Anatomy of a Journey

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!

Go to VIDEO

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^©  

---

[1] Joseph’s complete story is found in Genesis 37-50. 

[2] Genesis 37:25

Pondering a Hard Truth

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age.  So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.  But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them.  They couldn’t say a kind word to him.  One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.  “Listen to this dream,” he said.  “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain.  Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”  His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you?  Do you actually think you will reign over us?”  And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.  Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it.  “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said.  “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”  This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him.  “What kind of dream is that?” he asked.  “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?”  But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.  

Genesis 37:3-11

Truth is impartial to what we think of it; truth is simply (and most profoundly) its own reality.  One, plus one more, does not care if you think the answer is seven; it will always be as reality demands…two.  The difference between Jacob and his older sons was that Jacob entertained the possibility of truth told him by his youngest son, a truth which Joseph’s elder brothers refused to acknowledge.  This truth was what Joseph was given in a dream, concerning the future, when his older brother’s hatred of their youngest sibling would come full cycle.  Eventually the brothers, and even their father, would be dependent on Joseph’s forgiveness.

The story of Joseph’s jealous brothers selling their young sibling into slavery, and his subsequent rise to power in Egypt, followed by a famine, and his brothers being sent to find food, is a harbinger of God’s advent.  The birth of Christ, and the dream (even of Jesus’ disciples) of a political Messiah, sold for thirty pieces of silver to the cross, is the fulfillment of Joseph’s hard life with its ultimate victory, punctuated at last by his magnanimous forgiveness of the ones who persecuted him.  It is a resurrection truth, hard to entertain, but sweet to the reins when digested fully.

The truth of Joseph’s, and Jesus’ lives is hard to entertain.  Our world is always looking for easier shortcuts…computers that do better math than counting on our fingers…machines to do the heavy lifting…gene-splitting to make better human bodies, prettier, stronger, more able to cope with the harshness of life and our darker realities.  Somehow our notion of “truth” carries the lie that we are bound to create our own reality, sans God.  In some self-aggrandizing common consent, humanity has made God obsolete.  And that is the shroud they put on the face of a dead savior Friday afternoon.  It didn’t ring true Sunday morning.

For You Today  

Jacob wasn’t thrilled about Joseph’s second dream, because it meant a reversal of the order…the father bowing-down to the son.  But he left a little flap of wonder hanging for the wind of revelation to let in some light.

That is what Advent brings…revelation.  Let the wind blow today.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

   Seven Deadly Sins - Part 3 - Envy   and   When Envy Grabs a Heart

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

When Evil Plans Backfire

 

Monday, July 11, 2022

The wicked conceive evil; they are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies.  They dig a deep pit to trap others, then fall into it themselves.  The trouble they make for others backfires on them.  The violence they plan falls on their own heads.  I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.  Psalm 7:14-17

Conception, pregnancy, birth…a perfectly logical sequence, but when conception is the product of evil plans, the backfiring of such a pregnancy is justice.  In recent years we’ve seen a Ponzi scheme take down a greedy monster, Bernie Madhof, and sexual predators in the entertainment industry, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, wind up in prison.  The wheels of justice are still slowly grinding on the January 6^th investigation.  Those who plan for violence always succeed; they just don’t know it’s accumulating above their heads in a bubble that’s getting ready to burst!

Long before Bernie Madhof, Epstein and Maxwell, or the attack on our Capitol, Joseph’s brothers were unaware of that balloon.  They couldn’t stand their little brother, so they tossed him in a pit, eventually selling him to a band of nomadic human traffickers.  Joseph wound up a slave in Egypt, the result of his brothers’ evil plans. 

Fast forward 20 years and that same boy-dreamer, Joseph, is second in charge of Egypt’s empire, holding the keys to the food vault during a major famine.  And just whose brothers are sent to buy food from Joseph?  In the end, all the brothers could do was humble themselves at their brother Joseph’s feet, and plead for mercy. 

