Day 31: Exodus 5-9

Life is getting very hard for the Israelites in Egypt. God hears their cry and feels their pain and so He sends Moses to talk to Pharaoh.

These chapters contain the 1st 7 plagues that God sends on Pharaoh and Egypt:

1. Blood (7:14-24)
2. Frogs (8:1-15)
3. Gnats (8:16-19 - gnats are small so they only get a few verses - but, interestingly, this is the first one that Pharaoh's magicians couldn't duplicate)
4. Flies (8:20-30)
5. Livestock (9:1-7)
6. Boils (9:8-12)
7. Hail (9:13-35)

I think the thing that really hit me though was in chapter 5. Moses is sent by God to talk Pharaoh into releasing His people...and the result of this first meeting is the exact opposite. Instead of releasing the people, as Moses asked, Pharaoh is angered and increases the work load on the Israelites. Far from being released, things only get worse. The people complain to Moses:

...they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them, and they said, “May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” (5:20-21)

Moses complains to God:

Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” (5:22-23)

So...does God keep His promise?
       Well, yes...if we read ahead we know that He does.
Do the people think so?
       No, they do not.
Why not?
       They're too short sighted. They can't see the big picture.

Another reminder to keep looking at life through the lens of eternity. Just because things get hard doesn't mean God has forgotten His promises. Man, this is a hard lesson to learn.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Day 30: Exodus 1-4

So today we start Exodus.

Chapter 1:
Here we skim through several generations of the Israelites living in Egypt after the death of Joseph and all his brothers. They have multiplied exponentially and the Egyptians are concerned about their number so they basically enslave the Israelites to try to keep them in check. As a child hearing these OT stories it never really dawned on me how ruthless and despotic these middle eastern rulers really were. When I think of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt today, Sadam Hussein of Iraq, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Muammar Gaddafi of Lybia it seems not much has changed in this region of the world. It continues to be dominated by this type of ruler.

Chapter 2:
This chapter tells of the birth and early life of Moses.

Chapter 3:
Moses is called by God to lead His people out of Egypt. He seems pretty unwilling.

Here's a run down of his "reasons":

1. "I'm a nobody." (3:11) This sounds very humble at first and of course it's true but God says not to worry because He will be with him. The same is true for us. We're nobodies but God says, "Go" and reassures us that He will be with us.
2. "What if they ask who You are? What should I say?" (3:13) Basically God says, "Just tell them the truth. It's me...the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You know the One. I AM. They'll know who you're talking about." I suppose we're still sort of afraid people will ask us a question we can't answer.
3. "What if they don't believe me?" (4:1) In response to this God gives him three miraculous signs he can do to show he's got some special power from God. If they don't believe the first one, try the second. If they don't believe the second try the third. These were to be the evidence that he was sent by God. What is our evidence? What can we point to to indicate that God is in our lives? I suppose the answer to that may be different for each of us but I think our own experience of God working in our lives would be the main thing we can point to. Will people believe us? I don't know but that's the evidence we have.
4. "I'm really not very good with words." (4:10) God says, "Who made your mouth? I did, that's who! If I say you can talk then, by golly, you can talk!" I suppose God made my mouth too.
5. "Please send someone else!" (4:13) No more reasons, just a plea from the gut to be exempted from service. Yeah, I suppose I've been there, too. God gets pretty angry at this. I suppose as a sort of compromise he sends Aaron, his brother, with him.

I wonder if God ever gets any new problems.

Day 29: Job 40:6-42:17; Psalm 29

Yesterday Bob Howell died of a massive heart attack. Bob & Ella are our church custodians...the best church custodians I have ever worked with. It was their ministry. Their daughter, Jessi, also died suddenly a few weeks ago...and Ella's mother is currently in the hospital in very serious condition. Right now our congregation, the Howell & Strunk families, and Ella specifically are reeling from grief. Ella is living Job's story. There are questions. "Why?" "What did I do to deserve this?" There is guilt. "If I had only..." And, let's be honest, there is anger.

Submission is hard. It goes completely against my nature. This whole book seems to me to be about submission...submission to God. I suppose, in one sense, we have no choice. He is, after all, God. He made the universe and fashioned every molecule of all matter including every cell in my body.

