January 5th: Genesis 11-13:4; Matthew 5:1-26; Psalm 5:1-12; Proverbs 1:24-28

Day 5

Today's reading is from Genesis 11-13:4; Matthew 5:1-26; Psalm 5:1-12; Proverbs 1:24-28

1-9 We start off in Genesis with the story of the tower of Babel. The people in the whole world speak one language. They were commanded by God to spread out as they populate the earth. Here they come up with a plan that upsets God- they decide a few things 1) they want to make a name for themselves for the purpose of not being scattered 2) they think they will accomplish this through a huge city with a tower that reaches to the heavens.
It's important to understand building the tower was not for the purposes of reaching the heavens as in the place where God is enthroned - but rather to reach the sky "the heavens" can also refer to everything above the earth. Their goal in the tower is not to get to heaven but to build a structure so big that their city makes a name for themselves and they feel unmovable. They wanted a tower that stood out and gave them a reputation.
Accomplishments are not a bad thing in and of themselves but we need to be constantly checking our own motivations: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better then yourselves."
God admits their plans are not impossible but rather that all of their plans can work through their one mindedness in this matter.
God is upset by their attitudes. They want to bring glory to themselves and not to Him. They want to secure themselves against having to obey God and they think that their refuge against God and men can be found in their own accomplishments. Their motives are wrong and they are working together for a common bad and feeling very self sufficient about it. We see that they have sophistication. They are not building towers with stones but bricks. They are advanced and skilled in their abilities.
Yet their work together which is "not impossible" because they can accomplish anything together that they had planned out- will all be thwarted. God can intervene when we set our selves up for what looks like unstoppable success if He does not approve and chooses to intervene.
Which is exactly what He does here. It says that He confuses all of their languages to stop them from working together and scatters them all over the earth.

Two other things that stand out here is first off - how it talks about how God came down and looked at the city. We know that God is everywhere and that he is omnipresent but the image is rather a contrast to the God that walked with them all the time in the garden before the fall. Now we see a separation or a "coming down" of God to be with us. This leads to the other interesting point of the power of being united with a common goal and mind. When we believe in Jesus we are given the Holy Spirit who leads us in all truths and helps us have the mind of Christ. We are united in our goal - all believers all over the planet are united and of one mind: To honor the Lord and make Him known (rather then making a name for ourselves).

It is no wonder then that Jesus tells His disciples that once He dies and they receive the Holy Spirit they will go on to do even greater things then He did. That is quite the statement from the creator of the world but we often underplay and do not realize the POWER of Gods Spirit.

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10-26 Now we move back into genealogy. When we heard of it last and the lines of his three sons: two of them were covered extensively: ham and Shem. We learned that Ham who was cursed became the great grand daddy to many nations that became corrupt or notable enemies of Gods people. (as a side bar Nineveh is mentioned as defending from hams people and we know God reached out to the Ninahvites even though they were corrupt- showing how God does show grace on all people).
The other son Shem - we are shown, becomes the line through which Abraham comes. Four generations are added on till we get to Abraham's dad.

27-32
Terah- Abrahams dad has 3 sons: Abram, Nahor and Haran.
I'll guess that Haran is the oldest because He dies first, but also because one of his daughters marries one of his brothers. Haran is the dad of Lot (who also is like a brother to Abraham- they stick together for quite a while). Haran also has two more children Milkah and Iskah. Milkah is the one who marries Abraham's 3rd brother named Nahor.
We are told Sarai- Abrahams wife is not able to conceive. Nahor may have died because he is not mentioned as setting out with his dad and going to a place called Harran, along with his nephew and brother.

Abraham is called Abram & Sarah is called Sarai in those times.


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Chapter 12 starts with Abraham's calling.
He is told to leave his country, his people and dads house to go wherever God tells him.

2-3 He is given a few promises:
1) Great Nation,
2) name great,
3) bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who cures Abraham,
4) all people of the earth will be blessed through him

1) Israelites come from Him.
2) Even Muslims respect the name of Abraham and claim to be his descendants.
3) That is a pretty cool promise
4) Jesus.

4-9
Abraham goes where God tells him to (Caanan for now) along with his wife, his nephew Lot, and all their possessions and people they have accumulated (possibly servants & slaves and workers). He gets there and God tells him that he will give his offspring the land the Canaanite were in. He builds an altar to God there. Then continues on. Gets to the next spot and builds another altar there and calls on God. Then moves on to the next destination.

