Verse for the Day, 11 June 2014.

Exodus 1:5-12  All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.  (6)  Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.  (7)  But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.  (8)  Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  (9)  And he said to his people, "Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.  (10)  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."  (11)  Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.  (12)  But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

The book of Exodus is a fascinating book, for it chronicles for us the formation and establishment of a nation in the most unlikely of circumstances. The book of Exodus begins by telling us this nation had no land, no law, no freedom, no religious systems, no identifiable human leader, yet they are still regarded as a nation! By the end of Exodus we will see how this nation will have a law, freedom, a formal religious system, a leader and will be on route to a land that will become their own. From slaves being held in cruel bondage, God will dramatically and powerfully save them from their oppressors, He will reveal Himself to these people in a way never seen before, or even after and He will personally lead them to the Promised Land.

With this to look forward to in our study of Exodus, we quickly see that Exodus does not start in the same manner that Genesis ended. Genesis finished on a high note with the reconciliation of Joseph to his family and preservation of the nation of Israel, but it is saddening to read that the prosperity Jacob and his sons enjoyed through Joseph was short lived. Within the first few verses of Exodus we see that only a generation or two later there is no prosperity to be found from the hands of their hosts, the Egyptians. Certainly God was prospering the Israelite families, for they have increased significantly in number. At the end of Genesis the nation of Israel comprises of less than 100 people, but by the time of the exodus from Egypt some 400 years later, it is believed they were close to 2 000 000 people! Such was the rate of population growth amongst the Israelites that the Egyptians became increasingly fearful, realising that if the Israelites were to unite themselves against the Egyptians, they may very well succeed and overthrow their rulers. The Egyptians sought to crush the Israelites spirit and weaken them through oppression, before they could rise up against them. Thus for several generations, the Israelites were severely oppressed, each generation oppressed more than the previous. They were enslaved and forced to build cities for the Egyptians to live in and boast about. It was a soul-destroying work, one which drove all the promises of God and the covenant of God far from their minds.

Yet in the midst of this severe oppression they were not abandoned altogether, God’s hand was still upon them. God thwarted the plans of the Egyptians against the Israelites, for the more they oppressed God’s people, the more God caused His people to grow in number and strength, which in turn served to increase the fear of the Egyptians.

When hardship and trial come, we are very quick to think that God has forsaken us; we question His goodness and faithfulness. What we fail to do is to observe the ways in which God is at work and revealing not only His presence, but also His goodness and faithfulness. The Egyptians wanted to cause the nation of Israel to diminish in number and in strength, yet in spite of the ever increasing severity of the oppression the opposite happened. The people of Israel grew more and more in number and they grew all the stronger, God was working against the Egyptians. The result of which is that it is not the Israelites who are filled with fear, as the Egyptians had hoped, rather the Egyptians are fear-filled. God never forsakes His people, He is always at work, we need to be wise to look for the ways and means that God is at work in the midst of our hardship and draw encouragement from that.

Father of mercy, we thank You for Your enduring love and faithfulness towards us. We seek Your forgiveness for doubting Your love and faithfulness in times of hardship and for thinking that You are not present, or not at work. Help us, by Your Spirit, to be able to look with wise and discerning eyes so as to see where You are at work and to give You the praise due to Your for that work. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 9 June 2014.

Genesis 2:1-3  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  (2)  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  (3)  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Genesis, it is a much neglected book, yet it has so much to teach us. As was stated when we first started to study it, Genesis is a book of foundations, so much so that without Genesis in our Bibles, the Bible would be incredibly incomplete. We would not know who God is, who we are and how this world and we came to be. We would not know why we existed, what the point and purpose of our lives were, as men, as women and as the human race. The desire of God for us at creation, the perfection of the created Universe and the fall into sin would be unknown to us; we would have had to assume that there always was sin, and creation would remain a mystery. As for God’s plan of redemption, we would not know where it all began, and why it was so necessary, for we would not know what we had lost by virtue of our sin. The many ways and means of how that salvation would come, they would have never been revealed to us. We would not know that the Saviour would be the offspring of a woman, we would not know that he was the fulfilment of a covenant God made with a man called Abram, we would not have seen that first picture of Christ functioning as our substitute as so clearly demonstrated by Abraham’s offering up of Isaac and God’s provision of a ram. The origins and formation of the nation of Israel would be a complete mystery, questions would go unanswered, why did they believe Canaan was their God-given land, how did they end up in Egypt, who are these men they keep talking about, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?

Think of all that we have learnt about God, His character, attributes, works, will and ways. They have been a constant source of encouragement to us, and they have set the foundation for all that is to follow, how insufficient our knowledge of God would be without Genesis! We have learnt much about how God deals with us from Genesis, how God deals with sin, and rewards righteousness. We have come to see that God is a God who is holy and powerful, but also a God who desires to draw near and enter into relationship with us. Although Genesis has shown the wretched state of man’s heart, that we are sinful to the very core, we have also seen the immense grace God extends to man. God is patient and gentle; He is faithful and good towards us, supplying our every need. He is our guide and protector, going before us and leading us according to His will, He knows, holds and controls the future and thus we need not fear.

