Down To Egypt

Song: O For A Faith That Will Not Shrink

Scripture: Genesis 46:1-3

It was at Beersheba that Abraham dug a well and made a covenant with Abimelech as witness that he had rights to the well and to the land. Isaac too had established a covenant at Beersheba with the Philistine king and dwelt there most of his days. The building and naming of wells by the patriarchs was not just an act of necessity, but an act of faith that God would someday give them this land.

Now the aged Israel came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to Jehovah. Years earlier he had fled Beersheba to Haran in the North. Now famine and news that Joseph lived carried him South to Egypt. In three generations, Abraham’s seed owned but a cave in Machpelah and a plot in Shechem. And now all of Israel was on its way to Egypt.

God’s promise to Israel here was not unlike the promise He made when Jacob fled to Haran. “I will go with you, and I will bring you back.” Israel’s fears were allayed. God had brought him back from Haran, He would bring him back from Egypt too. In moving to Egypt, Jacob not only got Joseph back. He got all his boys back. A family long divided, was at last united. And Judah, who had first sold his brother South, now pointed the way to Egypt at his father’s request.

So Israel left “without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance” (Heb. 11:13). They call that faith.

Jason Moore

A Picture of Providence

Song: Does Jesus Care?

Scripture: Genesis 45:1-28

The providence of God is one of the great Bible themes. God’s care for Jacob’s sons is a colorful and majestic portrayal of that theme. Listen, as Joseph explains it:

“God sent me before you to preserve life.” With one sentence Joseph sets all the suffering he had endured in the context of God’s purpose. He didn’t blame God. He praised God. He couldn’t always see God’s purpose. But now he saw. Providence is that way. You can’t see it up close. You have to stand back to see it. You wait for it. Someday you’ll see it. Wait and see.

“God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth.” Joseph saw that God’s purpose was bigger than himself. It included his brethren also. God had blessed him that he might bless his brothers. That’s providence. The selfish can’t see it. Their view isn’t broad enough. To see providence you must understand that more than you and your personal happiness matters.

“It was not you who sent me here, but God.” Joseph saw that God’s purpose was so big as to use the evil choices of his brothers. Their plans and jealousy had played right into God’s hands. That’s providence again. To really see it, you have to see past the injustices you suffer, to believe that God really works all things together for good.

That’s providence. It’s out of sight.

Jason Moore

What Next?

Song: Give Me The Bible

Scripture: Genesis 43:1-34

History is far more interesting than fiction. And biblical history is the most fascinating of all: the turns, the twists, the ironies, the paradoxes. Don’t you know that the brothers of Joseph discussed the details of their reunion with him many times.

Joseph had said he would keep Simeon to find out if the brothers were “honest men.” They had not been honest in their youth, but rambunctious, wild, untrustworthy. As the brothers left Egypt, Joseph must have wondered if they would really return.

Jacob himself had questions about his sons’ honesty after they returned with their money in the grain sacks and the extraordinary tale of Simeon’s captivity. His plan to soften Joseph with presents had worked with Esau. Would it work for his sons?

Judah’s lead as the saga unfolds is worthy of note. Judah had suggested the sale of Joseph. Yet, here it is Judah, the middle son, who takes the lead in volunteering to be surety for Benjamin’s safe return. Perhaps because Jacob knew that Judah had lost two of his own sons, he let the brothers go. The brothers anxiously confessed to Joseph’s steward that their money was returned to their sacks. It seems that the men had actually changed. But Joseph was not through testing them yet.

We all love a happy ending. It fuels our hope of the same. What hope ought to be inspired in us that one of the most tragic, twisted sagas of all the Bible has a happy ending. Stay tuned.

Jason Moore

Sunday Morning Starters

How the first Sunday started…

According to Babylonian legend:

The god Marduk slew the goddess Tiamat in a sort of family feud between the gods.

Marduk cut the corpse of Tiamat in half. From one half he made heaven; from the other half he made earth.

Then Marduk with the help of his father, Ea, made man from clay mingled with the blood of Kingu, the slain ally of Tiamat and leader of her forces.

