EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

The Church, in general, is much like I am.  They sing “Jesus paid it all,” they say “Jesus paid it all,” but they live and they worship like “I’ve got to pay my
own way.”  The work of Christ as our sacrifice, priest, and atonement is the centerpiece of why the Gospel is the Gospel.  Without understanding the way
that Jesus was the offering that atoned for our sins, and that we never have to sacrifice another thing again, how can we preach the gospel???  I can apply this in that every time I
lead in corporate worship, it is led from a position of knowing Jesus work.  Knowing what God has done for humanity, and responding to what He has done.
Too much of today’s worship in the church is on hold, waiting for God to do something new, something next, something now and THEN we will respond in worship.  Well….that’s stupid.  Jesus did it, it’s done, and forever He is worthy, even if your day sucked or you lost your job or your parents rejected you or the school bully gave you a wedgie.
Jesus paid it all, Jesus is worthy!

I had no idea what to think might be coming when I first read Leviticus, or what I would get out of it. Some of it amused me, some of it confused me, and some of it really just bored me. But as I said at the end of my Exodus blog…it’s not about me. It’s all about God. And it all points to Christ.

God repeats over and over again to be holy, for He is holy, that He is the Lord. That He is the One who sanctifies. He is the One in charge. He doesn’t distinguish between Israelites and resident aliens in His nation. All are the same, all are given the same commands. And all are loved by Him…why else would He tell them what they should and shouldn’t do? Why else would He try to keep them from worshipping goat demons, and Molech (if you want to know about Molech, look him up…basically people burned their first born babies alive to him as an act of worship)? Why else would He want to dwell with the people? Why else would He promise to dwell with the people?

Growing up I saw the God of the Old Testament as being harsh. I thought the laws were a burden. I thought they showed how merciless He was. And I’m sure I’m not the only one that thought that. I also saw the law as boring. Never have I been so wrong! If ever wondering why or if you should read the Old Testament law, do it! And while you do it, look to see what it says about God’s character. What is He like? Why does He want the people to do these things? Is it to be mean, or to put a burden on them? No! It’s for their own good, their own protection, both physically and spiritually! And while you’re reading it, ask yourself: how has Christ fulfilled this? Do we need to offer burnt, grain, sin, guilt, and peace offerings now? No! Christ is our offering. Sin always has and always will require death and blood as a payment for it. Christ is that payment. He has made peace for us with God. He has wiped away our sin and guilt (both intentional and unintentional). So if He’s done this why look back at the time before He had done it? To remember just how hopeless we were. To remember just how hard it was to come into God’s presence. To remember that all those offerings and all that blood…never saved us. To see, completely and utterly, how Christ fulfills the Old Testament, fulfills the requirements for sin. And maybe to help you imagine just how big, just how deep and significant His statements and actions would have been for the Jews, to see why the Pharisees were always so offended, but the common people loved Him.

I really don’t have much more to say, but that God is the One who sanctifies us. He’s the One who saves us. He’s holy, and if we’re His children then we should reflect who He is, and cling to Christ because we’re never going to make it on our own. He’s the only One who can make us holy. He’s the One who does it all.

I gotta admit, I was the least bit excited for this book. But thanks to Todd Livingston, I have a whole new outlook on this priestly handbook. Just reading all of the rules reminds me of when I was in high school and complained about all the rules I had to follow, and then experiencing life on the Bob Jones campus. Life was pretty rough for the nation of Israel back then. There was a consequence for every sin that was committed (whether it was intentional or unintentional). There was a lot of blood shed because of these sins. Seeing this whole system magnifies Christ’s work on the cross for me. His limitless atonement can never be replaced with the blood of bulls and goats. This book magnifies the holiness of God and kills any suspicion of man being close to acceptable in God’s eyes. His holiness will forever be greater than the sins of humanity. We are holy because God is holy.

