October 21, 2025 • 21 mins
The story of Abraham and Sarah's twenty-five year wait for a child is such a hopeful one! Even though they had God's promise that it would happen, they didn't know about the long wait. In a similar way, we who are believers have the certainty that our faith will be rewarded by an eternity in heaven with the Lord, but only when we look back on our lives will we be able to understand the circumstances of the winding road that led us through sanctification and growth at the hand of the Holy Spirit.
Resources included in this episode include:
"In Bible Times They'd Break a Lamb's Leg: Developing a Historical Sense of Smell About One of the Biggest Bible Turkeys" by Dr. Laura Robinson
Scripture References included in this episode include:
Genesis 11-21 Hebrews 11 Romans 4
Luke 19:21 Matthew 16:24 John 8:12
I Peter 2:21 Genesis 32:25 Deuteronomy 8:2-3
I Samuel 2:7 Isaiah 55:8-9 I Peter 5:5
Genesis 32:25 Hebrews 12:1 Philippians 3:14
2 Timothy 4:7 Deuteronomy 5:32; 28:14
Proverbs 4:27 Exodus 12:43-46 John 19:31-36
Isaiah 40:31
https://www.ppl.org/baby-chris
Abortion is never medically necessary
Abortion Pill Reversal https://abortionpillreversal.com 24/7 Helpline at 877.558.0333 Email: help@apr.life or Chat at the weblink above
Post abortion recovery for both women and men at https://www.rachelsvineyard.org
Life Training Institute https://www.prolifetraining.com
Charlotte Lozier Institute https://lozierinstitute.org
Guttmacher Institute https://guttmacher.org
Compelled by the gospel, PPL equips Presbyterians to champion human life at every stage. PPL.org
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Host (00:16):
Welcome back to the ProLife Kitchen Table.
I'm Deborah Hollifield, yourhost from week to week, as we
equip Christians to championhuman life from fertilization to
natural death.
That mission statement soundslike an impossible task, but
these podcasts are your weeklybites of words about life so
that you can have greatconversations about life issues
(00:38):
at your own kitchen tables.
One of the ways that we canequip each other is by exploring
the attributes of God.
For me, knowing that for thosewho love God, "all things work
together for our good accordingto God's purposes," that's found
in Romans 8, 28, gives meconfidence when things happen
(00:58):
that I can't explain, or whenthe circumstances of life take a
turn for what looks like theworst.
The profiles of the pregnantwomen in Scripture help us to
see that God is a God of grace,hope, faith, love, provision,
protection, renewal, andblessing.
We've been using Marie Bowen'sbook, Pregnant with Promise, to
(01:20):
explore the lives of thepregnant women recorded in the
Scriptures.
We've already seen how Godrevealed his attributes in the
stories of Eve and Hagar, andtoday we focus on Sarai, whose
pregnancy will soon be followedby a new name and identity.
In Genesis 12, when Abram wasseventy five years old, God made
(01:42):
a promise to him, saying, "Iwill make you a great nation,
and I will bless you and makeyour name great, so that you
will be a blessing.
I will bless those who blessyou, and him who dishonors you I
will curse, and in you all thefamilies of the earth shall be
blessed." People have alwayswondered about the long lives of
(02:04):
the people who lived in theearliest days of the world, but
everyone also acknowledges thatseventy-five years old is an
advanced age for a man to fathera child.
So it is completely reasonableto expect that if this is going
to happen, it's going to requirethe hand of God in his life.
And it appears that Abram alsobelieved it was going to require
(02:26):
the hand of God in his life,because he believed God, and he
and Sarai left their home andset out toward an unknown
destination.
Genesis chapters 13 and 14record the challenges of that
journey, and in Genesis 15, Godcomes again in a vision to Abram
and repeats the promise,saying, Fear not, Abram, I am
(02:49):
your shield, and your rewardshall be very great.
In the same vision, God informsAbram that his descendants will
spend 400 years as slaves inEgypt before returning to take
possession of the land that hehas promised, and he specifies
the boundaries of that land.
