Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

  And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. Genesis 48:5 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.48.5.ESV Jacob adopted his two grandsons from his son Joseph. This is an unusual event. I think it has to do with them getting to appropriate God's blessings to Jacob. Ephraim and Manasseh's mum was Egyptian, possibly pagan, matched with Joseph as an arranged marriage by Pharoah. So maybe the danger was that they'd end up slipping into pagan Egyptian ways. Whatever the reason, elderly Jacob took them under his wing. It doesn't matter if we have a mixed heritage. If we're chosen by God, nothing can thwart His plans for us. God isn't racist in favour of the Jewish ethnic kinsfolk of the Lord Jesus. I know that C.H. Spurgeon, the 'prince of preachers', was brought up by his grandparents. We can't underestimate the value of godly gran...

  Then he said, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. Genesis 46:3 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.46.3.ESV Sometimes God asks us to do counterintuitive things. He had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's descendants. Yet here he was telling elderly Jacob to go down to Egypt. Clearly God knew He was asking something difficult of Jacob, because He seeks to reassure him. He tells him not to be afraid, which is a common refrain in Scripture. When we fear the Lord, we have nothing left to fear. God promised to make Jacob into a great nation, even within Egypt. God makes His people into a mighty spiritual Kingdom. He does so even within this lost and dying world. God doesn't promise to make each of us individually into great nations. Yet He does invite us into the greatest collective of all, the Kingdom of God. We enter through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 'Ou...

  Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. Genesis 44:33 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.44.33.ESV I always find Joseph's dealings with his brothers as rather convoluted. Yet I cannot fail to admit that he succeeded in reconciling and reuniting his family. He's like a picture of how God deals with His people. Like Joseph, God tests (not tempts) us, to prove us genuine. Judah stands out as a shining example of the success of Joseph's testing. He himself is a picture of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Judah was prepared to be a substitute, or a ransom for his little brother Benjamin. Reuben had offered up his own sons in his brother's place. Judah went one step further and offered himself in his brother's place. Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, defeated death for us. He is our ransom and substitute. Judah is a pale shadow of the glories of ...

  And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?" Genesis 41:38 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.41.38.ESV This verse is part of the climax of an extraordinary turn of events. Joseph went from jail, having been falsely accused, to become the most powerful man in the world. Pharoah recognised he had the Spirit of God, and bestowed his power upon him. Joseph interpreted Pharoah's dreams which predicted what was going to happen to Egypt. Not only so, but Joseph proposed the means by which the coming famine could be mitigated against. Pharoah was so impressed that he put him in charge. Pharoah relinquished his power for Joseph, and became a ceremonial head of state. Joseph held the reigns of power. Pharoah was just along for the ride. It all goes back to the last verse I chose. The Lord was with Joseph, so he was successful. We can and should expect to excel in our work, we need to strive to such an end. 'Sovereign L...

  The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. Genesis 39:2 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.39.2.ESV What was the secret of Joseph's success? It was the fact that the Lord was with him. Similarly, any of us only succeed because God helps us. Joseph might have only been a slave at this stage. Nonetheless, he was still the best he could be. Whatever we do, we should seek to excel. The fact Joseph was an excellent slave set him in good stead for when God would providentially have him become prime minister of Egypt. A minister is a servant, they just have more responsibilities in a more responsible job. Whether we're a street sweeper or a king, we ought to serve one another in love. There's no room for arrogance for God's people. Joseph might have come across that way when he was young. Yet there was no hint of bitterness when he was humbled to the role of a slave. 'God our Lord, please help us to ex...

  His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Genesis 37:8 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.37.8.ESV Joseph gets a bad rap for recounting his dreams. Not only his brothers, but many Bible readers take issue with his seeming arrogance. To be honest, I'm rather more philosophical. I don't necessarily agree that Joseph was, humanly speaking, unwise to share his dreams. I also recognise however that in the providence of God, he had to share his divinely ordained dreams. Then, when they came true, people could recognise the hand of God in it all. It wasn't Joseph's fault that he was his father's favourite. That was simply the product of being one of the youngest children, of Jacob's favourite wife. He might come across as a spoilt early on, but his father has to bear much of the responsibility for that. At the time of the dreams, Joseph ...

  And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,' Genesis 32:9 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.32.9.ESV Jacob's journey to faith was long and circuitous. He didn't have the Damascene conversion of his grandfather Abraham, or the quiet trust of his father Isaac. He was a schemer whose default was to trust in himself. Even in this verse, there seems to be distance between Jacob and the God of his fathers. He acknowledges their faith and their God. Yet he seems hesitant to claim their faith and their God for himself. Still, God had already promised good to Jacob, and he realised he was at once undeserving and needy of further blessings. What seems like the definitive moment in Jacob's faith journey was still to come. Wrestling with the preincarnate Jesus would give Jacob a permanent limp, symbolic of his new found dependence on God rather th...

  Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?" Genesis 30:2 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.30.2.ESV Jacob and Rachel's response to their infertility stands in marked contrast to that of Jacob's parents Isaac and Rebekah. When his parents struggled to conceive, his father prayed, and God graciously answered his prayer. Jacob and Rachel seem more like his grandparents Abraham and Sarah in this regard. When they struggled to produce a child together, Sarah hatched the Ishmaelite Hagar plot. Similarly, when Rachel struggled to produce children, she gave her servant to Jacob to have children on her behalf. She had melodramatically demanded that Jacob give her children, or she would die. There's truth in Jacob's response. Yet essentially his reply is that of a father abdication responsibility. Instead of praying like his own father, he metaphorically shrugs his should...

 God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. Genesis 28:3 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.28.3.ESV Was Isaac's blessing to Jacob not fulfilled? After all, he is the ancestor of the Israeli people ethnically rather than a company of peoples. Maybe Isaac was envisaging the twelve tribes of Israel in his blessing. I think that with the Bible being a spiritual book, there's a spiritual message here. Ethnically, Israel may just be one people. Spiritual Israel on the other hand is a company of peoples. Let me explain. Spiritual Israel is the company of peoples who are grafted into the Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate means by which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob blessed the world. God certainly answered Isaac's prayer. Jacob went on to have twelve sons, the fourth of whom, Judah was an ancestor of Jesus, the lion of his tribe. Israel has ultimately been multiplied by millions of Gentiles who trust ...

  I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, Genesis 26:4 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/gen.26.4.ESV Abraham wasn't a flash in the pan. God had similar promises to make to his son Isaac (and grandson Jacob for that matter). The blessing they have brought to the world is not simply through Israeli people, but ultimately through the Jewish Messiah, their Descendant Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate Abrahamic Offspring through whom the world is blessed. He doesn't just bless us temporally, but eternally by His Holy Spirit. Through His death and resurrection we're forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God. Our faith isn't all that different to that of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The main difference is that they looked forward to their Descendant Jesus. We of course look back at His first advent as the ground of our fait...