This is The Living Word Bible Study for Sunday,June 25, based on the interdenominational reading scheme shared by churches and chapels.
Theme: Obeying God brings both promises and conflicts
Genesis 21:8-21 — Abraham takes a difficult decision to divorce Hagar
Matthew 10:24-39 — Living for Christ brings both provision and pain
Romans 6:1-11 — Dying to the old life disempowers sin’s grasp
• See also this week’s article (and video) Conflicts that Confuse Contemporary Christians
Genesis 21:8-21 — Abraham takes a difficult decision to divorce Hagar
• God’s plan for succession through Isaac cannot be compromised by Ishmael
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.
9-10 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
“The son… Hagar…had borne… mocking” — this is Ishmael, possibly a teenager at this point.
“That slave woman” — but her status as Sarah’s handmaiden had changed when she was given by Sarah as a wife and her son was a legitimate heir. Sending her away was an act of divorce which dissolved both Hagar’s and Ishmael’s rights.
11-13 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
“Do not be so distressed” — God reassures Abraham that this emotionally difficult decision, questionable according to the ancient customs of the time, was for the best all round. Although much younger, Isaac is to be the heir.
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.
15-16 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.
17-18 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
“The angel… called to Hagar” — the second time of rescue, Gen. 16:7-11. The promise is repeated but this time Hagar is not told to return.
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
“She saw a well” — this Beersheba region had limited rainfall and water came from wells constructed over underground aquifers.
20-21 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.
Reflection
SUMMARY Abraham faces a moral conflict when God tells him to listen to his wife and expel Hagar and Ishmael owing to Ishmael’s mocking behaviour. It seemed a harsh action, but Ishmael would be a continuing threat to Isaac, through whom Abraham’s dynasty would be fulfilled.
APPLICATION The kind or gracious response is not always the right one. This underlines our need to hear from God and to do what He says even if we don’t want to.
QUESTION Discuss the moral issues of Hagar’s and Ishmael’s rights, Ishmael’s behaviour and Abraham’s reluctance to sever the relationship, but also prompt obedience.
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Matthew 10:24-39 — Living for Christ brings both provision and pain
• Oppression and conflict come with the territory but God’s care is over it
24-25 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
“Beelzebul” – a name derived from a Philistine deity and used by the Pharisees for the prince of demons, Matt. 12:24-28. It came to mean Satan himself, Matt. 9:34.
26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.
“Do not be afraid of them” – refers back to persecutors, Matt.10:22-23: “You will be hated by everyone because of Me”. Believers live aware that what the world has called the Lord, it will call us.
27 “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.
“Proclaim from the roofs”– above the noisy, crowded streets, rooftop to rooftop was a good way to spread a message. The time is now coming to make the Good News generally known.
28-29 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.
“Destroy… in hell” – not annihilation but ruination. Only God has the authority to condemn to hell.
30-31 “And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
“Don’t be afraid” – a command resonating through the Bible. If sparrows and small details are subject to God’s providence, persecution will not compromise His plan or disciples.
32-33 “Whoever acknowledges Me before others, I will also acknowledge before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before others, I will disown before My Father in heaven.
“Whoever acknowledges Me” – an astonishing claim that could only be made by the One who shares divinity with His Father in heaven.
34-36 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“I did not come to bring peace” – of a social or political kind. Jesus did come to make a way of peace with God, John 14:27, Romans 8:6. However, His demand that people make a decision about Him will always divide people of the light who belong to Him, from those of darkness under the influence of the devil.
37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
“Loves their father or mother more” – asking for uncompromising devotion; for many Jews, honouring father and mother was tantamount to the greatest commandment.
38-39 “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for My sake will find it.”
“Take up their cross” – we read back from knowing about Christ’s death, but this was the first mention of the cross by Matthew. The cross, death by torture, stood for the opposite of self-preservation; to be a disciple of Jesus was to follow Him regardless of consequences.
Reflection
SUMMARY Now is a time to declare who Jesus is and our allegiance to Him – and to boldly share the good news about Him that can be received by anyone by faith alone. But like any such decision, this will always be contentious for some and therefore divisive.
APPLICATION A quiet personal decision for Jesus might seem to avoid conflict at first but it lacks the commitment of being shared and tested. Jesus wants us to be upfront for Him and trusting Him for the consequences.
QUESTION How do we reconcile Jesus telling us that we will face difficulty and trouble, but we are not to be afraid?
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Romans 6:1-11 — Dying to the old life disempowers sin’s grasp
• Christ was raised from the dead and we are reborn into new life in Him
1-2 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
“Shall we go on sinning” – Paul’s earlier statement: “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more” raises the logical, but morally flawed, question of whether a person justified by faith alone can live however they want. His response was, “What a ghastly thought!” (J B Phillips). The believer’s relationship with sin is different, having died to its allure.
3-4 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
“Buried with Him through baptism into death” – Paul’s audience would all have been baptised following their decision to believe in and live for Jesus. Going down into the water was symbolic of the death and burial of the old sinful and self-centred life. Similarly, rising out of the water was an identification with Christ’s resurrection, and entering into new life in Him.
5-7 For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
“Our old self” – often rendered as “the old man”, bringing out more clearly who we were in the natural state, represented by Adam. All human beings were born “in Adam”, 1 Corinthians 15:22.
“No longer slaves to sin… set free” – Paul is not saying that Christians no longer sin, but the rule or compulsion of sin belonged to the old person and was decisively broken when that old person died with Christ. A believer is not the same person as they were before receiving Christ, but a new creation, 2 Cor. 5:17.
8-10 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.
“If we died with Christ… we will also live with Him” – in eternal life but also in a new quality of life here and now. As Christ went through an irreversible transformation, so do we in being born again: free from the fear of death and living in new life aware of Jesus with us.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
“Count yourselves” – the new life and new relationship with both sin and God, call for thinking about ourselves in a new way, deadened to the pull of sin and enlivened to God “in Christ Jesus” – the first use of this important phrase much used by Paul.
Reflection
SUMMARY Making a faith choice to live for Christ Jesus is a transformation but it also sets up attention. The old life wants to keep holding on! Paul explains how to assert the new life we have come into “in Christ Jesus”.
APPLICATION The early church pattern still followed by many today is for baptism as an opportunity for a new Christian to tell friends and family how they came to choose Jesus as Lord, together with baptism’s symbolic dying to the old life and rising again into the new.
QUESTION If we have died to sin, why is it that we still battle with attitudes that don’t belong in the new life and need to put them right with God?
PRAYER O God our Father, I thank You for Your Son Jesus and for His sacrifice in shedding His blood for me on the Cross – so that in Him I could know freedom from sin and condemnation.
I receive Jesus Christ as my Saviour again now. I invite Jesus to be Lord of my life. And I respond to Your call to be a worshipper, a witness and one who works with You in Your mission. I recognise that the path will not always be easy and that obedience has a cost. I trust in Your foresight and providential care as I depend on You and seek to live by Your guidance. In Jesus name. Amen.
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