Blessings and Blessed to be a Blessing

 Read Genesis 48

Israel was near death.  Joseph wanted to see his father and for his father to see and surely bless his sons.

Israel had to do some catching up with Joseph and tell him about losing his mother, even though Joseph knew that part.

The biggest thing that he had to say was that Joseph’s sons would be counted as his own sons, at least as much as those not born of his wife Rachael. Hundreds of years later, it would not be a tribe of Joseph being apportioned part of the Promised Land, it would be the tribes of his 2 sons Manasseh and Ephraim.

Why was this important? These children were born in Egypt to an Egyptian mother, but they belonged to Israel—both the man named Jacob and the nation that would emerge from Egypt—just as Reuben and Simeon were his sons.

They were part of God’s promise to become a community of peoples.  This whole Father of Many Nations business would be extended to these children of Joseph as if they were Joseph’s own brothers.

Manasseh and Ephraim would be among the 12 tribes to enter the Promised Land centuries down the road.

Israel blessed both boys the same.

Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers

    Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully,

the God who has been my shepherd

    all my life to this day,

the Angel who has delivered me from all harm

    —may he bless these boys.

May they be called by my name

    and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,

and may they increase greatly

    on the earth.”

This was like one blessing for Josepha and his 2 sons. Ephraim the younger would be greater than his older brother.  Jacob also gave a piece of land in Samaria to Joseph.  What land?

That around Sychar where much, much later Jesus would meet a Samaritan woman at a well he had dug.

There is a bunch of history and blessing and prophecy and some geography in this one chapter along with a little disagreement between Jacob and Joseph.

So, what do we take home from all this?

There are 10 more brothers to bless for one thing.  That’s coming.

Israel is near death.

Joseph’s brothers soon won’t have Dad around to protect them from any retaliation that Joseph might want to take again them.

Those are good but how about we turn back the clock to where this all began.  God blessed Abram to be a blessing.  Those blessings would come mostly to his descendants. 

These descendants would be given an identity with a sign in the flesh.  They would be given directives from God.  They would be given a land promised to them.

The Messiah would come through these descendants.

That’s the history and prophecy, but the lesson that we should think on this week is that as followers of Jesus, we too are blessed to be a blessing.

We as believers in Christ Jesus are grafted into not Moses but Abraham. We are blessed to be a blessing.

In the next service we will talk more about what that might involve, but for now, just think on these words.

Blessed to be a blessing.

This message is short and sweet, almost a mission statement in itself.

We are blessed to be a blessing!

And in keeping with what we started last week, let’s conclude with a blessing.

“The Lord bless you

    and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you

    and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you

    and give you peace.”’

 

Amen.

Wrestling with God

 Read Genesis 32

And so we come to one of the most unique stories in the Bible.  If you have subheadings inserted into your Bibles, most of them probably say: Jacob Wrestles With God.

I’m thinking that’s not a fair fight.

I wrestled for about 30 seconds in high school.  The assistant football coach had been a Marine and had gone to college on a wrestling scholarship, probably in conjunction with the GI Bill.

I was in the weight room one day in the spring.  The coach was there and there were some mats in the corner of the weight room.  He said, let’s wrestle.

I said I don’t know anything about wrestling.  I was bigger than the coach but really had never wrestled.  The school didn’t have wrestling and I was already playing 4 sports, so I doubt that I would have been a wrestler anyway.

He said, just do your best.

We both got on the mat and he said “Go!”  I think I got lucky because I got my arm around his neck and started choking him from behind. He was really choking.  I thought, how hard can this wrestling stuff really be?

Coach managed to squeak out, “That’s not legal.”

So, I let go.  In that instant, he grabbed me and threw me against the wall.  The wall was made of cinderblocks and they were not padded.

I think I said, “That wasn’t legal either.” I didn’t know for sure, it I didn’t think it was.

We didn’t wrestle anymore after that, but that was the extent of my wrestling experience, other than as a kid when you wrestled with classmates and cousins.

But Jacob wrestling with God, and that just seems bizarre.  Here’s the scripture.

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.

Was it God? Was it an angel?  Was it a man sent by God?

Jacob was convinced that he had been face-to-face with God.  He didn’t say that he held his own.  He said that God spared him.

Jacob—now Israel—lived to tell about this.

Now God had walked with Adam and Eve.  He had visited Abraham, but most of the time, God spoke in dreams and visions.

