Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

January 26, 2026 - Genesis 22 & Psalm 19

• Josiah Smith - Compass Bible Church South Valley

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0:00 | 18:31

We read Genesis 22 and Psalm 19 to trace how God tests, provides, and speaks. Abraham’s costly obedience meets David’s joyful trust, and together they call us to a steady confidence that God’s word revives and God’s promise holds.

• Abraham’s test on Moriah and the ram provided
• The name The Lord Will Provide as lived theology
• Psalm 19’s two books: creation and Scripture
• God’s law reviving the soul and making wise
• Prayer for words and thoughts to please God
• Testing versus temptation clarified with a pottery image
• Abraham’s confidence in God’s covenant with Isaac
• Encouragement for modern pressures and decisions
• God’s faithfulness despite human weakness

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way. I'm Tyler Sanborn. Today is Monday, January 26th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis twenty two. After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am, and he said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together, and Isaac said to his father Abraham, My father, and he said, Here I am, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham and he said, Here I am. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Bersheba, and Abraham lived at Bersheba. Now after these things it was told to Abraham, Behold, Milka also has borne children to your brother Nahor, Uz, his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel, the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidalath, and Bethuel. Bethuel fathered Rebekah. These eight Milka bore to Naor, Abraham's brother. Moreover, his concubine whose name is Ryuma, bore Teba, Gaham, Tahash, and Maka. Psalm nineteen. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them. There is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever, the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. We step into today's readings in Lamp and Light, and we just see so much of God's character, so much of God's law, we see the examining of the heart, and in that we see also David's response out of a heart that is rejoicing, out of a heart that is in love and in love with the Lord. The pouring out of David's heart towards the Lord in his speech. In Psalm 19, we see the the meditations of David, we see the revelation of God in creation. We see the the revelation of God as He as He pours out His Word through the prophets and through through His mouthpieces, through His anointed. We see the the revelation of God and man and how man is created in His image and how God places the heart, the heart of God inside man to know Him, to know that there is something else out there. There's a innateness that there is some creator out there. And when I look at Psalm 19, I I look at the conclusion, and I think this is just a wonderful prayer for all of us to consider as you're going through your day, as you're going into tough times, going into tough conversations that you know are going to be challenging, that you know will test your patience, that will test your uh your motivation uh and your desire to please the Lord. Verse 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Um we as Christians uh I think are often uh forgetful of the old self. Uh even though we battle with the flesh daily, we we fight sin, we fight temptation, uh, but uh we often take for granted that the spirit is uh active, the spirit is the great helper within that we that we lean on and that we trust to to lead us um in the way of everlasting and the way that is going to keep us um acceptable before the Lord. And we can like David in his heart, all I want to do, God, all I want to do is just please you. You're my rock, you're my foundation, you're my strength, and you're the one who brings me out of danger, out of death. You've delivered me from hell, and now I have life in you. Only in you, God, am I blameless. And we can say that um with confidence, there's nothing good in us, all of our works um are filthy rags before the Lord. And for David to pour out his heart, um, declaring God's word as perfect, declaring all the benefits of the law as he reads, it's reviving the soul, it's sure, it makes the wise man of the world look so simple and basic. Uh it rejoices the heart. If you're feeling low, if you're if you're feeling down in the dumps, we can look to God's law and be encouraged. We can look to the character of God, we can see how David is just declaring the purity of God, how altogether the rules of the God are true, and they are more to be desired than gold, and even much fine gold. And I it takes it takes a kind of person that is that is in love and is so dependent on this mighty God to to say these kind of things. And in in our world, in our busy lives, we can we can get distracted. We can we can have our eyes fixed on other things. Maybe you're in a job and it it's deadlines, it's pressures from supervisors, uh it could be uh pressures at home to pay the bills, pressures um to make right choices when disciplining kids. Like we we have the word of God that guides and leads us, it pours out speech. Night to night reveals knowledge, it gives us instruction. Uh we see David looking up to the heavens and the glory of God on full display. So the next