EVERY WORD OF GOD FOR DAILY LIVING BY: PASTOR PAUL RIKA:
INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR Holiness Revival Movement Worldwide
TITLE: GIVE GOD COSTLY OBEDIENCE FOR YOUR PEACE AND ETERNAL LIFE
DATE: Wednesday, January 20, 2021
TEXT: Genesis 21:1-12
KEY VERSE: Isaiah 1:19 ‘If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:’
You want peace? Certainly you need it! In your life you are looking for peace; in your family you are looking for peace; even in your neighborhood you are looking for peace. Also in the church, you are looking for peace. This peace is only found in obedience. Some demands of God are very costly; hence some people reject them. In so doing, they reject the way to peace; they reject what is meant for their eternal life; they deny their blessings. In today’s devotional text, God demanded a costly obedience from Abraham. Thank God, Abraham gave Him what He was looking for. That made God to do for Abraham what He planned to do. Abraham had been walking with God for several years and God promised him that He would give him a child. He gave him a particular time that the child would be born and then it was done at his old age. It is good to trust the Lord continuously. The Lord had promised Abraham and Sarah a child and that He would multiply them exceedingly upon the earth, but Sarah was not patient enough to wait for God.
Sarah began to use carnal wisdom thinking, ‘Maybe God meant that Abraham can marry another woman that would give him a child and that would still be my child.’ That was a wrong interpretation. That was what she did and Hagar, her maid, gave birth to Ishmael for Abraham, hence Ishmael became the first son of Abraham. Ishmael was about fourteen years old when Isaac was born to Abraham and Isaac was about two years old when he was weaned from breast milk we suppose. At this time, Ishmael should be about sixteen years old so when Ishmael saw the child Isaac crawling or walking or playing about, he mocked and despised the child. He treated the child contemptuously and Sarah saw it. It must be noted that Abraham had Ishmael as his son and they had lived with each other as father and son, played together, gone to various places together for about sixteen years and now Sarah is asking Abraham to send both mother and son away from the house because she didn’t want Ishmael to share in her son’s inheritance. Sarah’s request grieved Abraham but God commanded him to let go. Abraham did and it was a costly obedience for the sake for heaven.
Thought for the day: Even if God’s demand on you is hard and difficult, do it!
Song for the day: Trust and obey for there’s no other way….
Bible reading for the day: Genesis 46-48; Matthew 14:22-36