The Story Week 8

After Joshua the Israelites hop on this really stupid and really familiar roller coaster of serving God, rebelling, praying and repenting, then seeing God’s deliverance. You would think after going through this cycle a few times they would learn. Several times in this chapter we read, “Again Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord” and then something to the effect of “Israel cried out to God and he raised up…”

There are 3 really cool stories in this chapter about the Judges of Israel: Deborah, Gideon and Samson. I want to talk about them in reverse order. All of these people did great things for God. One of them accomplished great things, but in the wrong way and while constantly giving into sin. Another does great things in the right way, but with a lot doubt at the beginning. And another seems to have just done great things.

Samson
Think back to your High School yearbook from your Sr year. Can you remember who was voted most likely to succeed? Samson would have gotten that spot hands down. Samson was set up for success better than just about anyone in the Bible. Each week we’ve talked about God choosing unlikely candidates who come from very messy situations to accomplish his plan. Samson is the exact opposite.
-His birth was announced by the Angel of the Lord.
-He was set apart from birth for God’s purpose.
-His God-given mission in life was to deliver an entire nation from oppression.
-He was raised in a good home with praying parents who loved him.
-He was empowered by the Holy Spirit with super human strength.

The problem is Samson is a world of contradictions in one person. In spite of all these things he had going for him Samson was demanding (he told his parents “I saw a hot chick, now get her for me!”). He had a false sense of entitlement, he was spoiled, compulsive, quick tempered, rash, selfish and arrogant. He was a man of faith with a weakness for women. He was a man of prayer with uncontrollable anger. He was a leader who cared more about his own fulfillment than setting an example. He was a man of God with no common sense.

One of Samson’s major flaws was that he was motivated by getting even. Look at page 115 of The Story. When he really starts fighting against the Philistines it isn’t to liberate his countrymen from their oppression, it’s selfish revenge. He says, “Since you acted like this, I swear I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” A few sentences later he says, “I merely did to them what they did to me.” Samson is the typical childish brat who says, “They started it! I’m just getting even.” Sadly, Samson doesn’t have the corner on this market. We live in a very strange time when being an unmerciful, vengeful, harsh person is celebrated and people wear it like a badge of honor. “Oh, you best had believe I’ll get even. People know not to mess with me. You treat me well and everything will be ok, but if you cross me once it’s on!” Sound familiar?

Another flaw that partially led to Samson’s demise was his incessant need to be in a romantic relationship all the time. I think part of it was due to his over active lustyfulness (it’s a word). I think another part of it was some weird, emotional deficiency in him that made him think he needed a hot chick around him to be complete. I’m no psychologist, but it seems pretty obvious to me that Samson felt incomplete on his own and looked for fulfillment in relationships. Because he felt so incomplete he ran from one unhealthy relationship to another very quickly (Hey, there’s a cute girl, get her for my wife…then Samson went to the house of prostitute…then he stayed in the most dysfunctional relationship in the Bible with Delilah). Surely, nobody here can relate to this, right?

One last flaw I’ll discuss is his arrogance. Samson began thinking he was awesome and he was strong and he could do not wrong and nobody could ever overpower him. He became very arrogant in something God had given him. One of the saddest statements is scripture is found on page 118 of The Story: [Samson] thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know the Lord had left him.
He was so sure of himself and so unaware of God’s presence that he had no idea God had left.

At the end of this story we read that Samson, having been tied up, blinded and put to manual labor, eventually did free Israel from the Philistines’ oppression by pushing over pillars holding up a temple to Dagon. Thousands of Philistines died and Samson’s purpose was realized. BUT!! Did it have to play out like this? Could Samson have fulfilled God’s plan in a way that was quicker, easier and nobler? God used Samson’s flaws; I would rather God use my strengths.

Gideon
Gideon does not have all same things going for him that Samson had. Gideon’s birth is not announced by angels, his conception is not miraculous, nothing is said about his parent being devout, his destiny is not announced while he is a youth, and he does not have super human strength. But even with less obvious potential he turns out to be a much more honorable and effective judge. The only flaw of Gideon’s that we are privy to is that his own insecurity was so deep that he doubted if God could even use him.

When we meet Gideon he is threshing wheat in a wine press. This may not jump out as strange to us, but it is. Wheat threshing normally took place in a big open space, if possible on a large flat rock. They needed space because they would beat the wheat stalks on the ground to loosen everything up, and then throw the wheat up in the air. The wind would blow away the straw and chaff but the heavier wheat kernels would fall back down. Imagine what that process looks like and the elbowroom you would need to do it. Now, this is what a wine press looks like:



But, this is the wine press of a very wealthy family, or possibly even a professional wine producer. This is more like the the wine press Gideon's family would have used:



Ha! Imagine Gideon wadded up in a little ball trying to thresh wheat in the ancient version of a tupperware bowl. Clearly, Gideon is hiding. He doesn’t want the Midianites to steal what little food he has. The story tells us that he is from Manasseh, the tribe with the smallest number of fighting men. Among Manasseh his family is the smallest, and he is the youngest his family. So Gideon is literally weakest of the weakest of the weak. So here’s weak, scared, little Gideon hiding in a stone bowl and the Angel of the Lord shows up. By the way, I love how casual this word picture seems. He plops down and says, “What’s up beast? God’s doing great things huh?”

