Author: Brian Burdett

“Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.” – Genesis 41:46

Consider what it took for Joseph to reach this triumphant moment in his life, when he essentially became Pharaoh’s Prime Minister. From this position, Joseph would save both Egypt and the family of Israel from a coming seven-year famine. Reaching this point required walking a very long and painful road that would have broken most people. Broken their spirit, broken their will, broken their spirit.

Roughly thirteen years earlier, he’d been betrayed and sold into slavery by his own brothers. Sold for 20 silver coins, but mostly to get rid of him. Enslaved in the home of a prominent Egyptian official, Joseph rose through the ranks of his owner’s slaves. Then he was falsely accused of assaulting the man’s wife, who’d actually been assaulting him. Joseph then spent years in jail, just to meet the man who would quickly forget about him for two years before finally introducing Joseph to Pharaoh.

Thirteen years were stolen from the prime of Joseph’s youth. Stolen by slavery, slander, injustice, and neglect. And yet, Joseph never gave in to despair. He knew God was with him. He knew that God was his ultimate and just judge. So, Joseph resisted many temptations, resisted discouragement, and remained true to God when no person was true to him. All of this – as terrible, unjust, and miserable as it was – was God’s good, sovereign will to bring Joseph to the place of power where he could save his people AND his oppressors. What sinful people meant for evil purposes, God used to accomplish great good!

Should you find yourself in a long, hard, discouraging season, remember that Joseph’s God is your God. He’s still perfect in His knowledge, wisdom, goodness, justice, and power. His good will for your life will be accomplished! There’s no way to know what difficult seasons of life might be teaching you, refining in you, or preparing you for. But always remember that in Christ, God is always with you and you’re never alone. He always has good and meaningful works prepared for you to do and He loves you more than you can possibly understand. #FollowJesus

“Then he said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.’” – Genesis 32:28

At long last, Jacob came to truly know the Lord! It wasn’t easy for him (indeed, it was costly). It certainly wasn’t quick. Although he’d been raised in a home that knew the Lord, it just hadn’t resulted in a personal knowledge of God. That came after decades of God’s clear favor and provision that should have made God’s reality and presence obvious to Jacob long before. But it hadn’t. Jacob hadn’t been anti-God, just un-engaged, proud, self-reliant, and unwilling to acknowledge the obvious. It came after years of protection and abundant blessing that even Jacob admitted but without truly bowing to God. Perhaps you know people like him…

For Jacob, it took yet another crisis. After years of living by his wits, tricking, and grasping at what others had, Jacob finally reached the end of himself. The bridges he’d burned long before were catching up to him. He desperately needed God. Even then, it wasn’t easy! He had to wrestle with the angel of the Lord all night long. He’d limp for the rest of his life from that wrestling. Sometimes that’s just how it is for people, including people you care about deeply. You can share the truth… you can point out the obvious hand of God in their life… but they must wrestle with God and faith for themselves. You wish it weren’t so, but there are plenty of Jacobs in the world.

If you have a Jacob in your life, someone taking their dear sweet time to embrace the Lord in faith, don’t give up on them. Pray for them. Encourage them to actually wrestle with God. Don’t yield to frustration. Stay faithful while they aren’t. Pray for God to make Himself and His hand in their life obvious. Pray that if it’s a crisis they need to come to know the Lord, that He will be kind enough to send them that crisis. #FollowJesus

“If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.” – Genesis 31:42

Isn’t interesting what Jacob didn’t say in this verse? He never called God “my God”. He talked all about the God of his father and his grandfather, but clearly didn’t consider Him to be his God. Jacob knew plenty about God. He’d even made a deal with God decades before. He was very aware that God was working on his behalf and blessed him enormously. And yet, for all that, Jacob didn’t know God. He had no real faith yet. He had no meaningful relationship with the God of his father and grandfather. In other words, he was missing everything that mattered!