The payback of a malfunctioning trap stings!  But, in this case, God gave Joseph the spirit to take the high road.  He saw God’s purpose in his suffering and his brothers’ evil plans.  As the (now) helpless brothers bowed before their brother, Joseph, sitting on the throne, with the power to decide their fate, he forgives and blesses what was unforgiveable and cursed:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.  He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.  Genesis 50:20

For You Today

If you’ve lived for five or ten minutes in this world you’ve run into someone who gave you some trouble (and you’ve probably caused a little trouble too).  The account of Joseph and his brothers is the account of the human race.  For each of us the question always begs an answer:  Whether you are the one doing the evil to another, or the one who has been wronged, what are you going to do about your brother? 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  Ambushed Again

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

 

Enough

 

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

And they left Egypt and returned to their father, Jacob, in the land of Canaan.  “Joseph is still alive!” they told him.  “And he is governor of all the land of Egypt!”  Jacob was stunned at the news—he couldn’t believe it.  But when they repeated to Jacob everything Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, their father’s spirits revived.  Then Jacob exclaimed, “It must be true!  My son Joseph is alive!  I must go and see him before I die.”  So Jacob set out for Egypt with all his possessions.  And when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.  During the night God spoke to him in a vision. “Jacob! Jacob!” he called.  “Here I am,” Jacob replied.  “I am God, the God of your father,” the voice said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make your family into a great nation.  I will go with you down to Egypt, and I will bring you back again. You will die in Egypt, but Joseph will be with you to close your eyes.”     Genesis 45:25 – 46:4

If you do a pulse-check on most any of the days of Jacob’s life, you’ll find a calculating, selfish, wheeler-dealer.  Stuff like that always comes back to haunt you.  Jacob did not escape that.  After his ambitious conniving to steal his brother’s birthright and his father’s blessing, Jacob had to leave town in the middle of the night to avoid everyone’s anger.  It cost him twenty years estrangement in the school of hard knocks.  He lived with his uncle Laban, a much sharper knife in the drawer when it came to manipulation.  The PhD degree Jacob earned in his time spent with Laban was the futility of a lack of integrity.

Another inescapable casualty of Jacob’s manipulative lifestyle was how his children learned at their daddy’s knee how to live that way too.  The older sons were jealous of their father’s attention to the youngest, Joseph, and eventually hatched a plan to throw him in a pit and watch him die.  They eventually settled for selling him into slavery to a band of nomadic traders.  With Joseph out of sight, they led Jacob to believe he’d been eaten by wild animals.  For the next twenty years the old man lived in paralyzing grief, mourning for Joseph, the son of his old age.

Finally, a famine gripped the land and Jacob sent his brother-killing sons to seek food down in Egypt.  The sons wound up right in front of Joseph, their supposedly long-dead little brother, who had managed to survive and thrive; he was the second most powerful man in the world under Egypt’s pharaoh. 

Now, the whole point of this epic story of family-fail came next, as Joseph is reunited with his murderous brothers, forgives them, and sends them home to Jacob.  Once Jacob gets over the shock of Joseph still being alive, he knows he must see this long-lost son face-to-face before he dies.

As he’s travelling to Egypt God spoke to Jacob in a vision assuring him that all will be well, and the promises of God would be carried out, and his son would be there to tenderly close the old man’s eyes in his final moments of life on this planet.  And, for Jacob, a man once steeped in trickery, thievery, deceit, and conspiracy, which had all (predictably) turned into a massive pile of internal strife and sorrow, now humbled by the effect of God’s mercy extended to such a one as Jacob the manipulator, imposter, despicable excuse for a human being, one word from God was…ENOUGH!

For You Today

No matter how much you may have made a mess of your opportunities in this life, or destroyed trust with family, friends, or even your own integrity, the promise of God is mercy to those who repent, humbling themselves before God, to seek His face[1].  Jacob did all that in a wrestling match with God one night near the Jabbok River.  He meant to get right with God, and, in mercy, God forgave Jacob and gave him a new name, Israel, the special, chosen, friend of God.

