Genesis 42; Mark 12
Daily Catechism
QUESTION 16: WHAT SPECIAL ACT OF PROVIDENCE DID GOD EXERCISE TOWARDS MAN WHEN HE WAS FIRST CREATED?
Answer: When God had created man, he made a covenant with him that he should live and enjoy all the benefits of creation, but that he would die if he forsook the obedience that comes from faith. God commanded him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus forsake his child-like dependence upon God for all things.
Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17; Galatians 3:12; Romans 5:12.
Comment: The “knowledge of good and evil” is the ability to judge independently what is beneficial (good) and harmful (evil) for yourself. What God is forbidding is that man should choose to be independent from God in his evaluation of things. He is command- ing man to walk by faith in the wise and loving care of his heavenly Father. (See the use of this phrase in Gen. 3:5, 22; 2 Sam. 14:17; Is. 7:15; 2 Sam 19:35.)
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Genesis 42
Ready:
The previous chapter established Joseph’s position in Egypt and he is now in a place of great authority and he has a family and he has “forgotten” about his past troubles and his family in Canaan. Joseph still fears God and deals justly and with integrity but has seemingly resolved to live out his life in Egypt.
Reading thoughts:
In this chapter I see the famine bring Israel to Egypt for survival. Most of Jacob’s sons travel to Egypt to buy grain but they encounter Joseph there without realizing it. Joseph plays on as if he does not know them and there comes a conflict between them as to the honesty of their story as Joseph inquires of them. Joseph hold back Simeon and the rest return with grain to Jacob. They are supposed to return to Egypt with Benjamin to prove their story (and save Simeon) but this is a challenge because Jacob resists for fear of losing his last son from Rachel. This family is being put to the test…
Key Verses:
Gen 42:3-4, 6-7, 8-9, 15, 19, 21-22, 23-24, 28, 35-36, 38
I see the theme as- Jacob puts tests the honesty and righteousness of his brothers. Will they recognize their sin and repent? Will they value Simeon and return for him even though it is dangerous?
Rumination thoughts:
v1-5. Ten brothers head to Egypt at Jacob’s direction to buy grain. Jacob holds back the youngest Son (though he is about 33 years old) since he is the last child he has from Rachel and he is worried about the dangers they may encounter on their journey.
v6-17. When they arrive to buy grain in Egypt Joseph notices them immediately but they don’t know its him and he is also using an interpreter to speak to them (he uses Middle Egyptian as best I can tell). Joseph may have asked them more questions than this record indicates because in the next chapter we learn that the brothers claim he asked specific questions about their father and other brothers. He treats them rather rough and seems to be testing them with regard to their honesty. It is quite possible he is trying to determine himself how to view them. He had “forgotten” abut them and now here they are and he remembers his dream and they are now bowing before him as in the dream. It must all suddenly rush to him that God’s hand was in this whole adventure. Certain that he must determine if his family is faithful and righteous in their dealings (since the brothers were not that way 20 years ago) he sets them up with a test of their character. He requires that Benjamin join them if they want to live. He tells them they will need to send one brother back for him but locks them up for three days first. It seems he is establishing a fear in them that he really might kill them if Benjamin does not come.
v18-25. While they are in prison for three days Joseph, no doubt, has time to think and pray about what to do and he decides to let all but one brother head back since it would be a greater test of the family to only have one brother left behind. After explaining this to the brothers, through the interpreter still, Joseph gets emotional and cries (privately) when he hears them talking amongst themselves about their sin against Joseph and how they saw his distress when he had begged them not to sell him to the Ishmaelites. Moses records for us that they were near Joseph having this conversation but the interpreter must not have been right there and they didn’t think Joseph understood their discussion. The brothers considered this a judgement of God against them because of the blood of Joseph (who they might presume to be dead) and they agreed to leave Simeon behind as required. Joseph has his men sneak all their money back into their sacks before they leave and though this is a blessing it will come to them as a test because they will need to interpret why this happens.
v26-38. On the way back with the grain they realize that all their money is also in their sacks and they are panicked. They know this can be a setup by the "Egyptian Governor” and they may also consider that it could be contested that they sold Simeon. They know that this means danger either way and are afraid. They also interpret this as a judgement of God. Once home they fill in Jacob and request Benjamin return with them but Jacob will have no part in that. He figures they have lost Simeon and he will not lose another…especially Benjamin. The decision is stalled and the brothers remain home for now and it appears that Simeon is doomed.
