Test Results

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 22 Listen: (4:01), Read: John 21 Listen: (3:58)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 22.1, 17-18

1 Some time later God tested Abraham…

17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Hebrews 11.17-19

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

Reflection: Test Results

By John Tillman

A divine demand for child sacrifice wouldn’t have surprised Abraham.

Child sacrifices were common with fertility gods in Canaan. But Abraham went to Moriah expecting God to be different. He expected God to surprise him.

Abraham told Isaac God would provide a lamb. Hebrews tells us Abraham reasoned God could raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham held in one hand the promise that God would bless the world through Isaac. In the other hand, he held a knife and a command to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham did the theological math. He added God’s promises to God’s commands, divided them by God’s nature and came up with resurrection as the solution.

Abraham’s resurrection theory was ahead of his time. David and the psalmists wrote about resurrection. Isaiah and Ezekiel mentioned it. Jonah’s life became a living parable demonstrating it. Resurrection is a theme in the Old Testament, but not during Abraham’s lifetime.

Still, Abraham’s hunch about resurrection was correct. He was just wrong about whose resurrection was needed to fulfill God’s promise. The resurrection of Isaac would have saved one man. The resurrection of Jesus saves all who come to him.

So what is the lesson of Abraham’s test? That we’ll be tested? That we must obey? That we must sacrifice? That we can trust God? Maybe. But we see those lessons in many passages and I am convinced that no story from the Bible has only one lesson. I think there are deeper, more timely lessons.

One lesson is that we cannot fulfill the covenant. Abraham couldn’t. Neither can we. We don’t even have a “lamb” to sacrifice. We cannot give enough, do enough, or bless the world enough.

Remember: The mountain of testing is called, “The Lord will provide,” not “We measured up.”

Also, avoid trusting in fleshly, worldly solutions. Abraham had a history of this. So do we. Technology, politics, media, governments, leaders, manipulation, lying, bullying… Why do we turn to these instead of trusting God?

Remember: Worldly solutions can never provide heavenly blessings.

Are you headed for a mountain of testing? Is your church? Is your nation? Think about what you have been trusting. Think about what you need God to provide and trust he will make a way. What might your test results be?

Our most important test has already been passed by Jesus. Trust in God and expect to be surprised by his solution.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse

O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon me.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon me.
O Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, grant me your peace. — Agnus Dei

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

Read more: Parting a Curtain or Entering God’s Presence?

Through peace and communion with Jesus, the holy of holies we enter overflows with the invaluable presence, power, and love of God.

Listen to Breaking the Rhyme Scheme

Christ will break this rhyme scheme. The rhythms of oppression will be rewritten. The drumbeat of violence will be silenced. The time signature of terrors will give way to rest.

Sheerah the City Builder

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 7.21-24
Ezer and Elead were killed by the native-born men of Gath, when they went down to seize their livestock. 22 Their father Ephraim mourned for them many days, and his relatives came to comfort him. 23 Then he made love to his wife again, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. He named him Beriah, because there had been misfortune in his family. 24 His daughter was Sheerah, who built Lower and Upper Beth Horon as well as Uzzen Sheerah. 

Hebrews 11.13-16
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 

Reflection: Sheerah the City Builder
By John Tillman

Most readers probably don’t remember Sheerah because her only mention is in a genealogy. Genealogies typically go father to son, father to son. Mentions of females are notable.

Genealogies seem boring to modern readers. Name after name parades down the page (often names we have difficulty pronouncing) and we just don’t see the point. 

The extreme individualism of our age is one reason for this boredom. We don’t typically feel connected to our ancestors. We see ourselves as solo artists or heroes, not a part of a whole. However, genealogies go beyond record-keeping. They tell stories.

Reading these passages was a way to re-experience the stories of those mentioned. Readers knew the stories from the other scriptures and the prophets. Their memories would light up as they read even just the names. Like a cameo of a Marvel character appearing briefly in a post-credits scene, these lists of names have exciting tidbits for those with the patience to read them.

The miniature stories we find in genealogies are hints of a larger tale. They are like open windows installed in a stairway, and it is worth pondering what the architect, the writer of the genealogy, hoped we would see.

Sheerah was a leader and architect. She built multiple cities, one of which bore her name. The other cities were twin cities on a border between two Israelite tribes: Ephraim and Benjamin. Upper Beth-Horan and Lower Beth-Horan, were not typical farming settlements. They were extremely important militarily and as part of the country’s religious life. 

Beth-Horan guarded an important ascent toward Jerusalem and was a city dedicated to the Levites amidst those tribes. The “upper” part of the city was Ephraim’s and the “lower” part was Benjamin’s. Levites from these cities would serve in Jerusalem’s Temple on a rotating basis.

The writer of Hebrews says all the faithful long for another land, another city. This includes the men and women listed in the genealogy of faith called the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11. 

Our genealogy of faith is full of imperfect, broken, and flawed humans leading to Jesus. God is not ashamed to be called their God and he is not ashamed to be ours either. We are not alone in our walk of faith. Connection to and knowledge of our “cloud of witnesses” can inspire more Sheerahs to build cities leading others to God’s city.


Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and glowing crystal clear. Down the middle of the city street, on either band of the river were the trees of life… — Revelation 22.1-2a

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 7-8  (Listen 9:04)
Psalms 83-84 (Listen 3:10)

Read more about No Such Thing as God Forsaken
May we not lose hope in our God or hope for our cities.

