One Year Bible, January 21

GENESIS 42:18-43:34
Joseph had 11 brothers, and only one of them was a full-brother - Benjamin.  The other 10 were half-brothers: same father, different mother.  The half-brothers gnashed on him and were jealous of his relationship with his father.  The full-brother was the one Joseph wanted to see.  But Joseph and Benjamin had been special to their father, and he had already "lost" Joseph and didn't want to lose Benjamin too.  But Joseph prevailed and they brought Benjamin to Egypt to meet with Joseph.  Joseph wept when he saw Benjamin, and once he regained his composure, the 12 brothers sat down at the banqueting table, ate and then drank all night.  The brothers couldn't help but notice that Benjamin's portion was 5 times anyone else's.  The plot thickens. 

RESPONSE:  Joseph is such a good example of going through the refining fire with the right attitude.  I sure wouldn't want to "party" with the people who had hated me as much as they had hated Joseph!  Have you ever wanted to be vindicated?  To be proven right when everyone else was wrong?  Oh, come on!  You know you have.  Joseph held on to what God had promised in his dream.  He wasn't trying to manipulate things so that his dream would be fulfilled.  He just waited for God to do what He said, WHEN He wanted to do it.  Maybe that's how he was able to keep all sense of vengeance and bitterness out of his soul.  Thirteen years of slavery must have given him lots of time to think and to pray and to repent and to forgive and to learn how to draw Life from God. 

God, let me draw Life from Your Presence in me.  Don't let my flesh continue to cover You up.  Reign me in and put Your hand over my mouth.  Let my strength and wisdom come from You.  Speak through me.  Love through me.  Serve through me.  Even cook supper through me.  My flesh is rude, impatient, arrogant, selfish and wants its own way.  But in my heart-of-hearts, I want to be like You.  Together, we can beat the flesh into submission.  I REFUSE to be led by my emotions any more.  Keep reminding me of what I said just now.

MATTHEW 13:47-14:12
Last parable in Matthew:  13:47-50 - Not all who seem responsive to the Gospel are genuinely converted. 

"Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."   They questioned His wisdom and His power, which negated their faith.  Familiarity had bred contempt. 

Herod was the Roman ruler over the region of Galilee.  He was sleeping with his brother's wife, Herodias.   John the Baptist accused him to his face of adultery and incest.  Herod was so angry that he put John in his prison, but did not kill him because he knew that the people regarded John as a prophet.  But, Herodias had a pretty daughter, probably in her teens, who knew how to get what she wanted.  And so, John the Baptist was beheaded.  After John's disciples buried his headless body, they probably joined Jesus' followers. 

RESPONSE:  When speaking up will threaten me in some way, what will I do?  Am I willing to risk beheading to tell the Truth?  I got called to the administration office at a hospital where I used to work, for witnessing on the job.  The strange part about it is that the hospital was originally built and established by a local church denomination!  I told them that the ones who complained, talked constantly about their cats, and I was just talking about "one cool Cat" - Jesus.  They obsessed on their cats, I obsessed on Jesus.  And when one of their husbands had a stroke and was brought to the ER, who do you think they dragged down there with them to pray?  Me!  I got off with a warning - no one tried to behead me that time. 

PSALM 18:16-36
When David was persecuted and being hunted down without cause, he depended on God alone to save him.  He was confident that God would do something because as far as he knew, he had done what God told him to, he had not intentionally gone against the Word, so he didn't deserve what his enemies were doing to him.  Actually, his enemies "hated" him.  No reason is given, other than the hatred was unjustified. 

One of the things David counted on was that God deals with us according to our character.  Not that God is "crooked" - but it SEEMS like it to the one He's dealing with (like Jacob and the wrestling and subsequent crippling). 

PROVERBS 4:7-10
Maybe the "treasure hid in a field" from Matthew 13 is actually "wisdom"!  It says here to give all you have to get it, and that wisdom will make you look good!  Promotion comes from having wisdom and understanding.  Wisdom sees, understanding feels.  Wisdom discovers, understanding possesses.  Wisdom tells you what you need to know and understand; understanding tells you how to get it or do it.  Wisdom and understanding go together and mean almost the same thing in the original language.  Of course, the opposite is to be foolish and do things that shorten our lives. 

RESPONSE:  I thank God that He deals with us individually in ways we can understand.  In my early days with the Lord, I didn't understand MERCY at all!  So God was very logical with me at first.  He showed me how He could out-think me with one hand tied behind His back!  Then one day a revelation of what mercy really meant came to me - that I had been swimming in rivers of it without realizing it.  That I didn't deserve anything from God but that He delighted in me and gave me rivers of it anyway.  Not that He hadn't been merciful to me before that, but I just didn't receive it because I wasn't merciful myself.  Thankfully, he "lit my candle" (Psa 18:38) - gave me understanding.