Genesis has taught us that we have a creator God, who is infinite, all powerful, all knowing and all wise. He has created us in perfection, with the purpose of knowing, of glorifying and enjoying Him forever¹, to live in a perfect relationship with Him, with each other and with creation. It is a God and a perfection that we have spurned and rejected in our sin, God has responded both in judgement and in grace. Sin has brought us under the curse and into death, yet God promises to break that curse and bring us back into life. That promise is not an empty one; He has worked through the lives of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph so as to bring it closer to fruition. Genesis has also taught us that we did not have to wait for the salvation to be accomplished in order to know God and to enter back into a right relationship with Him. God has drawn near to sinful men, extending grace and entering into a personal saving relationship with those who in faith believe in Him and trust in His promises. The Gospel is evident on every page in the book of Genesis, as God’s plan of redemption unfolds more and more.

It is a book of foundations, a book of beginnings, but it is also a book that points us to the end, the end of God’s plan of salvation, and the end of God’s desire for mankind. God’s desire at the end is the same as it was at the beginning, and that is for us to enter into the Sabbath rest of God, in the presence and kingdom of God, glorifying and enjoying Him forever¹. As we conclude our time in Genesis and prepare to begin Exodus, let us thank God for the book of Genesis and continue to reflect upon the many truths that it has taught.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the book of Genesis. Thank You that it has been written down, preserved and handed down through the generations so that we might read it and be instructed by it today. As we leave this book and move to the next, we pray that You will help us not to forget all that we have learnt from Genesis. We ask that Your Spirit will keep these many truth deeply imbedded in our minds, so that they might encourage, strengthen and teach us. We thank You again for this wonderful, God-given, God-breathed, Gospel-centred book. Amen

1: Westminster Catechism.

Verse for the Day, 6 June 2014.

Genesis 50:15-21  When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him."  (16)  So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died:  (17)  'Say to Joseph, "Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you."' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.  (18)  His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants."  (19)  But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?  (20)  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.  (21)  So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

The passing away of Jacob and the time of mourning over his death has now come to an end, the sons of Joseph have obediently done as their father requested concerning his burial. Now the bothers turn from mourning to fear, fear that Joseph may have been restraining his anger against his brothers for the sake of their father, but now that Jacob has died Joseph will avenge himself. Therefore they send a message to Joseph in the hope that it might cause Joseph to turn away from seeking revenge. We cannot verify if Jacob did in fact say these words to the brothers, but these words would be in keeping with Jacob’s character and life. Jacob knew what it was to sin against a brother, he knew the guilt, remorse, shame and fear it produced, and how it divided their family. Jacob would be eager for his family to remain united, to seek forgiveness and to extend forgiveness, to receive grace and to extend grace.

Whatever fears the brothers may have had are quickly put to rest by Joseph’s comforting and kind words. In these words, Joseph demonstrates a great understand of justice, God’s character and God’s purposes. He has come to understand that vengeance and justice is ultimately in the hands of God and will be executed by God. It is not his place or position to be judge, jury and executioner. He had learnt long ago, as he languished in prison, to entrust himself, his cause and those who had sinned against him into God’s hands and into God’s justice. Joseph had also come to see the goodness and faithfulness of God, even through the wickedness of his brothers, the lies and false accusations of Potiphar’s wife and the forgetfulness of the cup-bearer. God not only remained faithful to Joseph, but worked through all those people, circumstances and events, for Joseph’s good. Finally Joseph had learnt to trust in God’s purposes. All that had happened to Joseph, though it may have been extremely painful and distressing, was not for an empty purpose or reason. God had a plan and purpose, God knew the future, and thus God set all things in place so that Joseph might be in such a position and place. This doesn’t excuse the sinful actions of the brothers or of Potiphar’s wife, rather it reveals that God’s plan and purposes are not derailed by the sinful actions of man. God planned and purposed that Joseph would rise to prominence in Egypt so that he could preserve his family in a time of great drought. In fact this plan and purpose goes even further back for God revealed to Abraham (Genesis 15) that his descendants would leave the land for a time, but then return to it prosperous and in great number. God is working through Joseph to this end. Having learnt all this Joseph now extends to his brothers the same goodness, grace and mercy that God has given to him, and he pledges to care for them all.

We need to learn from Joseph’s example, entrusting ourselves to God, remembering that God is faithful, good, sovereign and just. Like Joseph, we need to be willing, quick to forgive and extend grace to those who have sinned against us, seeking after greater unity in the church. Finally, we can rejoice in the fact that God does have a plan and purpose; our lives are not empty and meaningless journeys through life. God desires and wants to use us in His Kingdom work, all we need do is to respond with willing and obedient hearts.