But back to the promise offatherhood.
(03:10):
Not only was Abram advanced inyears, but so was Sarai.
Sarai means princess, and shewas also beautiful and Abram
loved her.
And we know that she was braveand assertive.
But bravery, beauty,assertiveness, and love still
had not brought her a childbecause she was barren.
(03:31):
Barrness is a repeating themein the Bible.
Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, andElizabeth are others whose
pregnancies came after a time ofstruggling with barrenness.
It was especially painful forHebrew women to be unable to
have children.
Their culture and faith ledthem to see children as a
(03:53):
blessing from God.
A barren woman might questionwhy God would withhold the
blessing of children from them.
In the cultures around them,wives were often divorced if
they could not give theirhusband an heir.
But we see Abram behavingdifferently towards Sarai,
because in spite of his desirefor an heir and for children to
take care of them in their oldage, Abram loves Sarai and does
(04:16):
not divorce her or take a secondwife.
But both Abram and Sarai remainfaithful and remember the
promises of God, even thoughthere was no way they could
imagine how such a promise wouldbe fulfilled.
Nearly twenty five years afterGod first made his promise to
Abram, God reiterated hispromise for a third time when
(04:40):
Abram was almost 99 years old.
This time he also gives him anew name.
Instead of Abram, which meansexalted father, he will now be
known as Abraham, meaning fatherof many.
But this time, God also makes aspecific promise to Sarai and
(05:01):
gives her a new name as well.
Her new name will be Sarah,which also means princess, but
her new name signifies that Godis also giving her a new
identity.
She will no longer be a barrenwoman.
God said to Sarah, I will blessher, and moreover, I will give
you a son by her.
(05:22):
I will bless her, and she willbecome nations.
Kings of peoples shall comefrom her.
In chapter 17, after receivingthe news of the promise again,
the Bible says that Abraham fellon his face and laughed and
(05:43):
said to himself, "Shall a childbe born to a man who is a
hundred years old?
Should Sarah, who is ninetyyears old, bear a child?" And
then later, in chapter 18, whenthe Lord appears to them again
at the Oaks of Mamre, the Lordsaid, "I will surely return to
you about this time next year,and Sarah, your wife, shall have
(06:06):
a son.
" And Sarah was listening at thetent door behind him.
The Bible says that the way ofwomen had ceased to be with
Sarah.
So Sarah laughed to herself,saying, "After I am worn out,
and now that I am old, shall Ihave pleasure?" Then the Lord
(06:26):
said to Abraham, "Why did Sarahlaugh and say, 'Shall I indeed
bear a child now that I am old?'Is anything too hard for the
Lord?
At the appointed time I willreturn to you about this time
next year, and Sarah shall havea son.
But Sarah denied it, saying, 'Ididn't laugh, for she was
afraid.' And the Lord said, 'No,but you did laugh.'" I have to
(06:51):
say that looking back at mylife, there are plenty of times
that I have laughed when I haveseen how the Lord answered my
prayer, or how the Lord providedfor me something that I desired
in a way that was so differentfrom anything I imagined, that
there was no question that theanswer was coming from the hand
of God.
I think there's going to be alot of laughter in heaven.
(07:12):
Well, as we skip ahead then inGenesis chapter 21, verses 1
through 7 read, "The Lordvisited Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did to Sarah as hehad promised.
And Sarah conceived and broughtAbraham a son in his old age at
the time of which God hadspoken to him.
(07:34):
And Abraham called the name ofhis son Isaac, and it fits,
because the name Isaac means 'helaughs.'" The Bible is not
explicit about why God waiteduntil Sarah was ninety and
Abraham 100 before giving themthe child they had been
promised.
But it is easy to see that itwas quite the test of Abraham
(07:56):
and Sarah's faithfulness to Godafter all those years of
waiting.
And at such an advanced age, tohave a child has no other
explanation than the hand of Godprovided a miracle.
All children are miracles,every one of them.
I think we forget that toooften.
