sermon – Page 13 – jeffersonvann

MARAH

MARAH

Exodus 15:22-27 NET.

²² Then Moses led Israel to journey away from the Red Sea. They went out to the Desert of Shur, walked for three days into the desert, and found no water. ²³ Then they came to Marah, but they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. (That is why its name was Marah.) ²⁴ So the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What can we drink?” ²⁵ He cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink. There the Lord made for them a binding ordinance, and there he tested them. ²⁶ He said, “If you will diligently obey the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the LORD, am your healer.” ²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the water.

We have been reading about the miraculous way God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, removing all obstacles to their freedom and defeating their enemies by drowning them in the Red Sea. The first thing the children of Israel did was worship – joining Moses in a song of triumph and praise. All the women joined in the worship with hand drums and dances. Miriam sang in response to them “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.”

After this tremendous offering of praise and worship, the Israelites set out for the open country – what today’s text calls the Desert of Shur. There, the LORD tested them with the bitter water of Marah. We will examine this passage closely this morning because it reveals several key principles that can help us all as we live our lives. In order to give some structure to today’s message, I will ask and answer three questions. First, why did the Israelites go to Marah? Second, what did they learn there? Third, what happened afterward?

Why did the Israelites go to Marah? (22-25).

You might recall from your reading that when Moses first confronted Pharaoh, he did not immediately demand that all the slaves be set free so they could go to the promised land. No, his first request was that his people be allowed merely to go out into the wilderness three days’ journey so that they could worship the LORD with their sacrifices and offerings. Pharaoh did not want to allow them to leave. After all, they were his slaves, and they should stay with him to serve him. At first, he offered another option. He said that the Hebrews could perform their sacrifices to Yahveh in Egypt instead of traveling three days into the wilderness. But Moses rejected that offer. “Moses said, “That would not be the right thing to do, for the sacrifices we make to the LORD our God would be an abomination to the Egyptians. If we make sacrifices that are an abomination to the Egyptians right before their eyes, will they not stone us? We must go on a three-day journey into the desert and sacrifice to the LORD our God, just as he is telling us.” (8:26-27).

Moses indicates something here that not everyone notices. The Hebrews couldn’t worship God the way he wanted them to. Even the sacrifices that the Hebrews made to God were repulsive to the Egyptians. That is what the word abomination means. For over 400 years, the Israelites were limited in what they could do to worship the LORD. Their loyalty to Pharaoh had checked their devotion to God. But God was setting them free. That freedom was not so that they could do whatever they wanted to do. That freedom was so that they could now do what God wanted them to do.

I am not suggesting that all the Israelites knew this. In fact, today’s text indicates that the main body of the Hebrews would be constantly in need of correction in this regard. They probably thought that now they were free from Pharaoh and the threat of his armies, they could do whatever they wanted.

Our text says that Moses led Israel from the Red Sea into the Desert of Shur. But the word for “led” is not the usual one for leading. The verb נָסַע means to pull something up—like to uproot a plant. The people wanted to stay by the Red Sea and keep celebrating their victory, but Moses had to force them to pull up and set out into the unknown. Moses had a mission, and most of the people he led had no idea what that mission was. In fact, even Moses did not clearly understand the reasons he was leading his people into the wilderness.

We can imagine the reason partly if we take a good look at what the Hebrews were doing at the beach of the Red Sea. They were celebrating their deliverance from a great enemy, rejoicing at what God had done for them. For some people, that is all that worship entails. But worship only begins there. True worship moves from celebration of what God has done to adoration of who God is.

Why is this so? Well, imagine it snowed again, and you were out in your car when a massive snowstorm hit. It forced you to stop, and before long, your vehicle was trapped in ice. What if some people come along and rescue you from that? You would be grateful. You would tell everyone about your rescue from the danger. But when they asked you about your rescuer, what could you say? You might not even know their names, much less anything substantial about them.

The wilderness journey of the Hebrews from Egypt to Canaan was their chance to get to know the God who rescued them. It was their opportunity to learn about and identify with the God of their ancestors. Marah would be the first lesson for them.

When I was in college, I took many classes in biblical languages. My professor always began each class with a vocabulary test. That is what God is doing for the Hebrews. Every lesson starts with a test. The three-day journey into the Desert of Shur was not a mistake. God was intentionally bringing his people into a desperate situation. “Then they came to Marah, but they were not able to drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter. (That is why its name was Marah.)” Why did Moses deliberately put them in such a situation? Why head to Marah first? Marah means bitter. Miriam’s name comes from the same word. She was born in bitter captivity. The bitter herbs the Hebrews ate during Passover were a reminder of that time of bitterness. Most of the Israelites were scratching their heads when they arrived in Marah. Some might have wondered why they left Egypt if they were going to encounter bitterness and hardship here.

The “people murmured against Moses, saying, “What can we drink?” After three days of travel, whatever water they had brought with them was exhausted. Their canteens were empty. So, they come to a place with water, but it seems a cruel joke. The water is undrinkable.

The notes to the NET text say, “The verb וַיִּלֹנוּ (vayyillonu) from לוּן (lun) is a much stronger word than “to grumble” or “to complain.” It is used almost exclusively in the wilderness wandering stories to describe the Israelites’ rebellion against God …. They were not merely complaining—they were questioning God’s abilities and motives. The action is something like a parliamentary vote of no confidence.

The Psalms are filled with great poets like David and Asaph pouring out their hearts to God. God encourages us to do that. It might seem like complaining, but it is anything but that. It is crying out to the only one who sees the problem and has the power to intervene. Instead of that, the people focused their complaints on God himself and the leader he had appointed. Instead of paying attention when God was testing them, they chose to test him and try his patience, even though they had seen his work (See Psalm 95:8-9; Hebrews 3:8-9).

