Month: January 2018

Once again we see the worth the ancients assigned to the parental blessing. Does it make you wonder if we’re missing out by not blessing our own children? I covet such blessings for my children that others hold them up as a standard of great blessing and want to be blessed as they are blessed. Jacob’s blessing for Ephraim and Manasseh has changed the way I pray for my children.

It’s also interesting to note that Jacob blessed each one “with the blessing appropriate to him,” not with equal blessings. How sad for those whose legacy was defilement, violence and anger, and for those whose legacy wasn’t worth mentioning. Judah received his blessing by God’s sovereignty, not by any merit we can see from the account of him in Scripture (remember that thing with Tamar, and his role in Joseph’s being sold into Egypt?). Might our intercession for our children impact God’s sovereign choice on their behalf? Might our rewarding of little effort or no accomplishment impede their developing anything worthwhile?

Joseph received his blessing by merit gained by much suffering and doing the hard things – submitting to God; waiting on God; being faithful with the small things, even in prison; forgiving his brothers their awful deeds against him. Are we prepared to do the same so that we might stand out among even our brothers, so that we might leave a lovely legacy? This account is an opportunity to consider the legacies we are building with our lives.

 

So we understand the beginning of mankind’s story. God created well, man chose poorly, and corruption resulted. God promised to redeem that poor choice and its consequences. He implemented His plan by establishing the nation of Israel, the people through whom He intended to fulfill His promise.

If you have read this far, you have completed two books of the Bible, one of which is not the easiest reading! Good for you! If you haven’t read faithfully, don’t let that defeat you. Rather, seek to do better in the next month. There is still much opportunity to improve!

That the first response of Joseph’s brothers to his revelation was dismay might demonstrate the need for his handling of their meetings. They needed healing for their guilt, if their first response to being reunited with their long-lost brother was dismay. Joseph was no longer dealing in guilt – “do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, for God sent me here….” If only we could learn from Joseph’s example and understand that our enemy is not people, but Satan, and apprehend that all things that come to us come through the hand of God. That understanding frees us from resentment or bitterness or any other tactic Satan wants to use to prevent us from realizing God’s purpose in our trials. Can you use Joseph’s example to guide you today in seeking healing from past hurts and any bitterness with which they might still be afflicting you, or to seek the realization of God’s purpose in your trial rather than being diverted from it with your eyes on people or yourself?

Jacob, on the other hand, had apparently stepped back from his relationship with God, for when he offered sacrifices as he left the Promised Land, he offered them to the God of his father Isaac. God didn’t call him by the name of his transformation; we can only surmise what that meant. When he was presented to Pharaoh, feeble old Jacob described the years of his life as few and unpleasant, although he had already lived to an age well past the average age of Egyptians of that day, had never known want, and had enjoyed God’s care and blessing throughout his life. Contrast that with Joseph’s description of his life’s much greater trials: “Do not be upset because you sold me here, because God sent me here.”  There is much to ponder in the differences between Jacob and Joseph.

Note that Israel now dwelled outside the Promised Land as part of God’s plan, and that God continued to bless them there so that they thrived. The story shows that they will thrive for generations in such a way that the people in whose midst they lived couldn’t help but take notice and feel the urge to do something about it. (A common theme throughout Israel’s history.) Are there any lessons in God’s thus dealing with the Israelites that you can apply to your life?

It is difficult to reconcile Joseph’s behavior toward his brothers with his supposedly refined character. Was his toying with them simply revenge? How disappointing that would be for the reader like me who sets Joseph before her as her example. Revenge is a possible motive, and teaches us the truth that Jesus understood about fallen human nature: “He entrusted Himself to no man, for He knew what is in men.” In this case, the flawed character of such a noble man is a foil for the perfect character of God. It reveals how we long for a hero, a thoroughly heroic kind of hero, one worthy of our hero-worship; but there is no such man. Is this what Scripture means when it says that “He has set eternity in the hearts of men”?

Another possibility is that Joseph had a strategy for accomplishing his family’s reconciliation. If his plan turned out badly, at least he would have his brother Benjamin with him, and perhaps could have used that as a lure to get Jacob to come to Egypt. At best, it would turn out that the entire family was reconciled, not just gathered together, but relationships healed.

