Genesis 42-45:15

Good evening, all! Here are today's thoughts.

1) "What is this that God has done to us?" Sometimes, God doesn't make a lot of sense. Normally, you would not bless those who do wrong to you or who go against you; and yet, God often continues to pour out His love on unfaithful people. Why?

This is the question of Joseph's brothers after their dealings in Egypt - what did they do to deserve the gifts they've received in Egypt? This is especially true as they think about what they did to their brother Joseph, whom they believe is dead at the beginning of the passage. Yet, even in the face of their treachery, envy and sin, God takes an otherwise bad situation and uses it to redeem and save His children - He saves those who do not deserve it.

None of the gifts we receive from hand of God are based on anything we do. God instead chooses to lavish the blessings he does upon His children precisely because He loves us, and longs to work through us. When Jesus came to the earth to live for us, to die for us, to rise again for us, and to ascend for us, He came as an undeserved gift from the Father to save and redeem God's children. In Him, God lavishes upon His children new life, a renewed relationship with the Father, the adoption as sons of God, and all the other blessings in Jesus. Further, God gives us these gifts because He longs for us to use them in a way that glorifies Him and shares His loving-kindness with others in the world.

So why does God bless us like He does? Because He loves us. And in response to His love, God desires that we use His gifts to bless others and share that love with them. The problem is that we often become greedy with our gifts, rather than using those gifts to bless and to help others in the Name of Jesus Christ. We hoard our wealth, and squander our gifts. We are hesitant to share with others, and refuse to give anything to those who wrong us. We meditate on the Good News of Jesus without considering those in our lives who need to hear it most. We still don't deserve it, but God still gives these to us anyway.

This is a reminder for us of God's amazing love expressed in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Even when we don't deserve His love, God still remains faithful to His promises and therefore to us. God still lavishes His love and mercy upon us.

2) "God sent me before you to preserve life... God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God..." You know, we can't always control what happens in our lives - often, what truly causes a disaster in our lives is when we face a challenge we cannot control. Cancer. Debt. Unemployment. Death. All of these are realities we cannot control. And when we face these, we begin to ask "Why?" Why did God allow this to happen? Why me? What did I do wrong?

That's why Joseph's perspective is hard for us to understand. We don't like it when people point to their sufferings and say, "God made this happen so that..." But isn't that the message of this passage? God took what the brothers intended for evil and brought good out of it? Perhaps God even intended for something to happen in the midst of all this that would correct the evil and injustice? Now, that's not to say that God desires that evil befall us or that God causes evil to befall us for His own purposes - that would make God very unjust and selfish. But what it does say is that even in the face of injustice or unspeakable tragedy, God is working to bring some good out of it; to take what is otherwise bad, and working to bring something good out from it.

In light of the recent events in Haiti, people are wondering why this happened. We cannot begin to understand why or to wrap our minds around it, except to say that this is a sign that the world groans in pain because of our sin and the evil it brought into the world. But instead of asking ourselves "Why?," we could be looking for the good God is bringing out of all this. We could be agents of the good God is bringing out of this. And it seems to me that's just what God always does: He brings the good out of the bad. It's not always plainly visible; often times it is hidden deep within the hurts and brokenness of our lives. But only through suffering do we truly learn and grow - and only through suffering do we inherit God's eternal love and life.

So we must trust that even in our lowest moments, when life does not go as we planned and everything is falling apart, God is working for the good. Somehow, someway. Because that's what He promises He will do, and that's a promise He has never failed upon.

Well, that's all for now. God bless!

In Jesus Christ,
Pastor Nathan