Shepherds

 Read Genesis 46

 

When the people came out of bondage in Egypt, they had a variety of skills.  We see these in building the Ark of the Covenant and even in the Tabernacle.  They were skilled at woodworking and there was some metallurgy. Even though the Tabernacle was essentially a tent, there were fine fabrics, wood, and gold included in the design.

When the people went into Egypt, they were shepherds. Yes, shepherds needed some tentmaking and woodworking skills, but their stock and trade was shepherding.

This was the family of Jacob—Israel.  While other skills would be acquired over the next 400 years, these people were shepherds.

That worked to their advantage.  Shepherds were detestable to the Egyptians.  Yes, the Egyptians had flocks, but shepherds were at the very bottom of the social ladder.  The Pharoah was happy to send Israel’s family to Goshen. Out of sight was out of mind.

The Pharoah wanted to keep Joseph happy but he didn’t want shepherds hanging out with the social elite.  Goshen would work just fine.

He added, if you have a really good shepherd among you, put him in charge of my flocks. But it was Goshen where Israel’s family would settle and grow.

Let’s turn the clock ahead.  God’s Chosen People had come out of Egypt.  They had received the Law of Moses.  They had acquired kings for themselves.

The people still described themselves in terms of shepherds and sheep. Consider David’s words.

The Lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want…

How about this one.

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

These descendants of Jacob had also acquired a class of religious experts—Pharisees and Sadducees.

Jesus had come into the world and spoke to the people in metaphors.  The Pharisees didn’t understand the metaphors concerning sheep and shepherds.

We should.  Let’s go to John 10.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Jesus is the way.

Jesus cares for his flock.

Jesus laid down his life for his flock—for us.

Anyone or anything that leads us away from Jesus is a thief—a deceiver.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

How about this one?

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

Jesus wasn’t at a shepherd’s convention when he offered this, but the people he addressed certainly knew about shepherds and sheep. It was their history.  It was their culture.

Americans don’t have that culture.  Our livestock business has more business to it than lifestyle.  Yes, farm life can be a tough life.  It can also be a rewarding and  liberating life, but it is not the shepherd’s life.

The modern-day farmer or rancher will not lay down his life for his livestock.  He has a rifle in the truck if the wolf comes. It’s a different deal these days.

But we should seek to understand the life of a shepherd.  So much of the Bible is framed in terms of this vocation.  Of course, it is.  These people in Jacob’s family were shepherds.  Shepherds entered Egypt and for all the skills they acquired in their centuries of bondage, shepherds emerged from Egypt.

Study to understand shepherds. Why?

We must know the Good Shepherd. We must know his voice.  In an age where confusion reigns, we must know the voice of the Good Shepherd so as not to be led astray by so many other voices calling out to us.

Know the Good Shepherd and draw near to him.

Amen.

 

Reunion

 Read Genesis 46

About 10 years ago, I got an email from someone I served with 30 years earlier.  He was trying to get a few of us who served together at Parris Island to meet for an ad hoc reunion.  I had been easy to find.  My email address has my name and my MOS designation.  The other 2 we were looking for were not so easy to find.

One guy, Bill, was hiding from his ex-wife.  The other, Marvin, had no email or Facebook or anything else that required a computer.  He was off the grid and didn’t even know what off the grid meant. We found everyone and set the date. We met somewhere in Tennessee. We visited a Civil War Battlefield in Mississippi to have something to do while we assessed our mental damage.

It’s a different feeling when you see someone with whom you went through some stuff.  You see, Parris Island was officer hell.  No one was shooting at you, but there were days you would be glad to be in the middle of rounds impacting around you than where you were. You see, the drill instructors did everything and the officers watched the drill instructors to make sure that they didn’t break any of the 22,000 rules and regulations for training recruits.

The officers had to participate in physical training.  At least we got our run in.  That was just in case a recruit died, there would be someone to take the blame.  There were many a day where at the end of that 16-18 hour day, the 4 of us just stared at each other and asked, “Where did the Marine Corps go?”

We had to investigate every allegation of wrongdoing no matter how small and at the same time chew out the drill instructors if their platoons were not up to speed.  What a bizarre equation. We had all gone from the Fleet Marine Force where you only needed to know 5 words, take the hill and follow me, to asking 18-year-old kids if the drill instructor said any bad words to them.

So, we needed to get together and see how much mental damage the Corps had done to us in those years long ago.  We did.  It was as if we had been brothers and reunited after almost 3 decades.