So, in three days, the Hebrews went from celebrating God’s salvation to rebelling against him. All it took was one incident where it seemed that their needs were not being met, and they turned against God, their Savior. This event revealed a profound immaturity and lack of trust in the Hebrew people. If they had been thinking with maturity, they would have remembered the number of times in Egypt when they discovered they were not able, and then God showed that he was able. The people could have responded in faith to this crisis. They could have come to Moses and said, “We cannot drink the water, but we trust God for a solution to this problem.”

They did not do that. Instead, they rebelled against God and criticized Moses. At the first sign of difficulty, they attacked the leader that they had chosen to follow. It seems ridiculous, but it is actually human nature. The flesh always causes us to turn against our leaders rather than turn toward God.

But Moses did not follow their example. He chose to cry out to God. A prayer is always a better alternative to a critical word or complaint. As soon as Moses prayed, God showed him the solution. He had not only brought them to the place of testing but also given them the answer to the test. Some teachers make their questions so hard that students are unable to find the answer. God is not like that. If we have a need, he has an answer – already on his tongue.

The “LORD showed him a tree. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink.” The bitter water became sweet. It had been unsafe to drink at first. That is a real problem if you are walking a long distance. I remember when Penny and I were on our thru-hike. There was one night we were camping out on the trail and needed water badly. I could not find a spring or stream. I found some deer and followed them to a puddle, so I filled up our water bottles from the puddle. But the water was yellow, and as badly as I wanted a drink, I could not bring myself to drink it. We finally decided to pour our deer urine and hope to find a better water source the next day. Obviously, we did.

For the Hebrews, the answer was a tree. God had already caused a particular tree to grow in that place. We don’t know whether the water changed because of the tree or just because Moses was obedient and used the tree. The point was that God already had a solution to the crisis, and he was waiting for his people to ask.

There, God tested them. He wanted them to come to a problem that they could not solve. The text says that there, the LORD “made for them a binding ordinance.” The binding ordinance is actually two words in Hebrew: the word for prescription and the word for judgment. God was prescribing for them the correct action to take when being tested. He was offering his judgment in place of their own. In fact, the word “showed” in verse 25 is the verbal root of the noun תּוֹרָה. This incident is the beginning of the Law of God for the people of God.

God focused on the law in the books of Exodus to Deuteronomy because the Law served as the link between the salvation God brought and the people he wanted to testify to that salvation to the next generation. Walking according to God’s Law would be their way of testifying that God had saved them. In later generations, people exchanged the Law for salvation itself. They thought obeying the Law was their means of saving themselves. That is never the case. The Law is God’s way of walking. The deliverance always comes from him.

What did the Israelites learn at Marah? (26).

The big lesson of Marah is not to “stop complaining, or God is going to get mad at you.” Moses lays out the lesson plan in verse 26. He said: “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

Moses describes a standard “IF-THEN” relationship: God is the teacher, and the Israelites are his learners. As learners, they are responsible for diligently listening to his voice and not for following their instincts. God is their teacher, so he promises to reveal to them specific commandments and statutes to help them walk appropriately. It is no surprise that the main action in the last four books of Moses is walking. While walking to Canaan, they were learning how to walk. To the extent that they learned the lessons and walked appropriately, God guaranteed that he would prove to be more than a teacher. He would also be their healer, preventing all judgment diseases that he had put on the Egyptians.

To summarize the principle: WALK GOD’S WALK, AND HE WILL BE OUR TEACHER AND HEALER.

What happened to the Israelites afterward? (27).

“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the water.” When they arrived at the next oasis, they found that it did not need to be cleaned. The water was already pure. God was showing them that every day would not be a test. But they should be prepared to seek his instruction when the times of testing come. Likewise, you and I will not be undergoing constant trials. But we should count it all joy when the times of testing do come. They are not proof that God has abandoned us. They are chances for us to grow and opportunities for us to display our confidence in God our Savior.

Holy Communion

“You cannot serve God and money. Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing?” (Matthew 6:24-25).

The Hebrews had been rescued from slavery in Egypt and escorted out of that place of oppression. They were on their way to the Promised Land—a land flowing with milk and honey. But before they got there, they had to learn a few lessons about how to walk God’s way. Some of the very first lessons dealt with worrying about what they would eat and drink.

Today, as we remember what our Lord did for us on Calvary’s cross, he invites us to re-examine our life’s priorities. He has promised to be our teacher and healer. But there is something that might prevent that. We can let worry steal our relationship with Christ. He surrendered himself for us. We can show our faith in him by releasing our hold on our self-preservation. He wants to be our master. We cannot have two.

LORD, we celebrate what you did for us for our deliverance and promise to walk your walk and let you be our Teacher and Healer.

Here is a quote from Devotions from Exodus:

“Nuisance

The frog was also a deity in the Egyptian pantheon. Heqet was a goddess who represented fertility. To have the territory overrun by these creatures was more than an annoyance. It was another reminder to Pharaoh that his worldview was erroneous. It was an embarrassment. And even though his magicians were able to duplicate the same thing on a smaller scale (because they were illusionists) he was perturbed, so he appealed to Moses to have Yahveh stop the plague. He was starting to take Yahveh seriously. Moses even gives Pharaoh the honor of choosing the day for the pestilence to stop. But when the break came, Pharaoh still stubbornly refused to comply with Yahveh’s demand.

I wonder if we are any better than Pharaoh was. We regularly experience nuisances in our lives, and they sometimes are so bad that we appeal to Yahveh to rescue us. But do we ever stop to ask if Yahveh wants to change us? Maybe an annoying event might be his way of getting our attention. Perhaps we should not be so quick to return to business as usual when the nuisance is over.

LORD, forgive us for ignoring you when you remind us of our need to change. Help us to see the possible significance of the annoying interruptions in our lives. Keep us sensitive to your guidance” (p. 40);

The book is 296 pages long and was released on May 17, 2024.

