11. Uncertainties of Provision (1)

‘Living with Uncertainty’ Meditations: 11. Uncertainties of Provision (1)  

Gen 22:14   So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide.

Present Day: I write this particular study (for those who might come across it in the years ahead) in the early months of 2020, the year we suspect will go down in history as either the Year of the Great Coronavirus Pandemic, or the Year of the Great Coronavirus Panic. If I had written about God’s provision a few months ago, I guess most Christian readers would have read it with a big yawn. After all, we live in an age of immense abundance and so have no fears of running short. That was a few months ago. Since then we have seen reports of panic buying in both the UK and the USA, so much so, and creating so much government concern, that we even saw the American President on television at a press conference appealing to his people not to panic-buy.

Abraham: It is the incident involving Abraham going to sacrifice the miraculous child of promise, Isaac, that provokes the first reference to God being a provider. In his case it was simply the provision of a ram to use instead of his son, prefiguring Jesus being our lamb who is offered instead of us. But a Provider is one who supplies something to meet a need, whether it be Jesus to replace us at the Great Judgment or simply physical needs being met to preserve and continue life. It is the latter we will consider in this study.

Manna: It is the need of Israel in the wilderness on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land that has the Lord providing in a most incredible way with this miraculous “bread from heaven” (Gen 16:4), that appeared as ‘thin flakes like frost’, (v.14) “white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.” (v.31)  I called it miraculous because

– it appeared every morning, except on the Sabbath,

– if you collected too much of it, the excess went off the next day,

– on the sixth day you collected twice as much to cover the Sabbath – which didn’t go off!

– it continued coming for forty years until they went to enter the Land.

It was supposed to have been a provision for a month or so until they entered the Land but when they refused and ended up wandering the desert it continued for the next forty years. No doubt, as they had herds of cattle and sheep they sometimes supplemented it with meat but it was God’s basic provision for them throughout that time.

Joseph: Special provision is meeting needs in special times of need and so the onset of a famine would be such a time. I suspect we rarely think of the story of Joseph in Genesis as a story about provision, but it is 100% that. God knows that in a couple of decades a famine is going to strike the whole of what we refer to as the Middle East. The story of Joseph is the story of God choosing a man who will be open to His prophetic leading and come up with divinely inspired wisdom so that in seven good years of abundance, cereal is saved in large quantities in order to feed the nations in seven years of famine. Whether we say God caused the famine or God simply knew it would happen, is really irrelevant. The key issue is that He provided for the world through His wisdom, a multiple provision if you like:

– the amazing circumstances that brought Joseph to power, that a number of times involved ‘the favour of the Lord’ opening the way up for him,

– the gift of interpretation of dreams that opened the door into the palace,

– the gift of wisdom to know how to handle the revelatory dreams,

– seven years of great abundance,

– grace and insight to understand God’s purposes and deal kindly with his brothers.

Elijah: During another such time,  through the life of Elijah, we see multiple examples of the Lord’s provision:

1. Famine ushered in by the word of the Lord through Elijah (1 Kings 17:1)
2. The famine would not have taken hold when the Lord tells Elijah that He will provide for him by ravens bringing food (1 Kings 17:4-6) while he lived in seclusion to the east of the Jordan
3. When his supply of water there runs out the Lord instructs him to go north of Israel to Sidon where a widow will provide for him (1 Kings 17:7-10)
4. She has run out of flour and oil but the Lord miraculously provides for her, and him! (v.12-16)
5. A while later her son dies and Elijah restores him (v.17-24)
6. In dealing with the prophets of Baal (v.19-41) fire consumes Elijah’s offering
7. When it is all over, by Elijah’s word the rain comes (v.41,45)
8. When Elijah flees Jezebel’s wrath, the Lord sends an angelic provider (1 Kings 19:5-8)
9. The Lord also provides him with a successor (1 Kings 19:16)
10. Yet he still brings a convicting word from the Lord to Ahab that brings him to repentance (1 Kings 21:17-29)
11. Later Elijah challenges Ahaziah’s messengers about his unbelief (2 Kings 1:3-5)
12. Again and again he receives protection against arrest (2 Kings 1:9-15)
13. He gets a word condemning the king who dies (2 Kings 1:16,17)
14. God sends a chariot of fire to take him home (2 Kings 2:11)

Summary: So how, in what situations full of uncertainty above, did God provide for Elijah, thus bringing certainty by His provision?