Joseph had been reunited with his brothers already but now he was going to see his father again.  Israel was going to see his son—his son whom he thought dead—once again.

It was surely hard for Jacob—Israel—to believe that Joseph was alive.  We don’t know if the 10 brothers confessed what they had done to Joseph and how they deceived their father or not.  We just don’t know.

But Israel and everyone related to him, all of his flocks, and many of his possessions were headed to Egypt.  Israel surely wanted to see his son but did he want to go to Egypt?

The land where he was living was the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants. Now he was leaving that land behind.  Was this the right thing to do?

After traveling to Beersheba—probably the southernmost city in what was to be the Promised Land—Israel offered sacrifices to God.  That night God spoke to Israel in a vision.

“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”

Israel had heard it from the ultimate authority.  He was going to Egypt. This was God’s will.  God would be with him. You will see your son Joseph before you die.

Israel was going to see his son.  This was God’s will, and more than that, these few people would become a great nation while in the land of Egypt. OBTW—God would be with him.

It was almost reunion time.

Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father, Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.

Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”

The rest of the chapter is about protocol and ensuring Pharoah concurs with the family living in Goshen, but the human element is reunion.

What was lost was found.  Think to the story of the Prodigal Son. The younger son had taken his share of the inheritance while his father was alive.  He squandered it on wild living. He was eating worse than the pigs he was feeding. 

He would go home and beg his father for a job as a servant.  His father treated his servants well.  None of them were starving.  He had rehearsed a speech that he would give his father in the hope of being accepted as a servant in his household.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

There is something to this lost and found business.  I lose things all the time these days. Most of the time I find them, if I remember to keep looking for them, but it’s different when it is a loved one.

It’s different if it’s your son.

It’s different if it’s your father.

There is joy in reunion.

The biblical story here is that Israel and his whole family got to Egypt.  They grew into a great nation in Egypt.  If you read beyond Genesis, you will see that they were so powerful that the Egyptians enslaved them, but they grew to this size in Egypt.

God would deliver them from Egypt but they had to get there first.  This chapter gets them there but it also speaks to the power of reunion. A reunion among brothers was one thing.  A father and son reunion was another.

Not everyone has experienced a good relationship with their father, but your Father in heaven has always been on your side and at your side whether you knew it or not.

One day, we will come to know our Father in heaven in person.  He knew us in the womb. We have believed in him through his Son, Jesus Christ.  We have known him best by his Spirit that lives within us, but one day we will be united with him in person.

It will be a reunion.  We will not have known our heavenly Father in this way before, but we do know him.  He has a room prepared for us.  Jesus picked it out special for us.

We will be going home.  Heaven is not the undiscovered country.  It is home.  We will be returning home for the first time.

Have you seen the meme of Jesus embracing the Marine as he enters heaven?  It’s a cool picture, but it’s better with the caption.  Welcome home Marine.  OBTW, you have duty today.

We will be going home for the first time and what a reunion it will be.

That’s a little paradox to chew on this week. 

When we depart from this place, we venture into this world where so many deny God and so many seek after worldly things. That does not surprise us.

But it is Christians that we find most often who put themselves in the judgment seat.  So many point fingers from the sidelines.  So many say my way or the highway, and of course, my way is God’s way.

As we go into this world where so many Christians are known by the selected scriptures which they stand on while ignoring the full biblical witness, know that one day we will be home.

One day we will not be in the midst of the craziness of this world to include the divisiveness of many Christians. One day, all of this messiness will be gone.

One day we will stand before Jesus. One day we will go home for the first time.

One day God himself will be in our presence and we won’t need the sun or the moon for light.

One day we will see what eye has not seen and ear has not heard.

One day, our heavenly Father will gather all of his children and we will be home.  It will be a reunion like none we have known.

So, when the day is too hard to bear, know that a glorious day is coming.

So when you can’t walk any farther in faith, know there is a crown in store for you.

When you just feel all alone in the world, know there is a reunion coming like you have never known.

We see glimpses here in this chapter.

We see glimpses in our life experiences.

We hear of glimpses in the testimonies of others.

But know with certainty, that one day we will see our Father in heaven.  Know for sure that he will embrace us and it will be the greatest feeling we have ever known.

Hang in there. There is a wonderful reunion on your horizon.

Amen.

Mercy and Grace from the Beginning

 Read Genesis 45

Finally, after 9 chapters, Joseph’s brothers find out what happened to Joseph. They were dumbfounded, shocked, and in disbelief. 

Ain’t no way!

Yes, way.