The world, according to Babylonian mythology, began because of a war between the gods.

That was the first Big Bang Theory. Man really hasn’t changed, has he?

Jason Moore

Joseph And Jesus

Song: I Want To Be Like Jesus

Scripture: Genesis 41:1-57

The sovereignty of God is majestically seen in the book of Genesis. That God could take the free will choices of man and weave them into His own redemptive scheme is a marvel. What’s more astonishing is how He shaped the stream of time to be a shadow of the salvation He would accomplish in the fulness of time. He did it more than once. But the life of Joseph is one of the first examples:

Joseph, like Jesus of Nazareth, was despised, rejected of his own, sold for a few pieces of silver.

Joseph, like the Lamb of God, was a scapegoat for strangers, falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife.

In prison, Joseph, like the suffering Messiah, was held captive for other men’s sins.

But captivity could hold neither man captive. Both were victorious over their bonds.

Like the crucified Christ, Joseph was given up for dead. And like the resurrected Lord, he was found to be alive.

Joseph, like the King of Kings, was exalted to the right hand of a throne.

Finally, like Calvary’s Redeemer, Joseph became the savior of those who had rejected him.

Joseph, perhaps the best that the patriarchal age produced, was still a sinner. He needed as much as his brothers, the redemptive work of the Savior he foreshadowed. And Oh, what a Savior!

Jason Moore

Judah, The Toad Turned Prince

Song: There Is A Habitation

Scripture: Genesis 38:1-30

Judah’s story is my favorite story. I can identify with the prodigal son of a house of prodigals. His story is the toad-turn-prince story of the Bible.

Judah sowed to the wind. It was he that contrived the sale of Joseph to the Ishmaelites. Afterward, he left his brothers to dwell in the far country. He made friends with one Canaanite, Hirah, and married another, Shua’s daughter. That Tamar knew Judah would sleep with her if she played the harlot fairly sizes up his character.

Judah reaped the whirlwind. He took his father’s son, and the Lord took two sons from him, along with his wife. He deceived Jacob, and was deceived by Tamar. He sold his brother as a slave, and his own reputation for a harlot’s wages. Imagine the gossip when neighbors saw Perez and Zerah, the twin sons of Judah and Tamar, at play!

The whirlwind turned Judah around. “She is more righteous than I,” Judah said when Tamar exposed his hypocrisy. His repentance didn’t stop here. When Judah pled to Joseph for Benjamin’s release, his change of heart became clear,“Let your servant remain a slave, and let the lad go free.” His willingness to suffer in his brother’s place won him Joseph’s pardon, and God’s election as father of the Messiah: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah.”

That’s why I said Judah is the toad-turn-prince story of the Bible. His failure, the Lord’s patience, and his reform means there’s hope for me.

Jason Moore

Edom, The Red

Song: The Kingdoms Of Earth Pass Away

Scripture: Genesis 36:1-43

The nickname “Edom” (sort of like our “Big Red”) fit Esau. He was hairy and red-headed, fiery and impulsive. Add to that, the trade of his birthright for the “red stuff” that Jacob stewed and his choice of the red sandstone cliffs East of the Jordan as his residence, and the name just fits.

Isaac’s prophecies of Gen. 27:39-40 fit him too.

“Away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling.” The Edomites dwelt in the highlands and the badlands, a rugged terrain that fit their rugged forefather, “a man of the field.”

“By your sword you shall live.” Esau already possessed a fighting force of 400 men when Jacob came to be reconciled to him. His descendants dispossessed the Horites of Mount Seir and early on established a dynasty of kings.

“You shall serve your brother, but when you become restless, you shall break his yoke.” The rivalry between Jacob and Esau, begun in the womb continued for generations. The prophet Obadiah upbraided Edom for the nation’s malice toward captive Israel. The hated Herods of the NT were of Edomite descent—so the rivalry continued. Interesting isn’t it, how what we start today, can have far reaching, and unforeseen results? In fact, it’s downright scary. What legacy will you leave for your sons? Think about it.

Jason Moore