Meaning, Implications, and Significance
1. I take the message from this small part of the big story to be that families fail and families divide and families are traumatized because of sin. The implication is that we can avoid much distress and division and scandals if we walk according to God’s ways and if we honor our parents and if we love our brothers and if we keep a devotion to our God in all of this. Personal significance to me is that I can cause division in my family or I can bring harmony and unity to my family depending on how I love God and love them. I have an opportunity to lead them in seeking God or in seeking other things. I have an opportunity to lead them in a sole mission or in a diversity of missions. I have an opportunity to train them in righteousness or in partiality. I have an opportunity to instill a value of trusting God and risking for the lost or of protecting ourselves in unbelief.
Response:
“Private”
Reaction:
“Private”
Mark 12
Ready:
In the previous chapter Mark recorded the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and we see Jesus’ identity and authority declared but then ignored.
Reading thoughts:
I see Jesus rout the Pharisees with a condemning parable of the kingdom of God being handed to the Gentiles due to Israel's hardness of heart over the past 1400+ years. From there the various Jewish sects come forth with attempts to trap Jesus in his words in order to come up with an excuse to arrest him. Jesus corrects their understanding of devotion and of resurrection and marriage and he is sure to set their minds to the fact that the coming Messiah is not a mere man but is God in the flesh. Mark then documents Jesus’ presentation of the opposite examples of the scribes who seek attention and recognition for their “spirituality” and are consumers of wealth and honor against the example of the poor widow who quietly goes about loving the Lord and giving generously more than she can even afford to give without anyone being the wiser of her sacrifice.
Key Verses:
Mark 12:1, 6-7, 9-12, 14, 16-17, 23-24, 25-27, 29-31, 35-37, 38-40, 43-44
I see the theme as- Devotion to earthly authority and even my spouse is temporary and serves as a dim shadow of the real substance. My highest and permanent eternal devotion is to Jesus, the God-man who loved me and gave himself for me, and this active subjection to his authority will result in a life of true worship, from the heart, that looks like this: I love God above all and I love others sacrificially, seeking not my own glory, but God's.
Rumination thoughts:
v1-12. Here Jesus lays out a judgement against Israel for rejecting all the messages of the prophets and now the very Son of God. The entity of the law and the prophets was pointing toward the coming of Jesus but they reject him and nullify all of the law and prophets by this. Jesus makes reference of a Psalm that speaks about the gates of righteousness being opened (Psalm 118:19-23) and salvation being provided by this cornerstone that was rejected by the builders. Peter in Acts 4:9-12 answers to the Jewish council and explicitly states that Jesus himself is this cornerstone. The part of the Psalm that says it was the Lord’s doing and is marvelous in our eyes reminds me of Romans 11 where Paul explains that God hardened Israel’s hearts and has an amazing plan for bringing together all of his church in the end. Paul himself exults with marvel at the conclusion of chapter 11 (Rom 11:33-36).
v13-17. I take this to be a teaching that we indeed owe our subjection to the governing authorities and Paul later explains that all authority is from God and they even carry out God’s wrath upon the wrong doers (Rom 13:1-7). But the reason for this subjection, therefore, is because it is God who established them as an authority. Our ultimate authority is God himself but we have a shadow of or a representation of our subjection to God expressed by our subjection to this under-shepherd. We owe some taxes to the government but we first owe our hearts and lives and resources to God. We honor God with all that we are, in part, by paying taxes to the government. Jesus’ answer astonishes them because the could not imagine a subjection to the Romans ultimately being a subjection to God. He had handled their impossible quandary with a bigger truth that they did not expect…and it also speaks to their misunderstanding that the Messiah would come with a primary purpose of giving them freedom from the Romans and from the constant oppression of other nations.
