Genesis 47-50 The Ending Matters

Joseph spent very little of his life in the Promised Land.  He was likely 17 when his brothers sold him into slavery and he died at 110.  Despite spending almost a century in Egypt, his heart was still in the Promised Land.

He returned there once to bury his father Jacob.  Then at his own death, he was embalmed and placed in a coffin and buried in Egypt.  His faith that God would restore His people to the Promised Land was based on the significant fact that he did not ask that his body be returned to Israel upon his death, as Jacob’s had been.  He’d been separated from his family for years, and now it was his desire to remain close to them in death, bearing silent witness to how God had blessed and cared for him.

Just imagine, hundreds of years later, when Moses is preparing to take the Israelites back to the Promised Land – Joseph’s dying request had to be remembered and fulfilled.  In their rush to depart following the Death Angel’s visit, someone had to go and exhume Joseph’s body to carry his bones back to the Promised Land!  For 40 years, during their travels through the desert, Joseph was carried by his people.  How unfortunate that they also carried out idols from their Egyptian task masters as they approached the Promised Land.

Father, I pray that You will direct me to live a life that honors You as Joseph did.  And I pray that one day my descendants will be able to honor my memory because I honored, worshiped, and glorified You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 42-46 Seeing God At Work

This story is so gripping that it’s hard to find a stopping point!  As I looked back over all I’d read, several things popped out.

Before revealing his identity to his brothers, Joseph had told them, I am a God-fearing man.”  How reassuring that should have been to them, and that’s the first thing that we should reveal about ourselves as we meet others.

Judah offered himself as a slave in place of his youngest brother, Benjamin.  Joseph could see that his brother cared enough about his father and his youngest brother to sacrifice for them, knowing he’d never see his own family again.  That said a lot to Joseph.

After Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, they were really frightened, but they eventually saw that God, through His grace, had worked in Joseph’s heart, allowing him to see God’s master plan for saving his family from the famine.  What others had meant for evil, God had used for good.  Joseph even said, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Father, help me to see Your hand on my life in everything that happens.  Help me to know without a doubt that You have my best interests at heart and can overcome any evil that others may cast my way.  Allow me to see You at work in every aspect of my life, and let others come to know You through me.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 41 -- Give Me Wisdom Like That

This chapter begins with “Two years later …”  Joseph had been 28 when he’d interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s servants in Potiphar’s prison.  His last instructions to the king’s butler had been, “But when you are free, remember me.”  That’s what the butler forgot to do.  Yet it was all in God’s timing, for God waited until He was about to begin the seven prosperous crop years before the seven years of famine.  He had Joseph at the right place at the right time always.  The amazing thing was that Joseph knew and believed this.  He did not let his circumstances sour his outlook.  At 30, Joseph was facing the fact that he would be 44 before the bad years in Egypt would end.

So why did an Egyptian pharaoh choose a Jewish prisoner to lead his country through the next 14 years?  My commentary points us to Proverbs 21:1 – “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord.”  May it be so here today in such measure, Father!

Joseph had great God-given wisdom as an administrator, and as God began to prosper Egypt ahead of the coming bad years, He gave Joseph two boys – Manasseh (“made me forget”) and Ephraim (“gave me children”).  So Joseph was able under God’s blessing to forget the years of treachery, hardship, and imprisonment caused by his brothers, and when he did, he became fruitful.

Father, I need You to give me wisdom and direction in many things.  Just as You did Joseph.  Help me to hear what You have to say.  Bless me as I depend solely upon You and not upon my own abilities.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 39-40 Character In The Heat Of The Battle

Joseph had been sold into slavery by his own brothers and taken far from his home.  There he was falsely accused of rape by the woman he’d courageously resisted.  Imprisoned, he interpreted dreams of two of the king’s servants, but the one who was restored to his position with the king forgot to help Joseph.

Anyone else would have moaned and grumbled and cried, “No fair!”  But as my commentary put it, “Under the circumstances, he should have been upset.  But he wasn’t ‘under the circumstances; he was above them.  His time in prison was ‘training time for reigning time.’  Joseph didn’t wait for his circumstances to change.  He glorified God and served others in the circumstances.”

My sidebar, from The Mark Of A Man by Elisabeth Eliot said, “To suffer simply means ‘to bear under’.  A leader is someone who does not groan under burdens, but takes them – and with a dash of humor.  He knows how to keep his mouth shut about his difficulties and how to live a day at a time, doing quietly what needs doing at the moment.”

God knew I needed reminding of this today.  The undone tasks have been piling up for weeks now, and when I have a lot hovering over me and don’t feel like I’m at least moving forward, I experience feelings of being overwhelmed and frustrated.  But I need to be reminded of what a leader does.  I’ve even been watching as God develops leadership character in the young men on our football and basketball teams.  I watch as they bear their burdens and do what it takes when it’s needed and try not to complain.  Too often I forget the difference between what a leader does and what a follower does.  I want to be a leader.