12:10-13:4 Now we are told Abraham gets side tracked to go to Egypt for a while because of a famine. His wife is beautiful and he does a pretty bad thing to his wife and Pharaoh out of fear. She is pretty and he is worried he will be murdered if they decide they want her as their wife. He is right about them wanting her because Pharaoh does marry her... because Abraham makes her lie and pretend to be his sister. How horrible for Sarah to go through all of that... but God looks out for her and inflicts disease on Pharaoh and makes him find out the truth. Pharaoh is pretty upset about all of this and gives Abraham back his wife and asks them to leave Egypt.

We see how fear makes people do dumb things. I wonder what fears I am holding on to where I need to trust God to take care of me instead of looking for a short cut to stay safe/protected quicker.

They all leave and Abram ends up physically in the place he had been earlier where he built the second altar and called on Gods name. He is now much more wealthy but he calls on Gods name there.
Throughout scripture we are warned about wealth and money corrupting. Abraham is blessed by God and being back here may be a good reminder of his roots. He is in the same place but in a different life situation financially but he has a visual (altar) that reminds him of calling on God.
What do I use to remind myself to call on God's name no matter the situation so that when times change I keep my focus on God and seeking His direction for my life?

I find it encouraging to imagine Abraham calling on God. I wonder what He asks. I imagine Him asking for direction which I can relate to.

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Now we move on to Matthew....
This is my husbands favorite passage-- the sermon on the mount.
If we back track... yesterday we learned how he had started preaching and he was healing everyone and had become pretty well known all around and beyond where he was from, and wherever he went, crowds would gather.

So we could picture a big crowd when he gives this famous sermon.
He talks about people who are blessed...

1-12
The poor in Spirit are blessed in the exact same way as those persecuted for doing what is right: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

But what does that mean anyway? I used to get images of a sad person being "poor in Spirit", or someone who is down trodden or just has been dealt a lousy personality, but the beatitude about the one who mourns covers the one who is sad. This poor in Spirit - the Greek word best matches "beggar".
Do we recognize our Spiritual poverty? Do we think that on our own we can be good enough or do we understand that we have nothing to give God and are Spiritually bankrupt with God? This ties well with verse 20 that says "unless your righteousness surpasses the pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven". In others words. You need to realize you don't have what it takes. You cannot make it to God on your own merit. This is KEY to receiving the Kingdom of heaven. You will not go through radiation or cancer treatment if you don't acknowledge that you have cancer. Likewise, unless you see that there is nothing you can do to earn your salvation, you will not receive Gods grace (Grace by definition is undeserved favor!). If you think you are kind of good, or that you can work at being good enough to be accepted by God you are out of luck. You have missed the point that you are POOR (bankrupt) Spiritually. It is only God who is righteous, so you can only have his righteousness because our righteous acts are like "filthy rags". We do not do good to be received by God but rather because love Him and He lives in us with HIS righteousness and not our own - over flowing from us because we belong to Him and have His Spirit in us. Because our Spirit is POOR (dead, garbage!).


Those who mourn- grieving is good. God comforts those who grieve.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they are "filled"... or they will get satisfaction in the end. It is a good encouragement not to give up, because if you hunger and thirst for what is right you may end up seeing a lot of discouraging stuff that puts you in that hungry place- wanting righteousness. But where is your righteousness? If you look to yourself you will not be filled, but if you have trust in Jesus you will be filled with Hope knowing that He has won whatever battle you are fighting and that He will make things right (again, you need to have faith, hope and recognize He already has victory but things on earth may not be fixed immediately in the time table we wish. God is patient and may allow things we don't like to go on longer then we want. Do we continue to trust?)!

Peacemakers, - I like a good fight sometimes, this is a challenge to me because sometimes my attitude is wrong. Sometimes I laugh hard and enjoy watching two people fight with each other. I don't think this is so much are you pro war or a pacifist but that this stretches further, to your attitude with other people. Do you like to argue and be right all the time? Do you sling words that cause tension? Are you the one who likes watching a good fight? Or do you actually want people to get a long and you do your best to bridge gaps people have between each other? That is what Jesus was... a gap Bridger... between us and God, and those who follow in his steps are called children of God.

Those who are persecuted for doing right (we are told later that all followers of Jesus will share in his sufferings and be rejected & persecuted, with garbage made up about us, because we are his followers) the blessing is that we are heaven bound! The Kingdom of heaven is ours!
We are told to rejoice & be glad because our reward in heaven will be great.