Leviticus is God’s commandments to his people on how they are to relate with him and with one another.  Through the ordination of his priests, the sacrificial system, and the laws, God creates a way for his people to consecrate themselves to him and to be a nation completely set apart from the surrounding people groups.  In chapter 26, God explicitly states the consequences for adherence to this covenant and for choosing to disobey.  Door number one leads to total provision and an intimate “walking” with God.  Door number two, which they eventually chose, leads to utter destruction.  Simply put, it was a choice between 1) trusting that God was who he declared himself to be and honors his word, and 2) trusting in their own logic, impulse and desire to conform to their surrounding world and an unbelief in God’s integrity.  As Christians, we are given the same choice daily.  Do we desire to be wholly consecrated (set apart) to God or do we desire more the things of this life (acceptance from others, possessions, the illusions of stability and comfort)? Paul encouraged the believers in Rome to “present their bodies as living sacrifices to God” and to “not be conformed to this world” (Rom 12.1,2).  The specifics look different for everyone; however, the general concept resounds clearly: Through your actions, motives, relationships, etc, are you displaying a life that’s lived for God alone?  In many ways, this is the most important question that can be asked post-conversion.  From its answer flows either abundant life (John 10.10) or another lesson to be learned the hard way.

The thing I really noticed from studying Leviticus this week is just how much has changed about the way I read the Bible. I no longer read just for the sake of understanding history, laws, and rituals. I read with a purpose. I read with a Savior in mind. And that freedom, to see the things of Leviticus as a “sketch and a shadow” of the greater glory brought in by Christ, changes everything. Through this book I gained an even greater appreciation for the weight & cost of our sin against a holy God, and therefore a greater appreciation for our perfect sacrifice without blemish, Jesus Christ. I also see the beauty in the fact that through Jesus we are now able to fulfill God’s calling for his people to be a holy nation, a royal priesthood (Ex. 19:6), holy as he is holy and set apart from the nations around us. Christ’s righteousness and the empowering nature of the Spirit have made it possible for me to have the relationship with God that all people were created to have, and to be the light in the world that God set us apart to be. It’s a beautiful thing. Leviticus has given me a greater love for Jesus Christ, and that’s what I’ll take away from it–not leprosy, not sacrifices, and not the law.

“If I say the God of your fathers has sent me and they ask ‘What is his name?’ What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses,

‘I AM what I AM’” – Exodus 3:13-14

What I learned in Exodus struck me hard and clear: that God is not a God we put in a box or define by a simple name, He is defined by who He is, what He is how He is. God IS what He IS. The Hebrew phrasing of I AM what I AM actually translates a couple different ways based on the Hebrew verb tensing, and it can read “I WILL BE what I WILL BE” or even “I WILL BE what I WAS.” With this in mind, a new door suddenly opens and God’s character begins to become so much clearer. God is known by what He has done because his character is unchanging, yet still so unpredictable and indefinable because God simply, IS. It is not just that He exists, but by his very definition He is existence. Here, God says to Moses simultaneously, that He is what He was, AND that He will be both what He is and was. It is an invitation to see who God is and will be, and what He has done and what He will do. It’s the same invitation that Jesus brings to us 1400 years later.

Jesus comes on the Scene in the book of John followed by two eager disciples, looking to follow a good teacher. Seeking to find where He is staying, they ask him, and He responds simply with “Come and you will see.” Jesus invites them the same way God invites Israel: come and see what I will be, see what I will do, see who I am because it is who I was. As God calls the Israelites to remember him as the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, so Jesus calls us to see that He is that same God when He says: “Before Abraham was, I AM”

Now, with all the confusing verb tensing and biblical banter the question is still throbbing: who is He?

Both of these stories in Exodus and the gospel of John, come around to the same climax: DELIVERANCE. God, by a strong and mighty hand delivers Israel from the land of Egypt. He delivers them from bondage and slavery into the wilderness, where He meets them for the first time in awesome power on top of Mt Sinai. Likewise Jesus, leading a humble serving, graceful and truthful life, dies on the cross laying down his mighty hand only to raise it up again and to free those who would believe in him, from the bondage and slavery of sin and death. Truly the answer to the question Just who God is, is who He has been, and thus who He will be forever. God is our deliverer. Through the cross of Christ we have been bought, and for freedom’s sake we have been set free by Christ. Now the invitation stands to all who would believe.