Joseph could no longer contain himself.  He kicked all of the Egyptians out of the room and revealed himself to his brothers. That had to be a moment.  That had to be an emotional roller coaster ride compressed into a moment.

He’s alive!

We’re going to be slaves.

He’ll kill us!

This can’t be real.

This is real.

It’s him.

No, it can’t be him. Not with all of this power and authority and wealth.

Our brother is alive.

We’re dead men.

We have not even gotten to the part where they are going to have to tell their father.  What will he say after the story they had told him was revealed to be false? What will Israel say when he finds out that Joseph is alive?

What would he say if Joseph told him what we did to him? Maybe, Joseph will just have us all turned into slaves or killed and we won’t have to explain ourselves to our father.

What a mix of joy, anxiety, excitement, dread, amazement, and who knows what other emotions flowed into this confluence of thoughts and feelings.

Joseph was alive.  We sold him into slavery.  This can’t be good for us.

Now consider what Joseph had to say about this.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “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 be no 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.

Joseph personalized this even more.

So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

Does anyone remember Flip Wilson?  The devil made me do it!

It sounds like Joseph was telling his brothers that God made you do this terrible thing.  That’s not exactly what Joseph was saying.

There was evil in the hearts of these 10 brothers, but God used it to accomplish his purpose.  Joseph was going to Egypt. Joseph would be the only person on the planet able to know what was coming and how to deal with it.  The 10 brothers were just part of the logistics.

You were just playing your part in this divinely orchestrated deliverance of Israel and his family, which would come to be the nation of Israel in Egypt.

Yes, the 10 brothers gave in to evil and should have felt remorse and regret and come to repentance, but Joseph told them that revenge would not come their way.  Joseph, who trusted God in all circumstances, had eyes to see what God had done and was doing through him, and as it turned out, through his brothers.

That doesn’t mean that Joseph enjoyed his time in the hole.  It doesn’t mean that his lifelong ambition was to be a slave.  It doesn’t mean that he had always hoped to do a bit in prison.

Prison would have been a chance to get a tat before the law said don’t get inked and the discussion about what that actually meant ensued. Prison was never on Joseph’s bucket list.

It means that through it all, he trusted God. Through it all, he grew where he was planted.  Through it all he bloomed where he was.  And through it all, he gained eyes to see his part of God’s plan. 

Joseph could have exacted revenge and nobody on the planet would have had anything to say about it. But Joseph saw that his suffering was nothing compared to the salvation he would bring to this part of the world.

Centuries later, the apostle Paul would remind us that our present suffering is nothing compared to what the Lord has in store for us and the glory that will be revealed in us.

Jesus told us to love our enemies.  When your own brothers sell you into slavery and an unknown future, they might just fall into the worst class of enemies.  They were your brothers but they did this to you.  How could you not hate them?

We are beginning to see what mercy and grace look like.  These 10 men deserved punishment.  Joseph could deliver punishment in any form or fashion he desired. No one would question him.

Instead, he delivered mercy and grace.  He did not hold his brother’s sins against them. In fact, in the worst time that the world had known since the flood, he would bless these brothers, his father, and everyone related to them.

We see mercy and grace at work in Joseph.  Those qualities could only come through God.  Human nature would have said, “This is your time now Joey boy.  Make them pay.”

Do you remember the Parable of the Lost Sheep?  The shepherd left 99 in the wilderness to search for the 1 that was lost and when he found him, he rejoiced like crazy.  That’s the first part of this story.

Then, Jesus then told those with ears to hear that there is more rejoicing in heaven over a single sinner who repents than there is over 99 who don’t need to. Okay, I’m sure that Jesus wouldn’t have ended his sentence in a preposition, but you understand the parable.

Joseph was rejoicing that his brothers who were lost to him—who had surely sinned against him—were with him again.  Yes, he had a special affinity for Benjamin, but his joy, his mercy, and his grace were for all.

We get a glimpse of our Divine Father in this encounter.

We have all been through some stuff, some suffering.

Death of a loved one.

Divorce.

Imprisonment.

Job loss.

Protracted unemployment.

Addiction.

Ridicule.

Abuse.

Isolation.

Bullying.

You might think that at least nobody was sold into slavery, but we have people who have sold themselves into slavery with significant debt.

We have all been through some stuff, but for those who believe and trust, we can be confident that God will use whatever we have been through for the good.

Knowing this, can we forgive those who wronged us.  Can be content that God will take everything that happens to us and use it for good?

Can we be content in the sovereignty of God that vengeance belongs to him alone?