Who then is able to stand against me?
Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
   Everything under heaven belongs to me. (40:10-11)

But, in another sense, we have a free will. Granted, that free will was also part of how He made us but He made us that way nonetheless. Since we have a free will I suppose we could choose to not submit. If we decide to go this route it will seem like we are in control for a time...but at some point it will become painfully obvious that we really aren't in control. The randomness of this life will strike us down eventually...in death if not before. Then, what are we left with? Only anger. Or we can choose to willingly submit - in which case we need to understand that there will be times that things happen that don't make sense to us and we may never be given an answer. The randomness of this life will still get us eventually, and we will likely still be angry. But if we've chosen to submit to God we've chosen to trust Him. We may not understand and we may not like what happens...but we trust that God has something more in mind. Job said it this way:

I know that you can do all things;
   no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, "Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?"
   Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
   things too wonderful for me to know. (42:2-3)

And then, the last words we hear Job speak:

My ears had heard of you
   but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
   and repent in dust and ashes. (42:5-6)

I have to admit that I'm a little uneasy with the way the book of Job ends. I feel like it should have ended with the above verses but in the final verses of the last chapter we read this:

     The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
    After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years. (42:12-17)

It has a happy ending. And if I'm not careful I may begin to think that I should expect that. If I've learned anything from the book of Job it's that I don't really have the right to expect anything. I'm happy for Job but I think I'd better be careful not to expect the fairy tale ending...at least not anytime before eternity in heaven.

In Psalm 29 the word LORD is used 18 times...I counted. There's only 11 verses.

How can He be my LORD if I don't submit?

Day 28: Job 37:1-40:5; Psalm 19

Well...God finally speaks up in response to Job. It may not have been the response Job was looking for. I've tried to imagine how I would feel if God spoke to me "out of the storm" and said this:

Brace yourself like a man;
   I will question you,
   and you shall answer me. (38:3)

What I find interesting is that God doesn't even begin to answer Job's questions directly. Job wants an explanation for how badly he's been treated. Instead God says, in effect, "Ok...now I have some questions for you." And he proceeds to ask rhetorical questions that Job could never answer in a million lifetimes. This whole scene makes me think of the song we just practiced last night at choir: "...when you don’t understand the purpose of His plan, In the presence of the King...bow the knee."

What I'm starting to understand from this is that we may never get the answers we think we want. If I'm completely honest I'd have to admit that I probably wouldn't accept the answers even if God gave them to me. There would always be a "yeah, but..." That's assuming I could comprehend the explanation in the first place. Ultimately, I suppose I have to get to the point where I respond to God the same way Job does in 40:4:

I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
   I put my hand over my mouth.

Days 26&27: Job 29-36

I'm starting to feel like I'm falling farther behind than I would like. If I keep this up it'll be more like "Reading the Bible Through in Two Years." Anyway...2 days' reading again:

I think most of us probably feel like Job when he says:

“I thought, ‘I will die in my own house,
   my days as numerous as the grains of sand.
My roots will reach to the water,
   and the dew will lie all night on my branches.
My glory will not fade;
   the bow will be ever new in my hand."

We have so many expectations of life. We expect to live long, to stay healthy, to have enough to make ends meet, etc. The thing is, none of this is promised. I mean, what right do I have to expect any of it? If any of that happens (and, so far, it has) I can only thank God because I certainly don't deserve it. If everything were taken from me tomorrow, how would I react?

In 30:20-22 Job expresses how many people feel...in fact, I can remember a few times when I may have felt the same:

“I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer;
   I stand up, but you merely look at me.
You turn on me ruthlessly;
   with the might of your hand you attack me.
You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;
   you toss me about in the storm.

And then Job spends pretty much all of chapter 31 going through a list of sins and wrongdoings of every kind. He can't think of a time when he was guilty of any of them. Hmmm. I wonder about that. His measuring stick might be pretty lenient but still God does think pretty highly of him according to what He says to Satan in the beginning of the book. That's really the tough thing about this whole book, isn't it? God puts Job up as a model of exemplary behavior...then allows the worst things we can imagine to happen to him. What kind of God is this? One thing is for sure: We can't let our circumstances color our perception of God. The two things aren't really connected. Also, we can't allow the circumstances of the people we meet each day to color our perception of them...

