January 27, 2017
Just as Jacob had wrestled God on the eve of his return to the promised land, so Moses had an encounter with God on the eve of his return to Egypt. While Jacob’s encounter left him walking with a limp for the rest of his life, Moses was at risk of death in his meeting with God. Apparently, Moses had failed to circumcise his son. This was the mark of the covenant that God had given to Abraham. And Moses had been negligent to keep it. So, in this terrifying encounter with God, Zipporah, Moses’ wife, ascertained the offense and performed the circumcision herself. When she had cut away her son’s foreskin with a sharp stone, God released Moses and let him go. Before Moses could lead the household of God, he needed to get his own house in order.
January 26, 2017
This was Christ’s response to the disciples when they asked why they had been unable to cast the demon out from the epileptic boy. He told them it was because of their unbelief. They lacked faith in God’s power to heal. Yet, Christ immediately taught them a principle of faith to avoid any possible misunderstanding. He wanted them to stop doubting and believe. They didn’t need faith the size of a mountain, but faith the size of a mustard seed, a seed so small as to make it difficult to see. He used a hyperbole of lesser to greater to illustrate this principle. The phrase “as a mustard seed” shows His use of simile to introduce the lesser (“mustard seed”) to greater (“mountain”) hyperbole. The apostle Paul knew this teaching from Jesus and used it in his list of hyperboles: “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2). It is not the size of your faith, but that you have stopped doubting and started believing. In other words, it is not GREAT faith in God, but faith in a GREAT God. Do you have faith as a mustard seed?
January 25, 2017
Lose to win? Jesus gave this paradoxical teaching after rebuking Peter for his insistence that Jesus should not suffer, die and be raised as He predicted. Jesus warned Peter and His disciples that if they tried in their own wisdom and strength to preserve their lives, they would instead be lost. But if they would surrender their lives to Christ, depending on Him for life, they would be saved. This same life choice is set before us. If you would choose to avoid the persecutions and troubles that the world will throw at you for following Christ, then be aware that you are choosing to gain the world at the expense of your own soul. Yet, if you would choose to follow Christ and be willing to suffer with Him for the sake of the gospel, you will find the very life you desire and more.
January 24, 2017
Jacob, who was called Israel, spoke a word over each of his sons from his death bed. He bestowed a double portion to Joseph, giving his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, equal standing to his other sons. And so, when the twelve tribes of Israel move out of Egypt 400 years later, two of the twelve tribes are called Ephraim and Manasseh. The last words of Jacob are explanatory and prophetic. They explain the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel, and they predict the coming of the Messiah to the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:8-12). Genesis is a book of beginnings. It describes the creation and the fall of humanity. It begins the story of God’s rescue.
January 23, 2017
Christ was sent first as Shepherd to the lost sheep of Israel and then as Redeemer for the whole world. As the apostle Paul wrote, “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Rom.15:8). Jesus died on the cross and was raised, so that both believing Jews and Gentiles might be saved. Yet, His earthly ministry was entirely focused in Israel. However, when a Roman centurion or even a Canaanite mother asked for help, Jesus answered them according to their faith. So, the demon-possessed daughter of a Canaanite woman was healed. After Christ’s resurrection, He commissioned His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). The good news was given first to the Jew, but then was to be carried to all the peoples of the world by Christ’s disciples. We are those who are still called to carry out the Great Commission of our Redeemer. As the Father sent the Son, so the Son sends us (John 20:21).
Where have you been sent?
January 22, 2017
Those who declare God dead are themselves dead in their trespasses and sins. Having denied knowledge of God, they think themselves wise and show themselves fools. For if God were dead, there would be no mind to know it, nor mouth to speak of it. God is not only the Creator of all, He is the Sustainer of all. He is not the absentee clockmaker, winding up the universe and walking away. No. He is the eternally present One, active and always at work in the creation He has made. He still hears when we pray. He still speaks when we listen. He never sleeps, for He has no need of rest. He never leaves nor forsakes us, for He always keeps those He has saved through the blood of His Son. Our Lord lives! Blessed be His Name!
January 21, 2017
I don’t know what you believe about heaven and hell, but Jesus taught that they were real places of eternal existence. In this parable of Jesus, He compared the kingdom of heaven to a fishing net that caught both good and bad fish. The good fish represented those who truly believed in Christ as Lord. And the bad represented those who were hypocrites.
The kingdom of heaven is to be populated by those who have made Christ king. However, there are those who pay lip service to Jesus outwardly, yet inwardly their hearts remain unchanged. They still have “self” on the throne. They have not made Christ the Lord of their lives. They are hypocrites. As the gospel “dragnet” gathers people into the church, both the saved and the hypocrite are present. Yet, at the “end of the age” (Matt.13:49), they will be separated. The “just” to everlasting life and the “wicked” to a place of everlasting torment called Hell.
This is why we must continually preach the gospel to the church. For we do not know who there is among us that has yet to truly confess Christ as King. And this is why each of us must examine our own hearts to be sure that we have truly submitted our lives to Jesus. Have you confessed Jesus as Lord and believed that God raised Him from the dead? Are you truly among the redeemed? The end of the age is coming. Are you ready?
January 20, 2017
Joseph’s brothers stripped him of his coat of many colors that his father, Jacob, had given him. They threw him naked into a pit and sold him into slavery. But God raised him up. The Lord gave Joseph favor with Pharaoh, who put his own signet ring on his finger (A “signet” ring is like a “signature,” giving Joseph power to “sign” with Pharaoh’s authority). He put fine linen robes on his back and a gold chain around his neck. Joseph’s coat of many colors was now replaced. God exalted Joseph to an even higher place of favor than he had held before.
Again, we see Joseph as a Christological type. His life foreshadows the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus was stripped naked and crucified, but the Lord raised Him up and clothed Him with glory and power, giving Him “all authority in heaven and earth” (Matt. 28:18).
January 19, 2017
Joseph was “taken down to Egypt.” The Lord’s plan to elevate Joseph over his brethren, and one day rescue them from famine, led downward. The dreamer found himself in a nightmare. Down, down, down he went. The once favored son was betrayed by his brethren, stripped of his robes, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and left forsaken in a prison. Yet, Joseph’s character never crumbled, nor did his faith fail. He kept on trusting the Lord. And the Lord lifted him up to save his family. If Genesis 38 revealed the wickedness of humanity, then chapter 39 foreshadowed God’s eternal plan to rescue it.
The story of Joseph points to Jesus. For the beloved Son of God would one day remove His divine robes, and make “Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and come in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6-7), He would be betrayed by His brethren and become “obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God will highly exalt Him and give Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:8-11).
Just as Joseph’s betraying brothers later bowed before him, so rebellious humanity will one day bow before the Lord Jesus. Reading the Scriptures, we should always look for Jesus. Looking with spiritual eyes, we will see Him on every page.
January 18, 2017
David called the Lord his “portion, inheritance and cup.” This seems a clear allusion to the portion appointed to the Levitical priests who served in the Temple. David declared that he was satisfied not with lands, titles, or riches, but in the Lord Himself. The Lord was his delight and joy. The Lord was the source of any goodness and blessing that he had, therefore he would rather have the Lord than any blessing that the Lord bestowed. David sought the Lord’s face rather than His hand. Might we pray today: “Lord, I am Yours and You are mine. You are the One I long for, You are my inheritance and my great reward.”