Yes, what happened to us or those we love might have been unforgivable, but can we forgive?

It probably won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. Joseph is our example.  In a series of stories that have bad decisions, deceit, and being downright dirty, we get this model of mercy and grace.

Joseph showed mercy and grace. He was going to bless his father’s family with the best land in Egypt. The Pharoah said, “Oh we can do better than that.”

There should have been no forgiveness for these 10 brothers, but God was at work here not only saving people with the storehouses of food that Joseph had put together but with this revelation of mercy and grace in Joseph.

We are reading the Old Testament but we are seeing mercy and grace.

We are going to wrap up Genesis in just a few weeks.  We will then do some seasonal messages.  In 2024, we begin a series that we are calling the Words of Jesus.  I know, some of you can’t wait to get there.

Words like mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love abound in the New Testament, but we should clearly see that mercy and grace have been there since the beginning.  We know and we worship a God of love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

God, whom we know best through Christ Jesus, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has always been a God of mercy and grace. We see those qualities manifested in Joseph.

Joseph went through so much that all traced back to his brothers selling him into slavery. Who could fault him for seeking vengeance, but he did not.

Joseph realized the sovereignty of God and if God’s plan required him to be sold into slavery and thrown into prison to get where he needed to be to save those God directed him to save, then so be it.

But beyond accepting and embracing God’s sovereignty, Joseph embraced God’s mercy and grace. Joseph practiced mercy and grace.

It’s one thing to post these words online.  It’s another to practice them.

If Joseph could do this long before anyone was talking about a Savior that we know as Jesus, what is our excuse?

We should be modern-day models of mercy and grace.

That means that we can’t park ourselves in the judgment seat.

We are not to be the ones sitting on the sidelines pointing fingers at the wrongdoing of others.

We are not building a clubhouse. We are building God’s house upon the solid foundation of Christ Jesus. There is no other foundation!

We are people of mercy and grace because we have received the mercy and grace of our Father in heaven through Christ Jesus his Son.

As we face this world which can inflict so much pain and suffering upon us and those around us, let us have eyes to see how we may live by mercy and grace.

Our mercy and grace should be for all. We can start at home, but here are a few places where we might start looking to apply them as well.

With those who are broken in spirit.

With those who are hurting and mourning.

With those who are not bold in the ways of the world.

With those who have forsaken the ways of the world and truly seek to live right by God.

With those who practice mercy with others.

Those who endure the process of truly trying to resolve conflicts.

Those who are persecuted.

These should sound familiar. If you need a place to start practicing mercy and grace, look in these places. The opportunities abound.

What did we learn from Joseph this week?  Let mercy and grace be the mainstay of your life.

As you go into the week ahead, let these two words abide in your hearts and minds this week.

Mercy.

Grace.

Amen.

Getting a Nation to Egypt

 Read Genesis 45

Had Joseph exacted revenge on his brothers, he would have probably never seen his father again.  Even if he released Benjamin but enslaved or killed the 10 brothers who did him wrong, what sort of relationship could he have with his father.

Do you remember how much Jacob loved Joseph? Do you remember what we like to call the coat of many colors?  Joseph and Benjamin were Dad’s favorites, but that didn’t mean you could have your revenge on the other 10 and still have a good relationship with Dad.

Besides, Israel’s family needed to go live in Egypt.  This remnant would grow and prosper in Egypt.  They would likely die in what would be called the Promised Land if they remained where they were living at that time.

God wanted the people he would call his own to survive.  He would give them not only the land promised but laws and directives about how to live. He had already given them the sign in the flesh that separated them from many people.

God would give these few descendants of Israel the distinction of being his people, but first, he had to preserve them. They must go to Egypt.

The first half of the chapter gives us an account of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers.  The second half is about logistics—getting Israel’s family to Egypt. That’s our focus here.

Joseph told his brothers to go get his father and the whole family and return to Egypt.  He would give them some prime real estate.  He said there is no choice in the matter, you will perish with this famine which won’t run its course for 5 more years.

Joseph’s servants had heard him crying and must have been a little nosey because they found out that his brothers had come.  These men whom Joseph told his servants to put silver in their sacks and then his own personal cup were his brothers.

This had to be reported to Pharoah.  Pharoah and his court were delighted to hear this.  Think about it.

The man who had saved your bacon had been reunited with his brothers and was sending them back to get his father and the rest of the family.

