January 22nd readings

~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
Genesis 44:1-45:28 ~ Matthew 14:13-36
Psalm 18:37-50 ~ Proverbs 4:11-13

Old Testament - In Genesis chapter 44 we read about Joseph instructing his servant to place his silver cup in Benjamin's sack.  I guess what struck me about all this is that it seemed like Joseph was playing mind games with his brothers.  Not to say that they didn't deserve it....  but, I wonder if in all of this Joseph had a master game-plan - or if it was simply games he was playing?  The weeping we see from him kind of makes me think that he was not 100% sure of what he was doing, game-plan wise.  The weeping seemed to indicate that he wanted to reconnect with his brothers and his family.  It seems in all of this he has kept at least 1 family member around - or has not let them get very far away.  This makes me wonder - do we play mind games with others around us?  Should we?  Would it have been better if Joseph was honest with his brothers from the start on who he was?  Would it be better for us if we are simply honest with others?  And don't play mind games?

Verses 18 through 34 in this chapter is Judah's amazing speech to Joseph!  I don't know what it is about this speech.  But I love it!  It seems like Judah is finally owning up to being who he was born to be - the forefather of the line of King David and Jesus Christ.  Verse 33 is the verse that really jumped out at me - "Please, my lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers."  What struck me about this is that now Judah is willing to be the slave, in the place of his brother Benjamin - whereas 22 years prior he offered up the idea of selling his brother Joseph into slavery as we read in Genesis 37 verses 26 & 27 - "Judah said to the others, "What can we gain by killing our brother? That would just give us a guilty conscience. Let's sell Joseph to those Ishmaelite traders."   It seems like Judah in chapter 44 has really grown up and is acting like a morally responsible adult.

Genesis chapter 45 begins with Joseph weeping again - and I think that it makes perfect sense that he does so, in light of Judah's impassioned speech!  And I wonder - maybe Joseph in part weeps because Judah is offering to be the slave in the place of Benjamin?  Either Joseph is weeping because his brothers did not show him this same mercy 22 years prior - or he is weeping because he is happy that Judah and his brothers seem to be very different people from 22 years prior - or he's weeping for other reasons.  :)  Let me know your thoughts in the Comments on this.

Verse 5 in this chapter is a powerfully mature statement from Joseph to his brothers - "But don't be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it. He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives."  I find this very cool that Joseph discerned this.  He has been sold into slavery for 11 years!  He was in a prison for 2 years!  And then, yes, things got better for him thereafter - but he was still apart from his family.  And yet - Joseph saw God's hand and God's plan in all of this.  There was a greater good happening - the preservation of Abraham & Isaac's descendents.  The preservation of God's covenant people.

I then wonder about this in our lives.  Are there times where we go through some hard times - maybe for many years - and in the midst of that, could God be working?  Could God's hand and God's plan be moving in the midst of challenging times in our lives?   I think it's possible that if I was Joseph that maybe I would have become a bitter man toward my brothers - and maybe done worse than just mind games.  But, Joseph was compassionate - he wept - he gave grain in abundance to his family - he forgave his brothers.  And more than anything, he saw that God was in control.  Do you believe that God is in control of your life?  All the time?  No matter how good or how bad circumstances seem?  Is God in control?

Commentary from bible.org on Genesis chapter 44 is at this link, and on Genesis chapter 45 is at this link.

New Testament - In Matthew chapter 14 today we read about two miracles - Jesus feeding the 5,000 (or maybe 10,000 to 15,000 counting men, women & children) and Jesus walking on water.  While these 2 miracles are amazing and again confirming that Jesus is God - a couple of smaller things jumped out at me.  First was verse 23 - "Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray."  If Jesus modeled this behavior for us - think we should do the same?   How often do we get away from the "crowds" or even the "disciples" or loved ones in our life to be by ourselves and pray?  Do we do this at least for a few minutes each day?  Do you do this for longer periods of time?  Actually - I do have this question to ask for our Comments section below, if you wouldn't mind sharing this with everyone - do you take spiritual retreats?  How often?  Do you take the retreats alone or with others?  Is prayer a central part of the retreats?  I'm just curious.  I cannot say that I have done a prayer-focused spiritual retreat - or even an alone-with-God focused spiritual retreat.  I think I might be due.  :)

Verses 29 & 30 also jumped out at me today - "All right, come," Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink. "Save me, Lord!" he shouted."  These verses made me wonder in our own lives - Are there times or areas our lives where Jesus has said, "Come", and we've moved forward in faith.  But then - the waves came... the challenges came... the doubts came... the insults came.... and we started to waver in our faith?  Maybe we got scared - and started to sink?  Well - I do admire that Peter did cry out to Jesus to save him in this situation - and we then get the reassuring verse 31 - "Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him."  If you feel like there are some areas in your life where you are sinking - will you cry out to Jesus to save you?  Do you believe he will instantly reach out his hand and grab you?

