Category Archives: Morning Musings

Morning Musings

Melchisedek

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Genesis Fourteen….Verses 17-20….

   We have here the only historical mention of this man Melchisedek He is called the King of Salem (Peace) and was also a priest of the Most high God…

   This shows us that there were others besides Abram who worshipped the one true God at this time. In Psalm 110 we read that David referred prophetically to the One Who would one day come to earth saying, “The Lord said unto my Lord” (verse 1) and we see the capital letters of the title showing the Persons of the Godhead filling different roles. In verse 4 he writes, “The Lord has sworn and said and will never change, ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek’ “.

    In the book of Hebrews 6:20-7:1-27 the writer enlarges on this and says more than once that Jesus Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchisedek, not Aaraon. So we see that the order of Melchisdek was higher than that of Aaron’s and that Melchisdek was not only called the King of Peace, but also the King of Righteousness. Who else but our Lord Jesus fills this role?

   This man met Abram and blessed him, and Abram gave him tithes of all his spoil. How much more has our Prince of Peace met us and blessed us! What can we do but take the cup of salvation that He offers us and worship Him!

Abram fought and won the war, Brought Lot back and still far more, The Priest of God met him that day, And blessed him fully in the way.

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Morning Musings

Lot Rescued…

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Genesis Fourteen….. Verses 1-16….

   We have just seen how Lot separated from Abram and chose the easy land of the plains, BUT there were dangers there, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah……

   This reminds us that the easy ways of life are not always the best ways. It is easy to sleep in, in the mornings rather than to get up and spend time in God’s Word; it is easy to work church life around what we want to do rather than make church central and work other things around it!

   Lot thought he could handle the temptations of these places, but we see him getting closer to Sodom all the time ….it was more convenient, and easier to conduct his business to be there, so he told himself. Then he met and married the girl who became his wife, and he raised his family with Sodom’s values. No wonder the Scriptures teach us to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers! In this chapter , we see him living right IN Sodom. If we aren’t constantly on our guard, this is what can happen to us…we can be sucked in by the world until we find ourselves right in its midst, looking and sounding just like everyone else! We can be totally captivated and captured by the evil one, just as Lot was taken captive by the pagan kings.

It took righteous Abram with his trained servants to rescue him and bring him back, restoring his goods to him.     Notice that Abram was on the alert, with his servants trained and ready to fight. This is how we should be as believers (2 Timothy 2:3-6). We should be on the alert to not get tangled up in the world’s pleasures, but to strive to please our Master at all times. We are told in Ephesians  6:10-18 how to be armed and ready for this fight, and this doesn’t happen by just drifting along!

Lot’s way was easy on the plain, But soon he moved in ways so vain, All his goods were taken away, But Abram got them back one day.

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Morning Musings

Abram Returns….

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Genesis Thirteen….(v.1-18)    

   Abram now retraced his steps and went back to the place where he had last built an altar. So we too, when we backslide, must return to the Lord and to a place of worship….

   But Abram still had a hanger-on that was not of God’s choosing….his nephew Lot. Abram had been told to leave his family behind, but he took Lot with him. Now the time had come when Lot was forced to leave him. Sometimes we hang onto things that are harmless in themselves, but we know they are not of the Lord for us.

    Sometimes they are removed forcibly from us, but how much better to give them up voluntarily for God! It might be an ear-ring for a man, or some bad habit not becoming to a believer (smoking, the odd drink or bad language). These things which are OK for the world, will always hold back a believer from growing in the Lord.

    When Abram was back at the altar, then Lot left him and God once more gave Abram the great promise he had started off with and expanded it even further. We cannot grow in the Lord until we leave these things behind us.

Abram now retraced his way, Looking to God for ev’ry day, Back to the altar he’d  had at Bethel, Where God was able His promise to tell.

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Morning Musings

Enter Abraham….

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Genesis Eleven….                         Verses 10-26….

   Verse ten is interesting…it states that Shem was 100 years old at the end of the flood and that two years later his first child was born This would have given him time to get established with gardens (food) and somewhere to live. We then see the direct line from Shem  to Abraham that was ten generations…. So we can see from this that Shem outlived all of these patriarchs except for his great-grandson Eber who died in the 531st year after the flood…..he even outlived Abraham! Man’s life span was getting gradually less until David could write that a person could only expect to live seventy years or maybe eighty with great difficulty (Psalm 90:10)

All these who lived so long ago, Shem lived enough to see them grow, From Babel’s time when scattered all, Till Abram went where God did call.

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Genesis Eleven….          Where Lot Fitted In.

Verses 27-32….

   We see that Terah had three sons (verse 26) Abram, Nahor and Haran, and they lived in the city of Ur which was on the river Euphrates near its mouth into the Persian Gulf. These three sons married….

   Haran had  at least three children (Lot, Milcah and Ischar, verse 29) and then died comparatively young. Nahor took his niece Milcah as his wife and Abram married his half sister Sarai who was a beautiful girl. Terah and some of his family left the city of Ur and travelled for 600 miles up the river Euphrates to the city of Haran. We aren’t sure whether Terah left in response to God’s first message to Abram, or whether that message came to Abram for the first time in Haran. But Terah felt he had gone far enough, and he settled there until he died in the year 427 after the flood. In the year 367 after the flood, God spoke to Abram again (Abram was 75 at this time, chapter 12:4) about leaving his relatives and Abram moved on, taking his wife and nephew Lot with him. We can see from chapter 12:5 that they all must have been in Haran a few years as it tells us that Abram had got together a team of servants and animals and took them with him. Maybe he thought Lot could be a help to him on the journey to where God was directing him. It seems that Lot was still unmarried at this time, as there is no mention of a wife in this account. Many people say that Abram stayed in Haran until his father died, but that is not correct when the times and dates given here are checked out.