Just like on the mountain where God met Moses, a lowly shepherd in the wilderness, in a burning bush, God meets us and calls out to us: “Come and see who I have Been, Come and see who I will Be, Come and see who I AM.” It is the greatest invitation to relationship ever and its one worth going to see; to see what God has done in Christ, to see what God is doing through Christ, and to see what Christ will do in and through you. Don’t miss this one, Jesus is all over the book of Exodus. When God calls us to relationship He calls us to Christ.

I love those moments when certain small things begin to click. Things you feel like you should have seen before, should have known because you’ve grown up in Sunday school, you know all the cool stories…but you never quite understood the point of them. Maybe you’re like me, I hope not, but maybe you are. You never understood the book as a whole, or that it was about God. You thought it was all about Moses, that he was the hero. You never saw how the whole story pointed straight towards Jesus, straight to the cross, straight to the redemption that only the perfect Lamb of God could bring. You never comprehended that what God was doing was something merciful, gracious, and loving. You never saw God as a loving God in the book of Exodus. You saw Him as scary and untouchable, even though your teachers and your parents tried to tell you it was all for good or that God is unchangeable. In a way I suppose that’s good. Why? Because that’s how the Israelites saw God. They were afraid of Him. They didn’t get the big picture.

This time, going through the book as a whole, seeing it as a complete story but not as a finished story (oh, there’s so much more ground to cover!), one thing sticks out more than anything else: God is passionate. He’s passionate about His people. He’s passionate about redemption. And He’s chosen to redeem people to be in relationship with Him. It’s not that He needs them. They need Him, so, so much because they’re so, so lost. It’s not about whether they deserve it or not. They don’t. They doubt Him, complain against Him, make a covenant with Him and forty days later break it by worshipping a seven inch golden calf. No, the book of Exodus is about God, in His holiness, choosing to make a way for them to be with Him. It’s about Him having compassion on a people trapped in slavery. It’s about Him bringing light into a dark, dark place. It’s about His power, glory, love, and grace. It’s about Him going above and beyond everything anyone ever could have imagined, everything humanly possible, to save His people. It’s about God doing what’s best for His people even though they don’t deserve it.

As with the book of Genesis I am left with the question, “why?”. The truth is that I can’t answer that, because I don’t understand why, except that God is God and He chose to do it because He could and He wanted to.

I really don’t have much more to say about it all. I am amazed, thankful, and humbled at seeing who God is and what He’s redeemed me from. I’m excited because every day, no matter how hard the work or how tired I get, the clearer God becomes to me…and I still have so much more ground to cover, so many more years to discover who God is. He is the great I Am. He’s so deep, so vast that He cannot be described with one name, or even in one sentence. He’s the one you can only get to know if you walk with Him like Abraham, if you strive with Him like Jacob, and if you ask to see His glory like Moses. And you’ll never stop learning more about Him. And you’re still going to fail, but you see…it’s not about you!!!

So here’s a song (I know, I keep using songs) that I was listening to this week and seems to describe a lot of what I see about God in Exodus. I like it especially because it ends with the great commission, it ends with the command to bless all nations by sharing the name of Christ with them…

“They tried to keep you in a tent
They could not keep you in a temple
or any of their idols
to see and understand

We cannot keep you in a church
We cannot keep you in a Bible
it’s just another idol
to box you in

They could not keep you in their walls
We cannot keep you in ours either
fro You are so much greater

Who is like the Lord?
The maker of the heavens
Who dwells with the poor
He lifts them from the ashes
and seats them among princes
Who is like the Lord?

We’ve tried to keep you in a tent
We’ve tried to keep you in a temples
We’ve worshiped all their idols
We want all that to end
So we will find you in the streets
And we will find you in the prisons
And even in our Bibles, and churches

Who is like the Lord?
The maker of the heavens
Who dwells with the poor
He lifts them from the ashes
and seats them among princes
Who is like the Lord?

We cannot contain
Cannot contain the glory of Your name
We cannot contain
Cannot contain the glory of Your name

We cannot contain
Cannot contain the glory of Your name

Who is like the Lord?
You took me from the ashes
and healed me of my blindness
Who is like the Lord?”

