Drawn by the Father to the Son

New Guest: Like this one, most posts are devotional; those related to CAR BIZ can be found by searching for that title. You might start with 'Welcome,' the first post in the archives, dated November 12, 2008, where I introduce myself and the blog. As you read, I encourage you to add in any reflections or comments you may have.

Blessings and best wishes,
Dr. Will

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Devotions: Ps 61, 62, 68; Gen 21:1-21; Heb 11:13-22; Jn 6:41-51

Lord, from the ends of the earth, I cry to You! Take me to refuge; protect me, so that I can sing Your praise and perform my acts of obedience and thanksgiving. My soul waits for You alone, my God. I face implacable opposition from humans and spiritual forces of wickedness; they put on a shiny front, but are full of foul cursing inwardly. My hope is in God, and I will wait for Him. On God rests my deliverance and my honor. Help me to trust You, my God, at all times. With You are all power and the goodness of steadfast love. So, let God arise and scatter His enemies like an iferno melting wax. And let the righteous exult in God, jubilant in joy! Sing God’s praises, who is Father to orphans and Husband to widows; who provides a home for the desolate, and leads prisoners to freedom, while the rebellious will live in a parched land. God is Master of creation; before Him all the earth shakes and kings bow down. Blessed be YHWH, Who daily bears us up; God is our Salvation, the Lord of life. Terrible and majestic is our God, Who gives power and strength to His people. Blessed be our God!

As YHWH had promised, Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham, and they named him Itzhak (Isaac). Abraham circumcised Isaac on his eighth day, according to God’s command. Abraham was 100 years of age when Isaac was born, and Sarah declared, ‘God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears of this will laugh over me! For who could have guessed that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne Abraham a son in his old age.’ Isaac grew and was weaned, and Abraham gave a great feast in celebration. Sarah noticed Ishmael playing with Isaac, and told Abraham, ‘Cast out this slave and her son; for the slave’s son will not be heir with my son Isaac!’ Abraham was grieved, but God told him, ‘Don’t be displeased; do what Sarah says, because your heirs will be named through Isaac. I will make a nation of Ishmael too, because he is your offspring.’ So Abraham arose early, got bread and a skin of water, and sent Hagar and her son away. She wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, Hagar put Ishmael under a bush, and sat down a bowshot’s distance away; she didn’t want to watch her son die. The boy wept and God heard his voice. God’s angel called to Hagar from heaven: ‘What troubles you Hagar? Don’t be afraid; God has heard the lad’s voice. Go and get him up and hold him fast with your hand, for I will yet make of him a great nation.’ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and gave Ishmael a drink. And God favored the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness of Paran and became an expert archer, and his mother found him a wife from her homeland, Egypt.

By faith, Sarah received the power to conceive in her old age, because she trusted God Who had promised and considered Him faithful. So from an aged man as good as dead were born descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven or the grains of sand on the seashore. All these died in faith, not having received what they were promised, but having seen and greeted it from afar; they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth. Such people are seeking a homeland; not the places they came from, because they could have returned there. But they desired a better country, a heavenly homeland. And so God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city just for them. By faith, when God asked him, Abraham was ready to offer up his only son Isaac, though God had told him, ‘Your descendants will be named through Isaac.’ He believed that God could raise mortals even from death; therefore, figuratively speak, Abraham did receive his son back from death. By faith, Isaac evoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, as he was dying, Jacob bowed in worship over the head of his staff, and blessed each of Joseph’s sons. By faith, at the end of his life, Joseph described the coming exodus of the Israelites and gave directions for his reburial when that should take place, centuries later.

The Jews murmured against Jesus when He said, ‘I Am the Bread which came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘We know this guy—he’s Jesus, son of Joseph; we know his father and his mother. How can he say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus answered them: ‘Don’t murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. In the prophets it is written, “And they shall all be taught by God”. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except Him Who is from God: He has seen the Father. Truly, truly I tell you, whoever believes this has eternal life. I Am the Bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die. I Am the living Bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.’