Devotion
I Will Bring Them Back
Frances Taylor
This tells of God's promise to bring back those who were exiled when they were overthrown by the Assyrians. The Northern Kingdom was no more. But God promises restoration. He will rebuild Israel and Judah. The exiles will return and the Lord promises to restore them with grain and oil, new wine and new flocks. God never abandons his people. The Israelites had abandoned God, they had not listened to the prophets, in this case Jeremiah and Isaiah, and so Israel had been defeated by the Assyrians and Judah by the Babylonians. The Assyrians drove the people out and they had to find new places to live, the Babylonians had sent them into exile in Babylon. Now God is promising to forgive them, bring them back and help them to thrive. We know, however, that it didn't take that long for them to ignore God, to return to their old ways and eventually, they are overcome again by the Greeks and the Romans. God brings us back from the disasters we create for ourselves too. We are forgiven for ignoring the commandments and doing whatever gives us pleasure, regardless of the cost. We make a mess of our lives and then beg God for forgiveness. The good thing is that God is always willing to forgive us when we repent. Some of these times, the problems we cause for ourselves are not that easily taken care of and we might have to live with the consequences of our actions for years, just as the exiles did. But God helps us to deal with these consequences so that our lives may be restored, and we might live again in his presence.
Prayer
Gracious God, you are so good to us, so willing to forgive us when we stray and search for us so that you might bring us back into your presence. Thank you for never forgetting us and loving us no matter what. Amen.
Devotion
Abraham is Father of All
Frances Taylor
There are questions in every age about the importance of the Old Testament for Christians. Abraham is considered to be the Father of Faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims. We forget that it was Abraham who believed in the doctrine of only one God. It is through him and his descendants that this tradition comes down to us. Another fact that we can overlook is that Jesus was Jewish. He was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died, rose and ascended into heaven as a Jew. Because we believe that he was the Messiah, the Christ, and we follow him, we are called Christian. Without the Old Testament, we wouldn't understand the promise of salvation; we wouldn't understand why it was important for Jesus to be of the family of King David. We would not understand his teaching either, because Jesus quoted from Scripture – the Old Testament – frequently. He told us that he came to fulfill the Scriptures, not to abolish them. In the same way, we can ...
