FBC Morning Light (1/25/2025)

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. This weekend we are reading in Genesis chapters 49 and 50, as well as Exodus chapters 1 and 2.

So starting in chapter 49, just giving a brief overview, we have

Jacob's prophecies about each one of his children and what their descendants will be like, and that includes, of course, where Judah is told that the scepter will not pass from between his legs or feet, but the idea that there will be a ruler over all of the

Israelites coming from Judah who will rule forever, and we believe that that is the

Lord Jesus Christ. Later, in chapter 50,

Jacob has passed away, and they go back to the promised land and bury him, and then they come back to Egypt, and there's a time of mourning, and after that time of mourning, in verse 15, it says, when

Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps

Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.

So they send messengers, and they come before him, and they say in verse 18, behold, we are your servants.

Verse 19, Joseph said to them, do not be afraid, for am

I in the place of God, and certainly the answer to that is no, Joseph is not in the place of God, neither are you or I when others have dealt treacherously with us or caused us harm, harm perhaps for even no reason at all.

That does not give us the right to repay that evil.

It doesn't mean don't defend yourself, it doesn't mean become a doormat, it means that we, it is not our place to repay evil for evil, and Joseph says, this is for many people a very, very important verse, in verse 20, he says, but as for you, you meant evil against me.

Now, what was that evil? It was throwing him in the pit, it was selling him into slavery, staging his death, so on and so forth, all right, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive.

So Joseph had been spared to eventually become the second most powerful person in the nation of Egypt, so that many people were saved from the famine by his careful planning ahead of time, and that was certainly true.

And Joseph had the ability, I believe God -given ability, to look back at those events in his life and say, those things happened not because you were choosing to do evil, but because God had a bigger plan, all right?

Well, Joseph, at the end of chapter 50, it zooms ahead to his death, and then it starts in Exodus chapter 1, and it begins with the different tribes of the nation of Israel, and in verse 8 it says, now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know

Joseph, and he said to his people, look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us.

So what's going to result from this is the oppression of the

Israelite people. They're going to be put into slavery and servitude in the nation of Egypt, and the command is going to go forth to kill every male child that is born.

And well, it says, the king of Egypt spoke to the

Hebrew midwives of whom one was Shipprah and the name of the other,

Puah, and he said, when you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, you shall kill him.

But if it is a daughter, then she shall live, all right? So here's that order, and the

Hebrew midwives reject this order, all right? And verse 20, it says, therefore

God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very mighty, and so it was because the midwives feared

God that he provided households for them. So the idea here is, first of all, just because someone in authority over you commands you to do something wrong, that does not obligate you to do the wrong thing.

They did the right thing, okay? Now it says here, because the

Hebrew women, or because the midwives obeyed

God, that God honored that. We have to be careful taking this one example, and we tend to say, well, if I do the right thing,

God's going to take care of me and not let any harm come to me. Well, in one sense that's true, in one sense that's not true, okay?

This is one example, all right, where God did honor how they behaved and blessed them.

But God is free to bring glory to himself in whatever means is necessary.

What do I mean by that? Well, we are obligated to do what is right and to bring

God glory through doing the right thing, making the right choices. But let me bring you to Hebrews chapter 11, and as we know,

Hebrews chapter 11 is the great faith chapter, all right?

And let me start in verse 32. It says, and what more shall

I say, and this is after talking about all sorts of heroes of the faith,

Abraham and Moses and so on and so forth, says, and what more shall

I say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of aliens, women received their dead raised to life again.

It seems like we have so many examples of God preserving and protecting and honoring in this life, many people who were faithful to him.

And all of a sudden, the script flips, as they say, others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonments.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.

So know this, it's always the right time to do the right thing in obeying what

God has commanded us to do. The results from that, we cannot extrapolate and say,

God protected this person at this time, therefore he's going to protect me in the same fashion, right?

We are at his mercy, we live our lives for his glory and it is because of this that we are able to accept that God is sovereign in all that he does so that the evil that is done to us, whether we are deserving of that evil or not is irrelevant, but that God means it for a greater good.

That is the promise we can lay hold of today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word, for the glorious testimony of Joseph who was able to look back at his life and see how you were bringing about many things for your glory and in spite of the evil that was done to him, help us to walk in a manner that is worthy of you, but that our lives would reflect lives that are lived in a way that the world is not worthy of.

Help us to be faithful, Lord, for everything you've done, it's in your son's name,

Jesus, we pray, amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.