October 3, 2010
Scripture:
Prayer
Hymn 335 - I am so glad that our Father in Heaven,
Prayer
Last week we had a list of bad things up here on the board. One very bad thing that God hates is lying.
Genesis 27:1-19
If you remember, Isaac and Rebekah had twin boys. The Lord and Rebekah loved Jacob, but Isaac loved Esau because of the venison that he brought him.
Now Isaac was old and blind, and he felt that he might die soon. So, he told Esau to go and get him some meat, so that he could eat it and bless Esau before he died. This wasn’t God’s will. God wanted Jacob to get the blessing.
Rebekah heard what Isaac said, and she told Jacob, “Go and kill a couple of young goats, I’ll cook up the meat, and then you can go and give it to your father and get blessed.” Jacob said, “But my father will feel my arms and because I am smooth and Esau is hairy, he’ll find out who I am and curse me instead.” So Rebekah put the skins of the goats on Jacob’s arms to make them feel rough and hairy. She had him put on Esau’s clothes and Jacob brought the meat to Isaac. He said, “I am Esau your first-born”.
That was a lie. That was wrong. But hadn’t his mother told him to do it? Doesn’t the Bible tell us to obey our parents? It says, “Obey your parents in the Lord”, and that means that we are to obey our parents as long as it isn’t wrong. Thankfully, because your parents love the Lord, I don’t think that they will ask you to do bad things. Jacob should have told Rebekah, “This is wrong, and we can’t do this.”
So those are our lessons for today: it’s wrong to lie, and we are to obey our parents in the Lord.
We’ve noticed how most of the Jews were insensitive to God. But when everything seemed to be so low, we have v. 16. We see that there were still some who revered the Lord. It says they spoke to one another about Him. They enjoyed fellowship; how precious when we can share what we have enjoyed about the Lord with other Christians. Of course, we can talk about the work of the Lord, something they knew nothing about. But, like them, we are just a very few who seek to go on for the Lord. How precious to keep His Word and not deny His name. We’re reminded in I John that if we walk in the light, we can have this fellowship. The Jews we’re reading about didn’t have a Bible; they couldn’t have a Bible study, but they could just talk together about God. It would have been a comfort, not only to them, but also to the Lord. He would have joy in seeing their devotedness, because He wrote it down. It’s precious to know that when we do this, the Lord listens and is delighted. It’s a good reminder: the Lord expects us to come to readings as well as the remembrance of the Lord; he appreciates His children discussing things concerning Himself.
The remnant did one other thing we’re told about in this verse: they thought upon His name. There are many names of God given in the Old Testament, and many names of the Lord given in the New Testament. We saw how most of the Jews despised God’s name; however, these few reverenced the Lord’s name. Think about all the names of God and the Lord given in the Word. Each one is so full; you could spend a lifetime studying them all! When you realize how rich and full His names are, it puts the fact that some despised His name in a new light; how much He must have hated that. Yet, how many today do the same: it’s so common to hear someone take the Lord’s name in vain. May we reverence that name!
Hymn 28, appendix, Little Flock - There is no other name than Thine
Prayer