But throughout the generationsand world around the world,
(08:18):
there are parents who wonderedand prayed about their children,
born and unborn, and who wouldbe quick to stand up and testify
to the miracle of the presenceof those children among us.
And each one of those childrenis a time of testing of faith.
Can you think of times in yourown life when you have believed
God without any evidence?
(08:39):
The growth that God gives to usin childbearing gives another
dimension to God's command to befruitful and multiply.
We call Hebrews chapter 11 thehall of faith because it lists
the names of the faithfulfollowers on whose shoulders we
stand.
The definition of faith inverse 1 reads, "Now faith is the
(09:00):
assurance of things hoped for,the conviction of things not
seen." The writer of Hebrewsthen goes on to list the people
of old who have receivedcommendations for their faith,
including Abraham, who obeyedwhen he was called to go out to
a place that he was to receiveas an inheritance, and he went
(09:22):
out, not knowing where he wasgoing.
It says that "by faith Sarahherself received power to
conceive even when she was pastthe age, since she considered
him faithful who had promised.
Therefore, from one man and himas good as dead, were born
descendants as many as the starsof heaven, and as many as the
(09:45):
innumerable grains of sand bythe seashore." This has been the
word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The story of Abraham and Sarahis such a hopeful one.
It makes me think that when theLord told them when they were
sixty-five and seventy-fiveyears old, that they would
finally bear a child, but thatthey would have to wait another
(10:07):
twenty-five years until thathappened, that that
foreknowledge would have beendestructive to their faith.
Not the certainty of it, butthat it would have been easy to
grow resentful of knowing theyhad to wait a quarter of a
century for what would seem tothem like no apparent reason.
In a similar way, we who arebelievers have the certainty
(10:28):
that our faith will be rewardedby an eternity in heaven with
the Lord.
But only when we look back onour lives will we be able to
understand the circumstances ofthat winding road that led us
through sanctification andgrowth at the hand of the Holy
Spirit.
And I expect that when we do,there will be plenty of cause
(10:49):
for laughter.
I hope this lesson triggered ahappy memory of answered prayer
for you.
And so now you can take aminute to stretch or just sit
back and think about how greatand powerful our God is, and
then come back to learn aboutBaby Chris's 31st week in the
womb.
Announcer (11:28):
Presented by a five-member ensemble cast,
Viable leads the audiencethrough a journey of healing and
restoration for post-abortivewomen and men through the love
of Jesus Christ.
Viable is endorsed by theNational Right to Life
Committee.
You can find out how to presentViable to your church or
pro-life group atViablePlay.org.
Host (11:50):
This week 31 devotional is called Stand Fast.
At 31 weeks, the uterus maytighten and contract
periodically in false labor,known as Braxton Hicks
contractions.
Baby's nervous system is nowcontrolling his body
temperature, rather than relyingon the temperature of the
(12:10):
amniotic fluid.
Still laying on fat, his weightwill more than double between
now and birth, but he still hasspace to stretch his legs out
and cross or curl them up overhis head.
The human leg is a complicatedmachine made up of different
components.
Bones provide rigid structure,muscle provides ambulatory
(12:32):
power, and the tendons andligaments tie everything
together.
Our legs are the foundation ofour bodies used for standing and
locomotion, running, jumping,lifting weight, and dancing.
The forefoot of a 150 poundrunner can experience forces of
up to seven times his bodyweight, a thousand pounds, at
(12:55):
the point of the power surgethat propels the foot off the
ground.
During the course of any day,our feet sustained forces of
thousands of tons.
We even communicate with ourlegs.
Standing with one's feettogether communicates anxiety.
Legs planted apart communicatestrength and dominance.
(13:17):
Cross legs with one bobbing upand down signals impatience.
Our knees shake and turn tojelly and give way when we are
frightened.
Scripture describes legs offaith, standing, following, and
running.
We are to follow after Jesus,but sometimes God finds it
(13:37):
necessary to hobble us to keepus from running ahead, wandering
off, and to teach us to trustGod.
You may have heard a storyabout ancient shepherds breaking
the leg of a wandering sheep sothat the animal would have to
be carried to learn to trust theshepherd.
