Genesis 50; Luke 3
Daily Catechism
QUESTION 24: DID GOD LEAVE ALL MANKIND TO PERISH IN THE CONDITION OF SIN AND MISERY?
Answer: God, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, having chosen a people to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the condition of sin and misery, and to bring them into a condition of salvation, by a Redeemer.
Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 5:21; 8:29-30; 9:11-12; 11:5-7; Acts 13:48; Jeremiah 31:33.
Comment: The term “covenant of grace” is filled with sweet and precious hope. It refers to the free decision, commitment and oath of God to employ all his omnipotence and wisdom and love to res- cue and glorify his people from sin and misery. It is wholly initiated and carried through by God. It cannot fail. It is valid for all who believe. Whosoever will may come and enjoy this grace! And, since this “believing” and this “willing” is a work of God’s sovereign grace, those who believe and come are the elect, “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). Thus the covenant was sealed in the heart of God before the world was. This “covenant of grace” is the cry of victory over all the battle strife in missions. The grace of God will triumph! He is covenant- bound, oath-bound to save all those who are foreordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48)! “Jesus died for the nation (of Jews), and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:52). The battle cry of missions is, “The Lord has other sheep that are not of this fold: He must (covenant-bound!!) bring them also. They will (sovereign grace!!) heed his voice!” John 10:16.
Genesis 50
Ready:
In the last chapter Jacob blessed his twelve children and then died, leaving the nation in the hands of the tribal leaders with Judah identified as a leader.
Seeing What’s There:
This chapter closes the first book of the Bible that took me from the primeval period and then through the patriarchal period as well. Joseph dies in this chapter about 80 years after Israel came to live there in Egypt and dwell in Goshen. But Moses begins with Joseph taking Jacob’s body by a great procession into Canaan for burial. What jumps out at me in this chapter is:
- Egypt takes great concern over the loss of Jacob and pays him honor
- Jacob is embalmed (Egyptian practice)
- Joseph declares the evil actions of his brothers to have been the will of God for God’s good purposes
- Joseph promises all of Israel that God will bring them back to Canaan in his timing
Key Verses:
Gen 50:13, 15, 17-18, 19-21, 24
Theme:
God will accomplish his good intentions in this world and in my life.
Thinking About the Message:
v1-3. Judah may have been identified as a leader and his tribe surely will take that role but for now Joseph is the one in the leadership role and he remains in charge of all of Egypt. Here it is Joseph who directs the preparation of Jacob’s body for burial.
v4-14. Here Joseph convinces Pharaoh to let his family take Jacob’s body to Canaan and Pharaoh sends a whole procession of people with them in honor of Jacob. Pharaoh is very much a friend to Joseph and realizes that Egypt is alive and powerful because of him. There is a special time of lamentation once they get into Canaan before they reach the burial place. Per the command of Jacob his children bury him with his fathers in Canaan. Physical locale was of great importance to the Jewish faith and it began in the Garden of Eden where God chose to dwell in presence of man in a certain place. There will be a continuing theme in the Bible of God dwelling among his people in certain locations that will at Christmas change forever. Then God will dwell in his Son and this will be his presence among us to be transformed next to an indwelling presence within his people in the birth of the church by the unifying power of the Holy Spirit. In the end we will again dwell in heaven in the presence not only by indwelling but with a direct and visual presence again.
v15-21. This passage is important because it sums up what the story of Joseph teaches. God is sovereign and evil does his bidding. The horrible sin of Joseph’s brothers was not only a sin, but more than that, it was the will of God for a purpose that they could not have known. God determined that Joseph would be brought to Egypt to rule there as he has done and therefore the sins of the brothers was completely within the plan of God, though they are still guilty. I see this as a category that I must maintain in my mind that God can have purpose for sin and evil without himself being the author of it. I take it to be that there is this evil enslaved will of man doing the works of the devil, but that God has such an amazing wisdom and glorious power over all things that he has planned that this evil will bring good, by purpose and not by reaction or recovery. Greater than stomping out evil is to force it to do his will and therefore he puts the forces of evil to open shame (Col 2:14-15). Joseph says “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
v22-26. After burying Jacob everyone returns to Egypt and there they remain and Joseph dies 80 years after his family joined him there. He makes them promise to bring his bones to Canaan when God takes them back and this comes to pass about 350 years later at the hand of Moses (exodus 13:18-19). God indeed has a plan for Israel being in Egypt and he revealed it to Abraham in Gen 15:13-16. It may not seem good to them but God’s definition of good is bigger than ours (Rom 8:28-29).
