Genesis 24, Matthew 15

Friday, Dec 28, 2007 - Brandon Hatmaker (Genesis 24, Matthew 15)

(Genesis 24)

I’m amazed this morning how often we attribute God’s hand to coincidence. We’ve been doing it for years. Hundreds of years to thousands of years, things from scripture keep lining up with history and reality. Time after time prophecy was fulfilled. Experience after experience God answers prayer and affirms His leading in our lives. They are not coincidences.

In Genesis 24, Abraham’s chief servant had just told the entire “story at the well” experience as evidence to Rebekah’s family of God’s hand. Their response was captured in verse 50, “Laban and Bethuel answered, "This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other.”

Our response to God’s leading is most critical. Not only in action, but in word and thought. Think about the circumstances for a moment in which Rebekah’s family heard of this story. Out of the blue. They would have to have been in a place of dependency and faith in God’s leading. They were obviously not skeptical.

God welcomes our questions. Scripture clearly says if we are seeking, we will find. While it sometimes happens, because of God’s grace, it does not say if we are seeking to disprove, we will find. We should all take caution in the condition of our hearts when seeking to prove or disprove something of God. Before we ask the question, maybe we should be asking ourselves, why am I asking this question?

When we are skeptical, God already knows. It’s okay. I think it’s just best to be honest with ourselves and God about it. I do believe He wants us to all come to a knowledge of the truth. But when we are skeptical, I pray we never take the cynical attitude that we are “owed” an answer. If God were the creator of this universe, which I believe He is, and we are his creation, we are not “owed” anything.

When He is proven faithful and true. When God’s hand is revealed, whether it be through his leading or answered prayer, may we remain faithful as well.

God, help us to see your hand in our lives. Help us to attribute it to you that our faith may grow, that our confidence may increase, that we would find our peace in you. God, may this happen not only for our own experience, but so that others may see lives that are transformed and joyful as a result of trusting in you.

(Matthew 15)

Jesus reminds us of the Words of Isaiah, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”

I wonder what things today God would consider to be “rules taught by men”? There are so many themes we’ve made to be core to the “heart of the church” that are reflected in scripture. There are many that are neglected. I’m not talking about those that we do every now and then. I’m talking about the things that are CORE to our existence. We have taken simple biblical concepts, labeled them, and made them central. We have taken literal and central biblical concepts, minimized them, and made them figurative or secondary. I’m not trying to draw light to the significance of one over the other, but more so to draw attention to the neglect of one over the other.

The more I study scripture, the more I see redundant themes I naturally neglect, but are central. It’s not a coincidence that these are the themes that force me to live outside myself. The themes that I naturally lean toward and make priority are the ones that I benefit from, either corporately or personally. It takes amazing effort for us to separate ourselves from our tradition, nostalgic faith, and personal opinion to step away from all that we’ve known and take an honest look at God’s Truth. It may take an even more amazing effort to be willing to change what we believe when we see that our focus has been off base for a while. Maybe even for a long, long time.

Do we look at God’s word to DEFEND the way we live and do church, or do we look at it in an attempt to DEFINE the way we live and do church? I think this is a great question to ask.

Why should we be concerned about these things? Many reasons, but let’s think about just three: First, if we are “making disciples”, what kind of disciples are we making? Second, if we are passing along faith to the next generation, what kind of faith are we passing along? And finally, if God’s Word says that when we follow “rules” taught by men, we are worshipping Him in vain, what is the value of our worship?

Father, our agenda is so huge. Help us to truly be stripped away and trust in your agenda alone. Bring us to a place of complete dependency and peace in your ways that our worship would be pure.