Friday,
August 11, 2023
All this
happened so they would follow his decrees and obey his instructions. Praise the Lord! Psalm 105:45
The Psalmist
traces the steps of Joseph, beloved son of the patriarch, Jacob. His brothers sold Jacob like a piece of cloth
to a band of nomadic traders headed for Egypt.[1] There are enough plot twists and sub-themes
in this rags-to-riches success story, to make any Hollywood screen writer
drool! However, the message isn’t just
about Joseph’s perseverance through hard times, and prevailing through the
unjustness of power structures. The
story of Joseph is a version in miniature of how God does what humans do not
understand (particularly those who don’t know God). It’s a microcosm of spiritual warfare, in
which God’s power, often working behind the scenes, is worked-out despite
whatever the forces of evil can manage against it. And it all happens to the glory of God.
Have you ever
dreamed of something that is (in your limited understanding) incredibly
unreachable? A dream job? A home with a thousand acres? A body that doesn’t sag here and there? Deep breath without pain? World peace?
Your version of that story has you in the middle of it; and that is what
is so wrong with most versions of Eden…the perfect place, with everything just
right. That dream hardly
starts with a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and
aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt.[2] Most dreams like that have the end result as
starting point. We picture ourselves in
the lap of luxury, white sandy beach, palm trees, gentle breezes, and a coconut
pina colada in a hammock.
In truth,
life may start out gently, a calm, favored child status; Andy and Opie in
Mayberry. But life is hardly tame. Life’s journey has its twists and mountains,
times of up, down, and blindly-sideways.
Some stuff is mundane and predictable, like what to eat for breakfast,
or getting that bill in the mail or inbox. But the kind of day that starts off with:
·
…there was a mistake on your account…or
·
…the test result may have been incorrect…or
·
…I wanted to help you, but…and the all-inclusive
promise of doom:
·
…I’ve decided you aren’t….
These are the
excruciating days…resume’ of Joseph kind of stuff. You get set-up by kin or friend, let-down in
a pit, sold-out to the highest bidder, and assassinated by behind-the-back
gossip. It’s easy to draw the cynical
conclusion that Mayberry was a conspiracy-theory in reverse; it was Alice in
Wonderland’s dream, and you are the Mad Hatter…off to a very important date
with your own demise.
It must have
seemed that to the disciples when the Healer of Galilee was condemned to die. He’d preached the Good News of God’s
blessing, land of milk and honey, and all the tears wiped-away. He had told them of life-eternal, and all
your dreams come true. Then he was
betrayed, belittled, beaten, and nailed-naked to crossbeams on the town garbage
dump. There wasn’t even enough left in
the purse Judas had emptied to buy him a grave…it was a borrowed tomb.
Now, this
kind of post-mortem is hardly an advertisement for that thing you get told as a
kid: You are beautiful, you can do
anything, or it will all work out in the end. By the world’s standards, your beauty will
fade, you’ll find out some things are way beyond your
skills, and how it all works out is way beyond your pay
grade.
For You Today
If you’re
tracking with me, and I haven’t lost you yet in gloom, despair and agony-on-me,
go just one step further than Friday’s darkness-laden cross and tomb; go all
the way to Sunday’s bright revelation; He is risen!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day!
There are about 2,600 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.
Title Image: Pixabay.com
Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
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