Thursday, January 5, 2017

Thurs.’s Devo - The Entrance of Death and Life

Read: Genesis 11:1-13:4; Matthew 5: 1-26; Psalm 5: 1-12; Proverbs 1:24-28
When we think of the early men who were on the earth during this time, we think of them as being ignorant and not well advanced but that was far from the truth. Adam used 100% of his brain and after the fall this started diminishing but they were still very smart. When they began to build the tower of Babel they were not just building a tower to heaven, they were opening a portal to heaven… and they were succeeding because they were all of one language and one mind. If the church would ever get this unified, nothing would stop us either. God had to come down to stop them. Man was not the way to heaven, Jesus was to be the only way into heaven and his time was not yet..
This event marked the entrance of Babylon on the earth which means “confusing”. It will be the same spirit that will be around till the end. It is the spirit that tries to exalt itself against the power of God. It is the Mystery Babylon that John talks about in Revelation.
God called Abram out of his family to go to a country God would show him and become a great nation where God would bless him, make his name great, and he would be a blessing to all the families on the earth. What a promise! That is exactly what God calls us to do when he calls us out of the world and into salvation. We are to be blessed, make a name on the earth for the Lord and be a blessing to the whole earth.
Abrams took Sarai as his wife and along with Sarai, he took Lot, his nephew with him. He pitched his tent between Bethel which means “house of God” and Hai which means a “heap”. They are the total opposite of each other. It was like he was standing between heaven and earth. There he built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord.
Sarah was one of a long list of barren women in the Bible. Barrenness has to do with not being able to bring forth life. They were barren until God touched them. They were to show us that the only way we can really bring forth life is to have God overshadow us and breath life in us. Once God brought the Word to Sarah, she would be able to bring forth life.
Matthew was the gospel written to the Jews to highlight that Jesus was the king of the Jews. Today we see him teaching the crowds about the kingdom of heaven. He taught that we are to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and blessed. He gave them the spirit of the law. At this time, the leaders of the law had so added to Moses’s law that they had made their new laws more important than the original Mosaic law. Jesus always took them back to to the law of God and taught them what the spirit of that law meant.
Lord, let us who put our trust in you rejoice; let us ever shout for joy, because you defend us . Let us be joyful in You. Your favor covers us with a shield.

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