Now, to save time we’ll go over the speedy version of the story. God tells Gideon he is going to lead Israel to victory over Midian. Gideon is so unsure of himself he asks God for sign after sign to confirm God’s going to do this. This is the infamous “laying out the fleece” story. It takes a while for Gideon to become convinced, but once he does; it’s on. Once he is convinced God is with him he watches as God reduces his army from 32,000 to 300. He attacks 120,000 Midianites with 300 men, they panick and kill most of each other off and then Gideon chases down the kings of Midian and smites them very smitedly.

Gideon turns out to be a beast. But think back to who he was when God first called him a beast. God called him “mighty warrior” when he was hiding and before Gideon fights anyone God changes his name to Jerubaal (contends with Baal). I want you to think about something: what name would you give yourself? How would you describe yourself in a word or small phrase? Maybe it would be something like loser, stupid, will never make a mark, ugly, different, weak, sinful, run of the mill, or something similar. But know this: whatever weaknesses you think define you are the exact opposite of how God defines you.

Deborah
Samson was a leader who had many flaws. Gideon was a leader who just needed a boost in confidence. Deborah seems to just be an all around great leader. I’m not saying she was perfect, but there also weren’t any character flaws so major that they mattered to the story. Instead we are told she was a prophetess and a judge. That means she was the spiritual and political leader of Israel. She must have been on her game. That Israel, a strongly patriarchal culture, followed the spiritual and political advice of a female means she had an amazing connection to God, was incredibly sharp, and very wise. In addition to all this she was incredibly brave, which was a trait men have historically been very possessive of. The text says she sat under a tree, named after her, and the entire nation brought her their problems to solve. This is the type of leader I want to be. Connected to God, wise, respected.

What does this story mean about the use of scripture to justify sexist ideas? We’ve all heard the claim that the Bible is an archaic sexist text. The inclusion of this story dismantles that idea. The other fierce warrior in this story is Jael. She stakes the bad guys face to the ground. Dang. So in every way, this story describes women as heroic, brave, capable and godly. Perdy awesome.

The Story, Chapter 7: Part 2

The major theme in this chapter has to be courage. “Be strong and courageous!” Did anyone notice how often this phrase pops up? It’s said at least 6 times in this one chapter. This is important because not having courage, not trusting, not having faith is why they’ve been wandering around in the desert for 40 years. Now that that’s behind them and they are getting ready to actually engage in God’s plan to obtain the Promise Land they need to be reminded constantly to stay strong, have courage, don’t be afraid, etc. So here they are, just about to cross the Jordan River and looking at the land that will soon be theirs. The problem is it’s already inhabited and the first city they’re going to have to fight to take the land is Jericho. Let’s look at Jericho from a few angles.

Jericho: The Problem
Have you ever been in a situation that scared the pudden’ out of you? Have you ever been in a situation in which you are absolutely positive there’s no chance you’ll come out unscathed? Have you ever gone through something (or maybe you are going through it right now) where the most common thought is “There’s no way I can do this”? This is the situation Israel is in. They are finally ready to go into the land God promised them and Jericho is right in the way. Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world. Some archaeologists put its origin at 9,000 B.C. The city itself isn’t very big (about 9 acres) and only had a few thousand people, but several things made the city very intimidating. Scripture says Jericho had men of valor. That means even though there weren’t very many, they knew how to fight. It’s possible that the people of Jericho were much bigger than the Israelites. Remember the spies who said there were giants in the land? Lastly, the most intimidating thing about Jericho was the wall. Technically, there were two walls. Jericho was built on a mound, or small hill. At the base of the hill was a wall about 6ft wide and 20ft high. Then 15ft further up the hill was another wall about 15ft wide and at least 30ft high. This is a problem. There’s a reason such a small town has existed for thousands of years. They know how to defend themselves, and everyone knows Jericho cannot be taken.

Jericho: The Plan
The normal means of taking a city like this would be to surround it and starve the people out then invade the city with siege ramps. The normal plan would take 6 months to a year. God’s plan was to take the city in about a week and involved no actual fighting. God’s plan was absolutely ridiculous: Walk around the city quietly once everyday for 6 days, then 7 times on the 7th day blowing horns, and then everyone yell and boom! Roasted. There’s really not much else to say about this. The clear point is…the plan is weird.