Elihu is the youngest of the friends of Job and, out of respect, he waits till last to speak his mind. However, I think he speaks longer than any of his older friends. In many ways, I think he also makes the most sense. In fact, if I recall correctly, God makes some of the same points and raises similar questions when He finally has His say.

Days 24&25: Job 22-28

I had a little time this beautiful Saturday morning so I decided to double up on the assigned reading for today.

Here are a few of the highlights for me today...

Eliphaz says something in the opening verses that rang true to me. In 28:2 he says:

Can a man be of benefit to God?
   Can even a wise person benefit him?

At some point, I suppose, we all need to come to this understanding. It's very humbling, at first, to realize that God is God and I am not...that because He is God He has no need of anything from me. Hm...I started to draw a comparison between God's relationship with me as a created being and my relationship to something I may have made or created. I was going to point out how God doesn't really need me any more than I need the thing I made...whatever it might be. I decided that comparison wasn't going to work because the reality is I DO need the things that I make or create...whether it's a musical arrangement, a home remodeling project, or a piece of writing. I need it, not just for it's practical use but also because I need to create. We all do. I believe that's part of being made in God's image. This could be an insight into how and why God cares so deeply about His creation...about me. I want to think about this some more. In the mean time I believe it's healthy for me to remember that I owe my very existence to Him, not the other way around.

 

Bildad means this as an argument against Job but he makes a valid point in 25:4 when he says::

How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
   How can one born of woman be pure?

Our inability to be righteous on our own is a recurring theme throughout scripture. Isaiah points it out in Isaiah 64:6 when he says "our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Paul continues the theme in Romans 3:23 when he says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

 

I love Job's sarcastic streak. It becomes evident again in 26:2-4 when he responds to Bildad:

How you have helped the powerless!
   How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
   And what great insight you have displayed!
Who has helped you utter these words?
   And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?

The final verses of today's reading really struck me. Chapter 28 is labeled in the NIV as an interlude. This is not Job or any of his friends speaking, it's the narrator or author. It's as if he's stopping to the narrative to make sure we get the point. This is what he writes in 28:20-28:

Where then does wisdom come from?
   Where does understanding dwell?
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
   concealed even from the birds in the sky.
Destruction and Death say,
   “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”
God understands the way to it
   and he alone knows where it dwells,
for he views the ends of the earth
   and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind
   and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain
   and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
   he confirmed it and tested it.
And he said to the human race,
   “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
   and to shun evil is understanding.”

God gave mankind the ability to think and reason. It's truly awesome when you really think about it...when you think about our ability to think. What other part of creation can do that? It gets us into trouble, though, because we start thinking that if it doesn't make sense to us then it must be wrong. I believe we think too highly of our ability to think. This is not to say that we shouldn't apply our reasoning ability. I'm not advocating an anti-reason approach to faith. What I'm suggesting is that we recognize the source of that ability. And if God is indeed the source then perhaps ours is somewhat limited in comparison.

"Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell? ... God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells."

Day 23: Job 18-21

Bildad (one of Job's "friends") says to Job:

When will you end these speeches?
   Be sensible, and then we can talk.

Then he goes on to describe in poetic detail a wretched and miserable existence...much like Job is experiencing...then closes with this:

Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;
   such is the place of one who does not know God.

In other words - "Face it, Job, you're an evil man. If you weren't this would never have happened to you."

I read an interesting and convicting blog post the other day by Zach Nielson who started with this quote from Charles Spurgeon:

"Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth."

It's a good reminder when dealing with people who criticize you. The truth is that there is evil in all of us. The point Bildad and the rest of Job's buddies miss is the one that Job makes in ch. 21 when he says:

One person dies in full vigor,
   completely secure and at ease,
well nourished in body,
   bones rich with marrow.
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
   never having enjoyed anything good.
Side by side they lie in the dust,
   and worms cover them both.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 5:45:

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Steve Taylor said it this way in Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's:

"Good, bad, there they go down the same drain."

Seems to me that we're all evil...just in different ways. That's why we all need God's grace offered through Jesus. We have no reason to expect life to be easy for the "righteous" and hard for the "wicked" because there really has only been one righteous person in all of human history...and life wasn't that easy for Him.