Joseph’s dealings with his brothers confronted them once again with their guilt and brought them to the place of admitting and appreciating how horrible their past actions toward Joseph were. Taking this stand in defense of their father’s well-being also would be growth for these self-centered men.

Tomorrow’s reading reveals how it worked out, but doesn’t reveal the reasons why Joseph toyed with his brothers as he did. We are left to draw our own conclusions.

That the absolute ruler of a world superpower like ancient Egypt would give a young foreigner from prison a position of such authority may defy belief, unless one understands history. In ancient Egypt Pharaoh’s main responsibility was to ensure the food supply for his people. This was the reason one ruler was able to unite all the people of the Nile into a single kingdom in the first place. The annual flooding of the Nile was their lifeblood, and the people had suffered so acutely in years of excessive or inadequate flooding, that famine was a real fear for them. Pharaoh was considered an agent of the gods in managing flood water and thus food supply. Can you imagine the pressure on him? That this young man who had already demonstrated rare insight had a plan to meet the coming crisis, and that he offered it so freely, must have been a profound relief to Pharaoh.

Joseph’s life was a series of extreme ups and downs: from favored son of a rich man, to slave in a foreign land where the people despised his people. From despised slave to head of the household. From a high position to prisoner in a dungeon. From prisoner to second-in-command to the absolute ruler of the land. The names he gave his sons reveals that he rightly considered it all as coming from the hand of God. What does his life teach you about your own circumstances?

It seems as if Joseph was using his position of power to toy with his helpless brothers, and he certainly would be justified in doing so! I believe that justice was part of his motive, but I think that he was also testing them and leading them to a place where they could deal with their guilt over past sins. He tested them to understand what kind of people they were after all these years (at least ten years, likely more). He brought up the guilt so that those actions would not continue to interfere with a future relationship. The money in the sacks probably was his taking care of them; yet they suffered so from guilt that it frightened them! Guilt is a burden and a barrier. Does their experience remind you of anything painful that you would like to see healed?

I hope you are continuing to read every day or almost every day, because I am convinced that being in God’s word daily is important for every Christian. I believe that so strongly that I not only write daily, but also pray daily for you.

Why is the record of Judah and Tamar in the Bible? I can’t imagine why it would be important to the Israelites of Moses’ day, but the significance to us is not readily apparent either. Remember, Romans 15:4 says that “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and encouragement of the Scripture, we might have hope.” What hope can we glean from this situation? Could it be from Tamar’s story? This is not the last time in Scripture that we hear the name of this obscure woman; perhaps she is the reason we have this story.

Imagine Tamar’s situation. In her culture every woman had to count on the support of a man for survival and protection – either a father, husband, or son. A woman’s worth was measured in her ability to bear children for her husband. A widowed, childless woman who had to return to her father’s home had little hope of marrying again, and so was doomed to being a burden to her father and perhaps a brother, not enjoying the ability to manage her own home, being a second class citizen or worse in her home and community. You can imagine that that was not a desirable life for a woman. Tamar was willing to wait for her younger brother-in-law to mature rather than be doomed to that situation for her lifetime. She also grew desperate enough to be used like a cult prostitute by her father-in-law in a last-ditch effort to avoid that fate. Tamar is mentioned again in Matthew 1:3, for she was an ancestor of Jesus! 

Moses couldn’t have known that Tamar would be an ancestor of the Messiah. That this story is included in Genesis is to me evidence of divine inspiration of Scripture. It also demonstrates that God can bring good out of the bleakest of situations. Tamar is one of four women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus recorded in Matthew. Their stories remind us that in God’s hands, the most hopeless of life situations can be redeemed.

How did Joseph, raised as the pampered son of a wealthy man, not reject God when his brothers sold him, when he was reduced to a slave, when he was unjustly thrown into prison? He obviously turned to God in his desperate situations, and found God to be enough to comfort and sustain him. A wise man once told my daughters, “You don’t make your choice in the heat of the moment, when you are carried away by passion, but when you are in your right mind.”  This story challenges each of us with the opportunity to make the choice now to follow God in whatever situation He wishes to lead us. If we don’t choose now, the pain of rejection, or disappointed hopes, or humiliation, or reduction, or injustice might cause us to turn in the wrong direction in a time of crisis. If Joseph knew God’s blessing as a slave sold by his brothers, if he knew God’s steadfast love as an inmate of a foreign prison, we can also know God’s sustaining grace in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, if we turn to Him. The time to make up our minds is now.

