob, he desired to bless Esau. Rebekah overhears Isaac’s request and plans to have Jacob receive the blessing instead.  Jacob knew what he was doing was wrong, but Rebekah encourages him by stating that if he is cursed it will be on her. Jacob obeys his mother and she is successful in her task and Isaac gives the blessing to Jacob. But because of the bitterness that Esau now has against his brother, Jacob will be forced to flee for his life and Rebekah will loose her son in the end.

Looking at the actions of Rebekah we might think, was she not doing what God had already predicted would happen?  So what is wrong if there was a little deceit in the actions, it accomplished God’s will in the end.  In other words, the end justified the means.  But is that how we are to read this story?  I believe that we need to see that Rebekah in her human weakness tried to make God’s will happen in her own timing.  Instead of trusting in the promise she had from God, she steps in and has her son deceive his father.  Now, God is sovereign and  He was in control of all things, but He never forces us to sin to accomplish His goals. If Rebekah had been patient who knows how God would have brought about His ultimate will in this matter, but that will never be known, because she did not wait upon the Lord and instead took matters into her own hands and ended up loosing Jacob.

The thought I want to leave you will is - do you truly wait upon the Lord?  When you know He has promised something do you wait to see how He will bring it to pass, or do you feel like you need to “do something” about it?  Am I saying to “let go and let God” as the saying in the ’70s was? No, but I am saying that if you feel like what you have to do to make something happen is sinful, then DO NOT DO IT! No matter how noble and godly the goal may be.  Wait, if it is God’s will He will bring it to pass in His own time, without sin being a part of it.

So often I feel like I need to be doing something about situations, when God may just be saying, wait on Me to do it for you.  Patience has never been my strong suit, but I have learned that greater good comes from waiting on the Lord, than me pushing the issue.  I still have much to learn, but I pray that each day I will seek to be about God’s business and let He handle the details of my life.

God bless you all till the next time.

Now on to our next woman, Rebekah.  Her story is found beginning in Genesis 24.  I will write twice about her, because I believe there are two separate lessons we can learn from her and I do want to keep each posting to one main message.  Yes, I know I could have done much more with Sarah and even Hagar, but my goal in this endeavor is not to retell lessons we get often from these ladies, but to look for other lessons that might not be so obvious.

Just a quick overview of Rebekah’s story; she was the sister of Laban and the daughter of Bethuel who was Abraham’s nephew, the son of Abraham’s brother, Nahor. Abraham was concerned that Isaac not marry a daughter of the Canaanites, so he sent a trusted servant to Ur to find a wife for Isaac among his relatives there.  The servant was under an oath that could only be broken if the girl or her family refused to come with him.  He arrives in the city and is by the well outside the city when the women of the city would be drawing water for their evening meal.  He prays that God will guide him to the one for Isaac by setting a condition that she will draw water for him and for his camels as well.  Which Rebekah does, and he asks to come stay at her house, which she agrees to, but before he dines, he tells Laban, her brother, and Bethuel, her father, why he has come.  He tells his story and they agree to let Rebekah go and wed Isaac.  Bear in mind the only thing she knows about Isaac is that God has prospered his father and he will inherit it all.  They did not have photos to show, or phones to call and talk to each other on.  Her knowledge and impression of him was entirely third hand from this servant.  It is possible Bethuel may have remembered his uncle and the kind of man he was which might explain why he was so willing to believe this servant and trust his daughter to him.  Or more likely the wealth that the servant had already shown in the gold and gifts he had convinced them this was a real opportunity for her.

When the deal has been struck, Laban and his mother want to keep Rebekah for ten days before letting her go, and the servant prevails upon them not to delay his return.  When asked what she wishes, Rebekah agrees to go with the servant.  Now comes the lesson I want to look at, especially for young ladies who might read this.  Do you have a faith and trust in God to go without question when He calls?  Do you make decisions for yourself or do you trust the men in your life to help you in those decisions?