Psalms - Today we finish up Psalm 18.  (Psalm 19 tomorrow!  So excited! :) 
The closing verse 50 of this Psalm is powerful - and I believe can apply to both David and Jesus - "You give great victories to your king; you show unfailing love to your anointed, to David and all his descendants forever."  Are you a spiritual descendent of David?  Do you believe that God shows you unfailing love?

Proverbs chapter 4 verse 13 was impactful for me today - "Carry out my instructions; don't forsake them. Guard them, for they will lead you to a fulfilled life."  I like that last thought - guard God's instructions.  Don't forsake them.  For they will lead you to a fulfilled life.  I think sometimes people think that loving God and following his ways will be BORING.  :)  So not true....  It is absolutely the best adventure I could ever imagine.  And truly, following God and his instructions is the only way I personally believe that I can have a fulfilled life.  I do not think there is another way to lead a fulfilled life?  A life apart from God?  Fulfilling?  What do you think?

What verses or insights jumped out for you in today's readings? Please post up in the Comments section below!

Grace,
Mike

Comments

[Theresa]

hi! as a working mum, with 2 teenage girls, it is EXTREMLY difficult to get any quiet time!! i read the one year bible in the morning, in bed, before the girls wake, and i really enjoy that short time. it is usually all i get though. what do others do? i read these notes in the evening, and look forward to them - it's a great idea, and being able to read other comments aswell is great too! (ps:i am in the UK, how many others are not in the US?)

[Sharon Dudley]

Hi everyone,
this journey as been a blessing to me. I am a wife, mother and a montessori teacher. Life is busy but I love reading through the bible for the first time. I have read the new testment several times and part of the old testment but never all the way through. I am enjoying this it keeps me on track in my personal life and helps me be the kind of teacher I strive to be everyday even when I am having a bad day. So thank you for this I hope I can make it through the whole year, God willing.

In the old testment passage today it seemed to me that indeed Joesph was playing games at first. I think he wanted to just keep Benjamen with him for they had the same mothers and he did not decieve Joesph. When Judah spoke of their father and how he would die without the boy he was moved and could play the games no longer and told them who he was. I think in his grief he became aware of Gods greater plan to preserve his family.

Thanks for this bible blog it is a blessing to me and I am sure to many others
Shar

[Amy]

Joseph weeping...
I think the reason we are unsure why he is weeping is possibly because Joseph is not even sure. It could be a mixture of emotions.

Why does Joseph play these mind games?

Seeing that Joseph could not really confide in anyone about this situation- him not yet revealing himself to his brothers-surely he could not confide in Pharoah, he was alone in what he did. I know his servants helped him, but they didn't necessarily know these men were Joseph's brothers.

Joseph, being so emotional (assumed by the tears), acted strangely. To accomplish the same result of being able to take care of his brothers and family- it just seems there could have been a more logical and easier route. However, it seems we all do weird things when under stress - yet we don't think we are doing this.(Somehow this reminds me of Garden State- excellent movie!)

Maybe Joseph was unsure his brothers would love him since they had previously sold him into slavery. Wouldn't you be afraid of Joseph if you were one of the brothers and he so easily could have vengefully refused to sell you any food to survive the famine?

Maybe Joseph figured he had to bless them with the grain and their money back... before somewhat tricking them to come back to Egypt so he could bless them again and move them to the land of Goshen. He maybe thought he had to go beyond just revealing himself and inviting them to return- because wouldn't you as one of the brothers have been skeptical. I probably would have thought- better safe than sorry- I won't risk powerful Joseph tricking me to come to Egypt then locking me up or killing me.

MATHEW 14:25

"About three o'clock in the morning Jesus came to them..." I love that Jesus shows up at the oddest time- but exactly when the disciples needed him. I like that JESUS CAME TO THEM." Its the whole Jesus meets us where we are at.

[Amy]

Psalm 18:50

"UNFAILING LOVE."