But here we see God or someone with supernatural powers wrestling with Jacob and when the match was a draw, he touched Jacob near the hip and twisted it to the point that Jacob would walk with a limp.

Jacob didn’t cry out, “That’s not legal!”  He focused on the fact that he had been face to face with God and God had spared his life.

It’s still a crazy story about wrestling with God, except that we do this all of the time.  We don’t wrestle physically, but we wrestle in our decisions.

Trust in the Lord or trust my own understanding?

You think by this point we would do more trusting than leaning, but the wrestling matches continue and it seems that God lets us win every once in a while.  We get to do things our way.

Most of the time we limp away from doing things our way. Sometimes the limp doesn’t show up until later. In hindsight, we realize the wisdom of God’s way.

Our human nature leads us to wrestle with God again and again in spite of directions that we know and have memorized and should be written on our hearts.

I think that sometimes, God lets us walk with a limp for a while whenever we rely on our own understanding over God’s promises.  That’s my take on it.

What I can tell you with certainty is that God is faithful even when we are not.

Even when God permits us to have our own way—and that brings us briefly to 2 words not used together in the Bible:  Free Will—he is faithful to his promises.  One of those is that he will never leave or forsake us.

Sometimes in hindsight, we wish God had just body-slammed us into the right way, but we do get to choose how we respond to God’s great love.  Sometimes we wrestle with that response.

So, we will probably have a few more wrestling matches with God in our remaining years.  Hopefully, we wrestle less and trust more, but remember that God still has good plans for you.

So what do we take into our week?

Trust more. Wrestle less.

Amen.

Mitigation Strategy

 Read Genesis 32

Jacob was nearing the place where Esau lived.  It was time for action.  Jacob put together some very substantial gifts—flocks and herds.  They were enough to appease almost anyone’s anger, hopefully, that included that of his brother, Esau.

The servants who delivered these gifts were given specific instructions as how to present them. Think of your most humble words and then be 10 times humbler.  Jacob would accept Esau’s seniority.

Maybe between the gifts and humble speech, Esau’s anger would be appeased. The gifts were delivered as prescribed.

A servant informed Jacob that Esau was coming to meet him.  That part was encouraging, except he was accompanied by 400 men.  That part was probably a little disturbing.  Who needs to travel with 400 men. 

Maybe, Esau just said road trip and everybody jumped on board.  Not likely.

God had told Jacob to come to this land.  He said he would be with him.

Go and I will be with you.

Jacob had received God’s promise of prospering and having many descendants.

Jacob could not envision how that would play out if Esau wiped out him and his family, and that’s what it looked like was about to happen. So, Jacob devised a mitigation strategy. 

He divided his entire estate—which was mobile at this time—into 2 camps.  Wives, servants, children, flocks, and everything else were divided.  If Esau attacked one camp, maybe the other would escape.

That sounds reasonable on the surface, but you don’t escape with herds and flocks.  A group of 400 men would overtake them in no time, but that was Jacob’s plan nonetheless. It was his mitigation strategy. It was how he would reduce the effects of an attack by Esau.

So, Jacob and everything that belonged to Jacob began moving toward Esau.  Jacob was not expecting a joyous reunion.  He has planned for exactly the opposite.  He was moving forward but all the time thinking about how to escape.

So as people and flocks are crossing a river and moving in their assigned corridors, Jacob finds himself alone—or almost alone.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

So we see the tension building.  Esau and 400 men were moving toward Jacob.  Jacob had implemented his 2-camp mitigation strategy.  Both groups were moving towards each other and we get this interlude of a wrestling match between Jacob and a man or an angel or God himself.

I’m a little skeptical about this being God himself.  My money would have been on God for a takedown and a pin in about half a second.  God could have spoken a victory into existence.

So, was it an angel?  Was it a man?  Jacob—the deceiver—might have had some slick wrestling moves and taken down an angel.  Maybe?

Why is this story here?

First, Jacob gets a new name from someone who remains unnamed.  That new name was Israel. It means God strives.  It can just mean struggle, but God strives seems most appropriate.

God would strive to accomplish much through the people named Israel.  God used those who would come from Israel to make himself and his way known in the world.

But why the wrestling match?  Was it really with God?  Why is this story at this point in the story?

God told Jacob—who we can now call Israel—to go and that God would be with him.  God promised to prosper this son of Isaac.  God told him that his descendants would be too numerous to count.  God promised all these things to Jacob.

For these things to come true, it would seem that Jacob would have to survive his reunion with his brother, Esau. But Jacob implemented a mitigation strategy.

