Genesis 17:21-27 - Everyone was circumcised

17:21,22

“But my covenant ...” God will bless Ishmael, but His plan remains the same. This balance between holding to God’s ways and being merciful is something we are inordinately bad at. We will go to one extreme or the other. On the one hand we will stick rigidly to God’s ways (in our own eyes) in a way that God would not do, and mercy goes out of the window. Or we will be “merciful” (in our own eyes) but overlook all sorts of abominations against God’s ways, or even overtly approve of them. Neither of these routes is a godly road. We need to look at the whole counsel of God. So God’s promises would be fulfilled through Isaac. Note the words “whom Sarah will bear ...” Throughout this there is a great emphasis on Sarah. Both Abraham and Sarah are pioneers in faith. When God had finished speaking to Abraham He left.

17:23-27

Abraham then went and obeyed the Lord’s instruction, circumcising his son Ishmael, and everyone else born in his household, or bought with his money. So all the males were circumcised. This included Abraham himself, and he was ninety nine years old at the time. Ishmael was thirteen. The text makes absolutely sure that we know that everyone was circumcised!

John 4:11-14 - Welling up to eternal life

4:11,12

The woman thinks that Jesus is talking about natural water, and points out the impossibility of Jesus giving her any natural water. He doesn’t have a bucket, and the well was about 100 feet deep. Then she gets all theological. “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” The answer, of course, is yes, infinitely greater! Jacob is mentioned because tradition had it that he is the one who dug the well in the first place. At this point she has no idea at all who Jesus is, thinking he is a charlatan or mad.

4:13,14

Jesus continues to lead her out of her current thinking to kingdom thinking. First of all there is the statement that anyone who drinks of the natural water will be thirsty again. Now this is obviously true, but there are many things that are obviously true that we either do not appreciate, or sometimes even go directly against. In Matt 6 Jesus says that worrying never does any good. We all know that to be the case, but all still waste a lot of time worrying. Jesus is offering to supply her with something much greater, “water” that will permanently satisfy. Indeed, this water will become “in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. Jesus came not to just make things a little better, but to bring about radical change. He was seeking to bring about radical change in the life of the woman.

Genesis 17:19,20 - Sarah will bear you a son

17:19

God is not put off by our doubts, nor is He diverted from His plan by our doubts. So God reiterates that Sarah will bear a son, and Abraham is to name him Isaac. Isaac means “he laughs”, so he would be a reminder that Abraham considered Isaac to be an impossibility. And God’s promises, his covenant, would be established with Isaac and his descendants.

17:20

Now remember that Ishmael is a child born out of unbelief and disobedience, yet God does not neglect Ishmael, and does not discount Abraham’s emotional connection to him. Ishmael too will be blessed and will greatly increase. He too will be made into a great nation. We need to understand that God’s thinking and plans are far greater than ours, and very different from much of our thinking. 

John 4:9,10 - If you knew the gift of God

4:9

The woman is surprised that Jesus has spoken to her. This would be for two reasons, one she was a woman, but most importantly she was a Samaritan. For reasons explained earlier, the Jews did ot think well of the Samaritans and had no dealings with them if at all possible. Jews would fear becoming ritually defiled if they did have dealings with a Samaritan. The fact that this was a woman made matters even worse in their eyes! They were considered to be ceremonially unclean. True religion makes the unclean clean.

4:10

The woman’s assessment of the situation was incorrect, or at least incomplete. Jesus often answered questions with questions, but here He makes a statement. “If you knew the gift of God”. The animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans probably occupied a great deal of their time whenever the two came into contact. The first thought would be “there is a barrier between us”. Much the same as there is between some nationalists and unionists in Ireland, or Israelites and Palestinians, or any of the other regions in the world where two or more groups are in conflict. We need to be careful not to allow such issues to dominate our minds to such an extent that we miss what God is doing. E.g Brexit or remain, independence for Scotland, etc. God’s ways are higher than our ways, and these issues though they do not matter, are not more important than God! The woman was encountering something and someone very different from all that she had experienced before. The “gift of God” is probably the gift of eternal life. There is a possibility that the gift of God refers to the Torah, and Jesus is saying that if she really understood the Law she would understand the current situation. However, this seems unlikely. “And who it is ...” It is not just a matter of the message of the gospel (though that does really matter, hence the New Testament!) but also of the person of Jesus Christ. If the woman had appreciated the situation properly she would have asked Jesus for living water. Living water is a much used metaphor in regions where water is a very scarce resource. It is one that is used frequently in the Old Testament, especially by the prophets. As we will learn, this woman had a very troubled background and no doubt often felt weighed down by life. Jesus encourages her to ask for living water. He wants her to ask for living water. So there are two key messages here. One is that Jesus can give living water, and the other is that He wants us to ask for living water.

Genesis 17:15-18 - Her name will be Sarah

17:15,16

God now speaks to Abraham about Sarah. She too was to be given a new name, Sarah, rather than Sarai. The distinction between these two names is less clear than with Abraham’s name change, but may be a change from “my princess” to “mother of nations”. God would give Abraham a son by her. So we see that part of the problem with Abraham was that his picture of the promise from God was too small. At first he couldn’t see how he could have a son, then he didn’t think that Sarah could be the mother. God’s plans are greater and more perfect than we ever imagine (Eph 3:20).

