Advent Day 7.....A Family....A Nation....

Sometimes our comfort needs to be upset or overturned in order for us to grow. Sometimes we have to go through difficulties or trials that make no sense at the time....or may never make sense to us in this lifetime. Whether we come to know the reason or not, we always come out of such circumstances changed.

 After selling Joseph into slavery, Judah left his family to live with the Canaanites. He married into the Canaanite culture. His morals had become loose enough for him to defraud his daughter-in-law....loose enough to have no problem going in to a harlot, or  have any shame sending his best buddy back to pay for services rendered. He was not just in the culture…he was OF the culture. How would Judah's ten brothers be any different? If not them,  what about their sons after them?

Abraham had chosen Isaac’s wife.  Jacob’s wives were his mother’s relatives. Jacob's twelve sons were another story. God promised they would become the nation of Israel, but they seemed to have their own ideas. How do you build a nation of people when the eleven guys who are supposed to grow into that nation are living where they are surrounded by opportunities to intermarry with the nations around them?  They would spread out, blend in with the other cultures, and never  become the nation God had promised. How would the Messiah come from a nation that did not exist? How would God handle this threat to His plan for a nation and the Savior of the world?

God had a plan.....first, He allowed Joseph to be sold into slavery and taken to Egypt where he would go from being a trusted slave in Potiphar's home, to a prisoner in the king's jail. After a time, God would bring Joseph out of the jail and into the Pharaoh's court when Joseph is able to interpret a dream God had given the Pharaoh. This dream warned of a coming seven year famine after seven years of plenty. God then set Joseph up as second in command of Egypt. As the famine ravages the earth, God implements the next phase of His plan. He uses the famine to bring the sons of Jacob into Egypt looking for food. All of this preparation makes one think of Joseph as God's recon guy being sent on ahead to prepare for the family's arrival and survival.

The family continued living in Egypt for a time because there was plenty of food and they were well taken care. This removed them from the temptation of drifting apart as a family and disappearing into other nations they had been surrounded by in Canaan. Pharaoh gave them the land of Goshen to live in and tend their flocks. But what about this family just intermarrying with the Egyptians and becoming part of the Egyptian culture? This was not a problem because the Egyptians wanted nothing to do with these shepherds of the wilderness.  The Egyptians considered them unclean. We are given a glimpse of this when Joseph tells his brothers to say the following to the Pharaoh….

“You shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,' that you may live in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians." Genesis 46:34

Good grief, the Egyptians wouldn’t even eat at the same table as Joseph because they knew he was a Hebrew….even though he was the prime minister of Egypt!!

When Joseph died many years later, a different Pharaoh came to power. He was a bit intimidated by the size of this family (to put it mildly) living in his land. So, he figured the best way to deal with the Hebrews was to oppress and persecute them. So, he enslaved them. Now the choice to stay or go was no longer theirs; they were  slaves in Egypt. 

Why would God allow this? Why would He allow His chosen people to be enslaved? Remember at the beginning  I said sometimes our comfort needs to be upset or overturned in order for us to grow? That was literally the case here.  Am I saying God oppressed Israel? No, but I am saying that once again God used the choices and actions of man to bring about His plan and purpose. God used the cruelty of the Egyptians to grow His people. This is how God turned a family, who on arrival in Egypt numbered seventy,  left Egypt as a nation of millions. This nation was grown in the midst of persecution and suffering. This is the very nation the promised seed would come from. The Messiah, our Redeemer, would be an Israelite. This is not to say there would not be Gentiles in the Messiah’s bloodline. Quite the contrary…so far in out journey, we have only encountered Gentile brides..Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. As promised, the Messiah would continue through the line of Judah of the nation of Israel.God had a plan. God had a purpose, and He would fulfill it.

