Today, we conclude our study of Genesis. Thank you for reading along. I love being in God’s Word, but some days I struggle with other commitments. Having you all here provides me that encouragement and responsibility to always carve out that time. When I don’t, when I let the world encroach upon my time, I feel a disconnect and my life can get sidetracked.
What a powerful set of chapters to end this opening book with.
God Goes Beyond
First, we read in Genesis 48:11, Joseph stating a truth I know often: God not only our meets our needs, He exceeds them.
Israel states, “I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children, too.” (Gen 48:11, NIV)
Many years ago, I was publishing Tucson Parent Magazine, and I had to close that down. Print advertising was being replaced by the internet and since that was our source of revenue, it was no longer sustainable.
At the time, I felt God was letting me fail, even though I knew He was always with me. Instead, I have learned He was moving me to a company where I have ministered to others, supported myself beyond any expectation I had for the magazine, and for over two decades I’ve been able to grow in my walk with Him.
God always has something better in store for us than we can imagine.
God’s plan is always best
In 48:14, we read how Israel crossed his arms and blessed Ephraim instead of Manasseh. This follows a pattern we had seen earlier with Isaac and Jacob, of the firstborn not getting the blessing. This time was not through trickery as it had been before.
God gave us his first covenant. That is the Law, which we will learn more about in our next book, Exodus. But, it was the second covenant, that of grace through Jesus, that is better.
In verse 18-19 Joseph challenges his father for doing this and we learn it is the intended outcome. The second will be greater than the first.
Then, tying off this idea, we read in 49:8-10 that Judah will be the line to which the brothers will praise. Jesus descends from the line of Judah. He is the lion of Judah, which is reflected in these verses.
This is important for several reasons included, as we see in 49:18 that they are looking for deliverance from the Lord.
Jesus is our deliverer
Then we read about a comparative reference to Jesus and how people killed Him for our transgressions. In 50:20, Joseph forgives his brothers for trying to kill him and selling him into slavery. He says what they intended for harm, God used for good.
When Jesus died, the crowd thought they were stopping His ministry. Instead, He was laying down His life because He knew it was the only way He could deliver all of us.
Sin holds us all as slaves until we place our faith in that sacrifice Jesus made. This was all foreshadowed through this story of Joseph.
I pray you will recognize how often we have harm done against us. We need to forgive those people who intend harm to us, trusting that God will use that for His glory.