This phrase deserves its own post! Last year I took to underlining every occcurence of this phrase as I had never realized the author does not merely speak about God's love, but about his UNFAILING LOVE. These two words occur together numerous times in the Bible.

Unfailing love is such a foreign concept to us. Who cannot recall disappointment or hurt in a relationship with a friend, parent, husband or wife, brother or sister? I suspect every human relationship will fail us in certain aspects because we are imperfect humans.

Its worthy to note God's love is UNFAILING and its available to us on a continual basis at any and every moment. This is perhaps why Joseph has this amazing ability to BLESS his brothers, because he trusted in God and knew he was so loved by God- that this knowledge in his heart and mind superseded any bitterness and negative feelings he could have held to his brothers. Do we fail to recognize the actuality of God's UNFAILING LOVE for us?

Stoked!

[Ramona]

Genesis 44-45:28

Very rarely do I read your comments Mike before I write my thoughts and impressions. Has something to do with trying to put down my gut feelings and what I believe to be leadings of the Holy Sprit, but today I read them, so I’ll try to do that first. O, NO! This may be really, really long. After the answers to Mike’s questions then what, a dissertation?

OK here goes. Mind Games, do I play mind games. Well, no because I find them just too tiring and I can’t abide folks who do. It’s not that I’m that “holy” where I just wouldn’t do it but it is not healthy for me. In fact I seem to have a “trigger” to stop me from engaging in that kind of activity, my blood pressure shoots way up, dangerously way up. Found that out several years ago when I was began getting wide ranges in BP readings and my doctor had me record them with my very own monitor. That was and is a joy, NOT! One day after participating in this activity for several years I got a great idea, I charted my pressure with a graft. When I was associated with folks who were manipulative and I was actively trying to remain on good terms with them but I had to counter their “mind games,” my pressure shot way up, stroke way up. When the relationship ended my pressure went low to numbers like 115/65. Hmmm. Conclusion: For me mind games are deadly. I can’t play them. I’m thinking God might have allowed that trigger to be in me to stop me from going there.

The weeping Joseph: I’m not so sure that Joseph was weeping because he saw a change in them. What the text doesn’t say but the family dynamics must have been there because of the sibling rivalry, the desire for their Father’s approval, etc, the fact Joseph was 37 years old and next to the youngest, so except Benjamin these guys were between thirty-eight and possibly fifty, is that this was a hostile group of folks. Maybe he was weeping because he connected the two dreams he had as a young boy with where he was now, Second-in-Command of Egypt and was overcome with emotion of the reversal in his life.

I think these guys were arguing continuously because of a statement that Joseph makes which is recorded at the end of the passage. (Look at that. What caught my attention ties in to Mike’s question).

Genesis 45 24 So he sent his brothers off, and as they left, he called after them, "Don't quarrel along the way!" So, after twenty-two years as they travel off to pick up Dad Josephs yells to them, “Don’t quarrel along the way.” When he last saw and heard them as they pulled him out of the pit to sell him they were more than likely “quarrelling” and they are still quarreling, or have the propensity and inclination to do the same twenty-two years latter. These guys are the same it is Joseph that has changed.

Matthew 14:13-36
Hmm, lets see Feeding the Five Thousand and Walking on Water in the Storm. First things first, Feeding the Five Thousand. The miraculous may not be so much in the spectacular as it is with the mundane, bread and fish.

Jesus goes off to be by himself because he has just received the news that John the Baptist was dead. Why did He need to be by himself? John was the herald that announced him, and if John was dead his time would be coming up soon. They were cousins, but did they hang out together? Regardless of what was disturbing to Jesus about John’s death, he wanted to be along, perhaps to hear his Father’s voice. But like so many of us, when we try to get away, the Father says, “You have work to do,” and we find ourselves in a different environment ministering to folks we don’t know.

Now it’s late and the disciples want to end the “camp” meeting and just tell them you’ve got to go eat. You can still get rid of them, you see we’re tired, and still be a nice guy by adding; they need to get something to eat. “See, we’re concerned about them.” But Jesus says, “You feed them.” That statement must have caused some hearts to double beat. They had money because Judas Iscariot was the treasurer, and you don’t have a treasurer if there is nothing to treasure. I think the concern was that the crowd would deplete their surplus, and then what would Judas have to steal? (John 12:4-6; 13:29)

The miracle that I see, the other miracle in this story is that what ever you place in Jesus’ hands, be it bread and fish, He has the ability to multiply. What may seem to us to be of insignificance is magnified in the hands of God. Do not despise the day of small beginnings because we never know how much God will blow it up. Who was and who is the greater evangelist, Billy Graham or the man that ministered salvation to Billy Graham?