Day 22: Job 14-17

A few interesting quotes from today's reading. In 15:5-6 Eliphaz says:

"Your sin prompts your mouth;
   you adopt the tongue of the crafty.
Your own mouth condemns you, not mine;
   your own lips testify against you."

It's no wonder Job replies in in 16:2:

"I have heard many things like these;
   you are miserable comforters, all of you!"

There may be some lessons in this book on how to talk to someone who is in the midst of grief...or maybe lessons in how NOT to. It seems as if these "friends" think it's their job to argue with Job instead of comfort him. Certainly Job is doing a lot of complaining and questioning God and these guys are not at all comfortable with that so instead of sympathy, Job gets condemnation.

I was most interested in these lines from Job in 14:15-17:

"You will call and I will answer you;
   you will long for the creature your hands have made.
Surely then you will count my steps
   but not keep track of my sin.
My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
   you will cover over my sin."

I've always been intrigued by God's grace in the Old Testament. I've always had this idea that in the OT we find the God of justice and law and it's not until the NT that we see God's grace. In recent years I've been noticing more and more of God's grace in the OT. This, from all indications, is before the law (the 10 commandments) and even before the nation of Israel is led out of Egypt...and somehow Job has a notion that God is a forgiving and gracious God.

In recent years I've become more aware of people, even today, who find the idea of God's grace to be a brand new thought. Why do they miss it? This is the aspect of God that has the power to draw people of all generations to Him yet Christians continue to teach a "works" relationship to God...do good things and God will accept you...do bad things and God will condemn you.

Personally, I'm glad that God will "not keep track of my sin...that my offenses will be sealed up in a bag."

Day 21: Job 10-13

On this lovely Valentine's Day morning I begin my Bible reading with these beautiful words:

I loathe my very life;
   therefore I will give free rein to my complaint
   and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

Nice. But then, something tells me there's going to be a lot of this kind of stuff in the book of Job. And why not? Everything that gave him joy has been taken from him and now he sits with these miserable "friends" of his who don't seem to be helping at all. Zophar says to him:

You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless
   and I am pure in your sight.’
Oh, how I wish that God would speak,
   that he would open his lips against you
and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom,
   for true wisdom has two sides.
   Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.

Wow. With friends like that who needs enemies? However Zophar is right when he says:

Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
   Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?
   They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?
Their measure is longer than the earth
   and wider than the sea.

In fact, I believe God says much the same thing when He finally speaks toward the end of the book...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I love that Job is so sarcastic in his response when he says:

Doubtless you are the only people who matter,
   and wisdom will die with you!

And later:

If only you would be altogether silent!
   For you, that would be wisdom.

 In the midst of his suffering he retains a sharp mind and sarcastic wit! My kind of guy.

Job is asking questions of God that most people feel uncomfortable asking. As I've grown older and, dare I say, a little more mature I've started realizing that doubt is a part of faith. Maybe it's not doubt so much as uncertainty. The deeper a person's faith the more questions he has. Does that make sense? Or maybe, it's just that as your faith and trust in God deepens you find you don't really need to have all your questions answered. You become a little more comfortable in the tension of not knowing because you've learned to trust the One you do know. I don't mean to say that faith and reason are mutually exclusive. I've always reacted negatively to those people who seem to take an ANTI-intellectual approach to their faith...as if the act of asking questions is a sin in itself. But the truth is my intellect, no matter how great it may be, is limited. It is an intellect created by another. I will NEVER be able to understand God's answers completely even if He gave them to me. If I could...then I would be God and He would not. As it is, I'm left with trust.

I think that's where Job finds himself. He believes he is taking his life in his own hands by asking these hard questions of God and demanding answers...and yet he's willing to trust God with his life.

Why do I put myself in jeopardy
   and take my life in my hands?
Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
   I will surely defend my ways to his face.

Wow. Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him...

Day 20: Job 6-9

In the midst of all Job's suffering he says this in 6:10:

I would still have this consolation—
   my joy in unrelenting pain—
   that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

Job may not have "denied the words of the Holy One" but he is not shy about his complaints. It seems a bit ironic to me that Job is wishing for the very thing that God did not allow Satan to do. Job wishes he would just die and get it over...but God allowed Satan to do pretty much anything but that. The thing I'm starting to see here is that God doesn't mind if we take our grievances to Him. Job is pretty vocal about how this whole thing seems unfair. He says this in 7:20:

 If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
   you who sees everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
   Have I become a burden to you?^[c]

The answers we get from God (if indeed we get any) may or may not satisfy our self-centered perspective but we can be honest with Him. We may as well...He knows anyway.