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In the Bleak Midwinter — Carols of Advent Hope

Scripture Focus: Hebrews 11:1, 39-40
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Revelation 21:1, 3-4
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Reflection: In the Bleak Midwinter — Carols of Advent Hope
By Jon Polk

Despite the lack of any biblical or historical evidence for the actual date of Jesus’ birth, Christmas has been celebrated on December 25th since the 3rd century. However, the mention of shepherds tending flocks in the Nativity story instead suggests a spring date likely for the birth of Jesus.

Nonetheless, Christmas is tightly identified with the winter season, which may explain why the pensive “In the Bleak Midwinter” is one of the most beloved Christmas carols of all time.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, 
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; 
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, 
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

While the seasonal details may not be entirely accurate, the poetic implications are clear. The world into which Christ was born is cold, harsh, and dreary, beset by sin and indifference. Into that landscape, our hope, the Messiah, was born.

In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed 
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

The text was written by English poet Christina Rossetti, daughter of Italian parents and member of an artistic family. Her father was a Dante scholar and taught Italian at King’s College. Her brothers were influential in the development of the 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite art movement.

Originally titled, “A Christmas Carol,” Rossetti’s poem was published in the January 1872 edition of the American journal, Scribner’s Monthly. Music was added to the hymn in 1906, twelve years after her death, by composer Gustav Holst.

Christina encountered her share of suffering in her lifetime. As a pre-teen, her father had a serious health breakdown causing him to retire from work. She lived with an autoimmune disorder that affected her thyroid. In 1893, she was diagnosed with breast cancer which took her life a year later.

Unhindered by her own misfortunes, Rossetti was extremely committed to her faith. She spent her time ministering to former prostitutes and using her gift of writing to bring attention to pressing issues of the day, including slavery and the exploitation of young women. 

It is no surprise, then, that the final verse of her solemn Christmas hymn contemplates not what Christ has done for us, but rather, what we can do for him.

What can I give him, poor as I am? 
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; 
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; 
Yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

If you are weary from living in a dark and cold world, if you are struggling with adversity or hardship, be reminded to hold on to your faith and hope in the Christ who has broken into our lives in the midst of our bleakest midwinters.

Listen: In the Bleak Midwinter by Kevin Max
Read: Lyrics from Hymnary.org

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
With my whole heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commandments. — Psalm 119.10

Today’s Readings
Esther 1 (Listen 4:14)
Hebrews 11 (Listen 6:22)

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Help us provide biblical content for free with no ads and no agendas. Biblical literacy depends heavily on more extensive Bible reading.

Read more about This We Proclaim
The ancient church did not fix the celebration of Advent around the winter solstice because of history, but because of pedagogy.

Sheerah the City Builder

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 7.21-24
Ezer and Elead were killed by the native-born men of Gath, when they went down to seize their livestock. 22 Their father Ephraim mourned for them many days, and his relatives came to comfort him. 23 Then he made love to his wife again, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. He named him Beriah, because there had been misfortune in his family. 24 His daughter was Sheerah, who built Lower and Upper Beth Horon as well as Uzzen Sheerah. 

Hebrews 11.13-16
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 

Reflection: Sheerah the City Builder
By John Tillman

Most readers probably don’t remember Sheerah because her only mention is in a genealogy. Genealogies typically go father to son, father to son. Mentions of females are notable.

Genealogies seem boring to modern readers. Name after name parades down the page (often names we have difficulty pronouncing) and we just don’t see the point. 

The extreme individualism of our age is one reason for this boredom. We don’t typically feel connected to our ancestors. We see ourselves as solo artists or heroes, not a part of a whole. However, genealogies go beyond record-keeping. They tell stories.

Reading these passages was a way to re-experience the stories of those mentioned. Readers knew the stories from the other scriptures and the prophets. Their memories would light up as they read even just the names. Like a cameo of a Marvel character appearing briefly in a post-credits scene, these lists of names have exciting tidbits for those with the patience to read them.

The miniature stories we find in genealogies are hints of a larger tale. They are like open windows installed in a stairway, and it is worth pondering what the architect, the writer of the genealogy, hoped we would see.

Sheerah is a leader and architect. She built multiple cities, one of which bore her name. The other cities were twin cities on a border between two Israelite tribes: Ephraim and Benjamin. Upper Beth-Horan and Lower Beth-Horan, were not typical farming settlements. They were extremely important militarily and as part of the country’s religious life. 

Beth-Horan guarded an important ascent toward Jerusalem and was a city dedicated to the Levites amidst those tribes. The “upper” part of the city was Ephraim’s and the “lower” part was Benjamin’s. Levites from these cities would serve in Jerusalem’s Temple on a rotating basis.

The writer of Hebrews says all the faithful long for another land, another city. This includes the men and women listed in the genealogy of faith called the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11. 

Our genealogy of faith is full of imperfect, broken, and flawed humans leading to Jesus. God is not ashamed to be called their God and he is not ashamed to be ours either. We are not alone in our walk of faith. Connection to and knowledge of our “cloud of witnesses” can inspire more Sheerahs to build cities leading others to God’s city.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Your statutes have been like songs to me wherever I have lived as a stranger. — Psalm 119.54

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 7-8 (Listen – 9:04)
Hebrews 11 (Listen – 6:22)

Read more about No Such Thing as God Forsaken
May we not lose hope in our God or hope for our cities.

Read more about Faith of the Flawed
The purpose of this passage is to demonstrate how ordinary people overcame difficult situations through their faith in God.