Thanks for the refresher course, Father.  In the heat of the battle, I can lose sight of the goal.  Keep me focused on You no matter what.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 38 -- God's Surprises Even With Our Disobedience

God had set out with Jacob’s grandfather to make a new nation – a new people set apart for Him.  The Law that would govern that relationship would not be received by Moses for almost another 500 years, so many of the rules separating them from the rest of the world did not yet exist in this chapter.  The sons of Israel who would one day lend their names to the tribes of Israel are only now beginning to have their first children.

Judah, one of those sons, left that separateness of his father’s family for a time to stay at a friend’s home, and there he met a Canaanite girl and married her.  (Ideally, he should have married a descendant of his grandfather Isaac.)  Together, they had three sons – Er, Onan, and Shelah.

Er married a girl named Tamar, picked out for him by his father, Judah.  When Er committed a sin that resulted in his death, his brother Onan was expected to father children with his widow in order that Er’s family line would not be cut off.  My commentary said that the original Hebrew text indicates not just a single instance, but a continual pattern of practice from Onan of partial obedience to this command.  And 90% obedience equals 100% disobedience.  God was displeased and took his life as well. 

Judah’s youngest son was not yet capable of fathering a child and Judah, having lost his wife and two sons, was not at all anxious to lose his remaining son, so he sent Tamar home, promising that Shelah, the youngest son, would at some future time fulfill his obligation to Tamar.

It soon became apparent to Tamar hat Judah had reneged on this promise.  Tamar, a Canaanite, believed that the end justifies the means.  She disguised herself and played the prostitute to her father-in-law, Judah.  Knowing her pregnancy while a widow would bring accusations and possible death, she hatched a scheme to keep evidence of Judah’s participation as the father of the twins she was carrying.

Once confronted with that evidence, Judah conceded that she was more right than he was, since he’d not made his remaining son available and he’d consorted with a prostitute.

In an amazing display of God’s sovereignty and grace, the firstborn child, Perez, was listed in Matthew as an ancestor in the Messianic line of Christ.

Father, You even use our disobedience to accomplish Your divine will!  You are so incredible!  Please help me to see that You have my obedience to use instead, and keep me keenly aware of my disobedience.  I don’t want to break fellowship with You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 37 -- Pulling Back The Zoom

It would be so easy to spend time pointing out all of the dysfunctional things about Jacob’s/Israel’s family revealed in this chapter and be amazed that somehow through all of the chaos God managed to get His will done.  But this morning God wouldn’t let me do that.  Instead, He seemed to keep saying, “Look at the big picture.”

As I pulled the zoom back, it hit me that God already knew that some 450 plus years down the line He’d be bringing His people out of Egypt in the biggest set of miracles He’d ever chosen to display.  But first they’d need to leave the Promised Land to get there, and Joseph would need to be there ahead of them, already in place in the government to shepherd them to the fertile land of Goshen.

With that end in sight, the tragic events of this chapter can be seen for what they might really be – attempts by Satan to undermine the will of God and God’s ability to take what others meant for evil and turn it inside out, using it to further His purposes!

Yes, Israel unequally loved Joseph.  But Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah weren’t having to tend the flocks.  Their names were missing from that list.  At 17, Joseph was quite self-absorbed, marveling to his brothers about the dreams of them bowing down to him, but what 17 year old isn’t absorbed with himself at some point?

My commentary even mentioned the goat that was killed so that his blood could make Jacob/Israel believe that Joseph had been eaten by wild animals.  It reminds us of another goat, killed years earlier by Jacob – its meat and hairy skin used by Jacob to trick his father Isaac into blessing him.  Only the second time the trick’s on Jacob.

Father, the details of the story could easily have changed, turned on a coincidence.  Yet You are so sovereign that those details could do nothing to defeat Your ultimate goals.  I’m so glad that I worship a God who never has to worry about events spinning out of His control – Who can take what others mean for evil and use them for His own purposes!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Genesis 35-36 Returning To God

My commentary noted that God’s name was never mentioned in the previous chapter.  Jacob was living in Shechem, settling 30 miles from Bethel, the house of God.  Now, God tells him to move to Bethel and make an altar there.  It would become a sacred place for centuries to come.

Jacob had to prepare his family for the move.  His instructions were to:  1) put away foreign idols (Rebekah had stolen them from her father); 2) make themselves ritually clean; and 3) change their clothes.  All of this indicated a change of heart.  Once they did this, God caused all the neighboring people to fear them.  They had been limiting themselves by their lack of holiness.  In approaching God, He gave them strength.  He is our blessing.

My sidebar said, “God made us to enjoy him … God is our Father, and we are to enjoy him forever.”  Adam and Eve knew this instinctively at first; then sin clouded that vision, just as Jacob’s sinning against his father and brother clouded his own life for a time.  But now Israel has come back to the house of God – Bethel – and he is learning to love God and to be loved by Him.

Father, I can remember a time when I wouldn’t allow myself to be loved by You.  Thank You for bringing me back as You did Israel.  Thank You for never stopping that love despite my sin.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford