Genesis Review Concluded

Finally, in the book of Genesis, we see that God provides for His people, even when they may not deserve it.  Joseph's brothers had treated him with nothing but hatred years before, and now they needed his help simply to survive.  All people, at some point in their life, treated God wrong, whether with actual hatred or just by denying Him or ignoring His law, and will need His help to find real life.  We are all sinners, either in need of salvation or having already accepted the salvation of Christ.  These are the only two choices.  Joseph's brothers did not recognize him when they first went to him, because they thought he was either dead or was no longer anywhere that they would ever see him again.  They certainly never expected Joseph to be in a position of authority.  When we are lost sinners, we may never expect to encounter God, because He is either dead to us or we do not acknowledge His authority in life.  Joseph required his brothers to do certain things to prove that their nature had changed, and they were reluctant to do what he required.  God expects two things of us when we come to Him, and that is that we confess our sins and accept Christ as our Savior and Lord.  When Joseph's brothers finally did what he required, they were restored to a loving relationship with him.  They still waited until all other hope of having their needs met were exhausted before they did what he required.  God waits for us to come to Him through faith in Christ to restore a loving relationship with Him, and yet people too often refuse to come to Him, or wait until there is no other hope.  Once his brothers returned to Joseph on his terms, there was a great family reunion.  When we come to God on His terms, we are a part of His family forever, so in effect there is a great spiritual family reunion.  Though I have been alternating between the Old and New Testament, since there are more books in the Old, we will next go to the book of Exodus.

Genesis Review Continued More

Continuing to look at lessons learned from Genesis, next we see that there is no room for jealousy in God's kingdom.  Because of their jealousy, Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery.  As followers of Christ, we can never allow jealousy of others to lead us to sell, or lead, them into the slavery of sin.   Jealousy, which can lead to hatred, should never be a guiding force in our lives.  We are to reach out to the world with God's love, no matter how we may personally feel about a person or even group of people.  We also need to realize that basing choices on what looks most tempting from a worldly view can lead to trouble, just as it did for Lot.  He chose the place that looked the best, even though he was only there because Abram brought him with him.  Sometimes, what looks the best can lead us away from God and destroy our spiritual witness.  As Lot found out, some places are so evil that we can only be saved by removing ourselves from them.  Of course, we may be sent by God into what we feel is an evil place, but we should never just go there because of our own desires.  God had to at that time physically drag Lot out of Sodom, since Lot would not heed God's warning of the coming destruction.  God will not physically drag us away from sin, but He has already given us the warning of the coming destruction and provided a way of escape spiritually, and that is through our faith in Christ.  I also believe that when something is God's judgment that there will be no doubt about it.  God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah could not be viewed as anything else, and occurred exactly where God had said it would.  God even agreed not to destroy the cities if ten righteous men could be found.  I believe that as long as people continue to be reached with the gospel that God will be patient with the coming judgment.

Genesis Review Continued Still

The next thing that Genesis teaches us is that people think that they can become like God.  The people decided that they would build a tower to reach God so that they could be like God.  There are stull many people today who deny the existence of God because they believe that they are too smart to believe in His existence.  Some people do not really want to become like God, but they feel that they are even greater than God.  As we see in Genesis, this is nothing new.  God proved them wrong then, and He will prove them wrong now.  Of course, there is little danger in the people of the world being united in one purpose today.  Then, when the world became too evil, God destroyed nearly all of mankind, except for Noah and his family.  We may live in an evil world, but it isn't the first time the world has been evil.  Of course, the next time God destroys the world it will be time for His everlasting judgement.  As followers of Christ, we have a command to reach the lost with God's message of salvation, and we may be the only ones standing between mankind and God's judgment.  If the time comes when no one responds to God's gift of salvation, then there will be no reason to delay the coming judgment.  I believe that instead of looking for the signs of the coming judgment, we need to be reaching out to the lost world.  There is never a time that we as followers of Christ should ever live simply waiting for Christ's return so that the evil people of the world will get what they deserve, because without forgiveness through our faith in Christ we deserve the same punishment that any lost sinner deserves..  Our commission is to reach them with God's love and message of salvation.