His story isn’t about airing the family’s dirty laundry; his story is all about letting you know this God you’ve been hunting forgives…and He’s only waiting for you to come calling.  And, when you do, you’ll see…like Jacob, it will be…ENOUGH!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

GO TO VIDEO

[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Jacob’s family problems see Dysfunction in the Desert and No Place Before God - Part 2      

---

[1] 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

Burning the Bridge of Integrity

[1]

Monday, August 14, 2017

Some time later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern.  When he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief.  Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone!  What will I do now?”  Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood.  They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message:  “Look at what we found.  Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”  Their father recognized it immediately.  “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe.  A wild animal must have eaten him.  Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces!”  Then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap.  He mourned deeply for his son for a long time.  His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.  “I will go to my grave mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.  Genesis 37:29-35^(NLT)

The father in this story is Jacob, a man whose ambition got the best of him on more than one occasion.  He deceived his twin brother Esau, and his father Isaac, to take what didn’t belong to him.  His life’s practice was to appear righteous, but deep down, whenever his character was put to the test Jacob’s default was to manipulate the truth to fit his plans and what he wanted most.

And in his twelve sons, with the exception of Joseph, that character trait of deception, and shifty untrustworthiness ran strong!  Joseph’s brothers sold their little brother to a band of slave traders, and then staged it to look like a wild animal had eaten him.  Their evil deception brought deep grief to their father Jacob’s elder years.

If you take apart the whole issue of deceptiveness in relationships you find a slithering snake’s nest of words which describe a dark character:  lies, malice, envy, bitterness, ambition…the list is a veritable stockpile of human character and integrity unravelling! 

Integrity is tied to the old saying about character:  say what you mean, and mean what you say!  To be a person of integrity means much more than doing the right thing no matter who’s looking; being a person of integrity means not resting unless the truth is held sacred, no matter the personal consequences.

Joseph’s brothers burned the bridge of integrity when they withheld their guilt from Jacob.  If they hired a skilled attorney the brothers could have gotten a hung jury on out-and-out lying, because they never actually said a false word.  But they withheld the truth from the old man, and truth obscured by silence supports the growth of evil! 

For You Today

You will say thousands of words today; a champion of human integrity will make sure each one of those words supports truth!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

 

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Promise In the Bones

[i]

Monday, May 15, 2017

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear to do this.  He said, “God will certainly come to help you.  When he does, you must take my bones with you from this place.”  Exodus 13:19^(NLT)

Leaving Egypt the people of God carried off all their belongings, much of Egyptian wealth, and the bones of Joseph.  Aside from keeping a 400 year-old promise to Jacob’s son who had managed to feed and protect Abraham’s tribe during the worst famine ever, why would you move a dead man’s bones?  Was the dead man watching?  The short answer is “yes”.  At church yesterday our text was Revelation 6:9-11, and therein we have strong evidence that the departed are, indeed watching.  They are part of the great cloud of witnesses we read about in the New Testament. ^{(Hebrews 12:1)}

So why did Joseph, who lived most of his life in Egypt, want his bones carried away when the children left?  The first answer is that Joseph understood the concept of being an alien.  He was brought to Egypt by the caravan of merchants who had bought him from his own jealous brothers.  He didn’t belong there!  But Joseph also understood God’s promise to his great-grandfather, Abraham.

Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can.  That’s how many descendants you will have!”

Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.  But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.  (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)  After four generations your descendants will return here to this land…  Genesis 15:5, 13-16a^(NLT)

As a highly-favored child in Jacob’s household, Joseph would have heard these words often; he knew the promises of God to Abraham extended to his son, Isaac, and his son, Jacob, and, to his son, Joseph.  The promise of God gets deep in your bones!

For Joseph it was a life-long dream to return to the place of God’s promise; it was natural to want to go home.  But, in the final analysis, the promise made to Joseph about taking his bones back to the Promised Land was a matter of faith and fidelity.  He knew that God’s promise was where his true home could be found. 

And nothing less!

For You Today

Where is your home?  Is it some place for which you worked, scrambled to pay a mortgage, and now have your name on the deed?  Or is it a place deep in your bones, based on a promise, and sealed with blood that trickled down a cross?

And nothing less…or more?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

 ^I Title image:  By Wcam (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Ambush

[i]

Friday, May 12, 2017

O Lord, I have come to you for protection; don’t let me be disgraced.  Save me, for you do what is right.  Turn your ear to listen to me; rescue me quickly.  Be my rock of protection, a fortress where I will be safe.  You are my rock and my fortress.  For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger.  Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me, for I find protection in you alone.  I entrust my spirit into your hand.

