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You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Daily Bible Study
Lesson # Genesis 18:12-15 Study Material - Genesis 18:12-15 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Gen. 18:12-15 2 And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, 'After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?' 13 And the LORD said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?' 14 'Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.' 15 Sarah denied it however, saying, 'I did not laugh'; for she was afraid. And He said, 'No, but you did laugh.' Sarah is in the shadows so to speak. She was standing in the tent out of sight, but eavesdropping on the conversation between Abraham and the three guests. Abraham recognized the Lord, '..if I have found favor in your sight', is not a question that one asks of a total stranger. See verse 3, which we have already studied. Abraham is in fellowship, thus the interaction with Christ. Sarah is out of fellowship. She is in denial. Certainly Abraham told her of the promise from the previous meeting between Abraham and Christ. Abraham told all of the promise. Abraham circumcised his entire camp. That had to have been a very strange command from Abraham. Imagine those in the camp when Abram comes out and tells all that God had changed his name and commanded him to cut off some of his privates. Now wouldn't that seem a little strange to you? Remember that this is just about 400 years after the flood of Noah, and circumcision was not in practice. I'm certain that no one ever would have thought of this little surgical practice. So Abraham is convinced, there is no indication that the camp was not convinced, but rather that all males stepped forward to get circumcised along with all younger male children. Abraham laughed in relief and appreciation of the promise of a son. His compliance with a very strange command of circumcision is proof. Sarah is still having her doubts, thus the visit of the Lord. She is listening and thinking in her own soul. And Christ hears her thoughts, which is what she needs to convince her of the changes that will occur within her. She laughs, then she denies the laughter. She does all of this in total silence. Christ hears the laugh and makes mention of it to Abraham. He also contests her denial in conversation to Abraham. Abraham is probably wondering what in the world He is talking about. But the spoken words are for Sarah's benefit, not Abraham's. There is an implication here that Sarah may have refused sexual relations with Abraham, not out of meanness, but out of her unhappiness. This 'silent' conversation was all that she needed to convince her that Christ was indeed their guest, also, that if God makes a promise, He is able to make it so. What is too difficult for God? Nothing. He created the universe and all that is in it. Today we have the benefit of some advanced technology which shows us the tremendous complexities of the universe, both great (galaxies) and small (atomic components, etc.). The more we learn, the more we realize that there is far more that we do not understand. Sarah was convinced. How do we know? She conceived. She had to have sex with Abraham in order to conceive. She had to open up herself to accept and receive Abraham. You all know how this sex stuff works I'm certain. This is a perfect picture of her repentance, of her change in attitude toward the promise first revealed to her by Abraham, and then confirmed by God. God has all of the time in the world. He is patient. He is on His way to destroy Sodom, but takes the time to stop off at Abraham's home and have a conversation with Sarah. Though Sarah was not in His presence, that is, she was not outside of the tent with the three guests, but the conversation was for her benefit. How does this apply to each of us. Sarah just needed a little convincing that God did in fact make a promise. Many of us study our Bibles but we just do not quite get with the program. We do not follow our confession rules, thus we are out of fellowship, thus we live our lives in that jungle which is not to us. We have problem after problem. We get depressed, demoralized, frantic, we over react to little things. Sometimes our life seems to be existing inside a toilet, and a dirty one at that. We need to stop having unrealistic expectations. The spiritual life is not a drive through service, nor a quick fix answer to life's problems. The spiritual life is a way of life, a compliance with Gods commands to study daily, to maintain our fellowship status, to grow up spiritually and apply spiritual values to our daily existence. If is a building up of that spiritual muscle in the soul which we call faith. Such that, when problems do come along (and they certainly will), then we will have the inner resources to cope with them, and without falling apart. Most of the time we have problems that are really not world shattering, but in our life we have our little ups and downs, then we see examples of really big problems and sometimes we discover what happened. Probably the best recent example came out of the recent terrorist action in New York. We all know of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Probably most of us have heard of the many cell phone calls made by people from that plane. That the plane took of 40 minutes late so it was behind schedule which allowed many of the passengers to find out what was happening in New York. They were not stupid and new that they were destined for some building somewhere. One person called GE Phone service to report the hijacking and told the operator that there were many who were going to take the plane back. During that conversation the two parties prayed together. We know the results and can only imagine the struggle and lost control of the plane which probably happened. There was tremendous bravery on that plane. Often we get to read of the Biblical events like Daniel and the lions den, and here we have in our present day a very real lions den. Those people rose to the occasion. God had a definite purpose for their lives and he took them out in a blaze of glory, and with great honors. The terrorists certainly died without honor, the scum that they are. Also, the world sees the difference between those who support terrorists and those who do not. We see the forked tongue rhetoric that is televised by that Afghan government as well as various other people in the world. The difference between right and wrong is clear. Some need to have dramatic events to convince them that their spiritual life is deficient, while others need less. But the end conclusion is that we can all avoid misery in our life if we will just get with a study program now, rather than waiting for things to get all screwed up in our lives before that little light comes on in our little heads. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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