Jericho: The Purpose
Why do you think God threw out such a crazy plan for taking the city? Here’s something to think about: Israel had about 2million people with 600thousand in the army. Jericho had about 2 thousand people with maybe 500-600 eligible fighters. Maybe God designed such a ridiculous plan because even when things seem impossible we tend to rely on our own abilities and resources. “Oh no, I need to figure this out, I need to work harder, I need to overcome this, I need to…I need to…” I think God tells Israel to take the city this way to exaggerate the point that God is doing it. This plan requires total dependence on God, zero dependence on their own ability. With this plan the fact that they vastly outnumbered Jericho became pointless and there was no way they could claim credit for the victory. It is a misnomer to say Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, or even to say Israel fought the battle. They didn’t. They were just present when God did all the work.

Here’s another neat thought: the walls crumbling was not the most miraculous thing about this story. God spoke everything into existence, knocking down a wall is clearly nothing to him. The most amazing part of this story is that the Israelites were able to keep their mouths shut for six days. Think about how monumental that fact is. Since the day they left Egypt they have been complaining and doubting God. They cross the Red Sea, then Moses takes too long on the mountain so they complain and make an idol. They’re following a miraculous pillar of fire around in the desert and they complain that God led them out to let them die. God makes miraculous bread fall from sky every day and they complain that they don’t have meat. They get to the edge of the Promise Land and freak out because the people living there are taller than them, and so on and so on. They’ve been complaining and grumbling the entire time in the midst of miracles and divine providence. Now they are told to march around the hot desert every day for a week, and this is somehow supposed to win a huge battle…and they don’t say a word!

You would expect them to be murmuring things quietly to each other like:
-It’s too hot to do this.
-I’m too tired to march all the way around a city.
-Didn’t we just do this yesterday?
-How is this supposed to bring down a city?
-I think we should impeach Joshua.
-Isn’t this breaking the 10 commandments? What about the Sabbath?
But no, for the first time in over 40 years they simply shut up and obey. That trusting obedience was the key in Jericho falling. There was nothing special about the act of marching or playing trumpets or shouting. Hebrews 11:30 points out that it was “by faith the walls of Jericho fell”.

After this Israel goes on to take city after city until they had the land God promised. God continues to tell them over and over to be courageous and not to fear.

What does all this mean to us? When God asks you to do something it is often something bigger than you, and the way he wants you to do certain things is often not what most people would call logical. For example, I have known since high school God wants me to be in ministry. So joining the Marine Corps seemed like the least obvious ministry decision, especially enlisting in the infantry instead of commissioning as a chaplain. I doubted. I wondered if I was making some really wrong decisions and often thought I wasn’t hearing God’s voice correctly. Now that I’m on the backside of it I know that is exactly what God’s plan was.

You need to be reminded often to have courage and have faith. Towards the end of the chapter Joshua recounts everything that has happened in the last few years and issues an in-your-face challenge. He basically says, “Here’s everything God has done for us. Decide if you’re going to serve him whole-heartedly or not. If all this stuff doesn’t seem good enough, then go do whatever you like. But my family is going to serve God.” That is the exact same challenge before us today.

The Story Week 7

We should technically be in week 6 this week, but I want to combine week 6 and the first part of week 7 focusing on the story of Rahab. Before we talk specifically about Rahab we need to understand something about the Canaanites in general. Part of their religious practice involved temple prostitution. In order to please the gods of fertility and to ensure future harvests they had prostitutes permanently employed by the temples. These prostitutes were not disrespected but were actually very respected. They were seen as mediators between the gods and people. In some cases they were as venerated as the priests. This is the world of Rahab.

We are introduced to Rahab the prostitute in this chapter. Now, even if she is not sacred prostitute of a temple, she is not the social outcast we imagine in our context of the word. In her culture there was nothing wrong with what she did for a living. For us, and the ancient Jews for whom this story is recorded, Rahab is the quintessential sinner. Amazingly, we’re about to find out this pagan hooker had more faith than the Israelites. But first, lets get the fuller picture of whom Rahab is.