17:17,18

Abraham fell face down, which was good, and laughed, which may not have been so good. He considered it impossible for a man of a hundred and a woman of ninety to have a child. This was presumably because they had gone so long without having children. As far as Abraham could see Ishmael was the only offspring he would have, so he asks God’s blessing on Ishmael. We should note that we are not the only ones to suffer from doubt!

John 4:5-8 - Will you give me a drink?

4:5,6

Sychar is near Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, and according to tradition Jacob’s well is about half a mile south of the modern village. In Gen 48:22 is the reference where Jacob gave the land to Joseph. Joseph’s tomb is near there as well.

Jesus arrived at Jacob’s well at about noon (the sixth hour). This would be a time when the heat of the day was intense, and Jesus would be thirsty. “Jesus was wearied from the journey”, here we see the humanity of Jesus.

4:7,8

A Samaritan woman came to draw water. It seems that she came alone, whereas women usually came in groups. She had also chosen a time of day when it was likely to be quiet. She may have done this because her past meant she was something of an outcast. Jesus asked the woman to give Him a drink. Verse 8 explains that the disciples had gone into the city to buy food, otherwise they would have drawn water for Him. One might be tempted to think that Jesus should have drawn water for Himself instead of expecting someone else to do it, but that would be imposing our social norms on a very different society (something we are very prone to do). Moreover, there was purpose in Jesus speaking to the woman, He was going to open her eyes to the truth of the gospel and of who He was.

Genesis 17:13,14 - They must be circumcised

17:13

The covenant applied not just to Abraham’s direct descendants, but to anyone in his household, however they came to be members. This was to be an everlasting covenant. One can understand why the Jews in New Testament times considered circumcision to be so important, and many thought that all members of the new covenant must be circumcised. This is why Paul had to battle so hard on this matter. 

17:14

Any uncircumcised male who was not circumcised would be cut off from the covenant. In Exodus we will read of a time when Moses nearly fell foul of this (Ex 4:24-26). Does all this have any relevance for us today? We have already noted that circumcision was not the covenant itself, but a sign of the covenant. In Deuteronomy the emphasis is on being circumcised in the heart (Deut 10:16, 30:6). For today I think we can say that the Bible knows nothing of “nominal Christians”. If you are a “nominal Christian” then you are not a Christian, at least in any sense that the Bible understands.

John 4:1-4 - So He left Judea

4:1-3

Jesus had met Nicodemus, a man who should have understood what He was about and man’s need for a complete transformation, to be born again. In this chapter Jesus meets a woman who in the world’s eyes should have known nothing. She was a woman! She was a Samaritan, and she was living in sin. Yet she was far quicker to grasp the reality of Jesus than Nicodemus was. The world’s wisdom is worthless, and a vital key to understanding the gospel is an awareness of our own sinfulness.

Jesus learnt that the Pharisees were now aware that He was attracting more followers than John the Baptist, and He too was baptising, albeit that it was His disciples who did the actual baptising. So He left Judea and went back to Galilee. Jesus was not seeking crowds or conflict for its own sake. The Pharisees had been concerned about John, they would be even more concerned about Jesus. The unique feature of the baptisms carried out by John and Jesus was that they were aimed at the Jews. There were various “baptisers” around in those days, and converts to Judaism had to go through an initiatory rite, but why did the Jews need to do this? This would shock the religious leaders. 

4:4

“He had to pass through Samaria. The quickest route from Judea to Galilee passed through Samaria, and this was the most commonly taken route. There was a longer route that avoided Samaria, but the direct route was the more popular. So why the antagonism between Judah and Samaria? Samaria had been part of the northern kingdom of Israel, though it now had no political status. The northern kingdom was the first to really rebel against God (Judah did catch up some years later!). Assyria conquered Samaria in 722-721 BC. The leaders and well qualified people were deported to foreign lands, and foreigners were settled in Samaria. Intermarriage occurred on a large scale. So Samaria was viewed as an apostate land and lacked racial purity. We should note that Jesus had a rather different view of Samaritans than the people did, hence the parable of the good Samaritan, the incident here, and the healed leper who returned to thank Jesus.

Genesis 17:9-12 - You must keep my covenant

17:9

The covenant was initiated by God and based primarily on what God was going to do. However, Abraham was not passive, he had a part to play as well. God involves us in His plans. Abraham, and his descendants had an obligation to keep God’s covenant. A fundamental feature of the gospel is that it is God’s work, His initiative, but that does not mean that we are passive. There is the absolute sovereignty of God and there is human responsibility. We have a habit of focusing largely, or even entirely, on one aspect at the expense of the other. So we either focus on the sovereignty of God at the expense of human responsibility, or we live as if it is all down to us.

17:10-12

The covenant of circumcision is now introduced. Circumcision was common at the time. Indeed, the Canaanites were considered rather odd because they did not practice circumcision. A fairly unique aspect of the Abrahamic covenant was that circumcision was carried out at a very early stage in life. Circumcision was to be a sign of the covenant between God and Abraham (and his descendants). So circumcision was not the covenant itself, but only a sign of the covenant. The promises in the preceding verses were the covenant itself.