1. a) Prophetic words changing the circumstances (1 – famine, 7 – rain)
2. b) Prophetic words to individuals (10 – Ahab, 11,13 – Ahaziah)
3. c) Miraculous provision of food (2 – ravens, 8 – an angel)
4. d) General guidance (2 – go east, 3 – go north)
5. e) Fire from heaven (6 – against false prophets, 12 – against arrest)
6. f) Other miracles (4 – flour and oil, 5 – raising dead)
7. g) Ongoing (9 – a successor, 14 – transport to heaven)

A combination that we might boil down to revelation (prophecy etc.) and miracles (power).

And So?  I remember the testimony of a man of God who was crying out to God, “Where is the God of Elijah?” and back from heaven came the challenge, “Where are the Elijahs?” The reality is that we may add a further list to clarify the point of this series, the uncertainties coming through the threats or spiritual apostasy that Elijah faced:

– unbelief in the nation and in kings, false prophets,

– threats brought by those rulers and spiritual deceivers, and threats to his very existence,

– the uncertainties of living in times of famine and personal shortage,

– the uncertainties of his role as a prophet.

I think the conclusion to all this about Elijah must be that he certainly was a somewhat scary guy to encounter, simply because God was so powerfully with him. The trouble about that is that it can disguise the uncertainties that he himself had, most clearly seen after Jezebel threatened him. If you were Elijah you certainly would have been able to look back at triumphs but that in no way detracts from the uncertainties that went with it.  But then serving God by faith is like that.

And Us? That leaves me pondering, is it a case of the greater the faith we have, the greater God can use us? I suppose the corollary to that must be if we have little faith, God will be restricted in using us. Ah, but Jesus said you only need faith the size of a mustard seed (i.e. tiny) to be able to move mountains! (Mt 17:20) Where does faith come from? By hearing (Rom 10:17) so the more we learn to listen – and then obey the little bit we’ve heard – the more we can be used by God. Awesome! Let’s go for it!

13. Ongoing

Christmas Threads Meditations: Thread 13: Ongoing

Mt 2:13  When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

(Additional Reading: Mt 2:13-15, 19-23)

And Now? When one form of guidance (dreams here) is made so clear, it presupposes that it isn’t coming from any other source. The point I would make here is that, as we might say today, Mary and Joseph are flying blind. Yes, they have both had angelic guidance over nine months ago, possibly as much as a year ago now, they had received the encouragement from the shepherds and their tale, they had received encouragement in the Temple from Simeon and Anna, and they had received encouragement and resources from the Magi, and now all that is in the past. Now they appear to be living somewhere in Bethlehem and Joseph is possibly earning money as a jobbing carpenter and Mary is settling into the social life of Bethlehem and they no doubt attend the local synagogue. Life just goes on. Perhaps they are wondering if they should return to Nazareth, but beyond that, life just goes on day after day.

What???? And then Joseph has another dream. They are in danger. The arrival of the Magi had alerted Herod that he had competition and as the weeks and months pass and the Magi don’t report back to him, he gets angry and is about to send out an edict for all baby boys in the vicinity of Bethlehem are to be killed (There actually probably weren’t many, it was such a small place). The fact that he says any boy under two indicates that time has passed. It is now time for them to move on. If they stay in Israel Herod may search them out and kill Jesus. They must leave the country. Go south, go to Egypt. That is the message of the dream.

Egypt??? Later, when recording it, Luke will be reminded (Lk 2:15) that in one of those other ‘breadcrumbs’ Hosea had prophesied about the Messiah, “out of Egypt I called my son,” (Hos 11:1) but most had taken that to mean the Exodus, but it will indeed apply to the Messiah. Jeremiah had also prophesied (Jer 31:15) about a time of weeping that would come to this area. They don’t say God made these things happen but in the affairs of men in this fallen world, they would happen. But for Mary and Joseph at this point of time, probably none of this is clear. But he has a dream and that is enough. We’ve commented before that this righteous young man is also a man of faith, just what was needed to protect the baby.

Life has to go on: So they leave and settle in Egypt for a time until Herod dies and Joseph has another dream (Mt 2:19,20) telling him to return to Israel and then another dream (v.22) telling him to settle back in Galilee in Nazareth. The wheel has gone full circle, and the dreams end.  And so here they are back home with a young child and an uncertain future. Yes, they have had lots of guidance, lots of reassurances and it all seems to have worked out, but what lies ahead? The great unknown. They may have ideas but almost certainly nothing as incredible as the times recorded in the rest of the Gospels.

And so: For us, isn’t this just how it is, this life of faith, a life reliant upon the calling and guidance of God? We’ve had the calling, we’ve responded, and then from time to time (when it’s needed) guidance comes from heaven, but until it does, we are left with a life of reassuring faith and trust. Faith comes from hearing the voice of God – whether through His word as we read it, hear it preached or prophesied, or as it comes in prayer or as that still small inner voice – and we respond. Trust is when we hold on in the absence of the voice. That is the life we are called to, a life where we are also called to be ‘faithful’, true to our calling, true to who He has made us to be and is making us to be, true to the inheritance we are yet awaiting in heaven. This is who I am, this is who we are, and we can be grateful to Mary and Joseph for the examples of all this that they have given us, that we have been reflecting upon over this Christmas period. Now we are called to just keep on keeping on, with hearts set on Him, ears open to Him, eyes watchful for His activity, and to take whatever leading He brings us tomorrow. What a life! Hallelujah!

Let’s Pray: “Father, thank you for the wonder of this plan of yours being worked out that we’ve been remembering over these days. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you left heaven and came and lived among us in the ways we have been reading about. Thank you Lord that you do call us, guide us, direct us, provide for us, protect us. Lord, please just continue to draw my heart to follow you ever more closely. Thank you so much. Amen.”

Addendum: Over the Christmas period, at one point, we were challenged to think up one sentence (only)  that sums up Christmas. In the light of that and in the light of this series, here is my offering (and we weren’t told it had to be short!):

“Christmas is the visible outworking of the will of the One God revealed through the Bible, who expresses Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a will that from before the Creation of the world decided that the only way to deal with the Sin of the World that would come with the free-will of mankind, was to send the Son to earth, to reveal the Father’s love and goodness, and then to die in the place of every human who has ever existed, and will ever exist, to take the punishment for their sin to enable them to be reconciled to the Holy God, and thus the arrival of the Son in the form of a baby born to a virgin, supported by a righteous and faithful husband, heralded by angels, shepherds, wise men and prophets, would be the start of the earthly working out of that will in the period we call Advent and the activities that we call the Nativity that together we call Christmas.”

Time to move on.

9. Difficult Times

Christmas Threads Meditations: Thread 9: Difficult Times

Lk 2:4,5  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

(Additional Reading: Lk 2:1-5)

Why: How much God was involved in Caesar Augustus issuing a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, which meant that Joseph had to go to the town of David, his ancestral home, is unclear – OK, we aren’t told anything about that – but the end result is, I suspect, a lot of grumbling by a lot of people who had to do a lot of travelling. Mary and Joseph were just caught up in something that perhaps most people in Israel were caught up in, it wasn’t just them. Sometimes God seems to care about the small details and Jesus being born in the ancestral home of King David seems to be one such ‘small detail’. A nuisance detail because it meant they had to travel a 90 mile journey – a little over two hours driving time today, but probably between four and seven days on foot and donkey back then.  Seriously, with a pregnant girl just a few days off birth??? Does God make mistakes? No, but He knows what He can trust us with and knew that Mary would be safe. And us? Yes, us too.

The Good Life: Most of us, if we could be honest, would say that we would like the good life, a life of affluence and comfort, a life free from hassle, angst, worries and concerns. If only!  There are people who don’t like me saying this because they say it is a cop-out, but it is true, we live in a fallen world where because of the presence of Sin stuff goes wrong, the world ‘breaks down’ and basically we are all dysfunctional, we just don’t ‘work’ like were originally designed to. So emperors get high and mighty and inconvenience millions but what does that matter when you are comfortable in your palace! So the good life is marred by the sins of mankind and sometimes that means life gets tough.