Faithful, good, sovereign and just God, we pray that we might daily entrust ourselves to You, resting in Your plan and purpose and walking in obedience. Our desire is to glorify You with our lives, we pray that You would work through us to that end. We pray too, that we might walk in the footsteps of Joseph and more importantly Christ, as we seek to extend grace and forgiveness to those who sin against us. Amen.

Verse for the Day, 5 June 2014.

Genesis 49:8-12  "Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you.  (9)  Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?  (10)  The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.  (11)  Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.  (12)  His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

Genesis 49 records the last words of Jacob, his twelve sons have gathered around the death-bed of their father and receive from him a blessing. If we read through this chapter it appears that a significant portion of the brothers receive more of a chastisement and curse rather than a blessing. Judah and Joseph stand apart from the rest of the twelve in the great blessings that are given to them.

The blessing given to Judah is one of great importance in what we call Redemptive History, the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. We are being given a glimpse into how God will form and forge the nation of Israel to bring His plan of salvation through Christ to pass.

With this blessing that is given to Judah in mind, as we continue to read and work our way through the Scriptures and the history of Israel, when we come to 2 Samuel 2 and 2 Samuel 5 where David is anointed king of Judah and then a little while later king over all of Israel we should rejoice. The rise of David to the position of king is the fulfilment of these words that Jacob spoke, over 800 years before David was even born. Our joy should be all the more when we come to 2 Samuel 7, for the blessing pronounced upon Judah comes to an even greater fulfilment when God makes a covenant with David, that David’s line will remain upon the throne. Keeping all this in mind our joy should reach its climax when we come to the New Testament, to the Gospel of Matthew and read of how Christ is born into the tribe of Judah and of the line of David. This is the great, final and ultimate fulfilment of Jacob’s blessing upon Judah, for Christ will hold the throne, the sceptre, the power and the authority forever.

This serves as an encouraging reminder to us that God’s plan of salvation was not a plan He had to put together in an instant with little forethought. The whole of human history is actually the story of how God has acted to redeem mankind. Human history starts with God and it will end with God, when God’s plan of redemption has accomplished all that God set to accomplish through it. We can also take great encouragement from passages such as this, as they remind us of the authenticity and truth of the Bible as it records historical events for us. Only God could have inspired the words that Jacob spoke, only God could have instructed Samuel to go and anointed a young shepherd boy call David from the tribe of Judah. Only God could have planned and worked so as to preserve this promise for nearly 2000 years, so that Christ would be born in accordance and in fulfilment of this promise. We can trust God and we can trust His Word, for they are true and trustworthy.

Our great God over time and history, we worship You today for the many ways in which You have worked through human history in Your wisdom, goodness, mercy, love and grace. We praise You for the wonder of Your plan of redemption, so perfectly planned and performed. We praise You further for the truth of Your Word, that we can stand upon it knowing that it is true in all that which is says. We pray that this might encourage us to trust You all the more and to love Your Word more. Amen

Verse for the Day, 4 June 2014.

Isaiah 40:5-8  And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."  (6)  A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  (7)  The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.  (8)  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

(A recent event has prompted me to break from our study through Genesis and my mind has been directed to these particular verses. We will resume Genesis tomorrow.)

A good friend of mine passed away just a few days ago, his death was sudden, unexpected and at the tender age of 33. Several hard truths struck me when I heard of his death. The first being, don’t take your youth for granted. The majority of us think that it is only when we get older, much older that we will have to worry about our death and the death of our life-long friends. Yet death never abides by our timeline, nor can we dictate to it, it will come and there will be no stopping it, for it comes at the God-appointed time. The second truth that struck me left me with a great sense of shame and regret. Although we had been in school together for some 9 years, I cannot recall a single occasion whereby I sought to make the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ known to him. To my further shame I have to confess that often times my behaviour was not reflective of one who claims to be a follower of Christ.

Of course we can excuse all our short-comings away, we can call it immaturity, or busyness, or not wanting to anti-social, or not wanting to Bible-bash etc… but the reality is that they are all excuses that are not justifiable. We take too much security in thinking that we will see those whom we love and care for again. We hide behind the excuse of waiting for an opportunity to arise that will allow us to share the Gospel with them, instead of pro-actively creating an opportunity. We fail to appreciate the truth of that which God says through Isaiah, life is brief and it can be snatched away in the blink of eye. Think upon that reality.

We have the God-given responsibility, call and privilege to both declare the Gospel to all and live out the Gospel in the presence of all. We are to never presume that we will see them again, nor presume that there will be another opportunity to tell them of Christ, or demonstrate the love of Christ to them. We have today, that is the only guarantee we have, the question is what will we do with today?

Father of mercy, we ask for Your mercy today as we seek Your forgiveness from the many times we have failed to declare the Gospel, or to live as we should. We pray that You might help us to grasp the brevity of life, the length of eternity and the urgent need to make Christ known. We ask for the further aid of Your Spirit to prompt us to share the Gospel, to show us how to create opportunities to share the Gospel and to help us live in a manner that reflects the Gospel. Amen.