Ain’t no way that Joseph was sending for his family to come to Egypt.  No!  His family would be delivered to Egypt in style.  The Pharoah would send limos.  Back in the day, those limos looked like carts, but you get the idea. Joseph’s family wouldn’t have to worry about bringing too much luggage.  Pharoah and Egypt would take care of them.

CEOs come and go, but Joseph was the CEO who couldn’t be lost to someone else.  He was the franchise player. Had the Human Resources Department put out a job description for what Joseph did—all of his knowledge, skills, and abilities—no one would have applied.  Joseph was a one-of-a-kind find.

Pharoah knew what he had in Joseph and though Joseph had not asked for more perks and benefits, the Pharoah knew to bless him as much as he could for what he had done and hoped he would do going forward.

You don’t lose a guy like this! The empires of Babylon and Persia were centuries away, but there was always somebody looking to one-up you in the political world.  Joseph was a game changer, to use our VBS syntax.

God used not only Joseph but the pharaoh as well to move the nation of Israel into Egypt.

Joseph had some awareness of what was happening.  We see that in the first half of the chapter where he told his brothers that God had sent him to Egypt ahead of them for the work that he was now doing.  God sent Joseph ahead of them, meaning that Joseph realized it was God’s plan to bring all of Jacob’s family into Egypt.

I’m sure the brothers knew that they had sinned against Joseph, their own father, and God, but Joseph told them that what they did was necessary.

Think ahead to a time when a man named Judas would betray Jesus.  Oh, how the disciples hated Judas. Oh, how necessary his actions were to get Jesus to the cross.

Joseph had acquired eyes to see God’s plan.  Joseph accepted God’s plan.  You might say he embraced it to include all the bad stuff he had to endure.

The Pharoah didn’t have eyes to see God’s plan but he had the human wisdom to know that Joseph was the best thing that ever happened to Egypt and he would do whatever he could to keep him happy.

The Pharoah likely didn’t understand this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he understood that whoever this God was, Joseph as in good standing with him. Pharoah wanted to be in good standing with Joseph.  Here was a golden opportunity.

Israel and family would come to Egypt. God had used the evil intentions of 10 brothers, the evil intentions of Potiphar’s wife, the forgetfulness of the Pharoah’s cupholder, the ongoing trust of Joseph, and the secular wisdom of the Pharoah to make this happen.

There was some disbelief among the brothers at first.  There was some disbelief with Dad, but all came to believe and all would come to Egypt.

There is a rabbit trail you might want to chew on in those 10 unscheduled minutes that you have each month. As the brothers left to go pick up the entire family, Joseph gave them these parting instructions:  Y’all don’t argue with each other.

What would they have to argue about? Who would start an argument?

How about young Mister Innocent?  How about Benjamin?  Surely, he would ask: “What’s with this cock and bull story about my brother being eaten by a wild beast?”

We don’t have the transcripts from the trip home. I bet there was some finger pointing nonetheless. That’s a rabbit trail.

For our understanding of what happened, know that God used those in the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as well as those who were pagan to accomplish his purpose.

Israel would become a sizeable nation in Egypt.  It took many people and many actions—not all of them without some evil intent—to make this happen.

God will use everything for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.  You may hear that again before we conclude Genesis.

Amen.

Fool Me Twice...

 Read Genesis 44

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

The saying emerged in the English and Scottish cultures about 500 years ago.  It means if you are out to deceive me, that’s all on you. That’s about who you are. If you are a deceiver, then shame on you.

But if you fool me once and I didn’t learn the lesson, then that’s on me. I am expected to learn from my life experience.

Solomon thought it appropriate to pass on godly, life experiences, mostly in the Proverbs.  We should learn from our life experiences.  The wise learn from the shared experience of others. If we don’t, then shame on us.

So, 11 brothers departed Joseph’s household with bags full of grain.  Of the 11, 10 had done this drill before, but not one of them said, “Let’s inspect our loads before we head out.  Remember what happened last time.”

We can discuss the reasons why Joseph had his cup put in Benjamin’s bag ad naseum, but at least 1 of the 10 older brothers should have had the wherewithal to say, “Hold your horses—ok donkeys—we are not going anywhere until we check the contents of our bags.”

It’s as if they were the forerunners of TSA.  Did anyone put anything in your bag that you don’t know about?

How do you answer that other than no?  How do I know if I don’t know?

My formative political years were the Reagan years.  The United States and the Soviets were mutually reducing the number of nuclear warheads we had.  Each country would self-report, but Reagan had this policy of trust, but verify.

As a Marine officer, it was essential to trust your Marines.  You trusted but you also inspected.

