Loving God, at the start of this work week, send your blessings upon blessings on this gracious reader, amen.
Our sermon yesterday was on Jesus' "I Am" promise that He is "the gate." This was the third in our Vote for Jesus series which has blessed us more than I anticipated, and for that I praise the Lord!
As Abraham gets his second call from Heaven we find the angel’s words in Genesis 22: 17 that make a reference to a "gate." Please read the verses leading to verse 17 and try to understand what the Lord is saying to Abraham in that reference to a gate.
The text below shares that famous, but difficult story of Abraham's reluctant willingness to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. I say difficult because no parent can put themselves in Abraham's place and fully understand all that he was going through and many of us would quite honestly say, I don't know if I can do that. It was a very heavy heart that Abraham made that trek to the place where he thought that would be the end of his son. Thankfully, at the end of that journey, God provides and in that provision we find the promise "I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies." In this usage of "gate" we find that what God means is that God will allow the offspring of Abraham to control the cities of all their enemies." Yesterday I made reference to the gate being that which Christ offers to us if we find ourselves corraled or imprisoned by our own choosing and bad decisions. Today, God is saying you will be so blessed that you will control your enemies instead of being controled by them.
Jesus is the gate. Through Him, as we walk and talk and listen to Him we find the better way to live, the fullness way, the way to eternal life. Jesus offers our escape from sin and the consequences of sin if we would just call on Him.
PRAYER: Eternal Gate, fling open the doors of those corrals that imprison us and keep us from the fullness of life. May our faithfulness be such that You will allow us to control the gates of the same who sought to corral us. I pray this in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
Here is that text from Genesis 22::1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mori'ah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you." 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" 8 Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together. 9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill {Or [to slaughter]} his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 12 He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided." 15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice." 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Be'er-she'ba; and Abraham lived at Be'er-she'ba.