Genesis Review Continued

The next thing that we will look at in Genesis is God's promise to Abraham, because this promise applies to all of us. God was to make a great nation of Abraham's descendants, and though physically this applied to  the nation of Israel, spiritually it applies to everyone who follows Christ, Who was the descendant of Abraham through Whom the promise was ultimately fulfilled.  We do not have to be concerned with who our biological family is to be a aprt of God's kingdom.  We simply have to accept Christ as our Savior and Lord.  We also learned that God may call us away from our home in order to follow His purpose, just as Abram, later called Abraham, was called away from his home.  I believe that we should also realize that we should not attempt to change what God calls us to do.  I believe in Abram's case, lot should have been left behind, and because he wasn't, he caused Abram a lot of problems.  We cannot partially do God's will and hope for success.  We also learned that we must wait on God's promise.  Abram and Sarai first doubted God's promise and then attempted to force it to come to pass by their own plans.  we today must simply rely on God's promises.  We cannot cause them to come to pass by our own plans.  For example, we know that Christ will one day return to earth, but it will happen when God says the time is right, and we can never change the time that it will occur.  We, like Paul, should simply remain faithful to God, whether we live or die.  For those who are followers of Christ, the second coming of Christ will be a day of victory, but for all others it will be a day of everlasting defeat, and if we are a follower of Christ, we should never be in a hurry for this to happen.  Sometimes we seem to have the attitude that we look forward to that day because sinners will get what they deserve, forgetting that we are all sinners simply saved by the grace of God.

Genesis Review

We will now review some of the lessons from Genesis.  Since Genesis means beginnings, the first thing that we realize is that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Creation is not some giant cosmic accident.  I really cannot understand how we can look at the order of the universe and believe that all the order came out of anything other than an intelligent design, brought about by Someone with enough power to carry out that design.  As Genesis tells us, this is God, then it is up to us whether we believe Him or not.  Next, after the universe, God created life on earth, after giving it iits form.  The pinnacle of creation was man and woman.  We did not evolve to the top, but we were created at the top of all life on earth.  God created a man and a woman to complete one another, and that completeness cannot be found in any other pairing of people.  God then placed the man and woman in a perfect environment, and yet they were not satisfied.  So, if we come down to the question of nature versus nurture, though nature may be worse for some than others, sin is a result of our nature, since sin is rebellion against God's will.  Adam and Eve really had only one command to follow, and they chose not to.  Sin prevented Adam and Eve from walking freely and daily with God, and sin will still do the same thing for us today.  Adam and Eve attempted to blame their sins on the each other and even on God, but they were each responsible for their own sin, just as we are today.  They fell into sin because they were beguiled by the serpent, or Satan, and we fall into sin because we are beguiled by Satan and the things of this world.  They ceased to put God first, and so do we when we sin.  Once sin entered the world, things only got worse.  The environment was no longer perfect, and mankind had to labor for a living.  Then, too soon the first murder occurred because of the jealousy of one brother about another.  Sin will never lead us to become better people.