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’ Jeremiah 29:11

“I know that you can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.” Job 42:2

 God had taken the family of Jacob and grown them into the nation of Israel. His Son would be born into this nation that had come to be in a land not their own and in the midst of such hardships. The time in Egypt was a part of Almighty God's perfect plan to bring the Redeemer into the world.  How precious it is to know that no matter what the circumstance or situation may look like, in our own lives, God is in control. He has a plan and a purpose even if we cannot see it. How awesome to see the unfolding of the plan laid before the foundation of the world...God's plan to send His Son to take on our sin and shame....the plan laid because of His love for us. Thank you, Father, for your beautiful, wonderful, life-changing gift. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus.

John 3:16 For God so loved the World that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Advent Foretold Day 6.....Judah

The Messiah would come through the Line of Judah....

God did not use perfect people for the genealogy of Jesus. He used flawed, broken, messed up, very real humans who made incredibly bad choices at times. He used people....real people.

Judah was a real person who made some very bad decisions. His actions that would bring about the birth of his son, the next in the line of the Messiah, are not circumstances anyone would be proud of being born into. Perez was born as a result of broken promises, deceit, and disguises. He would almost die along with his mother and twin brother while she was pregnant with them...because she is ordered to be put to death.....by his father....who doesn't know he is the father.

Genesis 38:1 tells us that after the brothers sold Joseph, Judah left his brothers and went to stay with an Adullamite man named Hirah. My guess is he could not bear to look his father in the face, because of what they had done to Joseph. Judah married a Canaanite woman and had three sons. Judah’s sons were growing up, so he found a wife for his oldest son, Er. The bride was a girl by the name of Tamar.  Her bridegroom, Er, was wicked beyond belief. In fact, the Hebrew word used to describe Er implies it was an evil that needed God to intervene. The Lord took Er’s life.  Er died without children.

In those days, when a man died without having a child, his brother could marry the widow to raise up an heir for his dead brother. The first son of that union would be considered the dead brother's child, and the child would inherit accordingly. This ensured a man’s name and line would not die with him. This was a common practice in the Middle East in ancient times. Judah followed this practice.

Judah gave Tamar in marriage to his second son, Onan. Onan was not a good guy and did not enter into this union honorably. He had no intention of letting his brother’s name be given to a son who might come from Onan's union with Tamar, so he made sure this would not happen. This was not pleasing (to put it mildly) to God, so Onan, like his brother, is taken out of the picture. 

Judah was a bit unnerved by this point. He now had two dead sons. He sent Tamar back to her father with a promise of calling her back to marry his third son Shelah when he was old enough. However, Judah had no intention of doing this. He was worried his third son would die if he married Tamar. Judah acted like Tamar was cursed or brought bad luck into marriage. He did not consider his sons' actions may have brought about their deaths. 

During this time Judah’s wife had died, and Tamar had become aware that her father-in-law had no intention of keeping his word.  With this realization, Tamar did something that is almost impossible for us to understand because we can't fathom the culture and time she lived in. We cannot begin to imagine how her situation had and would impact the rest of her life. 

You can read the account of how Tamar took matters in her own hands in Genesis 38:12-30, but for our purposes, let me just say Tamar disguised herself as a temple harlot and waited for her father-in-law to pass by the gate of Enaim. Judah saw her and was deceived by her veiled disguise. Believing his daughter-in-law to be a harlot for hire, he went in to her. He has no money with him, so she took his signet ring as a sign of good faith that he would come back and “pay” her. When he sent the payment with a friend, she was nowhere to be found. 

Three months later Judah found out his daughter-in-law was going to have a baby. With this discovery, he ordered her to be punished and burned to death for her “harlotry”. However Tamar had a card up her sleeve, or rather a signet ring, to show Judah who the father of her baby was. When she produced the ring and Judah recognized it, he acknowledged he was the one in the wrong. He had not fulfilled his promise to marry Tamar to his youngest son. Judah declared that his daughter-in-law had behaved in a more upright and righteous manner than he had.

From the onetime union of Judah and Tamar twin boys were born: Zerah and Perez.  From this grievous, man-made mess the lineage of our Savior, Christ Jesus, would continue from Judah through the line of Perez.

If you have ever felt like God cannot use you because of something that has happened in your past...something you have done or something done to you....think again. The genealogy of Jesus is an awesome reminder that God can use any circumstance or situation for His glory. Remember Jesus is the descendant of a liar, a defrauder, a harlot, a negligent father, a murdering adulterer.....and the list goes on.....

