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from Yvon Prehn to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible

A Bible class member wondered why is the story of Abraham, a man who traded his wife for wealth and protection considered a great man in the Bible?—here’s the answer

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Abraham sending Hagar away
Abraham was far from perfect in his relationships with the women in his life, especially when seen from contemporary eyes. But reading how God called, saved, and used him can give each of us with our many faults, hope.

Before I share these lessons with you online I teach them to an adult Bible class at my church. Some of the class members are relatively new to following Jesus and have never read through the Bible before. I encourage questions as I teach, and we have discussion following the presentation. I’ve found their questions and comments absolutely invaluable as they help me see things in a new light.

For those of us who have read the Bible many times and with the rose-colored glasses of church interpretations, we can forget how shocking some of the behavior is of the so-called “heroes of the faith.”

I had already planned on discussing this prior to her comments, but I wanted to emphasize in sharing the lesson with all of you that the key teaching I pray people get out of this lesson is that there are NO human heroes in the Bible.

There is only ONE true hero of the faith, and that isn’t a human. The true hero of our faith is our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In this lesson (Lesson #3 in Through the Bible) I use the life of Abraham to illustrate the balance of grace on God’s part in that we did not earn or deserve anything that calls us into the faith and yet our responsibility to take action based on that grace.

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“Haven’t you read?” A good reminder of what to do, when we don’t know if something is wrong or not

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Jesus mercy to Nicodemus and how we should act
Jesus kindly answered the questions of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a man from the group that constantly criticized him. His actions are a great example to us of how we ought to treat others.

A thought from my daily Bible reading

How do you respond to people who think you are doing something wrong, even if you feel like it is perfectly OK to it?

Especially if that person or persons are in a position of authority or leadership, it can be challenging if you are condemned for doing what you feel is right to do.

At times like these, Jesus’ example in Matthew 12 is useful. Here is the situation—the disciples were traveling along, it was the Sabbath, and being hungry they ate some of the grain in the fields. Ever ready to pounce, the Pharisees who were watching accused them of breaking the Sabbath.

Jesus replied by saying “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?” Matt. 12:3-5.

The point of the passage—mercy is the appropriate response in the face of human need

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