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/cannot_keep_you_lyrics_gungor.html
All about Gungor: http://www.musictory.com/music/Gungor

I think that I have often looked at my life in
the same way that I have looked at the Exodus.
As much as I knew God was the Hero, I really took a “Ten Commandments”
or “Prince of Egypt” perspective.  I
acted and perceived as if Moses was really something special, that he really
did something great in leading Israel out.
But these timeless truths all start with the same first word, the first
word that should lead every celebration, every worship that is expressed with
Exodus as the backdrop….GOD!  I need to
embrace all of these timeless truths in different ways in my life.  I need to completely reject idolatry of
myself, regarding my skills, talents, or giftings.  I should do a better job celebrating the work
of Christ in His mediation on my behalf, I should respond in trust and simply
obey the instruction of God.  However,
the most significant change I think that I can make is to truly embrace that
God wants to dwell with his people, in the past I have experienced God many
different times.  The funny thing is that
I think I had the perspective that my experience with God was the result of how
strongly I pursued, how passionately I sang, or how powerfully I prayed.  That somehow I had convinced God to dwell
with me.  While Exodus does support the
worship and adoration of God as well as approaching Him in prayer it is so
clear that God’s presence with the people was a result of His pursuit of them,
and their obedience to his leading.

A Faithful God, and doubting heart, and a good journey.

It’s amazing how much you can learn about your own heart through studying the lives of the early Israelites. One thing I’m seeing today: It’s crazy how quickly I tend to blame God for the slightest bit of hardship that arises, and in the blaming I gloss over/minimize/conveniently dismiss and forget all the other times in the past that God bailed me out/came through/blessed/provided…you name it. I used to think that maybe it’s all the late nights up with my kids that’s causing my forgetfulness, but reading Exodus its pretty clear to me that selective amnesia towards the saving Acts of God on our behalf is something that plagues us all.

If I didn’t know myself so well I’d think its ABSOLUTELY OBSURD that Israel, just THREE DAYS after seeing the most AMAZING act of deliverance the world has ever seen, began to complain and doubt God. Just three days after walking through the Red sea on DRY GROUND the Israelites are acting like they’ve been hopelessly abandoned in the wilderness to die of thirst (Exodus 15:22-25). Three hot days, three thirsty days, and its just as if all the plagues, the passover deliverance, the Red Sea crossing, and the TOTAL destruction of one of the most powerful nations on earth right before their eyes never even happened.

Wow.

If I didn’t have so much experience doing the same thing with God myself I’d be mad as heck at Israel for how they acted…but….how quickly we all play the “what if” scenarios out in our minds: “What if the year end bonus doesn’t come, what if my health deteriorates, what if I lose my job, what if the roof leaks again…what if…what if…what if”…until we’re all blue in the face and TOTALLY forgetful of the fact that none of the scary “what if” scenarios have EVER taken us completely out of the game, and not once have ANY of them materialized in a way that God couldn’t and hasn’t brought us straight through and out the other side.

I don’t want to be like this anymore. I want to trust like a little kid (Mt 18:3). I want to see the kingdom, believe it, live it, love it, trust it like my three year old daughter does. She’s got no “what if scenarios” no contingency plan beyond childlike trust. I love that. The thought of living with abandon like she does totally draws me into God, and completely freaks me out at the same time. But that’s what the journey of following Jesus is like: you’ve got to try and see it like a little child would, or you don’t see it at all.

I don’t want to be the type of person who hurried through the Red Sea afraid that the walls of water were going to crash back down before they made it through. If I’m going to have to make the journey regardless, I’d much rather enjoy the ride, take a second to pick up a shell or two from the ocean floor, put it in my pocket and NEVER FORGET that it was God’s hands who parted the waters of my darkest past. He did it once, and he will do it again