WAITING

WAITING

Exodus 2:23-25 NET.

²³ During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning, God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, ²⁵God saw the Israelites, and God understood … .

Last week, we left the Patriarch Jacob staring at a bloody tunic, confident that he would die of grief because of the loss of his son, Joseph. He was wrong on both counts. He did not die of grief, and his son had not died in Gothan. Instead, Joseph was taken to Egypt, where he lived a tough life, ending up in prison. But God gave Joseph a special gift – the ability to interpret dreams. That gift eventually led to Joseph being released from prison and appointed second-in-command over all of Egypt. Joseph saved Egypt from a terrible famine, and his family joined him to live outr their lives in prosperity in that land.

The Book of Genesis ends with the death of Jacob and Joseph – both old and prosperous. Exodus begins with the good news that the Israelites “were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them” (1:7). Then the other shoe dropped. The next verse says, “Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power over Egypt.” The new Pharaoh – and his nation with him – began to view the Israelites not as a blessing but as a threat. Likewise, the Israelites in that generation saw Egypt not as a blessing from God for their survival but as a curse to oppress and destroy them. The union of nations that had been their salvation had now become division and polarization.

while we wait, the world changes around us.

It did not happen overnight. It was not a drastic cataclysmic event that caused the two nations to turn against one another. While the people were living their lives and doing what they thought they should do, the world changed around them. There was no doubt a long period of prosperity for the Israelites in Egypt that led to their fulfilling the mandates of the Adamic and Noaic covenants – being fruitful and multiplying in the land of Egypt. However, it was this prosperity and multiplication that was seen as a threat to the new regime in Egypt. Thus, he ordered their oppression and hard labor and eventually demanded that they kill all their newborn males.

Chapter two tells of Moses’ birth, his rescue from the Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter, and his being reared as a prince in Egypt. It also records his taking vengeance on a brutal guard and killing him. This led to Moses having to flee Egypt and settle down in Midian as a shepherd. Meanwhile, the nation of Israel waits for its deliverance. That “long period” continues when it seems like nothing is happening.

When a cataclysmic event happens, we sometimes refer to it as an act of God. We think that God did it, or at least allowed it, to get our attention. But the Bible teaches that it is not just the times of upheaval and disaster in which God is active. He is just as real and just as active in the long periods of waiting. We can learn from these chapters in Exodus what we should be doing during our long times of waiting.

while we wait, we can cry out to God.

“During that long period of time, the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God.” Before they began experiencing oppression and slavery, the Israelites were not known for their relationship with God. They were just another nation living in a land of many such groups brought together by Pharaoh’s mighty empire. But the tide turned, and the Egyptian culture turned against them and isolated them as a nation of slaves that must be controlled. Suddenly, the Israelites started praying. Their prayers were not ritual prayers that parents teach their kids to pray at mealtime or bedtime. Their prayers were the groans and cries of a people being mistreated and oppressed.

It is a fact that hard times tend to cause people to reach out, try to find answers and seek change. For many, that desire for change leads to a more intense religious life. It is an attempt to take hold of a power higher than the power that is causing the trouble that they are facing.

Our Lord asked a question after he taught the parable of the persistent widow. He asked, “Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long to help them? (Luke 18:7). In the parable, the widow was being treated unfairly, and she had no recourse but to cry out for help. She was commended for her persistence in doing just that. The Israelites in Egypt were in the same position. They were being mistreated. They were branded as enemies because the people in power feared them. They were made second-class citizens because of other people’s prejudice and ignorance.

The history of our world records many times when this has happened. Nazi Germany and the Holocaust is still fresh in our minds as a clear example of this phenomenon. But let’s open our eyes a little further. We might notice some similar situations closer to home: our own nation’s shameful treatment of Native Americans or Africans that we enslaved and deprived of their God-given rights.

Anything that we can do to make up for such shameful behavior is warranted. But what I am getting at is that such suffering can have a positive outcome. It is wrong, and it should never happen. Nobody is right to do it. But it can produce in the human heart a desire to be set free and a resulting cry to God for that deliverance. This is what was happening in the lives of those children of Jacob in Egypt. Their time of suffering was producing in them a connection with God that they had not felt during the time of prosperity and freedom.

All the elements of their oppression were already there among them before they started experiencing the oppression. They were living in a foreign land. They were under the control of a foreign king. That foreign king dictated their role in their society. But they were “getting along Ok” for a very long time until the oppression started. They should have been praying to their God during this time. They should have been seeking God and establishing a strong religious culture during this time. But it did not happen until the difficulties began.

while we wait, God is there.

Notice what today’s text says God was doing while his children were crying out to him. Verses 24-25 use four different verbs to describe what God was doing during this time. The temptation during long periods of waiting is to accuse God of doing nothing. We pray and pray and seek his face, but it seems like God is passive. Moses wants us to know that when the Israelites were crying out to God, he was anything but passive.

God heard their groaning. Moses used the Hebrew verb שָׁמַע. He used this word to describe how Adam and Eve heard God moving around in the Garden of Eden. It was the root of the name Ishmael, who was to be so named because God had heard Hagar’s painful groans. Moses used it to describe the way Joseph’s brothers felt when they remembered Joseph’s cries for mercy while he was down in the pit, but they refused to listen to him. Even if they ignored his cries, they most certainly heard them.

As we pray, we often wonder if anybody is listening. But the Bible tells us that God always hears. Even if the time may not be right for him to act, he still listens to our prayers. He can’t not hear them.

God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. This is the Hebrew verb זָכַר. The names Zachariah and Zechariah are based on that root. They mean Yahveh has remembered. This verb shows that God not only hears our prayers, but they actively remind him of his promises to us. God had made promises to Abraham and to each of the successive patriarchs who took up the mantle as representatives of his covenant. When the children of Israel cried out to God, he heard the voices of Abraham and the other Patriarchs.

