Gen. 46-48
Once again, the writers of the Bible do not always state things as they actually are (cultural semantics, perhaps?). Reading the story of Joseph and his brothers, you get the impression that Benjamin is quite young – maybe 10ish or a teenager at best. As it turns out, he had 10 sons!!!
Anyway…. I like how God came to Jacob and eased his fears, even to the point of telling him that Joseph would be with him when he died. God was with Jacob his entire life and blessed him richly, but what does Jacob choose to focus on? He tells Pharaoh, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life…” (Gen 47:9). His comment is not without merit. But I think it was his own deceitfulness, selfishness, and resistant nature that caused much of it. Just goes to show that belonging to God does not automatically fit you into a specific mold. God uses and accepts all kinds of people.
One thing I struggle with a little is how Joseph took a fifth of the produce of the land during the good years and then sold it back to the people for everything they had. He even took their freedom. On the one hand, he did save their lives. It is unlikely they would have saved enough of the excess to carry them through the famine. But on the other hand, Pharaoh was being made very wealthy off of what he took, at likely no cost, from the people in the first place. This was all Joseph’s idea, and I consider Joseph to be one of the most Godly, Christ-like characters in the Bible!!
Then again, I suppose a tax of ‘only’ 20% would be a vast improvement over what we pay in total taxes today. Furthermore, this is not the only place where the Bible seems to indicate that being ‘shrewd’ with the resources available to you is a good thing. I do believe that being ‘shrewd’ and being dishonest or hurtful to others are not the same thing. It’s a fine line, though, which makes me wonder what it is that really makes an action “wrong”? I dunno…it’s a lot to think about.
One last thing… Yet again, God puts the youngest ahead of the oldest with Ephraim and Manasseh. This continues the theme in His story of “the first will be last”.
Matt. 23:1-22
Continuing the thought from Jacob’s life…appearances don’t mean much! The Pharisees went to great lengths to look “good”, but were rotten inside. Jacob’s life looked a mess, but his heart really did belong to God. This reminds me of the story Jesus put forth in a recent reading where a father made a request of his two sons. One said he would do it, but never did. The other said he would not do it, but then later did. Which son did the request of his father? Which son’s heart was in the right place?
I cut open a nice looking red bell pepper the other day, only to discover that the seed ball in the heart of the pepper was all black and moldy. Never would have known it from the outside. I have eaten peppers that are getting soft and wrinkly but still look good inside, but this pepper I threw away. If the heart is rotten, can you trust the flesh? So consider the greatest commandment – love the LORD your God with all your HEART, all your SOUL, all your MIND, and all your STRENGTH. These all come from within and are not things that people can readily see. They may see the results, but bottom line – it is not what people can see that really matters.