God's Provision

One thing that continually amazes me is how living and active God's word is. I can have read something many times before, yet so often God will reveal something completely new and relevant to me. I was reading through Genesis this past week and it happened again.

^"3 “I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. ⁴ “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. ⁵ But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. ⁶ This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. ⁷ God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. ⁸ So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt."
Genesis 45:3-8 (NLT)

Even though circumstances look grim and things seem to be falling apart; when we're confused, hurt and even broken. God is sovereign. Period.

Here, God took circumstances that, from our perspective, seem horrible and cruel and used them for His purposes both in the near future and for all eternity . First, God raised up Joseph and sent him to Egypt so that he could preserve his family's life. That in itself is pretty neat!

Looking back a bit in Genesis, God had made a covenant promise with Abraham that he would establish his descendants and bless all the nations of the world through them. God's covenant promise would not be true if the children of Israel had starved during the famine. So God also raised up Joseph to fulfill his covenant promise to Abraham. That's definitely cool!

It gets even better when looking ahead to Christ and thinking through it. Christ was from the tribe of Judah(Joseph's brother who was saved from starvation) , in the line of David(Also from the tribe of Judah), and the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. God worked in Josephs life to bring about His final redemption for humanity!

So, God raised up Joseph not only to save his family's life, but to keep his covenant promise to Abraham which was fulfilled through Jesus Christ! To me that is just a symphony. Absolutely beautiful!

So when we encounter circumstances that seem horrible or even cruel, remember God's hand is at work and praise Him! Does God like to see people suffer? By no means! But his ways our higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts. Who are we, oh little clay pots, to talk back to the potter?

God works in all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Knowing this, can we not trust him? He is shaping and molding us as SONS AND DAUGHTERS!!!

As the author of Hebrews writes in chapter 12: ^"7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸ If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹ Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (NIV)

And Peter in his first epistle writes: ^"6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." (NLT)

What an awesome God we have!

Know He's at work & keep on keepin' on!