Gathering to God

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Saturday, January 3, 2009
Devotions: Ps 68, 72; Gen 28:10-22; Heb 11:13-22; Jn 10:7-18

God will disperse His enemies, like smoke in the wind or wax before a fire; let the righteous rejoice before Him! Sing praises to God’s name, Father of orphans, Protector of widows, Home to the desolate, Deliverer of prisoners. God is Master of all creation, and the mighty of earth and space envy His mastery. Blesses is YHWH, Who daily bears us up, and blesses us with eternal life. All His people stream into His presence; we ascribe power and majesty and glory and praise and blessing to our God!

Jacob was on his way to find a wife in Mesopotamia; somewhere beyond Beer Sheba, alone, he slept in the open, and he dreamed: he saw a ladder set up on earth, its top reaching heaven, and God’s angels ascending and descending on it. Above the ladders stood YHWH, the God of Abraham and Isaac, and God of the land on which he lay. God said, “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you lie, and your prospering will bless all the peoples of the earth. I will keep you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land.’ When Jacob awoke, he was aware of God’s presence, and said ‘ Surely YHWH is here—this is God’s house, the gate of heaven!’ He set up and anointed the stone on which he had rested his head, and named the place Bethel (House of God). And Jacob pledged to God a tenth of all that God would give him.

The historic giants of faith all died, not yet having received what God had promised them, continuing in earthly exile all their lives. They longed for their heavenly country, their eternal city of God. Abraham offered YHWH the life of his dear son Isaac, believing God could raise the dead—and in a sense, that is what happened. Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau, by faith. And Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and by faith spoke of the future exodus of Israel from Egypt and gave directions concerning his own burial when that exodus should occur.

Jesus told His listeners, ‘I AM the Door of the sheepfold. Those who came previously were thieves and robbers, and the sheep couldn’t follow them. But whoever enters through Me will be saved; he will go in, go out and find pasture. I have come to give My sheep abundant life; I lay down My life for the sheep. Hirelings keep the sheep when it’s convenient, but when trouble comes, they abandon the flock to the ravening wolves. But I Am the Good Shepherd; I know My own, and they know Me, just as the Father and I, His Son, know one another. And I lay down My life for the sheep; I have other sheep, from other folds, whom I must gather as well. There will be one flock and one Shepherd. My Father has arranged that I will lay down My life, and then take it back again! No one takes My life from Me—I give it freely, with God-given power, only to take it up again. This charge I have from my Father.’