Reading 1 - Genesis 11 & 12

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The call of Abram was 2024 years after creation - 443 years after the end of the flood'
12:10 That Abram went to 'sojourn' in Egypt shows that he viewed the excursion into Egypt as a temporary event.
Peter Forbes

11:30 In telling us that Sarai was barren the scene is being set for the things that are to follow in Abraham's life - that it is recorded before he left Ur tells us that this piece of information will be crucial later in the record.

12:17 That God plagued Pharaoh was essential lest it might be said later that the first child Sarai bore was not Abraham's but an Egyptian.
Peter Forbes

Genesis 11 - �The Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge suggests that this chapter is set just 100 years after the flood. How soon men forget the most tremendous judgements, and go back to their former crimes! Though the desolations of the deluge were before their eyes, though they sprang from the stock of righteous Noah, yet even during his lifetime, wickedness increases exceedingly. Nothing but the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit can remove the sinful lusts of the human will, and the depravity of the human heart. God's purpose was, that mankind should form many nations, and people all lands. In contempt of the Divine will, and against the counsel of Noah, the bulk of mankind united to build a city and a tower to prevent their separating. Idolatry was begun, and Babel became one of its chief seats. They made one another more daring and resolute. Let us learn to provoke one another to love and to good works, as sinners stir up and encourage one another to wicked works.

Genesis�11:4 -�"And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. " - What were these people trying to do? Did they really imagine that they could build a structure tall enough and strong enough to withstand another flood? What of the promise to Noah that God would no more flood the globe in that manner again? Man seems to have a fascination with building taller and taller structures. One good earthquake, and God brings them crashing to the ground! Oh that man would put his energy into learning the ways of heaven, looking for a city whose builder and maker is God, becoming part of His great name - Acts 15:14 - and using the scattering of God to�spread the Good Seed of the Kingdom.

Genesis 12 - Abraham has truly been called the Father of the Faithful [though you will look in vain in your Bibles to find that exact title]. At the age of 70, when most people today have already been retired a number of years, Abram chooses to respond to God, and taking his wife and family and retinue of people, leaves the comforts of city life, with their two story houses, flourishing markets, running water and sewerage facilities, to spend the next 105 years living in a tent, in a land he has never seen. Yet for all his greatness, Abraham needed reassurance, he made mistakes, he told lies, he made disastrous decisions, his faith took many years to develop... and God was patient with him. You will no doubt have drawn comfort from the fact that every patriarchal family suffered serious dysfunction... but God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.
Cliff York

Reading 2 - Psalms 14, 15 & 16

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Psa 15 - A beautiful Psalm which teaches us the way to please our Father.

Psa 16 - This Psalm was possibly written by David when he was fleeing from Absalom. The instruction in the night season [v7] could answer to when David was surrounded by his faithful men in Mahanaim - 2 Samuel 17:27-29 - it seems that this marked a turning point in David's flight from Absalom.
Peter Forbes

14:6 Whilst the AV has 'because the Lord �' the RV has 'but the Lord ..' which makes far more sense. Despite the way the wicked treat the poor (in spirit) God is their deliverer and will cause them to stand at the last.

15:1 David was not asking 'who?' because he did not know. Rather he was asking so that he coud outline the things that he knew would enable him to inherit the kingdom. We should do likewise - think about those things which please the father - Philippians 4:8

16:8-11 If, as I suggested lat year, that David wrote this Psalm because of the uprising of Absalom, these verses, whilst also speaking of Jesus, take on great significance in David's day. He got to the point when he knew that God would deliver him from Absalom.
Peter Forbes

• Psalm�14:1 - "The fool says in his heart, there is no God"
• Psalm 15:2 - The true citizen of Zion, "speaks the truth in his heart."
• Psalm 16:9 - The Lord Jesus Christ's "heart was glad" when He faithfully considered the certainty of His resurrection from the dead.

������� Our heart is in that list somewhere.

Psalm 15:5 - "He that putteth not out his money to usury."� What do these words mean for us today. We all take interest when the banks pay it, so do we believe that these words do not apply to Gentiles who have embraced the Promises? Under the Law, a brother who was blessed with this worlds goods, was bound to share the blessings of God with his poor brother who might have fallen on hard times - Lev 25:35-38.�Only the principle was required to be repaid. The brother blessed with abundance was not permitted to extract more from his brethren than what the Lord required... which was simply the principle sum, nothing extra. So the lesson for today? Do�we expect more from our brethren than what the Lord has required or commanded? God requires that we be tough on ourselves, but magnanimous or open handed to our brother - Deut 15, Matthew 5:29-30.

Thought for the Day

"Our duty is not to see through one another... but to see one another through!
Cliff York

Reading 3 - Matthew 8

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You will notice that the miracles are blocked together in the gospel record though it is doubtless the case that Jesus performed miracles all the time. The blocking together of the miracles is part of the way in which the writers, by the Holy Spirit, develop themes in the gospels. It is our privilege to review those themes.
Peter Forbes

Matthew 8:12 - "...there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "� Four times in Matthew's record, he uses these words to paint a very poignant picture. Those described have not simply missed out on something that could not have been theirs anyway... the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" describes the absolute anguish of those who now realise that the prize is not theirs because of their own folly! It is not like they have missed out on the "Lotto" - which they did not expect to win anyway... they have missed out on eternal life... and it was all their own fault. God desperately wants you and me in His great Kingdom. He did not create us to dash us to pieces in judgement. If we miss out on the cherished goal, it will be because we have determined not to be there, either by our actions or by our attitudes.

Matthew 8:21 - "And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. "� It is by no means certain that this man's father was dead. The probability is, that this disciple means that, after his father is dead and buried, he will then be free to follow Jesus. "At the present day, an Oriental, with his father sitting by his side, has been known to say respecting his future projects: �But I must first bury my father!�." Jesus wanted first things first. Some feel that this man was not prepared to commit to Jesus, until after the will had been read.... which may have been many years hence. Leave the dead to bury their own dead. The spiritually dead - Eph 2:1 - are always on hand to bury the physically dead, if one�s real duty is with Jesus. It is a good deed to bury the dead, it is a better one to preach Christ.
Cliff York