It is all too easy to substitute knowledge about God for a relationship with Him. It’s all too easy to know a lot about the Bible without actually have real faith and trust in Who it reveals. I personally could answer endless questions about Jesus without believing in Him, loving Him, or knowing Him. This is exactly what Jesus lamented in the Sermon on the Mount, when He warned that people would one day demand entrance into His Kingdom based on everything they knew and had done for Him without ever having known Him. Nobody gets into the Kingdom without knowing the King!

Think carefully about this verse and don’t let it happen to you. Do you know Jesus? Not just know about Him, but truly know Him? What about people you know and love? Do they know Jesus or know about Him? There can be a huge distance between head knowledge and a heart relationship. If you aren’t sure about this, slow down, meditate on Scripture, pray for as long as it takes, and enter into fellowship with your Lord. #FollowJesus

“Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” – Genesis 28:14

God promised the trickster Jacob what He’d previously promised his father and grandfather before him. All the families of the earth would be blessed through the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not just Jacob’s family (Israel) – ALL families. Who? How? Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God! It is God’s eternal, unchanging will to redeem for Himself and His glory a new people drawn from every tribe, language, and ethnic people group on the planet. This people will not be formed through marriage or birth but through faith in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. This people will be salt and light filling our world and blessing it.

The big story of the entire Bible is the story of this unfolding will and plan of God. After sin ruined creation, God promised a Savior, a Messiah, a Redeemer Who would defeat Satan, conquering sin and its consequence, which is death. The Old Testament follows the ups and downs of the family God selected to bring forth that Redeemer. The New Testament reveals Jesus, the Redeemer and tells how Jesus accomplished our redemption through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and physical resurrection. It then gives believers our responsibility until the glorious day when our Redeemer returns…. Make disciples of Jesus.

If you’re a follower of Jesus, then you’re part of God’s plan to redeem people from all over the world. You have good works prepared by God for you to do (see Ephesians 2:10). By your prayers and your gifts of time, talent, and treasure, God’s mission is being accomplished. People all over the world are finding new life and forgiveness for their sins through faith in Jesus Christ, the promised descendent Who is blessing all nations. But that work is not finished – not until Jesus returns. Commit yourself. Devote yourself. Let God’s will be done through you as you #FollowJesus

“When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister,’ for he feared to say, ‘My wife,’ thinking, ‘lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,’ because she was attractive in appearance.” – Genesis 26:7

What a strange and shameful travel tactic Isaac learned from his father Abraham! What’s particularly striking about Isaac’s scheme is that God had JUST appeared to him a couple of verses earlier. God PROMISED He would bless Isaac if he went where He told him to go. Isaac went but he was still so fearful that he told the locals his wife was his sister. Just in case God wasn’t paying attention enough to bless them. Just in case the locals decided they wanted Rebekah for themselves. Because Isaac doubted God’s ability to bless and protect them, Isaac said his wife was single!

What was Isaac doing? Hedging his bets to protect himself from any bad consequences for obeying God. Isaac went where God told him but didn’t fully trust God’s promise of blessing. So he made some “arrangements” as a “just in case”. Isaac thought up a “clever” way to protect himself rather than trusting God to protect both his wife and himself. Isaac was what the book of James would call a “double-minded” man – believing God but also hedging your bets. Trusting God but only somewhat. Doing what God said to do but trying to manage any possible downsides to obedience. Have you ever hedged your bets like that?

Have you ever chosen to obey God and but also tried to insulate yourself from some of the risks of obedience? We often do. We obey the Bible, but only up to a point… We follow Jesus but also keep our earthly situation “managed”… We obey parts of Scripture but minimize the parts that might upset or offend friends, relatives, coworkers, or employers… We follow Jesus but only in a “proper balance” with our other priorities…. It’s easy to become double-minded like Isaac. Resist this temptation! When God says to do something, go all in. When Jesus says to follow Him somewhere uncomfortable or risky, don’t try to minimize that risk. Maximize your faith and trust instead. When you commit to the Lord, FULLY COMMIT! #FollowJesus