Daily Lesson for January 20, 2020

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 22 verses 9 through 14:

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

In 1957 Nashville, TN integrated its public school system by admitting nineteen African American children into several eight different elementary schools. Just as had been the case in several other Southern cities forced to integrate, the Nashville children were met with angry white mobs; and someone even bombed one of the schools overnight. Other threats were made to bomb black homes and churches.

Kelly Miller Smith was a black Baptist minister and civil rights leader whose daughter Joy was among the children integrating one of the schools. Amidst the threats, a night watch was organized and Smith and another white minister named Will Campbell set up one night keeping watch in Smith’s study.

Rev. Campbell asked Rev. Smith why he was willing to go so far as even to risk the life of his own daughter.

“Kelly, what if something happens to little Joy?” Rev. Campbell asked.

As Rev. Campbell later told it, Rev. Smith opened his Bible and read from today’s Lesson, where the LORD asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and Abraham had been ready to do so. But atop the mountain there was a ram caught in the thicket, snagged  by its horns, and the LORD told Abraham to sacrifice the ram instead.

Rev. Smith then looked up at Rev. Campbell from his Bible and offered a short but stunning prayer, “Lord, make the thicket tight and the ram’s horns long. Amen.”

We are reading the Bible all the way through this year. Read along! Tomorrow’s Lesson will be from Genesis chapters 27 through 29.