There are several sexual innuendos in this part of the story that lose their innuendoeyness (it’s a word) because of language and culture differences.
1. The spies go, without explanation, straight to the prostitute’s house. It could be they thought this would draw the least attention since dudes were constantly going in and out of the house anyway. It could be that they thought this might be the best place to get some good intel on the city…since dudes were constantly going in and out. It could be that Rahab rented a room and this was the only space available. OR, it could be that the spies wanted to mix business with pleasure. There’s no way to tell, but the fact that there’s strangely no explanation means the author probably wanted to leave that option open.
2. The spies “stayed there”. The word for stay here is shakab. It’s a lot like our word sleep. It doesn’t literally mean anything sexual, but was often a slang way to refer to sex. “We slept together” has nothing to do with sleep. Capeesh? Using this word in a story about a prostitute would stand out to the Jewish reader as possibly meaning more than “stayed there.”
3. Rahab’s name means broad. Nothing tricky here. It’s the same way we use the word; a super-casual and often objectifying way to refer to a woman.
4. When the king’s men show up they tell Rahab to give up the men who “came to you and stayed here.” A more literal reading of text is give up the men “who entered into you.” That’s pretty messed up.
All of this is to say Rahab is as Canaanite as you can get. The author purposefully includes all of these innuendos and sexual references to exaggerate the point that there is nothing good in Rahab. There is seemingly nothing redeemable about her. She is a pagan worshiping harlot who is so scandalous she may have even seduced some of Israel’s men. It is against this backdrop that we start to see Rahab as one of the heroes of the story. THE hero of the story.

What Rahab says about God and about Israel is remarkable. The theme through chapter 6 is that Israel has been wondering around the desert for 40 years because of a lack of faith, and the whole time they’re out there they keep saying “God has brought us out here to die!” But Rahab says “I know Yahweh has given you this land.” She says she knows she and her people should be terrified of Israel because Yahweh will do what he said he would do. She has more faith even than Joshua. If he completely trusted God why would he send out spies? She even recounts to the spies how God brought Israel through the Red Sea. And then, if that stuff weren’t enough, she says “the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” This phrase is only used by three people in scripture: by Moses, by the wise king Solomon, and once by a prostitute.

Rahab does not seem to be the likely choice to round out the trifecta of faith heroes with Moses and Solomon, but she is! Because of her faith and trust in God’s power she get’s grafted into the family of God. She gets adopted into Israel, not by genetics, but by faith. She marries Salmon and becomes the mother of Boaz, the husband of Ruth. Rahab is the great, great grandmother of King David and is in the direct ancestral line of Jesus! She is listed in Hebrews 11 among other heroes of the faith. James uses her as an example of what is looks like to act on faith.

So, here are the Israelites, God’s chosen people with the law and the tabernacle and the priests, they have been brought through the Red Sea, have been eating magical bread and quail that falls from the sky every day and figure out where to travel based on which direction the giant pillar of fire moves; yet their constant complaint is, “God has forgotten us. He brought us here to die.” Then there’s the pagan prostitute who has no miracles or reasons to believe who says, “I know Yahweh will give you this land and we should be terrified of you.” God looks at that genuine faith and says, “I like that. You’re in.”

For the rest of scripture Rahab is continually referred to as “Rahab the prostitute” or “Rahab the harlot”. She is never able to get rid of this unfortunate moniker. I think this is because God wants to continually remind us of his grace to the sinner. God constantly reminds us of her past to emphasize what faith does in someone’s life.

Implications: 1 Rahab was saved by faith, not religious perfection. So are we. 2 Someone can be saved by faith and still be in the sinful situation they lived in before. Clearly, as growth happens some things need to change, but that doesn’t mean perfection happens over night or God kicks you out on your butt. 3 God saves the unlikelies. Not just saves, but lifts up, exalts and uses them for his Kingdom.

The Story Week 4

I regret that we don’t have time to pull all the great stuff out of this part of the Story. This chapter has some of the most important narrative in the OT. From this point on all the major figures in the OT refer back to the deliverance and parting of the sea as God’s greatest show of power and love for Israel. When God speaks in the Old Testament He often tells the people to remember this event to encourage their faith.


But we don’t have time to go through all of this. We could devote an entire study to the plagues and how they reveal God’s supremacy over the gods of Egypt. They had a god of the desert, a god with a frog head, a sun god, a god of the Nile, and others. Each plague symbolically defeats one of these gods. But we don’t’ have time to talk about these (except for the last plague, which we’ll get to later).
Because we are short on time we are going to focus our attention on the conversation God has with Moses in the desert. I firmly believe this is one of the most important passages in the entire Old Testament. We learn so much about God, His intentions, His character and about the over all story from this one section.

Moses is herding sheep in the desert when he sees something quite odd. A bush is on fire but is not actually burning up. As he approaches The Angel of the Lord appears in the bush. (Who do we know this to be from 2 weeks ago?) God speaks to Moses from the bush and tells him that he is the one God wants to use to bring deliverance to Israel. Moses clearly doesn’t want to be part of this so he offers 4 reasons why God should pick someone else.


