Old Testament. Genesis. These never really have been that interesting to me. I like the prophets because they’re B.A. and its all about Jesus, but before we knew his name. Abraham just annoys me a lot. I think its because we are so similar. 
But we’re leaving Abraham behind, and moving onto his sons. Genesis 23 is just showing that Abraham is ending his days honestly and just wants to bury his wife, Sarah. Then, in the next chapter, we see that he was concerned about his son, Isaac. Abraham wants Isaac to have a good wife, a Jew, from his hometown. So he sends his head servant to go there and get her. The servant is given specific instructions, and does his best, but somewhere along the way there, he got confused. He might have embellished or just got messed up, I don’t know. But compare verses 4-8 to verses 40-41. He was close, and it worked out, but some lies were told there. It just made me laugh. The point of this story, though, is in the last verse. Isaac loved Rebekah, and he “was comforted after his mother’s death.”
New Testament. Matthew. This is one of my favorite sotries, because there isn’t much description. I love to dream about what it must have been like to stand there with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Crazy stuff. I noticed in verse 13 that Jesus didn’t have to explain himself, but the disciples understood what he meant. Is it possible that they are catching on? The group encounters, then, a crowd. This woman, whose son is demon-possessed, first goes to the disciples, but they can’t cast the demon out. So she asks Jesus. He seemed kind of pissed about this. The attitude here was so interesting. It reminded me of, after I got my car stuck in a muddy field because I wanted to drive in the field, and I asked my dad for help retrieving it, and he said yes, but with this tone that said to me, “When will you just be able to take care of yourself? What will you do when I won’t be there to bail you out?” And I never drove into a muddy field with my Oldsmobile ever again. The End. So Jesus pulls the demon right out of the kid, after rebuking his disciples’ lack of faith. The answer is no. They still don’t get it. But Jesus does offer them some encouragement in verse 20: “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed … nothing will be impossible for you.” That’s cool.
Jesus foretells his death and resurrection again in verses 22-24. It says the disciples were distressed.
The last part is about taxes. Funny, because I was thinking about my taxes today. Jesus tells Peter that we, as God’s children, are sons of the King and therefore do not have to pay the tax. But we don’t want to offend anyone, so we’ll do it anyway. And, I think this is the point of the story, Jesus shows them that, since they can’t pay taxes, God provides.
Lord, thank you for your blessings. Help me to be faithful to you, and to trust in you wholeheartedly. I kow that you are the Comforter, and thank you for giving me someone I can comfort and be comforted by. Thank you for your Word and your teaching. I love you, Jesus.
