GENESIS 21

Yesterday, I started reading in Genesis all over.  I did not get any further in blogging than the first chapter.  Today, I started reading in chapter 21 and again, I'm only getting insights from this chapter alone.  There are just too much good stuff in every chapter, so I will concentrate on what I get from the first chapter in each days reading for a while until I need to go further.  Here are three things that spoke to me today.  1) LISTEN TO HER MAN.  In Genesis 21:12, God says to Abraham: "hearken unto her voice".  He is told to listen to his wife, Sarah.  Now man got into trouble earlier in Genesis by listening to his wife (Adam and Eve), but now God says to listen to her.  Well, it seems that we need discernment to know when to listen, and when not to listen.  Job did not listen to his wife when she said curse God and die, Moses did listen to his wife about the need to circumcise their son.  Ahab and Samson listen to their destruction, and Israel listened to Deborah to their deliverance. Abraham is told here to "hearken unto her voice".  The truth must be that in all of us their is both good and bad counsel.  We must be sure that what we say we have God's mind on.  But it also reminds us as men, that God gave us our wives to be our help meet; and that means to help us in every area of life.  We must value her counsel and be receptive to her insights.  God will hold the man responsible for whatever decision is reached, but God expects the man to listen to the woman that God created for the man.  A wise man listens to his wife's counsel. (though he may not obey it) 2) GOD WAS WITH THE LAD- This statement is found in Genesis 21:20.  It is talking about Ismael.  Now Ismael is the father of the Arab races.  And yet we find:  "God was with the lad".  God's mercy and love, spreads much farther than we could ever imagine.  We are so often guilty thinking that God only loves us loveable westerners.  And yet, God loves the world and everyone in it!  God was with the lad, and God did bless the lad and God said in verse 13: "And also of the son of the bond woman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed."  God made Ismael into a great nation, and only because God loved him and was with him.  He is with us too! 3) WITNESS- In Gen. 21:30, we have this verse: "And he said, For these seven ewe lambs halt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well."  This is the first time the word "witness" is used.  There was a dispute over a well that Abraham's men dug and to prove that he dug it, he gives the seven lambs as a witness of that fact.  Now, we are called to be witnesses.  I know that when we use that word, we are thinking about what we say when we share Jesus.  In a much broader and correct sense, we are not just witnesses when we share Christ, but we are witnesses for Jesus Christ everyday of our lives.  (for good or bad)  We are left on planet earth to be witnesses.  That is why we are to talk different, walk different, think different, act different, etc.... because we are a witness!  Our lives should catch the attention of a lost world that Jesus Christ has made a difference in our lives!  This is why living the Christian life should be different than the world, because we are witnesses of Jesus Christ on the earth.  Wow! Well, just covered one chapter... there were nineteen others, but I'll get to them someday.  Have a blessed day.... Pastor Mike Mutchler