I think my favorite part of today's reading were the very last ones. Ch. 9:32-35

³² “He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him,
   that we might confront each other in court.
³³ If only there were someone to mediate between us,
   someone to bring us together,
³⁴ someone to remove God’s rod from me,
   so that his terror would frighten me no more.
³⁵ Then I would speak up without fear of him,
   but as it now stands with me, I cannot.

I had never noticed this before. He may not realize what he's wishing for here. He's wishing for what we have. Jesus does for us exactly what Job describes in these verses. We DO have that mediator. He DOES remove God's rod from us. We CAN speak up without fear.

Day 19: Job 1-5

Wow! Job is an amazing man. He experiences what has to be the absolute worst day of his life. In one day everything he had (and he had a lot) was taken from him. Not just his belongings but his family as well.

So far 2011 has been a difficult year in terms of loss. A member of our church staff passed away without warning in his sleep. A nine year old daughter of a young couple dies of multiple medical problems. An 89 year old father of a good friend died after living with the effects of Alzheimer's for years. A beautiful 27 year old newlywed and daughter of another staff member died without warning. My mother's cousin died (of a heart attack, I believe). I feel all of that loss...sort of. I must confess that it's indirect. I hurt for all those dear people but I can't help but think how I would cope in similar situations. I have never had to experience loss of that magnitude. But this last month has reminded me that I will. It really is a certainty of life. It's not really a question of "if" but "when". How will I respond? Everyone deals with grief differently, I suppose, but I can't help but be amazed at Job's response:

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
   “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
   and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
   may the name of the LORD be praised.”

He just lost everything and everyone that was dear to him and his first response was worship. There's an example to emulate.

I do have a couple more observations from today's reading.

1. Apparently Job's wife has been spared but is not coping so well:

"His wife said to him, 'Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!'"

There's nothing like a supportive spouse...

2. Job's friends arrive to grieve with him at the end of ch. 2. These guys get criticized a lot, and they they deserve most of it, but they did something right. They were there. And they simply sat with him.

"When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was."

3. Finally, after 7 days of sitting in silence and sharing Job's burden as best they can, one of his friends speak up. He should've kept quiet because the first words out of his mouth are patently false.

“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
   Where were the upright ever destroyed?"

I don't know where he's been living but it happens every day. I think that's the hard part for us (me) to understand. Well, maybe I understand it...I just have trouble accepting it. I tend to expect justice in this life...and it isn't to be. Because, while on the one hand I may say I want justice, I really don't. I think the major thing we learn from reading the Bible is that if God really did give us each what we justly deserved...well, it wouldn't be pretty. I really don't want justice...I want mercy. I NEED mercy.

When bad things happen we have a tendency to ask, "Why me?" The real question is why do any good things happen? Why does God allow me be healthy today? Why am I blessed with a warm home on a cold winter morning? Why did He allow me to have a beautiful, loving and selfless wife? Why did I get to have 2 beautiful, intelligent and talented daughters? Why do I get to experience the joy of playing with my grandkids? It's not right. It's not fair or just. I don't deserve any of it.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Day 18: Genesis 47-50

There were several things that interested me from today's reading:

1. Seems like Joseph didn't spend much time, if any, with his father and his brothers. In 48:8 he doesn't know who Joseph's children are? Possibly Joseph has become more Egyptian than Israelite. When he dies at the end of ch. 50 he isn't returned to Canaan like his forefathers...he is buried in Egypt.

2. This famine that Joseph led Egypt through must have been really bad. As a result of the famine, and Joseph's wisdom and leadership, Pharaoh ends up with more power than he had before. It's an odd thought but I can't help but wonder if Joseph's leadership through this time didn't play a contributing role in the Israelites slavery in Egypt.

3. I also noticed the Messianic prophecy in Israel's blessing of Judah in 49:10 when he said:

"The scepter will not depart from Judah,
   nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
   and the obedience of the nations shall be his."

4. It also struck me that Joseph's brothers were STILL afraid that Joseph may have some ill will toward them. I guess they thought that now that their father was dead he may finally try to repay them for what they had done to him. It almost seems like the fact that Joseph never does sort of drives them crazy.