Any Alternative? Couldn’t God have made the world different? Well of course He could have made us robots, make us have to do what we are programmed to do but imagine it, one day a super-model robot is designed who looks, feels, acts, and sounds just like a human being. Sex might be on the cards, but not a real relationship, because all the while you will know that you are just getting the responses of a programmer’s amazing work. This isn’t real love, as much as it seems it. Any creativity is just a programme and therefore any work of art can never be called ‘great’. It’s these things that make us human. Remove free will and you remove our humanity. The cost is a fallen world, an emperor who causes great inconvenience, a dangerous journey, no room at the inn, a birth in a stable.

The Value: Now some of us don’t like to face this but hardship builds character. Yes, we’d rather do without the hardship but when it is forced on us, get ready for character building. (More than that it creates some brilliant stories when you get back from the holiday that went disastrously wrong!) But seriously, we would prefer a coddled, comfy life, protected from every ailment, hiccup in life and so on,  but God never promises that, because in the same way that a plant grown in a hothouse can be weak and spindly, so a life devoid of the toughness of life, never matures. If you hide away from the knocks of the world you will end up being good for little. A tough lesson but true.

Let’s Pray: “Lord, I confess I shy away from the thought of discipline, I dodge the idea of the tough aspects of life, but I thank you that I am what I am because of your grace that has flowed to me through those times. Thank you that you trusted Mary and Joseph, who were always under your watchful eye, and you enabled your Son to enter the human scene despite the tough aspects of it all. Thank you that you were there for them and are here for us – in it! Thank you so much. Amen.”

8. Difficult Conversations

Christmas Threads Meditations: Thread 8: Difficult Conversations

Lk 1:26   God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,  to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Mt 1:20  an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife

(Additional Readings: Lk 1:26-38, Mt 1:18-25)

Continuing: We said in the previous meditation that we have arrived at that year in history when three people have angelic encounters, two face to face and one in a dream. Zechariah was the first of the two face to face encounters; Mary is the second. What we said in respect of Zechariah, about life going on without surprises and thus lowering expectations, must surely be true of this young teenage girl, but after that her youthful response is much different from the aged priest.

An Unusual Conversation: When the angel Gabriel comes to Mary he does not ask permission, he tells Mary what WILL happen. Look at all the positive words in what he says: “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”  (Lk 1:30-33) We often say God never forces His will on people but this seems a rather straight forward declaration of what He is going to do. Mary’s only question is how this can come about. After he explains how, she simply responds, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” (v.38)

God knows His people: I think the answer to my implied question above is very simple: God knows His people and therefore knows how we will respond and He knows Mary’s heart and knows it is open to whatever He has for her. It perhaps raises a further question: does God instruct where there will be rejection or disobedience? Well, looking at the biblical record, clearly yes. Jonah is another example who, like Zechariah needed a nudge from circumstances. There are others in the Old Testament who were told things but refused them (Eve has to be the classic example!).

So yes, God knows our hearts but if Jonah or Zechariah are valid examples, then He also knows that some of us just need a nudge in the right direction to get us there. So why does He persevere like this? Is it that He knows our potential, knows what we are capable of, even if we do need quite of lot of encouragement?  Joseph in the third of the angelic encounters was a righteous young man and that righteousness almost got in the way. It needed a dream – yes, just a dream – to get him on side.  In fact Joseph was so open to the Lord that four times the Lord gave him a dream to guide him. (1:20, 2:13,19,22) What is it, I wonder, that we need to get us on side, into the flow of the ongoing activity of the Lord? Sometimes it is just encouragement from a partner or friend, sometimes it comes when reading His word or hearing it preached, sometimes it comes through circumstances, but however it comes, remember, its goal is to move us on in the will and purposes of God. Let’s make sure we do that.

Let’s Pray: “Lord, yesterday I confessed to you that I find this matter of calling to be scary, but I thank you that you know each one of us uniquely and you know our potential and you know what ‘encouragements’ we each need to reach that potential. Thank you that you have unique plans and purposes for me (Eph 2:10) and, even though I stumble, you see my heart’s desire to serve you and so you will get me there, you will see me through to completion of your plans for me (Phil 1:6). Lord please do it. Amen.”

Snapshots: Day 34

Snapshots: Day 34

The Snapshot: “Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.” (Ex 1:8) The truth is that the world changes and not always for the better. For Israel it meant a period of slavery but that was not their destiny, just a pathway to an event that would stand out in their history revealing the incredible power and glory of God. Sometimes the path leading to glory is not easy but we always have the assurance that ‘in all things God works for the good of those who love him.’ (Rom 8:28) The hard path is the opportunity to grow, to reveal who we really are. On this path we chose whether we will become jaded and cynical, ever demanding our good, or glorious demonstrations of the power and presence of God in the midst of this Fallen World.