God gave dreams to the Egyptian cupbearer and baker for the purpose of connecting Pharaoh with Joseph! Contemplate the mysterious and myriad ways God works to perform His purpose, and the implications for your life.  Can we agree that God’s ways are higher than our ways? Joseph would have missed the connection if he had not been personable enough to ask these men why they were so sad. Who asks that in a prison?

But God’s purpose for Joseph was yet two full years off. In the meantime, he was stuck in that prison he called a dungeon or pit, faithfully helping the prison guard with any of the duties that needed fulfilled in that prison, likely continuing to build relationships with the prisoners (whom he knew could be no source of help to him) and encourage them. Wow. I’d want to be like Joseph, but I despise the conditions under which that character was cultivated.

Genealogies are no one’s favorite, obviously. You can’t miss them, though; otherwise you wouldn’t be reading through the entire Bible. If you skip that dull passage, then you are more vulnerable to the temptation to skip another dull or difficult-to-understand passage, and you will ultimately miss the reward of gaining light on a difficult passage.

I once heard the story told by a missionary who was translating the Gospel of Matthew, I believe it was, into the obscure language of the people to whom he or she was ministering. This missionary presented the eager readers the finished work with the encouragement to skip over the dull beginning passages, the genealogies, concerned that the readers might form a poor first impression of the Scriptures. Instead, the readers wept with joy over those genealogies, explaining that now they knew Jesus was real, because here was His lineage in black and white for them to read! I have had a greater value for the genealogies of the Bible ever since I heard that story. Imagine the power of the Holy Spirit to speak to these people through the genealogy of Jesus! If that is the case, then He can speak powerfully to any of us through passages of Scripture that we might be tempted to pass over for dullness or difficulty.

The genealogies are there because they would have meant something to the original readers. Mostly I skim through them quickly. If we learn nothing else from them, we can understand a little better the loose attitude their documenters had toward family relationships. A person may be documented as a grandson or great-grandson, or even more distant relative, and then later be called a son of the more distant ancestor. Sometimes they were literal and sometimes they focused only on the more pertinent connections, leaving out the intermediate connections they felt were unimportant for their purpose. Understanding this approach of the writers helps clear up apparent discrepancies that might arise later.

Remember the name Edom; it is a nation of people that is an occasional problem for the nation of Israel throughout much of the Old Testament. Prophecy also deals with them in a rather dramatic fashion, which we will discover down the road.

Do you suppose Joseph, the man we know as a hero, was a brat as a boy? No one could blame the brothers for being resentful, but their remedy was horrifying, and their reaction when the deed comes back to haunt them in the future shows that they continued to struggle with guilt for it. I can identify with Jacob’s inconsolability, for I have also lost a child. What about your own life and/or character does the Holy Spirit teach you through the pain of this family? What about God do you learn?

Today’s reading isn’t the most inspirational, but we do have to exercise patience sometimes to allow God to give the background and set up the story so that it is most meaningful. Tomorrow’s reading will be better!

Living in the land of God’s promise is not trouble-free. There is still the consequence of past sin to live with. It wasn’t pretty for Jacob, and it generally isn’t pretty. This is another reminder of the awfulness of sin. We must learn to see sin as God sees it. What other life lessons can you see from Israel’s experience living in the land of promise?

Some important events not to miss: in verse 33:8 Jacob purchased the land on which he settled. This would be important for the incoming nation to know. Israel’s national values were rather unique among ancient peoples, to whom might generally made right. That Jacob purchased the land would have justified in part to them their impending possession of it.

Also note that Jacob called God his God at the place where he settled. Observe some of the results: worship, spiritual leadership of his family, witnessing about his relationship with God and what God had done for him in the past (which also involves noticing what God has done – this would involve thankfulness and praise), getting rid of that which displeased God, and preparation for meeting with God, part of which was purification. Those things may look much different in our lives today, but consider what his example might teach you about the evidence of God’s presence in your own life. What indicators are there? What choices might you need to make to show the evidence for which God calls?

Does it startle you that Jacob had to instruct his family to ditch their idols? We don’t get the lure those idols had for them; more about that at a later time. Those people probably wouldn’t understand the lure our idols have for us. What idols? That to which we are devoted above our devotion to God is an idol. We may not think we have idols, but our idols would be evident to these people if they could travel in time and observe us.

