God’s Presence In Hostile Places

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The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. Genesis 39:2

Joseph was called a successful man. How can that be? He was in hostile territory with limited influence. He was a slave. He was the victim of his brother’s scheming. He was far from home. He was trying to process an exorbitant amount of pain and yet this emotional challenge did not preclude him from ‘success’. Could the reason be that Joseph sought the Lord in the midst of his confinement?

It’s difficult to dwell in a place where I don’t belong, a place where freedom is absent. When confined, the default response is to fight and to live in angst. The discomfort of slavery is consuming and all energies are spent trying to figure out how to get out! The thought of making ‘Egypt’ home and working with God for spiritual success is usually the last thing on my mind. Instead of seeing God as an ally, I view Him as an adversary and blame Him for bringing me to a place of internment.

 

If anyone had good reason to struggle with God’s sovereignty, it was Joseph. He could have been bitter and turned his back on the faith of his fathers. He could have taken up ranks with the rest of the slaves and become nondescript. But his heart stayed open to God and he cooperated with purposes of God’s design on his life.

 

Can I be a Joseph in the place where I’m churning? What would it look like for God to make me successful right here? Can I take all the energies I’m currently spending trying to escape and invest them in Egypt? Would those who oppress me be moved if they saw me joyful in affliction instead of bitter? What if I took my little corner of influence and infused it with the glory of God?

 

May it be! As God’s child, I must learn to thrive in captivity. The world is an anti- kingdom. The culture is foreign and I am peculiar. However, everything I touch and my very demeanor can stir up confusion and wonderment. God’s presence begs to affect everything I happen to graze with spiritual success.

May it be said of me, “The Lord was with her and she became a successful woman.” In Jesus’ name, Amen

A Hundred Years From Now

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Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. Genesis 37:36

Do I ever consider what will happen to my family a hundred years from now? If I’m wise, I will remember the story of Isaac and Ishmael. Why bring up them in the story of Joseph? Because the Midianites is another name for the descendants of Ishmael.

What is really happening here is this ~ Joseph was sold to blood relatives. If an ancestry website had existed, and if everyone involved had done a genealogy study, they would have discovered that they were related. Did the slave traders know that they purchased their own flesh and blood? No way.

Ishmael was once the favored son of Abraham; a firstborn and an heir. But through no fault of his own, he found himself in disfavor once Isaac was born. He and his mother, Hagar, were turned away to an unforgiving desert existence. God did not forget them and they not only were spared, but went on to prosper. Ishmael had 12 sons and they populated much of the Middle East.

Whom did God use to get Joseph to Egypt? Ishmael’s descendants. In God’s grand redemptive narrative, there are unexpected twists and turns that are really quite stunning. Even though family plots are complicated, God’s purposes are never thwarted. As badly as we can mess things up, God is never stumped in how to save, how to redeem, and how to accomplish what was written before time.

Joseph couldn’t appreciate what his slavery meant. Neither can we. But consider how rich his worship was at the end of his life. As he looked back, he could see the threads of God’s glory throughout his own storyline. Amazed, his view of God had to be enlarged beyond comprehension.

Can I trust God enough today with the seeming dead ends, tragedies, and unresolved conflicts in my own life? I cannot even begin to imagine how He will work with the dark threads of my own story to bring about another Joseph-kind of narrative worth reading.

On the way to Egypt, Joseph lay in the back of a caravan. He was bound, dirty, nameless, and despairing. Later, he was crowned royalty, given a new name to match his level of leadership, and went on to save his entire nation from extinction. Oh, the difference of a few decades.

What often casts me into unbelief is downright ludicrous. Bind me to the miracles of my spiritual ancestors. In Jesus’ name, Amen

False Comforters

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All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. Genesis 37:35

         This is a tough scene. It’s hard to even read about as I picture a brokenhearted father being comforted by sons who were more enemies than family. They had dipped Joseph’s coat into a pool of goat’s blood, handed it to their father, knowing he could make only one conclusion. His son had been killed by a wild animal. Not one of them was going to tell Dad the truth, admitting that they had sold Joseph to slave traders. What did they do on the other side of their lying? Tried to comfort their father. But was it really comfort?

         It’s really quite something who turns up for funerals. Close friends, family members, acquaintances, and even various people with whom we have shared a strained relationship. Truth be told, it’s curiosity that brings many. Some want to see how we are handling hard times. They might even enjoy seeing us so vulnerable. While this may only describe the motives of a few, let’s face it ~ for a brief moment, they are elevated to the powerful position of a comforter.

         I should always comfort with integrity. There are relationships where there has been wounding. Things have never been mended. I might describe the status as ‘tense’. I should comfort them in a way that is consistent with the level of our relationship. I shouldn’t use their grief for my own gain. There is something in each of us that enjoys feeling powerful. When I’m in a position to give, to help, and to comfort, the gesture can be more for me than the one I’m supposedly helping.