What is mitigation?  What is it to mitigate?  COVID and 2020 obliterated the meaning of this word, but to mitigate is to reduce the effects of something.

Whatever it is that is of concern may still happen, but you take measures to reduce its effects.  The hurricane is still coming, but you sandbag your house and board up your windows.  You reduce the effects of the storm’s damage.

The storm still came through, but you reduced its impact upon you or your property.

Do you remember flatten the curve? That was a mitigation strategy.  It was never designed to stop the COVID virus only to reduce the rate of its spread in the early stages. 

How would that mitigate anything?  In theory, the hospitals would not be overwhelmed all at once so early in the course of the epidemic.  The virus would continue to spread but hopefully, the curve would not be as steep as if there had been no mitigation strategy.

Such a mitigation strategy would allow the nation to mobilize more assets for treating the illness.

We will never know if it helped or not.  Because of the money attached to COVID, everything became COVID.  But understand that flatten the curve was a mitigation strategy.

Jacob thought that his brother might be coming to exact vengeance, but perhaps half of the people might escape. That was a mitigation strategy.

The gifts and humble language were meant to appease his brother.  Dividing into 2 camps was mitigation in case that didn’t work.

You have to go beyond this chapter to see how the encounter between Jacob and his brother went.  I’ll give you a hint if you have not read ahead.  There is no vengeance exacted by one brother upon the other.

The mitigation strategy was for nothing.

The gifts and humbling language were to appease the brother that wanted to kill him 20 years ago. Dividing everything that belonged to Jacob into 2 camps was mitigation in case appeasement didn’t work.

But God had told Jacob to come to this place and that God would be with him.  Some of us think that we should throw in a couple oh yea of little faith editorials to go with this story.

C’mon Jacob, c’mon Israel, God said he would be with you.  Why this mitigation strategy? Is God is not enough?

We could point some condemning fingers here. Jacob, dude, how could you not trust that God would provide for you?

Israel, man how could you not see that God is striving to work through you?

We could jump all over Jacob, at least until we had to look in the mirror.  How many times have we second-guessed God?  How many times have we wondered if we understood him correctly?

I think I will just pretend that what God told me to do was garbled in transmission. It’s not true but it’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

How many times have we implemented a mitigation strategy in case the worst happened and we had to go through this thing—whatever it is—without God?

God strives to accomplish his will through us.  Sometimes we resist.  Sometimes we doubt.  Sometimes we prepare for the worst.

There is nothing wrong with an emergency fund.  That’s good planning.

There is nothing wrong with a contingency plan.  That’s the application of sound thinking.

There’s nothing wrong with gaming a scenario or situation.  What if?  What if this? What if that?

But when we start to mitigate what we will do as if God will not deliver on his promises, that’s a problem. When we think we are in this thing called life without God, that’s a problem.  That’s when we expend energy without producing a return on our investment.

If God has told us that he will deliver us from something but our plans are based on the fact that he probably won’t do what he said he would do, that’s a problem.

Now if you don’t make your car payment for 6 months but you have asked God to make it for you, don’t be surprised when the tow truck finally arrives at your house to take your car away.

If you shouldn’t have had those last 2 drinks at the bar but you asked God to get you home safely after you started the car, don’t be surprised when you are standing before the judge being arraigned for DUI.

When you didn’t study all semester but you ask God to help you ace the finals, don’t be surprised when your grade reflects your effort.

But when God promises you life, life abundant, and life eternal but you think you had better get all you can for yourself as often as you can because you are not so sure about this eternity thing, that’s a problem.

When God tells you not to be anxious for anything but to receive his peace instead, but you have 2 or 3 or 300 things that you just won’t turn over to God, don’t expect his peace.

When God promises you that you are in good company because you are persecuted because of him, but you decide to please the world and take the path of least resistance, that’s a problem.

You may or may not have read the next couple of chapters but Jacob—Israel—did not need a mitigation strategy.  God said he would be with him and he was.

Jacob would have been blessed to have memorized Proverbs 3:5-6 before he embarked upon this journey home. Had he visited the Burns Flat Cumberland Presbyterian Church en route—a slight detour in time and geography—he would have known Proverbs 3:5-6 even though it wouldn’t be written for another 700 years.

How many times has our own understanding prompted us to create a mitigation strategy because we are not trusting God? When will our Christian maturity emerge in the form of trust and faith and tangible belief in what God has told us?

