Reflections from January 22, 2011

God's blessings on Jacob, whom God renames as Israel, are obvious as He says to him in Genesis 35:11-12,
"I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land."

God doesn't forget a promise. What He said to Israel was almost the exact same thing He said to Abraham and to Isaac regarding His promise to deliver the land to them.

Further evidence of God's hand in this promise is in that Esau moved his family and possessions out of the promised land in order for Israel to have the land for his livestock and family, as there was too much for the land to support. We read in Genesis 36:6,8,
"Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the servants of his household, his cattle and all his animals, and all his goods which he had gained in the land of Canaan, and went to a country away from the presences of his brother Jacob. So Esau dwelt in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom.

The scriptures indicate to me that Esau did this out of kinship, or out of love for his brother. However, history shows a clear animosity between the Edomites and the Israelites. This culminated with Herod the Great, a descendant of the Edomites, ordering the massacre of baby boys in and around Bethlehem in his attempt to kill Jesus who of course was a descendant of Jacob through his son Judah, (see Matthew 1:1-17).

Now Jacob's (Israel's) favorite son was Joseph because he was born when Israel was old. He showed this favor and Israel's other sons were jealous of this. This hatred of Joseph reared its ugly head to the point where the brothers plotted to kill him. They did so because Joseph told them and his father Israel about two dreams he had that showed he will eventually rule over them and have dominion over them. His brothers took action and we read about this in portions of Genesis 37:5-11,
"Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers;...'There we were binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.'...So [his brothers] hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed still another dream, and told it to his brothers, ... 'Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.' So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him ... And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind."

Now just last week, we learned about the deception that Jacob engaged in with his mother Rebekah against Esau and his father Isaac. (See January 16.) We learned how the sin of deception becomes a trap, and we see it continuing here with Joseph's brothers plotting against him, and going on to sell him to slavery and then deceiving their father Israel and what happened.
Sin can pass from generation to generation, not just by what is said, but by what is lived. Attitudes are not so much taught as caught. We need to learn this lesson clearly and be sure that we don't have anything in our lives that will be an attitude passed down to our subsequent generations.

God's promises to His people through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are but one of His promises. He tells us also in Psalms 12:5,
"For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, 'Now I will arise,' says the Lord; 'I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.'"

God's concern for the need fills and flows out of the Scriptures. We should infuse our prayers with the concerns of those whom God has promised to help, to allow His Holy Spirit to move us to do His will.

The sins of Isaac's family continue on with Judah as we see, when after his wife Shua died, Judah was deceived by his daughter-in-law Tamar, but also, Judah was willing to sin by thinking Tamar was a prostitute. We read in portions of Genesis 38:14-16,
"So she took off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; ... When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot; ... Then he turned to her by the way, and said, 'Please let me come in to you'; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law."

This is significant because it's through this lineage of Judah and Tamar that Jesus came from Judah's son Perez, so was born the first of twins, even though his brother Zerah, had stuck his hand out of the womb and had been marked as first born by the scarlet thread.

Judah's brother Joseph had been sold to the Egyptian Potiphar. Joseph was very blessed by God and we read in Genesis 39:3 and 23,
"And his master saw that the Lord was with him [Joseph] and that the Lord made all he did prosper in his hand. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper."

Great lessons for us even today. There are many times we can look at our circumstance regarding work, and moan and groan about not being in the right position, not being paid enough, or a variety of complaints. But Joseph blossomed where God put him, first in the Egyptian's house as overseer, then in prison after he was falsely imprisoned. Joseph maintained such a pursuit of excellence by applying himself to the task at hand rather than focusing on how he had been framed; first by his brothers, then by Potiphar's wife. Our lesson is that God will reward you according to how you do your work. He challenges you to excellence!

While in prison, Joseph interpreted dreams for two employees of Pharaoh, and he told the butler in Genesis 40:14,
"Remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and let me out of this house."

It turns out the butler forgot about Joseph, "out of sight, out of mind" type of mentality. So Joseph stayed in prison for two more years. When we give a promise to someone, a commitment such as "I'll pray for you", do we do that? Learn from this that God wants us, His people, to be people of our word.

Blessings to all