         I bear the burden to act with integrity. The one who is grieving is taken up with his grief. He is vulnerable and can’t sort through the intentions behind the embraces he receives. He is also momentarily childlike and I am responsible to handle his powerless moment in a way where I can face Jesus without regret. Any comfort I extend is really on His behalf. Am I representing Him well?

         Jacob refused to be comforted. I wonder if, in his gut, he knew that there had been foul play. The one who weeps should never be put in a position to have to figure out the motives of those who appear compassionate. God holds me responsible for how I handle the one who is momentarily feeble.

Give me the courage to be ‘true’. Always. Amen

“Can’t You Hear Your Brother Crying?

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And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat. Genesis 37:25-25a

A group of grown men seized their own flesh and blood brother, stripped him, threw him into a pit, and then commenced to sit down and eat a meal. They were immune to the despair they inflicted. It’s unconscionable, or is it?

Consider how callousness starts. Brothers and sisters, even very young, reach out to hit their sibling and discover a surprising sense of glee when they realize they can make them cry. Good parents come and try to instill empathy. “What you did hurt your sister. Tell her you’re sorry!” And yet, the apology is hard to muster. Cruelty is in our fallen nature.

 

How will I develop keen sensitivity to others’ pain? How will I feel anothers sadness when I see pools of tears in their eyes? How will I feel enough remorse when my need for revenge caused me to injure someone beyond human repair? How will I come to regret an angry outburst against my child when I hear him whimpering in his room? Without God, callouses of my heart grow thicker with the years. I can hear weeping and still walk away unmoved.

But with God, I am affected and changed by His Spirit that lives inside. When I see someone’s pain, His compassion rises up and challenges me to express it. When I wound another with my angry words, His Spirit convicts me and opens my eyes to see the damage. In this life, I will continue to sin but when I do, I will feel how God feels about it and try to quickly make things right.

 

As I’m writing this, I’m suddenly aware that I can be callous to God’s tears. Does knowing that I will hurt Him cause me to sin less? Or do I avoid sin because I hate the consequences? That should be a side issue. What should deter me is knowing that my sin hurts my relationship with Jesus.

So, how difficult is it to apologize to Jesus when I’ve hurt Him? Excusing or rationalizing my behavior creates spiritual callouses. The cure is to spend time in the presence of God. Being near Him will sharpen my recognition of good and evil and give me the tender, teachable spirit of a toddler. Spiritual regeneration is when God turns back the clock to transform the person with a hardened heart of stone into a person with childlike sensitivities. At rebirth, I am putty in His hands as He begins to awaken my heart to beat like His.

Keep nudging me, Jesus. Keep asking, “Do you see it? Do You feel it?” Make me more aware of what moves you. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Making Others Listen

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Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” Genesis 37:9-10

When Joseph shared his first dream with his brothers, it didn’t go well. They despised him for it.  So why in the world would he go ahead and tell them his second dream? Perhaps, in his enthusiasm, he just couldn’t help himself. Maybe his strong desire for their respect drove him to it.  He was young after all and obviously impetuous. He wanted their love, the same kind that his father felt for him.

I can be so much like Joseph and make the same mistake.  When I’m excited about something, I want to tell someone. I hope others close to me will share my joy but when I open up indiscriminately, rejection is often the outcome.  Chances are, this has played out poorly before.  It’s a family pattern.  So, why do I put myself through this over and over again?  Maybe my need for approval is so strong that discretion goes out the door. Or, I suffer from magical thinking. “This time will be different.  I know they’ll listen!”

Sharing my passion with the same group of unreceptive people, believing they’ll eventually get it, is unwise. While I’m talking, they may be rolling their eyes. That never feels good.  For whatever reasons, they are simply closed-minded and it would be wise for me to acknowledge that.  I need divine restraint.  I need to stop talking out of personal need rather than holy mission.

A season of quietness and prayerfulness is needed. God needs to heal the rejection my soul suffers. He also needs to show me if my words are framed by a need to be right. When I’ve been mis-judged, I just want to fix it. I want to be vindicated but maybe their own brokenness will prevent them from ever really hearing me.

So, what do I do with my need to be liked, respected, validated and accepted? I take my needs to the One who makes me whole in His presence.

Healer of my soul, mend the ragged edges of my soul. Amen

Taunting Of The Brothers

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He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us?” Genesis 37:6-8

Can you hear the brothers’ outrage? They were incredulous as they asked the question, “Are you indeed to reign over us?” Time gave them their answer with more than a touch of irony.  At the end of the book of Genesis, Pharaoh set Joseph in the chariot behind him, announcing him as 2nd in command of all of Egypt.