As we age, our memory becomes… what was I saying? But our God is not like that. He remembers everything. Our prayers are important because they are linked to his promises. When we pray to God, everything he has promised us comes back to him. When the Israelites were praying because of their slavery and oppression, chances are they only prayed for immediate relief from that slavery. But God had promised so much more. The prayers of the Israelites set the stage for both the exodus and the conquest of Canaan. They prayed for some things, but God gave them more than what they asked for. The reason is that the prayers reminded God of all his promises.

Often, when we pray as believers today, we limit what we ask for to only the immediate emergencies that we are presently facing. When we do that, we are short-changing ourselves. We have a God who is capable of giving us so much more than we can ask for or even imagine having. That reminds me of the old story of the couple who booked passage on a luxury liner. They saw such glorious and delicious-looking food on the ship, but they hid away in their cabin and ate a few meager snacks that they had brought with them. They were not aware that the price they paid for their passage included all the fancy feasts on the ship. We often pray like that. We are so hesitant to ask God for anything.

However, Jesus tells us to ask, and it will be given to us. Seek, and we will find; knock, and the door will be opened to us. Why did he give us such an open-ended promise? Because our heavenly Father loves us and has an unlimited supply of resources to meet our needs. He wants to display his elaborate love to his children.

We often fail to ask for anything because we think we are unworthy. We are right. But the basis for prayer is not our worth but God’s grace. He blessed us with salvation when we came to him in repentance and admitted that we did not deserve it. He still responds to those who come to him with their need and trust in his love to meet those needs.

Verse 25 says that God saw the Israelites. This is the Hebrew word רָאָה, which we recently discussed in reference to the miracle at Moriah. The word means to see something, but it can also mean to see to something—to provide for what is needed. God not only saw the plight of the children of Israel, but he already had a solution for their problem. He had another land for them to live in. He had a way for them to be released from their slavery in Egypt. He had a way to provide for their needs as they traveled through the wilderness to Canaan. He had a way to defeat all the adversaries they would face on the way to Canaan.

I am reminded of a story about a computer company that had a problem. They had not been able to locate the source of the problem, much less devise a solution. So, they called in an expert. The expert examined the machine – pulled out a piece of chalk, and marked an X on the spot where the problem was. The company’s accountants were thrilled to have a solution to their problem, but they were pretty surprised when the expert sent them a bill for $50,000. They wrote the expert demanding that he present them with an itemized bill. Later, he wrote them back with a bill consisting of two entries:

One chalk mark: $1.
Knowing where to put the X: $49,999.

When the Bible says that God sees us, it means more than just that he recognizes our problems. It also means that he already knows the best solution for those problems. He not only sees us, but he can also provide us with what we need.

God saw their need and all the obstacles they would face in leaving Egypt and entering Canaan. I can imagine one of his angels standing and holding a clipboard. It had a long list of those obstacles. There was a box by each obstacle. The angel read through it:

□ Destroying angel

□ Red Sea

□ Need for water

□ Need for food

□ Rebellion

□ Enemy kings

□ Wall of Jericho

But the angel knows that for each need that arises, God has a solution. He sees it all ahead of time, and he can deal with every incident and fix any problem.

He knows where to put the X. The final verb in verse 25 is “God understood.” That’s the Hebrew verb יָדַע, to know. Praying gives us access to the expert who has figured us out and knows what we need.

While we wait, we get stronger.

The power that the Israelites would experience in Egypt was not brought about simply because they prayed. They were able to overcome all the obstacles they would face because they first waited on the Lord to deliver them. Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who wait for the LORD’s help find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.”

The secret to Israel’s success in praying for deliverance is that they prayed to God and then waited for God to deliver them. They did not pray a short prayer to God and then go to the next provider on the list when nothing seemed to be happening. They waited a long time.

God did not need a long time to answer their prayers. He could have delivered them from Pharaoh’s grasp in a single day. But there is strength that comes from waiting on the Lord. God knows what we will face tomorrow, and he knows how much strength we will need to face it. So, when we encounter a need and pray for God to meet that need, every day we wait is an opportunity to display our faith in a God who answers prayers. As we patiently wait for his solutions to our problems, we glorify him and declare our loyalty to him.

Every problem we face is actually several problems. First, there is the problem itself. Then, there is our reluctance to seek God’s face to solve the problem immediately. Then, there is our lack of trusting God to take care of the problem once we have prayed to him about it. Then, there is our anxiety over the problem when we feel we have no one to turn to. The story of the exodus should be a reminder for us that we serve a problem-solving God. Each generation of us is given an opportunity to put our faith in him and to display our trust in him.

Oh, Lord, may those of us in this generation prove faithful to you by entrusting our problems to you and waiting on you for their solutions.

Here is a quote from Devotions from Exodus:

“Nuisance

The book is 296 pages long and was released on May 17, 2024.

MORIAH

MORIAH

Genesis 22:1-14 NET.

¹ Some time after these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham replied. ² God said, “Take your son — your only son, whom you love, Isaac — and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you.” ³ Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants with him, along with his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he started out for the place God had spoken to him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham caught sight of the place in the distance. ⁵ So he said to his servants, “You two stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go up there. We will worship and then return to you.” ⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. Then he took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together. ⁷ Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?” “What is it, my son?” he replied. “Here is the fire and the wood,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” ⁸ “God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together. ⁹ When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand, took the knife, and prepared to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the LORD’s angel called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered. ¹² “Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” ¹³ Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of that place “The LORD provides.” It is said to this day, “In the mountain of the LORD provision will be made.”

The book of Genesis tells many stories about the history of this planet. It tells the story of creation itself. It tells the story of the original rebellion of our ancestors in the Garden of Eden and their subsequent banishment from that paradise. It tells the story of how the ancient world became so corrupt and sinful that God reluctantly decided to destroy it in a flood. It tells the story of great people, too: people larger than life who shaped the reality of our existence today. Two of those people are featured in today’s text: Abraham, the father of the faithful, and Isaac, the promised son. Isaac was still a young man when the events of today’s text happened. His father was not young. Abraham was 115 years old.

