RUSSELL SANDERS

12-9-2025

PRAISE HIM

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There is a denomination that forbids musical instruments to be played during their worship service. They sing a cappella. However, scripture advocates the use of musical instruments when we worship.  Psalm 150 tells us to praise God with trumpets, psaltery, and harps [vs. 3]and with timbrels, stringed instruments, and organs [vs. 4], and cymbals [vs. 5]. God loves our worship with or without musical instruments. Our every breath praises Him.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord [vs. 6]. Every plant, tree, or herb has breath [respiration] all for the glory of the Lord. Our very act of breathing gives praise to Him even though we might not realize it. Even the breath of an atheist gives God praise although the person does not realize it. 

If then our every breath is a praise to God, how much greater is the impact of our breath when we consciously and deliberately open our mouth in song, or in praise to tell of his marvelous grace and works? It would do us good to read Psalm 150 aloud at least once a week, if not more often.

Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer

Sing, Oh earth, His wonderful love proclaim

Hail Him, Hail Him, highest arch angels in glory

Praise and honor give to His Holy name.

Christ is coming, over the world victorious

Power and glory unto the Lord belong.

Fanny Crosby ©1869

HELEN SANDERS

12-9-2025

LEAH PART 4

HER LEGACY

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Leah was a faithful wife to Jacob even though he never loved her. He saw her sister give birth to two sons and saw the love Jacob had for Rachel and her sons. Sadly, Rachel died in the birth of Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest son. He never got over the loss because she was the love of his life. Leah raised her two nephews Joseph and Benjamin. But there was jealousy in the family. Jacob favored Joseph more than any of his other sons, and set Joseph up for betrayal. His half brothers hated him because “daddy” favored him. 

One day they saw him coming to bring them some food and they decided to kill Joseph. They threw him in a pit and wanted to leave him there to die. Leah’s son, Judah interceded for him, telling his brothers to sell him instead of killing him.  As the story goes, they listened to Judah, and he was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. Nothing could comfort Jacob in his loss of Rachel and the loss of Joseph.

While Joseph was in Egypt, Judah married a pagan wife and had two sons, Er and Onan. Er married Tamar but Er was evil in God’s sight and was killed by God. Judah then told his son Onan to take Tamar as wife to raise up children for his brother. He would not do this. Instead, he spilled his seed on the ground. This displeased the Lord so much that Onan was also slain by God. Through a series of events, Tamar played the part of a harlot with Judah, became pregnant, and gave birth to twin boys, Pharez and Zarah. Pharez was a direct ancestor of Jesus. 

Before Jacob died he prophesied over his twelve sons having been reconciled to Joseph. When he came to Judah, he said in Genesis 49:9-11, “Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Messiah] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes [royalty]”

This prophecy came to pass, because Judah is the tribe that Jesus descended from. In Matthew 1:3 Tamar and Pharez are mentioned in Jesus lineage. Tamar’s son came through Judah. Leah fathered the ancestry of Jesus. Then, in Genesis 49:29-32 Jacob tells his sons where he wants to be buried. It would be in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite where his father, Isaac, grandfather Abraham, and grandmother Sarah were buried. Verse 31b says: “…and there I buried Leah.” In death, she was given her rightful place beside her husband, Jacob.