Monday, September 5, 2011

GENESIS 41-50

Well, it's Monday morning!  On Sunday morning, I did Saturday's blog.  Today I did Sunday's blog.  Now, again today, I'm doing Monday's blog.  Playing catch up.  Not a fun game, but still catching up.  I enjoy the sharing of these little nuggets I find each day, but it just takes me longer to put them down that a very fast typist would do.  Anyway, I enjoy developing the simple thought into something that speaks to my heart.  Hope you enjoy it as well.  Here are some thoughts from my heart to yours:

1) GOD HATH SHOWN- When I read this, it jumped out at me and I started thinking about it and saw something that I had never thought about before.  In Genesis 41:25, Joseph is telling Pharaoh about his dream and he makes this statement:  "God hath shown Pharaoh what he is about to do."  Then it hit me... God has done this all throughout the Bible.  God warns people about what is coming, long before it comes.  That is the whole message about prophecy.  God told Adam what would happen IF...; God told Noah what was coming and how to prepare for it;  God spoke to Joseph about how his life would end up; God just over and over and over shares with men what God is about to do.  Don't we have a wonderful God?  Yes, we do!! 

2) THE GREAT DELIVERER- In Genesis 41:57 it reads:  "And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn;  because that the famine was so sore in all lands."  God used Joseph to be the great deliverer.  I have said before that apart from Jesus Christ, God used Joseph to spare more people that anyone else in History!  He was put there to spare the righteous seed of Judah who actually sold him into slavery!  Because it would be through the lineage of Judah that Christ would be born to save us from our sins.  But in the process of God orchestrating that, Joseph was used to spare the rest of his brethren, his father, his new land of Egypt, and .... all of the countries of the world!!  Now, most countries could last out a short famine, but no country puts away seven years worth of grain!!  No, they would have all perished, but God raised up a young man from prison to save the world.  Wow!  What a God!!

3) TESTED!  Yes, we are tested.  God has always put His children to the test.  Noah was told about the flood over 100 years before it happened.  Abraham was told he was to be the father of a great nation, 25 years before he had Isaac.  Jacob was finally married at 40, but was 60 before his children were born.  Joseph was in slavery or prison for 13 years before God raised him up in Egypt.  Joseph's brothers were tested by Joseph and they had to pass his tests, and they did! (This is found in Genesis 42 & 43, and is where I got the thought from.)  Moses waited 40 years on the backside of the dessert before God called him to lead Israel out of bondage.  Pharaoh was tested by 10 plagues, and he failed all of his tests.  We too are tested and testing takes time.  Let God work in our lives, trust implicitly in Him, and we will pass the tests that God sends our way.  Testing takes place before advancement!  It just works that way, so let us resolve to pass the tests!!

4) GRACIOUS- Every Pharaoh was not good, but the one that Joseph worked under was a jewel of a leader.  When Joseph's family came to live in Egypt, he asked them their occupation.  The Egyptians hated shepherds and sheep, but Jacob answered that he and his boys were shepherds, even though Joseph himself had told him to say they were cattlemen.  What a shock to have dreaded shepherds before Pharaoh, but... notice how gracious Pharaoh was with Jacob.  In Genesis 47:5,6, Pharaoh says:  "And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee:  The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell:  and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle."   Do you see how gracious Pharaoh was with Joseph's family.  We as Christians should be gracious to everyone.  Though "every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians."  (Gen. 46:34)  Pharaoh was gracious to those others would have despised.  What a lesson we can learn from this fine, gracious leader of Egypt.  Let us be gracious Christians!

Well, this is my second blog of the day, but I hope it was a blessing to you as it was to me.  May God bless you my friend.   Pastor Mike Mutchler


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