An overwhelming reason to respect Israel.

I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them.

Zechariah 10:6

Politics aside, there is a spiritual reason for protecting and supporting the interests of the Jewish people, particularly the state of Israel. What they have become is God’s purpose and design. When He regathered them to the Promised Land after the exile, He made it clear that this was all His work, and it would not fail. Read all 12 verses of this chapter carefully. God means to do something special and permanent in Israel (Zechariah 10:1-12). Respect God. Respect His work. Respect Israel.

I know that Israel and the Middle East conflicts radiating from there have been a political hotspot for generations now. That is probably as it should be. The place has been a political and religious volcano for millennia. That is not going to stop by the work of any kind of human diplomacy. God is strengthening and building the place. His plan is to jam more people in there than the land can hold. Really (Zechariah 10:10). It is only going to get more volatile.

I am disheartened when politicians diss Israel. I feel like they are striking at the root of the Abrahamic Covenant, where God said that He would curse those who curse Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:3). I will choose to respect and honor Israel in my thinking. I know God is doing something with His people Israel still. Romans 9 – 11 make it clear that although the perspective has changed with the work of the church, God is still clearly working among the Jews for His glory and purposes. Jesus is the Messiah of the Jews, and the Savior of the world. He is a shared Savior to all who will acknowledge Him. Proclaiming the Messiah, praying for the peace of Jerusalem, and respecting Israel are important when we look at biblical “Israelology”.

Technorati Tags: Zechariah,Providence,Israel

More grace for grumblers.

And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

Exodus 17:7

Again, in outstanding deference by God, Israel’s contentious nature comes out and God’s grace answers the cries of His people. So many generations ago, Jacob had wrestled the Angel of the Lord and been renamed Israel - “strives with God”. And the nation of Israel, now freed from Egyptian slavery and under God’s leadership under Moses in the desert of Sinai has lived up to that name. First they doubted God over food. Now they are fighting with Moses and God over a perceived lack of water. God came up with a novel plan to shut them up.

He led Moses to a large rock. Now in my opinion that had to be the opposite of what Israel was looking for. In the desert, you look for water by looking for green, for palm trees, for an oasis that shows water is there. Instead, a dry barren rock becomes a flowing stream when God instructs Moses to strike it with his staff and show Israel just how much God can do.

But there is a vivid reminder that more than just water was seen at the rock. Moses renamed it Masseh - “testing” and Meribah - “quarrel” because of the events that led to God’s provision at that location. It was a place of simultaneous blessing and painful reminder of Israel’s repeated lack of faith in God and trust in the leadership of the man Moses whom God had provided.

Leaders will always have their Masseh moments where people will test the strength of the leader’s faith. Moses did the right thing. When people grumbled against him, he cried out to God. He knew that God was the real leader of this people. And there are those Meribah episodes as well, when an argument against God seems to be all the leader hears. The leader knows better, but the people need to hear from God. And that is where this episode lets us know that God will know just what to do. Israel never really looked at a rocky outcrop in the desert quite the same way again! God could make of the dry desert stones a stream of water to care for His children. That is the lesson of grace for grumblers!

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Providence,Complaining

Dead Egyptians

Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.

Exodus 14:30-31

The same Red Sea that God parted to let Israel escape the sword of Pharaoh’s army became the means of destroying that army. The Jews walked across the dry land, yet the chariots of Pharaoh were mired in mud. When they realized what was happening, they could not turn around fast enough to escape their judgment. The walls of water fell in on the Egyptians and they drowned.

Egypt has been a source of pain and fear for Israel. These people had only known slavery there… as had their grandparents, and even earlier generations. To walk along the shore and see the bodies of dead soldiers, their former slave-masters, made their deliverance very real. It started to sink in, and the result was worship. They feared and believed God and his servant Moses.

God wants to deliver His people. He is in the saving business. And that principle extends to the things that enslave us today. I know that people struggle with the past, whether it is an abuse that they suffered, or a personal failure that seems to define them, the past can be a cruel master. And God wants to wash away that past in a flood of forgiveness letting us cross over to a land where we see our dead Egyptians for what they are: past controllers that now have no power over us. Praise the Lord that He delivers in just this way!

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Providence,Deliverance,The Past,Abuse

Time to wait.

The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:40-41

If Israel waited four centuries and another third for God to work, what does it mean for me to rest in God’s plan for a while? It will be worth it. And a season of waiting is what God has for me. I am not disappointed.

I had hoped that ministry timing would have had me launching out a larger counseling ministry at the beginning of 2009. It did not happen because funds were not available. I do want to wonder. Lay-counselors are trained and serving. There are weeks where those who serve as volunteers are counseling and helping more people than I am. So I was told to wait until the new fiscal year, which started this week. But again, the recession has hit the church, and all new spending, as well as much “normal” spending has been frozen.

It was no fun to have to tell people who were looking forward to serving on a counseling staff (at least part-time) that we could not go yet. God wants us in Egypt, I suppose, for just a little bit longer. And I have learned enough to patiently trust that God will do a bigger work, a better work, a more magnificent work in us and through us at just the right time.

An old praise chorus resounds in my ears:

Wait on the Lord

Listen to His voice

They that wait upon the Lord

Shall renew their strength

Wait on the Lord

let His Spirit lead

where the Spirit of the Lord is

there is peace, sweet peace.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Providence,Time

God of the difficulties.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 11:9

God’s encouragement to Moses was that He was going to use even the rejection of His will by Pharaoh for His glory. The king might defy the Lord God of Israel, but Egypt would see God’s wonders multiplied among them. They already had. The tenth plague, though horrific, would make a deeply personal and spiritual impact.

This passage also makes it clear that Moses had gained respect with the Egyptians. He had not yet convinced Pharaoh, but the people of the land respected Moses and were in favor of the Israelites (Exodus 11:3). This resulted in Israel leaving Egypt with many of the treasures of the people. So even defiance of God has a purpose by God in His plan. That is an overwhelming sovereignty, but it makes sense. For God to be Who He is, He HAS to be able use even the worst of human choices for His glory. When we see bad road ahead, we should go forward knowing God will take us through it, in ways that His power will be known!

I find this to be a motivating encouragement given my days. This current economic depression has hit home in many personal ways. I know good people who are out of work. I know others who have seen their incomes drop dramatically. I have friends who are trying to sell homes in a depressed housing market because they cannot afford to pay a mortgage, and I have seen ministries (including my own) take substantial set-backs. I have had to make adjustments as well. And it is not easy to experience. But I know this: the banking crash, the housing crash, the construction crash, the governmental takeover of big business… all these did not take God by surprise. Perhaps he wants to get the attention of a pampered and self-driven people. When He does, His wonders are multiplied among those who know Him. That is what I know will happen and it makes no difference whether trillions in tax dollars stimulate our economy or not!

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Trial,Bad Economy,Providence,Stimulus Spending,government bailout

Showdown.

But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. You are still exalting yourself against my people and will not let them go.

Exodus 9:16-17

This is God’s most direct message to Pharaoh. He makes it clear that all that has happened so far in the plagues has served the purpose of calling the king to consider the sovereign rule of the God of Israel. Pharaoh was not battling some superstition. It wasn’t about a regional Canaanite deity that had no authority in the land of Egypt. This was the God of the universe. And God had made Pharaoh in His image. He raised up the king. This had to have Pharaoh do some serious thinking.

The Egyptians worshiped their king. Pharaoh was a god among many, but a powerful ruler receiving worship. What’s more, this man was familiar with the process of appeasing the myriad of other Egyptian gods. I think that deep in His thinking was the reality of realizing that all of it was culture, but that he benefited from the praise of his people. And to give that praise to some God he did not know was preposterous. Except that the God of Israel was clearly demonstrating power that no Egyptian god or priest of an Egyptian temple could match.

God raised up Pharaoh, but this proud man had exalted himself. This was the human tendency towards pride, bent by wealth and power to incredible highs. All the power and wealth of ancient Egypt made Pharaoh a mythic figure. And he had raised himself to the absolute zenith of human achievement for his day. And God let him know that even the most powerful, most influential, proudest man on the planet could not stand against the will of God.

In the end, we remember the Exodus as God’s work, not Pharaoh’s day of defiance. God forewarned the Egyptians time and again, but it would take complete personal devastation before they would acknowledge Him. But God’s glory prevailed. He is proclaimed throughout the earth, while Egypt and all the power of the Pharaohs eventually dwindled down to be covered by desert sand.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,providence,achievement

Spirituality is not enough

Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Plead with the LORD to take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the LORD."

Exodus 8:8

Pharaoh was a spiritual man in a land that practiced a lot of spirituality. In fact, he was worshiped as a living god. But all that spiritual interest was not enough to save Egypt. God was giving the land of Egypt an unprecedented revelation of His power and purposes. And Pharaoh was blinded and hardened by his own brand of spirituality.

Each one of the plagues was meant to show the falseness of their idolatry. They worshiped the Nile and it turned into a stream of blood and death. They had a frog god. And frogs overran the land. Pharaoh was himself a god, but was powerless to stop any of the plagues that Israel’s true God brought upon the nation.

It is popular today in our culture to applaud “spirituality” as a good thing. But that alone will not save a person, neither does it provide character or promote virtue. Satan is more “spiritual” than any human on earth, and he is dead set against God and His work! So there has to be something more. We must be brought to encounter God. We must come to grips with who we are and how great and holy He is. It is only after that kind of humble worship of Him that we are in place to truly know Him. It is not just about displays of His power. Pharaoh saw God’s power like no other human on earth and STILL hardened his heart against God. Even when He submitted to God’s desires, He still regretted it, and then died fighting against God’s work. Human beings can know joy in surrender to God, and avoid the defeat of fighting against Him.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Exclusivity,Providence,Spirituality

The powers that be

But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take even this to heart.

Exodus 7:22-23

The great lesson from Exodus is that God is in control. And the last person to learn this the hardest way possible was Pharaoh. I have always found it odd that the magicians of Egypt would duplicate the water being turned to blood. It seems that Egyptian could dig wells as a new source of water. The magicians immediately showed Pharaoh they could do the same thing. However, what is telling is that they were absolutely powerless to undo the plague. They weren’t much help were they?

The power that confronted Moses was the power of a corrupt human heart. And human hearts will naturally defy God. They will deny Him outlandishly. This is as defiant as Richard Dawkins asserting that there “probably is no god, so get on with your life and stop worrying.” This does not offer much perspective. And it offers no solution to the plague of sin or the devastation of the inevitable judgment of conscience that all humans feel.

When the powers that be deny God, the reality is that God becomes more clearly in control. That is what we see in Exodus. Pharaoh holds on to his kingly authority only as long as God lets him. Eventually God will move so decisively that not even the most powerful human on earth can resist him.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Providence,Sin,Unbelief

Out of the frying pan…

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

Exodus 6:9

Things have gone from bad to worse from the point of view of leadership for Moses. He knew that deliverance for Israel was going to be a “hard sell”. All of his objections to the Lord involved the fact that he felt Israel would not believe him. And now, as God has given Moses a spiritual “pep talk” for the people, his fears are realized. Israel will not listen to him. Moses knew Pharaoh would resist. He was not prepared for Israel to resist.

Moses follows the same patter in Exodus 10:12. He spoke objections against God’s plan. He was disheartened as well. God patiently encouraged him to continue with his message to Israel and his confrontations with Pharaoh. He knew Israel had a broken spirit in the midst of unbearable labor and slavery. And Moses too was being broken.

Before God brings incredible victory, there is often unbearable loss. Sometimes we must know deep sorrow in order to receive inexplicable joy. That is what is going on at this point in the book of Exodus. Moses and Israel are working through the results of Pharaoh’s hard heart to God. And they are not responding to God with commitment to Him either. There are times when we fall out of the frying pan and into the fire. And it is when those bad to worse moments happen that our faith is tried the most.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Trial,Loss,Providence

Trouble

Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all."

Exodus 5:22-23

Two observations about Moses’ response to God in this first “crisis’ of leadership are noted today. First, Moses seems really focused on himself. The people he worried about leading were upset and turned on him when their first request resulted in more hardship from the Egyptians. God had warned Moses that Pharaoh would not be favorable at first (Exodus 4:21-23). But this did not stop Moses from turning the people’s accusations to God.

A second fact to notice is the meaning of what the ESV translates as “you have done evil”. This is theologically impossible, so we are left to debate what Moses’ complaint means. Was Moses being disrespectful at worst, or just theologically sloppy when he seemed to accuse God of being complicit in what was wrong? I don’t think so. The Hebrew word that is translated as “evil” in verse 22 is the same word that is translated as “trouble” in Exodus 5:19. The idea behind the word includes hardship. This softens the accusation considerably when we realize that God’s moral uprightness is not being questioned. But Moses is questioning God’s sovereignty. That is a big difference. Moses knows God brought this trouble in His plan. He also knows Pharaoh has brought trouble. The tension between God and the strongest ruler on earth will be driving subplot of the Exodus story.

So a good view of God needs to include a healthy perspective on trouble, difficulty, trial, and basically “the bad stuff” in our lives. It is one thing to see God as sovereign, with even difficulty under His control. It is another to accuse God of being unfair or bad for not eliminating struggles, difficulties, pains, and outrageous sins. I think Moses just questioned his experience, but did not lay moral blame on God.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Trial,Difficulty,Providence

Beyond Fears and Worries

Aaron spoke all the words that the LORD had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Exodus 4:30-31

God knew what He was doing in raising up the leadership for Israel to deliver them from the hard slavery of Egypt. Moses has offered every objection to God’s call. At every turn he felt inadequate, and really he feared that Israel would not listen to Him. He had some maturing to do… still. It was God’s call that was on him. How could He doubt that what God had called him to do could fail when God was behind every bit of it? God reassured him with miraculous signs to perform to convince Israel that God was behind their escape from Egypt. That should have been enough.

Moses objected to being God’s spokesman, complaining of his poor speaking skills. He asked God to send someone else, dangerously close to complete denial of God’s call upon him from the burning bush. God was angry at that point, and He told Moses He would help him by calling His brother Aaron to serve as a spokesman for and with him. God did not withdraw His call from Moses.

Moses reluctantly obeyed God’s call, but was still quite timid, begging leave from Jethro, his father-in-law with the innocent request to go visit his family. But Moses had been slack in his commitments. God again met Moses, this time in judgment, for his lack of obedience to the Law in circumcising his son. Moses’ wife has more respect by performing the act. But there is now schism in his household. She is resentful of Moses and his lack of obedience that nearly cost him his life.

Moses was a gifted man. But his human frailties had twisted the real potential. He had been rash. He had been an excuse-maker. He had been mediocre in spiritual obedience. But God was changing all of that in Him. Clearly God was going to deliver people. And He was using Moses and Aaron, warped and wounded as they were, to accomplish His work.

What strikes me most in this passage is the fear of Moses. I think that he was so worried about the response of Israel to himself, that he failed to grasp the significance of God’s call. Here he is, standing before a supernaturally burning bush, talking with the God of all the universe, the Creator, the God of Abraham, and he can only express how he feels about how Israel would respond to him. He is myopic. God is broadening his vision. And when the first message was delivered to the elder of Israel, they responded just as God knew they would: they believed, and they were thankful and worshipful that God was aware of their pain and ready to do something about it.

What Moses feared did not happen. His objections were totally unfounded because the decrees of God have a power to them that is unfathomable to human strategies and plans. What Moses worried about was never going to happen (at least at this point in the story). Later, Israel would struggle, and by that time Moses will have grown into a confident man of faith. For now, Israel is ready. God had seen to that. God had prepared a leader, and a people to be led by Moses.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Fear,Worry,Providence

How God makes a leader

When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

Exodus 2:10

God uses even the worst actions of an evil tyrant to His advantage in raising up a leader. God took a man’s lifetime to develop Moses. And He used the very Egyptian system that oppressed Israel to raise up the leader to deliver them. Moses was providentially developed over the course of his lifetime to become the deliverer of the Exodus.

