Hello!
Another beautiful sunshiney day today. The birds are chirping and the snow is melting, it’s a gift! Do you recognize every day as a gift from God? I am hit and miss on this, personally, regardless of whether or not we acknowledge it or not, today is a gift!
Genesis 41-43
Chapter 41: Pharaoh has a couple of dreams. That sounds familiar, huh. Joseph had a couple of dreams that were not received very well by his brothers. Joseph’s fellow prisoners had a couple of dreams foretelling their immediate future. And now Pharaoh is given a warning about the future of Egypt and it’s surrounding land. All of them served to connect the dots between Joseph’s story and ultimately God’s story. Pharaoh’s response seemed a little hasty by today’s standards maybe. There was no committee assembled to discuss the matter. There was no job posting. There was no firm hired to conduct personality profiling and discern leadership abilities to find a suitable candidate. Pharaoh asked his guys, “can we find anyone like this man?” And the answer was a resounding, “no”. (At least in my car as I spoke back to Pharaoh!) To seal the deal, gifts were given to Joseph.
Chapter 42: Now we get to see God’s whole plan starting to come together. The famine begins and Joe’s family back in Canaan is getting low on food. So off the ‘brothers 10’ go to buy food and as it turns out they have to go through the overseer, ‘brother 11’ to do their business. (The Irony!) They are all clueless, and why wouldn’t they be? Out of their guilt, they shoved Joseph so far back into their memory he’s all but forgotten. Finally, Joseph sends them home with their food, a request to return with ‘baby brother 12’, and gifts for each brother.
Chapter 43: The return trip to Egypt is reluctantly planned. I totally understand why Israel would want to hang on to Benjamin. We all hang on to pieces of this earth more tightly than we need to. However, Judah comes through with the voice of reason when every other option has failed. My paraphrase: “Look, dad, if we don’t take Ben, we are ALL going to die anyway. So this is a lose-lose situation, we may as well take the risk.” With no remaining choice Israel agrees and they are packed up and ready to return with Benjamin and with gifts.
You see where I am going with this post, it’s about gifts. Timely (God has a way of working everything into the right time, doesn’t He?) I celebrated a birthday this week. A sweet gift that I received was a basket full of daffodils. My goodness, nothing says spring like daffodils! I also received a gift of a vacuum sealer which was not nearly as cute and springy but incredibly useful! I also received the gift of happy wishes in the form of cards, messages, texts, and a nice visit over dinner. You have undoubtedly given and received gifts for a variety of reasons. Some are more meaningful than others, depending on your relationship with the giver, the occasion, or maybe on your personal “love language”. A hug might be more meaningful than a gift that comes in a box. Words or time spent might be more meaningful to you. Do we make the most of the opportunities to bless others in a variety of ways? Or do we take our occasions and time spent with people for granted? Some things to think about.
I wanted to share some lessons I learned from them the givers and occasions for gift-giving in the chapters this week. Let’s dig in.
Lessons
In Chapter 41 the first gift that came to mind in Joseph’s case was, experience. Can you imagine going from the prison to the palace in one short conversation? What could possibly give Joseph the confidence to shave his face and change his clothes, and go meet the Pharaoh? Only two things stand out to me: 1. Trust in God 2. Previous experience (which leads back to #1).
The first physical set of gifts was given from Pharaoh to Joseph as a tangible acknowledgment of the decision he had just made. The ring (that gave him authority) and the clothes, jewelry, wife, and new name, all signified to the people he had a new position. Now he “looked the part”. When you bowed to Christ and invited Him to lead you, He gave you gifts. Spiritual gifts.
You now have full access to the throne of God. You now have the title of “Child of God”. Do you “look the part”?
In Chapter 42 Joseph was the one who was giving the gifts. Why did he return the money to each brother? It was a gift. What did the gift represent? For certain, the gift was one of love and forgiveness. I am suspecting that we’ll be talking about forgiveness next week so I won’t dig deeper into that. Think about it, how would you receive the brothers that SOLD you as a slave to be taken away to another country? Would you even do business with them? Would you make them pay double? Or would you ask questions to learn about your dad and brother and ask them to come back? Bonus! Would you consider sparing their lives and sending grain home with them enough? Or would you bless them with the gift of their money returned?
In Chapter 43 The brothers were the ones bringing the gifts. A smart way to greet someone who could potentially be hostile toward you. (Remember Esau?) I bet Joseph loved those gifts, a taste of home in a foreign land would be refreshing, wouldn’t it? Do we approach difficult or unknown encounters with gifts? Are we generous with others? Do we share the fruits of our labors? Our generosity with words, actions, physical gifts, etc. set the tone for relationship building so do we even think about this when we are going to spend time with someone, new or someone familiar?
challenge
- Thank God for the gift of your experiences. Good, bad, or otherwise, experience equips you for something in the future that can be used for God. He works everything for good!
- As we grow in our relationship with Christ and obedience to God there is fruit that is produced by the Spirit of God. So my question is are you wearing or sharing this fruit as a gift of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) so others benefit from God’s work in your life.
- Use the spiritual gifts of generosity, hospitality, teaching, encouragement, leadership, serving, and mercy to help people and honor God. God gives these gifts to be USED for the Church, not to be tucked away in a box on the top shelf in your guest room closet.
- LOVE people. Just love them as God loves them. Use words, touch, gifts, time, and help to love them in a way they can receive it. That is a gift that only God can truly give you and He does that so you can pass His love on to others.
- Be generous with #4. Everyone can be kind for a moment, or with a person they like, right? How do people know we have the Spirit of God living in us unless we are the “exception to the rule” or different from what anyone else would do or be?
