Genesis 16:1-18:19, Matthew 6:1-24, Psalms 7:1-17, Proverbs 2:1-5
Today is the 7th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today at the threshold of a sparkly, shiny, new week. And we’re about to head together into the first full week of this brand-new year. And I’m excited for all that this week will unpack and unfold for us as we take the next steps forward through the Scriptures this year. And we’ll take the next step forward by picking up where we left off yesterday. This week we’ll read from the Christian Standard Bible. Genesis chapter 16 verse 1 through 18 verse 15.
Commentary:
Okay. So, Abram becomes Abraham today. This is all part of Abraham entering into a covenant with God. And, although in the Scriptures we will read through Abraham’s life and find it he dies and then follow along with future generations, Abraham’s presence will be felt throughout the rest of the Bible. In fact, there aren’t very many people who have ever lived that would be considered more important than Abraham. Even today, nearly half the world’s population would trace their religious convictions back to this man. It is through Abraham that the children of Israel will come to be. So, what we see is that God has promised Abraham and his offspring a specific piece of land. And we’ve talked about the importance of that piece of land. And God had promised him that his offspring would outnumber the sands of the seashore, the stars in the sky. The problem was, Abraham was too old for this, and his wife, Sarah, was too old for this, and they didn’t have any kids, so, it was pretty unclear how that was going to happen. And, so, we see an instance of Abraham and Sarah trying to force the promise to come true by Sarah giving Hagar, her maidservant, to Abraham as a surrogate wife, which didn’t work out so well in the marriage. But God reiterated that what He was talking about was the union between Abraham and Sarah, and they would have a son in their old age. And this was an impossibility. And they laughed and they couldn’t figure out how this could be. But Abraham believed God and that’s actually you become a big deal later when we get into the writings of the apostle Paul, because this promise is going to be fulfilled, and there is going to be a great people. We’ll read the entire story. This is the origin story of the Hebrews. The apostle, Paul, will use what we’re reading about right now, this promise of Isaac and Abraham’s belief that it could happen even though he has no idea how. Paul will argue that it is Abraham’s faith that brought him into covenant with God. And by faith, that’s how we enter into covenant with God as well. Because Abraham believed God, and God credited that faith as righteousness. And, so, Paul will argue that it’s the same, we are made righteous through faith, because Abraham didn’t have a Bible to read. And Abraham didn’t have any rules to follow. None of that happened yet. He wasn’t doing that. He was just believing. And that’s a very, very big deal in the teachings of the apostle Paul. So, I’m not trying to get us ahead of ourselves or muddy the waters so that we’re confused. I’m trying to point this out now because we’re right here in this story, we’re right at the beginning. And this, what we’re reading right now, affects everything else that comes later. So, when see this coming up in the Bible, we can remember, this was the story. We’re reading it now.