Nathan Griffith, the editor ofSheep Magazine, writes, It's not
(14:00):
true that any shepherds everbroke a lamb's leg on purpose.
What they sometimes do incertain sheep raising nations
is brake B-R-A-K-E, a leg.
This means they attach a clogor a weight to the animal's leg,
which keeps certain rogue sheepfrom getting too far from the
shepherd until they learn theirnames and not to be afraid of
(14:23):
the shepherd.
God hobbled Jacob.
In Genesis, Jacob was afraid tomeet with his estranged brother
Esau.
The night before their meeting,Jacob went off by himself and
began wrestling with God, whoeventually dislocated Jacob's
hip.
After God hobbled him, Jacobhad no other way out than to
(14:44):
trust his life to God's gracefor the outcome of meeting his
brother.
Following after Jesus issometimes described as a foot
race.
The writer of Hebrews describesthe Christian life as a long
distance race to be run withendurance, and Paul likens it to
a cross-country marathon.
No marathon runner wants to behobbled.
(15:08):
The key to finishing the raceis to keep your eyes on the goal
and press on towards the prizewithout veering to the left or
the right.
The bones of the Passoversacrifice could not be broken.
Fifteen hundred years beforeChrist, God decreed that when a
Jew killed a lamb for thePassover sacrifice, none of its
(15:29):
bones should be broken.
John emphasizes that during hiscrucifixion, "Jesus' legs were
not broken.
Therefore, because the bodyshould not remain on the cross
on the Sabbath, the Jews askedPilate that their legs might be
broken to hasten death in anyonestill left alive.
(15:50):
Then the soldiers came andbroke the legs of the first and
of the other who was crucifiedwith him.
But when they came to Jesus,they saw that he was already
dead, and they did not break hislegs.
For these things were done thatthe scripture should be
fulfilled, not one of his legsshall be broken." This is in
(16:10):
John chapter nineteen, versesthirty one through thirty six.
If the soldiers had brokenJesus' legs, then Jesus' death
would have been the work ofhumans.
Jesus' death was the work ofGod alone.
They did not murder Jesus, hegave his life voluntarily, out
of love for you.
We are not expected to be fast,but we are urged to run.
(16:36):
We are not all strong, but Godhas promised to help us stand.
Whether we are called to run orto stand, the goal is Jesus,
and the prize is eternal life.
We can trust that our Saviorwill carry us over the finish
line, on his shoulders, onunbroken legs.
(16:57):
Hear the word of the Lord.
"They who wait for the Lordshall renew their strength, they
shall mount up with wings likeeagles, they shall run and not
be weary, they shall walk andnot faint." Isaiah 40:31.
Thanks be to God.
Announcer (17:23):
We hope you enjoyed this week's reflection.
We encourage you to share itand join us next time on Pro
Life Kitchen Table.
May God bless you.
Welcome back to the ProLife Kitchen Table.
I'm Deborah Hollifield, yourhost from week to week, as we
equip Christians to championhuman life from fertilization to
natural death.
That mission statement soundslike an impossible task, but
these podcasts are your weeklybites of words about life so
that you can have greatconversations about life issues
(00:38):
at your own kitchen tables.
One of the ways that we canequip each other is by exploring
the attributes of God.
For me, knowing that for thosewho love God, "all things work
together for our good accordingto God's purposes," that's found
in Romans 8, 28, gives meconfidence when things happen
(00:58):
that I can't explain, or whenthe circumstances of life take a
turn for what looks like theworst.
The profiles of the pregnantwomen in Scripture help us to
see that God is a God of grace,hope, faith, love, provision,
protection, renewal, andblessing.
We've been using Marie Bowen'sbook, Pregnant with Promise, to
(01:20):
explore the lives of thepregnant women recorded in the
Scriptures.
We've already seen how Godrevealed his attributes in the
stories of Eve and Hagar, andtoday we focus on Sarai, whose
pregnancy will soon be followedby a new name and identity.