We see that God did not kick Jacob to the curb because his faith was weak.  God continued to bless Jacob and fulfilled his promises to him, but consider the peace that Jacob forfeited because of his doubt.

Consider the opportunities for pure joy that were missed because of doubt. Jesus told us to be known as his disciples by our love, not by our doubt, but we choose doubt over faith and trust so many times.

Consider the human legacy that we pass on to our children and their children when we doubt. Our legacy should be composed of faith, hope, and love not doubt.

We should continue to do prudent things.  God gives us the thumbs up on wisdom. Some of those prudent things include different courses of action and contingency plans but these should be in accord with what God has promised us, not because we are not sure if he will fulfill his promises.

God is faithful even when we are not.

This week’s lesson comes from Jacob’s mitigation strategy.  He didn’t need it.  If it was just Jacob and Esau, such a strategy might have been prudent, but God was with Jacob.

That’s a game-changer.

That’s our lesson.  Don’t mitigate when God has told you that he is with you. 

God is with us.  Trust in his promises. Live by faith not sight. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.

Amen.

 

 

Never bet on another man's trick

 Read Genesis 30

Have you ever seen a really good card trick?

Never bet on another man’s trick.  The secret to a good card trick is to make it look like you messed it up until the very end.  Then the hook has been set and you just reel in your catch.

Remember this part:  Never bet on another man’s trick.

Jacob is ready to go west to the land promised to Abraham’s descendants, and now to his own descendants. He talks this over with Laban. Laban knew that he had been blessed to have Jacob in his service.  He knew that the Lord blessed Jacob.

So here’s the plan. Jacob would take all of the imperfect animals—spotted, speckled, or dark in color as his.  The pure ones will be Laban’s.  How could Laban argue with that?  The deal was struck.

Jacob even through in some quality control.  You can check my herds any time to see if I have any animals that are yours.  This implied that Jacob could do the same.

Herds were separated by outward appearance and separated by space.  Laban was in charge of the sorting. That should have settled the matter, but Jacob had other plans beyond what he shared with Laban.

Listen to what Jacob did, beginning in verse 37.

Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.

I don’t know all of the particulars, but apparently, Jacob did.  The flesh of these trees—what was beneath the bark had something that impacted genetics and produced streaked or speckled animals.  Jacob was increasing his flocks and Laban was none the wiser.

Jacob was careful to target the healthiest of animals when the female was in heat.  He not only grew his flocks in number but in the quality of the stock.  Jacob was still deceptive but he was also shrewd.

Do you remember how we began?  Never bet on another man’s trick.

At this point, Laban and his sons suspected that everything was not above board.  We end this chapter with Jacob having great wealth and the need to depart Laban’s company very, very soon.

In the first part of this chapter, Jacob was growing his human flock with the help of 4 women. There is some soap opera material there for sure, but in this section, we see Jacob obtaining great wealth.

God had blessed Abraham with great wealth.

God had blessed Isaac with great wealth.

And now God had blessed Jacob with great wealth and a very large family. 

None of these men that God had chosen to be a part of this Father of Many Nations business had obtained their wealth by what we would call respectable means.  Abraham and Isaac were less than honest about their wives and Jacob was just outright deceptive.

Jacob deceived his father. Laban deceived Jacob with Leah.  Jacob got back at Laban with this livestock scheme.  Do you ever wonder what a family reunion would look like among this bunch?

The whole time, God was growing the line of Abraham. God didn’t just pick the best stock and say, good luck. He took Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with all of their flaws and deficiencies and prospered them to create a people he had already chosen when he called Abraham.

You might be thinking, that’s just some screwball stuff right there and the first half of the chapter is just as off the wall. 

Remember, this line of people gets us to a Chosen People who will enter a Promised Land with the Law given through Moses.

This line of people also leads to the Savior of the world.

God will use you with all of your imperfections.  Don’t believe me?  I will wrap up with something very familiar. You have seen it on the internet and on the back of tee shirts.  Consider it this morning.

Noah was a drunk

Abraham was too old

Jacob was a liar

Leah was not good looking

Joseph was abused

Moses had a stuttering problem and was a murderer

Gideon was afraid

Samson was a womanizer

Rahab was a prostitute

David had an affair and was a murderer

Elijah was suicidal

Isaiah preached naked

Jonah ran from God

Naomi was a widow

Job went bankrupt

Peter denied Christ

The Disciples fell asleep while praying

Martha worried about everything

The Samaritan woman was divorced many times

Zacchaeus was too small

Jesus called the disciples dull--slow

Judas would betray him

Paul was too religious

Timothy had an ulcer

Lazarus was dead

Don’t think that God won’t use you to complete his plan.  Be ready to respond to the leading that God’s Spirit places on your heart.