Abram obeyed what God had said, Leaving home, by God was led, Travelled far to the Promised Land, Trusting God’s protecting hand.

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Morning Musings

Man Proposes

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Genesis 11:verses 1-9….

   The people, all closely related, were staying around the area where the ark had touched down. But as they started to move around, they came to this plain where they settled. Then they had a great idea…..

   “Let’s  build a tower that will reach to heaven and make a great name for ourselves”, they said, and then set to work. It wasn’t that they were merely building a tower that God did not like, it was their attitude of pride towards God…they were exhibiting the same attitude of pride that Satan showed when he said to himself, “I will be like God, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14)

    The people all had a common purpose, a common ambition, and a common language, and so they began. But God stepped in and gave the people all different languages. We can imagine the next part of the story…..the foreman went  out to to give his orders to the people, but then they looked at him in amazement….they did not understand a single word that he was saying! God had stepped in and confounded their language, their plans and their project….it all came to a sudden halt.

   Each family drifted away from the others who now seemed like foreigners, and they moved off to settle in other parts. It was all part of God’s plan to scatter the people and populate the rest of the world.

   Japheth’s family went north and westward; Ham’s went towards the south while some of Shem’s stayed where they while others drifted off to the east. So the different nationalities of the world evolved according to God’s plan.

Man had planned and then proposed, But God took note and then disposed, We should take care, and let Him guide, So we in Him can each abide.

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Morning Musings

Noah’s Obedience Rewarded.

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   Noah had prepared the ark and provisioned it with enough food for every creature on board just as God had told him to. What a sight it must have been to see all the animals loaded on board!

   Seven pairs of clean (eatable) animals, and all birds, with one pair of all other animals and all the creepy crawlies too! Finally Noah and his family (eight people) went in and God shut the door of the ark. There wouldn’t have been any handle on the outside. Then it began to rain….imagine the panic of the people on the outside as they saw the waters begin to rise. They would remember then all the times that Noah had warned them this would happen! The tide too kept on rising and people could now see that Noah’s prediction was right after all, but it was too late! It was no use banging on the door to be let in….God had shut it and there was no outside handle.

   The water kept rising until the highest mountain was covered by fifteen cubits (seven metres ). All moving life died and the earth was cleansed of all the filth and evil that man had brought on it. The water covered the earth for just over five months before it began to recede.

This is a real lesson to us as we read this account….God’s invitation has an end. Just as the people in Noah’s time found that they couldn’t go into the ark when they wanted to, so people today will find that if they put off accepting God’s invitation to come NOW, the time may come when they won’t be able to come. Just like the man who kept putting off the chance he had to turn to Jesus, but kept resisting it. One day he dreamed that he could see God in heaven, and a big blind came down between them blotting out the sight. He said that he knew then that he wouldn’t be able to come even if he wanted to….it was too late! We must make sure that we don’t pass this point of no return!

Man’s sin brought judgment on the earth, Such as never  seen since its birth,

The earth was cleansed all through and through, So then it could start fresh and new.

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Morning Musings

Noah, a Dope?

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Genesis Six….          

Verses 13-22….

   God’s patience with mankind had come to an end, and man needed to be taught a harsh lesson….”I’m going to make an end of this evil, and man will be destroyed from the earth”…..

   God revealed to Noah 1his plan and gave him a massive job to do…build this large ark (boat) capable of saving all species of animals  and all people who would be willing to join it. What an object of derision Noah must have been! Here he was, miles from the ocean, and no one knew what rain was as it had never fallen prior to this time. The boat was 450 feet long by 75 feet high and had three decks….each storey would have been over ten feet high, high enough to accommodate elephants and giraffes!

    God had not only told Noah what to do, but what was going to happen, so Noah would no doubt have told all who came to see what he was doing, why he was doing it. Peter says he was a “preacher of righteousness”  (2 Peter 2:5). It is also interesting to note that Noah was the eighth generation down from Adam (eight being God’s number). The warning in this is that God ALWAYS judges sin, no matter how long it takes to come, it WILL come.

Man had fallen deep in sin, His every thought was wrong within; God’s patience went and judgment came, the earth was cleansed to start again.

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Morning Musings

Who Were These People?

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Genesis Six….(v.1-12)      

   These early verses give rise to all sorts of speculations….did angels REALLY come down to earth and live with humans? In conjunction with this thought, we must read Mark 12:25 where our Lord specifically says that angels do NOT marry…..

   Who then were these “sons of God”? Back in chapter five we see the godly line of Seth and follow it down. In chapter four we read of the ungodly line of Cain who totally left God out of his life. It was Seth’s descendants who began to call on the name of the Lord (chapter 4:25-26), and this reached a peak of communion with God that a human can reach when God took Enoch bodily, and not by death (Hebrews 11:5).

   Now we see what happens when godly people marry ungodly spouses….they nearly always get dragged down by them. In this time we are reading about, this is what happened and the wickedness of man became very great, and all they could think about was wicked thoughts. Paul very definitely says that believers are NOT to marry unbelievers because it can’t work….there is too much conflict in spiritual things (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).

   Things on earth became so bad that God now cut back a person’s life span to the average of 120 years, and people’s lives got still shorter from Noah’s time on. Noah was God’s man for a specific purpose, and he was the only one who looked to God and lived a good life….everyone else was corrupt and violent. It wasn’t safe to walk out on the road! What a wonderful testimony Noah had…just and upright! (verse 9)

As time passed by this world so fair,  Men left their God, in wickedness shared, God’s Spirit with them no more strived, God gave them up as judgment arrived.  

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