Joseph and the Promised Land

I wrote this a week ago, sorry I didn't publish it until today....

I thought today I would share a little about what we've been hearing about at church and bible study the past few weeks. At church we've been working our way through the story of Joseph, and have just concluded the series. And in my bible study group we have been working our way through Joshua which has also just reached the end of the series. They were wonderfully complementary working through them side by side, or rather finishing them side by side.

First, a brief summary of the history of Israel... We'll start with Abram whom God named Abraham and chose to make promises to, that he would make him into a nation of his very own special people. God gave him a son Isaac whom these promises would be continued through, and to Isaac, Jacob who would later be called Israel. They dwelled in the land of Canaan which God had given to them. Israel had twelve sons, one of which is Joseph. God saved all of Israel by sending Joseph ahead of them to become a great man in Egypt that when the famine came they might still have food and not perish. Israel moved into Egypt where they dwelled for 400 years, feeling forgotten as they had become slaves. God came to their rescue using Moses and brought them out of Egypt through many miracles. He provided for them food and water for 41 years they dwelt in the desert before they were to enter the land that he had promised them. This land was inhabited by many other peoples, strong nations, who they would drive out before them with God at their side. Joshua is one of the faithful and trustworthy spies which were sent to investigate the promised land after just 1 year in the desert who would later be the one to lead all of Israel into the promised land 40 years later, to drive out the nations before them.

A few points which can be gathered from these stories are as follows 

• It's important to share your faith with your children
• We're returning home
• God always keeps his promises

God makes a whole lot of promises to Israel but his children do not know about them, just what they are, without him sharing with them what God has told him. In chapter 48 we hear of how Israel (Jacob) shared these promises with Joseph on his death bed before giving a blessing to each of his sons as the lord directed him.

And Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me,'Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.'

 Joseph not only remembers this but believes in every word which is spoken. At the end of Genesis we hear about the end of Joseph's life and the promise he makes his brothers make.

And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."

 The land which they had come from God is going to make into an everlasting possession. That is where their home shall be, with God. Joseph has lived the majority of him life in Egypt, his own brothers did not recognize him, that is how Egyptian he had become. And yet, he asks that his bones be carried away from Egypt when they leave. His eternal home is with God, that is his real home, not where he happens to be.

When we read of the exodus later before the entering of the promised land it is some 400 years later and so we often miss how they are actually returning to the land God has already given them. They once lived there and called that land home. In a similar way we too are not home here, but are rather just passing through on our way to our real, eternal home with our Father. Sometimes we forget this and think we are home and might become afraid of the unknown. It is at this time that we need to also remember Gods promises to us, and just what He has done for us. While we are here on earth, we are also in Christ, and so with our Father in Heaven, that is our real home.

And so, looking at this story, you might wonder - so what actually happened to Joseph bones?? We find out at the end of Joshua, after they re-entered the promised land (or part of it).

As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.

 And so those promises which were made were handed down, parent to child, that when they did leave, Joseph bones were taken with them and burried in the promised land. They kept their promise as God kept His. God did not make them stay in the land of Egypt but brought them back to the land that he had promised them. Along the way during that 400 years many of them would have felt like God had deserted them but He had to prepare the land for them, and many other things. Everything is in God's timing but one thing we can be sure of is that He always keeps his promises.

God Bless

what to write?

I imagine that most people who read this blog also write their own or have dabbled with the idea and I imagine that if this is the case you too have been in the situation I currently find myself. I do not know what to write.

It is not that there is nothing happening or that I have nothing to share, quite the contrary - but there is so much going on that I just can't manage to pin down just one thing to share with you without bringing everything up and turning one simple blog post into a major writing piece. While all this is happening some might say, just don't post anything for a while than - but I feel like I need to write, to share... and so I find myself in a predicament.

It was thinking through this that I thought, that's it! I can share my predicament. How many of you have felt the need to write something but just been unable to pin down what it is you wish to write about??

How do you come about choosing what to write about next? Sometimes I do a series and so I'm bound to the next topic by the need to complete the series. I am currently in the midst of a series actually but there's not a weekly commitment to it but rather a commitment not to give up on it entirely (it is a very long series - in my thinking anyhow).

Mainly for me though, I write when I've been thinking about something - or if something has been plaguing me - or I make a discovery, some new pane of understanding that I just want to share with others. Other times it's to share 'things' which have been happening but mainly it's when I 'feel' prompted to do so (as much as I dislike using the term 'feel' to describe reason). I feel I have a responsibility now that I have started this blog to update it frequently (preferably once a week but at least one a month) otherwise I feel guilty, so that's part of it. But other times it's like another part of me is prompting me to write something, and I don't always know what it is I'm being prompted to write until I start.

Anyway, I think that's all I have to say today - your thoughts are always welcome as you well know!

God Bless

Life... and its complexity

Life is a funny thing. What is it? Is it our heart beating? Is it the actions we take? Is it our reason for 'being'? What does it mean to say our life has changed? And again what does it mean to say our life is finished or over? What is the difference between making a choice and a life decision? It is all of these things which come to mind when I think of life - but what is it really?

The dictionary has 12 different definitions for life focussing on our different uses of the term, but I think the encyclopedia really hit it spot on with 'life, although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life...'. So to clarify it is our life, a human's life to which I want to make notes of.

 Relevant dictionary definitions could be - A living being, especially a person; The physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that constitute existence; and Human existence, relationships, or activity in general.

So if this is what life is, just what does it mean when Jesus says 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life'? Not I have a life, or I can show you a great life, or even I know the way to real life, but I am the life.

In order to answer this question we need to first find out where life comes from - yet another question. In looking at the origin of life the encyclopedia starts off with 'Fundamental religious concepts center around special creation and belief in the infusion of life into inanimate substance by God or another superhuman entity' before continuing with various scientific attempts to explain away how we (and the world in which we live) came to be.

So if life is originally given to us by another, then Jesus is saying that He is the one who gave us life?! That is one outrageous statement! Here is this guy, kinda poor and scruffy around the edges, walking around from place to place with no home of his own, saying that He is the one who gave everyone life however many years ago when humans were first created.

While it is outrageous, that is exactly who Jesus was - and is. He was there in the beginning because He is not just some guy, He is also God. He gave us life, and gave it to us for a reason - that we might be with Him. Jesus is not just telling us this but He is also giving us a way that we can have the life which He gave us - 'I am the way' - through Him! And how can we trust Him, and know that what He is saying is the truth, and not just another spun up line like all the other people walking around - 'I am the truth'. I don't know why anyone would want to put that much pressure and attention on themselves unless it was true! But not only that, but other things He said and did which show all that He is.

Life is still a funny thing, and many of those questions still remain when pondering such thoughts but there is one thing which I know about life which makes all of them seem so much less important. My life is not my own, it was given to me - and so what I do should also reflect my thankfulness for such a gift, and should be in parallel with what the one who gave me life would want me to do with it. My life belongs to Jesus and so it is for Him that my life is lived.