July 26, 2009
Scripture:
Scripture:
Prayer
Hymn 10 - Faith is a very simple thing
Prayer
We’ve been speaking about Noah; we find his story in the book of Genesis. If you overview the whole book of Genesis, we’ll find that there are six main men, and their families.
So, let’s start looking at the life of Abram. Read Genesis 12:1. God came to Abram, we’re not sure how, and told him to leave his home, his family, and his country and to go to a place that God would show him. He was to leave everything and start out on a journey, not knowing where he would end up. Would you want to go? No, I probably wouldn’t want to leave my home town and not know where I was going. But in the next verse, God made Abram a promise. He said He would make a great nation out of Abram; Abraham would become the father of the Jewish nation. You know, this is the calling of Abraham. We have a calling, too: the Christian calling. Abraham was called to leave his country; we are called to separate ourselves from the world.
Read v. 3: Abraham had the blessing of the Lord; anyone who blessed him would be blessed, and anyone who cursed him would be cursed. Do you want the blessing of the Lord in your life?
I want to jump to chapter 15 now; in the meantime, there has been a battle, and Abram has rescued many of the people of the town of Sodom. The king of the town wanted to give Abram a reward, but he wouldn’t take it, because God had promised to bless him, so he didn’t need wealth from others. God came to Abram in v. 1 and told him that He would be greater to Abram than the king of Sodom. Abram wondered what else God could promise him, since he didn’t have any children; he thought that his servant would have to inherit everything, v.2. But God said that would not be the case, v. 3. Even though Abram was 75 years old, God promised him that he would have a family. In v, 5, God took him out to view the stars, telling him that his descendants would be that many. What did Abram do about this? Read v. 6: he believed everything God told him. We believe God at salvation; it looked so impossible: we couldn’t take away even one of our sins. We need faith like Abraham to be saved.
We didn’t mention the gate Miphkad, in ch.3:31. The name means “muster, review”; it’s a picture of the Judgement Seat of Christ, where our lives will be reviewed.
Chapter 3 was an outline of the restoration of the wall; now chapter 4 goes back and details the difficulties they had as they built the wall.
In ch. 2, Sanballat and Tobiah ridiculed Nehemiah’s idea of building a wall. Now that the Jews are actively building, they mock them. From what they are saying, it seems that they don’t think the Jews are doing a very thorough job; but if that’s the case, why are they worrying?
It appears that Sanballat has a connection with the army of Samaria. The Samaritans had a religion different from the Jews, as we can see from John 4. This is opposition from those who have their own religions. We will be mocked by those who have their own beliefs. But the Israelites didn’t give up when this happened. They had a mind to work, vv. 4 & 5. However, they felt their weakness and because of that, they prayed to the Lord. They also set a watch, v. 9. We, too, should look to God when our enemies arise. We should be quick to pray in times of trial. The Israelites worked, watched, and prayed. Read Ephesians 6:18. There will always be enemies when we are doing the Lord’s work; let us have a mind to work.
Hymn 105 - Nothing but the name of Jesus
Prayer