My future is in your hands.  Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly.  Let your favor shine on your servant.  In your unfailing love, rescue me.  Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful God.  Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16^(NLT)

Life can be something of a minefield, and anyone who has lived more than 30 seconds on planet earth understands that.  The Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are full of examples of the ambush traps laid for the unsuspecting:

·       Cain killed his brother Abel after luring him into the fields. 

·       King Saul chased young David into hiding in caves, running for his life. 

·       Joseph, the son of Jacob’s old age had brothers who were so jealous they threw him into a pit and then sold him into slavery. 

·       The Hebrew children of Israel were slaughtered by Herod’s maniacal paranoia when he suspected a king had been born among the Jews who would take his throne.  Herod was right about the birth of a King, but it wasn’t Herod’s throne Jesus would claim; that was way too small a crown.

In the struggle between good and evil which has been ongoing since the Garden of Eden, human beings have always found themselves with toils and snares on every side just waiting to pull the ambush trigger!

You’ve had days where it seems like the deck was stacked against you, or like dominoes falling, the bad news kept getting worse.  Amos delivered a sermon about such times:

In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion— only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house— and he’s bitten by a snake.  Amos 5:19^(NLT)

The apostle Paul was taken prisoner because of his faith, shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, and left for dead.  Still, he faced life’s difficulties with faith in God:

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  2 Corinthians 4:8^(NLT)

Another man bequeathed to the world an indelible sense of hope in Christ through a song he wrote.  John Newton was an 18^th century slave ship captain.  He became convinced of the sinfulness of what he was doing and stepped out of that evil to serve Christ.  It was not easy, but as the words of his song proclaim, grace became the release for every trap the enemy set in his way:

Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come
'Tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home

For You Today

So…been beaten for your faith?  Chased by a lion?  Come face to face with a bear?  Bitten by a snake?  Shipwrecked?  Under a death sentence?  Thrown into a pit?  Sold by your family into slavery? 

Not today?  You’re ahead of the game.  Give thanks and keep trusting in His grace!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

 ^I Title image:  See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons

Never Give Up

[i]

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt.  He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.   Hebrews 11:22^(NLT)

Sometimes what passes for commitment is less than what the guy wrote on the back of his senior picture before giving it to his girlfriend: 

Dear Alice, I love you more than life itself, and I promise I would walk through fire for you; I will get the moon and stars for you if you want them, and I will always be there for you until eternity passes away.  P.S.  If we break up I want the ring back.

Winston Churchill, who certainly had the ability to do a public speech that lasted an hour or more, gave a graduating class this advice against the backdrop of World War II’s monumental struggle; he simply stood up and told the graduates:

Never give up; never give up; NEVER GIVE UP! 

And then he sat down.

This is what Joseph did for his family; take my bones with you, he said.  And the meaning is clear:  I have faith in you; you will have the power of God’s promises at your back and you will leave this place one day to fulfill the destiny God has laid out in the promise he gave to our family’s head, Abraham.  You can take it to the bank!  And carry me with you!

Promises, or vows, are meant to mean something.  The promises my Mother and Father made to each other at the altar of the little Baptist church in St Albans, NY in 1943 were still standing in 2009 when Mom passed. 

Notable “breakers” of promises and vows are those who hold public trust loosely, such as Bernie Madoff (the Ponzi-scheme king), Ron Lay (Enron), Richard Nixon, and countless promise-breakers in international affairs. 

There may be plenty of Never Give Up in all of those public figures, but the WAY you go about that kind of exhaustive push for what you want matters at least as much as that which you want to accomplish.  Every goal you set and reach-for must be measured against the loss or development of ethical and moral character you must then live with, once you’ve reached the top (or bottom) of the heap!

For Joseph, moral certitude and ethical behavior in this life, and being identified with God’s promises in the next life, crowned his bucket list.  His statement to the family he was leaving behind was:  carry my bones with you alongside your commitment to JHWH.

Joseph, thrown in a pit, sold into slavery by his brothers, betrayed by friends in prison and in the king’s service, kept his faith in God, and his integrity as a man of faith.  Joseph was a man of the right kind of never-give-up stuff!

For You Today

Whether this year started with a bang or a whimper, you will have challenges and joys throughout 2017.  It would be a Joseph kind of year for you to face them all with faith, integrity, and perseverance. 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

[i] Title image: By Zumthie (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons