Month: September 2022

Genesis 45;5, 7 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life….And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Faith in God, trust in His Providence, believing His Promise, and resting in His Word is the joyful response to the Lord’s working in our lives. The Word says, ”All things work together for good to them that love God, and are called according to his purpose.” God is always good; God’s will is always gracious; God’s Word will accomplish that which He purposes. Our response: believe the promise.

Pray and believe: ”Thy will be done on earth (in my life).” Then walk away and go about life happy, rejoicing in the Lord always. This simple faith response by Joseph was able to sustain him through all his trials. Then with hindsight he could see God’s Plan. God preserved life and the posterity of the Seed of Promise. In spite of our sinful, selfish, and rebellious attempts to thwart God’s good and gracious will, He gave us His Son so we could have Life. ”God knows how to write straight on crooked lines [Martin Luther].” We are crooked, but God is straight.

Therefore, we may respond to God’s grace by not grieving or despairing or being depressed because of sin and failure. Depression has been defined as being angry with oneself. The Spirit comes through the Gospel to sooth the grieving and lift the depressed. Believe the gospel of a God who is good.

Genesis 44:16 And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.

Judah had sworn an oath to his father. Now he speaks for the brothers, expressing sorrow for their sins, and begging for mercy. He does know what to say; he has no excuses; they are caught; they can’t claim innocence. It is like what happened to Job: after lengthy protestation of innocence, when God confronts him and speaks to him, he shuts his mouth and repents in dust and ashes [Job 42:6].

When the Lord reveals Himself to us with words of Law and Gospel, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinfulness and of God’s righteousness for us; we are dumbstruck and penitent. Like Judah and Job, we have no recourse but to beg the Lord’s mercy.

When Judah said, ”God has found out our sin,” he did not mean that God just learned about it for the first time. He meant: I found out; God showed me my sin and convicted me of my guilt. God dragged up the sin from my soul and I saw myself for the sinner I really am. The Spirit will use the Word of God and my conscience to condemn me and cause me to beg for mercy. Praise the Lord! He grants mercy and forgives for the sake of Jesus Christ. Thank God, He found me out. My response: I repent and believe the Gospel.

Genesis 42:37; 43:8,9 And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again…. And Judah said unto his father, Send the lad with me…I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever.

The guilt of the brothers was heavy, and their penitence was genuine, but it remained to be proven that there was a real change of heart. Jacob would not let them go back to Egypt with Benjamin to buy more grain and rescue Simeon. So Reuben swore on the life of his two sons that he would bring Benjamin back if Jacob would let him go. Jacob refused.

Then a couple of years later, when the grain they had gotten the first time was gone, they begged their father again to take Benjamin to Egypt. This time Judah swore on his own life that he would bring Benjamin back. Jacob relented. God saw to it that the famine was so severe that there wasn’t much choice. They went back with Benjamin and double the money.

In God’s Providence, the brothers, represented by Reuben and Judah, bore fruits worthy of repentance. This was not a penance to earn restoration, but it was a natural result of genuine penitence and faith. To repent is to change one’s mind, make amends, and restore what was damaged by the sin. Zaccheus was an example of a sinner who was so overjoyed with Jesus that he restored fourfold what he had stolen. Daily repentance produces a fresh start, a new life, and a genuine desire to love God and neighbor. Proving penitence is a healthy response to grace.

Genesis 42:21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.

The brothers had been living with guilt for a long time now, perhaps 15 years, but now, because of what Joseph was asking them to do, they were convicted of their sin and guilt. They confessed, at least to one another. They didn’t bring Benjamin on their first trip to Egypt for grain because Jacob kept him home. He loved the other son of Rachel and wanted to protect him. Joseph tested them, and God convicted them, by demanding that they go home and bring Benjamin back to Egypt.

Now they were in trouble: their father forbade them to take Benjamin, but after two years the food ran out, and so they all had no choice. The distress caused them see their their guilt after all these years. Joseph could understand their language, and he was moved to tears when he heard their confession. This shows the power of confession and absolution. Joseph would forgive them, but they still had to make good on their word and prove they were really changed.

Of course, their confession should have taken place years ago, but they carried the burden of guilt all these years. Distress has a way of bringing out the guilt, so we can see our sin and repent. The Word and the Spirit has a way of bringing us to repentance and faith in the Gospel through life’s troubles. Thankfully, we don’t have to wait so long, for we live in daily repentance in private and weekly confession in church. We remember Baptism daily and take Communion weekly. Faithful church attendance keeps life from getting out of hand. Let God convict of sin and lift guilt often. The refrain of life is this: ”I am guilty. Be merciful to me.”

Genesis 41:51, 52 And Joseph called the name of his firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

The naming of children in the OT was always significant of some meaning, often about something going on at the time of birth or about hopes for the future. In the case of Joseph’s children born in Egypt, he used the naming of his sons to express his thanksgiving for what the Lord has done for him in the recent past. His response to God blessing him with sons was faith in and thanks to his faithful God.

Manasseh sounds like the Hebrew word for making to forget. God had blessed him so much and lifted him so high that the love, grace and goodness of God was so overwhelming so as to drown out past sorrows and troubles. And the blessing of God was so powerful so as to cause him to forget past offenses and injustices. When we hear the Gospel of forgiveness and grace it causes us, too, to forget all past (and even future) sins and trespasses done by us and to us. Guilt and Grudges are forgiven and forgotten. And the Good News is: God forgets!

Ephraim sounds like the Hebrew word for making fruitful. He praises God for His blessing and for making him fruitful in the land of his affliction. He acknowledges that it was God, not himself, that made him useful and productive through slavery and imprisonment. And, because God did all this for him he was able and willing to forgive, save, and restore his brothers. We also are blessed and made fruitful in the land of our affliction (the world), enslaved to sin and imprisoned by death and the devil. But our Lord intervened, freed us, and set us on high with Christ. Therefore, we give God thanks and praise.

Genesis 41:16 And Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, It is not in me; God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.

Joseph had the simple humility and faith to respond to Pharaoh by giving God the glory, and not taking credit himself and receiving praise for his wisdom and ability to interpret dreams. Pharaoh had said, ”I heard that you can interpret a dream.” Joseph replied, ”It is not in me; God shall give an answer in peace.” His natural human pride would have gladly accepted the honor: ”Yes, I’m good. I am special; notice me.” Instead, he humbly believed and said, ”No, God is good; I am only a receiver.”

The smart retort goes like this: It’s not about you. The natural, self-centered, human (and sinful) tendency is to think it’s all about me, it’s all in me, it’s all by me. The truth is simpler, but harder: everything is about God. Life is in God, salvation is by God, all gifts are from God. If the Lord has done it all and given it all, if He is the author and the finisher of my life and salvation, and if He has done everything that is good, then it is all about God. Jesus is everything and I am nothing. And God is the expert at making something out of nothing (ex nihilo). As He did at Creation so also He did at the New Creation, my new life.

If this is true, and we humbly believe it like Joseph, then our entire life becomes one of constant thanksgiving, which leads to joy and peace. Life is different when we believe like Joseph: God is good, and I am not!

Genesis 39:8, 9 But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he has to my hand; There is none greater in this than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

The God-fearing boy, Joseph, responded righteously to the temptation of Potiphar’s wife to lie with her. He refused. He just said, ”No!” This was not an easy thing for a young man to do, but God was ”with Joseph” to give him strength to resist temptation. Certainly, he could have gotten away with it without anyone knowing, but the God who was with him directed his conscience to the right response.

If we are willing to ”let God,” then God is willing to equip us with the strength to overcome. Joseph knew the will of God, for he knew God. What he didn’t know was that his refusal would get him put in prison, and that events there would place him in a position of power in Pharoah’s court. This course of events would end up saving God’s people and keeping alive the Promised Seed. He feared and trusted God, and somehow he believed that in God’s Providence that everything would work together for good.

Joseph did not see adultery as a victimless crime, but it would be a violent offense against her husband, his master, not to mention the harm done to the souls of the two sinners themselves. He couldn’t do this ”great wickedness” against the people involved, but, especially, the ultimate motivation was that it would be a ”sin against God.” Righteous response comes from a person who truly ”fears and loves God.”