Meaning, Implications, and Significance
This wraps up a meaning already acknowledged in God’s sovereignty and his plans for his people that he will bring to pass even through their sin or others’ sin. God is not limited and his plans are never frustrated (Job 42:2; Is 46:10; Is 55:11). The implication is that there is no such thing as true chaos or chance or luck or coincidence (Prov 16:33). The significance for me is that I need not fear my circumstances and I can maintain a hope in God that he has good intentions for me in all that he allows me to face. There is a poem that helps to express this…
Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain,
And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.
Further I think I need to see the over-all message of the Book of Genesis. I take the most important ideas from this book to be that I am created and that there is a personal God who I am accountable to and that this God speaks truth and I am expected to hear and to trust and to act upon that. Mankind is fallen and is in a sinful and miserable state and needs rescue from the promised offspring. God has extended us mercy and he gives us glimpses of his wrath and judgement that makes clear his mercy that we enjoy. This God chooses to reveal himself not only as a judge but also as a savior and he has selected a people through whom to do this. This God is powerful and he makes promises and he keeps them. This God is the prime actor and the story he tells is about him. God’s story gives me value.
Valuing the Message:
I surely value the message of this chapter as critical because it changes how I view suffering and trials and hardships entirely. God is not merely there to help me recover but he indeed had a purpose for the very thing I am facing (Hos 6:1) and it is his omnipotent hand of mercy upon me. The message of the whole book is valuable because it is a world view in itself. Being a created being changes everything. I am not ultimately autonomous. I am reliant upon God for my very existence.
Reflecting to Feel the Impact of the Message:
I need to reflect upon my reactions to trials and seek to trust the Lord’s goodness and yet know that evil perpetrated against me remains evil and the perpetrator is still guilty and will be held accountable by God. I can allow God to deliver vengeance however, trusting that I am not in this position outside of God’s plan for me (Rom 12:17-21). God’s goodness reigns over evil so I also should not let evil overcome me and cause me to sin. Regarding the whole book of Genesis I need to define my understanding of reality and of this life in light of God’s intention and God’s plans and God’s purposes and not just what I see and feel and think of my own experiences.
Questions to ask:
- How do I view God’s rule over the universe he created…and over the circumstances of my life?
- Why was I made?
- What is my purpose?
- Whom do I serve?
Responding to God & Reacting to His Lesson:
Tell God about your observations and your thoughts and your struggles with the chapter and determine how it will change or impact your thinking and your decisions. Be sure to react in some way to the truth rather than remain silent.
Proclaiming the Truth to Others:
Decide who you can share what you have learned with and ask for God’s help in reaching out to love others.
Luke 3
Ready:
The last reading included the birth of Jesus and the presentation of him in the temple where I saw the OT saints rejoice in seeing the salvation of the world before their very eyes.
Seeing What’s There:
In this chapter Luke presents a summary of John the Baptist’s ministry climaxing at the baptism of Jesus. He then presents a genealogy of Jesus that extends back to Adam. Luke is close to Paul and this genealogy draws a connection between Jesus and Adam that Paul will highlight since he presents Jesus as the second Adam and another federal head for humanity. Luke ties John and the genealogy together by the quotation from Isaiah about all flesh seeing the salvation of God. Our flesh is born in Adam and Jesus comes to free us from this deadness of belonging to Adam.
Key Verses:
Luke 3:3-4, 6, 8
Theme:
The time has arrived for the world to see salvation. See your need and look to the promised Son, to whom you must belong, if you hope to be free from the bondage we are under in Adam.
Thinking About the Message:
v1. Something important about Christianity is that is is a historical religion. I do not have a belief system that is contrived in the head of some man or by secret revelation from an angel or a system of morals. Christianity is embedded in historical events and is based upon actual people and places and times and real history. All of Christianity hinges on the historicity of the Bible and God was sure to put in his book plenty of historical grounding so that we understand this. There is a great deal of extra-biblical writing that confirms the historicity of the Bible and I therefore have something concrete to view in history and not just thoughts from one man’s head.
v2-6. John was filled with the Holy Spirit from within the womb and he is clearly led by God in his perfect timing to come out from the wilderness and to being the message that he was born to deliver. John is the last OT prophet and he comes with an extremely important purpose. He comes in the spirit of Elijah with a message of repentance (Luke 1:17). John comes to bring a final plea and to put a bow on the entirety of Israel’s history. John comes to declare that we are guilty and accountable to God and that we need to repent and know that the kingdom of God is upon us. John’s mission is to remind Israel of their dire need for deliverance and their need to trust God to send this help. John is to help the people see that a savior to die and pay for their sins is the perfect fit to the entirety of the history of their nation and the revelation of their God.