Blessed are the meek, (the humble and the gentle who are staying calm and submitting to God while they are keeping their self emotions and heart in check) for they will inherit the earth. The opposite of the meek are the pushy, arrogant, rough, emotionally driven without reigning in your mouth, prideful or passion without wisdom on how to use it gently on others. Some have defined meek as "power under control". I like "emotions under control" better, and think gentle and humble describe it well! Google says it means a disposition to be patient and long suffering.

Blessed are the merciful, (compassion shown toward offenders by the offended, a disposition to be kind and forgiving) for they will be shown the exact same thing!

To be pure or to be "pure in heart" to me are separate things. You could be "pure" by avoiding the impure things, but then find yourself proud or arrogant or impatient with others, or so grieved by impurity that you are full of anger towards others that is listed at the end of this sermon on the mount. So staying pure in heart is not just being pure but keeping the right attitude towards others as you do that. Staying humble and loving towards others, and gentle and full of hope. Those types of people get to SEE God.

13-16 we are called Salt and Light.
We have properties of preserving and bringing out the flavor or who God is... and of bringing clarity and illumination/direction, showing what is hidden to others. We are told not to hide those things or have them die out in us, but to use them or else what use are we? Our qualities are there so that we can point people to God so that he can be glorified because of how we act.

17-19
A new book?
There are always new Prophets that pop up with some "new revelation of God" because they say the old one got corrupted or isn't reliable or good (Mormons, JW's all say that the bible cannot be relied on, so the Mormons have their new book and the JW's have their watch tower to guide them), likewise Muslims believe the bible has been corrupted and that the real truth is in their bible (although all these new books are written later, and the actual bible has so many ancient manuscripts pointing to the preservation of the word of God all through the years).
Jesus talks about how the law stands firm. The regulations are not things to toss aside. He is not here to make them void, but to complete them. He will meet the consequences of the law, thus proving how valid they are- by fulfilling the law. He shows the integrity of God in preserving his law by saying "the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." He says not even to set aside the least of the commands, or you will be least in heaven, but rather to teach it all, and you will be great. The entire commands of God- the whole bible is important to God.

In Verse 20 He sort of lays down the fact that obeying the law still puts heaven out of reach because he says that unless their righteousness surpasses the Pharisees they wont make the cut for eternal life. This would be discouraging, but Jesus had already pointed to the fact that He had come to fulfill the law. If they were looking to themselves to fulfill it they were missing his point.

21-22 Jesus warns that they used to think that murdering someone put them in Gods bad graces, but that they need to understand that being angry with someone brings them under Gods judgement as well. Anger is at the root of murder, and how they feel murders should be treated, that is how God will handle being angry at a brother.

23-24 If you have a beef with someone around you, God wants you to work that out with the person before coming to God. In other words, don't go to church if you and your spouse are all upset at each other. Don't walk in the doors with your husband or wife upset at you. Being on time is not as important to God as you keeping your relationships with others right!

25-26 Jesus does not seem to be a big fan of the human justice system and our courts. Now he is not telling people not to pursue law making, or upholding human justice, but he talks about being on the side where you could take it to court or work something out- outside of court. He says to try and work things out before they get to that point. He admits that the legal system is a big cash drain for money.
Sorry Lawyers!



Psalm 5
David is directing pipes this time.
1-2 He is lamenting and crying for help and wants God to hear him.
3 He talks about praying at the start of a day and expecting God to answer.
4-6 Just talk about the kind of people who are not welcome and can't stand before God because he will destroy them... the wicked, evil, arrogant, liars, violent people. He hates all of that.
7 But because of Gods great love David talks about how he can reverently come before God.
8 He doesn't want to be tripped up by enemies but wants God to lead him.
9-10 He talks about how bad the evil are and how guilty they are. He wants God to deal with them and justice to take effect because "they have rebelled against you". Often we are upset at evil people who hurt us, but David is upset at those who go against God, not against him.
11-12 He ends with focusing on those who love God- the righteous, who turn to Him for security. He talks about how they are protected and can be glad and filled with joy and that he surrounds them with favor.


Proverbs 1:24-28

24-27 God gets fed up. This last bit of reading is a warning against being stubborn. I think we should all assume his could be us with specific things. Sometimes He really goes all out to get our attention and we ignore and disregard it. He will laugh when we get what is coming to us. He goes as far as to say: “Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me"

He is so patient and warns us and talks to us. We need to be listeners of God. We need to call on Him and listen before He has to take drastic measures. There is a point in time where He will give us the full force of a smack down, and will not rescue us from our own stupidity (when we have repeatedly ignored his rebuke and his words and warnings!)