Today's reading from the Chronological OT/NT Reading Plan is Genesis 10-12, Matthew 4
Happy New Year! And Happy First Post for me on this blog!! I am so excited to take this journey with all of you! I pray for growth and discernment as we travel together through God's Word in 2011.
The scripture that first struck me was in Chapter 11 - The Tower of Babel. The whole world spoke one language and began to build their city and the tower that "reaches to the heavens". Their goal for this city and tower was "so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth" (vs 4). They were a proud people, whose single desire was to become bigger and better through their own efforts. In the very next verse "the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building". I never realized that God actually came down to the tower of Babel to see what they were doing. How many "cities and towers" do I build in my life? With my own strength for my own glory. Period. How would I react if the Lord came down to see my works? Who would they be serving? What would His reaction be?
Just one more thought on The Tower of Babel... notice that one of the reasons the people build their tower is so they would not be scattered and yet after God sees their works "the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth" (vs 8)....
The next chapter looks at The Call of Abram. There's a lot I could cover here, but I just want to highlight God's promise to Abram:
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.[q]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”[r]
Oh how these promises must have meant so much to Abram. Can you imagine God speaking these words directly to you? Encouraging you to leave your country, your people, your fathers household because these things were waiting for you in your obedience?? I wonder if it was a hard decision for Abram, or if he was walking on air at the blessing-filled future God had promised him? To reflect these thoughts onto myself, how many promises has God made to me through His living Word? Do I embrace them and move forward out of my comfort zone, outside of my people, bringing blessings to others?
Ok, now to change gears to Matthew. Today I learned that our "Christian" journey to sharing our faith mirrors Jesus journey. He was baptized, tempted, then began to preach. I found it so interesting that Satan was allowed to tempt Jesus AFTER he was baptized and annointed by the Holy Spirit. He was armed with the Holy Spirit to be empowered to reisist Satans attacks. And only after both of those events happened, did he take on the work of spreading the gospel. I have heard many people pray specifically over the newly baptized saying that Satan will be on attack even more than usual for awhile. I never connected it to Jesus' journey here in Matthew.
Praying a good day to you all, and I'm looking forward to hearing what God showed you in today's reading!
Tomorrow's passage: Genesis 13-15, Matthew 5:1-26
5 comments:
Really good thoughts, Jody. I especially liked the comments about the cities and towers we build for our own strength and for our own glory. Definitely something to think about.
What stood out to me today was the responses of Jesus to Satan when he was being tempted, especially the third one. "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only." If we're focused on God, and spending time with him on a regular basis, worshipping him and serving him, we won't be so easily distracted with other pursuits or led down paths that lead nowhere.
Have a great day, everybody!
Happy first post, Jody!! Great job! I like your comparison of the Tower of Babel with our constant efforts at self-glorification. So true.
I wonder what that must have been like ~ to be working side-by-side with someone and suddenly not be able to understand a single thing they were saying! And even more startling, to hear strange-sounding words come out of your own mouth and yet knowing what they meant!! That must have been a bizarre, chaotic period of time!
I never compared the tower of Babel to self glorifying tasks and it certainly makes it more applicable to life now. I think God still disrupts our plans on purpose just to turn us away from self-glorifying activities and to make us more dependent on Him.
I had also never thought about Jesus' baptism before he was tempted as fuel to stand up against Satan. Very good point.
Happy First Post Jode - it was a good one!
Great thoughts about the Tower of Babel and how we so often do the same thing. The phrase "God came down" really jumped out at me too and reminded me that our God is not a faraway and impersonal God that doesn't care about our everyday life. He cares and He knows every detail. We cannot hide our deeds or the motives behind them.
I also thought it significant that Jesus fought temptation with scripture, and that He recognized Satan's misinterpretation of scripture for what it was - both of which are only possible for us if we truly KNOW scripture. Which is exactly what this blog is for!
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