Since today is sunday and we are catching up on Wed to Sun... I'll give you a recap, I worked wed, thur and fri... Saturday I took it easy and hung out with my friend CM in the morning and had lunch with her for my evening I did my dishes and then went and ran an 8k with RV, and then went to Howl at the moon with some friends from work, and COT... It was good times seeing old friends! I went to Church saw my friend SF and her new Fiance, and then went to Lunch with the high school youth pastor and his family... Overall I had a pretty good week... Sure there were high points and low points but I think it was a decent week....
What I read was... Genesis 37
Recap... Jacob picks favorites of all his children and causes dissension admist his children. So all his sons were out taking care of the flocks, when he sends Joseph to go check on them, wearing his special cloak.... When his brothers spot him, they plot to kill him and decide that they don't want to kill him, but they want to sell him for some money, they go back to their father with his fancy cloak all torn up and and thus Jacob thinks Joseph has died...
I guess when I read this passage I just see a perfect picture of Jesus, he came unto his own and his own received him not, infact he was betrayed and sold by those he thought were his brothers. I hate being hated, feeling as though you don't fit in is always difficult, when we seem to be programmed to desire fellowship with others. We are relational creatures, we are personable to each other and truth be told the saying, "it's nothing personal" is ridiculous... it is always personal to someone.
Genesis 38
Can I just say I really want to skip over this chapter... :/ So Judah has a son and he marrier Tamar, and dies, second son marries her and he dies, third son is withheld from her to apparently grow up a little and then is supposed to marry her. Well, when Tamar sees that he is grown and still not married to her... she dresses up like a prostitute and Judah comes by sleeps with her and then she becomes preggo by him, she takes his staff, seal and cord as a pledge for a young goat in return for sleeping with him... Well the men find out she's preggo and when Judah finds out he wants to burn her... But she shows him his own staff, seal and cord and then he calls her righteous and then she has twins and bam Judah has more kids... well I'm not trying to judge but seriously, which part of this story is worse.... everyone who marries Tamar dies.... Judah witholding his third son (truthfully, I can understand why he did). Tamar dressing up like a prostitute... Judah sleeping with a prostitute, Tamar becoming pregnant by her father in law, Judah going to burn Tamar and the unborn child... talk about abortion... or Judah saying Tamar is a righteous woman... Hmmm.... This is one crazy soap opera I can say I am very glad to not be part of it.... I honestly guess what I can take from this... is be a man or in my case woman of your word. If Judah had not withheld his last son from her, would she have felt the need to dress up like a prostitute to get impregnated by her father in law....Let me know what kind of things you learned from this... because I am more than curious your thoughts on this chapter.
Genesis 39
So... back the story of Joseph.... he is now sold to Potiphar and Pot's saw that the Lord was with him... so he gave him all of his possessions and did not worry about anything but eating. Pot's wife advances on Joseph, so Joseph runs away naked as Pot's wife was still holding his cloak, and then she says that he was making advances on her... and when Pot finds out he puts him in jail and then the Jail warden sees that the Lord is with Joseph and he is put in a position of authority.... Let's be honest if Judah was anything like Joseph then Tamar would not be acting like a prostitute and getting pregnant out of wedlock... but I must say in this whole passage I am most impressed that everyone saw the Lord in Joseph... that is so impressive. I want people to meet me and just know that the Lord is with me, I know I am blessed but so are so many other Americans... I think it is so amazing that people could just see that the Lord was with him... I want that too... On Friday my friend ask me why I am always happy or smiling... I told her with a song... I got the Joy Joy Joy down in my heart, where? Down in my heart. I must admit I think Joseph is such an awesome man of God he runs when faced with sexual sin, and he never complains about getting sold, or getting thrown in prison. He always just flourishes, where ever he is. I aspire to be that kind of person. A person that always is joyful no matter my circumstances.
Genesis 40
The Cupbearer and the Baker get thrown in jail and then both have dreams... Joseph interprets their dreams for them and the Cupbearer lives and the Baker dies, as Joseph had interpreted by God's help. He asks the Cupbearer to remember him and tells him his story.... However, when the 3 days had passed and the Cupbearer was released, he did not remember Joseph. How often do people bless us or give us good news and we forget all about them... We like to say we will remember people but how often do people that we no longer see everyday not only slowly get forgotten, but you start to even forget what they look like or what they were like... Who have I forgotten? Who will forget me... am I worth remembering and even if I am not, I hope that if I am remembered, it is for the good things and not the bad.
Genesis 41
2 years later Pharaoh has a dream and the cupbearer remembers Joseph and he explains the interpretation of the dream as that they will have 7 years of great harvest and then 7 years of famine and Joseph explains how they are to prepare for the harvest and then Pharaoh puts him in charge of everything and all the world comes to Egypt to visit Joseph to get grain. In the mean time Joe gets married and has 2 kids.
When we go through good times, how often do we put aside something for later like Joseph or do we eat it all and then in the times of famine do we suffer like the rest of the world. Did the Lord not give us the ability to read of his word daily, to take of the daily bread and to eat of it, how often I take for granted the word in it's large abundance of meat. I devour the word with great longing in times of famine. Why do I feel like sometimes when the word is plentiful and all is going great in life I don't feel the strong desire to read the word like I do when I am going through a drought or a famine. It would seem that the reason things start to go sour is because I am not as studious of the word as I once was. Well truth be told. I had a little bit of that this week. I didn't read my bible on thursday or friday and on saturday I felt really distant and thus had a great date with God... it was good because there were a lot of things I needed to give over to him and to just get them off my chest. I was struck by something one of the women at church said today. About her daughter and her overall situation. I realized how silly my troubles are.... how blessed I truly am... how often I take for granted all the amazing things that the Lord has provided for me. I wish I was more thankful. I wish I could have a job where all I did was just sit at the feet of the Lord and listen and worship and praise him. I realize how blessed I am to have a job though, but I sometimes let that job get me so busy that I forget to say thanks and give praise when praise is do even in the small things. Lord help me to not forget how blessed I truly am and to pray for those that are going through famines and to give them some of my grain. I hope that wasn't too many metaphors that you got lost... but I just kept rolling with it... I think the Lord is amazing and I need to share him more... Isn't that what he called me to do... I guess I better start doing.
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