This prompts me to think of others who were incredulous as they posed their rhetorical questions.  Some time in the future, the Philistines laughed as they questioned Saul about the absurdity of a small unarmed boy taking on their Goliath.  Much later than that, chief priests, Pharisees, and the likes of Pilate posed similar questions to Jesus about His claim to be a King.  All these questions were answered by a God who reminds us that He is not predictable and nothing is impossible when He is behind it. He uses the foolish, the uneducated, the weak, the stuttering, the outnumbered, the shamed, the forgotten, the underdog, and the smallest…to glorify His name.

Who is laughing at you? Perhaps you’ve heard a rhetorical question already today. “Who do you think you are!” When God’s child knows that he is called, loved, blessed, and empowered by the Spirit of God, such confidence offends others even if clothed with humility.  It can even rub against the grain of those in the family of God.

For each who has been taunted today, know you are in good company. Do not let any man steal your confidence. Time will write your story and silence the voice of every accuser. Walk humbly with your God and without apology.

Do not let accusers undo me. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Favoritism. It’s Complicated.

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Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. Genesis 37:2-3

Favoritism can be complicated. Take Jacob and his son, Joseph. Jacob didn’t make Joseph his favorite to spite other righteous sons. Many of the others had proven themselves to be troublemakers, bound up in foolishness. They had spurned their father’s ways and had left a trail of disappointment and hurt. Jacob didn’t spoil Joseph either by giving him a life of ease. He trained him to work hard and to do so with godly ethics.

I’m not defending the fact that Jacob showed favoritism. It wasn’t right. He acted unwisely and set things up for the other sons to hate their brother. From a sibling’s perspective, favoritism never works out well.

But from a parent’s perspective, the heart is a complicated thing. It can be difficult to have the same affection for each of your children. If one is bent toward evil, disrespects authority, and has no regard for family, isn’t it difficult to love that one as much as another whose heart clearly belongs to God? It can be hard to disguise the pleasure you feel over the one that is righteous. It’s equally hard to hide the pain the other one inflicts when they act out against members of your family.

This is where each mother and father needs Jesus desperately. Only He can daily heal the hurts caused by a wayward child. Only He can give the spiritual fuel necessary to love the renegade wisely. Only He can show parents how to bestow unconditional love to two kinds of children. How will the child who loves rebellion not see the delight in his parent’s eyes over the ‘good’ sibling? God is the only one who can write the relational roadmap for these dynamics.

In the long run, Jacob should have learned from his own troubled childhood. Favoritism didn’t work out well between he and Esau. Now, he repeats it again by failing to disguise his deep affection for Joseph. He will give him a coat, the kind of coat only a royal child would wear. This will fuel the other’s hatred for their brother. In spite of Jacob’s mistakes, God’s purpose for Joseph and the future of Israel will not be thwarted. That is comforting, isn’t it?

You are the God of grace and redemption. Bind our families together in righteousness so that we still stand in the last day. In Jesus’ name, Amen

He Knew How His Words Affected Others

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Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation.  Hebrews 13:22

It’s the end of Hebrews ~  and it bears the author’s last words.  This book is far from being lightweight in content.  The hard times for Jewish believers called for weightiness but with strong encouragement comes the risk of offense.

Though we’re not told who the author is of the book of Hebrews, he calls his writing ‘an exhortation.’  In just this last chapter, there are many ‘exhortations’ that could easily offend.

  • Submit to your leaders.
  • Continually offer up praises to God.
  • Take the time to do good to others.
  • Imitate the life of your leaders.
  • Don’t be carried away by strange teachings.

With each, it’s easy to bristle.

  • Have you seen who my leader is? I should submit to the likes of him?
  • You haven’t seen my life lately. You are asking me to praise now?
  • Like I haven’t already done good to others?!
  • What’s wrong with the way I am living?
  • I’m far more stable than that!  How little do you respect me?!

An exhorter often has a tough time in the family of God.  Their Spirit-empowered gift enables them to perceive spiritual immaturity.  This person is driven to point out opportunities for spiritual growth.  Trials are met with encouragements rather than words of compassion.  Exhorters see conversations as opportunities to give spiritual help, to offer biblical perspectives on things, but with such compulsions, there can be a lot of resistance.  Rejection is continually a threat for this servant of God.

The whole book is a mouthful.  While it is beautiful in its exposition of Christ as the supreme One, it is not a book we encourage a new believer to read.  I recall New Year’s Eve – 1 year ago – when I felt God was leading me to teach this book through these daily writings.  I trembled with the responsibility.  I am no seminarian.  Yet here we are.

Thank you, God, for leading me.  Thank you, Jesus, for invading history as my perfect High Priest.  Thank you, Holy Spirit, for faithfully unveiling these scriptures so that my pen could engage with the paper.  To You be all glory.  Amen

And thank you, my dear devotional friends, for the privilege of sharing this last year’s journey with you.  May His Word always tremble with wonder in our hands.

