1)
Genesis 3:17-19 CSB
And [God] said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
// Our sin invites
that we could have otherwise avoided.
2)
Judges 2:1-5 CSB
The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land I had promised to your ancestors. I also said: ‘I will never break my covenant with you. You are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You are to tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed me. What have you done? Therefore, I now say: ‘I will not drive out these people before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.’” When the angel of the Lord had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly. So they named that place Bochim (“weeping”) and offered sacrifices there to the Lord.
Judges 2:11-12 CSB
The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples and bowed down to them. They angered the Lord…
// Bad influences
us and can hinder our
in Christ.
3) REDEMPTION OF THE THORN
Isaiah 55:6-11 CSB
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near.
Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
“For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
Isaiah 55:12-13 CSB
“You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided;
the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up,
and instead of the brier, a myrtle will come up;
this will stand as a monument for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.”
//
to God brings
and
, and gives
in hardship.
Genesis 22:13-14 CSB
Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide…
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