time that you are scratching your head, the next time you are grasping for an answer, just pause and take a moment and read Psalm 19 and be reminded that it's God who's in the who dwells uh in the heavens. It's God who um who created the heavens, it's it's God who is in control of all things. And we can we can trust that God's law is perfect and be revived in it. Um something that is uh equally as encouraging as Psalm 19 is uh the familiar story of uh the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22, and the the things that we can look at and be encouraged by are the response and and the title, the label that that Abraham called the place that God did a mighty work and provided this ram in the thicket. The Lord will provide. I want us just to take a moment and just pause, camp out on that phrase, and think about all the ways that God has provided for you in the past. Think about the ways that God will provide for you in the future. Sometimes we can't imagine what those will look like. Sometimes we can find uh our circumstances too much and we feel like the walls are caving in. We can look to God and we can look to the example of Abraham here and see his heart is not looking to God and saying, You're the one that's tempting me, you're the one that's gonna cause me to murder my son. Why would you ask me to sacrifice my son? And we we can think about this in a couple different ways of testing versus temptation. We I can think about this in in this way. When I was in high school, we uh in my ceramics class would throw clay and and make different vessels, uh, different vases, bowls, cups, etc., on on the on the wheel, and we would at times cut the uh cut the the cup or the vessel, the bowl in half with this uh wire. And we did this to check the the quality of of the creation. We checked the quality of the thing that we made. We spun up the the wheel and we were throwing the clay, and we would able we would be able to examine how thick the walls were in certain settings. We could check the integrity of the structure by seeing how how consistent um our piece was from top to bottom. And here we see God checking, uh checking the quality, checking the attitude and intentions of the heart of Abraham. And it's an amazing thing for Abraham to walk through and have faith in verse five Abraham is in is instructing his young men, saying, Stay here with the donkey, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. Both he and I will return to you. And Abraham has this confidence, this faith in the Lord, that ultimately, even if he gets to the point where he plunges the knife into his son, he has a full confidence that God is able to raise him from the dead. And this is a faith and this is a hope that God will hold fast and hold true to the covenant that he made that through Isaac, through his offspring, the nations shall be blessed, through his offspring, generations and generations will be blessed. And in one day, he knew that his son would fulfill that promise. One day he would see his son having offspring. And this is uh an encouragement to us that his Abraham's faith in God is is sure. We can see the mistakes and the the different ways that Abraham has failed in his past. Um, but we can take a pause here and look. This is this is a high point in in scripture, a high point in life, and um we we see the um the angel of the Lord also. We see the angel of the Lord, uh Christophany uh encouraging Abraham uh not to do harm to the boy. We see the uh the hesitation of Abraham as he pauses and he and he looks up and and the ram is caught in the thicket, and um the the response the Lord will provide, uh naming it naming it that is so special, so precious. I I I can't imagine the emotions and and feelings that Abraham was experiencing in that moment. Um But I I know that I know that we can look from the outside outside of scripture and just be so amazed and just sit and wonder like, could I do that to my son, my only son? I I have four kids and my son is the youngest, and as as we look at the the different um the different genealogies, we look back to our our our history, uh, our ancestry, and we see that through through the boys, the the names and and the heritage of of a family carries on. And for me to to take a knife and sacrifice my son, uh, I I would never uh to put myself in the shoes, in the shoes of Abraham, the sandals of Abraham, if you will, and think, and what is what is God in my life? What are the tough things that He's gonna call me to do that would be even remotely close to the the command that God gave Abraham? And I hope that we can we can look at the faith of Abraham and be encouraged. Uh we can look at the lineage of the Messiah sustained by God as a result of Abraham's faith, that God would remain true to his word. And that's something that we can take to the bank as well. Is uh we we know that God's promises are true. We can see the plan from Genesis to Revelation. We see time and time again God coming through and upholding his end of the promise. Even when men fail, even when women fail and uh fall short, they're inconsistent, they're disobedient, they're unfaithful. We serve a faithful and loving God, and that should be a great encouragement for us today. Well, thanks for joining me today on Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sf dot org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your body.