About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.”

The story of Joseph is one of the predominant stories in Genesis. Abraham’s descendants were saved when Joseph assumed a place of political power in Egypt. If Jacob and his sons had not fled to Egypt in a time of famine, the line of Abraham would have ended.

But the puzzling thing is this ~ Why, in the middle of the story of Joseph, does God bring in the story of Judah and Tamar? Isn’t it out of place? This tiny story is really the stunning focal point of the whole book. Here’s why.

Through Tamar’s offspring would come King David’s ancestral line. Without her pregnancy, Judah’s line would be extinct. In essence, Joseph’s rise to power made a way for Tamar’s child to get to Egypt! Perez, her son, was able to live outside of famine and grow to prosper. Ten generations after him would birth a shepherd boy who would become King.

How well do I handle God’s interruptions? When He leads me on a detour, or so I believe it to be, how willing am I to trust Him? For all I know, the detour provides the next doorway to my future. God hasn’t laid down His sovereign rule over my life; He has exercised it. Just because I can’t see the value of His interruption doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Getting older yields many gifts. One of them is the privilege of looking back at a large chunk of my life to see the fingerprints of God. The places of pain that I thought were wasted were really invaluable. Some of the places that God took me (and I mourned all the way there), were places of blessed connections. How well I remember God’s words in Hosea. ‘I’m calling you to the desert to speak tenderly to you there.’ Desert equals disruption if I look at it from my limited viewpoint. But desert really equals a life-defining moment when God is there to speak into my life.

Against what are you straining today? Perhaps your trust in the Shepherd has eroded because of the place he’s taken you. What appears to be a meaningless detour never is when God has you by the hand. Do the very thing I failed to do so many years ago. Embrace the place you are in, by faith, and ask God to give you eyes to see the treasures under the rocks.

You don’t make detours. I’m on Your path and always secure. Amen

And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. Genesis 41:38-39

It’s one thing for pagans to ask the question, ‘Can we find a man in whom is the Spirit of God?’ It’s quite another to realize that in the family of God, it can be equally difficult to find someone who is full of the Spirit. If each of us is a container for the Spirit of God to live His life, why is He not more recognizable?

I’m convinced that life is one long series of choices where I choose whether or not to quench the Spirit. He speaks; I turn my ear toward more enticing voices. He suggests; I ignore His suggestion and pick something that promises instant gratification. He begs obedience; I procrastinate and then live in perpetual guilt. He woos me to behold Him in all His glory; I am oblivious by the lights and glitter of Babylon.

The only time I am more than willing to drown out everything that competes with the Spirit is when I suffer. My need of Him is stronger than my need for things that are of little consolation. Stripped of everything that used to matter, Jesus is in full view. His voice is clear and merciful. “I’m here!”  His invitation is gracious though I don’t deserve this prodigal’s homecoming. As I sink into waves of mercy, He proceeds to say what He has said across the ages to repentant sinners. “Go and sin no more.” Of course. How could I think of it after such a lifesaving encounter!

The Spirit of God is prominent in me only when my need of Him has exposed how precious He is. He is on full display when He is my treasure. May others see that I am obsessed and possessed.

Joseph’s betrayal, imprisonment, and isolation proved to be three great friends – for these lifesaving wounds led him to cling to his God. No wonder Pharaoh saw the Spirit in so short an encounter.

Lord, the greatest lesson of my lifetime is to learn to embrace suffering and not fight it. Each trial has led me to You. Amen

But the men [angels] reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.  Genesis 19:10-11

God is faithful to protect His children.  The men who came to Lot and his family, the ‘angels unaware’, shut the door to the outside gang who had come to do Lot’s visitors harm.  Knowing their numbers and their strength, knowing they could probably still break down the door, the angels struck the members of the gang with blindness.  Even that didn’t stop them.  They were still obsessed with finding the door and breaking in ~ so strong was their obsession with sexual perversion.