John 3:35,36 - Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life

3:35

“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand”. Everything has been entrusted to the Son, so we had better pay attention to Him! The religious leaders of the day expressed an opinion that they did not need to listen to Jesus. Their opinion counts for nothing. Likewise, today the opinion of anyone who denies the Christ is the Messiah is worthless. Too often we judge Jesus, it is not for us to judge Him! We are to listen to Him! 

3:36

This verse sums things up very nicely. If someone believes in the Son then they have eternal life. If someone rejects the Son then they do not have eternal life. 1 John 5:12 says the same thing. Note the phrase “the wrath of God remains on him”. I’ve said it before and will say it again, asking why should someone go to hell simply for not believing in Jesus completely misunderstands the situation. We are all by nature under the wrath of God. The only way for that wrath to be removed is for us to put our faith in Christ.

Genesis 17:6-8 - I will make you very fruitful

17:6

Again there is the repeated “I will make ...” The human condition is to consider that God has nothing to do with the world. He didn’t create it, He has nothing to do with the goings on in the world. Even as Christians we may acknowledge that God did create the world, but we so often live as if He has nothing to do with day to day goings on. This is a deeply unbiblical view. So God tells Abraham that He will make nations of him and kings will come from him.

17:7,8

God now promises to establish His covenant with Abraham and with his descendants. He will be their God, applying to both Abraham and to his descendants. Having focused on the offspring issue, attention now turns to the land. The promise to Abraham involved both the land and his offspring. God acknowledges that currently the land was occupied by Canaan, and Abraham was there as a foreigner. God knows what the current situation is in our lives. And He knows what He will do in the future.

John 3:32-34 - He gives the Spirit without measure

3:32,33

Jesus  “bears testimony to what He has seen and heard”, which is clearly far more than any man “of the earth” has ever seen or heard! “Yet no one receives His testimony”. The problem is not with who Jesus is or what He says, but with man’s refusal to believe Him. Now the “no one” here does not mean absolutely no one, for in the very next verse he says “whoever receives His testimony”.  The one who does believe Christ affirms that God is true.

3:34

This is a further explanation of why we must listen to Jesus. He was sent by God, and He utters the words of God. When we hear Jesus speak we hear God speak. And God gave Him the Spirit without measure. Now if Jesus is God, which He is, why does God need to give Him the “Spirit without measure”? Maybe it is because He came as a man. So in order to live a fully godly life as a man He needed the Holy Spirit. We were not created to be able to live without the Holy Spirit. When we believe we receive the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 17:3-5 - Your name will be Abraham

17:3,4

Abram fell on his face before the Lord. The promise to Abram is now expanded. Indeed, if we follow God’s dealings with Abram we see that the promise keeps being expanded upon, despite Abram’s failings Now he is told that he will be the father of many nations. Remember at this point that he has no offspring at all! God’s promises depend upon God, not upon us.

17:5

Abram’s name is now changed, changed to what we know him as, Abraham. In terms of name meanings the change is from “exalted father” to “father of a multitude”. “For I have made you ...” We are all created by God. This is true in the very fact of our existence, but goes much deeper than that. We are created by God in what we are to become, what we are to be. This was not a flippant promise to Abraham, but it was a covenant, a very solemn promise from God.

John 3:29-31 - He must increase, but I must decrease

3:29,30

John likens the situation to a wedding. The “friend of the bridegroom” is like our “best man”. The bride belongs to the bridegroom, anything else would be an absolute travesty! And the church is the bride. The best man delights in the bridegroom receiving the bride. It is his purpose to make sure everything runs smoothly and that the bridegroom gets married! So John is delighted when Christ appears and the crowds are going to Him, that is the way that things are meant to be. So John’s joy is complete.

“He must increase, but I must decrease”. These words sum up the situation, and are often used to encourage the correct attitude in Christian servants. It is our role to lead people to Christ, not to ourselves. 

3:31

John (the apostle) is now adding further commentary on the matter. John the Baptist is “of the earth”. The word translated earth is not the word cosmos for the world, it is not implying any moral deficiency here. But what John is doing is stressing the enormous difference between a man who is “of the earth” and the man sent who “comes from heaven”. Jesus is clearly in a far better position to tell us about God. He is above all.

Genesis 17:1,2 - I am God Almighty

17:1

We have now moved on about twelve years. Abram has been in the doghouse with Sarai for most of that time! Now things are going to move on a pace. The Lord appears to Abram. Notice that throughout Abram’s life it is God who takes the initiative. Notice also that while there are times of intense and intimate contact between God and Abram, there are long periods of silence. “I am God Almighty”, or El-Shaddai. This is the fundamental fact that Abram needs to know and needs to base his life on, as do we all. “Walk before me and be blameless”. We are to live our lives in God’s presence. We are not just making our own way in the world, doing our own thing. We live before the Lord. “and be blameless”. How are we to take this? We can take it as a command, and it is certainly a good thing to seek to live godly lives. We can also take it as being blameless because of the blood of Jesus, i.e. we do not live under a constant cloud of guilt and shame for our sin. This does not mean that we treat sin lightly, but have been set free from guilt by the cross.