In 1 John I wrote about how being a child of God is like being the adopted daughter of a king. Well, in Exodus I am getting the picture of the King pursuing his people as his bride. These are two illustrations used all throughout the OT & NT to reflect different aspects of the way God loves us and interacts with us. In Exodus it is just crazy how much God is pursuing a relationship with his people. At the same time, you see more clearly than ever just how powerful, loving, forgiving and good God is. He’s not desperate or needy—he could find fulfillment in himself—but he has chosen us, and he is jealous for us (34:14). He is a protector. He is a conqueror. He is the perfect husband. He is the most powerful King. He can literally do anything & have anyone he wants. And yet he chose Israel out of nothing, and deeply wanted a relationship with them. He was vulnerable and revealed things about himself to them. He told them what he likes and dislikes, and how they can have a closer relationship with him by doing the things he likes and avoiding the things he dislikes—just like any married couple would do. He built a house for them and promised to always live with them, to always go out in front of them and lead them throughout the rest of their lives together. He promised that he would never leave (34:7, 27:21, 33:14). He is so holy that they can’t touch the mountain he’s on without dying, and he shakes the camp with his thunder & lightning & trumpeting, and yet he lets the high priest enter his presence by putting on a little oil and taking off his shoes and he calls that holy. He is so humble that when he tells Moses about himself, he never mentions his power & might, even though it is one of the most apparent things about him in this book (3:14, 34:6-7). In absolutely every way he is their dream God. He is good and true and faithful and just and forgiving and merciful and gracious and full of steadfast love. Full of it. And what does Israel do in response? Israel, oh Israel. Sometimes they are like Moses and spend time in his presence, coming back with shining faces. Sometimes they make sincere pledges, like “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient” (24:7). They make covenants & praise him. Yes, they do—sometimes. But they also complain and make idols and debauch and flounder in unbelief. It hurts to read about. It’s ridiculous sometimes, like when Aaron (Aaron!) makes the golden calf for the people. But I won’t be too hard on Israel. Because we all are Israel—“There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.” (Romans 3:9-12, Psalm 14:1-3). Jesus said, “There is only one who is good” (Matthew 19:17). I am just as idolatrous as Israel. I am just as covetous, just as murderous, and just as unbelieving. And yet I have hope that the Israelites didn’t have. Because the fulfillment of all of these things that God does in Exodus—the ultimate rescue & deliverance, the ultimate tabernacle, the perfect keeper of the law, the author & perfect of our faith—is Jesus. He offers us a better ministry with a better covenant & better promises than the one made at Mt. Sinai (See Hebrews). All of this in Exodus is just a shadow of the glory of God that we now see in Christ. Through Christ we can gaze on the glory of the Lord in the new covenant with unveiled faces and be transformed from one degree of holiness to the next, finally being made holy in the image of our God, because we have the ministry of the Spirit that he brought us (See 2 Cor. 3). Through him we have been made into his dwelling place, the holy nation of priests that he first offered to Israel (Exodus 19:5-6, 1 Peter 2:4-10, John 1:14, 1 Cor. 3:17, 6:19, 2 Cor. 6:16-18, etc). In Revelation we see that he will dwell among us for all of eternity. God wins. He gets his bride in the end. He redeems us from the things that separated us from him. He did it all on the cross. He delivered us one more time from the land of Egypt, from the land of darkness, brought us through the Red Sea, washing us clean, and then closed the waters for good. Yeah…Amen.

Exodus paints an amazing portrait of Gods nature and Character. It reminds humanity of how deep our sin is. It also reminds us how deep His grace is.

“And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

God does something for the Israelite’s, that the Israelite’s could not do for themselves. He delivers them from the bondage of the Egyptians, and makes for himself his own people in which he can have relationship with. He takes a bunch of stubborn, stiff necked slaves, and makes them sons in daughters. This Only a shadow pointing to what he is going to do thousands of years down the road in Jesus. In Exodus, God does something for his people that his people could not do for themselves; he delivers them from the bondage of slavery. But By the Gospel,God has done something in Christ that we could not do for ourselves. He has delivered wicked sinners from the bondage of sin(the true Pharaoh). He has done it. He has fought for us, he has won. It is finished.

This is amazing.God has truly done something for me that I could never do myself. In Christ, he has saved me. In Christ he has conquered sin, satan, death and hell. In Christ he has given me his righteousness, and taken my sin, shame and condemnation. He did it, Despite me.

Despite my failures, despite my success,despite my past, and despite my future. He has done it by his unmerited, electing, unconditional, and gracious love. Yet still I love sin more than I love him, still I love my pride and selfishness more than I love him, Still I love my glory more than I love his. How wretched I am! How flawed I am, and How dependent I am on his promise to finish what he completed, how dependent I am for him to change me, regenerate me, sanctify me.