I want us to look carefully at the characters that predominate in the drama our text reports. We don’t know the whole story unless we are willing to investigate what happened from the perspective of all those involved. That is one of the reasons that the Bible often tells the same story more than once. The stories of Israel’s kings are scattered throughout the six books we now call 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, and 1 & 2 Chronicles. In the New Testament, we have the life of Christ told us by four different authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each tells the story of Christ’s earthly life from their perspective, highlighting the things that made the most impact on them. They do not contradict each other, but neither do they see it necessary to parrot the others.

We don’t have different variations of the story in today’s text, but we do realize that things are happening that affect each central character differently. I want us to look at these events from the perspective – first of Isaac, then of Abraham, then of God himself and the message he has for us.

the story from Isaac’s perspective

The meaning of Isaac’s name (יִצְחָק in Hebrew) is laughter. He got his name by means of an incident in his parent’s life before he was born. The LORD told Abraham that he was going to bless Sarah by giving her a son. She had always wanted a child, but she had been barren, and she was 90 years old when God made this promise. She had already given up on the hope of ever giving birth to a son of her own. Both Abraham and Sarah immediately laughed when they heard the promise. That’s how Isaac got his name.

Sarah had long passed menopause, so she agreed to a plan to have a son by means of a surrogate mother – her handmaid, Hagar. They named this son Ishmael. יִשְׁמָעֵאל means God hears. The couple believed that their son Ishmael was how God had heard and answered their prayer. We are often convinced that when we come up with a plan and it seems to work, it must be God’s will. But Ishmael was not God’s plan. God’s plan was the miracle child – Isaac.

Isaac lived a privileged life. If he wasn’t a spoiled brat, then he had every reason to be. Isaac was heir to the covenant God had made with his father. In today’s story, he goes along with his father on a trip to the mountains. Isaac didn’t know all the details, but he knew his father wanted him along, and that was OK because he loved his father.

When they got to Mount Moriah, Abraham dismissed his servants and just he and Isaac climbed the mountain. He had told the servants that he and Isaac were going up onto the mountain to worship and that they would return when they were finished. But when they got to the summit, Isaac noticed that something was missing. He had lugged a pile of wood on his back all the way up the mountain, but he saw no lamb for the sacrifice. That itself was not a significant problem. Isaac probably figured that Abraham had already arranged for a lamb to be brought to the summit.

Maybe Isaac thought that the father was forgetting things in his old age. So, on the way up, he asked Abraham where the lamb was. Abraham just said that God will provide for himself. The verb Abraham used for “provide” is related to the proper noun “Moriah.” So, Isaac figured his father knew, so that settled it. Until they actually got to the summit. An altar was built, but there was no sacrificial lamb in sight.

Isaac was probably in shock when his father placed him on the altar and strapped him down with some ropes. This passage does not tell us that Isaac said anything. I cannot imagine him remaining silent, but perhaps he did. If Isaac did stay quiet during this ordeal, it could only be a sign for us of another promised Son who would remain silent while he was being sacrificed.

But Isaac’s story has a happy ending because God intervenes and prevents his death. A substitute is found, and Abraham’s statement is proven true. God did provide.

the story from Abraham’s perspective

Moriah is not Abraham’s first rodeo. He and God have a history. He has been tested time and time again. Sometimes, he passes the test. Sometimes, he tries to do things his way and winds up complicating things. But all the time, Abraham has been learning how to live by faith in God.

Abraham had come to a point in his life when living by faith has paid off with the fruit of faith. He had become wealthy and respected, and at long last, he was given the blessing of Isaac, who would succeed him as patriarch of his clan and would inherit the special blessings of the covenant. So, Abraham was not expecting another test at this point in his life. But the test came that day that God gave him a new command: God said, “Take your son — your only son, whom you love, Isaac — and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you.”

God said, “Go,” and Abraham went, but you can bet his mind was going in a thousand different directions as he traveled. He went over the promises that God had given him—many of those promises are specifically related to Isaac and his future. But Abraham wondered how God’s promises about Isaac could be fulfilled if Isaac died. Could the covenant be passed on through Ishmael instead? No, that can’t be it. God had explicitly named Isaac as the one who would pass on the blessing.

Abraham continued to think. A long walk is an excellent opportunity to consider, and the walk to Moriah takes three days. At some point, Abraham hit upon the idea that God must plan to raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill his promises about him. The book of Hebrews says, “By faith Abraham when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son. God had told him, “Through Isaac, descendants will carry on your name,” and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead” (11:17-19). So, Abraham thought that must be how God was going to do this.

It took a lot of faith for Abraham to come to that conclusion. After all, we have the benefit of knowing all about the miracle of resurrection. We know about Elijah raising the widow’s son in Sidon (1 Kings 17). We know that Elisha did the same thing in Shunem (2 Kings 4). We know about how Jesus raised Lazarus (John 11), the widow’s son at Nain (Luke 7), and Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9). We read about many other resurrections in the New Testament. But Abraham did not have a single story to point to. He reasoned that the God who gave us life can give it back to us after we are dead. He reasoned that the God who promises things to his people can make a way to fulfill those promises, and even death is not an obstacle to his doing that.

So, here is this old saint of God, raising his knife. He’s getting ready to put an end to the nearest and dearest thing in the world to him. But he trusts God. He does not know why God is demanding that he do such a thing. It does not fit in his theology. It goes against everything he has ever learned about God in his 115 years of getting to know him. But, if God says that his son must die on this mountain, then he is going to do it.