We don’t really know much about the religion of Bethuel and his family.  He does agree to grant the servant’s request because he says, “The matter comes from the Lord.”  (Gen. 24:50) And when they bless Rebekah and send her on her way they say, “…may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them,”  the same promise God had given Abraham in Gen. 22:17.  Though neither of these are to imply that they were trusting Jehovah, Abraham’s God. We do know that God had led the servant to this young lady, and when she and her family heard his request, they did not hesitate to agree to send her to Isaac.  So it would seem that they recognized God’s hand in this matter, though it is not clear that they worshiped Him as Abraham did.  But it was enough that this young lady was willing to leave her family behind to travel a great distance to marry a man she had never met.  Sometime we are called upon to make a choice that may seem like this, trusting that God will be with you in the decision you make.  We have the benefit in the case of Rebekah to know that God’s hand was in this and she did made the right choice.  But it was with the blessing of her father and brother, as well as the confirmation from Abraham’s servant of how God had led him to her. Do you trust spiritual advisers, whether a father or other godly male leader, to guide you in making the correct decisions.  Or do you prefer to make your own decisions without such advice.  If God has given you men who seek to be obedient to Him and follow His word, thank God for them, and learn to depend on their advice and recommendations.  Do not be so quick to “follow the world’s advice” and make your own choices.

Today so much is made about women being able to stand alone and be independent of men, but are we being godly when we have that view?  Do we seek godly male leadership to help us make decisions that are important and could affect our lives?  I did not have a godly father to go to for help in my younger days, and many decisions I made on my own I see that God was guiding me despite that lack in my own life.  But when I  came to the realization that God has placed man as a head over woman, and she should seek men for counsel and advice, I have to look back on those earlier days and thank God for protecting me and guiding me even though I had no spiritual head at the time.  I do thank God that He has given me a godly man as a husband, whom I can now place all my trust in that he will guide us in God’s will for our family’s life.  Not unlike Rebekah, I had to seek the solution on my own until God led me to the man I would marry.  Though she had her family’s blessing, she still made the choice to leave in the servant’s timing and not that of her brother and mother.  As a result, she gained a husband who loved her and a life that placed her in the protective embrace of God as well.

Next, I will look at how Rebekah was not perfect, and does try to take things into her own hands, but that is for next week.  I do want to encourage any who have opinions to be sure and leave a comment.  If you don’t agree with my ideas, let’s talk with each other over them.  I had a dear friend who did not agree with me on many matters of interpretation for a long time, but our discussions forced us both to look to the Word of God to be sure that we were standing on His word for our opinions and beliefs and not our own, or just what we were always taught.  I encourage each of you who have taken the time to read this small endeavor on my part, to read and study Genesis 24 yourself and see then if you agree.

God be with you all, and may you grow in the knowledge of His word.

After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the death of his wife, Lot takes his two daughters and goes to live in the caves rather than the city of Zoar.  We are told that he was afraid to stay in Zoar, but not exactly why he was fearful.  Keil and Delitzsch surmise that he feared that city might be marked for destruction too, so it may be that the culture was not that different from what was found in the other cities.  What ever reason, he chose to seek refuge now in the vary mountains he was told to flee to by God’s messengers.

Lot’s daughters are now concerned that they will not find husbands in their present condition.  We are not told much over the decision to cause their father to become drunk enough that they are able to become impregnated by him, but their plot succeeds and they both bear children by their father.  And other than the children’s names, Moab and Ben-ammi, we do not hear any more about this line of Abraham’s relative until the children of Israel return to the promised land.  I am not going to go into this aspect right now, but rather I want to think on what drove these two women to commit such an act as sleeping with their father with the purpose of have a child by him.

I would say it had two aspects: 1.  they are showing the influence of the culture of the world in this act.  After all their excuse was “”there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth.”  (v31b, emphasis mine).  So they took it into their own hands to preserve their family line through their father.  2.  though they were spared the judgement delivered to Sodom and Gomorrah, they did not trust God to preserve their family line, so they felt they needed to act for their own survival.  It is this lack of faith I want to address specifically, but also that they were strongly influenced by the world’s sinful culture that justified their actions in their own minds.