God used the Pharaoh’s own daughter to save Moses from the infanticide order that threatened all young Jewish males. You have to think that the Jews resisted this everywhere they could. I am sure Moses’ parents were not the only ones desperately trying to hide a male child from watching Egyptian eyes. Eventually in desperation, his mother hid him in the floating baby boat in the Nile, where he was discovered by the very daughter of the king, embraced as a human whose life was precious, and saved from his fate by the love of the enemy! This is the way God works.

Then Moses was handed over to Pharaoh’s own daughter and raised as her son in the finery of Egyptian royalty. He was given the best education, raised to be a prince, and became so identified with the culture that when he ran into Midian after murdering a cruel taskmaster, he is described as an Egyptian. He was the only Jew who could confront Pharaoh in his own courts, and God had made him just for that opportunity.

But first, God had years of desert living ahead for Moses. He would learn to lead by shepherding flocks, just like Israel had done before coming to Egypt. He would survive the desert and learn to teach others to do so. His impulsiveness would slowly fade in the life of a gentle shepherd in hiding… until God would call him to His purpose, and then all the experiences would come together in God’s providence. And this all took an extraordinary amount of time. An entire generation was slowly waiting, praying to God, groaning in need and waiting.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Moses,Providence

Multiplication in opposition

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

Exodus 1:13-14

The book of Exodus is about two very clear things: 1) God’s ability to deliver people and 2) God’s ability to raise up leadership among His people. In order for those two realities to be seen, there must be circumstances of dependence upon God. Chapter 1 sets the scene for the reader. And it is a scene of definitive need. Yet, God is in control.

Israel had gone to Egypt under God’s plan. The severe middle eastern famine had driven Jacob and his sons there. God had prepared them for this by sending Joseph ahead of them, putting him in charge of the land and food management, and taking care of His people. But then a generation changed. And eventually a pharaoh arose who did not remember Israel’s past with Egypt. And fear and ethnic prejudices began to control Egyptian policy. The result was oppression for God’s people. They became slaves. This eventually escalated to a governmental policy of control, eventually leading to a decree of infanticide for Hebrew male children. This was bad. The official policy toward Israel was slavery, persecution, and government mandated infanticide. Yet God sovereignly allowed His people to continue multiplying.

In the midst of these circumstances and despite these circumstances God began to work. He took forty years to begin to deliver Israel. Seems like a slow process, but it was God’s plan and wisdom and not human impatience. The situation lasted at least two generations. And it would begin in the worst circumstances. But deliverance would come through a plan God devised. He would show Himself strong to His people, through a leader He had prepared, to a people who would resist Him. But God always delivers on His promises.

Technorati Tags: Exodus,Persecution,Providence,Sovereignty

God paints slowly.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Genesis 50:20

Theologically, trying to reconcile how evil and good can co-exist with God's sovereignty is called "the problem of evil". I find it interesting that one of the earliest recorded struggles with this problem is recorded for us in the life of Joseph. And he has absolutely no tension over the question. His answer is straightforward to his brothers: what you meant for evil against me, God meant for good to save many. He does not diminish the responsibility of His brothers for their actions which were sinful. He also does not diminish the sovereign rule of God to use even those circumstances for His glory.

We self-centered Americans have a thing or two to learn from the life of Joseph. We expect a cushy life with all the amenities. That is one reason why prosperity theology and IHOP weirdness abounds in the current evangelical climate in America. It is twisted. It has no answer to the problem of evil because it is dualism. Good things can only be under God's control. Bad things can only be under the devil's control. If something difficult comes my way, God cannot be in it.

But that is not the case in scripture. God disciplines the sons He loves. God intervenes and moves beyond even the worst that humans do to each other in order to bring about His purposes. We may feel torn at the moment. I am sure Joseph struggled with his share of unhappiness as a slave, as a prisoner, or as a captive in a foreign land. But God used every one of those experiences to forge a nation and save Israel. God kept His covenant with Abraham's descendents through the trials of one young man.

God will go to great lengths in the course of a human life to show Himself. Providence takes time. It is not an instant photo kind of experience. It develops slowly, painted by the Master Artisan with slow and deliberate strokes, working on a torn canvas at times, but always with a beautiful result that shows the genius of a wise and knowing God.

