Day 24 -Always Your Way

Happy Jack Bauer Day everyone! By making it this far we are all capable of kicking people so hard they will actually explode. Fun! On to business then

Today’s readings

Genesis 47:13-48:22
Matthew 16:21-17:13
Proverbs 3:1-10

Genesis is an odd one today where not a lot appears to happen and yet what does happen has HUGE consequences. First we have Joseph sorting out the problems of the whole of Egypt by buying all of their possessions for the state. It's like David Cameron's nightmare!! Now this will lead into the Israelites being badly treated by the next Pharoah but I think it's interesting to see that this is part of God's plan. God always knew He'd have to take the Jews out of Egypt and I think that by doing it this way He gave them a sense of unity and trust in Him and His chosen leader that they would cope with wandering in the wilderness for so long. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Next we have Jacob blessing his grandchildren. What's nice is that Jacob's once again echoing his father's actions by blessing children when he's nearly blind. Only this time he knows precisely who he is called to bless and there's no trickery involved. I like that one of Jacob's last actions is directly tied into the will of God and this man who spent so long getting it wrong and trying to do things his way or the way that made most sense to him, finally surrenders to God's logic. Now Ephraim and Manasseh go on, like the other sons of Jacob, to form the tribes of Israel and Ephraim's people do a fair bit better than Manasseh's. I think... We'll find out later I guess! But regardless, this will have bigger implications in the months to come. Now what can all this mean for us today? Where's the truth? Well to me this is just another point of Joseph's story where he is shown to be a great man not because of his coat or his dreaming but because he trusts God to work things out and doesn't do it under his own steam.

Into the New Testament we tumble and straight away we get proof of what I was saying yesterday about the nonsense in thinking Jesus was giving Peter super powers. Peter says that it can never be and is in fact impossible for Jesus to die and be raised from the dead. Well that didn't happen did it. So nerrr....

Verse 28 can be a bit of a problem and I'd like to address it at least. Jesus says that some of the people standing with Him will see the second coming. Now... how to we interpret that? Well I guess our first reaction is to say that they didn't see this and so it can't be true. Which is worrying stuff. I think there are other answers. The easiest answer to me is that the Bible and Jesus' message was never just meant for the people He met face to face but for the whole of humanity. Jesus isn't saying this just to the disciples but to us reading it. At some point, someone reading the Bible will see Jesus come to Earth again. Now that's pretty cool. What it could also mean is that the disciples saw Jesus once they got to heaven. Now Judas would have been with the disciples at this point and there's a good chance that he might not have made it to heaven, only God knows. There's also the possibility that this was put in by Matthew because he believed that Heaven was going to come much sooner than God had planned for it. I believe, and it's ok if you don't, that, because the Bible was written by humans and inspired by God, there are bits which are influenced by the author's own intention and belief. Again, it's all about finding the truth within the text. Other thoughts would be interesting to hear.

Then Jesus goes on to do some crazy stuff. First of all, this could be another answer to that verse we've just talked about. Jesus shows a part of His true divine nature to His disciples. I love how this amazing thing is happening and all of the disciples are in awe but Peter just stands yapping away about what he can do to commemorate the occasion. There are times when it is ok to just be amazed by God and part of the waiting on God which we did at Soul Survivor is that. Have to courage to give, ten or fifteen minutes of your time some day to just be still and wait for God. Don't think of what else you could be doing. Don't actively pray. Just ask God to come and wait on Him. Crazy cool things can happen.

This is also another example of Jesus fulfilling the prophecies which we'll read more about later in the year as Elijah and Moses were great Jewish leaders but they were always meant to point to the true Saviour, Jesus.

Finally our Proverbs today. I do love Proverbs :) Today we get more instructions for how to live. If people ever ask you why you think the Bible is a guide to life, this stuff is great to point out to them. Proverbs says here that if you live your life dependent on God, you will be blessed. It talks about how every sacrifice that you make in not going it alone or not hoarding your possessions or even in checking your attitude matches with God's will be met with blessings from him. Fantastic news yes!

And that's your lot for today. Yesterday's title can be found here and the better version IMHO can be found here. Don't forget to try and guess today's band. It's worth a listen. Questions, criticims and comments welcome as always

Jon