Jesus is the true and better Passover lamb who by faith in his word, we are covered by his blood and the angel of death passes over us.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant

Jesus is the true and better rock of Moses, who by the striking of his body, came life to all who drank.

Jesus is the angel of God who stands between us and sin.

Jesus is the true and better veil, mercy seat, lamp stand, ark of the covenant…

If you read Exodus and do not see Jesus, read it again for you are not reading it correctly.

Wow! Genesis was A WHOLE LOT to take in and chew on in just a week.  However, I did enjoy studying through Genesis
and hearing the Introduction to basically everything!  Genesis is all about who God is and who His
people are (Chosen Israel) as well as what they are to be like.  Some major timeless truths I gained through
studying Genesis are as follows:

~God is the Creator of ALL Things (throughout
book).

~Sin separates humanity from God (Gen 3).

~Obedience towards the Lord reflects
relationship with the Lord (Gen. 6-8, 14).

~God desires relationship with His people (Gen. 9)

~God fulfills his Promises and is Faithful
(Gen 10, 12, 13, 17, 21, 37, 47)

~God desires His children to place all
security and identity in Him (Gen 12)

~Fear not, God is our shield (15:1)

~God provides for His children (Gen 12, 21,22, 26, 48-49) (Blessings!)

~Wrestle out confusion with God if needed (Gen 32)

~God helps his children forgive as He forgives us (Gen 33, 45, 50)

There are several more timeless truths from this book.  However, I feel as though these encapsulate a small picture of what Genesis is all about.  It is also important to know that Genesis was originally written by Moses and meant to be read to the Israelites who had just gotten out of Egypt and were wandering in the Wilderness.  It’s so important to keep this original reader perspective when reading through Genesis. I love how Genesis is written as a narrative and I would love to reflect on my two favorite stories from Genesis:

1) Abraham and Isaac (Gen 22)

When Abraham was instructed by the Lord to take his son, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there
as a burnt offering, Abraham obeyed the Lord and rose early the next morning.  While Abraham was on his journey to the land of Moriah with Isaac, two young men, and a donkey, he told the men to stay where they were with the donkey while him and Isaac went where they needed to go.  Abraham told the men “we will worship and then we will come back to you (22:5).”  Further on down the road, Abraham reassured Isaac that “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering (22:7)”.  It amazes me that Abraham is already speaking this way, so sure that the Lord will provide, without the Lord revealing any
rescue or deliverance.  His confidence in the Lord’s provision came directly from his authentic faith in the Lord.  When Abraham was about to  kill his son, Isaac, on the altar, an angel of the Lord called out to him and commanded him not to because the Lord now knew that Abraham feared God, which implied that God was in the throne room of
Abraham’s heart.  God ended up providing a ram to offer as the burnt offering and Abraham called the place “The Lord
will provide” (v22:14).  This story reminds me of God’s desire to rule our hearts and to be the center of our lives, the place we fix our eyes.  I am so encouraged by Abraham’s bold and trusting faith in the Lord and I desire to have faith like Abraham.

2)  Forgiveness and Reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers (Gen 45, 50)

Joseph grants forgiveness towards his brothers throughout Genesis 45 and Genesis 50. However, several years before, his brothers had stripped him, threw him into a pit, and sold him to Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver (37:23-28).  Joseph ended up serving Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials for some time, and then was put into prison by a false case
from Potiphar’s wife for a few years, and then was finally declared Governor over land of Egypt because he could interpret Pharaoh’s dreams and God revealed to him the key to saving Egypt during the 7 years of famine that would approach
after the 7 years of plenty.  The brothers of Joseph soon came to Egypt to gather grain for their family and didn’t
recognize Joseph, but he recognized them.  After some time, Joseph finally revealed who he was to his brothers and
completely restored his relationship with them by offering them true forgiveness and reconciliation.  Joseph reassured
his brothers “Do not be distressed or angry because you sold me her; for God sent me before you to preserve life” (45:5).
Joseph took the blame off his brothers and instead chose to glorify the Lord.  In a similar way, when his brothers feared that he may still hold a grudge against them after their father Jacob died, Joseph comforted their hearts by saying “Do not be afraid!  Am I in the place of God?  Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today (50:19-20).”  This is a beautiful example of grace and restoration.  I was
encouraged to be a vessel of restoration for the Kingdom of God in my everyday life circumstances.  As a body of Christ, we
are called to be a community of reconciliation.  Therefore, let us bless the Lord and others in dealing with our conflict
rather than holding grudges against people or instigating more disagreements.  This may not always be easy, for conflict is
usually never easy.  However, as I read and reflect on Joseph’s forgiving and joyful heart, I am encouraged evermore to
pray for the same kind of heart and extended grace.  Let us love like we are children of God because that is exactly who we are!