17:2

Why does God want Abram to walk before Him? So that He may make His covenant with Abram and multiply him greatly. Note that it is “His covenant”. The covenant is God’s idea, God’s initiative. It is also His purpose to multiply Abram greatly. We might look at the church in the West and despair. We should not do so. Multiplication does not come from gimmicks or techniques, but from walking before the Lord, blameless.

John 3:27,28 - I have been sent before Him

3:27

John had a much better awareness of his place in God’s plans than his disciples had. “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven”. His disciples were wanting to control events, whenever we try to take control we are in trouble. Our place is to to do what God has given us to do. If we try to do something that God has not given us to do then it will end in disaster. Fallen man wants to take control, wants to be god. It is only when we accept the place that God has given us that we become truly fulfilled. Men fear that doing this will somehow demean us, make us mere puppets. Nothing could be further from the truth. When we accept God’s path for our life we become more of a person, we have authority.

3:28

John had always made clear to his disciples what his role was, he had never pretended otherwise. John declared clearly and openly that he was not the Christ, instead his role was to prepare the way for Christ. Disciples will often give a distorted view of the one they follow. It is usually best to let  a man or woman speak for themselves. Some Calvinists are the worst proponents of what Calvin actually taught. 

Genesis 16:11-16 - I have seen Him who looks after me

16:11,12

The angel of the Lord then spoke to her and told her the name she was to give to the son she would have. She was to call him Ishmael, which means “God hears”. The Lord had listened to her affliction. We are also then told that he will be something of a troublemaker. We should note that the Lord is concerned about her, and about her son and his descendants, even though they are not exactly given a flattering description.

16:13,14

Hagar then calls on the name of the Lord and declares that He is a God who sees her, and that He looks after her. There are various translations of “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me”, with NIV giving a couple of alternatives. The well where she was was also named in honour of the Lord looking after her. Now we should remember that Hagar and Ishmael were not part of God’s plan, they were not the line through which the promises would be fulfilled, yet God still cares for them. God is merciful to all, and we should have a similar attitude. We are to be holy as He is holy (1 Pet 1:16).

16:15,16

So Hagar bore Abram a son and named him Ishmael, as she had been commanded. Abram was eighty six years old at this point, some eleven years after leaving Ur.

John 3:25,26 - All are going to Him

3:25

“An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing”. We are not given the exact nature of the debate, it also doesn’t seem particularly relevant. The dispute was over ceremonial washings, so not about any difference between John and Jesus baptising. The word used for ceremonial washing is the same as in 2:6, referring to the jars at the wedding at Cana. 

3:26

The disciples of John who had been involved in the dispute now came to John and asked him about the fact that Jesus was baptising. Maybe the argument had made them feel vulnerable, so they felt threatened in some way by Jesus' increasing popularity. “Everyone is going to Him”. It would be possible to take the words as being said with joy, but given the context this seems unlikely. They did recognise that Jesus was the one who John had testified about.

Genesis 16:7-10 - I will surely multiply your offspring

16:7,8

Men and women have been making mistakes and sinning, but God also acts, and sometimes He acts to counteract the effect of our sin. So here he appears to Hagar who is running away from her cruel mistress (Sarai!). There is a lot of talk these days about decolonising this, that and the other. If some hero is found to have had some bad things about them. Well what a surprise! All our heroes were sinners. Who’d have guessed? This cancelling is very silly, it is also very dangerous. “Judge not lest you too be judged”. We had all better watch out, for on the basis you apply to others you too could be cancelled! We are far wiser to focus on the grace of God. Mercy triumphs over judgement. And look here that the servant girl who was treated as a mere object by Abram and Saria, is valued by God.

16:9,10

“Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” Well, this isn’t advice that any woke warrior would give! Yet it is far better to submit and be under God’s protection, than to live out of our own will and flesh and be dependent upon our own strength. For the “go back and submit” is not the end of the matter, there is a promise to follow. The Lord would increase the numbers of her descendants so that they were too numerous to count. If we live out of our own strength then the promises for our future are limited by our own strength. If we submit to the word of God then the promises are limited only by God’s power. I know which I would rather choose

John 3:22-24 - And was baptising

3:22,23

We now get back to John the Baptist. First of all we are told that Jesus went into the Judean countryside with His disciples and baptised. John 4:2 tells us that it was actually only the disciples who did the actual baptising. It is not specified what sort of baptism this was, though presumably it was still a baptism of repentance. This is made all the more likely by the mention of John baptising. “Because there was plenty of water”. This is a wonderfully practical reason! It does emphasise the importance of water in baptism. It is also apparent that John the Baptist still enjoyed considerable popularity at this time.

3:24

“This was before John was put in prison.” At first glance this seems a rather needless phrase, of course it was before John was put in prison, for he was in no position to do any baptising after that! However, the reason for this comment is that the synoptic gospels record Jesus’ ministry after John was out in prison (Mark 1:14). So the verse is putting the current activities in context, and it also demonstrates that John was aware of the synoptic gospels.

