One of the things I so love about scripture is when you have a day where a lightbulb comes on, even though it may be dim, there is something there to be grasped! In those times I feel the need to write out my connections in order to hold onto them tightly.
As of last year I finally completed reading the O.T. from beginning to end. I had skipped around quite a bit and had read most of it before but never as a whole. I am also very fond of the Pentateuch so I have a tendency to keep going back to that. Once I finished Malachi in December I almost felt lost as to where to go next so I just went right back to the beginning of Genesis. I have been purposefully taking my time and with the current study of Esther there have been some distractions.
Anyway, enough background, so today I am almost finished with Genesis but I love to dwell on the life of Joseph because I adore him! I don't know of a more beautiful picture of God's sovereignty and man's faithfulness aside from our Lord Jesus in the Bible. Although David, Job and Daniel run close behind. But for some reason I just love Joseph. In chapter 47 of Genesis, Jacob and his sons have moved to Egypt in order that they might be with Joseph and escape the famine that is in Canaan. As I was reading in v. 9 the word "sojourn" struck me and so I began to research a little bit and it became clear that at this time, the Israelites had not inherited the promise of the land of Canaan. They had lived there but they had not fully received the inheritance and they would not until the book of Joshua, some 450 years later!
What was even more amazing is that God in his providence brought about the famine that would eventually drive Jacob and his sons out of Canaan into Egypt and Egypt would become a land of affliction and slavery to them. The chosen nation of God Most High, chosen to be his people, would endure 400 years of slavery, a time of exodus, wanderings in the wilderness and many battles until they were finally able to settle in the Land that God had promised to their father, Abraham almost 800 years earlier! Yet, God was faithful to His promises, through the enemy's affliction, Israel's disobedience and many, many, many decades!
But He begins those decades by being faithful to us one day at a time. The Ancient of Days has always been faithful, is faithful and will always be faithful - 2 Tim. 2:13 says that He cannot be anything less! That is comfort to me in a day when I don't know the purpose of all that is going on around me and what it has to do with His glory and the bigger picture. I don't know how he will weave today, May 18th, 2010 into His kingdom purpose and what it will look like in the tapestry of eternity. I only know that He is true always and that He is at this very moment doing a thousand other things that I cannot know or understand, working all things according to the counsel of his perfect, immutable and GOOD sovereign will! Praise be to His Name, Today!