But in the last second, before Abraham’s knife finds itself going down in the direction of his beloved, he hears an angel’s voice. God has provided, and he has found a way to do it without Isaac’s death. From now on, when people ask Abraham about Moriah, he will tell them this story. It is the story of how God provided a substitute for the life of his son on the mountain called Moriah—a mountain with a name that means the place where he provides.

the story from God’s perspective

But the story is not over because there is another main character in these events whom we have not investigated. God himself had a reason for the things that took place on that mountain on that day. In fact, he had several reasons. He was teaching his friend that staying faithful to God will sometimes mean doing things that cannot be explained. The mission will not always be easy. The plan of God for our lives will often lead us to bitter conflict within ourselves as we wrestle with paradoxes and puzzles. But God calls us to be faithful anyway. He loves us, and wants us to trust in that love even when we feel very much unloved. He wants us to know that he is our friend, even when all the evidence suggests that he is an enemy.

Something else was going through the mind of God on that day. It was something that even Abraham did not know and would not know. The events at Moriah were a divine dress rehearsal for other events that would take place 19 centuries later. It was here, on this same mountain range, in a city called Jerusalem, that another promised son would be sacrificed. Only when this event happens will there be no last-minute deliverance by the angel’s voice. The angels will remain silent when the world’s only innocent man dies on the cross.

God knew what Abraham did not know. He knew that this would be how the human race found redemption from the slavery of sin. He knew that to demonstrate his passionate love for us, God would have to sacrifice his only Son whom he loves to a lonely and violent death – on this same mountain.

So, for us today, Abraham’s ordeal means even more than the story of an old man’s willingness to do something unthinkable because he trusts God. It is the Old Testament prediction of our loving God’s supreme sacrifice so that he could call back all believers to life again. He had no reason to do that except for his elaborate and compassionate love for his lost children.

If you ever start to feel that God must not love you because things are not working out the way you want, think of Moriah. If you ever feel that God is unfair to test you, think of Moriah. If you ever question your value in God’s sight, think of Golgotha. He loves you so much and has invested so much in you that the least you could do in return is spend your life serving him and eternity worshiping him.

EVERYTHING ALIVE

EVERYTHING ALIVE

Genesis 9:12-17 NET.

¹² And God said, “This is the guarantee of the covenant I am making with you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all subsequent generations: ¹³ I will place my rainbow in the clouds, and it will become a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, ¹⁵ then I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures of all kinds. Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy all living things. ¹⁶ When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will notice it and remember the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth.” ¹⁷ So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things that are on the earth.”

We are now on our 5^th day of the new year, which means that we are five days into our commitment to read two chapters a day in God’s holy word. I’m hoping that we all can keep to that commitment because I know that God wants to bless us with his wisdom and a closer relationship with him. The early chapters of Genesis teach us that God is holy and he wants to have a close relationship with his people. But he will not tolerate rebellion. Adam and Eve rebelled in the garden and so God banished them from it. That meant that our ancestors no longer had access to the Tree of Life. They were mortal, and our race began to die, starting with Abel, who his brother killed.

The rebellion continued among our ancestors and finally grew to such a degree that God could not tolerate it. Thus, God sent the flood to cover the planet in water and destroy all its inhabitants. But God is also merciful, and he chose one family of humans to rescue by his grace, along with the animals he chose to preserve for life after the flood. Genesis 9 describes the new covenant that God made with Noah, all humanity, and everything alive on this planet when the flood was over.

The version we are reading today uses the phrase “every living creature” to describe everything alive on the planet—humans and animals. That term is found in verses 12, 15, and 16. Verse 17 uses a synonym, “all living things.” Both terms refer to everything alive. The covenant God made was more comprehensive than we usually think. It was not made merely with Noah. It was a covenant with all the humans and animals on earth.

We should also note that the term for living creatures in verses 12, 15, and 16 reveals something that many religions (including many Christian denominations) refuse to accept. The average Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, and many others believe that the one thing that separates human beings from animals is that humans have souls, but animals do not.

One reason many Christians accept this doctrine is that many versions of Genesis 2:7 read something like the King James, which says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” This reading led many to accept the concept that humans are endowed with an immortal soul and animals do not have souls.

Some modern translations correct the KJV. The NET reads, “The LORD God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The reason they had to correct this is that the exact phrase that the KJV translated, “living soul,” is found elsewhere in the Bible to refer to animals. The phrase is found in today’s text three times. Every time, it refers explicitly to everything alive. The point is not that every animal has a soul. The point is that the word translated soul (Hebrew נֶפֶשׁ) means something that breathes. The verb נָפַשׁ means to breathe. A נֶפֶשׁ is a throat which breathes.

This is a very unpopular belief, but it is proven true by the Bible. The Bible nowhere says that human beings are immortal – not even a part of them. Having a soul does not make us immortal. In fact, it proves the opposite. We breathe every breath until we breathe our last breath. We are temporary creatures, just like every other living creature. Our hope in Christ is not that we will survive death but that he will return and make us alive again. We don’t have immortality naturally by being human. We hope for immortality supernaturally by means of resurrection.

Now, I’m saying all this not just because of a doctrine I espouse but because it is essential context to understand the passage we are looking at this morning. The covenant that God made, as expressed in Genesis 9, is often called the Noahic covenant. But in fact, God made the covenant not just with Noah and not even with all humanity. He made this covenant with everything alive on the planet.

This passage gives the reason for the covenant

Notice the phrase “never again” in today’s text. In verse 11, God says, “Never again will all living things be wiped out by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.” In verse 15, he says, “Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy all living things.” The reason for the covenant between God and everything alive is that the act of Judgment had a profound effect on the divine judge. He regretted that he had to destroy all those lives. Even though God, by his grace, rescued one family and enough animals to repopulate the planet, he still regretted having to kill everyone else.

