Day 25
Genesis 49:1-50:26
(49 | 50)
Jacob summons his twelve sons. He is about to die, but before he does, he wants to bless each of his sons. He speaks words over each over them, some more positive than others. Joseph, for example, receives a positive word, and is told various blessings will rest on him. Meanwhile Reuben, Jacob's eldest son, is told he will no longer excel due to the fact that he slept with Bilhah, Rachel's maid; Reuben is the son of Leah, so he is no blood relative of Bilhah's. However, the fact that Jacob had slept with her first (she gave birth to Dan and Naphtali) made this act detestable. Jacob then made his sons promise that they would bury him with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah and Leah in the cave in the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite.
Joseph gets his physicians to embalm Jacob, a process which takes forty days. The Egyptians mourn Jacob's death for seventy days. I'm not sure if the mourning started at the same time as the embalming process, or if it started at the end. Either way, at the end of the mourning, Joseph asks Pharaoh for permission to go into Canaan to bury his father, as he had promised to do. Pharaoh agrees, so Joseph, his brothers, and various Egyptian officials (though presumably not Pharaoh himself) go to Canaan to bury Jacob.
Upon returning, Joseph's brothers are terrified that he will try to seek retribution for the wrong they did to him. So they send him a message saying that Jacob had instructed him to forgive his brothers for what they had done to him. Joseph responds by saying that even though they had intended to harm him, God used the situation for good; he used Joseph to save lives in Egypt and Canaan. Joseph would never have been in the situation to help had Joseph not been sold to the Ishmaelite traders. Joseph dies at the age of one hundred and ten. Before he does, he tells the sons of Israel that God will be with them and will take them out of Egypt, and back in to Canaan to claim the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the LORD.
Matthew 17:14-18:9
(17:14-26 | 18:1-9)
A man comes to Jesus saying his son is suffering. He says he took his son to Jesus' disciples, but they were unable to do anything. Jesus rebukes the demon living within the boy, the demon leaves and the boy is healed. The disciples come to Jesus and ask him why they couldn't drive the demon out; they'd done all the right things, but it just didn't work. Jesus' reply is "Because you have so little faith." This is difficult to understand. I've heard stories of people being healed when two people prayed with them despite neither really believing anything would happen. Perhaps in such instances, the act of faith is doing it anyway despite thinking they'd look completely ridiculous. So in what way did the disciples lack faith? I don't know. Perhaps they were being too religious about it; perhaps they were doing it as a means to an end instead of an act of worship. Perhaps they were doing it to get some glory for themselves, and so weren't doing it to glorify God. This is all just speculation. I don't know. But it is very interesting.
In verses 22-23, Jesus again predicts his own death. He also predicts his own resurrection again. The disciples are stricken with grief. They only understand the fact that Jesus is going to die. It took me a long time to fully understand the resurrection; for a while, I thought that Jesus wandered round as some sort of ghost. Eventually I grasped that Jesus was fully raised from the dead. He was dead, and then he was alive again. I don't think the disciples quite have that concept yet. Which is fair enough, really. They didn't yet have the benefit of the full story.
When the disciples ask Jesus who the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is, he summons one of the lowest members of society; a child. Children had few rights. By being like a child, by being the least in the kingdom, by being the servant, by being humble, by having child-like faith, you will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Even now, being child-like has negative connotations. It can be confused with being childish. Its innocence can be confused with naïvety. It's certainly a challenging concept.
Psalm 15:1-5
(15)
David describes those "why may dwell in your sanctuary" - whether that is the Kingdom of Heaven or under the LORD's protection, I'm not sure. But either way, these are challenging characteristics. Just because we are righteous in God's eyes because of Jesus doesn't mean we don't need to try to achieve these characteristics.
Genesis 49:1-50:26
(49 | 50)
Jacob summons his twelve sons. He is about to die, but before he does, he wants to bless each of his sons. He speaks words over each over them, some more positive than others. Joseph, for example, receives a positive word, and is told various blessings will rest on him. Meanwhile Reuben, Jacob's eldest son, is told he will no longer excel due to the fact that he slept with Bilhah, Rachel's maid; Reuben is the son of Leah, so he is no blood relative of Bilhah's. However, the fact that Jacob had slept with her first (she gave birth to Dan and Naphtali) made this act detestable. Jacob then made his sons promise that they would bury him with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah and Leah in the cave in the field Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite.
Joseph gets his physicians to embalm Jacob, a process which takes forty days. The Egyptians mourn Jacob's death for seventy days. I'm not sure if the mourning started at the same time as the embalming process, or if it started at the end. Either way, at the end of the mourning, Joseph asks Pharaoh for permission to go into Canaan to bury his father, as he had promised to do. Pharaoh agrees, so Joseph, his brothers, and various Egyptian officials (though presumably not Pharaoh himself) go to Canaan to bury Jacob.
Upon returning, Joseph's brothers are terrified that he will try to seek retribution for the wrong they did to him. So they send him a message saying that Jacob had instructed him to forgive his brothers for what they had done to him. Joseph responds by saying that even though they had intended to harm him, God used the situation for good; he used Joseph to save lives in Egypt and Canaan. Joseph would never have been in the situation to help had Joseph not been sold to the Ishmaelite traders. Joseph dies at the age of one hundred and ten. Before he does, he tells the sons of Israel that God will be with them and will take them out of Egypt, and back in to Canaan to claim the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the LORD.
Matthew 17:14-18:9
(17:14-26 | 18:1-9)
A man comes to Jesus saying his son is suffering. He says he took his son to Jesus' disciples, but they were unable to do anything. Jesus rebukes the demon living within the boy, the demon leaves and the boy is healed. The disciples come to Jesus and ask him why they couldn't drive the demon out; they'd done all the right things, but it just didn't work. Jesus' reply is "Because you have so little faith." This is difficult to understand. I've heard stories of people being healed when two people prayed with them despite neither really believing anything would happen. Perhaps in such instances, the act of faith is doing it anyway despite thinking they'd look completely ridiculous. So in what way did the disciples lack faith? I don't know. Perhaps they were being too religious about it; perhaps they were doing it as a means to an end instead of an act of worship. Perhaps they were doing it to get some glory for themselves, and so weren't doing it to glorify God. This is all just speculation. I don't know. But it is very interesting.
In verses 22-23, Jesus again predicts his own death. He also predicts his own resurrection again. The disciples are stricken with grief. They only understand the fact that Jesus is going to die. It took me a long time to fully understand the resurrection; for a while, I thought that Jesus wandered round as some sort of ghost. Eventually I grasped that Jesus was fully raised from the dead. He was dead, and then he was alive again. I don't think the disciples quite have that concept yet. Which is fair enough, really. They didn't yet have the benefit of the full story.
When the disciples ask Jesus who the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is, he summons one of the lowest members of society; a child. Children had few rights. By being like a child, by being the least in the kingdom, by being the servant, by being humble, by having child-like faith, you will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Even now, being child-like has negative connotations. It can be confused with being childish. Its innocence can be confused with naïvety. It's certainly a challenging concept.
Psalm 15:1-5
(15)
David describes those "why may dwell in your sanctuary" - whether that is the Kingdom of Heaven or under the LORD's protection, I'm not sure. But either way, these are challenging characteristics. Just because we are righteous in God's eyes because of Jesus doesn't mean we don't need to try to achieve these characteristics.
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