What can you learn about the great terror that came on the cities as Israel traveled? God may grant us a similar protection if we ask in times of unease or real danger. Does it occur to us to ask? Also, note that the world was watching Israel even back then.

Note also the covenant that God made with Israel. That is an important concept to trace throughout Scripture. It is a great lesson to us about God and about man.

What other lessons do you see from this passage, truths that you can learn about God and the way He deals with men and in men’s affairs, or truths about yourself and your own life?

Three weeks down! If you have kept up with the schedule, you’re halfway to establishing a habit of reading the Bible daily. You can do another three weeks!

If you haven’t kept up with the schedule, there is still plenty of time to do better. Start on it today!

One wonders if Jacob would have left Paddan-Aram if Laban and his sons hadn’t grown hostile toward him. God was still not his God, and Jacob was not Abraham, to leave a comfortable place on the word of a God who was not his own and promises that were still far off. Consider some uncomfortable developments or worse in your own life. As previously mentioned, Satan will want to use them to discourage you, undermine your trust in God, and make you turn your back on God. However, God wants to use them for good in your life (reference Romans 8:28), as he used Jacob’s adverse circumstances to move him to a better place, the land of promise and all it meant to live in enjoyment of God’s promises. Can you place your trust in Him today and commit to waiting on Him to work out the good He has planned and to obeying Him as He shows you what He has next for you?

Rachel’s theft of the household gods reveals the condition of her relationship with God. Consider that Laban and Jacob knew God as “the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (Abraham’s brother and Laban’s grandfather), and the God of their (Abraham’s and Nahor’s) father” (verse 53); He was not their God. Their households demonstrated such in their characters and actions. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham and had likely grown up under his influence. Abraham’s influence would have included his example in worshiping God and enjoying relationship with Him, and likely also included teaching about God and His promises to him, for God had set that expectation of Abraham before Isaac was born. In Genesis 18:19 God said of Abraham, “For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” Presumably Jacob had grown up knowing God further as “the fear of his father Isaac.” He had encountered God himself at Bethel and received His promises, had received God’s evident and abundant blessings while living in Paddan-Aram in fulfillment of those promises, and had obeyed His order to return home to the land of promise; but He still did not know God as his God. 

Laban’s and Jacob’s households were both characterized by deceit and scheming in service to their own interests, and justification of their actions. Jacob’s only interest in God was in getting his own desires fulfilled. Laban worshiped other gods and taught his children such a devotion to those gods that his daughter stole them from him when she left his household. Doubtless in these conditions, Jacob’s sons learned the worship of these other gods and not the worship of the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac. The accounts we will read in coming days reveal the consequences of the lack of knowledge of God. One wonders if the people of Israel were ever free of their interest in other gods.

This family’s example demonstrates how important our choices and actions are in teaching our children knowledge of God, or lack thereof. Jesus said in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” He also teaches in Matthew 7:21-23 that intimate knowledge – true relationship that results in transformation and conformity to the will of God – is the knowledge of which He speaks. Is this the relationship you have with God? Is this what you are modeling for your family and teaching them? Based on this reminder in today’s reading, what choices might you need to make, what actions might you need to take, to strengthen your relationship with God so that its authenticity is evident to your children and perhaps grandchildren, and so that these dear ones are properly taught to love God and have genuine relationship with him?

Jacob’s wrestling bout is a puzzling story, about which we would like to have more details. God has given us the information He wants us to have about this incident. Jacob understood that he had been wrestling with God. He had sought God earlier that day, and then God came to him in human flesh and wrestled with him. In an apparent bestowal of a blessing, He changed Jacob’s name from “Deceiver” to “He who strives with God.” The name change indicates a change of heart.

So the deceiver and manipulator acknowledged his helplessness, sought God’s help in his helpless state, and sought God based on the promises He had made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob himself. Thus humbled before God, he was met by God, who wrestled with him. In the wrestling Jacob had a change of heart significant enough for God to give him a change of name.

What do you learn about your own relationship with God, about God’s dealing with you, through this story? God has a unique relationship with each one of His unique creations. As difficult as it is for us to enjoy and grow a relationship with one whom we can’t see or touch, God gives us lessons from the ways He deals with others, from which we can better understand our own relationships with Him. Of what does Jacob’s experience speak to you?