Day 17: Genesis 44-46

In today's passage Joseph finally reveals his true identity to his brothers. There are a lot of emotional layers in the scene. Joseph, I think, is struggling with how to handle the situation. Surely the temptation to seek revenge was in there somewhere...though it is never mentioned specifically. But why else would he play all those games with them? i.e. Putting the money back in their sack, placing the silver cup in Benjamin's sack and sending them on their way only to chase after them and accuse them of stealing it. The brothers certainly had reason to be afraid. Their spoiled little brother whom they sold into slavery now had their lives in his hand. He was in a position to treat them however he desired without consequence...except from his own conscience.

In the end, Joseph's conscience wins out. I mentioned in an earlier post that Joseph was like Nathaniel in that he was a man "in whom there was no deceit." He tried to "deceive" his brothers but he couldn't go through with it. Eventually he came to the point where he saw the hand of God in all the events of his life and decided he was where he was for a purpose...and if that purpose was to be fulfilled he had to continue to follow his sensitive and well-trained conscience.

My circumstances may not be as dramatic as Joseph's but I need to be ready, whatever my circumstances, to do the "right" thing. I believe God will use that in ways I cannot imagine.

Day 16: Genesis 41-43

Joseph is a guy I would be very interested in meeting. What was there about him that caused him to be so well respected by everyone? Well, I guess everyone except his jealous brothers who sold him into slavery. His first gig as a slave was to Potiphar who had eventually promoted him until he was in charge of his entire household. Even in prison the "warden" trusted him enough to put him in a position of responsibility. And now he is 2nd only to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. However, there is still something going on in terms of racial or social prejudice. In the final verses of today's passage we find this statement: "They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians." Hmm. I guess this may help explain why, even after all Joseph did for the Egyptians during this time of famine, his descendants still ended up as slaves and eventually had to make their "exodus". But I'm getting ahead of the story.

Now, his brothers are coming to him to humbly ask for help. My, how the tables have turned. Looks like the dreams he had in ch. 37 - the ones that almost got him killed by his brothers - are indeed coming true. Today's reading sort of ends with a cliff-hanger. Will Joseph reveal his true identity to his brothers? Will he seek revenge for the way they treated him? What will he do with Benjamin - his only full brother? ...Tune in next time.

Day 15: Genesis 38-40

What a contrast between Judah & Joseph:

Chapter 38 tells of Judah and some of his descendants. It's a tale of lust, deceit & incest. Bad things happen to some of these people because of their wickedness.

Chapter 39 & 40 gets us caught up with what happened to Joseph after his brothers (including Judah) sold him into slavery. The story of Joseph is a story of doing the right thing in every circumstance. Bad things happen to Joseph because of his righteousness.

Why do I expect only good things to happen to me?

Day 14: Genesis 34-37

These sons of Jacob are a rough crowd. You don't want to mess with their sister, they take care of their own (ch 34)...unless you ARE one of them and act like you're something special...then they turn on you. Hm...I wonder if Joseph was with them when they made their plans to avenge Dinah's rape? It doesn't mention who it was by name only that it was the "sons of Jacob." That was a nasty little scheme...but it doesn't seem to me that Hamor and Shechem were the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Speaking of sharp...I wonder what Joseph was thinking when he told his brothers about his dreams? How did he think they would react? Did he expect them to say, "That's really cool Joseph. God told you we are going to be your servants, I'm really happy for you!"

This begins what I think is one of the most dramatic stories in scripture...I've often thought about Joseph. I've come to the conclusion that Joseph DIDN'T think he was better than his brothers...even though he was his father's favorite and they were all jealous of him and they all though he was arrogant. I think Joseph was just being who God made him to be. He was not motivated by ego or status...he simply wanted to be himself and do what was right...and be pleasing to God. That's why I have a hard time picturing him being part of the plot and the attack on Shechem. He reminds me of what was said about Nathaniel in John 1:47 : "...in whom there is no deceit." When someone is like that they sometimes have a hard time understanding that other people aren't. I think that's why Joseph didn't worry about sharing his dreams with his brothers.

I think it would be an honor to be described like that - "...in whom there is no deceit."

Probably too late for that one.