Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
Apostle Paul cited Exodus 9:16, how Pharaoh was raised by God as Egypt’s supreme ruler to declare His glory during the time of Israel’s Exodus. Pharaoh was subdued by the Almighty power of God, demonstrating that the LORD (Jehovah); He is God, the Creator of all things. God shows all the earth that He is greater than great Pharaoh, the self-proclaimed representative of Ra, the sun god.
Matthew 27:45-49 (KJV) 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 47 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. 48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. 49 The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
God is merciful. It is His character. He saves sinners. There is a way out from the condemnation of sin because God is merciful. He reached out to us through His Son. Indeed, as the Apostle Paul testifies in Romans 10:9-11 (KJV) 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Reading Through the Bible In One Year
It has been more than two months since the launch of the holy endeavour to read through the Bible in one year. How have you been doing? If you have been keeping up with your daily reading, thank God for sustaining you. If you missed some readings, I urge you to set time aside on the Lord’s Day to catch up on your reading. May God grant you His grace to persevere in this resolution.
If God has not extended His mercy upon sinners like us, we would have perished in our sins. He extended His mercy to us by sending His Son to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Can God be charged being uncompassionate? Certainly not. But there are those in Israel who chose to spurn the grace of God through Christ by rejecting the gospel. Are they culpable? Yes, for rejecting God’s love.
Is God unrighteous to choose Jacob over Esau and Isaac over Ishmael? The Apostle Paul is teaching us that He is not unjust to choose one over the other. God knows the beginning and the end. God’s people are to rest on the mystery of God’s wisdom which we may never understand. But we know that He knows what He is doing. And we submit ourselves to His sovereign will for He is God and we are not. We are to exercise faith in His infinite wisdom and goodness.
We have here the fact of election: “He chose us.” Here we have its time: “Before the foundation of the world; its basis: “according to the good pleasure of His will”; and its vehicle: “in Christ”. Here also is its purpose: “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” And here is the proper response to it: “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” We may quibble all we want about why the Lord would operate in this way, but whether we like it or not, this is His way, as He made abundantly clear in His revelation to Rebekah.”
2 Kings 4:18-37 (KJV)
18 And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.
19 And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.
20 And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
In Genesis 17:19 (KJV), God said to Abraham, 19 … Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” God will cause Sarah’s barren womb to be opened in her old age to bring forth this son of the covenant. Even the name of this child was given by God. This is the son Isaac through whom will fulfil God’s covenant with Abraham. At that time, Abraham had another son Ishmael who came from the womb of Sarah’s handmaid Hagar. Ishmael was not the son of promise. He came because Abraham and Sarah did not trust God and with impatience sought to “help God” fulfil His promise. God clarified with Abraham that Ishmael is not the son of promise that will bring forth the Messiah but Isaac.
Abraham’s true son shares Abraham’s faith. He trusts Abraham’s God. As we survey Abraham’s life, we observe the birth of Isaac according to God’s promise came 25 years after God gave the promise when he was 100 years old. Although Abraham had other children until then and after that, Isaac would inherit all the spiritual promises that God gave Abraham. Isaac would be the son by whom Messiah would come. He was the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham. A child that came at Sarah’s old age, way past the age of child-bearing.