In Genesis 12, when Abram wasseventy five years old, God made
(01:42):
a promise to him, saying, "Iwill make you a great nation,
and I will bless you and makeyour name great, so that you
will be a blessing.
I will bless those who blessyou, and him who dishonors you I
will curse, and in you all thefamilies of the earth shall be
blessed." People have alwayswondered about the long lives of
(02:04):
the people who lived in theearliest days of the world, but
everyone also acknowledges thatseventy-five years old is an
advanced age for a man to fathera child.
So it is completely reasonableto expect that if this is going
to happen, it's going to requirethe hand of God in his life.
And it appears that Abram alsobelieved it was going to require
(02:26):
the hand of God in his life,because he believed God, and he
and Sarai left their home andset out toward an unknown
destination.
Genesis chapters 13 and 14record the challenges of that
journey, and in Genesis 15, Godcomes again in a vision to Abram
and repeats the promise,saying, Fear not, Abram, I am
(02:49):
your shield, and your rewardshall be very great.
In the same vision, God informsAbram that his descendants will
spend 400 years as slaves inEgypt before returning to take
possession of the land that hehas promised, and he specifies
the boundaries of that land.
But back to the promise offatherhood.
(03:10):
Not only was Abram advanced inyears, but so was Sarai.
Sarai means princess, and shewas also beautiful and Abram
loved her.
And we know that she was braveand assertive.
But bravery, beauty,assertiveness, and love still
had not brought her a childbecause she was barren.
(03:31):
Barrness is a repeating themein the Bible.
Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, andElizabeth are others whose
pregnancies came after a time ofstruggling with barrenness.
It was especially painful forHebrew women to be unable to
have children.
Their culture and faith ledthem to see children as a
(03:53):
blessing from God.
A barren woman might questionwhy God would withhold the
blessing of children from them.
In the cultures around them,wives were often divorced if
they could not give theirhusband an heir.
But we see Abram behavingdifferently towards Sarai,
because in spite of his desirefor an heir and for children to
take care of them in their oldage, Abram loves Sarai and does
(04:16):
not divorce her or take a secondwife.
But both Abram and Sarai remainfaithful and remember the
promises of God, even thoughthere was no way they could
imagine how such a promise wouldbe fulfilled.
Nearly twenty five years afterGod first made his promise to
Abram, God reiterated hispromise for a third time when
(04:40):
Abram was almost 99 years old.
This time he also gives him anew name.
Instead of Abram, which meansexalted father, he will now be
known as Abraham, meaning fatherof many.
But this time, God also makes aspecific promise to Sarai and
(05:01):
gives her a new name as well.
Her new name will be Sarah,which also means princess, but
her new name signifies that Godis also giving her a new
identity.
She will no longer be a barrenwoman.
God said to Sarah, I will blessher, and moreover, I will give
you a son by her.
(05:22):
I will bless her, and she willbecome nations.
Kings of peoples shall comefrom her.
In chapter 17, after receivingthe news of the promise again,
the Bible says that Abraham fellon his face and laughed and
(05:43):
said to himself, "Shall a childbe born to a man who is a
hundred years old?
Should Sarah, who is ninetyyears old, bear a child?" And
then later, in chapter 18, whenthe Lord appears to them again
at the Oaks of Mamre, the Lordsaid, "I will surely return to
you about this time next year,and Sarah, your wife, shall have
(06:06):
a son.
" And Sarah was listening at thetent door behind him.
The Bible says that the way ofwomen had ceased to be with
Sarah.
So Sarah laughed to herself,saying, "After I am worn out,
and now that I am old, shall Ihave pleasure?" Then the Lord
(06:26):
said to Abraham, "Why did Sarahlaugh and say, 'Shall I indeed
bear a child now that I am old?'Is anything too hard for the
Lord?
At the appointed time I willreturn to you about this time
next year, and Sarah shall havea son.
