Passing the Test

Has God ever revealed things and you wondered how He could bring them to pass?  His way are higher than ours, and He is able to do the impossible.  The life of Joseph provides a riveting tale of how God used difficult circumstances to accomplish His will.  Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, but God meant it for good.  We read in scripture when his brothers sold Joseph to merchants God was sending him to Egypt.  How important it is to maintain a view God remains in control, even when life is out of our control.

God sent Joseph to Egypt in chains to save His people, including the very men who hated Joseph.  We read in Psalm 105:17-20 of God's grace and wisdom:  "He sent a man before them-- Joseph--who was sold as a slave. ¹⁸  They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. ¹⁹  Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him. ²⁰  The king sent and released him, the ruler of the people let him go free."  God had given Joseph dreams as a lad he would be a ruler, that his brothers and even his parents would bow before him.  As Joseph considered God's promise to him as he lay in irons, there seemed no possible way this could be accomplished.  How could a slave become a ruler?  What chance could a man rotting in a foreign prison govern?

Given Joseph's troubling circumstances, God's word tested him.  Had Joseph's life followed a clear path of ascendance, rising quickly through the ranks as a public servant, making contacts with influential officers, and gaining a reputation among his peers for his political savvy, perhaps Joseph would have predicted how God would make good on His promise.  But Joseph did not see it coming, nor as he lay in irons could he have predicted how God would even arrange his release - much less his promotion to second to Pharaoh in Egypt!  In painful irons Joseph chose to believe God's promise to him and trusted God.  It was the word of the LORD which tested Joseph, and when the word was fulfilled Joseph could look back in awe and say of his slavery and imprisonment, "Even in my darkest days, God was there."  God is always true to His Word.

Is God's word testing you today?  Will you continue to believe His promises, even if it seems like there is no possible way it could come to pass?  Trust in God, for He is able to do exceedingly above what we could ever ask or think.  Those who believe Him will be richly rewarded for such faith.  Their eyes will see the salvation of the LORD.

The Most High Way

It's common advice we should "take the high road" in conflicts.  No matter what people do or say to us, it is best for us to choose the path of righteousness.  The life of Jesus provides an example.  When Jesus was hungry, Satan tempted Him to turn stones into bread.  Jesus answered with the unbreakable Word of God in Matthew 4:4:  "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"  Then Satan was especially crafty.  His next temptation was backed with the word of God!  Matthew 4:5-6 says, "Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶  and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  How treacherous and evil, to use scripture to pressure Jesus into sin!

I suspect Satan's recall of scripture is quite sharp, especially when it concerns his advantage.  The other day I read the same passage to which Satan referred in Psalm 91:11-12.  If I had been in the position of Jesus with His immaculate recall (and praise God I wasn't), I might have directed him to continue his recitation with the following verse (Psalm 91:13) as a taunt and ask him for a brief exposition concerning his certain future:  "You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot."  But instead of dangling Satan's ultimate defeat before Him, Jesus took the "high road."  Matthew 4:7 tells us the response of our Saviour who is altogether wise:  "Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  God's ways and wisdom are higher than ours, and with a simple sentence Jesus diffused the smokescreen of scripture Satan employed.

Jesus did more than take the high road because He is the Most High, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  His interactions with satanic temptation in the wilderness are insightful and instructive of how we should deal with conflict by the use of scripture properly applied.  There are many who may use the Bible to justify their own sin, and it may provoke anger and indignation.  They aim to accuse, provoke, and confuse us, and they will say anything to lure us into their trap.  Yet we see a calmness exuded by Christ who could have resorted to many fleshly tactics against his hypocritical foe, and shined the light of a simple sentence of scripture to turn aside every attack.  Praise the LORD that we too can take the Most High Way and are equipped by the Holy Spirit to walk in victory.

The Edges of God's Ways

"He who builds His layers in the sky, and has founded His strata in the earth; Who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth-- the LORD is His name."

Amos 9:6

I love how God speaks about the order of the world He has created.  I only recently learned about the layers of atmosphere scientists have discovered, and God founded these layers even as He "founded His strata in the earth."  There is the Troposphere, where "weather" happens; the Stratosphere where the ozone layer is; the Mesophere which burns meteors which could impact the earth; the Thermosphere where satellites are launched; the Ionosphere which is crucial for "Sun-Earth interactions;" and the Exosphere which is the upper limit of Earth's atmosphere.  I look to the heavens and I do not see any of these layers, know how they function, or how they protect us.  But God designed and founded them according to His wisdom, and the scripture tells us so.