The very things in our lives we have done or that have been done to us are the very things God will be able to use in other people's lives. It may help bring about a healing, or it may be to let them know they are not alone on some path they are walking. God will use all things for His glory. We just need to be ready and willing to be used by Him. God knew who you would be before He laid the first foundation stone of creation. He knew what trials you would walk through, He knew what choices you would make and He planned accordingly.

We are His handiwork created in Christ Jesus to to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 2:10

I pray the Lord blesses you this Christmas Season! I pray you can see His handiwork in your life. I pray you can see times when He has taken something you thought would never come to any good and He has used it for something wonderful in your life or someone else's. Merry Christmas, dear ones!! 

Use Your Words....

Sometimes I forget to use my words. Sometimes I don't say things that should be said....not just thought or reflected upon... I think we all do this on some level. Sometimes we wait too long to say what we think or feel about someone. Sometimes we wait too long to let someone know what we have learned from them.....what they have shown us.

One of the things I learned from Mum is there is no such thing as can't. To quote Greg, "There wasn't a whole lotta quit in her." Growing up, I watched how she approached things. If there was something that had to be done, she just did it. It didn't matter if it was sheetrock that needed hanging, a vehicle that needed  repairing (even if you were seven or eight months pregnant),  a fire needing to be put out (literally), electrical work or plumbing that needed to be done. She just figured it out, jumped right in, and did it. 

When I was in second grade, the teacher asked whose mom could make the costumes for our end of school play. It was going to be Winnie the Pooh. My hand shot up as I volunteered my mom to take on this massive project. Not like she didn't already have a million things on her plate, including a bunch of little kids pulling at her legs. I didn't see it that way. I just knew my mum could do ANYTHING. When I went home and excitedly told Mum what a favor I had done for her, she did not let on for one second what I had just done. She did not ask me how I could have done that to her....assigning her such a momentous, burdensome task without even asking her. She never let on how much work I had just loaded on her already very full plate. She showed me grace.

We had a large class and every child needed a costume...which meant there had to be three or four costumes for each character in Winnie the Pooh...only one Pooh though, which was not me....sigh... I was one of the Eeyores. Mum tackled this project like everything else. If she was going to do it, she was going to DO it all the way!  By the time Mum was finished, our class had the most awesome costumes ever. It didn't even blip on my radar, because this was exactly what I expected from her. Now, in hindsight, and especially as a VERY non-crafty person, I am truly in AWE of what she did for my class and me. Thank you, Mum!

Mum and Dad circa 1975

Another lesson Mum and Dad taught us kids by their actions was to be blind to a person's exterior. They taught us to love people for themselves, not the what, how, or why. They taught us to never look at what someone had, said, did, or looked like. They showed us what true acceptance and love looked like. They did not judge others or put themselves in a position of moral superiority. They just loved people. 

One of the greatest life lessons my mother ever taught me was what it meant to live a life of hospitality. It didn't matter if we were in a tent, a 25 foot trailer, a 52 foot long single-wide mobile home, an orange school bus, or a home she helped build with her own sweat...and yes, I am sure at some point, tears. 

Mum has always known how to make people feel welcome in her home. She has always been able to make you feel like there is no other place she would rather you be than right there with her in her kitchen.... whatever form that may take at the time you happened to visit in her life.  It didn't matter if she knew you were coming for weeks, or you stopped by (from 2000 miles away) unexpectedly. She didn't care if it was one of your buddies who had shown up drunk on our doorstep, or a young girl who found out she was going to have a baby and didn't know what to do. It didn't even matter if you had just gotten out of jail. She made you feel loved and at home. 

Mum made you feel like it was the best thing in the world having the extra mouths to feed... waiting for that meal to stretch one mouth further or ten, depending on your family's size. And stretch it would. One thing I became aware of as I was growing up was Mum would wait at mealtimes. She would wait for the rest of us to get our food. She would wait for everyone to have a full plate. This was not a lack of faith that God would provide. It was a mom making sure her kids and anyone else at her table had the food they needed. 

