Redeemable

Genesis is full of interesting stories, and they involve people God has blessed. Yet in them we see some atrocious behavior. Last week was a bit hectic for me, so today you get the insight I had last week.

In Genesis 19 Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, but God rescues Lot, Abraham's nephew. He escapes with his wife and two daughters, but the wife looks back and is turned to a pillar of salt. The go to a near by town, Zoar, but leave because we are told Lot was afraid to stay there. The end up living in a cave in the mountains.

What follows is a story of his two daughters, knowing they won't find husbands in the mountains, seeking a way to preserve their family line. They get their father drunk and sleep with him. For a long time I've wondered why we are told this story, what was the point of all of it. But in my most recent read through I noticed this, "The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day" (verse 37).

Moad was east of the Jordan, and during a time of famine Elimelech of Bethlehem, took his wife and two sons to Moab. The sons married, but the father and sons all died in the land. A grieving wife and mother returns home, accompanied by one of her daughter-in-laws, a young woman named Ruth. And now the connection is made.

Ruth married Boaz, they had a son named Obed. Obed became the father of Jesse, who had a son named David. David became King of Israel, and God promised that one of his descendants would sit on the throne forever. A few centuries later, Jesus is born.

God can take any act and redeem it. If you think about it, that is what God does. He sees something that isn't good, and He makes it good. Now this doesn't excuse sin. It doesn't permit us the attitude of "I can go do whatever I want, God will forgive me for it later." Paul wrote in Romans 6.1-2, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"

When we come to new life in Christ, God has redeemed us from the old life of sin. We cease living in sin, and live as Christ. But don't be discouraged by the past. Your past doesn't disqualify you from the love of God. God can take anything and redeem it.

"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."

To God alone be the Glory!

Peace be with you

Good

So here's what I'm thinking. Part of me really just doesn't feel like it's time to let this blog go. I've poured a lot into this over the last four years, a lot of insights, and bits of my heart as well. A lot is going on in my life, and I don't have the time available at the moment to do a lot with this, but I'm thinking that I do have the time to share a few thoughts each week. Our life group at church is doing something a little different this year. We're taking the Bible Reading plan that the church has made and working through it as a group. As I'm reading I find things that stand out to me, and when I find a particularly good thought, I'm going to share it here.

This week as I read I noticed this: God only makes things that are good, and when something isn't good, He takes it and makes it good. Look at creation in Genesis 1. God speaks, it happens, and it is good. That is who God is. He is good, and therefore everything He puts His hands to is good. That means the serpent was good, because Genesis 3.1 says, "which the LORD God had made."

Satan does not have the power to create, he can only work with what is here. He takes what God has made as good, and twists it for his own uses. He takes the serpent, and uses it to deceive the Adam and the woman, and bring about the fall of man. He takes sex, something that God created for a husband and wife to enjoy together as an act of worship and procreation, and turns it into fornication, homosexuality, adultery, and pornography. He takes man, and has him desire to be like God, convincing him that it is possible and that it is worth it. He takes everything good, and tries to distort it so that we buy into the lie that we know what is best for us.

But God loves us too much to leave it like this. God doesn't just create things that are good, but takes things that aren't good and makes them good. Genesis 2.18, "then the LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.'" something wasn't good, and so God then made it good. He never leaves things unfinished, or does them half heartedly.

This reading is unique because it pairs the Old Testament and New Testament, and so as we're reading about the creation and fall in Genesis, we're also reading about the birth of Christ in Matthew. Seeing God's original plan, and then seeing the plan of redemption unfold, side by side has been pretty amazing. God sees something that isn't good, and so He sets to work to make it good.

"I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread."

To God alone be the Glory!

Peace be with you