Hello and welcome to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge. I’m Lisa Ann Spencer.
Before we jump into part 7 or our series, When God Speaks to Women, I need to make corrections from last week.
It is inevitable that I make mistakes. We all do. Some are as simple as reversing numbers in a Bible verse, or sometimes I say one word while thinking I have said another word. Most of you understand that, but an error is an error, no matter how small.
In my videos, I type corrections into the description box when I am made aware of them. It is always a good idea to look in the description for corrections and links to other resources.
There is a proverb, that says,
Proverbs 10:19 In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
The more I speak, the more errors I will make, which is true for every human. But, we also cannot allow that to be an excuse to hold our peace on every occasion.
Consider what apostle Paul says,
1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: 4 who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.
2 Corinthians 5:19 to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
So we must keep sharing the gospel and the knowledge of the truth when we have opportunity. However, when we do make errors, we should accept correction and continue to grow in the knowledge of the truth. (Thank you Pam for pointing them out to me! You are a true friend!)
Correction #1
One of the errors I made last week was missing a result of ‘Sara’ in the New Testament.
Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither the deadness of Sara’s womb:
Instead of moving on passed this error, I would like to take the time to dig into this passage and the doctrine.
For context, turn back to Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:
According to this verse there was once a time when the righteousness of God was with the law, “but now” in this dispensation of grace, it is without the law. This verse also says this righteousness of God without law was witnessed by the law and the prophets.
We must be careful NOT to read into this passage what is not there. We know the dispensation of grace, given to Paul for the Gentiles, was a MYSTERY (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:3; Colossians 1:27); that is, it cannot be found in prophecy (Ephesians 3:8). So this verse is not saying that righteousness without law was prophesied, but that it was witnessed. That is an important distinction.
Paul goes on to give examples from the law and the prophets using Abraham and David as witnesses.
Notice in Romans 4:1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
And
Romans 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
NOTE: In my Bible, I wrote a note next to verse 3:21, citing the examples of Romans 4:1 and 4:6. You might like to do that as a reminder that these are two witnesses of the law and prophets.
Of Abraham we learned that he, “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness”. (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). There was no law-keeping or works required in that particular instance.
Of David we learn that, “blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin”. (Psalm 32:2; Romans 4:8). [We know that God chose to forgive David of murder and adultery when he should have received the death penalty. But you must also remember that “…because by this deed … the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die”, 2 Samuel 12:14; the death of David’s son was a result of David’s sin.]
Abraham was under the covenant of circumcision, and David was under the law of Moses. Just because God showed them mercy at particular times, we must understand that it could not be said of them, “ye are not under the law, but under grace” as Paul says to us in Romans 6:14. They were both under the law!
When God gives a dispensation, we are to obey it. Just as God gave Moses a dispensation of law to give to Israel; God gave Paul the dispensation of grace (Ephesians 3:2), and it CAN be said of us, “ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14).
God shows grace in every dispensation; but not every dispensation is a dispensation of grace. A time is coming when God says He will come to “judge and make war” (Revelation 19:11). Thank God we are not living in that dispensation!
The word we are to believe in today’s dispensation, the word that saves us, is found in 1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Back to Romans
So the reference to Sara in Romans 4:19 that I overlooked last week, is in regard to Abraham’s faith in God’s word.
Romans 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he [Abraham] considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither the deadness of Sara’s womb: 20 he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God:
Having faith in God’s word glorifies God!
When God says in Leviticus chapter 11, “you may not eat unclean animals”, that word is true. It is true to those to whom He said it, which was Israel under the law. The word that He said to Paul in 1 Timothy 4:4, that we may eat “every creature”, is also true. This was spoken to us today in dispensation of grace. We can believe every word of God is true, but we must rightly divide it to understand these contradictions.
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Correction #2
The next error that I made was in regards to 1 Peter 3:6 where Sara is said to obey Abraham, calling him lord. I mistakenly said we do not see an instance of her calling him ‘lord’; but we do see Sarah calling Abraham ‘lord’ in her heart in Genesis 18:12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
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I thank you for bearing with me while I corrected my errors. Though we have delayed our study of, When God Speaks to Women, any time spent in the word is never wasted. I hope you learned something from my mistakes.
With the time we have left, we will move on to our next account of God speaking to Hagar.
In Genesis 16:16, when Abram was 86 years old, Hagar bare him a son: Ishmael. After a gap of 13 years, God appeared to Abram in Genesis 17:1, when Abram was 99 years old.
We now jump to Genesis 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
Drop down to verse 8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
This is the first mention of 9 results for the word ‘wean’. By studying that word in scripture, we can understand what it means.
- 1 Samuel 1:24 – a child that is young, yet old enough to minister in the tabernacle
- Psalm 131:2 – a child that is weaned can behave and quiet himself
- Isaiah 28:9 – a child that is old enough to learn knowledge and understand doctrine
There is an unknown gap of time between verses 8 & 9 of chapter 21.
Genesis 21:9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
Sarah saw Ishmael mocking. ‘Mocking’ is a strong word. If you do a concordance search you will find it 6 times and it will shed light on what it means.
Comparable words in scripture are:
- To Reproach (Ezekiel 22:4)
- To Revile (Matthew 27:39)
This was not an instance of playground bullying between two young boys. When we study the references to 'mocking', we see the leadership of Israel (the chief priests, scribes and elders), mocking Jesus; they spoke against him saying, “If he be the King of Israel…” (Matthew 27:42)
The leaders of Israel would not accept the word of God (the written word - lowercase ‘w’) nor the Word of God (Jesus Christ - uppercase ‘W’) because they desired to rule. We see Satan demonstrating this same mindset as he desires to be like the most high (Isaiah 14:14). This should enlighten our understanding of the meaning of Ishmael’s ‘mocking’.
In next week’s study, we will considered Hagar’s next conversation with God and the allegory presented by the apostle Paul in the book of Galatians.
I look forward to seeing you for PART 8 of WHEN GOD SPEAKS TO WOMEN!
The material in this Blog is covered in this YouTube video:
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