Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Bible Study!

So, Pam and I had our bible study today. We are just realizing it may take forever to go through the bible and really grasp how it ties into the abortion issue..but already in reading Genesis we are given such insight. So, first we were given the opportunity to obey. Then Adam was supposed to be a man and obey God first not eating from the tree. The Serpent tempted Eve and Adam said "OKAY" too...In the beginning we were supposed to obey and even when given a choice to do what God specifically told us not to do...we do it...Still God is merciful but later on we just get a bit out of hand with Cain killing Abel...so eventually God starts all over with Noah (finally an obedient soul)... one of his sons Ham also sins by gabbing about the nakedness of his father Noah who had a little too much of his homemade wine..Later Babel is created and these crazy people think they can get to God by building a tower to heaven ....God confuses them by mixing up the language. But the part we really thought was funny was Abram's explanation to Sarai as to why she had to pretend to be his sister:

Genesis 12 Abram in Egypt
10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. 11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you."

14 When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. 15 And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. 16 He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

17 But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram. "What have you done to me?" he said. "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!" 20 Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

I guess it never dawned on Abram that he was putting his wife in a precarious situation. Later, Sarai in disbelief to God's prophesy insists that Abram go to Hagar instead....Abram LISTENS ...again like Adam not simply obeying God but caving to his wife's requests...anyhow, again Sarai though didn't really believe or have faith..POINT IS...there is a pattern of us having a lack of faith and disobedient nature from the beginning...and men and women being far from the heart of God. We had to laugh though at the end of the 18th book because it was like a funny sitcom:

13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD ? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."

15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh."
But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."
She tries to deny to God that she laughed but the funny thing was that God showed a sense of humor too and says "you did laugh."

On a serious note it is just like us to believe we can truly plan our family better than God. Sarah is in disbelief so gets a surrogate. We can be so impatient as women especially when biology tells us it can't happen. Still all things are possible. I have a couple of friends who had their first children at 45 and I have a few friends still waiting at that age....I think if we quiet our hearts and hear from HIM clearly then we need to remain steadfast in HIS will and promise to us...Waiting for HIS TIME can be grueling and it is tough when we start to doubt whether we are hearing from Him when it comes to our children...but what is He telling us in our quiet times? Is He saying.."you will conceive a child" or is it Him that is telling us to adopt, get a surrogate or sponsor a child some other way...Or is He leading us down some other path? Either way it comes down to obedience....what is He telling us? When there are a million choices in front of us and yet we know what God has told us...are we tempted to somehow deny God's command for us in lieu of the choices that look good but are truly the path to something wicked...? I want to try to listen more and truly HEAR Him in this wilderness that is our crazy world....

1 comments:

Beth in NC said...

The strange thing is -- Abram and Sarai do that trick more than once. I can just see my "Boaz" (I don't use his name on here) allowing me to be someone's wife. Ha. Oh yeah, that would happen.