Mon.’s Devo - A Wife for Isaac

Read: Genesis 23:1-24-51; Matthew 8:1-17; Psalm 9:13-20; Proverbs 3:1-6 Sarah lived to be 127 years old and died. Sarah was 90 when she had Isaac so she got 37 years with him. Abraham had no land of his own to bury Sarah so he bought his first piece of land in Canaan to bury his wife and their descendants. All of the patriarchs would be buried here and even Joseph’s bones were brought back to this field and buried. He bought it from Ephron of Zohar for the full price of 400 pieces of silver. “Ephron of Zohar” means “he of dust - whitening”. In 4,000 years Jesus would come and make man, made of dust become white as snow. It was now time to find a wife for Isaac. Abraham didn’t want Isaac to marry a Canaanite so he sent his servant to his homeland to find a wife. He specifically told him that she must be willing to leave and come to Canaan because Isaac was never to return there. It would be his son, Jacob that would return and live there and come face to face with himself. When the servant got to the land of Abraham’s birth he prayed for help from God. He asked that the woman who came to the well, and when asked for a drink, would offer to give water to all his camels. She would be the one. Before he could finish his prayer he noticed a beautiful woman walking to the well. She was Rebekah and she was the one. When she finished watering his camels he learned that she was Abraham’s youngest brother’s (Bethuel) daughter. She had a brother, Laban who was very crafty. When he saw the bracelets and rings the servant had given Rebekah, he ran to meet him first and invited the servant to his house. He would be the father-in-law to their offspring, Jacob. Laban and his father, Bethuel both approved of Rebekah being taken to Canaan to be Isaac’s wife. In Matthew, a man came to Jesus who had leprosy. Leprosy had never been healed except for Naaman the Syrian in 2 Kings 5. The man with leprosy approach Jesus and knelt before him proclaiming that he knew Jesus could cleanse him and heal him. Jesus agreed and took him who was made of dust and made him white as snow. Jesus told the man to go to the priests and show himself so they could also pronounce him clean and do the ritual of leprosy over him as according to the Law. Next, a Roman officer came to him and pled with him to come and heal his servant who was paralyzed and in terrible pain. Jesus agreed to come to his house, but the officer humbly told him that all he had to do was to speak it from where he was standing and he knew that his servant would be healed where he was. Jesus was astounded that this officer understood so well how prayer worked and and had so much faith that God would act for him. Jesus told the crowd that this man was just a forerunner of the Gentiles that were going to come into the kingdom and possess it when many Jews would end up in eternal judgment for not having faith. Jesus told him to go home because his servant was indeed healed. Jesus went home to stay with Peter and his mother-in-law was in bed sick. Jesus went in and touched her hand and she was healed. That evening many demon possessed people were brought to Jesus and he delivered them and healed the sick. Lord, thank you that you are no respecter of persons. You heal and save the Gentile and the Jew, the rich and the poor. In spit of our failures you have a plan.