The Bible in 2020

Today’s reading  Genesis 27-28; Matthew 9:18-38

Selected verses

…and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 28:14

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Matthew 9:37-38

Reflections

God’s revealed will for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants was to bless all the families of the earth. That blessing was far greater than even those patriarchs could have imagined. They would probably envision personal prosperity, security, and long life, the kind of material things most of us long for today.

The blessing God planned for all the families of the earth would involve God Himself becoming flesh and living among us. Jacob’s dream of a ladder from heaven pictured a direct connection between the eternal God and mankind. This dream was fulfilled when Jesus came (John 1:51).

Matthew shows how Jesus blessed people through meeting their physical needs, even raising the dead. As we saw yesterday, Jesus wasn’t about merely meeting physical needs but about calling sinners to repentance. The promised blessing for all the families of the earth was redemption from sin and reconciliation with God through the atonement of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This will become clearer as we go forward in our reading.

But Jesus told His disciples there was a problem. The harvest was plentiful, but the laborers were few.

God ordained that the blessing He planned to pour out on the world would be made known through messengers He would send. Jesus said there was a labor shortage. He told His disciples to pray for laborers to go out into the harvest.

Think about it

How do we get laborers to bring in the harvest of souls? God sends them. What can we do about the need for laborers? Ask God to send them. Simple. You can participate right now wherever you are. But beware. He may send you across the street or around the world. Tomorrow we will see that Jesus sent the same ones to labor whom He told to pray for laborers. You may become the answer to your own prayer.

© 2017 John A Carroll Used by permission

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