1. I’m the wrong kind of person.
Moses says, “Who am I?” What he’s getting at is “I’m the wrong type of person. I’m not important enough. I’m a simple shepherd, not a political or religious leader. I’m a murderer, not a saint. I’m not only a nobody, I’m a messed up nobody.”
God’s response to this argument is so simple and beautiful; I’ll be with you. It’s interesting that God’s response to Moses has nothing to do with Moses. He doesn’t say, “No no Moses. You’re amazing.” It doesn’t matter how who Moses is. It matters who God is.
2. I don’t know enough about you.
When the first argument doesn’t go anywhere Moses moves to, “Well, I just don’t know enough about you. What if they ask me your name? I don’t know your name, I don’t know who you are or what you’re like. I just don’t know enough.”
God’s response to this argument is also simple, “Ok, this is who I am.”
3. I’m not good at this type of thing.
Next Moses thinks maybe he will get out of this by pointing out that he isn’t a good speaker. He has a stutter. “I’ll sound like an idiot, they’ll make fun of me.”
At this point you can start to pick up on God getting a little frustrated with Moses. His response sounds a little like, “Hey dummy! Who created the tongue to begin with? Do you think I can’t give you ability to speak clearly if I want?”
4. I just don’t want to.
In this last argument Moses doesn’t even try offer a reason, he just says he doesn’t want to. Every excuse has been deflated by God’s responses and Moses resorts to “Ummm….no. I just don’t want to.”
God is beyond frustrated. He gets angry and tells Moses his place. He tells Moses he isn’t getting out of this and to go get on it.

Now, I want to go back and look at the second argument and God’s answer for a second. Not only does God refute Moses’ argument here, He reveals something very intimate and personal about Himself here. He tells Moses His personal name, which reveals a few things about God’s nature. When Moses says, “Who should I say sent me?” God says, “Tell them I Am who I Am sent you.” After this He says “Tell them Yahweh (the Story translation says The Lord God) sent you, and this is my name forever.” The names I Am and Yahweh are very important.

The first thing to know is that Yahweh (yhvh) and “I Am” (ehyeh) are deeply related. They both come from the Hebrew word “Hayah” (hyh) which means “to be”. When God tells Moses His name, how He would be known to Pharaoh and the Israelites, He doesn’t come up with a flashy dramatic name, (I am Thordox the Mighty, Destroyer of Puppies!!!). He simply says I exist. Tell them My name is “I am.” Some scholars think it should be read I will be who I will be. What God is saying with this statement is “I always have been, I am, and I always will be. And WHO I always have been is who I am and it is who I always will be. I am unchanging.” So, in this simple answer, God reveals that He is the only God who really “is” and that He is unchanging.

The second thing this small section reveals is that God wants to be known. There are over 260 names for God in the Bible. All of them, except one, are either a title, or just a description (i.e. Elohim is a title, God our healer is a description). However, here God reveals His personal name. The only reason He would tell us His name is He wants us to know Him personally. This in itself is an invitation to relationship. By revealing His actual personal name God is saying to Moses, and to all people, “I’m not content with you simply knowing I exist and that I’m some sort of deity. I want you to know who I am. I have a character and a personality, and I am knowable.”

Moses finally goes and it doesn’t go so well with Pharaoh. Not only does Pharaoh say no, he makes the work harder for the Israelites. Guess who is not a popular guy right now. I’ll give you a hint, it sound’s like Shmoses. In order to bend Pharaoh’s will God executes 10 plagues. The last one is the most important: The death of every firstborn in the whole land.



The only way the Israelites can avoid being included in this plague is to partake in the first Passover. They were to choose a perfect lamb, inspect it for a week, slaughter it, roast it over a fire and apply it’s blood to the door posts of the their houses. This is another case where God is foreshadowing His ultimate plan in Jesus. In fact, this is one of the most intense foreshadowing moments in the OT. Jesus is the perfect lamb whom God Himself selected. One week before his death he entered Jerusalem and was questioned and examined by the Pharisees who could find no fault in him. He was slaughtered and experienced God’s judgment (often symbolized by fire). And now, the only way for a person so avoid the final death is to apply the blood of Jesus to his or her life.

So, here’s the take home; here’s what we do with this. See yourself as Moses. Realize that God is calling you bring deliverance to people around you, people in slavery to the hopeless life of sin apart from Him. Like Moses we offer the same pointless arguments. We think things like “I’m not important enough or the right kind of person. I don’t know enough about God. I’m not good at that.” And when all of those excuses fall short we are forced to admit, we often just don’t want to do what it takes to bring people to Jesus. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary. What if they get offended? What if they think I’m stupid? What if I mess up? I just don’t have the time. Blah Blah Blah…in reality, we just don’t want to.
Like Moses, we need to get past our excuses for not bringing the hope of freedom to others. This freedom only comes through our perfect Passover Lamb, Jesus. He died and absorbed God’s wrath, which should have been put on us, so that death would pass us over.

The Story, Week 3

This section covers one of the more famous stories in the Old Testament; Joseph.
Let’s summarize our way through this part of the Bible and pull out some practical lessons as we go. The practical application parts are italicized.