v7-20. John presents the need for specific repentance in people’s lives. He calls upon people to turn back to God with an obedience of faith. John does not represent his baptism as the end of the line though. He clearly tells everyone that there is another coming who will bring them power and he is the one who judges and who saves (Luke 3:16-17). John makes a straight line of sight from the law to the Christ. Problem- answer. John’s message was a call to recognize our dependence upon God and he considered it good news (Luke 3:18). John’s message was not received well by all because not all responded with the obedience of faith. Herod felt accused and guilty and he did not see it as good news and he locked John up. Here John also makes it clear that a physical lineage connecting one to Abraham was worth nothing because God can make anyone an offspring of Abraham (Gal 3:7, Rom 9:8).
v21-22. But before John was locked up he baptized Jesus and the entire trinity was revealed there in the Jordan when God spoke from the sky and the Holy Spirit came upon his as a dove. Other gospels give a more detailed account of this and it is an important event because Jesus teaches us what he comes to do in dying for our sins and not for his own. John is calling for a baptism of repentance and Jesus had nothing to repent of…but he chooses still to be baptized just like he will choose still to die in our place.
v23-38. Probably most important of all is to note that in this genealogy there are two people who do not have a human father (note that Luke makes a point of the virgin birth by saying that Jesus was “supposed” as the son of Joseph. These two people are categorically different than the rest. This indeed is a beginning to the understanding that Jesus is a type of Adam in that he is a federal representative of mankind who has the same type of free-will that Adam enjoyed. Adam and Jesus did not suffer from enslavement to sin from birth, but Adam fell into this miserable state and all who comes by his seed was then condemned by his sin (Rom 5:12, 18) and under the enslavement of sin (Rom 6:6) while Jesus practiced the obedience of faith (Rom 5:19, Phil 2:8) and therefore instead of being condemned by sin, Jesus reversed it and he actually condemned sin in his flesh (Rom 8:1-4)! Therefore all who move from being born "in Adam” to being born "in Christ” (John 3:5-6, 1 Cor 15:22) are free from condemnation and enjoy a truly free will (Rom 8:1-2). To the lesser observations- this genealogy differs from that in Matthew and many contend that it represent the line from Mary and not Joseph. There are good reasons to see this but also challenges since the opening clearly claims it to be Joseph’s lineage. Study resources by scholars is helpful here. It is also quite possible that this is just a different way of viewing Joseph’s lineage. There are ideas about Joseph’s father being different in the two genealogies that suppose one to be his real father and the other to be considered his father because his uncle died with no children of his own and his real father took the brother’s wife and had Joseph as an heir to the dead brother. Nathan is listed as David’s son that carries this lineage instead of Solomon (from Matthew’s account). This can be again because Nathan was the real father but legally and royally, Matthew considered Solomon the heir that passed the royal line down. The main point is that Jesus is in the line of King David and Luke's statement about Joseph being thought of as his father when in reality it was only legal could also be a clue about his use of Heli as Joseph’s father as I stated above.
Meaning, Implications, and Significance
I take the meaning to be that we are under condemnation and wrath by birth and that no special lineage can fix that except to be found in Christ by faith. The implication is that I can have freedom from sin and death when I, by the grace of God, put faith in Christ and I die a death with him on that cross and I devote my life unto him (Rom 6:3-7; Gal 2:20). The significance to me is that I can walk in freedom and with the peace of knowing that I am no longer under wrath (Rom 1:18; John 3:36) but I am a justified child of God (Rom 5:1, 9; Rom 8:15-16).
Valuing the Message:
This is a message of freedom only in Christ and nowhere else. I value this because these are the words of eternal life and freedom to the oppressed. Without being born again into Christ I remain in Adam and I remain enslaved to sin and condemned.
Reflecting to Feel the Impact of the Message:
I should reflect upon my life and consider the areas where I am willingly allowing sin to still rule me. This is sad because I am free in Christ and sin has no power over me if I will but walk in the Spirit and put the sin to death (Rom 8:12-13). I can reflect upon the battle within me between the old man (sin nature) and the new man (new creation in Christ) to ensure that I am setting my mind on Christ for renewal, transformation, and victory (Rom 7:14-25, Rom 12:1-2).
Questions to ask:
Do I see myself as a dead man raised by Christ or as just another living son of Adam?
Responding to God & Reacting to His Lesson:
Tell God about your observations and your thoughts and your struggles with the chapter and determine how it will change or impact your thinking and your decisions. Be sure to react in some way to the truth rather than remain silent.
Proclaiming the Truth to Others:
Decide who you can share what you have learned with and ask for God’s help in reaching out to love others.
Soli Deo Gloria!