But Sarah denied it, saying, 'Ididn't laugh, for she was
afraid.' And the Lord said, 'No,but you did laugh.'" I have to
(06:51):
say that looking back at mylife, there are plenty of times
that I have laughed when I haveseen how the Lord answered my
prayer, or how the Lord providedfor me something that I desired
in a way that was so differentfrom anything I imagined, that
there was no question that theanswer was coming from the hand
of God.
I think there's going to be alot of laughter in heaven.
(07:12):
Well, as we skip ahead then inGenesis chapter 21, verses 1
through 7 read, "The Lordvisited Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did to Sarah as hehad promised.
And Sarah conceived and broughtAbraham a son in his old age at
the time of which God hadspoken to him.
(07:34):
And Abraham called the name ofhis son Isaac, and it fits,
because the name Isaac means 'helaughs.'" The Bible is not
explicit about why God waiteduntil Sarah was ninety and
Abraham 100 before giving themthe child they had been
promised.
But it is easy to see that itwas quite the test of Abraham
(07:56):
and Sarah's faithfulness to Godafter all those years of
waiting.
And at such an advanced age, tohave a child has no other
explanation than the hand of Godprovided a miracle.
All children are miracles,every one of them.
I think we forget that toooften.
But throughout the generationsand world around the world,
(08:18):
there are parents who wonderedand prayed about their children,
born and unborn, and who wouldbe quick to stand up and testify
to the miracle of the presenceof those children among us.
And each one of those childrenis a time of testing of faith.
Can you think of times in yourown life when you have believed
God without any evidence?
(08:39):
The growth that God gives to usin childbearing gives another
dimension to God's command to befruitful and multiply.
We call Hebrews chapter 11 thehall of faith because it lists
the names of the faithfulfollowers on whose shoulders we
stand.
The definition of faith inverse 1 reads, "Now faith is the
(09:00):
assurance of things hoped for,the conviction of things not
seen." The writer of Hebrewsthen goes on to list the people
of old who have receivedcommendations for their faith,
including Abraham, who obeyedwhen he was called to go out to
a place that he was to receiveas an inheritance, and he went
(09:22):
out, not knowing where he wasgoing.
It says that "by faith Sarahherself received power to
conceive even when she was pastthe age, since she considered
him faithful who had promised.
Therefore, from one man and himas good as dead, were born
descendants as many as the starsof heaven, and as many as the
(09:45):
innumerable grains of sand bythe seashore." This has been the
word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The story of Abraham and Sarahis such a hopeful one.
It makes me think that when theLord told them when they were
sixty-five and seventy-fiveyears old, that they would
finally bear a child, but thatthey would have to wait another
(10:07):
twenty-five years until thathappened, that that
foreknowledge would have beendestructive to their faith.
Not the certainty of it, butthat it would have been easy to
grow resentful of knowing theyhad to wait a quarter of a
century for what would seem tothem like no apparent reason.
In a similar way, we who arebelievers have the certainty
(10:28):
that our faith will be rewardedby an eternity in heaven with
the Lord.
But only when we look back onour lives will we be able to
understand the circumstances ofthat winding road that led us
through sanctification andgrowth at the hand of the Holy
Spirit.
And I expect that when we do,there will be plenty of cause
(10:49):
for laughter.
I hope this lesson triggered ahappy memory of answered prayer
for you.
And so now you can take aminute to stretch or just sit
back and think about how greatand powerful our God is, and
then come back to learn aboutBaby Chris's 31st week in the
womb.
Announcer (11:28):
Presented by a five-member ensemble cast,
Viable leads the audiencethrough a journey of healing and
restoration for post-abortivewomen and men through the love
of Jesus Christ.
Viable is endorsed by theNational Right to Life
Committee.
You can find out how to presentViable to your church or
pro-life group atViablePlay.org.
Host (11:50):
This week 31 devotional is called Stand Fast.
At 31 weeks, the uterus maytighten and contract
periodically in false labor,known as Braxton Hicks
contractions.
Baby's nervous system is nowcontrolling his body
temperature, rather than relyingon the temperature of the
(12:10):
amniotic fluid.
Still laying on fat, his weightwill more than double between
now and birth, but he still hasspace to stretch his legs out
and cross or curl them up overhis head.