My point is that these knuckleheads should have inspected their loads before they left. But they didn’t and so Joseph was able to have his brothers returned to him once again without having to reveal himself to them.

That revelation was coming soon, but for now, it appears he was wondering how they would treat their youngest brother.  Joseph knew how they treated him.  Were these the same men they were 2 decades ago?

Apparently, there had been some remorse.  As we will examine in the next service, they were not fully repentant, but they did care greatly for Benjamin, if only because they knew how the loss of him would devastate their father.

This whole cup in the sack ploy moves the story along faster than if the 11 brothers returned home and didn’t come back until they ran out of food again, and they would have run out again.  The famine would last 7 seven years.

Joseph had seen his brother Benjamin, but he also wanted to see his father.  What had his father been thinking all of this time? His brothers had not revealed to Joseph the story they concocted and told their father after they sold him into slavery. There is more to come, but for now, let’s keep it simple and relevant only to this part of the story.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

We are people of forgiveness but we are also people of wisdom.  We must learn from our life experiences.

We will talk about repentance in the next service, but for now, let’s talk experience and growth.

If we want to fulfill our commission and make disciples and teach people, we need to learn from our life experiences and be able to help others in their life experiences.

If you repeat the same mistakes over and over at your job, you might need to find a new job.

If you forget to change the oil in your car every 3000 or 5000 miles—some of these new vehicles don’t need oil changes as frequently—but if you keep forgetting, you might be needing a new vehicle.

If you forget to charge your phone overnight, you might have to talk to people face to face.

These 10 brothers needed to be a bit gullible to move the story along in the way we know it.  We don’t.

Most of the time when I pray with teachers or students, I ask God to grant those coming to learn a teachable spirit.  We need that disposition as well.

Jesus tells us to take his yoke and learn from him.  That learning often begins in our life experience.

So today, the thought that I send you out with is this.  Lord, grant us a teachable spirit.  Help us to learn so that we may better serve you and love our neighbors.

Amen.

Not quite to Repentance

 Read Genesis 44

For those who have been reading faithfully as we journey through Genesis, you might think that this all sounds familiar.

Putting silver back in the grain sacks—that’s not the first time this has happened.  You might think that these brothers would inspect their load before departing the premises.  Evidently not!

The story of Jacob—now called Israel—and his 12 sons is told with a few key parts left out.  Those parts involved Joseph. The parts about Benjamin and one son presumed dead are included, but not the wickedness that went with selling their brother and deceiving their father.

But something has been brewing among the brothers.  There was a sense of wrongdoing lording itself over them; yet, confession was elusive.  True repentance had not yet come.

They realize that what they did to Joseph was wrong but they seem to ignore the fact that they have been living a lie with their father for all of these years.

They were standing before, mostly bowing before, Joseph.  Remember the dream where 11 bowed before Joseph.  That was manifest with only 10 brothers bowing up to this point.  Now with Benjamin present, the dream had been fully manifested.

Joseph is the architect of this encounter. He doesn’t seem to want to wait until his brothers run out of food again to bring everything to light.  We don’t quite get there in this chapter, but things are moving in that direction.

It seemed that Joseph hoped to see remorse and regret in the 10 brothers who wronged him.  Surely, Joseph wanted to embrace Benjamin as the only brother innocent of what the others did. 

It’s a strange irony that Joseph had Benjamin—the only innocent party here—framed as the thief of his personal cup. But this accelerated the story’s advance.

Judah offered to stand in Benjamin’s place, pleading with Joseph about how losing Benjamin would devastate his father, not knowing that this was the man’s father as well.

Where does that bring us?  Let’s look at this in terms of sin, of transgressions.

The 10 brothers had sinned against Joseph.  That was a heavy burden that they bore. It surely was on their minds.

The 10 brothers had sinned against their own father.  That was something that they had not had to deal with up to this point.

The 10 brothers had sinned against God.  They knew that they were not in right standing with God.  They thought that they were due some divine punishment. That could be what was happening in all this cup and silver in the sacks business.

The brothers knew they did wrong but were not yet ready to repent.  Repentance is a tough thing.  Yes, they tore their clothing when the cup was found with Benjamin.  They knew the ritual.

They had not yet fully confessed their wrongdoing. They had contempt for their brother.  They hated their brother and wanted to kill him.  They sold their brother into slavery.  They lied to their father about their brother’s fate.  They were clever about this allowing Jacob to draw his own conclusions, but they were fully complicit in the blood covered shredded garment that they presented to their father.