Genesis 16:4b-6 - Do to her as you please

16:4b,5

The plan had seemed well thought out, it now even succeeded in its own terms, i.e. Hagar became pregnant, but then it all started to unravel. The reality of human relationships struck. Much of the world’s rebellion against God’s laws on sex and sexuality might seem sensible, even “loving”, but only God knows how we are made and what actually works. So Hagar now starts to despise her mistress. She became pregnant, her mistress could not become pregnant, so she was better than her mistress. Or maybe she didn’t want to become pregnant? However, in the society of the time the former seems to be the more likely. Sarai then makes a rather amazing statement, she blames Abram for all the trouble. Now, whose idea was this in the first place? Abram is not the first, not the last, husband to find himself blamed for his wife’s mistakes! Abram and Sarai made a plan based on ignorance, neglect of the reality of human relationships. We should stick with God’s ways even when an alternative plan seems so much better, for God knows everything, we do not. However, it is very hard for us to do this.

16:6

Abram, desperately trying to make amends, gives Hagar to Sarai to do whatever she wants with her. Abram does not come out of this as a strong man showing godly leadership, but as a weak man trying to have a quiet life! I am sure there are many of us who can sympathise with him. Sarai does not come out of it any better. As well as the idea being hers in the first place, she now ill treats Hagar, and so Hagar flees. In Abram and Sarai we have two sinful people.

John 3:19-21 - But people loved darkness

3:19

Often we approach evangelism as if people will naturally want to believe in Jesus, and if they don’t then it is our fault. So we should then change our approach, so the argument goes, and this often means watering down the gospel, not talking about sin over much. Have you noticed that the Bible is quite happy to talk about sin? Jesus is quite happy to talk about sin. This approach is all wrong , and is based on a false premise. The natural state of man is to want to avoid the light of God. People prefer to stay in the dark, for the light exposes what we are really like. So is the situation hopeless? Is evangelism a waste of time? No. The correct conclusion to draw is that it is the power of the Holy Spirit who can change the heart of a man or woman, who can open their eyes to the truth, and can see the true grace of God in Christ Jesus. Man’s natural state is to love the darkness.

3:20,21

These two verses contrast the difference between those who stay in the darkness and those who come into the light. Those who do evil hate the light because they fear it will expose the reality of what they do, it will expose the true nature of their deeds. Now note that those who come into the light are not contrasted by the righteousness of their lives. The common characteristic of most religions is between those who are good and those who are evil and it is by human effort that one becomes good. Not so with the gospel. To continue in our evil ways, to live without God is to live a lie, it is to deny the truth. If we live by the truth we will come into the light. This will expose our sinfulness, but also the grace and forgiveness of God. We will have come into God’s light. The difference is not between those who sin and those who do not, but between those who stay in the darkness and those who come into the light of God in Christ Jesus.

Genesis 16:1-4a - Abram listen to the voice of Sarai

16:1,2

After 15:6 where it says that Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness that everything was now sorted. Now he would head on a more or less straight path towards the goal. One might have thought that but one would be completely wrong. We are now going to get the biggest mistake of his life. Abram and Sarai had been following God’s path for many years, but still there were no children. They did have an Egyptian slave girl named Hagar. Now it was within normal custom of the times that Abram could have a child with Hagar and the child would be his heir. And from Sarai’s words it seems that the child would effectively be adopted by Abram and Sarai. The plan makes perfect sense from a human point of view, but it was completely against God’s plan. We should appreciate how appealing the plan would seem. They had not had children despite trying for many years, nothing has changed on that front since God’s promise. God had said Abram would have a child from his own body, and under this scheme that would happen. Human wisdom can so easily lead us astray.

16:3,4a

“Abram agreed to what Sarai said”, just as Adam agreed to eat the fruit. Abram was as responsible as Sarai, and he had not been the husband he should have been. This occurred some ten years from Abram arriving in Canaan. So Sarai gave Abram the servant girl. The servant girl is being treated as an object, but we will see as the story unfolds that God does not treat her, nor the son she would have, as a mere object. We also see that Sarai was actively involved in the scheme, even leading in the scheme. If anything, Abram is also being treated as a sex object. Anyway, he slept with Hagar and she conceived.

John 3:17,18 - To save the world through Him

3:17

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world”. Now this phrase, along with “do not judge” is often completely misunderstood. Often it seems to be taken to mean “Jesus did not come to tell me the way I am living my life is wrong”. Nothing could be further from the truth, in fact the exact opposite is the case. If we look at almost any aspect of Christ’s teaching it is quite clear that the way we are doing things at present is wrong. We are all sinners. Jesus did come to tell us we are wrong. In fact, the whole Bible tells us that we are wrong. When we are shown to be wrong we expect to be judged, penalised in some way. But Jesus did not come to penalise us, but to pay the penalty for us. The succeeding verses will make this even clearer.

3:18

John now sets out how things work. If we believe in Christ then we are not condemned. The exact reasons are not given here, for what John is focusing on in this chapter is the human condition, the attitude that we have. Nicodemus thought he had everything worked out, only to be told he could not be more wrong. We often think God has a duty to forgive us, and if He sends someone to hell then He had better have a good reason to do so! In fact, God has a very good reason, and it applies to every human being. The one who does not believe “stands condemned already”. Now we should address a common misconception. People sometimes say it is unfair that someone will go to hell because they have not believed in Jesus. No one goes to hell because they have not believed in Jesus, they go to hell because of their sin. They could have avoided going to hell by believing in Jesus. It is like someone who is ill with a fatal disease. The doctor offers them medicine that will cure them of the disease. If the person takes the medicine they will get better. If they do not take the medicine the disease will kill them. This is not the fault of the doctor, if the patient refuses to take the medicine then it is their own stupid fault for not taking the medicine. Likewise if someone refuses to believe in Jesus then it is not God’s fault!

