DAY FOUR (Genesis 40:12 – 50)
Long day today, and while I did complete the reading, it’s a bit too late to write down my thoughts. I’ll add them tomorrow morning.
Ok, so I’m up, coffee in hand, and ready to give some of the things that really struck me about the last 10 chapters of the first book of the Bible. Here they are:
The officer who served the king’s wine had a really bad case of short-term memory loss. I mean, it’s Dory in Finding Nemo bad. Joseph tells you the meaning of your dream, and 3 days later it happens and you forget about him even when he asked you not to? 3 days??? (Genesis 40:23)
Genesis 41:38-44 shows quite a reversal of fortune for Joseph. Reading it made me feel like I do when a really, really nice guy (or girl) wins Survivor. I find myself turning to The B99 on the couch and saying, “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.” That’s how God blessing Joseph makes me feel.
As a Christian, I always feel this struggle about whether or not we should save for the future. Dave Ramsey sits on one shoulder telling me we should, and David Platt sits on the other telling me shouldn’t. Not fair to either one of those men to be so simply characterized, but that’s how it feels to me. When I read the last part of Genesis 41, I see that saving with purpose was a pretty good plan, and enabled Joseph to bless and help a lot of hurting families. Saving isn’t bad; hoarding isn’t good. I think Dave and David would agree with that. Even more importantly, I’m pretty sure God does.
True repentance leads to confession and reconciliation. They are very important steps in the process, and as you read through Genesis 42-44, you see Joseph’s brothers go from sorry and afraid to truly repentant about what they did to Joseph. At first, they told Joseph they had a brother who basically wasn’t around anymore to finally admitting in Genesis 44:20 that he was probably dead. Not a total confession, but headed in the right direction.
And finally, my favorite verses in this section:
Genesis 45:7-8 and Genesis 50:20 are two passages you should stop and think over for some time. Both of these scriptures attribute to God the responsibility for all the stuff that has happened in Joseph’s life to that point. That should slap us in the face a bit. He is actually looking in the faces of those who wronged him and saying, “I don’t blame you for this because God’s sovereignty was powerful enough to use the evil you did to me as the very thing that put me in a position to now help you.” That, in a word, is amazing. Mind-blowingly amazing.