Joseph is one of 12 brothers, the sons of Jacob. He is the favorite, and Jacob lets everyone know it. Joseph shares some dreams he as about his brothers bowing down to him. The other brothers were rightfully a little hurt. Even when we are dealing with God’s plans to bless us, humility is so very important. Even if God reveals to you that His plan involves you being very successful in some area, or even if you understand that God has gifted more than others in some area, sharing these things in an improper way always leads to trouble.

This hurt among the brothers ends up going way too far. Jacob sends Jo out to check on the brothers and they see his bright coat coming a ways off. They plot to kill him, but Rueben speaks up and talks the group into just throwing him in a well instead. Rueben’s attempt at mercy seems disgusting (Let’s not murder him, lets just through him in a pit and then sell him. After all, he is our beloved brother). He should have stood up and rebuked his brothers for their hatred. As sad as this is, it strongly resembles our attempts at mercy and generosity at times. We often pat ourselves on the back for helping someone in the most minuscule way, or for treating people just a little bit better than others, after all they are our fellow humans and after all God does love them too. The reality is we often pick and choose who is worthy of substantial help and who is worthy of real mercy, and give everyone else a scrap here and there.

Joseph is sold to the Ishmaelites, who in turn sell him in Egypt to an important guy named Potiphar. Over time he proves his administrative skills to Potiphar until he is running the entire household. Potiphar actually says “You are in control of everything I own.” Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce the young studly Joseph but he resists over and over again. Notice Joseph’s understanding of stewardship. He recognized that in spite of how easy it would be to feel entitled, or proud, or like he had earned the right to cheat a little, none of this stuff was actually his. That included Potiphar’s wife. She grabs him and tries to drag him to bed, but he takes off running and leaves her with his cloak in her hands.
Some situations are risky enough that you should just run. Get out of there. Whether is spiritual pride or the secret desire to keep certain things in our lives, we often think we can continue to be around a certain temptation without it affecting us. “I’m strong enough to resist this, so it’s ok for me to be around it.” That is arrogant, and dangerous. Joseph realized the best way to deal with this very tempting situation was to run. Here’s some practical truth: If you struggle with getting drunk with your friends…DON’T GO TO THE BAR WITH YOUR FRIENDS! If you struggle with boundaries in your relationship…DON’T HANG OUT IN THE BEDROOM WITH THE DOOR SHUT! Don’t continue to struggle with the same things because you’re too proud to get out the situation.

She lies about what happened and convinces Potiphar that Joseph tried to rape her. Joseph gets thrown in jail. While he’s in there are 2 major things happen. First, the jailor begins to see that Joseph’s admin skills are amazing and Joseph gets a pretty serious promotion. He goes from normal inmate to an inmate who is running the entire jail. The other thing is that Joseph interprets a few dreams for some officials and becomes known for this ability.

Now, the pharaoh has 2 dreams that nobody can figure out. He hears about Jo and calls for him. Jo gives glory to God saying, “I can’t do this, but God can.”
It is so easy to begin to think you are the source of good things in your life. You are the one with talents. You are the one with good work ethic. You are the one who is better at this or that than everyone else. Because we think we are the source of good things we think we feel the need to take credit for these things. This is not to say hard work doesn’t deserve credit, but we must remember that the ultimate source of every good thing and every ability is God (James 1:17). Therefore, He deserves the credit.
Joseph explains that the dreams mean there are going to be 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of drought and famine. Then he suggests Pharaoh save enough from the 7 years of surplus to last through the 7 years of famine and that a very smart person be put in charge of this plan. Pharaoh is so impressed he takes Joseph out of jail and makes him the number 2 person in the entire nation. In fact, similar to Potiphar and the jailor, he tells Joseph, “I’m putting everything in your hands. You are actually running this thing. I’m only more important than you in name.”

Stop and think about this process. This story is one of betrayal and struggle and trial, but it also allowed Joseph to train and develop a raw talent. He didn’t get pulled out of the cistern and land a job as the deputy Pharaoh. Not looking at the roadblocks, but the promotions, Joseph was put in charge of a single household, then a jail of several hundred, AND THEN a nation of several million. How important is it that we are willing to go through the steps? How important is it that we are willing to start small? This is not just common sense, it’s often God’s way: prove yourself in small things and then move up to larger things. You may not graduate from college and land a VP job at Apple. Jesus taught this very principle in Matthew 25:21

This is where the story gets really juicy. 2 years into the famine Jacob and the other sons start to starve. Jacob hears Egypt has plenty of food so he sends them to buy some food from Egypt. He sends everyone except Benjamin, Joseph’s only full brother. Apparently he had taken Joseph’s place as the favorite son and Jacob was worried he might lose him too. They show up and don’t recognize Joseph. But they do bow down. It’s been about 22 years since he had this dream. That’s a long time to wait for God to fulfill a promise. Joseph is nervous that Ben isn’t with them thinking they’ve done the same thing to Ben as they did to him. He concocts this big plan to make sure Ben is alive. He sends them back with orders to bring Benjamin and he keeps one of the brothers as collateral. Jacob is all bent out of shape but they really don’t have any choice. So they bring Benjamin back and Joseph sees all of his brothers. They still don’t realize who he is.

