Fruits of God's faithfulness

Saturday, January 3, 2015
Devotions: Ps 68, 136; Gen 28:10-22; Heb 11:13-22; Jn 10:7-18

Let YHWH rise and scatter His enemies; He drives away those who hate Him as wind drives smoke, as fire melts wax, so He eliminates the wicked.  Let the righteous rejoice in God our Savior!  Sing praises to Him, Who gives the desolate a home and sends the rebellious into the trackless wilderness.  He shakes nature and terrifies mortal armies.  Blessed is YHWH, Who daily  bears us up; our God is God of salvation, God of eternal life.  He sustains and restores His people.  Terrible is God in His sanctuary, the power and strength of His people.  Let all His own bless our God!  For He Is good, and His steadfast love endures forever.  He works wonders; by understanding He creates the heavens and earth, ground and sky, water and land, sun and stars.  He chose and delivered a people for Himself, bringing them out from Egyptian bondage by His own mighty hand.  He established them in the Land of Promise, displacing other peoples to make room for His chosen ones  Let us thank the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever.

Jacob left Beer-Sheba toward Haran.  He stopped at a certain place to rest the night, and put one of the stones from that place beneath his head.  He dreamed, and envisioned a great ladder set up on the earth and reaching up to heaven.  He saw God's angels ascending and descending on it.  And he saw the Lord standing above the ladder; and God said, 'I Am YHWH, the God of Abraham your ancestor and the God of Isaac.  The land where you lie I will give to you and your descendants; and they shall be like the dust of the earth.  You and your people will spread abroad in all the directions, and by you the families of earth shall bless themselves.  I Am with you; I will protect and keep you and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done all I have told you.'  Jacob woke from this dream and declared, 'Surely YHWH is in this place, and I did not know it.'  He was afraid, and said, 'How awesome is this place!  This is the house of God, the gate of heaven!'  So Jacob rose early and set up as a pillar the stone he had used to rest his head; and he anointed the pillar with oil, and named that place Bethel, 'God's house,' though its name had been Luz at first.  Jacob made this vow: 'If God will be with me, and will preserve me in the way I am going; if He will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then YHWH shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house.  And from all that God gives me, I will return a tenth, Lord, to You.' 

The faithful saints from Abel to Abraham and Sarah died before they received what God had promised them; but they saw and perceived as if from afar; and they acknowledged themselves to be strangers and exiles on the earth.  People who speak and act this way make clear that they are seeking a homeland, and that it is not behind them, but somewhere in the future.  They desire a better country; that is, a heavenly one.  Therefore YHWH their God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.  By faith, when God asked, Abraham offered up Isaac, his only son, even though God had said, 'Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.'  He believed that God could raise mortals from the dead--and figuratively, he received his son back from the dead.  By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons bowing in worship over the head of his staff.  And by faith, at the end of his life, Joseph mentioned the Israelites' future exodus from Egypt, and gave directions concerning his own burial.

Jesus told His listeners: 'I Am the door of the sheep.  All who came before Me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them.  I am the gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy I came that they might have life, abundantly.  I Am the good shepherd.  When a hireling sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep behind and runs away, and the wolf snatches and scatters the sheep.  The fleeing hireling cares nothing for the sheep. I Am the good shepherd; I know My own and they know Me, just as the Father and I know One Another.  And I lay down My life for the sheep.  And I have other sheep not of this fold; and I must bring them also, and they will heed My voice. So there will be one flock and one Shepherd.  For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.  I have power to lay it down and power to take it again; this charge I have received from My Father.'