Category: Rescue & Redemption

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 37:14-28, 50:15-21 (day four)

When Joseph was first sold into slavery, He did not understand what God’s ultimate plan was.  He did trust in God though.  Joseph had had dreams and he knew that God had a plan for his life.  The more his life unfolded, the more he learned of God’s faithfulness.  Joseph saw the events of his life in perspective to God’s will.  In chapter 50, when his brothers feared that Joseph had not fully forgiven them and that they were in danger of receiving their just reward, they once again begged his forgiveness.

Joseph was able to see the bigger picture.  Verses 19-21 of chapter 50 reveal the maturity of Joseph’s relationship with God.  He could not have responded this way if he had not put aside personal rights and emotions in favor of God’s perfect will.  God had a servant that was prepared to be a savior for the sons of Israel.  What lies ahead for you?  Are you prepared to follow God’s will for your life?

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 37:14-28, 50:15-21 (day three) 

Here comes that dreamer! 

We mostly can’t be trusted with the future, though one can find exceptions.  Many prophets—not all, but many—have stewarded their knowledge of the future with great skill.  But they tend to have difficult lives and die early.  So yeah, the future’s a hard thing to handle well.  What happened when the deficient trustee of prophetic insight was a vision-casting, favorite-son-status-occupying, flashy-attire-flaunting seventeen-year-old kid?  In a family already prone to scheming, that kid’s pontificating came off as one more threatening agenda.  Joseph was right about the future, you know.  But rightness is a most dangerous quality.  The arrogance that often accompanies it will harm others.  Hardship—not least his brothers’ damnable human-trafficking transaction—transformed Joseph’s arrogance into wisdom.  And in God’s providence he became a life-saving steward of the future.

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 37:14-28, 50:15-21 (day two) When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!” 50:15

Jacob/Israel had been the buffer between Joseph and his brothers. At least, that is what the brothers had come to believe. Years had passed, but they had never moved past that violent and heinous act against Joseph. Although God had used and shaped Joseph’s life since being sold to the Ishmaelites, the brothers were caught forever in that moment. It had likely shaped everything they did since that moment of sin. It surely impacted their relationship with their father. They had to lie to him and watch him grieve the loss of a child.

Sin is often easy, but truly never is. The sin of Joseph’s brothers would shape most of their adult lives. How you you ever expect to live, really live if you are haunted by your choices. We are not perfect. Joseph was not perfect, but Jesus is. Wouldn’t you much rather have your life shaped by Jesus, than by your sin?

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 37:14-28, 50:15-21 (day one)

“God sent me before you to preserve a remnant on the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.”–Genesis 50:20 (American Standard Version)

When God intends to save, He sends a savior.  It is not an easy path.  God’s script for this life is not about comfort.  There is a higher purpose.

Joseph is one example.  Jesus is another.  Their lives have many similarities.  God was with both of them.  Both experienced unfair opposition and jealousy.

Salvation is hard and costly work.  Those who work with God on this divine project will certainly experience a share of harsh treatment.  Resentment.  Jealousy.  Anger.  Violence.  Lost people don’t make it easy.

None of us are saviors (it isn’t necessary, now) but we do stand with Jesus in His grand enterprise, willing to endure the turbulence that inevitably comes.

Do you share Joseph’s insight?  God’s purpose in your life is the salvation of others!

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 22:1-19 (day seven)

As I read Genesis 22 this week I was reminded of James 4:13-15:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” ¹⁴Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

We take life for granted.  We just assume that we will wake up tomorrow and go on about our schedules.  For many that is not the case.  You are one of the blessed ones who was given another day on this earth for the glory of God.  Use this new, God given day for a meaningful purpose.  Come and worship.  Come into the sanctuary with your heart ready to sing, because your God has given you one more day on earth to do that very thing.

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 22:1-19 (day five)

And 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 the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.  

As parents, one of our tasks is to disciple our children- to share our faith (testimonies and truths about a loving and faithful God). There is a trust and willingness in Issac to honor his dad’s leadership and spiritual instruction. No microwave solution for this kind of discipleship and trust. Years of faithful teaching and daily examples led to this kind of response from Issac. His question is honest, insightful and gives a glimpse into a meaningful relationship with his father. Abraham’s answer is powerful and prophetic.  “God will provide the Lamb”.  Parents/Grandparents begin now to daily and faithfully disciple the next generation. They will learn how to love and trust God because they will watch and listen to you. You have the wonderful opportunity to speak and model the powerful and prophetic to them.

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 22:1-19 (day four)

Abraham…who was he?  A prophet, one who feared God, promised to be the Father of a nation, and eventually, a Hall of Faither in Hebrews 11.  From our earliest encounter with Abraham, he was hearing the voice of the Lord, obeying the voice of the Lord, and maturing in his relationship with God as he walked with God in obedience.  Abraham’s fear of the Lord had been developed over time.  When God first promised to send Abraham a child through Sarah, it was 25 years until it was fulfilled.  All the while, Abraham’s character was being built.  In chapter 22, when God gave the command to sacrifice Isaac on a mountain…Abraham knew enough about God and trusted His power to raise even from the dead.  He did not have the crisis of belief that we would expect if the command had come out of the blue.

When we face crisis in our lives, we need a history of walking with the Lord to prepare us for the time of need.  Instead of asking, “Where is the lamb?”, we can know that obedience brings blessing.  God will rescue us in our moment of need.

RE Verse reading–Genesis 22:1-19 (day three)

He said to him, “Abraham!’” 

Each of Abraham’s names for God—God Most High, God Almighty, God Everlasting, among others—arose over the better part of a hundred years from difficult, often violent experiences that progressively revealed to Abraham something hitherto unknown about the character of God.  All of which is to say that when God’s Moriah directive came down, it didn’t arrive in a vacuum.  As shocking and fearsome as this communication was, Abraham knew the one speaking––and that’s all he knew.  But by now that was enough.  Indeed, the writer of Hebrews gives us a window into Abraham’s thinking: He wouldn’t put it past God to possess the ability to raise the dead.  So up Moriah he went.  On the basis of what (or whom) he knew, he went where he did not know.  This is faith.

 

RE Verse reading–Genesis 22:1-19 (day two) 

He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” vs. 2

Our RE:Verse study this quarter begins similarly to the beginning of our last study in 1 Samuel. A parent after desperately longing for a child, gives that child back to the Lord.

 For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.  1 Samuel 27-27

Hannah and Abraham understood the role of God in their lives. Once we have children we often order everything in our lives around them, not so for Samuel and Isaac. Everything was surrendered unto God’s plan and authority. How would our children characterize our actions surrounding them? How have we given the Lord a preeminent place in their lives, or have we put our children ahead of him?