Tag: genesis

Remember the Promises

Remember on the Promises

Genesis 15:18-21 (ESV)  On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Genesis 49:11-12 (ESV)  Then Joseph settled his father [Jacob] and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

Sometimes we look at the riches available in life just as Jacob and His family saw the luxury available in Egypt. Jacob was the father and family of the number two man in all the land.  But he had forgotten the promise God had given to Abraham, his grandfather, that they were given the land of Canaan, not Egypt.

I can see Jacob now, entering the house of Joseph, which was most probably a palace, and settling into Joseph’s favorite recliner, putting his feet up, leaning back with his hands behind his head ready for a cushy retirement.  Jacob had it made.  His son was the second most powerful man in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, wealthy beyond measure, and life was good.  “God has blessed me,” I’m sure he thought.  But is that what God had promised to the family of Abraham?

Jacob started by doing the right thing. He was providing for his family by buying food from Egypt.  He had sent his boys down to do that, but when the family saw the possibilities of wealth and comfort, they decided to stay.

I’m thinking we are a lot like Jacob.  We sometimes find ourselves in favorable situations and think it’s God’s blessing on our lives.  And maybe we even believe we deserve it.  But what if it’s just a test to see if we will follow what God has promised rather than a path to our own comfort? Maybe it is something that will keep us from what we should be doing.

There are times when we read God incorrectly.  Throughout Scripture, Egypt is used as a type of sin.  It’s seen as a place of bondage (Ex. 20:2), as a return to the old life (Deut. 17:16), and as representing a trust in the world system rather than God (Isa. 31:1).

Jacob and his family fell into the trap like rats who see the cheese but never ask why it’s free.  We see that while Joseph asked for his bones to be returned to the Promised Land, he had Jacob’s body embalmed (Gen. 50:2), an Egyptian practice that took 40 days. The Israelite practice was to bury the dead the day they died. Then Joseph buried him in the land of Canaan.  Joseph was also embalmed (Gen. 50:26).  I believe this shows to what degree Jacob’s family had slid into the practices of the Egyptians, even when only the first generation of Israelites in Egypt was present. 

Their willingness to dwell in Egypt rather than the land God had given them resulted in 400 years of slavery there.

Why is this important?

This is reminiscent of the story of Lot when he separated from Abraham, how he looked longingly at Sodom (Gen. 13:10), then he settled as far as Sodom (Gen. 13:12), then he was dwelling in Sodom (Gen. 14:12) and finally he was sitting at the gate of Sodom – a place of city leadership (Gen. 19:1).

We can so easily be distracted from God’s promises by power, wealth, and position.  We need to step carefully to make sure we aren’t headed in the wrong direction.

Let’s not go back to Egypt just because it looks more attractive.

1 Cor. 10:1-6 (ESV) For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

After These Things

Genesis 22:1 (ESV)  After these things . . . .

These three words have intrigued me over the years.  “After what things?” I would ask.  Well, it’s after all the things in Abraham’s life in the eleven chapters preceding 22:1.  In these chapters, I found Abram/Abraham had done some laudable things and sinful things.  But God was still working in his life to make him into the man He wanted to accomplish His plan.

In thinking about of this, I thought of an exercise I did a couple of years ago: I looked at all the things God did to bring me to where I am in Him today.  Here is some of it:

In 1946, my father contracted Scarlet Fever.  Before he was released from the hospital, he was told he couldn’t work for two years.  He refused telling the doctor he needed to provide for his family. 

The doctor had a country home he used as a weekend retreat and kindly suggested our family move in and raise some livestock to provide food and some money.  My father accepted Doctor Parker’s offer, and my father fell in love with this area known as Crow Canyon.

After the two years were up, my father got a job and we all moved into town, but he always dreamed of returning to Crow Canyon.  The summer between my 7th and 8th grade years, we moved into a house there. 