If God was looking for reasons to disqualify you from doing his work, he could find them without much effort, but that is not his thing.

He chose you—with all of your flaws and defects—to do his will, to live out his plan.  He chose you in spite of everything that you might think reasons that he wouldn’t.

He chose you.

Amen.

Just Trust Him

 Read Genesis 27

Here’s the thing for the next couple of Sundays.  We are calling them Throwback Sundays.  Why?

You are going to get the same message at the 9 am service and the 11 am service.  Why call them Throwback Sundays?

That’s the way we did it about 16 or 17 years ago.  If I had to go back 50 years, I would call them vintage Sundays.  I just realized that most the things that I have at home are not old.  They are vintage.

But to the message.  It’s the same at both services.  I tell you this because some of you might not have noticed.

For this story to make any sense at all, you must consider God’s words to Rebekah in Genesis 25.

“Two nations are in your womb,

    and two peoples from within you will be separated;

one people will be stronger than the other,

    and the older will serve the younger.”

The children from whom these two nations would come are Esau—the older but just by a heel, and Jacob who had latched on to his brother as they emerged from the womb.

To further understand, we look to the end of Genesis 25.

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

 Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

Isaac is now an old man and his vision is about gone.  He knows his days are numbered and it is time to give his blessing to his oldest son.  He calls for Esau and tells him to get some fresh game and cook it for him.  Isaac wanted a special meal to go with this blessing.

Esau got his hunting equipment and went to the field.  Rebekah had overheard this conversation and told Jacob to go get 2 goats from the flock so she could cook them just the way Isaac liked them.

As they say in theater, the plot thickens.  Both sons are on their assigned tasks.  Slaughtering the goats and preparing them took less time than hunting game.  Jacob’s meal was ready first. Mom made sure of it.

Jacob was Leary of passing himself off as his brother.  Esau was a man who was rougher.  His skin was tougher.  He was still a hairy man.  Jacob, well, not so much.

Jacob knew this whole ploy was so that Isaac would bless him and not his brother.  Esau had sworn away his birthright for a bowl of stew, but his father’s blessing was still in the hands of Isaac.

Mom dressed Jacob in Esau’s best clothes and put goat skins over his hands.  Isaac could barely see so he would have to rely on other senses.  If he touched or smelled Jacob, he would feel and smell like his older brother.

Jacob was still skeptical.  What if his father discovered the deception?  He would curse him.

Rebekah said that the curse would fall on her.  Jacob proceeded to take his father the meal.

Jacob began with a lie.  Isaac asked, “Who is there?”

Jacob replied, “It’s Esau, your oldest son.” The deception was in full swing.

The deception was not easy.  Jacob felt and smelled like Esau, but the voice was that of Jacob.  In the end, Isaac was convinced that this was his older son and he blessed him.

He blessed him.  This was a big deal.  This was huge as far as the estate of his father was concerned, though if you keep reading, Jacob does not seem to be the beneficiary of that estate.

But a blessing is a blessing and Jacob had it.  He was blessed as if he were the firstborn.

What a screwball story.  God’s Chosen People will come from the line of Jacob.  The Savior of the world will come from the line of Jacob.

But could it have not come from Esau? Again, let’s go back just a little.

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Esau already had 2 wives from the pagan people who surrounded them.  Remember that Abraham sent his servant to get Isaac a wife from his brother’s family hundreds of miles east of where they lived now.  There was no way that his son would marry one of these heathen women.

But Abraham’s oldest grandson did just that.  Actually, he took 2 pagan wives.  We are told that Esau despised his birthright.  He apparently was not too concerned about his offspring either.

By the way, Esau would later take a wife from the descendants of Ishmael. 

Jacob was pretty slick.  His mom was a good coach, but the story doesn’t end here.  Esau comes to his father’s tent with the game he killed and cook to his dad’s specifications only to discover that Jacob had stolen his blessing.

There were no do-overs.  What was done was done. Jacob had his father’s blessing.

Esau asked if his father had only one blessing.  This was Isaac’s response.

“Your dwelling will be

    away from the earth’s richness,

    away from the dew of heaven above.

You will live by the sword

    and you will serve your brother.

