Genesis

Genesis 39:2-5,21

Timeless Truth = When God walks with a man the man cannot help but see the blessing of his presence and want more… God’ ultimate blessing is this very presence, creating in man a thirst for righteousness that this relationship might be cultivated more… that the man might see more clearly the beauty of the blessing that God’s presence is.

This week has been a humbling week for me in that I see so many things that I do not exactly understand. Genesis has challenged me to look at God from the viewpoint of the truth I know about Christ and what he says is right and wrong. When I look at these men and try to make sense out of their lives I find it difficult to discern why in the world God continues to show his steadfast love to them amidst their mistakes. I have tried to find something that these men are doing that brings them the blessing and then I realize that it is not at all anything in them, but it is God’s presence that transforms their lives. They do not initiate the relationship and the blessing, God does. In my life I have a hard time finding good things in myself that God would want to bless. I fear that I would miss the blessing because of my own limitations and weaknesses. I fear that I would be like Jacob or Isaac or Abraham in their weakness and try to seek the blessing my own way. This week has confused me so much about how to seek the blessing. I seek it in a similar way to Jacob, who is an idiot so that’s encouraging, because I see this conflicting doubt and fear yet desperately desire the blessing God has in my life. I see Joseph and I see this man that I desperately desire to be, a man who seems to get that God is the one whom the glory is due. As I look at Joseph I see this truth, that he is not the one initiating the relationship… he is just responding to the relationship properly. This blessing my soul so much because I see that the pressure is not on me to initiate seeking God’s blessing. God’s blessing is there in his presence, in his steadfast love and faithfulness to those whom he loves. As I look at Joseph I see that what set him apart is that he was patient to react to God’s love and patient to do the right thing by simply walking with God as he walked with him. In my life I see this truth at work and realize that this is probably where I am more than I think. This is an encouraging thought, not to make myself feel better, but just for the simple fact that I do not have to beat myself up about my stupidity. I realize now that I must simply settle down and look to see that God has been so faithful to walk with me. Yeah, all of this is still a little bit blurry to me but I think I am beginning to grasp that God doesn’t want me to look at where I am deficient so much as he wants me to look at how sufficient he is. I see in Joseph the same thing that I see in myself… when I settle down and take a step back to look at what God is faithfully doing in my life I see that I am in fact walking beside him. This is not to be ignorant of the fact that I have a flesh, but to be attentive to where he is going that I would walk as his son. The beauty of my relationship with God is just that… that my relationship is with God Almighty who holds the world in his hands and he loves me. He has good things for me as he did Joseph… it’s just that life is a process and he has better things than I am willing to settle for in the present.

So… practically… this is a bit of a challenge but I am going to just try and look this week and really for the rest of my life at who God is and who I am as I walk beside him. Cathy Walker actually gave me a vision this morning that was really cool. She said she saw me looking in a mirror but I was covered in the slime that babies come out of the womb covered in… and then saw this big tongue licking the slime off so that I could see who I really am. This is what I have seen as I go through Genesis… that there is something Joseph saw that I am seeing. Joseph’s identity was wrapped up in the fact that God walked with him. Not so much in that he walked with God or that he wanted to walk with God or that he did this or that wrong or right. He was a man God walked with and the rest of his life just seemed to fit right into place. So yeah, I want to be found there… that’s why I am in SBS, that’s why I am excited about teaching SBS next year and excited about dwelling more on the OT.