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Scripture for the day: Genesis 45:4-8 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.”
Thought for the day: I heard a man (a retired minister from one of the mainline denominations actually) speak the other day and he talked of the arrogance we often display by trying to talk about how God works. I had to agree with the man in that respect. Now, he was speaking in defense of his opinion that the stories of the Bible shouldn’t be taken as truth and in that he spoke as one deluded by his own sense of self-importance (kind of arrogant, don’t you think?). My thought is though, that we can become very possessive of our own actions and the reasons for them, as if we, by our own wisdom, planning and forethought, can bring about the things of God on this earth. What utter arrogance! God has chosen, in His infinite wisdom and for reasons unfathomable by the most educated of human beings, to allow us a place of service in His scheme of things. And we, in our infinite lack of wisdom, run about as if we were major players in the redemption of the universe and as if the Lord couldn’t do it without us.
Look at the story behind our scripture for the day. Jacob (Israel) thought he was bringing up his boys to be good servants of God and that, right where they were, the Lord would fulfill His promises to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham. The boys thought they were something special because they’d always been told they were. They thought they were getting rid of a troublesome upstart teenager who constantly bragged about how important he was and how they would all bow down to him someday. They thought they decided to put him in a pit. Judah, in pulling Joseph out and selling him to the Egyptians, thought he was making a wise decision and would profit from getting rid of his little brother. They all thought when they dipped his robe in blood and took it to his father as ‘proof’ of his death, that troublesome Joseph was a thorn in their sides no more. And what of Joseph himself?
Joseph had no idea at first what was going on. He thought he’d been betrayed. He thought he’d been sold into slavery and that would be the end of life as he’d known it. He couldn’t begin to fathom the reasoning behind his having been sold to the Egyptians, especially in light of the dreams he’d had about becoming the leader of his family. And can you imagine how he must have felt when he ended up in Pharaoh’s dungeon? How could this possibly be part of God’s plan for his life? Where were the promises he’d seen in his dreams? Where were the brothers, all bowing down in his presence? Where was the God who’d put all these dreams and thoughts in his head in the first place?
Now jump ahead to Genesis 45. Joseph has been elevated to second in command behind Pharaoh alone. He’s in charge of all that happens in Egypt and has come face to face with the brothers who sold him into slavery all those years before (remember, he may be second to Pharaoh, but there’s nothing in the Bible that says he wasn’t still a slave and still at the mercy of Pharaoh). Can you imagine what it must have been like when Joseph suddenly realized that it was God who’d engineered every last circumstance to bring each of them to the place where Joseph’s dreams, dreams that God Himself had given him, to pass? What an “aha!” moment that must have been. And how relieved the brothers must have been!
Here’s the point – it’s God’s plan, God’s methods, God’s timing and God’s results. He’s allowing us to be a (very, very small) part of it all. Can we learn from Joseph to simply allow God to have His way, to trust that He knows what He’s doing and that things will truly turn out for the best if we simply get out of the way and allow Him to work it out.
Now go take on your world. – Bill