Today's readings are Genesis 16.1-9 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+16.1-9 ), Genesis 16.15-17.22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Gen.+16.15-17.22 ), and Mark 6.1-13 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Mark+6.1-13 ).
We read today about God's great care for those who reject him, the people who are not of promise. See how Ishmael, not the child of promise, is given a promise out of the Lord's great mercy and grace. This child who was born of strife, born of man's plan to bring an heir rather than God's plan to bring an heir. He is the child of human striving, bringing salvation by works, not by grace through faith. Let us however stop and consider for a moment whether we act like children of God's promise or children of man's striving. Do we in fact try to work out our own salvation? Do we try to earn sufficient merit to be counted as worthy of God's favor? Do we even think in our hearts that we are good people and deserving of God's favor in Christ? Are we like the people Mark talks about, people who take Jesus for granted, who deny his power, his authority, his divinity? Do we in fact despise and reject him, showing a preference for our own plan and our own goodness? We confess that this should never be the case but we must realize that it is all to frequently exactly the way we consider our Lord.
What love the Father has shown, that we should be called children of God, adopted according to his promises, not through our own works but by belief in the righteousness of Christ for us. May we ever live in light of this love, realizing that all else is nothing but God's common grace shed on a sinful world, even the grace he shows to Ishmael, the child of human effort.
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