Walking on the Water we all know that you can’t walk on water when it is a stormy day. Ya gotta walk when the seas are calm and the sun is out. We seem to focus on what is making the most noise and miss the little things that perhaps are the greater miracle. This is so significant for our lives the small stuff. It is the small stuff that makes the greatest changes in our lives. The small stuff that seems so little, so insignificant but over time once it hits that exponential curve explodes on the scene and we think wrongly that it happened over night. We get on Peter because he began to sink, we get on Peter because he took His eyes off of Jesus and focused on the waves, but the other guys stayed in the boat. And Peter began to sink, he didn’t sink he began to sink. I’ve watched diving competitions and I’ve never seen someone begin to sink. They are either above the water or under the water. There aint’ time for someone to cry out, reach out their hand, catch the hand that is offered so they won’t go down, etc. Unless you slow-mo the camera your eyes will see the object as, above the water, below the water. The miracle, the other miracle is that Peter got out of the boat.

Also take note of what was done before the boat ride, 22 Jesus made his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home.

Besides the miracle of a person in leadership sending the “people home,” (some of you will get that joke), there is the directive to cross to the other side. The disciples were in trouble, the text states, because of the winds and heavy waves. Now at least four of these guys, Peter included were commercial fisherman whose work place was this very lake. I’m sure they knew how to handle and work with this “sea.” But something came up that cause them to get into trouble. I don’t think this was an ordinary common violent storm this was a spiritual attack. But the expectation was to get to the other side. When we are sent by God to do something we should expect spiritual warfare and Jesus will also expect us to get to the other side.
Psalm 18:37-50

It is amazing to me how the Holy Spirit inspires people to write and they thnk they are writing about one thing but there is a bigger picture unfolding as each letter, each line, each sentence is written down. I am amazed how this Book, this Bible, this Word may in the immediate context speak about a specific event, but in the broader context it is speaking to me and to eternity. Our God is an awesome God!

We make faulty assumptions when we think our problems and our victories are just for us. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of our Testimony (Rev 12:11). Things that we speak of and write about that are inspired by the Holy Spirit are not just for the us-four-and-no-more crowd; they are for a generation yet born. We serve a God an awesome God!

Proverbs 4:11-13
I went back to the first verse and began reading this fourth chapter again and I was struck by how something is stated in the first verse. The writer starts out by saying, 1 HEAR, MY sons, the instruction of a father. This may not be the intent but what I’m about to say spoke to me in a completely different way. The writer does not say Hear, my sons, the instruction of your father, but it says a father. Wow! Every male/man that has a child, fathers a child is not a father! (Amy maybe that is for you. You can’t make something that is not into something that is: sorry for the aside)
I’m stunned by this revelation and I’m signing off to go mediate on this statement made in the first verse. Sorry I backed tracked and got caught up in a yesterday moment.

Grace and peace,
Ramona

[Mark]

I have an idea on the "mind games". It could be that Joseph was trying to find out whether his brothers had changed. Were they still evil and selfish? Did he really want to make amends with them if they were the same guys who wanted him dead?

He was able to find out that they were indeed trustworthy by placing the silver cup in Benjamin's sack. This time, instead of letting their younger brother become a slave, they stuck up for him. Judah, in particular said he would rather be a slave himself. Joseph was able to determine what kind of men they had become. Something he would not have been able to do if he told them his identity right away.

[Mark]

My blog: mybiblethoughts.blogspot.com. There's a link to it on the left side of Mike's site. Thanks.

[Joshua]

I think Mark is right on. Joseph was Jacob's favorite because he was Rachel's son. And his brothers had mistreated him because of that. Benjamin was Rachel's other son, so he would be Jacob's next favorite (we see this from Jacob's words when the brothers try to get him to let ben to go to Egypt with them).

So the brothers show up the first time and there's no Benjamin. Joseph has to make sure that they haven't killed or sold him into slavery. When they bring Benjamin with them, Joseph has to test them to see if they will stick up for him or let him be killed.

The tears might have been just because of all the overwhelming emotion. Joseph was realizing that God had orchestrated all of this, Joseph may have still felt some bitterness toward his brothers, but he also felt forgiveness. The past 39 years all came tumbling on him at once and he recognized God's hand in all of it. Amazing.