Joseph had the perfect opportunity to have vengeance. They are completely at his mercy. He has the full authority of the pharaoh. He could order them to be killed, or made into slaves, or thrown into a cistern. But he doesn’t. Instead he is moved with love for his family and rejoices when he learns his entire family is still alive and well. In fact, several times in this story it says he got so emotional that he had to leave the room to cry and weep.
Why didn’t Joseph get even? Why didn’t he show any resentment at all towards his brothers who almost killed them then at the last minute decided to sell him instead? Because at this point Joseph realizes God’s sovereign hand has been in this entire situation. At this point he realizes that all this had to happen to fulfill the original dream. I don’t think he denied the suckiness of the situations he had been in, but he saw the bigger purpose behind them and recognized God was working good into these horrible situations. He even tells his brothers, “Don’t beat yourselves up about that. You didn’t send me here, God did.” That realization is so much more powerful than grudges and bitterness.

This new nation that is central to God’s plan was in jeopardy. This nation was only 4 generations old, and couldn’t even be called a nation yet, but they were in danger of starving to death. God went to these lengths to bring Joseph to a position where he could ensure the survival of Abraham’s family.

The Story, Week 2

I said last week that Genesis 3 marks one of the 2 most important transitions in the Bible. From this point forward the entire Bible is about God’s pursuit of man and His plan to get us back. In this week’s chapter we find out that the first phase in God’s plan is to build a nation. The temptation for some is to skim over these parts of the Bible or to see them as less impactful because “I’m not Jewish.” This is indeed the story of the forming of the Jewish nation. But the significance here goes way beyond those who are ethnically or religiously Jewish. This part of the story is significant for every God follower.

What I want to do this week is go over what I think is the main point of this part of the story and then go back and discuss some other interesting parts.

I think the main part of the story here is God’s sovereignty and the oddity of how He goes about building this nation. He chooses certain people to make covenants with and He makes some decisions about who will start this nation that are…crazy. Some of the decisions God makes seem backwards, illogical and wrong. Let’s go through God’s choice for the patriarchs.

Abraham and Isaac
First he chooses Abraham and Sarah. They are old. Really old, way beyond child bearing age. How are they going to start a nation? They live really far away from the land God wants to use and they are part of a people group that worships pagan gods and idols. Nonetheless, Abraham responds in faith and leaves his home. Before God fulfills his promise Abraham lies, twice, about Sarah being his wife to save his hide. He didn’t think God was working quickly enough or in the right way so he took matters into his own hands and slept with his wife’s maid to try to have a kid.
Isaac follows in his father’s footsteps and lies about his wife because he’s scared he’ll get beat up.

Jacob
The oddity of God’s choices gets even more severe with Jacob. Jacob and Esau are twins. Esau is technically older but Jacob swindles him out of his birthright and then partakes in a very elaborate lie to Isaac to steal Esau’s blessing. This situation blows up so badly he has to flee to his uncle’s estate. His uncle, by the way, is just as jacked up and tricks Jacob into marrying the wrong daughter.

What is the point of all this? God uses screw-ups, nobodies, bad decision makers, and low qualifying people. These aren’t the only people, but they are the some of the most common. What does that mean about our place in God’s plan? Do you ever feel like God’s plan involves really spiritual, near perfect, saints with super-faith? What’s amazing is that as we read through The Story we see that God intentionally chooses the imperfect. This is great news for people like me who are not extraordinary. This is great news for the people who can associate more with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob than with Mother Theresa. I’m not saying people in this group aren’t extraordinarily talented. You are. But I am saying everyone in this group falls short somewhere and that does not disqualify you from God’s plan to build something great.

Here’s another part of this week’s chapter that stood out to me: God himself will provide the lamb. God tells Abraham to take his promised son, Isaac, up on a hill, kill him and offer him as a sacrifice. Isaac, unaware of the full plan asks Abraham where the lamb is for the offering and Abraham answers with this amazing line. God Himself will provide the lamb. We get glimpses of the second covenant before God has even instituted the first covenant. God is already hinting at the cross before He has given the Law. This is proof that Jesus was not plan B. This is a beautiful illustration of Abraham’s obedience as well as God’s love for humanity. God stopped Abraham from going through with it, but God did not withhold his son.