God is the creator of all life, and he does not approve of reckless disregard for that life. There is a doctrine called the sanctity of human life, and I agree with it. I believe abortion is wrong because it is the taking of the life of an innocent human being who has done nothing wrong to deserve the death penalty. You can choose to rename abortion and call it reproductive rights or reproductive healthcare if you want to. But it does not change what is really happening. A human life is being destroyed. It’s not a suicide; it’s a homicide. The sanctity of human life is being disregarded.

But this passage is saying something even more comprehensive. It is saying that all life is sacred, not just all human life. God regretted the fact that he had to destroy every living creature in the flood. He determined not to do that ever again. It is wrong to kill a human being and show reckless disregard for that life. It is equally wrong to kill another creature for no reason and show reckless disregard for that life. The Noahic covenant was put into effect so that human beings would show the proper respect for all God’s creatures.

This passage gives the details of that covenant.

One of the details of the Noahic covenant was a repetition of a mandate that was part of the Adamic covenant. Verse 1 says, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” God still wants human beings to have children and expand their dominion over the planet.

A new mandate that is part of the Noahic covenant involves a change in the relationship between humans and animals. Human beings are allowed to take the lives of animals for the purpose of sustaining their own lives. Humans are allowed to eat animals but must not do so when the animals are still alive. Verses 3-4 say, “You may eat any moving thing that lives. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat with its life (that is, its blood) in it.” The word “life” in that verse is the same translated creature in 12, 15, and 16. It’s that word “soul” again. It means something breathing. Humans are not allowed to eat an animal still breathing, with its blood still coursing through its veins.

There is also a new mandate stipulated in the Noahic covenant suggested in verse 6: “Whoever sheds human blood, by other humans must his blood be shed; for in God’s image God has made humankind.” This mandate establishes human law against homicide and human government to enforce that law.

From the Noahic covenant, we know that our God holds us accountable for preserving all life—especially human life. He wants us to be agents of renewal, undoing the devastation of the flood and making this planet thrive.

This passage also gives the guarantee of the covenant.

It is a sign. The sign still exists today. Unfortunately, many are abusing this sign and using it as a symbol of pride in something they should be ashamed of. For many, the rainbow now means that human beings are free to have conjugal relations with anything they want – be it someone of the same gender or even a different species. That’s not what the sign means. The rainbow in the sky is God’s guarantee that he will never again destroy everything alive on earth by means of a universal flood. He has done that, and he will not do it again. If people commit crimes, there will be governments with authority to punish them. If people sin against God, there will be the final judgment and the lake of fire to punish that. But the rainbow is God’s promise to us that “Never again will all living things be wiped out by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.” He is going to allow us to live how we want to live, and he will not intervene by retaliating against all humanity as he did in the days of Noah.

The rainbow is God’s commitment to life. It is his statement and sign of his love for us, even if we do not deserve it. We should certainly be aware that God is capable of immediate reprisal against any rebellion. We should not take the rainbow to mean that God is not capable of punishing sin. Instead, we should realize that God is giving us space and time to turn back to him—to seek him during this age of grace.

Holy Communion

In Matthew 26:28 Jesus said, “for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

The signs of the new covenant that Jesus established with his followers were the bread and cup of the communion ritual. The sign of the rainbow meant that God chose not to punish the sins of humanity with immediate retribution. The signs of the new covenant show God’s grace even more drastically. The bread and cup symbolized what Jesus did for us on the cross. He did more than delay God’s retaliation against sin. He brought about God’s forgiveness of sins. When the blood of Jesus flowed from his body while he was nailed to that cross, the flowing blood took our sins with it. We now stand as recipients of a new covenant with God. When we stand before Christ as judge, all of the world’s sins will be laid before him. But our sins will be marked “paid in full” because of the substitutionary death of Christ.

The rainbow is God’s commitment to life. So are the symbols we use today to celebrate Holy Communion. They are signs of sinners forgiven and given eternal life in the age to come. Hallelujah!

A quote from The Piney Grove Pulpit #5:

“God also said “(he) will put a new spirit within (them)” (Ezekiel 36:26b). The spirit is the breath that is inside a breathing body. The Hebrews used this breath as a metaphor for the internal life. As such, good breath inside a person suggested health, vitality and a good attitude. An evil breath (not to be confused with bad breath) meant that the body was unhealthy, dying and full of hate and bitterness.

So, when God said that he was going to put a new spirit in his people, he was talking about restoring their relationship with him through forgiveness, and that would result in health and wholeness.”

{The book has 72 pages and was published on September 15th, 2024}.

FEED MY SHEEP

FEED MY SHEEP

John 21:15-17 (pastor’s translation)

¹⁵ When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you care about me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you are aware that I have regard for you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him. ¹⁶ He asked him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you care about me?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you are aware that I have regard for you.” “Shepherd my sheep,” he told him. ¹⁷ He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you have regard for me?” Peter was so grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you have regard for me?” He said, “Lord, you are aware of everything; you are aware that I have regard for you.” “Feed my sheep,” Jesus said.

The incident that John described in today’s passage fell between our Lord’s resurrection and his ascension to heaven. Peter had decided to go fishing and had a disappointing night because they had caught nothing. But Jesus intervened and told them to throw the net on the right side of the boat. They caught so many fish that they could not haul in the net. Some of the other disciples came and assisted them in recovering the net. When they went onto the shore, Jesus instructed them to bring some of the fish they had caught. He had already started a charcoal fire. The conversation Jesus had with Jesus took place at this fireside.

This passage is about Peter’s grief.

The fact that they were at a campfire and Jesus asked essentially the same question three times got Peter’s memory going. He remembered another fireside – on the night of Jesus’ crucifixion. On that night the people had built a fire to keep warm, and Peter had approached the fire, hoping that nobody would recognize him. Sure enough, three different people had asked him if he knew this criminal – Jesus. Three times, Peter had denied knowing Jesus and being his disciple.