v18-27. Now the Sadducees take a stab at Jesus with a riddle they expect to trap him with. They did not believe in an afterlife in physical bodies because they had bought into the Greek teachings of Plato and others that supposed the body to be evil and the goal of life was to get out of and stay out of the body. They try to create a scenario where people having resurrected bodies would find an impossible problem…but they don’t really do a very good job with their challenge. Jesus exposes the weakness of their trap is that they don’t know the scripture or the power of God. I take this to be a subtle reminder that our marriage in heaven is to Christ (Isaiah 61:10) and that God has the power to make mortal bodies immortal in glory. Jesus has been demonstrating to power of God to cleanse and repair bodies and to remove sin. These Jews do not understand that all this expresses how it is that God can take a body that lived in sin for all its life and then in a moment translate it into a perfectly immortal vessel to house the immortal soul of that believer for eternity in perfect holiness and cleanliness. They are falling to understand that marriage is an earthly picture of the real deal that is to come. Earthly marriage is momentary…temporary…until the reality is upon us.
v28-34. Here is the crux of our purpose on planet earth. Our devotion of heart and mind and body is to God. This results in a loving of others because God is love. God charged Abraham (Gen 18:19) with commanding that his family to walk in righteousness (vertical relationship with God) and Justice (horizontal relationship with others). Here Jesus expresses the “Shema” (as Jewish tradition calls it) from Deut 6:4-5 and adds the love of neighbor as it’s natural result.
v35-37. Here Jesus uses scripture to show them that they have been missing an important point. They are waiting for the Son of David to come as their Messiah but they are not willing to accept him as God in the flesh because of their devotion to a misunderstanding of the Shewa (Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one…). They cannot accept Jesus or any other Messiah as God because there is only one God. Jesus pains himself to express that he and the Father are one (John 10:28-31) and he even speaks of the Holy Spirit coming (John 14:25-26) but the triune Godhead is too much for the establishment. But some were waiting expectantly, like Simeon and Anna, who expected his coming (Isaiah 25:9, Luke 2:25-32, 36-38). The Father intends our devotion to be to his Son whom he sent to redeem us…we are his bride.
v38-44. Here Jesus gives the example of the self-exalting scribes who have an abundance and do not truly have a devotion to God that spills into loving others. Mark places this account against the widow’s offering perhaps to get to what he thought Jesus was saying. He was contrasting the shallow religiosity of the scribe against the true religion of the widow. True worship and devotion to God results in sacrificial living and reliance upon God, not self-exaltation and consumption of wealth. This widow was not concerned with what others thought of her devotion to God because it was a devotion to God. Jesus spots her heart and her loving of God and loving of others and he wants the disciples, and me, to know that this is true religion. It does not take riches to be generous to God or to man.
Meaning, Implications, and Significance
1. I hear the message of subjection to earthly authority is proper but subjection to God in all things is even more appropriate. I hear the message that earthly marriage is good but temporary. I hear the message that we must love others and that our Savior is God in the flesh. I hear the message that Devotion to God is from the heart and it is sacrificial and it does not seek self-exaltation. The implication of all this is understanding that ultimate devotion to Christ drives true, but momentary, devotions here on earth that are undergirded and made stronger because they are an outflow of our waiting and preparing for our true marriage in heaven where we receive new bodies and are perfected. This devotion to our true and eternal bridegroom will result in pouring his love out to others sacrificially. The significance for my life is that I can reflect upon my heart and look for patterns that show my motives and where my heart level devotion is directed. Am I putting earthly devotion above my devotion to Christ? Alternatively, am I honoring God in how I subject myself to the governing authorities and how I love my bride? Am I seeking the praise of men or simply seeking to love God and others. Am I living to enjoy what the world offers or am I living to help others join me in enjoying what God offers? Then I can re-align myself with a gaze fixed ahead on the prize of Christ and ask God to continue his sanctifying work in me.
Response:
“Private”
Reaction:
“Private”
Soli Deo Gloria!