But when you grow restless,

    you will throw his yoke

    from off your neck.”

That’s not quite the same as how Isaac blessed Jacob.

“Ah, the smell of my son

    is like the smell of a field

    that the Lord has blessed.

May God give you heaven’s dew

    and earth’s richness—

    an abundance of grain and new wine.

May nations serve you

    and peoples bow down to you.

Be lord over your brothers,

    and may the sons of your mother bow down to you.

May those who curse you be cursed

    and those who bless you be blessed.”

Now that was a blessing that would continue this special lineage from the Father of Many Nations.  It was all part of God’s will that the line to his chosen people and to Jesus would go through Jacob.

We think of our plans as well order and sensible.  Sometimes we look at God’s plans and think, “What is he thinking?’

Did the God of all the universe really come up with this?

Our own understanding tells us that it’s a crazy plan.  That won’t work. I’ve got some ideas of my own.

When we think about those things too much, we have forgotten that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and truly sovereign.

When we think, “Just what is God thinking?” we are asking if God has lost control of his creation.

Through our human eyes and through our own understanding, it might seem like he has, but we walk by, live by faith not sight.

God does not run his plans by us for an estimate of supportability.

God does not ask us to chime in as the dream team of consultants that we think ourselves to be.

Have you ever seen those memes of our plans as a straight line from point A to point B?  Then there is one of God’s plan that goes from A to B but looks like a 2-year-old was turned loose with a crayon.  The trip takes you from A to B but it visits a thousand other destinations en route, some more than once.

Let me tell you that the one that looks like it was done by a small child armed with crayons is the one to put on your refrigerator.

Trust God’s plan.

It may involve hardship.  It may involve suffering.  It may involve death of loved ones.  I may involve dealing with people who hate your guts.

It may not proceed at your pace. It may include what you might think are unnecessary steps. It may just seem outright crazy, but if you know it to be from the Lord, then just trust it.

Decades ago, I was known among the Marines in my company by a simple phrase.  When Marines were looking at all the reasons that would make the mission impossible, I would simply say:

JUST DO IT

Yes, Nike stole my slogan.  It’s my own fault.  I never copyrighted or trademarked it.  Who would have thought it would catch on with people who made shirts and shoes?

JUST DO IT

I want us to try something similar.  As we face the absurdity of navigating our world, let’s think in similar terms.

JUST TRUST HIM

As we look at putting our Master’s words into practice in what seems like a never-ending race of running against the wind, let us think:

JUST TRUST HIM

When God’s word tells us to love our enemies or pray for those who hate us or turn the other cheek when our own nature would like to deliver a real whopping, think this:

JUST TRUST HIM

We will continue following the story of Jacob and Esau. We skipped over Esau’s part in this for today, but he is not forgotten.  For now, let’s just leave it with he is very upset and thinking about killing his brother.

 It’s good to know the story.  Study it. Learn it.  Know it, but above all just trust God and God's plans and his thoughts and his ways for they are truly higher than our thoughts and ways.

In an age that seems exceedingly complicated, here’s is something simple to which you may cling.

JUST TRUST HIM

It’s the whole trust in the Lord with all of your heart thing again.

It’s that lean not on your own understanding bit one more time.

It’s just trust him.

JUST TRUST HIM

 

Amen.

What you intended for evil...

This has been a tough year for violence—senseless violence.  Just when you think it can’t get any worse, evil finds a way to do more and more.  In this post-modern century, evil is still at work in the word.

Evil is still at work in the world.   Don’t you just wish that you could turn back the clock to another time?

This morning, we will turn back the clock about 4000 years and introduce a man named Jacob.  He was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham.  God would call him Israel.  Read chapters 32 and 35 when you get a chance.

He had many sons himself, from 2 wives and 2 maidservants.  One of these sons was named Joseph.  The Vacation Bible School that just took place centered on this man named Joseph, his dreams, and his journey from prison to palace.

Joseph and Benjamin were the youngest children, born to Rachel, but it was Joseph whom was given a richly ornate robe.   Today we have come to call it his coat of many colors. 

His brothers were jealous.  Imagine hearing, “Dad loves you more” from 10 older brothers.  Benjamin was younger.  Perhaps this jealously would have just played out in wrestling matches and double dog dares, but Joseph had dreams and he shared them.

Sheaves of his brothers bowing to his own sheave and even the sun, moon, and stars bowing to him upset his brothers and even his father.  What are you saying here kid?  You will rule over us?  Is that it?

