Thurs.’s Devo - Faith

Read: Genesis 23:1-24:51; Matthew 8:1-17; Psalm 9:13-20; Proverbs 3:1-6
Sarah died at the age of 127 years. She is the only woman whose age was recorded in the Bible. Hebrews 11:11 says that Sarah received the strength to have a baby by faith. She also died in faith. Faith equals righteousness.
Abraham bought the cave and field in Machpelah for four hundred shekels of silver. Machpelah means “he brought low the set apart.” Machpelah became known as Hebron which became a city of refuge. Cities of refuge were on top of the earth what they were under the earth for the dead. They were places of rest for the “set apart” under the earth.
Abraham knew he was about to die but he wanted to make sure Isaac had the right wife before he left. He sent his servant to his own land to get a wife from among his people. His servant found Rebekah at a well of living water and she fulfilled every requirement he had made. God had led the servant to a woman who was Abraham’s niece who was kind, beautiful and willing to follow God into the unknown.
There are so many stories that involve a well because the well is the vessel that holds the living water. The woman at the well in the New Testament was a picture of the Gentile nation being betrothed to Jesus. She had had 5 husbands meaning that she had been under the covenant of 5 kingdoms with other gods and at the time was not even under a kingdom. She chose to become a citizen and married to the kingdom of God.
In Matthew, Jesus healed a man with leprosy who was a Jew. This was one of the Messianic miracles that the priests had said that only the Messiah would be able to do. The law has a ritual that those cleansed of leprosy were to go through and they had never been able to do this because no one had been healed of leprosy who was a Jew. Jesus told him to go and show himself to the priest to be a sign to them that the Messiah had come. Sadly, they didn’t believe. But, next we see a Roman, a Gentile with the faith of child. He tells Jesus to send his word and it would be done. He understood the way authority worked in the world and surely it would work the same in the unseen world. He was right and Jesus was amazed at this faith.
Lord, may we have the faith of this centurion.