Once again lets try and put ourselves in their place, remember they were taken out of a city with nothing but their clothes on their backs.  They had been betrothed to men of the city, but those men did not accompany them when they fled (see vs 14).  So to the daughters the future did not appear good.  Then their father leaves the city of Zoar and goes to live in the mountains, further removing them from the comfort and security they must have left behind in living in a city.  Have you ever found yourself in a situation where it seemed there was not a way out?  That no matter how much you might pray God does not seem to be there?  How do you handle such times?  Do you see it as a time to grow in faith, trusting God despite the circumstances? Or do you try to solve the problem yourself as Lot’s daughters did?  I don’t want to say that doing something is always sinful, but what Lot’s daughters did was.  They did not even seek God in the matter.  Their Uncle Abraham was not so far away that they could have sought refuge with him and place themselves back under the protection of God’s covenant, but neither they nor their father appear to have considered this as an answer.  So rather than seeking the God of Abraham, they sought the solution the world and their circumstance afforded.  This was their mistake.

Before making any decision we need to be sure we have sought godly advice, from your husband and the elders of the church.  Be sure that your thinking is influenced by the word of God, and not the thinking of the world.  That means you need to be reading the Bible daily, and studying it, you also need to be hearing the solid preaching of the word and not just cute comforting messages in church.  Ladies, our culture around us will tell you that you have the right to make your own decisions and go your own way in many areas that God’s word clearly tells us we are to submit to our male heads (authority) in.  Be sure that you are choosing God’s way and not the world’s way.  Single ladies, you are to be under godly male authority until you are married.  Your Christian father is your primary head until that is exchanged in marriage to your Christian husband.  Just as a wife submits to her husband, the single daughter submits to the godly counsel of their father.  If your father is not a Christian, then seek the godly counsel of your church elders.  The point being, seek to be under godly male authority during all aspects of your life, whether married or single. I Corinthians 11: 3 says, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”

In conclusion, I want to always encourage you to be reading the Word, let that be your primary source of knowledge.  Yes, there are many good books out there today that we can also read and enjoy, but if you are not saturated with God’s Word, how will you know that what you are reading is Biblical?  II Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

As always, I welcome your comments and pray that God will enrich you with His word and the work of His spirit in your lives.

Like Noah’s wife, we don’t have a record of her name, nor for that matter do we know the names of their two daughters, but that will be reserved for a different post.  We can take her story and Jesus’ reference to her (See Luke 17:32-33) to see the warning left by her.

Think on this, if you were awakened this morning at the crack of dawn (Gen 19:15) and told to flee immediately to save yourself, would you be able to just go?  No suitcase to pack, not stopping to pick up that favorite piece of clothing, or pictures, nothing, just RUN!  Ladies, be realistic could you just go?  Imagine your smoke detector goes off and you smell smoke and can not see, could you flee then?  Once you are out of the house, what would be your first reaction?  After checking to be sure your family was out and safe?  You would look back to see your house, your possessions, everything going up in smoke, wouldn’t you?  I think we all would.  It would be instinctive to do.  As you do what is natural, nothing will happen to you, you probably will feel the heat of the flames on your face, and the realization that all your possessions are no more, but you will not be destroyed yourself.  If you are a Christian you would probably begin to thank God that everyone is safe, the questions will come later, but for now you rejoice that no lives are lost.  But not so for Lot’s wife.  When she did, what we all would probably be tempted to do, she was destroyed.

She looked back at a life that God had judged, rather than looking forward to the safety God promised. Lot’s wife is an example of one who could not leave the world behind.  She craved the things she was told to leave.  I Cor 10:6 tells us that ungodly examples are given as a warning.  “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” (I Cor. 10:12).  Lot’s wife is an example of an unbelieving heart that fell way from God (Heb.3:12), instead of being thankful for being delivered from the judgement on a wicked culture, she desired what she was leaving more than she desired God.  Consequently, she was demonstrating her identity with the world and not with God. I John 2:15, 16 tells us to not love the world and its enticements, they are not from God. Lot’s wife in gazing back demonstrated that her heart was with Sodom and she perished with Sodom.

Jesus uses her as the example when He warns His followers to flee the coming destruction of Jerusalem.  Not to get too far off course here, that warning was meant to be for those hearing Him speak at that time, not some future pre-millenial event.   A warning to flee and not look back.  Is that just to mean don’t look during that event, or can we take it further to mean, obey God, keep your eye on God and trust that God will guide you in His will, unlike those who did not obey but died in the fall of Jerusalem. That may be reading more into Jesus’ admonition to His followers, but if we really follow Him and trust Him with our lives isn’t that the attitude we should have?