It seemed that everyone was upset with Joseph, but note verse 37:11.  Jacob kept the matter in mind.  That is, he pondered these thoughts of his young son as more than just the crazy rebelliousness of a young man.

The story of Joseph really comes into full swing when his 10 older brothers are tending flocks and Israel sends him to check on them.  He heads out to Scheckem and finds they are not there.  After some discussion with a local, he believes them to be in Dothan and sets out to find them.

The brothers saw him coming.  Perhaps this is the first known use of the overused saying, “They saw you coming.”  It fits.

They saw him coming and started plotting.  Among the schemes was an option to kill their young brother.  Reuben intervened and convinced them to throw him in an empty well.  Don’t think that Joseph was just going along with whatever his brothers decided.  He did pleaded for his life.

During this time when Joseph was in the cistern, Reuben went somewhere.  We don’t know exactly what happened next.  Perhaps it was Reuben’s turn to watch the sheep, but what happened next transpired without the oldest brother present. 

A caravan of Ishmaelites was headed their way.  The brothers had decided not to kill Joseph.  Even if they hated him, he was still flesh and blood kin.  They decided to sell him to the traders and received 20 shekels of sliver for him.

When Reuben returned he was furious.  Well, not upset enough to go after his little brother.  The question remains unanswered whether or not he took his cut of the 20 shekels.  That’s a good topic for Monday night Bible study.

In any case Joseph was gone and they needed a cover story.  Upset or not, even Reuben would be complicit in this.  They took his ornate robe—no way that was included in the deal—and ripped it to pieces.  They slaughtered a goat and dipped it in its blood.

This is where you get to scratch your head and think, “And out of these men will come the tribes of God’s Chosen People.”

They are each 2 shekels richer by selling their brother.

Surely the flesh of the goat didn’t go to waste.  They had a goat roast party to celebrate their ill-gotten gains.

Finally, they bring the pieces of robe back to their father presenting it to him in feigned innocence saying, “does this look like your son’s coat?”  It’s pretty good as far as criminal thinking goes.  If you let dad draw his own conclusions, you don’t have to get 10 stories straight.

The story shifts back to Joseph.  He was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.  I’m sure you are wondering the same thing that I am.  What was the price?  The wholesale cost was 20 shekels of silver; what was the retail price of the man who would ultimately save Egypt and God’s Chosen People?

We don’t get that answer but we do get this:  “And the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.”

Joseph, at whatever price Potiphar paid, was a bargain.  He was successful at everything he did and pretty soon he was running everything that his master could put in his charge.

I can imagine hearing the captain of the guard talking at the officers club.  “You wouldn’t believe the deal I got on this Hebrew kid.  He is smart, industrious, and it seems like everything I give him to do he finds a way to make it work.  I think I made the deal of a lifetime.”

The problem was that Joseph was what we might call a strapping young man and it seems that Potiphar’s wife was something of a cougar.  Yes, she wanted him.

In an encounter where she grabs his robe and he runs away not wanting any part of betraying his master, she is left with his robe and he is fleeing the scene.  The script gets flipped and Joseph is branded the aggressor.

Welcome to the Pharaoh’s prison where we are told that the Lord was with Joseph once again.  He became the warden’s favorite and even made a couple of friends. 

These were the Pharaoh’s former cupbearer and baker.  Each of which would present Joseph with dreams and Joseph would explain them.

The explanation was good for the cupbearer and not so good for the baker, but Joseph asked that when the cupbearer was restored to his position that he put in a good word for him.

Here we see that Joseph is faithful to trust in his Lord but not stoic.  He tells the cupbearer that he got a bum rap.  He was brought to Egypt not of his own free will and once here committed no crimes.

Of course that story goes around a few hundred time a day in prison, but Joseph saw an opportunity to get his case before Pharaoh and he was proactive.

The cupbearer was restored to his position and immediately pleaded for Joseph’s release.  No he didn’t.  He forgot to mention Joseph for a full 2 years.

He didn’t remember of his own accord but because the Pharaoh had dreams and nobody could help him to interpret them.  But the cupbearer remembered Joseph.

The Pharaoh’s dreams consisted of 7 fine looking head of cattle coming up out of the Nile followed by 7 of the scrawniest cows you could imagine.  To top it off, the scrawny cows ate the big healthy cows.

He had a second dream involving grain that portrayed the same message—a message that it took Joseph to reveal to the Pharaoh.  Egypt would be blessed with 7 years of abundance that would be followed by 7 years of famine.

