Author: John Tillman

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 21 Listen: (3:59), Read: John 20 Listen: (4:17)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 21.1-7

1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Reflection: God-given Laughter

By John Tillman

The son of the promise was named for laughter.

Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter,” with layered meaning. One layer was the laughter of disbelief and another was the laughter of joy.

At different times, Sarah and Abraham both laughed at God’s promise of a son in their old age. Sarah called herself “worn out” and Abraham, “old.” (Genesis 18.12-15) After no children came to fulfill the promise, Sarah tried to “build a family” through Hagar. (Genesis 16.1) Abraham laughed and fell on his face, then told God he’d settle for the blessing resting on Ishmael. (Genesis 17.17-18)

The second layer of laughter is joy. Despite their doubts and failures, the promised son was born. Sarah recognized that others would laugh with her. Abraham was well-known and the news would shock and surprise listeners. The laughter of joy would spread to the community.

When God’s promises come true, laughter is a beautiful response of joy. Sarah, Abraham, and their community would go from the laughter of disbelief to the laughter of joy.

Are you “worn out” from waiting for something from God? Have you fallen on your face and laughed in disbelief? If what you are waiting for is from God, don’t give up. Hold on. Don’t grasp at human solutions. The laughter of disbelief will one day give way to the laughter of joy.

This doesn’t mean a life without waiting, suffering, failures, and misteps. Like Abraham and Sarah, we will fall on our faces and put misplaced faith in quick fixes. In a seemingly hopeless situation, being reminded of God’s promises can send us facedown into the floor in laughter. It’s okay to let the laughter of disbelief bubble up but don’t let it lead to cynicism or settling for less than God promised.

We will have plenty of dark days. But laughter isn’t just for comedy clubs. It’s for hospitals. We need laughter on dream vacations, but need it more than ever in nightmarish catastrophes. Laughter in the darkness helps lead us to the light.

For Sarah and Abraham, Isaac was the “son of the promise.” As much joy as he brought, he was just a man, and a flawed one. For us, Jesus is a better “son of the promise.” The joy he brings is eternal and, in Jesus, all of the Father’s promises are “Yes.” (2 Corinthians 1.20)

Because of Jesus, we can say with Sarah, “God has brought me laughter.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. — Psalm 118.23

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: The Ram and the Cornerstone

Isaac on the stone and Jesus carrying his cross speak to us about our willingness to lay down our lives and desires for the benefit of others.

Read more: Mercy Seat and Manger

Jesus stays the sword of judgment and knife of sacrifice, providing himself as the lamb. Jesus threshes life out of death.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 18 Listen: (4:59), Read: John 17 Listen: (3:40)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Genesis 19 Listen: (5:33), Read: John 18 Listen: (5:16)
Read: Genesis 20 Listen: (2:39), Read: John 19 Listen: (6:23)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 18.25-26, 32

25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

Reflection: How Righteous?

By John Tillman

Culture thinks of Jesus as the nice God and God in the Old Testament as the mean God. It’s true we see more direct acts of divine violence in the Old Testament but the “mean” label ignores that God is responding to victims’ cries.

There was an outcry against Sodom. God answered with localized destruction, eliminating the wicked city.

Just because the city was “wicked” doesn’t make it easy to think about its destruction. It’s a serious matter. Abram shares our concerns. We wonder how God can do this without harming the innocent. Will the judge of all the Earth do right? Yet how can he not do it when the innocent are already being harmed?

Who were Sodom’s victims and what was happening to them? Scripture clues us in.

One group of victims was the poor. Ezekiel was direct about Sodom’s sin: “…arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16.48-50)

Other prophets compare Jerusalem to Sodom because they gave power to evil leaders and were proud of all their sins, doing them flagrantly. (Jeremiah 23.14; Isaiah 3.5-9)

Another victimized group were travelers. If God assigned you to determine if there were 10 or more righteous people in a large city, how would you do it? The angels posed as vulnerable travelers. They intended to spend the night in the square, as those with little money or no connections would. Lot, however, seemed aware this was not safe and convinced them not to do so. Lot risked his own safety to protect those who, like himself, were “foreigners” in the city and vulnerable to attack and abuse. He showed righteousness by interfering with evil, even if he couldn’t stop it.

How evil does a person or city have to be to deserve destruction and how “good” to be spared? God challenged Jeremiah to find just one righteous person in Jerusalem and he failed. (Jeremiah 5.1)

Are our cities righteous? Ask the vulnerable who cry out to God. Listen to them.

Abram shows us that even the most wicked cities deserve our care and prayers on their behalf. Lot shows us that even even at risk of our home and safety, we must interfere with evil in our cities.

The judge of all the earth will do right. Will his servants?

Like Abram, intercede for the city and like Lot make a practice of interfering with evil.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. — Psalm 85.13

Listen to The Sins of Sodom

Can we conclude that Sodom was destroyed for just one type of sin? The text prohibits that conclusion. Sodom was a web of evil.

Read The Bible With Us

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Links for today’s readings:

Read:   Genesis 15 Listen: (2:53), Read: John 14 Listen: (4:13)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 15.6

6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Reflection: Righteousness On Credit

By John Tillman

Abram did things we’d call righteous.

Abram won a daring military victory that rescued kidnapped people who would have been enslaved. But bravery and fighting for a good cause didn’t make him righteous. Abram refused a financial reward from a corrupt leader. But refusing corruption didn’t make him righteous. Abram had a vibrant spiritual life and talked to God. But spiritual connection didn’t make Abram righteous. Abram obeyed God by abandoning his country and becoming a wandering migrant. But obedience and sacrifice didn’t make Abram righteous.

Abram also fell short of righteousness.

God told Abram to leave home with only his immediate family. Abram invited Lot, a source of conflict, foolishness, and sin. When entering Egypt as a migrant, Abram lied about Sarai being his sister and allowed Pharoah to take her as his wife. This deception enriched Abram while harming Sarai, Pharoah, and his family. Abram later repeated this behavior with Abimelech. Though Abram rescued Lot and others from slavery as war captives, Abram kept slaves himself. Although he was promised a son through Sarai, Abram had a child with Hagar, Sarai’s slave girl.

Abram’s righteous deeds did not outweigh his wicked ones to make him righteous and neither will ours. Adding “righteousness” to “wickedness” yields wickedness. You can mix milk into a gallon of poison, but if you eat cereal with the mixture, you’ll still be dead.

Righteousness is both a perfect thing accomplished for us by Jesus and an imperfect thing we strive for on Earth. There is righteousness that is a gift and righteousness that is a goal. There is righteousness that comes to us and righteousness we must pursue.

We access perfect righteousness by belief in God’s promise. We do not “deserve” this righteousness but it is “credited” to us as it was to Abram. The imperfect righteousness we strive for by obeying God’s calling to “establish righteousness.”

We have Christ’s righteousness on “credit.” Let’s put it to work and yield a harvest. (Romans 4.3-5, Galatians 3.6-9)

In a broken world, we are unworthy servants if we rest and ignore our tasks until Jesus returns. (Mark 13.33-37) We are unworthy servants if we bury our imputed righteousness in the ground without putting it to work in our master’s world. (Matthew 25.24-30)

Let us both accept and pursue righteousness. Let us show our faith by our deeds.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Whoever holds my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.” — John 14.21

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Whoever holds my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.” — John 14.21

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: The First Spirit-Filled Work

Whether with hammer and chisel or keyboard and screen, God’s Spirit longs to use your work to build sacred space depicting redemption.

Read The Bible With Us

Join our Bible sustainably-paced two-year Bible reading plan. Find moments of reflection and meaning in God’s word.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional