January 10- e Harmony...Old School

January 10, 2011

Scripture Reading:
Genesis 23 & 24

It's so easy to fall in love, but hard to find someone who will catch you. 
~Anonymous

Thanks to the internet you and I are able to share this experience of reading through the Bible together. Another benefit of the internet is that you can find a spouse without ever leaving your house!

In the year 2000 e Harmony was launched to help individuals find their soul mates. Over 33 million people have used the service and each day 15,000 people fill out the questionnaire to start their search!

In today's reading Isaac has an e Harmony-like experience because he does not have to leave his house in order to find his soul mate.  In his case, it is the Lord, not e Harmony, who makes Isaac's love match.

Genesis 23

This chapter begins with the beautiful Sarah dying. She is 127 years old.  Remember that the Lord said He was going to shorten the lives of people after the Flood to 120 years in order to stem the tide of man's evil.

Abraham buys land with a cave in order to bury Sarah in the land of Canaan (the Promised Land) near a place where he worshipped God with sacrifices. This is an act of faith on the part of Abraham because he is not truly in possession of the Promised Land yet.  To bury his beloved wife here is to say to the world, "I believe God will do what He promised." Abraham will also be buried in this cave.  It will be many hundreds of years before his descendants will occupy this land.

Lesson:  I should act upon what I believe just like Abraham does.

Do your actions reflect your faith in God?

Genesis 24

Abraham is quite old now. He decides it is time for Isaac (who is 37 years old) to get married.  His main concern is that Isaac not marry a local Canaanite woman.  Remember, the Canaanites come from Ham's line. Abraham wants Isaac to marry a woman from Shem's line. So he sends his servant back to his own family to find Isaac a wife. Note: The servant is not sent back empty-handed, but rather, loaded down with gifts to reflect Abraham and Isaac's wealth.

Here are some things I noticed in this passage:

• Abraham does not want Isaac to ever see his homeland and be tempted to move back there. Vs. 6
• The servant takes an oath to seek God in the task of finding Isaac's wife. Vs. 9
• The servant is a man of prayer who seeks God. Vs. 12-15
• A beautiful, pure, servant-hearted girl gives Abraham's servant water when he reaches Abraham's homeland. Vs. 16-22
• The servant worships God when his prayer is answered and the girl is from Abraham's family. Vs 26
• Rebekah's brother and father agree that she can go to be Isaac's wife. Vs. 50

Okay, if you have been following my blogs you know that I am always pointing out pictures of Christ in the Scriptures.  There are literally hundreds of symbols and pictures in the Bible that point to Christ and the nature of God.  Here is another picture of God pointed out by J. Vernon McGee in his commentaries of the Bible.

When Abraham agreed to sacrifice his promised son, Isaac, he was a picture of God the Father, who would sacrifice His only Son on the cross.  Isaac was a picture of Christ in that scenario. Today, we have a picture of the Holy Spirit and the Church.

Abraham's servant represents the Holy Spirit, whose function on earth is to remain nameless, work for both God the Father and the God the Son, speak the truth, and seek and find Christ's bride-the Church.  Rebekah in this story represents the Church.  The Church is to be beautiful, pure, and a servant to others who willingly follows her husband-Christ.

Tomorrow we will see that Rebekah leaves everything to follow her husband.  

Lesson:  God's purpose is to bring us to Christ through the Holy Spirit into an intimate relationship with Himself. We are Christ's bride drawn by the Holy Spirit into a spiritual union.

Have you recognized your soul mate in God?

Matthew 8:1-17

Oprah recently aired a show in which a man called John of God was supposedly healing people from all over the world in South America.  In the video piece the reporter says that not everyone who goes to this man will be healed.  Healing depends on their faith and whether they were meant to be healed. People are required to sit and meditate for quite some time before John of God attempts to heal them. He uses barbaric methods and crude surgeries that do not appear to hurt the person being treated.

Today Jesus heals many people as he goes through the area.  The healings are accomplished solely by his spoken word.  No one is required to pray prior to being healed. Anyone who Jesus decides to heal is completely healed immediately.  This is a true test as to whether or not a healing is from God.  If it is from God, it will look exactly like what Jesus did.  

Lesson:  Not all healings are from God.  Be careful with regard to healing ministries.

Jesus uses these healings as a teaching moment. He tells the mostly Jewish crowd that although he is from the Jews, many Gentiles who are not from the line of Shem will get into Heaven and sit at the feast with Abraham , Isaac, and Jacob.  This would have been a shocking concept for the Jews of that day. Note: If they had known their Scriptures they would have seen this prophecy in their Old Testament prophets' writings.

Lesson:  Jesus has come to heal people of every tribe, language, nation, and culture.

Matthew ends this chapter by reminding us that Jesus' healing ministry is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy found in Isaiah 53:4.

Psalm 9:13-20

Vs. 17 The fate of all nations who ignore God is death.

Vs. 19-20 Let the nations be judged and let the nations know they are merely human.

Proverbs 3:1-6

This is a verse that should be memorized by all:

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

What did you notice today?

Blessings,

Jubilee Gal

Kathy Fullerton