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 did have 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 would be 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 (to put it mildly) by the size of this family living in his land. He decided 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 in the Messiah's line: Sarah, Rebecca, 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.