LIFE ON THE SEESAW (Genesis 46; Exodus 1)

Talk about setbacks. 

Jacob arrived in Egypt with twelve sons and their families, a total of seventy people; they brought with them all the accumulated wealth God had bestowed on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his sons. They were crazy rich. 

By the time they reached a Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph," the savior of Egypt, they had squandered it all. The descendants of those seventy people--600,000 strong--were poor. So poor in fact, that they were slaves. 

Questions stampede through my mind. Did poverty force them to sell themselves into slavery? Was it a political or military action? In that case, if they still had money, why hadn't they returned to Canaan? I can't help but think that they used it up along the way. 

A definite change from the Patriarchs. When God finally gave them the population explosion promised to Abraham, He slowed down on the abundance of wealth.

I know things often work like that in my life. If I sign a book contract, an unexpected expense arises. When my daughter died, my second book was published. (You may not know that the second book is almost more important than the first, proving an author isn't a one-book wonder.)  My mother died, and my grandson was born. 

God gives--and He takes away. Often at the same time. 

I used to wish I could experience a season of "giving" without worrying about the takeaway part. But I have decided that the trial makes the gift sweeter--and the gift definitely makes the trial easier to bear. 

With Job I will say, "He gives and takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." 

TAKING RISKS (Genesis 43)

I'll take full responsibility for his safety; it's my life on the line for his (Genesis 43:9, MSG)

Judah, in a powerful, beautiful way, is a "type," or picture, of Christ in today's passage. Jacob doesn't want to send his youngest son Benjamin, his only living link to his beloved Rachel, to Egypt. Judah steps in and says "my life for his, if he doesn't return safely." He later lives up to that promise, offering to remain as Joseph's slave so that Benjamin may return to their father. 

The story is a picture of Jesus's "substitutionary atonement," words to say Jesus died in my place. He paid the price for my sin. It's beautiful, it's amazing, it's the reason why I have eternal life and live in God's love.

But I don't want to talk theology exclusively. Imagine the risks.

Imagine the risks God took in creating man--knowing, even before Adam drew his first breath, that he would sin and God the Son would die on the cross for the salvation of all mankind.

Imagine the risks Jacob, Benjamin, and Judah took, in allowing Benjamin to accompany his brothers to Egypt. Judah was willing to spend his remaining years in an Egyptian jail rather than allow the same fate to happen to his baby brother.

Caring for someone else involves risk. I know that risk on a personal level: I love my children, and my daughter committed suicide. My heart has been torn in two and healed over. 

Today, in the most unexpected development from living in a nursing home, I have found love.  As heady as the feeling is, I know I run a risk. I may watch his body and/or his mind deteriorate. The same holds true for him. 

But consider the rewards. Joseph, reunited and reconciled with his family. Jesus, reconciling the world to God by the cross.

I don't know the full extent of the reward awaiting me--but I would not have missed my daughter's life for any price, nor do I wish to shut my heart to new love.

If we protect ourselves from hurt, we also shut ourselves off from joy. 

Love is worth the risk. 

CELEBRATING CULTURE (Genesis 41)

Joseph had lived in Egypt for about thirteen years when he was brought to Pharaoh's attention. During that time, he had learned the Egyptian language. I don't know how far he had assimilated into the culture.

But when he was taken to see Pharaoh, he transformed into an Egyptian in all outward respects. They cut his long, curly hair and beard and changed his clothes. 

Consider how a typical ancient Hebrew dressed: 

Now look at Egyptian clothing from ancient times: 





Joseph had to accept major changes to fulfill the destiny God placed upon him. He even accepted an Egyptian name that spoke more powerfully of God's involvement in his life than "Joseph" (may God add more sons to me): Zaphenath-Paneah, or "God speaks and He lives." 

We tend to equate our faith with our cultural trappings, but that is far from the case. If Joseph had been unwilling to adapt to a different culture, he wouldn't have accomplished God's purpose in his life.

Father Damien ministered in a leper colony - and in time, himself became a leper.

I'm a nursing home resident - and can minister to other residents in a way the staff cannot. 

Don't be afraid of joining the community where you are place. God has a purpose for you there.

PAY IT FORWARD (Genesis 39)

The blessing of God spread over everything he owned. (Genesis 39:5, MSG)

I have been studying the subject of blessing for about a year, and I noticed several interesting things from the familiar story of God blessing Potiphar because of Joseph. 

Firstly, Potiphar noticed that God blessed Joseph. He was willing to trust his things to Joseph and his God.

Secondly, Joseph's blessing extended as far as he was involved with others. I bet even the slave caravan was blessed, then throughout a household, a prison--a nation--God blessed others through him. 

Thirdly, Joseph was willing to pay God's blessing forward. He still oozed God's blessing, in spite of the tragedy he had endured. 

I bet the same principles apply today. We don't (all) have to go preach on a street corner; like Potiphar, others will seek us out because they see God's hand on our lives. We only limit our testimony by limiting our involvement with others.  

I definitely experience this pattern here in the nursing home. It's a small circle, perhaps, but it spreads. When a lady asks me to play piano. When another asks for a hug. When someone else sits and wants to talk about her pregnant daughter. When an aide introduces her children to me. God uses me to bless other people, whether resident or workers. 