Genesis 38:9, 10 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also.

“The seed” was important to the Lord, for in the seed resided The Promise. The promise was that from the seed of Judah (and Jacob and Isaac and Abraham) would come The Seed who was promised to Adam and to Abraham; that Seed would crush the head of the Enemy who brought sin and death; that Seed would be a blessing to the nations; that Seed would be Jesus of Nazareth, the seed of the woman and the Son of God, the Savior who would bring people back to the Kingdom.

For this reason the seed of Onan, son of Judah, was important: it was the Love of God for all people. Onan spurned the Love of God, which was in the promise of the seed. The Lord was so displeased with Onan that He killed him. Unbelief and rejection of God’s promise is a serious matter. Now the rest of God’s people know that, too: ”Do not displease the Lord by making light of the Gospel!”

For some reason we don’t know, God had slain Er, Judah’s oldest son. The next brother, Onan, was told to go in to the widow, Tamar. Legally, the son born to the widow receives the name and inheritance of the dead brother. Onan refused to do that for whatever sinful reason, thereby despising the Word of God.

Onan possibly did not know about the seed promise, but he should have. Whether he rejected God intentionally or in ignorance, God held him responsible, and He killed him. Harsh? Yes, to a human mind, but to the Lord it was a capital offense, like abortion. This ”spilling” was crucifying afresh the Son of God. Watch out!

Genesis 37:8, 11 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words….And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying.

The sin that caused this jealous situation may have been with Jacob, who loved one wife over the other and favored her son over his other sons. He gave Joseph a coat, but not the others. They hated him for that. Then they hated him yet more when he told them about dreams God had given him where all the brothers bowed down to him.

Envy led to hate, and hate led to selling into slavery, almost murder. ”They conspired against him to kill him [v. 18].” Instead, they sold him into slavery and he ended up in Egypt. The brothers were envious already, but what really set them off was the dream from God. Envy, pride, and anger blinded them from responding favorably to God’s Word. Joseph contributed to the tension by giving a bad report and by bragging of his dream. Sin is rampant in this story, but God eventually turned it all out for good.

Jacob said, ”I have a favorite.” Joseph said, “God told me.” The brothers said, ”Who do you think you are?” God said, ”I work all things together for good.” Sin causes untold misery. God causes unspeakable good.

In hindsight Joseph could see and say, ”You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good [Genesis 50:20].” Even the brothers would come to see that ”bowing before Joseph” meant a good thing. No one sees during a time of trouble and temptation that God is always good and has a purpose. Since our vision is limited, the Lord must grant faith to see. Sin, Satan, and Self prevent us from responding with faith, thanks, and worship. Unbelief in God’s goodness is the human response that brings sin and death. Faith is the response that sees God’s good hand in everything.

Genesis 37:1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

Jacob was finally settled and dwelling in the Land promised to Abraham. Jacob’s response to the Covenant God made with Abraham and Isaac, and with Jacob, was faith in the promise. It took several centuries before the children of Israel (Jacob) would actually possess the Promised Land and the promise would be fulfilled. Meanwhile, while waiting and believing, Jacob acted as if the promise were already true by dwelling in the Land of Promise, although it was not yet given by sight. Faith is the response indicated by ”Dwelling.”

On account of Jesus, God has promised us a Kingdom (the Land), eternal in the heavens. We do not yet possess it by sight, and won’t until Jesus returns. However, we do possess it by faith here, now, on earth. Faith, granted by the Spirit through the Gospel, receives the promised Kingdom. ”It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” ”The kingdom of God is within you.” We have eternal life. Heaven is in the heart. We have already received what is not yet realized. Indeed, we “dwell in the land.”

We recognize that we are ”strangers” in the world in which we are presently dwelling on earth; but heaven is our home. Therefore, we seek first the kingdom of God, and we seek the things that are above. There is another land, another kingdom, another world, another city, another home; and it is in us, as close to us as the human spirit, in which the Spirit of God dwells and rules. Live there!