As I think on that attitude, I have to confess there are times when I wonder what “might have been” if I had made different choices.  I am really glad the God has given me this admonition to NOT LOOK BACK!  HE WAS IN CONTROL.   If I truly believe that, than why question what He has done?  I should not, I need to praise Him more and thank Him for leading me.  I am not to morn over what could have been with different decisions, but when those thoughts come, I need to “Remember Lot’s wife” and flee in a sense.  Trusting Christ as my Savior is more than a ticket to heaven, it must be a way of life.  He has my life in His perfect plan, and I need to be confident that He has caused “ALL things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)

My fellow sisters, look to Jesus, He is our security and our confidence.  Don’t look to the world and the enticements it has to offer, look to Jesus and obey Him fully.  Don’t worry about the past and what might have been.  Realize that you are right where He wants you today, right now.  Use the moments He has given you to be His lamp to show others the way to His salvation.  Don’t worry about conditions around you, or the circumstances you may find yourself in, look to Him and He will bring you peace.  I know this is hard, as I said in the beginning, it is instinctive to “look back”  but remember Lot’s wife, do you look back with regret at what you left behind, rethinking choices you made and despairing over “what ifs”? Or do you look back and thank Jesus for saving you out of sin and misery, and rejoice that God has shown His love to you and has led you in His perfect will?  I hope it is the latter, but if you still doubt I challenge you to go to Jesus in prayer and confess your sins and trust Him for your salvation.  Spend time in reading the Bible each day and pray that God will send His spirit to bring you understanding.  If you don’t currently have a church, seek a Bible preaching church and put yourself under the teaching of God’s Word through His faithful ministers.  Don’t look back, look to Jesus!

If you feel this was an encouragement to you, please I would love to know.  Remember we are to encourage one another in righteousness, so feel free to leave your comments to encourage others in their walk.  God bless you all.

How many time have we thought we needed to “do something” because it seemed that God was not doing anything?

Imagine yourself in Sarai’s situation, her husband has been promised a great blessing from God, but there you are, no children and you are not getting any younger.  So you do what other wives in your position in that day did, told your husband he could have a child with your handmaid.  This was common practice, and the child would have been raised as Abram’s heir.  But things did not turn out exactly as Sarai thought they would.  Hagar became prideful that she was able to conceive when her mistress could not.  So Sarai takes the issue to her husband, who tells her to “do to her what is good in your sight.” v6.  So Sarai treats her harshly to the point that Hagar runs away.

God then sends an angel to Hagar to bring her comfort and send her back to Sarai and Abram.  At this point, only Abram had been visit by the Lord personally with the promise of descendants.  It is interesting that He showed mercy to Hagar, an Egyptian, and appeared to her, when as yet He had not appeared or spoken to Sarai.  Hagar has learned her lesson and returns and submits herself to Sarai.  We do see in this chapter that she bears a son for Abram, but we are not told any more of Sarai’s treatment of Hagar for 15 years.

In chapter 17 God confirms with Abram and Sarai that she will be the mother of the promise seed, and their names are changed to Abraham (father of a multitude) and Sarah.  Though Abraham seeks a blessing for Ishmael (vs.18) God confirms that the covenant will be with Isaac, Sarah’s future son.  When Isaac is born we see further conflict between Sarah and her maid, Hagar.  In Chapter 21 Sarah asks Abraham to send them away (v.10).  We see that Abraham must have felt deeply for Ishmael, because this idea causes him distress (v. 11), but God assures him to listen to his wife and do as she says, but Ishmael will be blessed because he is Abraham’s descendant as well (vs. 12, 13).  When Hagar and Ishmael are driven away, they do face a severe trial, to the point that Hagar thinks they will die, but again God shows His mercy and care for her and her son (v. 19) and they do survive and prosper.

