We are halfway through the first month of the year and we only have two days left in the Book of Genesis. May God grant me the words and the pace of this reading to be to your liking.
Today we read chapters 45-47.
God has a plan
We’ve read how Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him, but sold him into slavery. Through the incident with Potiphar’s wife, he goes to prison, but this exposes the talent God had given him.
God always has a better plan for us than we do. We think small; our fears and insecurities limit us. Because of obligations and responsibilities, we hesitate.
Sometimes God intervenes and forces our hand through outside factors, because His will is immutable.
I’m alright with this. I begin every day seeking God’s will for my life, even when I feel discouraged by what seems like a failure. Whatever happens, good or bad, is His will.
I can find peace, drawing from Joseph’s story, that losing doesn’t have to trouble me. It is God’s will. His will is always for me to prevail. I am His child. He may send me through a season but will always want good for me.
Therefore, we should forgive
We see in 45:8 this attitude in Joseph. He told his brothers that he forgave them, because they had not sent him to Egypt. It was all God’s will.
What his brothers intended for evil, God used for good.
Faith in God continued to prevail in this family. We see in 46:2 that Israel responds to God.
Don’t make excuses
When God calls you to serve, even when it seems contrary to your plans and desires, what is your answer? All too often, we respond with an excuse:
- Sorry, we can’t afford that right now.
- Our commitments lie elsewhere.
- We don’t have the time.
- I don’t feel qualified for that.
Israel responds, “Here I am.”
This is not because God is glorifying Israel. He is a shepherd and, like everyone else in Canaan and throughout Egypt, he is suffering through the famine.
Shepherds are a lower class of citizen and are detestable to the Egyptians, it says in 46:34.
God gives each of us skills and roles that are suitable for the Kingdom of God. He has a plan that brings this all together for His glory, which we should always be seeking.
Be what God wants
We run into conflicts because we get swayed to thinking we should be something society deems better. We want to be one of the cool kids. Why be a shepherd? No one likes them?
In 47:3, Pharoah asks Joseph’s brothers what their occupation is and they tell him.
Maybe, if we are blessed to be a doctor, lawyer, or accountant, we might boast of our achievements.
Most of the people I know try to boast of the company we work for, not our own position.
For years, I was a sales agent for a Fortune 500 software company. I attached their pre-eminence in the market to my status.
We sell ourselves to these companies we deem greater than ourselves. Which is like what we read in 47:19.
Trust in God
Instead of trusting in God for provision, even after He has been faithful, we put our hopes in the company.
We read in verse 21-22 that this reduces the people to servitude. It does the same thing to us. We become servants, aka slaves, of the company.
We may not agree with the things our employer is doing, but we get behind them because our faith is in their success. As long as they succeed, we get paid, and soon we are beholden to them and the income they provide.
As in verse 47:25, we place ourselves in bondage.
As chapter 48 comes to a close, Israel is dying and wishes to be returned to the land of his fathers. Don’t we all get to a point where we want to return to that place we once inhabited?
There was a time I had little concern for my career. When I first became a Christian, my only focus was on God, and He blessed me with a successful career. That success caused me to put myself in bondage and now, like Israel, I wish to return to that place where I was closest to God.