Further Consideration: Eternal glory is our end goal, our hope, a place in heaven with Christ. Perhaps much of the time we forget that as we get caught up in the daily affairs of life, but it is our end goal and it will be wonderful: no more tears, no more sickness, no more fears, no more doubts, no more anxieties. What a wonderful life to be looked forward to, and this is our inheritance.

But before we get there we have to live out this life on earth and I have often realised that I am grateful that I don’t know what turn things will take tomorrow. Today has got enough worries of its own! (Mt 6:34) If we knew the things that are coming in the next ten years, say, we would be filled with worries and anxieties; how will I cope?

But the bad things that come – like a new national leader who is not for us, we feel – we only see as bad, but the Bible shows, as in this present case he/it can be a motivating force for change, sometimes good, sometimes not so good – but we have to handle it!

This new king is going to bring bad; he is going to turn the Hebrews into slaves, but the bigger truth is that they have become complacent in living here and have no thought of moving back to Canaan. Now don’t expect things to move quickly. Moses is yet to be born, he will be forty before he leaves Egypt and eighty before he returns to free his people. Now we cannot understand the measuring stick in the Lord’s mind that deemed four hundred years the right period to tell Abraham, before He set Israel free from Egypt (see Gen 15:13), but remember if He hadn’t called Moses and then moved in judgment upon the new Pharaoh, the people of Israel would have remained there and perhaps even been wiped out there.

So when the changes come, we simply need the  grace to handle them, but don’t jump to conclusions about them. Only the Lord knows the truth about them; ask Him.

Snapshots: Day 33

Snapshots: Day 33

The Snapshot: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Gen 50:20) What incredible insight the spoilt-brat-cum-savior Joseph now has. Just like Peter: “God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death.” God using the wickedness of man to bring good. You could never have dreamed that up! I sometimes think that this is one of the most powerful reasons to believe – we could never have dreamed this up – Joseph becoming a slave to come the second most powerful man in the Middle East to bring salvation. The death of a ‘man’ on a cross to bring justice to eternity and forgiveness to you and me. No, I never saw that coming – until it did!

Further Consideration: Approaching the end of Genesis, we find ourselves with a revelation from the mouth of Joseph that is without doubt, awe-inspiring. Here is this relatively young man who had been sold as a slave by his brothers, put in prison for fourteen years before being released into a position of immense power. That power means that he could give one order and his brothers would be dead, but he doesn’t, he makes provision for them in Egypt and they settle and grow into a nation.

What is fascinating about this is that Joseph has the wisdom and insight to be able to look back and see that what took place, the Lord had allowed to bring him eventually into this place of power whereby, with the wisdom and revelation of God, he could ensure millions would be saved from starvation. Time and again God had intervened in the sinful affairs of this sinful world – that enslaved and imprisoned Joseph – and blessed him in such a manner that that wisdom and later that revelation would bless him, even as a slave, even in prison, and cause him to be brought out to become ruler. A lesson there surely has to be that God can still bless us in less than ideal circumstances!

But the other side of this, that doesn’t come out at this point, is that there is a future dimension to them being in Egypt. As God has told Abraham, four hundred years (a long time!) would pass before they would leave and return to the land God had given Abram. Here Joseph gave the family grasslands in the north where they could continue to raise their sheep, (even disliked by the Egyptians) and so this grassland acted as a womb in which they would grow and become a nation. They could have left at any time, remembering the promises to Abraham about Canaan, but they didn’t. They settled in this comfortable land until it became less comfortable, but they would have to wait for a few generations to pass before that came about.

 

Snapshots: Day 31

Snapshots: Day 31

The Snapshot: “Israel loved Joseph more.”  So often we cannot foresee the consequences of our attitudes and our actions, but when we look down from above (Eph 2:6) we see something incredible, the hidden hand of God moving to fulfill His purposes, taking even our folly and using it for good. But for the moment, all is quiet and the drama has not been unfolded and so we do not know what is to come. We think we understand it (Mt 16:22), we think we can handle it (Mt 26:33) but we don’t and we can’t. But that does not deter Him, He knows what He is doing and, before the end, salvation will be poured out to Israel – and to us. Israel, Peter, me, we’re all a bit clueless and have just got to learn to trust Him, for He is not. In the quiet before the storm and in the storm.