I see many different lessons to be learned from these two women that can be applicable today:

1.  Sarah showed a lack of faith and patience when she stepped in to “solve” her problem.  How often do we do the same thing?  Have we learned to “wait upon the Lord?”  Or do we take matters into our own hands when it appears that He is not acting?  Patience does not come easily for me, I remember as a young Christian in my teens praying for patience.  Now, over 40 years later, I still have moments of weakness and impatience when God calls for me to wait.  Even now, as I have been without work since December, I am learning to seek that peace that passes understanding as I wait for God to show me what He has planned.  But I have been comforted as Hagar was in the wilderness that God is there and He does care and has provided for my family’s needs.

2.  Hagar was a slave in a difficult situation, but she did not show humility and grace.  Instead of being humble before her mistress, she showed pride and had to be sent away.  It may be difficult for us to place ourselves in Hagar’s position today because the idea of letting a husband conceive a child with another woman seems adulterous to us.  But remember God did show mercy on Hagar and her child.  She was told to return to her position as a slave and submit to her mistress so we can but assume that she did this.  Learning that humility before another is another trait we as Christians need to seek.

3.  We do not base our decisions and actions on what is a cultural norm.  Though it was acceptable to have a child and possibly many children in this manner it did not make it right.  Though God did protect Hagar and her child, and even blessed them, this was not His perfect will for Abraham and Sarah.  History shows that Ishmael’s descendents  would become enemies of the covenant people of God, and even today those descendents are at odds with the church of Jesus Christ.

4.  When we seek to solve issues outside of the Word of God, we end up making a mess that can cause future consequences for us and others.  The Bible is the source of God’s will and we need to be seeking to immerse ourselves in His Word to know that will thoroughly.  Do you spend time studying the Word of God, or do you just do a quick read and then go about your day?  We must spend time in the word, studying and meditating upon it to be led in the Truth of God’s will.

May you learn to wait upon the Lord in all that you do, may He give you patience and humility to see His mercy and care for you, and may you spend time meditating upon the word of God that you might know His will for your life as well.

God go with you this week and may His spirit rest upon you in all your endeavors.

After Terah dies, in Gen. 12:1-3 we have the first covenant promise God makes with Abram -
“Now the Lord said to Abram,Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram obeyed God and took his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot, and went to the land of Canaan.  The family lived a nomadic existence for  some time until a famine forced them to go to Egypt.  It is interesting that Egypt appears later in the life of the patriarchs as a haven from famine for Joseph’s brothers, and even as a haven for Joseph and Mary and their baby, Jesus.

To protect himself, Abram asks Sarai not to reveal that she is actually his wife, but rather his sister, in fact she was his half-sister.  In the commentary by Keil and Delitzsch we are told,  “But his (Abram’s) precaution did not spring from faith, He might possibly hope, that by means of the plan concerted, he should escape the danger of being put to death on account of his wife, if any one should wish to take her; but how he expected to save the honour and retain possession of his wife, we cannot understand, though we must assume, that he thought he should be able to protect and keep her as his sister more easily, than if he acknowledged her as his wife.” (p. 127)

It is this obedience to her husband I want to look at now.  Technically, he was not asking her to lie, just not tell the whole truth.  It was fear of the consequences that if a stronger man desired Sarai, who was still very beautiful even at 65 (ch 17:17 tells us she was 10 years younger than Abram and ch 12:4 tells us that Abram was 75 at the time they left Haran), all they had to do was kill Abram to have her.  Sarai does as he asks and the worse that Abram feared occurs, she is praised to Pharaoh and he takes her into his house.

Now put yourself in Sarai’s place, here she has basically been added to Pharaoh’s harem to be treated eventually as his bride it is assumed.  Abram even benefits from the transaction because the Pharaoh treats him well and gives him gifts.  But God was not pleased with the arrangement and sent a plague that led to the truth being told about Sarai’s relationship with Abram.  Pharaoh returns her and sends Abram and his people on their way back to Canaan.  Think of the trust Sarai had in her husband to willingly do what he asked.  We know that Abram has been promised by God that God would protect him and bless him, so it might be that Sarai was also trusting in Abram’s God to protect her as well?  It is not told, but the matter is clear, she obeyed her husband and did what he asked without question or fear.