Technorati Tags: Joseph. Providence. Problem of Evil

Take Me to Egypt

There are a lot of personal struggles behind my reflections on this passage. Let’s just say God has me in a place right now where I am powerless (I don’t like that feeling) and must trust Him to show Himself strong and provide comfort and strength not only for myself, but for others I care about. It is not easy to have circumstances break your routine. I think I see in Jacob some of what I should be. It is easy to stay in the Promised Land and starve. It is tougher to let God lead you to a strange land to be fed there.

Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.
Genesis 47:27

Take me to Egypt
to the foreign land
with strange people
and circumstances
that I can't understand

if in Egypt
I will find health
and blessing beyond
my present famine
and thrive in Your wealth

then take me there
by what means You choose
and in Your time I know
that what I will gain from You
will be worth the routine I lose

and temporary Egypt
may be just the place
where finally I find comfort
and health and food again
as mercy shines in Your grace

Take me to Egypt
and let me grow
beyond my comfortable home
and my desires and plans
by faith, Your grace I'll know.

Technorati Tags: Jacob,Trust,Guidance,Poetry

Enough guidance for the next few steps.

And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here am I."  Then he said, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation."
Genesis 46:2-3

This chapter recounts a father/son reunion that has been a lifetime in the making. And it involved trusting God above all else. Jacob is at this time old and travel was a difficult proposition. His sons return to him with an official government delegation from Egypt with news that Joseph is alive and well. Jacob embraces a new hope, and makes the decision to travel to see his lost son once before he dies. Interestingly, there is  no anger at the other sons for their actions toward Joseph years before. There is just joy at the reunion.

And God meets Jacob along the way assuring him that he would make the journey and see his son. He assured him that it was in Egypt that his clan would grow to become a great nation. This was the plan of God all along. Of course, the story would eventually include hardship and slavery, but in God's grand tapestry, that would be used to draw a people to Him. For now, it was enough for Jacob to act in faith, trust God for the strength for the journey, prepare for the emotional reunion, and believe that his life would end in Egypt at God's design.

God rarely lets us in on all the ins and outs of His plans. We get glimpse to give us hope and that is enough to keep faith burning in our hearts. If we knew every nuance and every bump along the path, we might shrink back. But faith is there for us, as we need it, in incredible supply, from a God Who cannot exhaust His love and grace. 

Technorati Tags: Guidance,Providence,Jacob

Joy woven from sorrow.

And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 45:7-8

I believe that the tears of joy that Joseph wept at his "unveiling" to his brothers came from two sources. The first was the joy in seeing the change that was occurring as circumstances and age began to humble his brothers. This was for him a moving moment, considering that he had endured slave status, had been falsely imprisoned and forgotten there, and had been exalted not only to Pharaoh's court, but to chief administrator of the surplus wealth of Egypt. His life was an emotional rollercoaster! This was just another part of the ride.

But the second source of the tears of joy is pure spiritual insight. Joseph has managed to slowly stitch together how the providence of God has cared for him and his family. This is overwhelming. God used the most horrendous things that happened to an innocent young man for His glory and the salvation of many souls. Think about all the bad actions God managed to weave around in order to sovereignly provide for His covenant with Israel. Joseph was favored unfairly by his dad, creating family strife. God gives the young man revelatory dreams to help him cope and serve notice to the family of a future for him. Joseph has no control over his brothers' disdain. He is sold into slavery, and God sends him to the captain of the Pharaoh of Egypt where he excels. He is falsely accused of sexual assault, God makes sure that because of Potiphar's status, Joseph ends up in a royal prison where he eventually interprets the dreams of two members of Pharaoh's court. Then God uses the dreams of Pharaoh to pull Joseph from the pit to the position of prime minister over all of ancient Egypt in one day. God uses the famine to bring Joseph's family back to him, where he serves in power, and the dreams of a boy are brought to fruition for the glory of the God of the covenant.

God's providence is beautiful. It brings joy. It moves us with emotion. It must, for when we see the wisdom of His ways, we see His love, His holiness, His justice, and His power. All of that is condensed down to this intense moment that Joseph has with His brothers. All that they had done that was bad, had somehow been turned by God for His purposes. He cannot change. He will not be undone by human will, no matter how bad we sin. And Joseph knew this. It was literally the story of His life.

