PT-2 "Focus" (Acts 7:1-16)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/13/2017 10:54 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  PT-2 "Focus"

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                     Reference:  Acts 7:1-16

            Message of the verses:  As mentioned in our last SD I am putting the verses onto this Spiritual Diary as we look at them.  We begin by looking at verses 3-4 “3 and said to him, ’LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.’”  4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.”

            Abraham obeyed the call of God and this was not an easy journey for the distance between Ur and Haran is about 500 miles.  Cleveland, Ohio to Nashville Tennessee is 500 miles, and this is a good day’s drive, so one could imagine how long it took Abraham and all who were with him to travel that far.  Haran is located northwest of Ur, and Ur was noted for its moon worship, and Abraham and his family were involved in these kinds of pagan things, but God called him away from them.  Now I mentioned in our last SD about what Dr. Wiersbe wrote as far as to why Abraham stayed at Haran, and John MacArthur picks up on this:  This poses (Gen. 11:32) ‘The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.’ An interesting problem with an apparently contradictory text.  Homer Kent, Jr.’s, comment is helpful:

‘The death of Abraham’s father Terah is placed before Abraham’s departure from Haran.  A comparison of data in Genesis 11:26, 32; 12:4) seems to indicate that Terah lived another 60 years after Abraham left.  Genesis states that Terah was 70 when he fathered his oldest son, presumably Abraham (11:26).  Since Abraham was 75 when he left Haran (12:4), Terah would have been 145.  Yet Terah did not die till he was 205 (11:32).  The best solution seems to be that Abraham was not the oldest son of Terah, but was named first because he was the most prominent (11:26).  If Abraham was born when Terah was 130, the figures are harmonized.  (Jerusalem to Rome [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992], 68).’

“God then ‘removed him into this country’ (Israel) in which they were ‘now living.’  Abraham’s obedience under God’s sovereignty accomplished God’s purpose for his life.” 

            Like the apostle Paul would later do in both Romans 4 and also Galatians 3 where he focused in on Abraham’s faith, Stephen did so here:  “5 “But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A POSSESSION, AND TO HIS DESCENDANTS AFTER HIM.”  I have to say that it took a lot of faith for Abraham to pick up and leave the place where he was born and raised and lived for 75 years to go to a place he perhaps never heard of, but in faith he obeyed God.  This morning in a devotional that I read from each day, I read that perhaps Noah demonstrated the greatest faith.  Noah was the only believer in God of all the perhaps millions of people on the earth at that time.  “Imagine instantly surrendering all your time and effort to devote 120 years to building something you’d never seen (a vessel the size of an ocean liner or battleship) to protect you from something you’d never experienced (rain and flooding).  Yet Noah did it without question.”  This comes from “Obeying in Faith” a devotional written by John MacArthur for this date (Nov. 13).

            Getting back to Abraham, a man of great faith who was promised all of the Promised Land, but only owned a small piece of land that he paid too much for in order to have a place to bury his dead, and yet he was looking to the future city in heaven as the writer to the Hebrews tells us.  “5 "But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A POSSESSION, AND TO HIS DESCENDANTS AFTER HIM.” 

            “6 "But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. 7 “’AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY WILL BE IN BONDAGE I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,’ said God, ’AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.’”  Abraham believed this promise that we read in these two verses, knowing that God would keep His promise, which He did as He judged Egypt as we see in the early chapters of the book of Exodus.  The point is that Abraham believed God. 

            This concludes the flow of salvation history that Stephen is making, and next he will move into the patriarchal period, which speaks of God’s sovereign control of Israel’s destiny continues with the succeeding generations to which God’s covenant was given to Abraham’s offspring.  We will talk about this in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11:1).”  Noah’s faith and Abraham’s faith had the object of their faith in God, and that I the object my faith must be in too.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  “5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:5-6)”

Memory verse:  Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is anything excellence, anything praise worthy, dwell on these things.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Altar of incense, table, and candlestick” (Exodus 26:35).

Today’s Bible question:  “Name three ways one should live?”  (Clue, the answer is in Titus)

Answer in our next SD.

11/13/2017 11:41 AM