Sun.’s Devo - New Wine

Read: Genesis 26:17-27:46; Matthew 9:1-17; Psalm 10:16-18; Proverbs 3:9-10
Isaac left the Philistines and came to the valley of Gerar where his men had dug wells. The wells had been covered up by the Philistines so they redug them. The herdsmen of Gerar fought them over the water and took the first two. Finally, Isaac got to keep the third one showing that there was room for them too.
God came to Isaac and told him he was with him and he was not to be afraid because He would bless him.
Abimelech and his advisors came and found Isaac. They had seen the great favor of God on Isaac and didn’t want to end enemies. They wanted to make a covenant to save themselves because they knew God was with Isaac. Isaac made a covenant with them and fed them.
God blessed Isaac for being a peace maker and gave him water. He named the well Beersheba meaning “well of the oath”.
Isaac was getting old and wanted to bless his firstborn - Esau. He told him to hunt some game and after they had eaten, he would bless him. While he was out hunting, Rebekah had Jacob pose as Esau and take the blessing. Isaac blessed him with the riches of heaven and earth, along with abundance and power. When Esau found out, he was mad. He begged for a blessing so Isaac told him he would be the opposite. He would not be blessed with heaven and earth’s riches. He would live by the sword but one day break the yoke of Jacob’s rule over him.
Esau was so mad, he planned to kill Jacob when his father died. Rebekah found out his plan so she sent Jacob to her brother Laban’s house. Rebekah was left with Esau and his foreign wives which she didn’t like.
In Matthew, Jesus was doing a new thing. He was forgiving people’s sins, healing paralytics, and eating with tax collectors. The Pharisees couldn’t stand it. When they asked Jesus about his actions, he gave them the parable about sewing unshrunk cloth on a preshrunk garment. When wet and dried, the tear would be worse because the patch would shrink and leave a hole. Then he told them about new wine poured into old wineskins. It would not hold, and the wine would pour out. New wine had to be poured into new wineskins.
Their hearts were the wineskins which needed to be renewed because he was pouring out the new wine. They would never be able to contain it or understand it without having new hearts.
Lord, may we have new hearts to receive your new wine which you are abundantly pouring out.