Christine

The Yoke of Slavery

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I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you to upright. Leviticus 26:13

When ‘yoke’ is used, especially in the O.T., it speaks of slavery or bondage to an oppressor. This passage from Leviticus is one example. The Israelites were not freed from the Egyptians through a revolt, an underground movement, or a rebel who rose up to lead the people. They were powerless against a formidable oppressor. Only God could break the bands of their yoke. Bondage was all they had ever known. It was in their DNA.  Four hundred years of it had characterized the existence of the many generations before them.

I may not know this kind of slavery but I can be enslaved nonetheless to a bully, a spouse, a sibling, even an aging parent. Someone got the upper hand when I was once in a compromised position.  The relational pattern was set in stone and perhaps I don’t presently have the personal strength to shake up the dynamics. Oh, but God does. He is in me and I need not be a bully in return in order to be freed from their control. There is holy strength in quietness and resolve. There is holy strength in the man or woman who know that they answer to God first. There is holy strength in the person who is confident before a bully because the Lord is on their side.

A yoke of slavery also plagues me when I fail to leave the unholy ways of my family.  At conversion, my allegiance is to be re-defined.  How difficult though to overcome generational yokes. We are shown very early in life that there is the ‘family way of doing things’ and if you want to enjoy its community, you have to stay in step. These unholy legacies don’t just include things like infidelity, anger, alcoholism, addictive behaviors, depression or a pre-disposition to a certain disease.  There are more insidious culprits such as a hatred of men, or women, a despising of the church, and even a racial bigotry between the north and the south, the blacks and the whites, and Christians against non-Christians.

Isaiah said, Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord; Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Isaiah 51:1  The message is clear. I have been shaped by those who raised me. It is imperative that every child of God look closely at their daily choices to see if there is still a yoke to those who put pressure on us to be like them. I am to be more like my Heavenly Father than my earthly one.  My new birth trumps my initial birth.

How do I take off this yoke of slavery?  First, I ask God to expose my ungodly connections and make me willing to align with Jesus.  He will start turning on the light.  Each time I cave and cower, I repent for doing what Jesus would not do. I take new paths of righteousness armed with scripture and the power of the Spirit.  It may result in being out of step with my family of origin.  Am I willing to be the child of God that Jesus would be if He lived my life?  Only grace will enable it.  Only faith will propel it into the future.

Lord, this is the hard and steep path but oh, how blessed I will be to keep in step with You, to walk in Your footprints. Amen

A Religious Yoke

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They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them. Mattthew 23:4

Jesus came down hard on the Pharisees when He told them that they were placing a heavy burden of rules upon the people, adding more and more laws that ‘The Law’ did not include. The people labored under it. Jesus called that burden ‘heavy’ and referred to His own burden as ‘light’.

As a young monk, Martin Luther confessed that he didn’t love God, he hated Him. He felt that he just couldn’t please Him. Luther beat himself, fasted for days, slept outside in the cold, and all because He felt the guilt of his own sin. He couldn’t sleep at night because he thought, “Can I possibly do everything that God requires of me?” His mentor told him that confession is to bring relief to those burdened with guilt, not add more. But Luther was so bound up by a religious yoke that, though he confessed constantly, he found little relief. While some around him made their complete confession in just a few minutes, Luther would go on and on for hours. Nagging guilt caused him to be an overachiever; so much so that he advanced in the ranks of the monastery very quickly. It’s a reminder to me that perceived holiness is often driven by forces other than a love for Christ.

How do I know if I suffer under a religious yoke?   I have a nagging feeling that I’m not good enough. I have no peace. I don’t feel forgiven. I don’t believe I’ve paid enough yet for my sins. I feel I have a long way to go to prove to God that I’m sincere. I keep myself insanely busy to dull the ache of unworthiness. I become an overachiever with a need to eclipse the successes of those around me. I need to be God’s ‘teacher’s pet’. At that point, I am the older brother in the prodigal son story who kept all the rules but was probably only looking out for his own inheritance. He felt his father owed him; which is easy to feel if I’ve been a rule keeper. Under a religious yoke, let hard times come and my underlying attitude can be, “God, how could you? After how good I’ve been?”

If I labor under the yoke of religion, I believe that my good behavior proves to God that I’m really a good child. I am bound to the law and ignore the fact that Jesus already fulfilled it. He did it because I couldn’t. Jesus took my sin, annihilated every reason I’d have to perform, and gave me His righteousness. I’m invited to rest in my salvation.

If you suffer under the torment of a religious yoke, how do you escape it? Repent of self-exaltation and minimizing the power of the cross. Affirm again that you have been saved by faith alone – which is where Martin Luther ended up. He began to see that the scriptures were really the language of a loving Father to little children. He was free to worship and celebrate such a great God who provided such a great Salvation from self.

Break the chains of the yoke of religion where we are yet bound. Amen