Worthless Pursuit

Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.

Haggai 2:19

 

So long ago God’s people learned

a painful lesson of Law spurned

They turned away from worship and praise

for personal rest and home luxuries

 

For a very short time they were at ease

Until drought and famine gave them the squeeze

And backed into hunger and pain

They listened to God’s call again

 

The stuff of this earth failed them

as God’s prophet relentlessly assailed them

Haggai told them judgment would change

to blessing if they obeyed again

 

In their return the truth was heard

And the walls went up… the lesson learned

They came back to the Lord repentant

Found Him forgiving and truth accepted

 

The worthless pursuit of personal ease

will let us down but falling to our knees

we will find God forgives and even restores

so that we can find His blessing once more

 

Technorati Tags: Christianity,Religion,Discipleship

Old hands on young heads.

And he blessed Joseph and said,
        "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
        the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."
Genesis 48:15-16

Maybe it is just my current wistfulness, but a part of me identifies with the patriarchal blessing like never before. Age has a way of increasing your identification with generational moments in scripture. This is one of them. Right now my kids are adolescents. I have very little precious time left with them until they will be adults making decisions on their own. It is coming faster than I want it to arrive!

So when I read this passage where a grandfather through blessing passes on a spiritual heritage to grandsons, I sit back and think hard. I would call Jacob's story checkered with spiritual failure (on a good day) and marked by copious outpourings of God's grace. His sons were for the most part as spiritually inconsistent as he was (with the exception of Joseph and perhaps Benjamin). Yet God had chosen this patriarchal home to become his source of future and present blessing. And from this generation would arise the vast nation of Israel. Ephraim and Manasseh represented the work that God was going to do. Jacob knew this and as he aged, his heart grew closer to God so that now his finest spiritual work would occur with the blessings he would pass on to the tribes of Israel.

Grandpa Israel, the prophet and the patriarch, places feeble withering hands on two little grandsons and pronounces a future for their tribes that would come to pass. Ephraim would become strong. Joshua would arise from Ephraim's stock. That tribe would become instrumental in the kingdom only to fall away and be judged by God. But in the plan of God, the younger son would rise in prominence. Jacob foresaw this and passed it on with his prophetic blessing.

I am far removed from this culture and manner of God's dealings. I cannot expect the kind of prophetic insight into lives that Jacob was given by God. Still, my two children are important to God and He has wonderful and wise plans for them. I need all the wisdom from Him I can get to help guide them toward what God wants. It is not easy. They are now teenagers and well on the path of their independence. I feel that it is important to them to know God's guidance and my blessing for them as they seek to follow Him. Jacob's example gives me fuel for thought as I parent my kids the next few years.

Technorati Tags: Jacob,Blessing,Parenting

From Prison to Prime Minister

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you."
Genesis 41:39-40

In one day Joseph moves from being a prisoner to a prime minister. This is a dramatic work of God and it was worth all the waiting, the suffering, and the faithful witness. When the cupbearer remembers what Joseph did for him, he is immediately summoned from prison to stand before Pharaoh. There, he interprets the prophetic message of Pharaoh's dreams and the king takes note of the wisdom that Joseph entails with the interpretation of them.

But all the wonder of the story is focused on the God of Joseph. His interpretation of the dream lets Pharaoh know that he is convinced that God is bringing about both the outstanding bumper crops and the future famine. Egypt would respond to the sovereign act of God by preparing and administrating well. And Pharaoh quickly sees in Joseph the man to head up just such a project. But in picking him, it is clear that the king acknowledges God. Joseph is wise because God has shown him these things. And that is what the king recognizes and rewards.

So it is that any event, whether boon or bane, blessing or trial, must be seen as coming from the purposeful hand of an Almighty, Sovereign God. I long to be prime minister, but God is equally concerned that I am faithful while in the pit of prison. And if any good comes of this life, it is because God brings it about in me or through me.

I need the lessons of Joseph's faithful life. Of course, at this point in Genesis, God is just beginning to make things move in blessing for the faithful young Hebrew man. It would still take many years for God to restore his relationship with his family and repair those broken relationships. The young man would become the wise man of Egypt in the interim. And he would excel in the great times as well as in the hardships. Those are the lessons I need to learn.

Technorati Tags: Joseph,Sovereignty,Blessing

Blessing a new generation.

28    They said, "We see plainly that the LORD has been with you; so we said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you,
29    that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.'"

Genesis 26:28-29

Just a simple observation for today: The covenant that God made with Abraham promised him that nations would bless him. This is the first reward of the promise in Abraham’s son Isaac. Abimelech and the Philistines had a tumultuous relationship with both Abraham and Isaac. Both patriarchs had deceived them similarly. Both had managed to become quite wealthy in Canaan’s territory. But it is Abimelech who comes to Isaac now making a treaty of peace. And the basis of him doing so is that the pagan king clearly sees that Isaac has a unique situation with God.

God keeps His promises. He made a vast, national, global, and epic covenant with Abraham. He is keeping it to this day. And the rest of Genesis will show how this blessing keeps coming to each succeeding generation.

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Isaac,Blessing,Abimelech,Covenant