Further Consideration: We need to unpack Jacob’s (Israel’s) feelings about Joseph. Jacob had been tricked into marrying both of Laban’s daughters but his love had really only been for Rachel. Then there was the expectation of children. Leah the other wife had four sons, Rachel none. In desperation she gave her servant girl to Jacob, and she bore two sons. Leah joined the competition and gave her servant girl and she bore two sons. Leah then had two more sons and a daughter. There are ten sons and a daughter and only then did Rachel conceive and Joseph was born. Later she gave birth to Benjamin and died in childbirth. It is no wonder, therefore that Joseph, the child of his beloved wife, should have been special to him. So much for the background, but next the consequences.

Because he favored Joseph so much, the other ten brothers hated him. (Gen 37:4) Jacob, with a lack of awareness of the family dynamics, sends Joseph out to the brothers caring for sheep, with the result that they sell Joseph to slave traders, who take him to Egypt and sell him on. Cutting a long story short he is imprisoned for fourteen years but is then released because of his powers to interpret dreams and is eventually made second most important man in Egypt, overseeing the next fourteen years of abundance of harvest and then famine. As a result of this Jacob and his family end up living in Egypt. Four hundred years later they need delivering from slavery – because they stayed on there not having returned home – by a prince-cum-shepherd called Moses, resulting in both an opportunity to clean up a dissolute land (Canaan) while revealing the immense power of God and His good intentions towards what now becomes a nation.

Favoritism may not have been the only factor in bringing all this about, but it was certainly one of them. Who knows what God can achieve despite our bumbling attempts at being good humans?

6. Threads

The Impossibilities of God in a Broken World, the story of Christmas, Meditations:

6. Threads

Lk 2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

Mt 2:1  during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

International: Perhaps one of the things we miss in the Christmas story is the truly international flavour that is there in it.  There were things going on that were not in Israel that would have a real impact on the main players of this wonderful little story. As we have seen so far things have been happening in Israel, first in the Temple as Zachariah encounters the angel, and then further north in Nazareth as Mary encounters an angel and Joseph gets a dream. Meanwhile, in the background so to speak, something is happening of mind-blowing proportions, something that still leaves us wondering, was this just the vanity of man on his own or was God in the background nudging this vain emperor into action. Whatever it was, we find in the Christmas accounts of Matthew and Luke’s Gospels, threads coming together to form a tapestry, a tableau, a montage, a picture that used to appear on Christmas cards in so many forms.

Consequences: Whichever it was, these actions of men from afar, they had consequences. We live in a world where there are consequences, one thing following on from another. In modern chaos theory the butterfly effect, put most simply, means that a small change in one place can cause a greater changer somewhere else. Just why Caesar Augustus decided to call that a census should be taken across the whole of the Roman Empire is uncertain. We may assume it was pride of an arrogant dictator who liked boasting about how big the Empire was. However, it is said that in his latter years he became a great administrator and so, perhaps to overcome a sense of chaos in the administration of the Empire, he called for a census. The truth is that we just don’t know but decisions by such ‘top men’ can often have far reaching consequences for the ‘small people’.

Fulfilment: As far as the Christmas story is concerned it simply meant that Mic 5:2 would be fulfilled, that Bethlehem would be the place where the Messiah, the Christ, was born, a “ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” At the time there was probably no one taking in the significance of this. Perhaps it would not be until after he was born and the Wise Men turn up that the scribes would observe, “In Bethlehem in Judea …for this is what the prophet has written.” (Mt 2:5) So the consequence of this emperor’s whim was, “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.” (Lk 2:4-6) It was left to Matthew who so often picks up on prophetic significance to make the link; Luke simply records what actually happened.