I thought Genesis would be more of a history lesson than an revelation of God’s character. Although I’ve studied Genesis before, I’ve never seen His love, care, protection, concern, and sovereignty displayed as much as I’ve seen it this time around. It’s amazing to see God’s continual grace pour out on humanity over and over again, regardless of humanity’s sin and rebellion. Although Genesis is just saturated with the grace of God, it also contains some pretty graphic sins. It’s crazy to see the evolution of sin after the garden. Humanity really took the cake and ran with it…but though out the corruption of the world, God was still there in the midst of it all to protect His chosen.

Genesis…

That massive book full of stories that span a period of thousands of years.
That book that I loved growing up in Sunday school.
That book that gave me “chronic brain-juice failure”.
That book where color coding never seems to end.
That book that establishes forever and always who God is, and what humanity is.

The biggest theme that I followed as I went through these stories was the character of God. What is He like? What does He feel? Why does He do what He does in this book? And the answers were always the same, always repeated over and over again. God is good. God is faithful. God is patient. God cannot abide evil because He is opposite of evil. God is light and life. God protects those He chooses. God brings joy. He is great, the Almighty, and His will is indestructible. God loves with a passion, His love goes above and beyond anything the human mind could ever fathom. His choices are supreme, and He is merciful. So, so merciful and gracious. And God blesses. Over, and over, and over again we see Him bless. And why? It beats me why He would, because I sure wouldn’t. Isn’t it funny how the imperfect can judge one another, and get angry about sins that they have no right to criticize?

Why, I ask you, would God choose a man like Abraham? Abraham ignored God’s commands, tried to sell his barren wife Sarah (twice!), and slept with a slave woman because he didn’t want to wait for God to fulfill his promise of a son. But God chose him. And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He was righteous, not perfect. And in the end, he did obey God. He acted out of faith and almost offered his son on an altar as God had commanded him…but God provided another way. He gave another life in place of the son that Abraham loved.

And why would God choose a man like Isaac? He could have chosen Ishmael. He could have chosen Lot. He could have chosen anyone else…but He didn’t. He chose the child of the promise. He chose a man who feared Pharaoh and so lied about his wife being his sister (funny how history repeats itself…like father, like son I suppose). He chose a man who played favorites with his sons and tried to ignore what God had said would happen: that the older child would serve the younger. The younger, Jacob, would be the next carrier of the promise and the blessing of God. But God chose him. God made him righteous, and worked with and through a flawed man.

And Jacob? That liar and deceiver, whose very name means “supplanter”? Why would God choose him? Romans shows us how God chose Jacob even before he was born. He chose him over Esau. God went counter-cultural and chose the younger son to be the inheritor of the promise, of the blessing and riches that God had given to this family. There’s very little that I can say I admire in Jacob. He played favorites, both with his wives and his children. He lied. He cheated. And when his daughter was raped, he did nothing. Yet he did seek God, he looked for Him, struggled with Him, and begged for His blessing. And when God did protect and bless Jacob, Jacob worshipped him. But God didn’t have to do any of that for Jacob…so why did He? Because He’s God. He gives, and gives, and gives. He gives to people that don’t deserve Him. He forgives people who don’t even want to know Him.