Technorati Tags: Joseph,Sovereignty,Providence,Joy

Change of Heart.

For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.' Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.
Genesis 44:32-34

Changed hearts are seen in Judah's appeal. The ESV Study Bible describes the change succinctly:
"Building on what he has already said, Judah petitions Joseph to let Benjamin return to his father in Canaan in order to prevent him from dying of grief at the loss of a second son. To make this possible, Judah offers to take Benjamin's place and become Joseph's slave (Gen. 44:33). For Judah, this would be preferable to witnessing his father's distress if Benjamin remained in Egypt (Gen. 44:34). The selfless attitude of Judah stands in sharp contrast to what he previously displayed when arguing that Joseph should be sold into slavery (see Genesis 37:26-27). On that occasion, Judah cared little about the impact that this would have on his father."

God has used the plans of Joseph to test his brothers in such a way as to prove their character and convince Joseph that there was real change that had gone on in them since his separation from him. Witnessing Judah's appeal made Joseph aware of what was happening in the mean hearts of his brothers. They had changed. The biggest evidence has to do with their relationship with Israel, their father. They had little regard for how Joseph's faked death would affect him. In fact, part of what they did in selling Joseph into slavery was meant to get back at their father's partiality to him. But know, as they have lived with their father's grief over many years, they are hurting for the old man. Judah's intervention and offer of himself in Benjamin's place shows that they had grown to care for their family, their father, and his feelings.

This represented everything that Joseph longed to see in them. And it will set the scene for what will occur in the final chapters of Genesis, where a happy family reunion is made. It is that sort of real-life drama that makes this book so interesting and compelling to read. It is rooted in who people are as they relate to God and one another. And the tale of Joseph is a wonderful and rich tapestry of human experience.

Technorati Tags: Joseph,Repentance,Change,Providence

Another Egyptian Expedition

So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.
Genesis 43:15

This is now the second time in the midst of the seven year famine in which Joseph's family has been forced to go to Egypt and purchase grain. They must stand before their brother again. This time they are in a different place. They have learned a measure of honesty by bringing with them double the price of the grain in order to return to Joseph his refund on their first purchase. And they must bring Joseph's brother Benjamin with them as well. All in all, it is again an unnerving business trip ahead of them.

They are treated with much honor on this second excursion into Egypt. Joseph receives them into his own home. He prepares a feast for them. Benjamin is honored with five times the portion of any of the others, even as they all eat and drink and party like never before. They must have felt very strange to have this Egyptian governor take such notice of them.

God's providence is slowly bringing to the forefront changes in character and commitment within Jacob's sons. They offer to repay for the first purchase of grain... something that Joseph refuses to accept, telling them that God somehow returned their money to them. There are so many clues coming to them that this is Joseph, yet they remain in ignorance of what is really going on. I believe it is to show us the change taking place in them as they now must deal with circumstances beyond their limited control. They will see the work of sovereign God in the story when it all comes out!

Technorati Tags: Joseph,Sovereignty,Providence

Dream to Reality

Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.
Genesis 42:6

The beginning of seeing a dream come true for Joseph has got to be a surreal experience. I am sure that he had resigned himself to his new political leadership in Egypt. There is a matter-of-fact sort of way in which the text talks about the exercise of his political power. He was the governor charged with the distribution of Egypt's carefully stored grain. And we already know from the text that he was a gifted planner and administrator. I think he thoroughly enjoyed the work. But the day came when unexpectedly the brothers who sold him into slavery show up in obedience to him.

God seems to use this event to get their attention. For the first time, we hear them banter around about their treatment of Joseph. There appear to be serious regrets. Physical famine, and the temporary incarceration of the brothers puts them in a different, more spiritual, frame of mind. And Joseph is seeing his boyhood vision from God begin to come into reality.

So it is with God's providential work. God's work is worth waiting for. God uses all the events in our lives, even the difficulties and pains, to bring about bigger purposes than we can see at the moment. That is the overwhelming spiritual truth that marked the life of Joseph and the sons of Israel. And that is still very much the reality of how God works today!

Technorati Tags: Joseph,Providence