When God created trees, He made them mature and able to bear fruit after their own kind.  He filled the earth with vegetation, and I expect if a mature tree had been cut down the day it was created it would reveal a series of rings.  In the same way, God founded His strata and layers of the earth.  There are molten layers far deeper than man can probe, yet many layers are visible on the surface as well.  God has laid them down one after another, many at the time of creation, and many layers since.

The third part of this verse speaks of something I learned about in the third grade:  the water cycle.  About 70% of the earth is covered with water, and about 97% of that is found in the oceans.  Water from the sea evaporates, forms clouds, and then is deposited in the form of snow and rain on the land.  The God who created the oceans "calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth."  We can observe this process and imagine it "just happens," or we can acknowledge the wise and powerful God who graciously provides for all He has made.

"The LORD is His name," the prophet Amos said.  God is the eternal, self-existent God who created everything according to His plans and purposes.  He has built the earth on nothing, and founded earth with His voice.  Job 26:6-14 magnifies our God well:  "Sheol is naked before Him, and Destruction has no covering. ⁷  He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. ⁸  He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it. ⁹  He covers the face of His throne, and spreads His cloud over it. ¹⁰  He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. ¹¹  The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at His rebuke. ¹²  He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He breaks up the storm. ¹³  By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. ¹⁴  Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?"

Jesus Saves!

"Then Moses said, "Thus says the LORD: 'About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; ⁵  and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals."

Exodus 11:4-5

After unleashing 9 plagues on the gods and people of Egypt, God promised to send a final plague:  the death of the firstborn of all people and animals.  Unlike previous plagues which were restricted to the Egyptians, this plague would affect Pharaoh, his servants, and even the Hebrews in Goshen.  Though this grievous plague would affect all Egypt, God provided a way for households to be delivered from it if they would meet God's conditions.  Not one person or animal had to die.  If people would sprinkle the blood of the paschal lamb on the doorposts and lintel of their homes, having eaten the lamb in the manner prescribed, God would spare the firstborn.  The life of the lamb killed for the Passover was the substitute for the firstborn.

I wonder:  did all the people who heard God's conditions obey them, even though they had seen firsthand His wonders with plague after plague?  For those who did not apply the blood to their doorposts and lintel, all households mourned at least one death.  In the world today, death will come personally for all people as a result of sin, for the Bible says the wages of sin is death.  None are excluded from our inevitable decease.  But the same verse which reveals the wages of sin is death tells us of the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus (Romans 6:23).  Our bodies will someday go the way of the earth, and God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer, Saviour, and LORD.  If a sinner will acknowledge his sin and repent, trusting in Jesus, the same will be born again and receive eternal life.

It wasn't enough for the Hebrews to eat lamb for dinner.  It wasn't enough for blood to be spattered on the doorposts of their homes.  God provided specific instructions outlined in Exodus 12 the people needed to follow in obedience to Him.  The lamb or goat was to be a male in the first year without blemish and kept from the 10th to the 14th day of the first month, and to be killed in the evening.  The lamb was to be roasted and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  They needed to remove leaven from their homes and eat in readiness to depart with shoes on their feet.  If any of the lamb was left over until morning, it was to be burned with fire.  The tradition of the Passover has evolved to require great attention to details not mentioned in Exodus, but the point is it was much more than eating a lamb or sprinkling blood.  Careful preparation and obedience was required to assure the feast was kept and the benefit of life received.

The ordinance of the Passover protected the firstborn from death in Egypt on one night, and Joshua the son of Nun was the only person by my reckoning who was a firstborn spared in Egypt who also entered into Canaan some forty years later.  Joshua means "Jehovah saves," and it is the same Hebrew name of Jesus (translated from Greek):  "Jehoshua."  Jesus is the God who saves, the "Lamb of God" who takes away the sins of the world.  Jesus was God's own Son who died on the cross as a sacrifice and substitute for sinners.  One does not need to adhere to a tradition concerning eating or drinking to meet God's requirements for eternal life, for all who repent and believe on Christ will be saved.  Romans 10:8-10 affirms, "But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): ⁹  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."  There is no hope of salvation in keeping of the Passover, but there is eternal life for all who repent and trust in Jesus.