As The Lord Promised (Genesis 21:1)

 

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Psalm 86

Genesis 21

Luke 3:1-14

As The Lord Promised (Genesis 21:1)

Wading our way through these Old Testament books can get pretty confronting: there seems to be so much drama, tragedy, and, well, plain old messy humanity. If we get upset at something like today’s passage, then just consider what real life today is like: terrible things happen all the time. Far from being a reason to reject these pages of sacred scripture, the reality of it all should give us an even better reason to treat it honestly.

But in the midst of family drama, puff-chested patriarchs, and all the rest of it, glimpses of the promised head-crusher keep popping out. Note here the birth of Isaac and how the fact that it was promised by God takes up two verses. Yes, there has been lying, cheating, fighting, murdering, fire, and brimstone – all the things that happen all the time on this planet – but the Messiah is still coming; the promise is still being kept.

In fact, it is almost as if God doesn’t treat us like sheltered, spoiled children, but rather allows us to see the full force of what the world can do before the next step of the promised rescue happens. Sarah was old, and Abraham even older, before Isaac came onto the scene. Their characters took a lot of shaping and refining before the promised child could be entrusted to them. And what if it is the same with us? The miracle of God’s grace in our lives is far too wonderful a thing for a feeble mortal to be able to wield – yet God wants us to have it, and so keeps working us into people of faith.

What are you praying for God to give you? Have you given up hope that God will not give it to you? What aspects of your personal character need to be conformed into the image of Christ before the next stage of God’s blessings will come to you?

Lord and Everlasting God: humble me in your presence, so that I may be conformed into the image of Christ, and so that through me you may bless the world and people around me.