Genesis 15, Matthew 5 - 2007-01-06 22:35
Genesis 15
An interesting event occurs in this chapter that is not an every day occurrence in the average American’s life. The LORD tells Abram that his descendants will number the stars, even though he doesn’t even have a son yet. Abram has a hard time believing this, so the LORD tells him to go grab a 3 year old heifer, 3 year old female goat, 3 year old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. Abram then cut the animals in half and created a walkway between the two halves of each of the animals. The LORD then passed between the sacrificed animals as a sign that if he broke his promise to Abram, what was done to the animals would be done to Himself. Abram did not walk through the animals, signifying that only God was on the hook for this deal.
An interesting story that helps me visualize what happened in this chapter:
I didn’t experience this same ceremony while living in Turkey, but I did get to witness one that made reading about animal sacrifice in the Bible more real. It is an Islamic festival called Eid (in Turkey, we called it Kurban Bayram, which means “Sacrifice Feast”) which was celebrated this past year on December 31. While living in Turkey, we watched our neighbor across the road sacrifice a cow for this holiday (which is a commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, which I’ll be reading about later). I would have to say that most Americans have not witnessed the slaughtering of an animal, but it is an act that helps you realize what a sacrifice really meant back in Biblical times. Especially if you see the sacrifice take place in the streets of Istanbul. I’m sure there are more humane and efficient ways of killing a cow, but my neighbor was obviously not aware of these methods. Let’s just say that a knife was involved, and when that didn’t do the job, an axe was brought out. And the axe seemed to have been relatively blunt. But eventually the sacrifice was made. My neighbor then gave some of the meat to the poor, some to the mosque, and kept the rest for the feast. The streets near our apartment were red with blood and I often crossed paths with men pushing wheelbarrows overflowing with warm, steaming organs. Although this ceremony isn’t part of Christianity, it did open my eyes to what some of the people in the Old Testament were asked to do to pay for their sins. Thankfully Jesus came to die for us so that we don’t have to sacrifice anything anymore. He became our sacrifice.
Matthew 5:27-30
Why is it that we always compare ourselves to really bad people to justify ourselves? Yeah, I’ve done some bad things, but I’m no Hitler. Well, I’ve committed adultery. According to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, if I have ever looked at a woman with impure thoughts, I have committed adultery. He makes the point of saying that it is so serious that it would be better to cut of your limb which causes you to sin. I don’t believe He actually wants people to self-mutilate, as that wouldn’t fix the problem of lust (which takes place in your heart and mind), but to make sure that people realize that it would be better to lose a body part than to deal with the eternal consequences of those thoughts/actions.
Matthew 5:33-37
This section on swearing is often misused to stop people from cussing. The main point of this topic was to stop people from making an oath (swearing). People would use the oaths to make people believe they were telling the truth (much like we do now by saying, “I swear on my mother…” or something similar). Jesus’ point was that all of our speech should be truthful, so as not to need to swear an oath to prove our truth.
Matthew 5:38-42
This section is difficult for me because I want to believe that the stuff I own is actually mine. I often forget that everything I “own” is really not my own, but God’s, who was gracious enough to give me any of it. If someone asks me for something I have, I should give it to them as it isn’t mine in the first place. If God needs for me to have an item, I’m sure He’ll get me one. It is quite a difficult mindset, especially in our culture of materialism.