Do we have that same faith to be obedient to our husbands? Or do we question their decisions and  argue our side of the matter to get our way?  Does this mean we never express our opinion, I don’t think so because as we see there are other occasions when Sarai does make her opinion known.  But as I Peter 3:6 points out “Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by fear.(Emphasis mine)”  As wives our obedience to God includes our submission to our husband.  We need to strive to follow the example Sarah gave of trusting our husbands to make the correct decisions, even if it might appear to us to be a wrong one.  After all, if God was going to bless those who blessed Abram, and curse those who cursed him, would he not have protected him from Pharaoh?

As wives and mothers we can learn a lot from Sarah about what it means to submit to our husbands.  But more importantly as Christian women we can learn what it means to trust God to be faithful despite the circumstances.  Sarah had a promise that she would bear the covenant line through which the blessings of God would come to the entire world (Gen. 12:2, 3), she had been shown the might of God and His protection over her (Gen. 12:10-20) and yet despite these assurances, she looked at the circumstances and gave in to her “fear” and encouraged Abram to sleep with her maid in order to have a child through her (Gen. 16:2).  We will look at each of these in more depth, but I wanted to place them as an introduction and an encouragement to us all, when we know what God has promised, we need to trust Him to fill that promise in His own time.  This is a hard lesson to learn, and requires great patience and strength on our part that no matter what happens God does not fail.

I will end with this encouragement, pray daily that God will guide you in His Word and that His Spirit will give you the strength to be looking to Him and not to ourselves for answers.

The primary passages that deal with Sarah’s history are found in Genesis, beginning with 11:29 when we find her marrying Abram (she is called Sarai at this time) and continuing to Genesis 23:2 with her death and burial.  There are also New Testament references to her we will look at as well: Galatians 4:22-31 and I Peter 3:6.

Noah was told by God to build an ark to preserve the animals and a remnant of man (his family) when God destroyed the world with a flood.  See the Flood account starting with Genesis 6:8ff.  It took many years for him to accomplish this task, and during that time he was also preaching and teaching, dispite the riducule of his neighbors.

Though God does not reveal much about Noah’s wife, I think she must have been a support and encouragement to her husband, because there is no reference that she questioned him or disputed his work for the Lord, as Job’s wife did (see Job 2:9).  Noah’s wife is only mentioned twice in Gen. 7:7, and 13, and then she was listed as having entered the ark with her husband, sons and their wives.

Matthew Henry points out from these passages the blessing and protection that comes from being a part of a covenant family “Not he only, but his house also, his wife and children, are called with him into the ark. Note, It is good to belong to the family of a godly man; it is safe and comfortable to dwell under such a shadow. “  Noah’s family was saved through the flood not because they were “good” but because they were his family.  Later one of his son’s reveals himself to be wicked and is even cursed by his father (see Gen. 9: 22-27).

Ladies, do you thank God for your husband?  Is he your spiritual leader and head?  I do pray that you are married to a Christian man, who takes his responsibility as your head seriously and seeks to lead you into a righteous obedience of God.  If that is the case, take a second to send a quick prayer thanking God for him and asking God to bless his work as he seeks to be your head.  If your husband is not being all “you” think he should be, then pray that God will work in his life to strengthen him.  We cannot be our husband’s Holy Spirit, but we can support him in prayer and encouragement.  Then those of you who may find yourself married to a non-believer, pray for your husband’s repentance and salvation, be an example to him of the love of Christ and may you win him with your gentle spirit (See I Peter 3:1-5).

Though Noah’s wife may seem insignificant, we can learn some things from her example:

1.  Support your husband in his work for the Lord, even when it takes many years to see the result of that work.

2.  Be there when the rest of the world hurls insults and ridicules your husband’s work.  Noah worked on the ark when there was no sign of rain or the coming judgement.  He was also preaching during this time of the coming judgement.  Are you standing with your husband even when others think him foolish?  Remember the preaching of the Word is seen as foolish by the world (I Cor. 1:21).

3.  Most importantly in my thinking is that the Word of God is faithful and true, even when we may not yet see it.  Are you struggling with a crisis in your life?  Have you committed it to God and put your trust in Him to bring you through this trial?  If not, then I encourage you right now, to bow before the Throne of Grace and turn your fears and concerns over to the Prince of Peace.  Jesus Christ is our saviour and redeemer, He has promised to give us His comforter, go to Him now and receive His peace.