The human leg is a complicatedmachine made up of different
components.
Bones provide rigid structure,muscle provides ambulatory
(12:32):
power, and the tendons andligaments tie everything
together.
Our legs are the foundation ofour bodies used for standing and
locomotion, running, jumping,lifting weight, and dancing.
The forefoot of a 150 poundrunner can experience forces of
up to seven times his bodyweight, a thousand pounds, at
(12:55):
the point of the power surgethat propels the foot off the
ground.
During the course of any day,our feet sustained forces of
thousands of tons.
We even communicate with ourlegs.
Standing with one's feettogether communicates anxiety.
Legs planted apart communicatestrength and dominance.
(13:17):
Cross legs with one bobbing upand down signals impatience.
Our knees shake and turn tojelly and give way when we are
frightened.
Scripture describes legs offaith, standing, following, and
running.
We are to follow after Jesus,but sometimes God finds it
(13:37):
necessary to hobble us to keepus from running ahead, wandering
off, and to teach us to trustGod.
You may have heard a storyabout ancient shepherds breaking
the leg of a wandering sheep sothat the animal would have to
be carried to learn to trust theshepherd.
Nathan Griffith, the editor ofSheep Magazine, writes, It's not
(14:00):
true that any shepherds everbroke a lamb's leg on purpose.
What they sometimes do incertain sheep raising nations
is brake B-R-A-K-E, a leg.
This means they attach a clogor a weight to the animal's leg,
which keeps certain rogue sheepfrom getting too far from the
shepherd until they learn theirnames and not to be afraid of
(14:23):
the shepherd.
God hobbled Jacob.
In Genesis, Jacob was afraid tomeet with his estranged brother
Esau.
The night before their meeting,Jacob went off by himself and
began wrestling with God, whoeventually dislocated Jacob's
hip.
After God hobbled him, Jacobhad no other way out than to
(14:44):
trust his life to God's gracefor the outcome of meeting his
brother.
Following after Jesus issometimes described as a foot
race.
The writer of Hebrews describesthe Christian life as a long
distance race to be run withendurance, and Paul likens it to
a cross-country marathon.
No marathon runner wants to behobbled.
(15:08):
The key to finishing the raceis to keep your eyes on the goal
and press on towards the prizewithout veering to the left or
the right.
The bones of the Passoversacrifice could not be broken.
Fifteen hundred years beforeChrist, God decreed that when a
Jew killed a lamb for thePassover sacrifice, none of its
(15:29):
bones should be broken.
John emphasizes that during hiscrucifixion, "Jesus' legs were
not broken.
Therefore, because the bodyshould not remain on the cross
on the Sabbath, the Jews askedPilate that their legs might be
broken to hasten death in anyonestill left alive.
(15:50):
Then the soldiers came andbroke the legs of the first and
of the other who was crucifiedwith him.
But when they came to Jesus,they saw that he was already
dead, and they did not break hislegs.
For these things were done thatthe scripture should be
fulfilled, not one of his legsshall be broken." This is in
(16:10):
John chapter nineteen, versesthirty one through thirty six.
If the soldiers had brokenJesus' legs, then Jesus' death
would have been the work ofhumans.
Jesus' death was the work ofGod alone.
They did not murder Jesus, hegave his life voluntarily, out
of love for you.
We are not expected to be fast,but we are urged to run.
(16:36):
We are not all strong, but Godhas promised to help us stand.
Whether we are called to run orto stand, the goal is Jesus,
and the prize is eternal life.
We can trust that our Saviorwill carry us over the finish
line, on his shoulders, onunbroken legs.
(16:57):
Hear the word of the Lord.
"They who wait for the Lordshall renew their strength, they
shall mount up with wings likeeagles, they shall run and not
be weary, they shall walk andnot faint." Isaiah 40:31.
Thanks be to God.
Announcer (17:23):
We hope you enjoyed this week's reflection.
We encourage you to share itand join us next time on Pro
Life Kitchen Table.
May God bless you.
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