They were still far from repentance, but they were closing in on it. They could no longer ignore what they had done but they were dragging their feet as far as actual repentance was concerned.

God was using Joseph to bring his father’s entire family into Egypt where they would prosper and grow for many years.  They would later be enslaved for many more but God had told Abram that part long ago. God was using Joseph for his purpose with a people whom he would call his own.

So, what about us?  The story continues in what must seem like baby steps to us, but it continues nonetheless.  But what do we take from this and apply to our lives?

Repentance!

To repent is to turn away from our sinful ways and seek the ways of God.  That’s the simple definition. Actually, it is a simplistic definition.

The fuller explanation is necessary if we truly want to be penitent people.  We not only turn away from sin, but we leave our sinful heart, mind, body, and soul behind. We leave all of our junk behind and we are not coming back for it.

We don’t take our sinful ways to the pawn shop and get a claim ticket for later.  We are not coming back to our sinful selves again. We give it all up and seek God.

It is a wholesale exchange.  Easy peasy, right?

Just as the 10 brothers didn’t quite realize the full extent of their sin and sinful nature, neither do we. John Calvin would call this the total depravity of humankind.  That sounds harsh.

It means that sin has tarnished every person, every soul.  No one is left untouched by sin.

Emotionally, we might be ready to repent, but mentally, we are still thinking in the ways of the world.

Mentally, we might be ready to repent, but physically our bodies are addicted to things of the world.

Physically, we are ready to submit our bodies to the discipline prescribed by the Lord, but spiritually, we remain adrift in the world.

Like I said, easy peasy.

Life can be tough. It’s tougher when we claim to have given up sin but know we are holding on to some things too hard to let go of. We often choose to ignore it.

I forgive you. I will love one another. I will be a light in the world, but you cut me off in traffic and you are getting a selected finger or a 9mm depending on how far down the road I want to follow you in anger.

I forgive you but you are still sitting over there at the outcast table.  I remember what you did.  Ain’t gonna be no reconciliation. You go sit with the lepers.

I am a new creation but I’ve still got a good right hook from the old one so watch out if we butt heads.

I will worship God in the assembly, unless it gets in the way of sports, fundraisers, the Twilight Zone marathon, or cutting the grass.

This repentance business isn’t for sissies. No wimps! It’s hard to let go of old ways even when we want to embrace the ways of the Lord.

Letting go of the ways of the world is tough stuff.

Think about while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  We deserved wrath—punishment delivered with anger.  We received love that we call mercy and grace.

When the woman brought before Jesus for adultery found herself standing alone with Jesus and no one left to condemn her, Jesus said now go and sin no more. He didn’t add easy peasy.

Today’s Christians often find themselves frustrated and not realizing the fullness of life that Jesus promised.  Why?

Too often we want grace without repentance. We want forgiveness without having to repent of our sin.  We want Jesus to forgive us of our sins but we want him to bless us while remaining in our sin.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call this cheap grace. 

We live in a world where lukewarm Christianity is within the acceptable norm. Just chill.  You got your salvation.  Quit making waves.

We live in a world where many Christians believe we are to conform to the patterns of the world. Just get in step and quit rocking the boat.

We live in a world where it is difficult to distinguish the Christian from the Christian Tourist.

What is a Christian Tourist?

Christian Tourist.  One who checks out the sights of Christianity but decides that discipleship doesn’t fit into their comfort zone.  See also armchair Christian, sidelines commentator, and salt without saltiness.

You won’t find that one in your dictionaries—yet!  I came up with it a dozen years ago.

Some of you like math and science.  I’m not sure where this fits in, perhaps it’s physics.  What two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time?

Discipleship and comfort!

OK, you won’t find that in your traditional physics books, but there is truth in the statement.

We all have a comfort zone but we as Christians should all have some discomfort in our comfort zones.  That brings us to the second part of repentance—seeking God and his kingdom and his righteousness above all things.

The only way that we can truly be comfortable in our comfort zones is if they are always moving towards God.

We live in a world that wants mercy, grace, forgiveness, and blessing without repentance.  We want to hold onto some of the ungodly stuff.  Some already know that dog don’t hunt.

We know that salvation is a gift.  We didn’t earn it.  We didn’t score a 90% on the Law of Moses test.  We didn’t even score a 60%.  Salvation is the gift of God that comes by faith.  Saved by grace through faith are the words that we know.

There is something that we might call the fullness of our salvation.  I most often call it our discipleship.  In that discipleship, we discover that repentance was not a one-and-done event.  It seems like it should have been, but the old creature that we were wants his job back.

