Tag Archives: Sarah

Read the Bible: Genesis 21

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Isaac is born, as God said in Genesis 19. Tensions flare again between Sarah and Hagar and Abraham is consoled that he will be the father of a great nation also. We take a deep dive in the discussion into Christian and Jewish belief compared to what Muslims teach.

The Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Seen at the bottom of this picture is the Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, which is all that remains of the Temple destroyed by Rome in A.D. 70. Jews still gather at the base of the wall to pray, because that is as close as they can get to the site of the former Jerusalem Temple. Muslims control the actual hill top and tensions between Jews, Christians and Muslims are always high.

Read the Bible: Genesis 20

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Chapter 19 was kind of long and I felt some things needed to be said. Good news: Genesis 20 is a shorter chapter, only 18 verses, and it gives us a break from some of the heavy stuff of the past two chapters. Abraham is traveling abroad telling people that Sarah is his sister, which we have seen before.

I presume at this point if you are listening to these recordings that you are familiar with The Master’s Table, and are most likely a subscriber of some type. We may try to offer Read the Bible as a podcast on other outlets in the future. It is also possible that you have come across a website or someone on social media that has stolen this content and reposted it. So in today’s broadcast we will add some type of identifier, probably a closing (outro) that identifies The Master’s Table and Clark Bunch as the original producer of this content. You can listen to it, download it, share it with others, just don’t pass it off as your work. Please give credit where credit is due and include a link back to The Master’s Table.

Read the Bible: Genesis 18

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This chapter is longer than the last and there is a lot to say about this one. Three men visit Abraham – long discussion about who they might be – and they deliver two pieces of information. 1) Sarah will give birth at the age of 90 and 2) Sodom and Gomorrah will be judged for their great sins.

Link to Read the Bible: the LORD for a refresher in the Old Testament name for God.

Read the Bible: Genesis 17

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God has made promises to Abram and in this chapter will establish his covenant with him and give the sign of circumcision. Abram will be known as Abraham, Sarai as Sarah, and the birth of Isaac is promised. This chapter is a little longer than the past couple we’ve read and I felt a lot needed to be said.

Father Abraham (A Father’s Day Sermon)

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abrahamThere’s a lot of negative things to say about topical preaching, but I know two things: 1) Father’s Day will be one of the most searched terms today on the Internet, and 2) No matter what “topic” I begin with, before the sermon is over I will preach the Gospel. 

“Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham.”  So goes the old children’s song.  While we recognize Abraham as the primogenitor of the Jewish nation, like any member our fallen race he was far from perfect.  One danger of celebrating historic lives is that we elevate a person too high by never mentioning certain shortcomings or character flaws.  Historians have to be careful in their presentation of certain figures, particularly the ones they like.  Continue reading →

Mother’s Day Sermon

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mothersAs I began preparing to preach on Mother’s Day, I searched the internet just to see what other preachers would be doing that day.  What I ended up reading instead was a blogpost and comment thread about how most woman are unhappy with the Mother’s Day sermons they’ve heard in the past.  Some felt the day should not be celebrated in church at all, while others thought the church should recognize mothers in some way and then the pastor should preach his message.  More than a couple of commenters said that whatever text he was using, what they wanted to hear preached was the gospel!  Amen to that.  The general consensus was that too often the Mother’s Day sermon comes off as “light” and that wasn’t what the church needed.  Continue reading →