Mum was a living example of faith in God's provision.  She knew it was God's problem to feed the people He brought to our doorstep, not hers. That came from lessons of watching Him in action, providing the food we needed to feed those who came. There were plenty of times when we knew our loaves and fishes had been multiplied. There were plenty of times God provided something out of nothing.

One of the greatest breakfasts I EVER had was when I was about six years old. The boys and I were getting ready for school. I came in the kitchen where Mum was standing with her back to me making our breakfast. When she turned around, I saw the silent tears sliding down her face. I watched as she put a cast iron skillet full of a crazy looking batter into the oven. When it came out, my brothers and I thought our mum had baked us a giant oatmeal cookie for breakfast. We were thrilled!!! It was the most delicious, most special breakfast ever. Little did we know, Mum had put the very last of everything we had for food into that breakfast. She said when she put everything in the bowl, she had no idea what it would be or taste like because she was just using what was left.  God had taken the remnants of our cupboards and had turned them into something delicious....something that afterwards I would long for just a taste of again... that special breakfast one more time. I remember asking her after that if we could please have one of those giant oatmeal cookies for breakfast. 

Mum with one of the many babies she delivered.

Through the years Mum has touched more lives than we can possibly comprehend. She helped families bring their babies into the world. She has given comfort to families who have lost a child. She has shown acceptance and love to many a woman who felt rejected, hopeless, and alone. She has fed the hungry, clothed the needy...even when we were needy...she has given when we had nothing to give. She opened her home to those who had no home. She has shared her food when she had no food to share. She has been a friend to the friendless. She has been a shoulder and an ear to the broken and weary.

When I reflect on the gifts God has granted each one of us in our lives, one of the gifts I need to give thanks for is the gift of my mother who taught me so much. Thank you, Lord...and thank you, Mum.

Mum and me - 2012

Show me Your Glory....

There are times in life when I need to be reminded of the everlasting truths of who God is. This week was a good week for that. The only way to do this is to pray and get into the Word of God, letting the Holy Spirit show me and remind me of what is true. One of the ways I like to do this is to join Moses on the mountaintop, and that is what I did this week. This time when I went to visit, God wanted me to see something else about Moses's (and my) climb up the mountaintop.

There were many reasons Moses was sent back up the mountain.  The one I want to focus on is Moses not being willing to lead the people another step without the guarantee of God's presence going with them. What would be the point? It would be a disaster of epic proportions, and Moses knew this! Moses wanted to know God's presence would be with them.

[Exo 33:15-16 NASB]  Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.  "For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?"

Exactly! God, if you are not going to lead my steps and guide me, then there is not point me even moving from this spot. Is it not by your presence and guiding me,  it can be told I am your child, that you love me and you take care of me?

Moses then asks the Lord, "I pray You, show me your glory."

[Exo 33:19-23] And He said, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion."  But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" Then the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock;  and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. "Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen."

The Lord gives Moses further instructions for his hike up the mountain....like bringing another set of tablets for God to write on....but that part of the visit will have to wait for another day.

Early the next morning, Moses made his way up the mountain and went to the place God had instructed him to. And just as promised.....

[Exo 34:5-7] 5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. 6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

And there...there it was, tucked in the middle of this passage...a truth...a promise...such a comforting picture of truth!

The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him AS he called upon the name of the LORD. THEN the Lord passed by in front of him. As we are seeking God....as we are seeking His presence....as we are calling on His name....as we are crying out to Him, He is standing there right beside us. Before we even see the evidence of His being present or His hand at work, He is there with us. Sometimes we are looking so hard for the visual manifestation of God's presence and work on our behalf, that we miss the precious beauty and truth of the fact that God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, our very personal LORD is standing right beside us. He does not leave us or forsake us no matter what the circumstance. He is ever present in our every circumstance. What comfort, peace, and absolute love is to be found in this truth about God. What a wonderful reminder as we climb the mountains in our lives and call out to the Lord.....to be still and feel His presence right there with us.