4.  Finally, we may think our place in the Kingdom of Christ is small in comparison to others, but we do have a witness and we need to be faithful in that witness.  If you were to write your part in the work of Jesus here on earth, what would it say?

I close now and pray that God be with you all.  I look for any word that this has brought a comfort in your life.

In Christ’s Love to my sisters in Christ.

 ”This (she is referring to questioning God’s goodness) is an age old problem that began in Genesis when Eve was offered the fruit of a tree that would make her ‘like God,’ she didn’t need the fruit. God had provided abundantly. So how did the enemy get her to give into the temptation? She wanted wisdom enough to be in charge. She was unwilling to just let God be God, in all His wisdom. In her love for herself, her husband, and maybe even her future children she believed she could choose better than God what was best. This has been a curse ever since. We can’t just trust God’s ways are best. God didn’t say there wouldn’t be sorrow. In fact because of Eve’s choice to try to be God in that situation, instead of trusting His best, she brought sorrow into this world. It’s a given, in this life there will be sorrow. But God in His mercy uses this sorrow for our good. He redeems all the pain. Romans 8:28 says, ‘All things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.’”

(I have removed several paragraphs she wrote about her oldest son’s trust through a trial God put her children through check the site mentioned above for the complete letter)

“We each have a choice to make. Are we going to trust ourselves, or trust God? He is faithful! He loves us, and His ways are best! As a mother there have been many times when I’ve asked God why He allowed my kids to be taken like that (the children were taken by CPS for 24 hours after Larry and Hannah were arrested)? Haven’t they gone through enough? That 24hrs., was very traumatic for them and they’ve had the effects of that for a long time but now I see, His ways are higher than ours. He knew that my son needed to see Him faithfully bring him home and carry him through that, so he could trust Him to carry us through this, deliver us and bring me home. God had my son’s best interest at heart as He always does all of us!

“So, what do we do when we’re in the midst of the sorrow? How do we cope with not understanding God’s plan for our lives? Let God be God! Hold tight onto His promises! Trust Him and persevere! James 5:11 says, ‘Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.’ God’s promises are sure!”

Her letter goes on with much more encouragement that it puts me to shame when I have my doubts.  As women we want our husbands to protect and keep us from harm, but what happens when either they can’t or won’t?  Do we turn to our own devices, or to God?  In today’s mindset of independence, the world says we should depend on ourselves because in the end that is all we have that is faithful.  But is that true? NO! We need to be depending on God, through Jesus Christ alone.  It is the saving work of Christ that gives us the right to ask God our Father to protect and keep us.  Hannah has been through a trial most of us cannot even imagine.  It was bad enough to lose a child, but to then be charged with his death, tried and convicted, and now in prison potentially for the rest of her life, would you be able to say, “The verses in Ephesians 3:20-21 sum it all up. ‘Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen’?”  God has been faithful to Hannah and used her in prison to spread His word of salvation.

So I ask again, would you have that kind of faith? Would you trust God is in control even when there appears on human terms to be no hope in sight?  Could you praise God for putting your children through the pain of being separated from their parents because you know He means it for their good.  How do we live our lives on a day to day basis?  Do we flower for Jesus’ sake where ever we find ourselves, or do we complain and wish things were different.  When your friends think of you do they think “what a godly woman she is, she always praises Jesus for His goodness no matter what,” or do they fear being around you because you always complain about your circumstances?

My prayer for us all is that we can learn to trust God more fully each day, that we will flower and be a sweet aroma to those around us, and that we praise Jesus for all His merciful gifts He has given us, that we do not deserve.

I will try to be more faithful in my postings, and look forward to any comments you might make.  Feel free as always to pass this along to your friends.  God be with you all and may our Lord Jesus richly bless you in whatever trial you may be facing.