Genesis 50:14

Genesis 50:14 says, And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.  Joseph and all those who went with him returned to Egypt after they had buried his father.  He was true to his word to Pharaoh.  As followers of Christ today, when we give someone our word then we need to be true to that word.  Verse fifteen states, And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.  Joseph's brothers were worried that since their father was dead that he would treat them as badly as they had treated him.  If we live by the rules of the world, then when someone treats us badly, we are told that we should get even or maybe even do worse to them than they did to us.  If we are following God, then we are told to love those who treat us badly.  Verse sixteen declares, And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,  Then verse seventeen adds, 'So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.  His brothers told Joseph that before he died, their father had told them to tell Joseph to forgive them.  We do not have a record of this, and I believe that they were saying this so Joseph could not do anything bad to them without disobeying his father.  We need to be careful that we do not attempt to likewise claim that our heavenly Father has said something that He has not said just because it would benefit us.  Then we are told that Joseph wept, I believe more from the fact that his brothers believed that he would harm them.  What we need to realize is that God is never out to harm us.  We can come to God truthfully, with all our sins, confess to Him, and He will forgive us.  What we cannot afford to do is attempt to deceive God.  When we do, I believe that God is heartbroken over our attempt to deceive Him.  Vesre eighteen states, And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.  His brothers went to Joseph, fell down before him, and pronounced themselves to be his servants.  This was another time when Joseph's dream, which was a revelation from God, all those years before was fulfilled.  God's word is always true.  Verse nineteen declares, And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?  Joseph told them to not be afraid, and asked if he was in the place of God.  We today should not attempt to assume God's role in punishing sinners.  Instead, we are to reach out to them with God's love.  Punishment for sin will always be God's right.  Verse twenty adds, But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.  Joseph told his brothers that what they did for evil God used for good.  Joseph saw God at work in the situation, so there was no reason for him to be angry.  We should also look for God's will in every situation that we find ourselves in.  Verse twenty-one continues, Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.  Joseph told his brothers not to fear him and that he would nourish them and their families.  Even when we come to God as sinners by faith in Christ, we have no reason to be afraid of God.  God will always want what is best for us and will nourish us spiritually.  Verse twenty-two states, And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.  Joseph lived the rest of his life in Egypt with his extended family.  When we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are not immediately transported to heaven, our promised land, but must remain in this word until we die or Christ returns.  Verse twenty-three adds, And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.  Joseph lived to see his grandchildren born and growing up.  Verse twenty-four declares, And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.  When he was close to death, Joseph told his brothers that God would one day bring them out of Egypt and back to the Promised Land.  We have that same assurance from God today.  God will bring us out of this sinful world and into heaven, our promised land.  Verse twenty-five declares, And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.  Joseph had his brothers swear that when God delivered them from Egypt that they would carry his bones with them.  Fortunately, we do not have to worry about where our bones will be when Christ returns.  Verse twenty-six concludes, So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Joseph lived one hundred and ten years, most of it as a slave in Egypt.  When he died, his body was embalmed and he was buried in Egypt, but Joseph himself was home with God.

Genesis 50:1

Genesis 50:1 says, And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.  Joseph was heartbroken when his father died.  They had been deprived of many years together and hadn't had too many after being reunited,  When a family member dies, we may be heartbroken, but if they are a Christian and we are also, then we know that we will see them again.  Verse two states, And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.  Joseph had his father Israel embalmed.  The Egyptians were very good at preserving bodies, but then and now only God can preserve a soul.  Though his body may have been preserved to return to the burial place of his ancestors, his soul had already gone to be with God forever.  Verse three adds, And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.  Quite a long time passed with the embalming and the mourning.  We are told that the Egyptians mourned for Israel, I believe because of their respect for or fear of Joseph.  Verse four declares, And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,  The time of mourning passed, as it always must.  Joseph then went to talk to Pharaoh.  He begin by saying that if he had found grace in the eyes of Pharaoh.  Joseph had been doing great things for Pharaoh, but Pharaoh was still in charge and Joseph needed his permission to act.  We may be doing great things for God today as followers of Christ, but we still need to acknowledge that He is in charge and we should go to Him with all our plans to make sure that they are in accordance with His will.  Verse five adds, My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.  Joseph told Pharaoh that he had sworn to his father that he would bury him in Canaan, and asked Pharaoh for permission to return there to bury him, with a promise that he would return again.  Joseph had been brought to Egypt as a slave, and still was one as far as we know.  Pharaoh could have seen this as an attempt by Joseph to escape.  Though we have great freedom with God through our faith in Christ, we must always remember that He is in charge and we must always return to Him if we are to be successful in life.  Verse six declares, And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.  Pharaoh told Joseph to go and do what he swore to Israel that he would do.  Pharaoh had to have faith that Joseph would return as he said he would.  God should have the same faith in us today that we will fulfill our promises to Him.  Verse seven says, And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,  Then verse eight adds, And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.  Many of the Egyptians went with Joseph, as well as Joseph's family.  Israel had come to Egypt in fear, but when he was returned to Canaan, his body was accompanied by many that he had feared.  Even if we come to God out of fear, if we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord then we will depart this life victorious.  Verse nine states, And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.  This simply tells us of more who accompanied Joseph.  Verse ten declares  And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.  When they got to their destination, they mourned for another week.  Verse eleven adds, And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.  The people of Canaan saw the Egyptians mourning, so they named the place Abelmizram.  Naming a place to commemorate an event was not that unusual in that day.  Verse twelve states, And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:  Then verse thirteen adds, For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.  Israel's sons carried out his instructions for his burial.  Just as Israel's sons carried out their promise to him, we should even more so carry out our promises to God.