What does it take to break under the hand of God?  Personally, it has taken a lot.  My own heart was so darkened that it took a lot of time and pain to bring me to the end of myself.  I wanted what I wanted ~ and I was  obsessed in my own private and stubborn way.  I have since learned that if not taught the sweet fruit of submission when we’re young, the desire for personal autonomy magnifies over time.  So much harder to submit at 45 than at 4 years of age.  That’s why we teach our children to obey the first time.  We’re preparing them to say, “Yes, Lord!” when Jesus calls them.

You may be watching the Lord break the will of a loved one.  You may be shaking your head at how stubborn they are. (And also humbled at the memory of how stubborn you were.)  You wonder how much longer.  Though they have felt the heavy hand of God, they are still groping for the door that leads them to satisfy their cravings for sinful pleasures.

Though it may look hopeless today, it is not.  Not all believe, we know that.  But those who burn the brightest for the kingdom experience a pivotal moment when they surrender in the fire.  As you watch the crushing of that person you love, know that God knows their limits and frame.  You can trust His hand that afflicts – even in your tears for their repentance.

Lord, you hear my cry.  It’s hard to watch someone fight before they bow their knee.  I know Your justice but I am comforted that You are also limitless in mercy.  Amen

You were ransomed from the futile ways of your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish.  I Peter 1:18-19

Suppose your child was out playing in the back yard, a place that has always been safe, a neighborhood protected by crime watch.  When your back was turned, your child was snatched.  Hours of anguish passed.  The police and FBI were called and they set up your home with every kind of technology available, assuming that the kidnapper would contact you.  A day passes.  There is a phone call with a demand for ransom.  You expect to see a settlement of a dollar amount but instead there is a message that calls for the life of your other child, if the kidnapped child is to live.  How willing would you be to hand over another life of one you love?  It would be excruciating to weigh the options.

After Adam and Eve sinned, God’s heart was broken.  He looked upon His precious creation and saw them in the enemy’s clutches.  They were in bondage.  Their cries could be heard across the great span that separated them from His presence.  Cries for love, for justice, for mercy, for a new day.  The ransom required was the ‘giving of God’s only Son.’  No dollar amount would win their freedom.  Only innocent blood.  The miracle is, He gave what was most precious to Him – for us!

As I enjoy God’s tender mercies this morning, I am closing my eyes for a moment to remember at what great cost we have been bought and redeemed.  When Jesus died, God looked upon Him as He bled and saw our faces.  Through the great pain of watching His Son suffer, He saw us limping home.  He was writing our adoption papers with red ink.  Whatever He gives today, whether health, blessing, grace, companionship or radical forgiveness, each was bought with a price no ONE of us would be willing to pay if the tables were turned.

Oh, how great a love You show to me.  Wake me up and don’t let me take it for granted.  My salvation trembles in my spirit.  Amen

My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.  Psalm 119:148

Picture it ~ It’s the middle of the night.  You’ve been sleeping sporadically because of something that’s been eating at you.  Tossing and turning, you meditated on it, turning the issue over and over again in your mind.  No more peace was gained by doing so.  In fact, the rehearsal of it only brought more distress.  Such is the result of a meditation that is not of the God-kind.

David was up at night, too.  The Jews set up night watches (in four-hour shifts starting at dusk) to keep the city safe.  He revealed that his eyes were awake before the announcement of the next shift because he was already meditating on the promises of God.

This is the secret of insight and of peace.  This is where the treasures of the darkness are found.  When there would otherwise be no rest for our heart and no peace for our mind, God gives them both as we set our heart and mind on His words.

David said, “On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.”  Ps. 145:5 What works touched his heart in the wee hours of the morning?  I suspect the ones that contrasted the hurts and frustrations of his world on that particular day.  When he was betrayed, he meditated on God’s faithful heart.  When afraid, God’s power.  When trapped, God’s promise of deliverance.  When small and void of answers, God’s limitless wisdom.

I believe that meditation is most meaningful when I take the very thing that is troubling me, identify a few of the tormenting themes, then meditate on their kingdom counterparts.  God never entraps His children with words.  Every command, every insight, brings them into a spacious place where the view is expansive.  Upon seeing an old truth in a new light, we draw in our breath and say, “It’s beautiful!  The view is stunning.”

Your Words deliver me.  You are an unending meal for my soul.  Amen