Genesis 15:12-21 - They shall come back here

15:12-16

Abram then fell into a deep sleep and a terrible darkness descended upon him and God speaks to him. It is not an easy message that Abram receives. His offspring will be wanderers in the land for over four hundred years, and will be servants. Then God would judge the nation they served and they would come out of that nation with many possessions. This is what happened at the exodus. Abram will not see this, but will live his life in peace and then be buried at a good old age. It would be some time before the Israelites came back to this place “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”. Israel’s history is tied up with that of other nations, for God is the judge of the whole earth. The Amorites were one of the people occupying the land. God did not just chuck them out of the land for no good reason, but as an act of judgement on their behaviour.

15:17-21

A smoking fire pot passed through the pieces of animals and God made a covenant with Abram. To his offspring He would give the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. And He names the various people who are currently occupying the land. The river of Egypt could be an eastern branch of the Nile or the Wadi el Arish.

John 3:16 - God so loved the world

3:16

We now come to the most famous verse in the Bible, and the one loved by all evangelists. At this point we are leaving the words of Jesus, and instead we have John’s commentary on what Jesus has said. Now there is some debate about where the words of Jesus end, and where the commentary of John begin, but 3:16 is the most commonly agreed on point. In one sense it doesn’t really matter. Some Bibles are “red letter” Bibles, this means that the words of Jesus are printed in red, with black being used for the rest of the text. This can be helpful, but we must not fall in to the trap of thinking that the parts which were not spoken by Jesus are somehow less inspired. All Scripture is God-breathed. 

With this verse, as with all verses, we must read it in context. In context of what has gone before, and especially what comes next. Jesus has just told Nicodemus that he doesn’t know what he's talking about and needs to be born again. Then He has said that the Son of Man must be lifted up so that all who believe in Him may have eternal life. John now explains what this means. First of all there is God's love for the world. Now in most cases in John’s writings the “world” is used in a very negative way, referring to the world as the embodiment of evil. Some then find it odd that this verse speaks of God’s love for the world. We can think of judgement, or we can think of forgiveness, but we find it very difficult to think of both at the same time, and this is a great problem for us. God has no such problem, and throughout the Bible we often find the love and judgement of God being deeply intertwined. God loved the world so He sent His one and only Son. The world was ensnared by its sin, and so is deserving of judgement. God would far rather the world repented and could be forgiven, therefore He sent Christ so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

Sometimes people think of the cross as a loving Jesus persuading an angry God to forgive us instead of sending us to hell. This is a completely unbiblical picture. A loving God sent His Son to save us. The Father and the Son (and the Holy Spirit, for that matter) are in this together. Note also that there are only two options. Either we perish or we have eternal life through faith in Christ.

Genesis 15:7-11 - How am I to know

15:7

There now follows a sealing of the covenant. We must be wary of worshipping idols, physical objects which cannot see or hear. However, the material does matter and God gives us physical signs or seals of spiritual realities. God gave us baptism, and He gave us the Lord’s supper. These things do not save us in themselves, yet they remind us of what God has done in Christ. So here Abram is given a physical symbol of the covenant. God reminds Abram that He brought him up out of Ur of the Chaldeans in order that he might possess this land. God initiated the events, and He brought Abram out of Ur for a purpose. God acts in our lives for a reason, for a purpose.

15:8-11

Abram then asks how he is to know that he will possess the land. This is an entirely understandable question. There is a fine dividing line between doubt and faith. Zechariah questioned the angel when he was told about John and was struck dumb for a time as a result. Here Abram is not rebuked. Instead God gives Abram what, to us at least, seems a rather strange answer.  Abram got various creatures, killed them and then laid them out.

John 3:14,15 - May have eternal life

3:14

The necessity of looking to Jesus is reinforced by His referring to the incident with Moses and the bronze snake, recorded in Num 21:4-9. God has sent venomous snakes among the Israelites because of their grumbling. Moses had to make a bronze snake and anyone who was bitten had to look at the snake in order to be healed. The Son of Man being lifted up is an obvious reference to the cross. “Lifted up” can also mean “exalted”. The world saw the cross as the ultimate humiliation, in reality it was the exaltation of Christ. It was the place of His victory over sin.

3:15

The purpose of Christ being lifted up and our need to look to Him is now made clear. It is that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life in Him. The “in Him” is important. Eternal life is not an ephemeral concept, it is life in Christ. We live in Christ. Moses’ bronze snake eventually had to be destroyed (2 Kings 18:4) by Hezekiah. For the bronze snake had become an object of worship along with other idols, they had been burning incense to it. It is very easy for symbols to become idols. The Israelites were saved by looking at the snake, it was God’s grace that saved them. Christ is different, we need to believe in Him. The sending of Christ was an act of grace on the part of the Father, but Christ Himself is our salvation.

This is the first mention of “eternal life”, its literal meaning is “life of the age to come”. It is much more than just going on forever.

