On This Day

January 21, 2021

On the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century, my first grandbaby, Silas, was born. 

He was born in the 22nd hour and 22 days early. 

400 Years is a Long Time to Change Your Mind

For 2021 I have a goal to read through the bible.  The early chapters of Genesis never cease to make me think and wonder about early life on this planet.  In Genesis 15, God tells Abram his descendants will be like the stars in the heavens.  Abram believed God (Gen 15:6) and then God said Abram would possess the land in which he currently lived. (Gen 15:7)  At the time it was populated but others.  Then Abram expressed his doubt by saying, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” (Gen 15:8)

After confessing this doubt, God later says Abram’s descendants would be enslaved for 400 years but would eventually leave with great possessions. (Gen 15:14) So here is the seed of what lies in me right now. 

 

Several times in the bible God or an angel announce some great thing to a mortal only for the receiver of the great news to express doubt.  Sometimes the doubt causes a rebuke.  Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, had such an event.  He stated his doubt and wonder and was mute until his son’s circumcision. (Luke 1:18-20, 57-65)

 

I find it hard to accept something that is contrary to what has always been.  Imagine being a slave in Egypt.  For generations the Hebrews knew nothing but subjugation and forced labor.  Out of nowhere someone from pharaoh’s house returns to the scene and says all the slaves are to be freed.  Then life gets worse for them.  How are they to believe they will ever be anything other than a slave?

 

Imagine, for a moment, you were born 200 years into the 400 years of enslavement. You have grandparents who prayed for the day they would be free.  They pass this on to you.  They believed and prayed about freedom until they died.  You do the same.  Your children and grandchildren all hope, pray, and believe for freedom but die enslaved.  Is your belief in vain?  Are your prayers useless?  What if you are of the generation that would see the light of freedom?  Is that generation’s belief in vain?  How about their prayers?  Do you see the paradox?

 

Are the promises of God any less important to the ones who will not partake of them?  How am I supposed to believe when the declaration of an angel or God contradicts everything I know and see?  If I only know sorrow, loss, darkness, strife, barrenness, and enslavement, then astonishment and doubt are the likely and obvious reactions to the promises of God.  I’m not complaining or stating God is unjust.  I’m merely stating what is obvious to me.  That’s how my mind understands it.