And then, in the book of Matthew, we’re working our way through the Sermon on the Mount, and we encounter one of the most well-known, well memorized passages in all of the Scripture, known as the Lord’s prayer. Most of us could probably recite it from memory right this second. However, Jesus concludes the Lord’s prayer with some thoughts that get us into some difficult territory. And it’s actually good that we get into this territory at the beginning of the year because, if we’ll listen to what Jesus is saying, we can live a much more free this year than maybe ever before. But it’s going to take some work. But, if we’ll do the work, we’ll be honoring the Lord’s prayer. So, immediately following this prayer, Jesus says, ‘for, if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well, but if you don’t forgive others, Your Father will not forgive your offenses.’ Yeah. I know. Kind of hard to wiggle around that one. Why is Jesus instructing this? And we can turn to our own defense and say, well, you don’t know what she did to me, you don’t know what they did to me, you know what he did to our family, you don’t know what they have done over years. I can’t do it. But then that makes us look at our faith itself. Right? So, we go back to the book of Genesis and we see that Abraham believed God, in an absolutely impossible situation and it was credited to him as righteousness. So, we have to start there, because as we’ll be told later in the Scriptures, it’s impossible to please God without faith. And Jesus is telling us that when we release people from their offenses against us, we are actually activating our own forgiveness. So, we have to wonder, is Jesus laying down rules or is He offering the keys to freedom? How much unforgiveness would you say that you are carrying around in your life? And I’m saying it’s not legitimate. I’m just saying how much are you carrying around? And if you had to imagine it, what would you imagine that it looks like? I mean, would you say it looks like a nice flower patch in the springtime? Or would you say it’s more like a polluted pond? Probably the latter. The places of unforgiveness in our lives are attached to, probably, pretty significant wounds. And we try to insulate ourselves from those things. We don’t even want to think about those things. But what we’ll find as we move deeper into the Scriptures is that unforgiveness is like drinking from a polluted pond. It’s like poison in our lives. It’s like cancer for our souls. Jesus isn’t threatening us by telling us that we have to forgive and if we don’t we won’t be forgiven. He’s telling us that forgiveness is the way of the kingdom of heaven. And isn’t that our whole story of faith? Isn’t it that God was merciful and kind enough, that even while we were estranged from Him, even as an enemy to Him, still, He died for us, still, He was merciful, still, He forgave us? Isn’t that the example of Jesus as He’s being nailed to a cross by calling to His Father for forgiveness for those who were killing Him? So, we can see, forgiveness is a very, very important thing to God. And I’m sure that even as we’re talking about this right now, things begin to bubble up. Places that are wounded and maybe have unforgiveness involved, they begin to come up, we begin to remember. And forgiveness doesn’t mean that an injustice wasn’t done to you in some way or that you’re supposed to gloss it over like it wasn’t a big deal. Forgiveness means that we release those events and those involved to God. It means that we take these things that are polluted inside of us and that lead us into all kinds of different directions because were acting out of woundedness and release it to God. It means we pull the plug on the polluted pond and let it drain out. We begin to realize just how much grace it has taken to get us to this point, just how much we have been forgiven, and realize, holding on to all this, it is tearing us up inside. We’re leaving a pipeline for the evil one to exploit directly into our hearts. What Jesus is offering us here, at the end of the Lord’s prayer, is certainly counsel and certainly the fact of the matter in His kingdom, but it’s also permission, permission to offload all of this. We don’t have to carry this around inside of us anymore. I mean, imagine what it would be like to not be holding anything in your heart toward anyone else. What kind of freedom would that be? That’s what were invited into.
Prayer:
Jesus, we hear You. We hear You and it brings up all kinds of things. And this is going to take some work, but were starting this work now by just inviting Your Holy Spirit to bring these things up. And some of these things we haven’t thought about in years and we don’t want to think about. We don’t want to go there, but You’re saying give that person, give that event to Me. Let Me come to that place that has become a scar or that place that has continued to seep poison and infection into your soul. Give that to Me. Let Me come to that place. Let Me begin to heal You there. You don’t have to carry that weight anymore. So, we’re hearing You Jesus, and we’re opening our hearts to You. We trust You and we invite You into these areas of unforgiveness. And we see that You are offering us our freedom. Come, Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Song:
It’s the hardest thing to give away
And the last thing on your mind today
It always goes to those who don’t deserve
It’s the opposite of how you feel
When they pain they caused is just too real
Takes everything you have to say the word
Forgiveness, forgiveness
It flies in the face of all your pride
It moves away the mad inside
It’s always anger’s own worst enemy
Even when the jury and the judge
Say you’ve got a right to hold a grudge
It’s the whisper in your ear saying set it free
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness
It’ll clear the bitterness away
It can even set a prisoner free
There is no end to what its power can do
So let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace
The prisoner that it really frees is you
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Show me how to love the unlovable
Show me how to reach the unreachable
Help me now to do the impossible
Forgiveness
I want finally set it free
Show me how to see what your mercy sees
Help me now to give what You gave to me
Forgiveness, forgiveness
Forgiveness, forgiveness