Day 1 - Genesis

Today is the beginning of a journey -- 66 days, 66 devotions, 1 from every book of the Bible.  It's part of our series called "66 Days of Summer."  I'm excited about it, and I hope it brings you closer to Jesus.  If you follow along, you'll be able to say you read something from every book of the Bible by the time school starts back.  And you'll be able to say that you read Scripture and an devotional for over two months.  That, my friends, is called a habit - a good habit.  So here goes...

Long story short.  Joseph has these visions of grandeur which do not exactly endear him to his 10 older brothers.  He tells them of these dreams he's had in which they'll be bowing down to him.  Turns out the trick is on him.  After plotting to kill him, they instead sell him into slavery to get rid of the nuisance.  They concoct a story to tell their dad that Joseph was killed by wild animals and even show him Joseph's coat drenched in blood.  Joseph actually does well in slavery, though, and rises to a prominent position.  He's betrayed by his owner's wife, though, and then thrown in jail.  In jail, he helps out a couple of inmates, and it looks like he's on his way to brighter days, but they forget about him when they're freed, even though he was promised they wouldn't.  Finally, though his talents for interpreting dreams pays off and gains him not only freedom, but power.  He becomes second in command over all of Egypt, only behind Pharaoh, and leads Egypt with wisdom in preparation for a famine that is stretching across all nations.  His preparations make Egypt the only place with food.  His brothers end up coming to beg for food, as so many have done.  Finally, they realize it's Joseph.  They are flabbergasted and repentant.  They beg for mercy and ask to be put into slavery themselves for the evil thing they have done.  Joseph replies with one of my favorite passages in all the Bible.

"But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid.  Am I God?  You planned something bad for me, but God produced something good from it, in order to save the lives of many people, just as he's doing today.  Now, don't be afraid.  I will take care of you and your children.'  So he put them at ease and spoke reassuringly to them."  -Genesis 50:19-21

You planned something bad for me, but God produced something good from it.  Wow.  What a powerful line.  And it gives us a little peer into the heart of God.  God does not cause bad things to happen.  REPEAT:  GOD DOES NOT CAUSE BAD THINGS TO HAPPEN.  That is not part of God's character.  God doesn't cause little girls to die in car crashes, make mom's get breast cancer, make men lose their jobs, or cause natural disasters.  Bad things happen because of sin.  Sometimes bad things happen because the collective sin of the world has thrown the earth off it's axis.  Once we lived in a cancer free and disaster free world.  Because of sin, we have diseases we don't understand and disasters we can't control.  The world is a mess because of human disobedience.  Eden was sinless and disease and disaster free, and God promised that sin would bring death.  We didn't believe Him.  It did.

Sometimes, bad things happen as a direct result of our own sin or the sin of others.  People intend to hurt us sometimes.  Joseph's brothers certainly did.  And, we screw up our own lives with sin, too.  We all have a propensity to dig our own holes.  Now, if you want to figure out why God "lets" bad things happen, that's really a totally different discussion.  But the short answer is that God in scriptures is not a controlling God.  He's a gentleman.  He gives us the opportunity to write our own script as humanity.  If we want to do something stupid, he gives us the freedom to do so.

However, our God is a redeeming God.  That's why this story is so powerful to me.  It is such a nuanced point.  It's not that God causes bad things to happen so He can reveal Himself.  It's that he uses rotten situations to show His unbelievable love.  He works in the grief of a lost loved one, he moves in the struggles of financial difficulties, and He speaks through the heartache of disease.  Just when we think we've lost all hope, God shows up and speaks into our situations and proves that He's been there all along.  And this happens through faithfulness.  That's the key.  Despite every bump (and they were big bumps), Joseph kept asking, "How can I be faithful?"  That's it.  Stop asking how you can fix every bad situation and start asking, "How can I be faithful?"  When we are faithful, something happens.  God starts redeeming.  God starts moving.  God starts making good things happen where others intended harm.  Where there is faithfulness, evil can't win.  Maybe someone intended to harm you.  Maybe you just had bad luck.  Maybe you it was out of your control and sickness has taken it's toll on your or your family.  Maybe you can't even put a finger on it, but things just aren't right.  Be faithful.  God wants to redeem that situation.  He's working on it, right now.  He just needs us to be like Joseph:  faithful.