Joseph didn’t stop there.  He prescribed what must be done.  In every part of Egypt, 1/5 of the harvest must be collected and stored for each of the 7 years.  That is 20% of each year’s harvest was to be held back by the government to weather the lean years to come.

Joseph then told Pharaoh that he must appoint a wise man to oversee this most important project.  Pharaoh knowing of no such man among his counselors and commanders and seeing God at work in Joseph, appointed Joseph.

At the Age of 30, this man who was discarded by his own brothers, sent to prison without cause, and seemed to be forgotten was now in charge of all of Egypt—all of it.  Only Pharaoh himself would not be answerable to Joseph.

He was given an Egyptian name:  Zaphenath-Paneah.  We don’t know what the name meant at the time; perhaps it was “Revealer of Secrets” or  “God Speaks.”  He was given a wife.  He was in charge and over all things in Egypt.  Joseph did what he had always done because the Lord was with him.  He executed the plan that would save many lives.

Now we return to Jacob and his sons.  Famine has come.  They are hungry.  Egypt has grain so he sends all but Benjamin to buy grain.  There are stories within stories that transpire next until Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers.

We jump ahead somewhat to God’s chosen people moving to Egypt, being given land in the hill country of Goshen, and beginning to grow into the nation of Israel in this foreign land.

Jacob—Israel lived 17 years in Egypt with all of his sons as this young nation began to emerge.  Then at the age of 147 years, he died.  He had given instructions to his sons that he was to be buried in Canaan in the place that Abraham had purchased long ago.

The Pharaoh granted Joseph leave to bury his father—how could he not.  Joseph had saved a nation, actually two nations.   So Joseph and his brothers buried their father.

Reality sunk in for the brothers.  Dad’s gone.  Our brother Joseph is the most powerful man in the world.  We did him wrong.  Now we are surely going to pay for what we did.

These brothers longed for forgiveness but know at best they can only be slaves.  Long ago they sold themselves into slavery.  These men are without hope.  They fall down at Joseph’s feet declaring themselves to be his slaves.

But Joseph said, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good, and the saving of many lives which is being accomplished now.”

Make no mistake, these brothers acted long ago with malice aforethought against their brother.  They plotted his death but settled for selling him into slavery.

This was hate in action.

They did evil.  They did wrong.  They did it to their own brother.

But Joseph reminded his brothers that he was not God and he did not sit in the judgment seat.  For all that Joseph had been through he was now in a position to save many lives and many lives were being saved.  Joseph’s heart and mind were set on reconciliation, not retaliation.

He told his brothers that he would not only care for them but for their children as well.  We see wisdom and mercy and a heart of reconciliation in Joseph, but we also see that there is evil in the world.

There is evil in the world but God has not orphaned us to deal with it on our own.  In Joseph’s darkest hours, we note that the Lord was with him and he prospered wherever he was.

There is evil at work in the world today.  We hear about it more frequently across more media platforms every year.  It is there.  It is not going away in this age and we should not be surprised.

What is surprising is how many Christians forget that God is with us.  The Lord is with us and will prosper us.

The Lord has given us gifts and talents and special abilities that we are to put to use and then we are to trust in the Lord that he will work things for good for those of us who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Today, let us take a lesson from Joseph.  He was not stoic.  He didn’t go through life saying, “It’s nothing.”  He knew that he had been wronged.  He didn’t like it but he trusted God.

He made the most of every circumstance that was thrust upon him and the Lord was with him and what he did prospered.

We have been here many times before.  We don’t focus on the world.  We are aware of what is going on in the world but we focus on what God has called us to do and trust him to direct our paths.

We work at everything we do as if we are working for God and not for others.

We go into this dark and sometimes evil world as salt and light and love.  People need to taste the goodness of God in us.  We need to be a light in the darkness.

But we must trust God even when our circumstances seemed to be turned inside out and upside down.  We need to trust God and put our gifts and talents to use even when everything seems to be going against us.

It only took a moment for Joseph to go from the depths of prison to commanding everything in Egypt and in a position to save many lives, including those of his own family.  In a single moment everything can change.

For Joseph, Egypt, and God’s Chosen people acts of evil and hate had been stripped of their own selfish intent and replaced with God’s purpose.

The Lord was with Joseph and the Lord is with us.  We will not become discouraged even when evil seems to prevail all around us for the Lord is with us.

We will prosper in everything the Lord calls us to do.

Amen.