Genesis 15:4-6 - He counted it to him as righteousness

15:4

“This man shall not be your heir ...” We need to be aware that our thinking is often deeply mistaken because it omits God. Abraham’s reasoning made perfect sense, looking at the objective facts no other conclusion could be reached. Yet it was wrong. So God corrects Abram. A servant would not inherit from Abram, but he would have a son from his own body.

15:5

In Gen 13:16 God had told Abram that his descendants would be more numerous than the grains of sand in the desert. Now He gives him another illustration, this time looking up at the stars and tells him that his offspring would be more numerous than the stars in the sky. We need to beware of leaning on our own understanding, for our own understanding is very limited (Prov 3:5,6).

15:6

“He believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.” This is perhaps the most important verse in the account of Abraham. It is certainly one that the New Testament makes much of, especially Paul with it forming the basis for the book of Galatians. James also quotes this verse. We need to base our lives on what God has said, to believe what God has said.

John 3:12,13 - I have spoken of earthly things

3:12

What are we to make of this verse? The focus of Jesus’ teaching in this section has been on the need to be born again, surely this is a “heavenly thing”?  We think that the contrast is between non-spiritual and spiritual things, but this does not seem to make sense. Perhaps it is better to take both “earthly” and “heavenly” things as being spiritual. Jesus has been speaking about the change that needs to take place here on earth. We need to be “born again”, and Nicodemus (along with his fellow Pharisees) do not believe, even though the need for the change is obvious. But what happens here on earth is not the end of the matter. We will be raised from dead to new life, and we will reign with Christ forever. These are “heavenly” matters. If Nicodemus failed to grasp the earthly aspects of the kingdom what hope did have of grasping the heavenly aspects? The Pharisees thought that they were the experts, the truth was that they knew next to nothing. We all need to beware of this danger.

3:13

The final three verses of this section provide an incredibly concise and deep summary of what Jesus is all about. First we learn that “no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven - the Son of Man”. If we want to learn anything of heavenly matters there is only one person who can teach us with any authority. That is Jesus Christ, for He is the only one who has actually been there. If we want to learn we need to turn to Christ. If the Pharisees wanted to learn then they needed to learn from Christ, but that was the one thing that they steadfastly refused to do.

This is how I fight my battles - a sermon.

This is video of a sermon I preached recently at Gate Church Internation on Prov 3:5,6, entitled "This is how I fight my battles".

Genesis 15:1-3 - I am your shield, your very great reward

15:1

We now come to one of the most important chapters. The Lord appears to Abram and says “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great”. These words can be taken in various ways. Abram has just fought and won an important victory, and he has also made important financial decisions. He let Lot choose the bit of land he wanted, he then made an offering to Melchizedek while refusing to accept anything from the king of Sodom. These were all acts of faith. However, when we have taken a step of faith, chosen to do something God’s way rather than the world’s way we can feel vulnerable. God is assuring Abraham. However, there is also another reason for God saying this to Abram, which we will see in the next two verses.

15:2,3

Abram might seem to be a great man of faith, but there is also deep seated doubt in him. We should be careful how we judge people, not putting them on pedestals. Outwardly it might seem that they have it altogether, and there may be actions to demonstrate that their faith is real, but that does not mean that there are not areas of life where they struggle. Abram had been given great promises, but they all depended on him having offspring, and he had none, nor was there the prospect of there being any. So if he had no children, then his wealth would be inherited by someone else. “You have given me no offspring”. We might think he is blaming God, which in a sense he is, but these words also contain the seed of faith. For it is indeed God who gives offspring, and that is why Abraham and Sarah would indeed have offspring. There is also faith in that Abram took God’s words about his offspring seriously.

John 3:9-11 - How can this be?

3:9,10

“How can this be?” is better translated as “How can this happen?” What Jesus had just said went against all Jewish practice, against all that the Pharisees had been doing. They had taught the people that obedience to God’s commands was the way into the kingdom of God. They had totally missed the point that man was, on the basis of his own abilities, unable to do this. The Old Testament set out the standards, and demonstrated man’s inability to meet them. Yet it also contained fantastic promises, along with an absolute assurance that the promises would be fulfilled. In order to square the circle, in order to resolve this paradox, man needed to be born again. Jesus rebukes Nicodemus for his failing to appreciate this. Jesus refers to him as “the teacher of Israel”, implying that he was a highly recognised teacher. The new birth was not a departure from Old Testament teaching, but part of the fulfillment of it.

3:11

We get another “very truly”. There are also “we”s in this verse, and this has occasioned speculation on why the we? Some think it refers to Jesus and His disciples, but this does not make sense as at this point their understanding was no better than that of Nicodemus. A more likely explanation is that Jesus is using “we” here in response to the “we” that Nicodemus used at the outset. “You people do not accept our testimony”. It was not just a failure to understand, but a positive refusal to accept the testimony of Jesus. The truth of this would become increasingly evident as the gospel progresses, and is also witnessed to in the synoptics. 

Genesis 14:17-24 - Blessed be God Most High

14:17,18

Having defeated his enemies and rescued Lot we now come to what is perhaps the most important section of this chapter. Abraham was met by two people, the king of Sodom, and Melchizedek king of Salem. Melchizedek is something of an enigmatic figure, he is mentioned in Psalm 110 and, most significantly, in Hebrews 5, 6 and 7. In Hebrews he is seen as somehow prefiguring Christ.  We are told here that Melchizedek was the priest of God Most High, and he came out with bread and wine. There are obvious allusions to the bread and wine of holy communion here.