With each one, I remind myself that people are more important than work, I set aside my computer, and give the hug, or listen, or play and sing . . . God blesses me while I am blessing them. 

Whom does God want you to bless today?

FAMILY TREES (Genesis 35-37)

Generally, I tend to skip through the genealogies in the Bible. Oh, I read them,but with little thought. Today brought me to Esau's genealogy. 

A single verse stopped me this morning: This is the family tree of Seir the Horite, who were native to the land. (Genesis 36:20, MSG)

I read it again and did a search on "Seir" in the concordance. No, I hadn't misunderstood it. Seir was related to Esau by marriage; Seir's daughter Timna was the concubine of Esau's son. But Seir and his descendents are not Esau's descendants, nor Abraham's.

So why do they have a place in the Bible? I have been struck this year by the things we don't learn about. Hagar and Ishmael had such a legacy of faith--what happened to it, to them, after they went their own way? We don't have a clue about the history of Abraham's sons by his second wife, Keturah. They appear and disappear from the Bible scene, while the family line of Israel (i.e. Jacob and his sons) remains in the spotlight, with a brief list of Ishmael and Esau's descendants.

So why. . .Seir? I can guess at political and historical reasons for interest in Seir, but why is he mentioned in the very selective record God included in the Bible?

I take comfort that even as God zeroed in on the family line of the Savior of all mankind, He took the time to let us know about one family that was outside of that special favor.A family perhaps that understood something about Jehovah-God from the encounter with Esau. A family that remained as Israel's neighbor, undefeated, when they later conquered the promised land.

The fact that God isn't shining His spotlight on us doesn't mean that He doesn't see us and doesn't care.

He cared about Seir the Horite. He cares about me. 

NOT FAR ENOUGH (Genesis 33-35)

Jacob must have thought he had the worst of his problems behind him. God had protected him from Uncle Laban's anger and given him a miraculous reconciliation with his brother Esau. When he arrived in Shechem, he built an altar to "El Elohe Israel," The Mighty God of Israel. He was praising God, and perhaps bragging a tiny bit as well. 

Oh, yes, not to mention the name change from Jacob, heel or supplanter, to Israel, God-Wrestler.

Instead Jacob's sons Simeon and Levi put him the greatest danger yet. One of the local boys fell in love with their sister, Dinah. He raped her, but loved her enough to wish to marry her. Jacob and Shechem arranged a treaty for intermarriage and exchange on one condition: that the men of Shechem be circumcised.

While they were recovering from the procedure, Simeon and Levi slaughtered all the men in the town. Jacob scolded them. "Now everybody will want to kill us!"

Funny how God appeared to be quiet all through these events. 

When God did speak up, He told Jacob, "Go back to Bethel. To where I appeared to you in a dream."

Jacob had returned to Canaan - but perhaps he hadn't gone far enough. Settling near Shechem left him and his family vulnerable to the temptations of intermarrying with the Canaanites and becoming indistinguishable from the people of the land. 

God directed him to go farther. To go all the way back to Bethel, in fact. To revisit the place where he met God in a time of renewed commitment. 

I suspect we all do this to a certain extent. We obey God--up to a point. And often God has to prod us to go all the way. 

I'd love to hear your stories of times God prodded you to go farther. 

MOVING DAY (Genesis 31-32)

Jacob had a problem. Make that at least three problems: Uncle Laban and his sons (the plural indicates at least two sons and maybe more.) After twenty years, a lot of Laban's wealth had transferred from uncle to nephew, and they were jealous.

Unlike earlier times in his life, Jacob hadn't cheated his way into fortune; rather, Laban kept trying to cheat him (remember substituting Leah for Rachel on his wedding night?) by changing his wages, but God turned the tables each time, until Jacob ended up with more, and stronger, animals. 

Jacob was under pressure and discussed it with his wives. He didn't know what to do.

That's when God showed up--and told him it was time to go home, to the place where he was born. 

In fact, the mixture of dream, circumstances, and family councils so blend together that Jacob's description of the dream from his father's God sounds a bit like Tevye's dream from Fiddler on the Roof. Final proof that they should pursue a course of action Jacob always thought was best. 

The events that forced Jacob to leave make me wonder if he had settled in Haran and never expected to go home again. 

It reminds me of my own decision to leave Colorado. I arrived in Denver in 1990 and immediately felt at home. It still holds my heart and many of my most precious memories. If God hadn't intervened, I doubt I would ever have chosen to leave. 

But God did act. My daughter died. The job I had loved for nine years changed and I no longer found the same joy in going in to work. My mother's health declined, and she had to move out of our shared apartment into assisted living. 

At the same time, my son had married and settled in Oklahoma--and was expecting his first child. The siren call of family made it clear the time had come to leave my much loved home of Colorado and go to Oklahoma. 

Like with Jacob, God had to force me out of a comfortable place to another place where He would bless in ways I never ever dreamed. (but that's a story for another day)

How about you? Has God, and how has He, made it clear it was time for you to leave your comfort zone?