My father was a violent man who abused my brother, sister, and I.  When you’re supposed to learn love and trust and the one who is supposed to love you and whom you are supposed to trust is the one hurting you, you don’t learn these things, so I grew up with neither.  He died when I was 15.

In my senior year of high school, my best friend, Tom, was the photographer for the high school yearbook.  I accompanied him on many of his shoots, and he showed me how to process black and white film and prints.  This seemed like an easy gig to me.

At this time, the young woman, Pam, who would eventually become my wife was several hundred miles away and about to graduate 8th grade.

Just a few weeks after high school graduation, I got in a motorcycle accident.  I broke my right leg and wrist.  The surgeon put a metal rod in my femur and wrote my draft board telling them I was 1H – handicapped.  A year later, the surgeon took out the rod and wrote my draft board I was fit for duty.  Now Pam was a freshman in high school. 

Later that year, I got my draft physical notice.  After the physical, it was obvious, as they say, “If you could see lightning and hear thunder and make it through the door, you were going into the Army.”  I left the physical and drove directly to the Navy recruiter to sign up for reserves.  Pam had started her sophomore year in high school by now.

The Navy reserve plan I signed up for had a one year reserve stint before two years of active duty.  By the time I entered active duty, Pam was half way through her junior year.

The Navy recruiter gave me a dream sheet – don’t know the actual name for it.  On this you tell the Navy what sort of ship you would like to be on, where you might like to be stationed, the sort of job you would like, etc.  I asked for photography.  They were short of photographers, so I got it.  Since I had signed up at a Naval Air Station in Alameda, I was assigned to an aviation recognizance squadron of which there are only two.  One was located on the east coast, and one on the west, at Miramar Naval Air Station.  I was stationed at Miramar.

The following Memorial Day weekend, a friend asked if we could see some of his family in LA.  I had a car. He offered home cooking, so I agreed.  When we got out of the car at his cousins’ – while I didn’t realize it at the time – Jesus put His arm around my shoulder and said “I have a daughter inside I need you to meet named Pam.  She will teach you to love and trust, so you will be able to love and trust Me.”  Pam was in that house.  You see, God had stalled me for two years through my motorcycle accident and my first year of reserves while Pam got old enough to date when we met.  We dated until my active duty was up and married three months later. 

At the time, I thought I was a Christian.  We went to church, I read my Bible, I even prayed, but I had no relationship with Christ.  Five years after we were married, a Jehovah’s Witness, Jerry, was hired at work and asked who the Christians were.  I raised my hand, and we debated fairly often at work.  When Jerry and I got onto salvation, I saw it meant one needed to give control of his life to Christ.  I thought “That’s great.  I need to share this with Jerry,” but God said I needed to take advantage of that myself.  I refused!  You see, I had someone in charge of my life for the first 15 years, and it wasn’t pretty.  I certainly didn’t want to do that again, but God kept after me.  For six months, He daily kept after me.

One night, I was lying in bed and felt a very strong evil presence at the foot of our bed.  Pam had already fallen asleep.  I was terrified.  I knew this was a spiritual thing since I could see no one there, so I began to read my Bible hoping it would go away.  I read the entire book of Daniel before it finally left.  God was telling me in no uncertain terms I had a choice: either eternity with Him or eternity with this evil thing.  The next night I went down to church and raised my hand to receive Jesus.

Why is this important?

My father’s Scarlet Fever got us to Crow Canyon. Crow Canyon introduced me to Tom and photography. Photography brought me to NAS Miramar. Miramar brought me to Pam, and Pam brought me to Jesus. God works in mysterious ways, eh?

Genesis 22 continues with the story of a father’s love for his son yet willing to sacrifice his son if God asked.  For thousands of years, God has pointed to him to show us in a minor way what it was like for Him to sacrifice His Son for us.  This ordinary man from Ur who sinned but strove to do God’s will has been set up as an example to others.  God has prepared us just as He prepared Abraham, and like Abraham, we all have our jobs to do.  Abraham’s is over.  Now it’s our turn.

Gen. 22:9-12  (ESV)  When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”