We are to leave the junk behind—all of it—and then seek God.  Seeking God while bringing our ungodly junk with us gives us nothing but frustration.

We see 10 frustrated brothers bowing before Joseph.  They knew they did their brother wrong.  Not one of them had mentioned how they continued to do wrong through this ongoing deceit of their father. They knew or at least had a sense that they had sinned against God, but they had not yet come to this state of repentance.

These encounters with Joseph, whom they still did not recognize, were drawing them closer. It seems like they are dragging their feet, but they are getting there. We will follow the story to the end but for now, we are called to examine ourselves.

Are we still holding on to things of the world?

Do we still crave sinful things?

Do we truly believe that abundance comes in Christ alone or do the sinners really get the best of everything?

Have we truly forgiven as Christ has forgiven us?

Are we content to let the word of God judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart or do we think we need to spend some time in the judgment seat to address what God missed?

Are we finally ready to leave all of our junk behind and seek God? We can’t really do this until we take inventory of all our junk.

If any of you are familiar with 12 Step programs for overcoming addiction, then you know the 4^th step.  It is to conduct a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves.

Nobody can do this and remain in their comfort zone.  Nobody really wants to know ourselves that well.  This isn’t a natural thing, at least it’s not natural to our sinful human nature.

While we may recognize those things that are obviously sinful, we choose to ignore the more subtle ones and grow comfortable with them.

But if we are ever to know true abundance, reconciliation, and joy, we must know what junk we need to get rid of, confess, and receive God’s pardon.  He stands ready to forgive.

Are we ready to confess? Are we ready to repent?

We will take a time of silent confession before we conclude this service.  Some are uncomfortable with silence but you need to grow more comfortable with the conversation involving only you and God.  Your spirit is designed to communicate with God’s Spirit.  It’s in the specs.

Following our confessions, I will remind you of the assurance of God’s promise to forgive, and then we will affirm our faith.

For now, let us prepare to confess everything in our lives that is keeping us from seeking God.

Amen.

 

Que Sera Sera

 Read Genesis 43

Que sera sera,

Whatever will be will be.

That’s a little stoic, don’t you think?

Israel’s family, including his sons and their wives, are out of food.  They can’t go back to Egypt without bringing their youngest brother.

Their brother Simeon is being held pending their return.

Each of the brothers found the silver that they took to Egypt the first time back in their grain sacks.  They might be wanted men if they returned. They didn’t take the silver, but who would believe them.  The lord over Egypt had called them spies.

Rachel is dead. Joseph is presumed dead and now Benjamin will have to go to Egypt with his brothers in order to obtain Simeon’s release and in order to buy food.

Did I mention that everyone was out of food and there was food in Egypt?

Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

Do we ever get boxed-in to where it seems like we only have one choice?  Do we make tough decisions when it seems all other alternatives have been stripped away?

Do we ever get to the point where we say, whatever will be will be?

The question is, do we say this with hope or hopelessness?

Hope says that we trust God to be with us even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Hopelessness says that I’m rolling the dice one more time and it’s probably coming up snake eyes but here goes.

Hope or hopelessness?  We face this choice of our disposition when what we can see seems stacked against us.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Even in Israel’s disheartened state, he didn’t want to send Benjamin but had no choice, he asked for God’s mercy and blessing on the trip.

Even in his Que sera sera moment, he called upon the Lord. May God almighty grant you mercy as you face this daunting assignment. Israel prayed that God would grant his children mercy and protection even in the worst situation he could think of.

Trusting in the Lord is not always trusting that he will give us the path that makes the most sense to us or the path of least resistance.  Sometimes, it’s the worst path imaginable, but we trust that God is with us.

We as people of God are a bit confusing sometimes.  We are proactive, putting our gifts and talents to work to produce optimum outcomes; yet we are patient as we wait upon the Lord.

We take everything with which we have been trusted and put it to work.  We want to produce good fruit.  We want to bless the Lord.  We want the assurance that comes with being a child of God.

We also take everything that comes at us and trust in God. We trust God even when all of our gifts, talents, and abilities didn’t get us to where we thought we needed to be.  We trust that God is with us even down the path that goes through the valley of the shadow of death.

It’s not Que sera sera, I’m rolling the dice and things don’t look good.

It’s Que sera sera, the Lord, our God is with us wherever we go.

Whatever will be will be, but my life is in the hands of my God, and I trust my God over my circumstances every day, and twice on Sunday.

Amen.