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

GENESIS 31-40

Well, I took my laptop to Church Sunday Morning and didn't return it until Monday morning, so... I didn't get to blog.  Now I have two to do today.  It's okay, because I have the verses marked that I want to share.  I will put these thoughts into this blog and then I'll write another for today as well.  Hopefully I can get on some kind of schedule.  I'm still trying to fit exercise into my schedule to help lower my blood sugar.  I'm not taking medicine for Diabetes yet, but I will if it I can't get it down with exercise.   Plus, I'd like to get in shape as well.  Here are the jewels I want to share from the goldmine of God's Holy Book:

1) NOT GOOD OR BAD- In Genesis 31:24,29, Laban is running after Jacob who has left with his family and cattle after serving Laban for thirty years.  He left without warning because he knew he had lost favor with his father-in-law because God had blessed Jacob with the cattle and increase that once was Laban's.  In verse 24, God says: "Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad."  and then again in verse 29, Laban tells Jacob that God told him:  "Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad."  At first glance it would seem that God is saying not to speak evil to Jacob.  But, as you look at it again, it says:  "good or bad".  God said to not speak to him any good or any bad.  Now the question is.... why?  Why could he not speak anything good?  Well, because God had already told Jacob what to do.  (vs. 13) "now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred."  Jacob knew what God said, but he also knew he had to face Esau his brother.  Had Laban spoken "good" to Jacob, he might have turned around and went back to Syria with Laban, and all would have been well with him and his father-in-law.... but not with God.  When the Bible says not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, it doesn't mean their counsel is always "ungodly".  It means that they are not followers of Jesus Christ and thus, they are ungodly and their counsel, "good or bad", is not coming from a spiritual, biblical source.  So, this is why God told Laban not to speak "good or bad" to Jacob.  Profound isn't it? 

2) FAMILY! In Genesis 33:4 we read this amazing passage:  "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him:  and they wept."  This was the reunion of Jacob and Esau.  It certainly was not what Jacob expected, but after all..... they are FAMILY!!  Family overlooks faults.  Family knows uncle Henry is odd... but they love him anyway.  Family avoids issues that cause division, they are kind even when they adamantly disagree, but they don't bring up their disagreements, they bring up their similarities.  They might not like each other a whole lot when they are in their own homes, but put them together, and they act like long lost loved ones.  Now, that's family.  Esau made some mistakes and so did Jacob, but Esau the oldest steps up to the plate and gives Jacob a big manly hug, and a sloppy kiss on the cheek, and weeps for his long lost brother who has returned.  Esau shows us all what FAMILY means.  I decided that based on this... I like Esau.  For all of his poor decisions, he still remembers Jacob (the usurper, the deceiver), and welcomes him back to the FAMILY!  I like that.  Friend... treat your family the same way!!

3) CLEAN UP! In Genesis 35:2, God tells Jacob to clean up his household.  In verse 1, we read:  "Arise, go up to Bethel,".  There God instructs Jacob to build an altar where he first made his vow to God.  But, before he goes with his family, God gives him instructions in verse two:  "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:"  Now, we know it was Rachel that was still keeping those idols that she took from her father's household.  They hadn't help her very much and God is tired of looking at them.  God wants us cleaned up too.  Not to save us... He saves us when we are still filthy in sin, but even though we are still sinners, God wants us to "clean up".  Put away the things that would steal our hearts away from God.  Clean up our houses, clean up our lives, clean up our act, get a hold of the spiritual disinfectant of God's Word, and let it scrub you up till you have been cleaned up.  "Now are you clean through the Words that I have spoken to you."  Something we have to work on all of the time.

Well, I hope these thoughts are a blessing.  I sure enjoy them!  May God bless you richly! 

Pastor Mike Mutchler