All That Hear Will Laugh With Me

“And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” - Genesis 21:6

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” - John 8:56

The Angels Appear to Abraham - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Public Domain Image

“[9] Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope… [11] Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. – Psalm 16

These verses speak of the joy of knowing the goodness and mercy of God. Sarah knew by the Spirit that the child she was being given in her old age was not just for her sake but was part of the sure promises of God to bruise the head of the serpent and redeem his people forever. “All that hear will laugh with me,” she says, speaking of the resurrection of the just when every believer will rise in triumph by God’s power.

Speaking of Jesus, Peter writes, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” – 1st Peter 1:8.

Adoration of the Lamb – Jan van Eyck Public Domain Image

And that is our blessed hope (Titus 2:13), which places us through faith into such excellent company as Abraham, Sarah, and Peter.

Amen.

No New Thing Under the Sun

[9] The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. [10] Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time, which was before us. — Ecclesiastes:1

“That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.” — Ecclesiastes 3:15.

"Flammarian Engraving" - Artist Unknown, Public Domain Image

When passages repeat it is because the concept is important and God wants us to understand and remember it. Repetition is how we learn. So when something repeats three times within three chapters of the same book we should take heed to what the Lord is trying to teach us. There are common threads woven throughout the Bible and one of them is that human nature does not change. As depraved and wicked as people were in Genesis 6, so will they be in the latter days.

[37] But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.[38] For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, [39] And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of man be. — Matthew 24

No new thing under the sun. Peter, no doubt remembering the words of Jesus, makes a similar point:

[3] Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. [5] For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymus Bosch

[6] Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished:

[7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. — 2nd Peter:3

Garden of Earthly Delights - Hell, Hieronymus Bosch

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." -Hebrews 13:

Inheritance

"For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth."

-Psalm 37:9

"Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it."

-Psalm 37:34

Waiting upon the LORD means keeping faith. But after the murder of God’s son, a New Testament supersedes the Old, and waiting upon the LORD becomes believing on The Christ. This being the whole purpose of the New and better testament.

"But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second."

-Hebrews 8:6-7

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

-Hebrews 8:13

As followers of Jesus, what could be more insulting, more damning, more awful, than outright rejection of The Christ?

He requires our allegiance for salvation, so why would he contradict himself by leaving a back-door path to salvation for those who reject him? If a back-door path exists, then why not convert today and take it?

Who inherits the earth, the land, the one and only Kingdom? The bible says it is those who wait upon the LORD. The evildoers, the faithless, are the ones cut off.

According to the bible, there is no inheritance, neither earthly nor spiritual, for those who reject the Son of God.

"And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

-Hebrews 9:15

Mount Washington - July 2022