Our text says that Peter was so grieved that Jesus had asked him the same question three times. He was grieved that when challenged, he had chosen to deny Christ rather than admit that he had been his disciple. Peter had boasted that he would follow Jesus even if he had to die doing it. But when the time for testing came, Peter chickened out. The rooster crowed, and Peter had broken down in shame and grief. He was grieving not only because his master was being condemned. He was also grieving because he (Peter) had not lived up to his promise. He proved to be not as committed as he said he was.

Each of us who tries to live the Christian life will find ourselves in such situations. We will see that our actions do not match our testimony. As much as we love Jesus and declare our allegiance to him, we will discover times when we fail to live the life we want to live. We will be seriously disappointed with ourselves.

I’m glad that this passage is in the Bible. It tells us something about our loving Savior. It tells us that when we have failed him in the most public and shameful ways, Jesus will still be waiting at the seashore, ready to talk about it over breakfast. If we did not have this passage, we might be tempted to think that Jesus would reject us as soon as we fail to admit our loyalty to him. But this passage tells us that the one who taught us to forgive seventy times seven is going to be there for us with love and forgiveness.

This passage is about Peter’s love.

Y’all know that I do not normally use my translation when preaching. I usually use a modern translation that is available to anyone. However, I chose to use my translation because the modern translations and the ancient ones all have problems translating the passage. The difficulty is found in the fact that the passage was originally written in Greek with two different words, both of which are usually translated with the same word in English. The Greek words are ἀγαπάω and φιλέω. John is using these two words because even though both can be translated with our English word love, each has a different connotation. Each denotes a different aspect of love.

In order to show the differences between the two words being used, in my translation, I translate both words differently. I chose not to use the word love in my translation because it would not be clear which word was being used in Greek. When ἀγαπάω is used, I translate the word “care about.” When you care about someone, the focus is on what you can do for them. When φιλέω is used, I translate it as “have regard for.” When you have regard for someone, the focus is on appreciation for who they are and what they have done for you.

So, here again is my translation of the conversation:

“Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you care about (ἀγαπάω) me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you are aware that I have regard for (φιλέω) you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him. ¹⁶ He asked him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you care about (ἀγαπάω) me?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you are aware that I have regard for (φιλέω) you.” “Shepherd my sheep,” he told him. ¹⁷ He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you have regard for (φιλέω) me?” Peter was so grieved that he asked him the third time, “Do you have regard for (φιλέω) me?” He said, “Lord, you are aware of everything; you are aware that I have regard for (φιλέω) you.”

Peter had grieved because he knew that he had dissapointed Jesus when he denied him at his crucifixion. His grief was natural because he cared about Jesus. He did not want to disappoint him again. But Jesus was teaching Peter that he didn’t want Peter to focus on his concern for Jesus. He wanted Peter to concentrate on his admiration and appreciation of Jesus because that is what he needed to be successful in his future ministry. In other words, his future ministry had to be based on the greatness of his master, not the strength of his concern for his master.

This passage is about Peter’s mission.

That is why Jesus kept telling Peter to feed and shepherd his sheep. Peter had to get his mind focused on his mission because that was to be the means by which he proved his regard for his master. The story began with Jesus asking Peter, “Do you care about me more than these?” Who were the “these”? They were the fish. Peter had decided to go fishing. Jesus first met Peter when he was out fishing. Jesus called Peter and three other fishermen to follow him, and he would make them fishers of people.

The new mission required a new metaphor. The old metaphor was good enough when the disciples’ primary ministry was evangelism. Jesus made them fishers of people because their primary responsibility was to catch people in the net—to win them to Christ. They would still be doing that, but Jesus was adding a new ministry when he told them to feed and shepherd his flock.

The new mission was to assist and lead the congregations to maturity in Christ. This would be proof of their high regard for their master. Jesus had given them a new commandment: to love one another. Now, he was giving them a new mission to nurture and protect all the sheep in the fold.

The Lord has been dealing with me on the issue of feeding the flock as well. For this coming year, he wants me to focus on getting this congregation into the word of God on a regular basis. I am introducing a new calendar for the coming year. Each day of the calendar has a reference to two chapters from the Bible. We will be beginning in Genesis and reading through the Bible, finishing with Revelation in the middle of 2026. Each month, you will get a new calendar with the month’s readings. Each Sunday, I will take my Scripture passage from that Sunday’s texts. I want us to commit to reading or listening to those two chapters every day if possible. The Sunday School lessons will also be taken from that week’s readings.

There is more to spiritual growth and maturity than just reading the Bible regularly. But one of the reasons Christians stay spiritually immature is that they do not get into the word and let it nourish them. As a congregation, we are responsible to feed the sheep in this community. I want us to get more biblically literate because it is one of the means of becoming more spiritually mature. As we are preparing to begin a new year, let us take the opportunity to establish some new patterns. One of the most critical new patterns that anyone can set is to have a regular plan for reading and studying the Bible. As you read, if you encounter a word or phrase you do not understand, write it down to discuss on Sunday. You can also email or text me with a question.

The owner of the flock wants us all to be well-fed and strong. Let’s commit to becoming a congregation that knows the Word and lives by it. God bless y’all.

A quote from Piney Grove Pulpit #3:

““Make yourself an ark of gopher wood” (Genesis 6:14).

Noah’s response was that he “built an ark to deliver his family.” He built it by faith. Nobody had built such a thing before. There was no precedent. There hadn’t been any need before. God himself had to give Noah the blueprint for the thing. Building the ark was something that was going to be very hard to do, and it was going to take a lot of effort and resources to do it.

But … and this is very important… it could be done. God sometimes calls you and me to do the impossible, but most of the time he just calls us to do the impractical, to test our resolve and commitment to him. God didn’t call Noah to build a spaceship. A boat was what was needed, and Noah could do that. Noah’s faith helped him to respond appropriately to his fear and build that boat.”