Jacob wrestles with God. First, whom is Jacob wrestling? Here it says a man, a few sentences later it says he wrestled God. Hosea 12:3-4 says he wrestled an angel. Who is this? This a Christophany, an example of the pre-incarnate Jesus making an appearance in human history. The Old Testament sometimes calls the Son of God “The Angel of the Lord”. He shows up here, with Joshua before Jericho and with the 3 Hebrew kids in the oven.
Now, the interesting part to me is that it actually says a man wrestled with Jacob. That means God initiated this. Jacob has been in conflict his entire life and is about to have what he thinks is another big conflict with Esau. In this moment, all alone in the desert, Jesus walks up unprovoked and puts Jacob in a guillotine choke. God basically starts bullying Jacob with the goal being to make him yield. God was wanting to see at what point Jacob gave up and said “Mercy!” Clearly God could have overpowered Jacob. This sentence means God could not make Jacob give up.
So, what does this mean to you? It means God really likes persistence. Tired, beat up, wore out, confused...keep going. See you next week.

The Story, Week 1

This story that we are diving into has an abrupt and explosive start that introduces the main character: God. In the beginning…God. It starts by telling us that existence is not an accident, not merely the result of natural laws mysteriously coming into being and chemical reactions accidentally and blindly bringing about humanity. We are here because God wanted us.

The first 2 chapters of the Bible describe God creating and environment for His ultimate creation: people. This account of creation is poetic and amazing on its own. It’s even more amazing when you realize this is all preparation for you; like a parent counting down until a baby is born, getting the room ready, painting the walls, putting the crib together, buying baby clothes, etc. The entire creation account is the description of God doing what needs to be done for us to be.

God’s greatest passion is you. Take a second and think of the most amazing images you ponder in creation. Think of things as huge as galaxies and nebulae to things as small as atoms, protons and quarks. All of this is for you. We’re going to come back to this part, but for now we’ll move on.

From here the story moves to the Fall. One of the details in how God created us is that he gave us free will. The people who put this book together call this part “The Tale of Two Trees.” There is so much that could be said about the fall. Why did they do it? Why did Adam just stand there like an idiot? Is it significant that the very first sin was prompted by wanting to be more like God than we really are?

For time sake, the important truth in this part of the story is that we rebelled. We broke a very simple and wonderful contract. I say we for 2 reasons. First, because Adam was nice enough to give us his sinful nature. Second, even apart from Adam’s nature I’m fairly confident I would have made the same decision. So, WE failed and the 3rd chapter of Genesis has one of the most important transitions in the entire Bible. The entire rest of the Bible is about God’s pursuit to get us back. Even here there are some hints of the extent God will go to in order to have us. God kills innocent animals to make clothes for Adam and Eve. In other words, in order to be right with God after sin innocent blood must be shed.

The sin continues in Cain and as culture develops and cities are built sin increases even more until God has to step in and push the reset button on humanity. The Flood. This did not fix the problem though. It didn’t deal with the sinful nature. God rescued Noah because he genuinely wanted to please God, but Noah took sin on the ark with him.

Now, let’s go back to the creation part. This isn’t part of the prescribed curriculum for The Story, but it’s something I really want to discuss. Go back and think again about all the creation that takes place in the first few chapters. In the first 2 chapters alone there are about 27 references to creative acts by God! At least 6 times during this process God looks around at what’s being created and calls it good. And it is good!!! Think about the galaxies we talked about earlier.




Think about the tiny complexity inside every cell.




Think about the craziest animals you fathom. The shear power and size of an elephant, the stripes of a zebra, the transformation of the butterfly and the absolute absurdity of the duckbilled platypus.



Things get even crazier and more creative in the sea. There are numerous fish that can generate light on their own. The Fangtooth Fish lives at 16,000 feet. The water pressure at this depth is over 8000 psi. The Mimic Octopus can change color instantly, morph its body into unbelievable shapes and impersonate at least 15 other animals.

What’s the point of all this? God made all this. He created it. He imagined it. You hear about singers being influenced by other singers, but God wasn’t influenced by anybody; this is pure creativity. These 2 chapters go on and on about God creating, inventing, imagining and building and it comes to a climax with this phrase, “Let us make man in our image.” We’ve all heard that, but really think about it in its context. God spends 6 days doing nothing but creating and making new things and then says, “I’ll make people in my image.” What is the only image of God we have at this point? A creative God.

Have you ever noticed that the very first event in human history was Adam being invited into the creative process with God by naming the animals? That is literally the first thing we know a human to have done in the Bible; think, imagine, be creative, be original, name. That is truly beautiful.

So, how do we apply this? I want to investigate and develop the creativity in our group. I would love for you guys to share your creative abilities with us. Songs, poems, stories, paintings, photographs, sculptures, blogs, crafts, designs, humor, organization, letters, speeches…anything, share them with us. I’ve already had some tell me they are interested in playing some music for us and another some others who want to share original writings with us. Post them on our page, or figure out when you can share them with us in person. Just share them. Let’s be creative together.