In my previous blog I stated that Adam and Eve were asked to doubt God’s goodness for them, and impose their understanding and interpretation on God’s actions in His commandments.  It seems to me that since that day, all of mankind has struggled with this, instead of seeing God’s law as a blessing and protection for us, we seek to either try to justify why we should not obey it, or we simply ignore it and try to live our lives outside of His law.  But rather than going into a philosophical discussion of the law, I want to look specifically at what God said is the consequences of the act of rebellion.  In this case, I will look at both man and woman’s response to God’s presence.  They hid!  They were afraid to meet their loving creator because they now had their “eyes opened” (v. 7).  When confronted by God “Where are you?” Adam responds with “I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”  Are we not still trying to hide from an omniscient God?  In our sinful state we flee His presence, whether we try to ignore Him or pretend He doesn’t exist, does not matter, whatever the means, sinful man does not want to meet God, just as Adam and Eve hid.  Then when confronted with his sin “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  What does Adam say, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”  Not only is Adam shifting blame to his wife, but ultimately he is shifting the blame to God Himself.  Is he not saying, “If you had just left me alone in the garden I would not have disobeyed you?”  And of course, Eve shifts the blame to the serpent as well.  The fact is neither would accept their responsibility for their sin, at this point they try to use argument to get out of the trouble they are in.  Ever since, has mankind not tried to place the blame on some other source?  The fact is, until we accept that it is our own sin that separates us from God, we cannot be forgiven for the sin we bear as humans as well as the sin we commit in our sinful nature.

It is interesting that even before God announces the specifics of the curse, man was already showing a guilty conscience that wanted to pass the blame to someone else and not accept his own responsibility.  God does hold the serpent responsible, but He also levees the blame to man and woman as well.  In fact, all of creation would be suffering because of the sinfulness of man (see Romans 8:19-25).  God pronounces that there will be a continual struggle between man and Satan when He declares “enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed”.  There are two classes of people today, those that are the seed of Satan (unbelievers) and The seed of woman (Christians).  And there is a struggle between the two.  But the promise given with the curse is that woman’s seed (Jesus Christ) will be victorious, “He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”  Jesus accomplished this with His death and resurrection on the behalf of His people.  Jesus would be the second Adam who would accomplish what the first Adam could not, redeeming His people from their sin.

Specifically to woman, she is to suffer in bringing her children into the world through childbirth, and she will seek to usurp her husband’s headship.  As women who have born children, we know the pain of childbirth, but there is also the joy despite the pain, the joy of a new life, and new hope.  We no longer look at each new born as the potential Messiah as Eve did, but there is the hope and promise that this new life will become a soldier for Christ and be used of God in the building of His kingdom.

The consequences of man’s sin marked all of mankind with total depravity and total inability.  Total depravity means that all aspects of man are affected by his sin nature. Man is not “basically good.” NO, he is “basically evil.”  Man in his natural self is unwilling and unable to subject himself to the law of God.  He is dead in his sin and unable to do anything about it.  The total inability is that man cannot save himself, he is in need of a savior outside of himself.  Sinful man does not seek God; he looks only to himself for his standard.  As such, he can do nothing to reconcile himself to God.  There is no fellowship with God; instead fallen man faces the anger of a just and righteous God.  The sinfulness of man was a result of his disobedience and rejection of God as the authority of life.  All humanity carries this stain and suffers as a result, but God did not leave us in our sinfulness.  As mentioned, even in the curse, the promise is given.  There will come a seed from woman that crushed the head of the serpent’s seed.  This occurred when Jesus Christ became man to suffer and die for His people.  Whereas Adam could not keep God’s holy law, Jesus did in His life.  And then as the second Adam, He gave His own life to pay the penalty that God demands for sin.  It is through the blood of Jesus that the confessing sinner’s nature is made alive and reconciled to a just and righteous God.  It is nothing we can do (after all we are dead), it has all been done for us. 

Are you still struggling with where God has placed you in your life?  Do you question His good will for you?  Do you find yourself asking “why are you doing this to me, God?”  Then I encourage you to repent of these sinful thoughts.  God has a plan and we each have a place in that plan.  We may want to change the circumstances we find ourselves in, we may wish we could go back do something over in our life, but we need to remember that when we make choices, we will have to live with those choices.  Don’t you think Adam and Eve would have liked to go back and make a different choice?  But in God’s perfect plan they did what they did and all have to live with that choice.  But praise God, He has a more perfect plan in His son, Jesus Christ. If you know Jesus as your Savior, then please rest in the knowledge that He will keep you in His loving care. If you don’t know Christ as your Savior, I beg you to kneel before Him and confess your sins.  Turn your life to serving Him and seek to be reconciled with God.