14:19,20

Melchizedek then blesses Abram, declaring him to be blessed by God Most High. He also declares that God is “possessor (or creator) of heaven and earth”. Then he declares that God is blessed, and that He was the one who delivered Abram’s enemies into his hands. It is notable that Abram is blessed by God. God is simply blessed, no one bestowed the blessing on Him. Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything. Hebrews sees this as significant as it represented Levi paying tithes to Melchizedek (Heb 7:9,10). It does also show that tithing came in before the Law.

It is significant that God is the possessor (or creator) of heaven and earth. The only grounds that Abram had for believing the promises of God was that God was the creator of all things.

14:21-24

The king of Sodom now comes into the picture. The king seeks to make a deal with Abram. Abram refuses. He has made his allegiance to the Lord, and is depending purely upon Him for his success. So he refuses the offer, but does allow his allies to take their share.

John 3:8 - The wind blows

3:8

The Greek word for spirit is the same as that for wind, and the same applies to Hebrew for that matter. In the New Testament the word almost always means spirit, but in the first part of this verse the word almost certainly means wind (though there are some who think otherwise), and the way the wind works is used to illustrate something of the working of the Holy Spirit. We all know when the wind blows and can see its effects, but apart from that we have no control over it, the wind does what it wants. So it is with the Holy Spirit. Actually the text here says “so it is with anyone born of the Spirit”. Man cannot control what the Spirit does. We can see the effects He has in a persons life, but beyond that we know little, and we certainly do not control Him. This is very important, for we often think that we can, and this applies to all branches of the church. Charismatics sometimes speak of calling the Holy Spirit down, or similar phrases. We can ask the Spirit to “come down”, but we cannot tell Him what to do! But some reformed Christians can sometimes be just as bad. For instance some cessationist say that the only way God will speak to someone today is through the word of God, never through prophecy, dreams or visions. Now I would fully accept that there is a lot of flakey nonsense to be found among some charismatic circles, but from beginning to end in the Bible God has chosen to speak directly to individuals, or groups, by one means or another. It is highly presumptuous to say that God will never do this, you have no authority to do this. It is also worth noting that in the instances of this happening in the Bible it is at God’s instigation, not man’s. Let me emphasise that most Charismatics and Reformed Christians have the utmost respect and reverence for the Holy Spirit, the above are just examples. But we all need to watch ourselves, making sure that we are not trying to usurp the sovereignty of God.

Genesis 14:8-16 - Abram rescues Lot

14:8-12

The Dead Sea area, which is where most of the action was taking place, was a place rich in minerals of various sorts. The four kings won the battle against the five and carried off much plunder from Sodom and Gomorrah. They also carried off Lot, Abram’s nephew. This is the key event as far as this chapter is concerned. As noted earlier, there are some who say Abram should never have let Lot come with him when he left Ur of the Chaldeans. Now it is true that Lot caused a lot of trouble. However, it is Lot who chose to travel with Abram, Abram did not make him come. More importantly, the incidents with Lot bring out the best in Abram, and there are positive teachings from all these incidents.

14:13-16

Abram learned of what had happened to Lot. Abram was living with people who had made an agreement with him. On hearing the news Abram gathered a small army, 318 fighting men, from his household. The word used for “trained men” is not used elsewhere in the Bible, but has been found in Egyptian excavations, just another small piece of evidence supporting the historicity of the text. Some might think that the army of 318 is too small to accomplish the task given to them, but there several things that can be said. First, we are not dealing with vast armies at this stage. Secondly is the power of God! Then there are Abram’s allies, and they would have the element of surprise. Abram won the battle and recovered Lot, his people and his goods.

John 3:6,7 - Flesh gives birth to flesh

3:6

“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” The word “flesh” is a very rich and diverse word in the New Testament with its meaning ranging from simply referring to the body, to its reference to the inherently corrupt nature of man, especially in Paul’s writings. Here it is simply referring to human effort. However, this verse also points to a fundamental fact of what it means to be human. We are both physical and spiritual beings, and by spiritual I do not mean the airy-fairy way in which the term “spiritual” is often used today. I do mean our utter dependence upon the Lord. In Gen 2:7 it says that God formed man from the dust of the earth and then breathed into him the breath of life, this probably has relevance to understanding John 20:22. Pharisees thought that by studying the Scriptures they could obtain eternal life (John 5:39). Now studying the Scriptures is clearly an excellent thing to do (otherwise why do I write this blog and why do you read it?), but we need the work of the Spirit in our lives.

3:7

In Rom 1:19 Paul says what is known about God should be plain to us. Likewise, the Pharisees should not have been surprised when Jesus said they needed to be born again. By the way, the “you” here is plural, Jesus is making a universally applicable point, not one limited to Nicodemus. The Old Testament should have made it clear to them that they needed to be born again. How so? The Old Testament made their moral deficiencies plain, their complete failure to live up to God’s standards. Something more was needed, and books like Isaiah and Ezekiel made it plain that a new heart was needed.