One story I loved watching unfold this time was the story of Leah. She was the neglected and unloved wife of Jacob. God blessed her and gave her children. At first she hoped and prayed that the children would make her husband love her more. She longed to be loved. To feel loved. To know that her husband loved her. But as the story moves on, she changes. She begins to recognize the work of the Lord in her life, and the names of her children change, they change into names that praise God for what He’s given her. For loving her. For giving her joy through her children. I think she gave up on the idea that Jacob would ever love her in the way that he loved Rachel. Instead she clung to a much stronger love, a love that filled her with joy and changed her heart. A love that completed her, became her everything, gave her self-worth, and was ever constant. Leah’s story makes me happy, happy in a way that makes you want to cry. The flipside to this story is that Rachel never found this love. She stole her father’s household gods, was jealous of what Leah had, and died with sorrow in her heart. Rachel’s story makes me sad. She searched and searched and failed to see what was right before her eyes: that God’s love is better than that of a man, better than anything this world could offer. It’s better than life itself (as the Psalmist would say, Psalm 63:3).

And Judah? Why God chose Judah to be the carrier of the promise after Jacob, I honestly can’t understand. The most honorable thing he did was to offer himself in place of his younger brother Benjamin, who his father loved very much, when he thought his brother was in danger of being enslaved. But he sold his brother Joseph, and slept unknowingly with his daugher-in-law Tamar who was dressed like a prostitute. But God chose Judah to be the next carrier of the promise. He chose Him because He had a plan, a plan of redemption. A plan that would bless all the nations of the earth. The name of His plan: Jesus. God chose to redeem the line of Judah, and through doing that to redeem all who would believe in the promised Son of God.

Joseph seems to end the book well and give the biggest reasons for why things happened or even happen now. He tells his brothers that what they meant for evil, God meant for good. What they meant to be death, God meant to be life to the world (does this sound familiar? Who killed Jesus and what did they want it to mean? What had God chosen it to mean?). His choices are supreme, because His plan is supreme.

I’ll leave you with a song, because I like songs and I feel like this one fits so well with what we see in Genesis.

“I am a man who built his house on sand
I am a thief upon a cross
I’m just like Judas, that sorry fool who can’t be glad for what he’s got
That’s why I’m hanging on to the cross on which I’ve flung my hopes and dreams
It’s by the grace of God I hang my head and sing
My God, You are good, You are great,
You are love
I Am . . .
I am a man who has been bought by love.
I am a man who sold his soul.
I’m like the man, who when he found his pearl:
He gave up everything he owned.
That’s why I’m hanging on to the cross on which I’ve flung my hopes and dreams
It’s by the grace of God I lift my hands and sing – sing!
My God, You are good.
You are great,
You are love, You are love, You are love, You are love
And I am loved.”

(“I Am”, The City Harmonic)

When I see thousands of years of God working throughout history condensed in a relatively short book, it becomes clearer that I am one tiny part of a great big picture. I have a note to myself on my computer screen that says, “Life is not about your happiness.” And it’s a truth that is evident in Genesis. Life is about something more than happiness and it’s about something more than me. Life is about God working through the world to reclaim his people for himself, until the day that he has finally made all things new. And yet God doesn’t exclude me from this plan, and he offers me endless opportunities to find joy in him. What’s really crazy is that when God appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans around 4000 years ago, that interaction affected the state of my eternal salvation. God came down seeking out an ordinary man, and through him blessed all the peoples of the earth through his descendent Jesus Christ. And that includes me. Now that I have the comfort of the security of this promise, I can abandon my own fears and plans for my life and be obedient to the voice of God as I play the part that he has ordained for me in his universal plan of redemption. I can follow him into the unknown as Abraham did, “not knowing where he was going. By faith.” (Hebrews 11:8) I can live the life that God has created me for. Now, all I know is the step that God is asking me to take next; I don’t know the end result of my life. Just because God is using me for a purpose doesn’t mean my life will be as exciting, peaceful, or fulfilling as I hope it will. After all, the sons of Israel died in Egypt, having not yet reclaimed the Promised Land. But it wasn’t really about the sons of Israel, just about it wasn’t really about Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or David. God loved them individually, and was faithful to them individually, but his promises were about more than their personal happiness—and indeed, “they confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on this earth” (Hebrews 11:13). His promises were that he would use them to bring about the redemption of the world, and through his Son offer them each individually eternal life. Now that’s a promise that I can cling to, a promise to wave to from far away in faith, a promise to live my short, tiny, vapor of a life for.