The Hand of God? I couldn’t help wondering earlier if it was God who nudged Caesar to call for a census, God who knows what His prophets have declared in bygone centuries, and what the scribes down through the years have spotted, God who wants to give any onlooker with an open heart, a heads-up of what He is doing. Some of us are a bit chary of attributing the actions of pagans to the moving of God, but Scripture is not so wary. Centuries before the event, probably somewhere between 700 and 680BC Isaiah had prophesied and written and in the midst of his writings, apparently without any present significance we read, speaking of the Lord, “who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd  and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.” (Isa 44:28)

It is left to one of the scribes recording the history of 2 Chronicles, to conclude the book by speaking of how Jeremiah’s word about the restoration of Jerusalem and Israel would follow the Exile, was fulfilled and we find: “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing: ‘This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘“The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.” (2 Chron 36:22,23) Can you imagine that king, egged on by the faithfulness of Daniel in the court in Babylon, perusing the documents, the scrolls that had been taken decades before from Jerusalem, and he comes across the Isaiah prophecy and is astounded to find his name there, and the Spirit convicts him and he sees it is his role to send Israel back to their land to start rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. Oh yes, God speaks to pagans!

Magi: Meanwhile, sometime during the time of Mary’s impending confinement, possibly nearly a thousand miles away, some other interesting characters are starting to talk together, but in order not to reduce our reflections upon them down to an unworthy brevity, we will consider them in the next study – yet they very clearly are ‘distant threads’ worthy of our consideration.

Life in General: There is a big lesson in the midst of all this speculation and it goes back to what we were saying earlier. Yes, we live in a world of consequences. The lives we live we live because of what has happened before us. When we come to national histories there is always a mixture of good and bad. This is not the place to give a history lesson but few countries fare well under the microscope of history because ultimately every history is a history of sinful, fallen men. Most of us have things about which we can feel proud about our nationhood, but the wise man does not elevate one nation above another for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!

Stuck with the Consequences? Some of us may feel bad about our background. Our histories may be littered with misdeeds, wrong-doings, unfaithfulness, adultery, out of wedlock children, and so on. Some of these histories may be very recent and that leaves us feeling damaged. Do we have to remain like that? No, every day is a new day with God and we are what He wants to make us and that is always something more glorious than before.  Perhaps we can look back on miscarriages of justice and other unfairness, of unkind words spoken over us, of situations that have come about because of the thoughtless action of ‘top people’ that have left us feeling abandoned, or feeling we are on our own, wondering what tomorrow will hold. Our answers are found in the Christmas story and particularly in the things on which we have been reflecting today.

A Surreal World? There may be a variety of reasons why we are where we are today, and we may never know what they all are. There is only one stable factor in the bizarre equations of life – God. He was certainly the prime cause of Mary being pregnant; whether He was the direct cause of them ending up having to travel at a most inconvenient time to Bethlehem, we are not sure – but it feels like it! No doubt for them it felt a somewhat surreal world as they are being carried along by events beyond their control, and that is a not uncommon feeling. Yet the truth is, as we know, this is the plan of God and it is just part of His plan to redeem the world. That is a staggeringly big plan and they feel so small – but they are the ones bringing it into being, even if they do not realise it.

And that is you and me again. We have been called and we now call ourselves Christians, children of God. We often feel small and insignificant, we often feel we are the beck and call of circumstances beyond our control. and we are left wondering about our significance. Yet today, your life or mine may impact others, today we may be the fluttering butterfly wings of chaos theory that cause, along the way, major events to be unfurled. Who knows the effect our words will have? Who knows what that effect will have… will have… will have. Small players? Not in God’s economy. That is what this part of the Christmas story leads us to! It may be a fallen world and it may appear chaotic sometimes from our viewpoint, but the God of the impossible is working and weaving His will into our everyday events to redeem them. Hallelujah!

5. God knows how to choose people

The Impossibilities of God in a Broken World, the story of Christmas, Meditations:

5. God knows how to choose people

Lk 1:5,11   In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah…. an angel of the Lord appeared to him

Lk 1:26-27  In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Fresh Perspective: So often when we think about the Christmas story we focus on people and events, but perhaps a more profitable perspective might be to wonder what was happening in God’s mind. Now that sounds seriously pompous, affected or pretentious, possibly even arrogant, but I want to suggest that by looking at some of the people involved, we may make some reasonable assumptions about the Lord. The greatest sense I have, pondering afresh on the Christmas story and the people we have already mentioned, is that God knows how to choose people. I mean, can you imagine the crazy scenario of the angel Gabriel going from one priest to another before he felt satisfied that Zechariah was the one for the job. Or even worse, turning up in one bedroom after another before he found a girl who would say yes. And as for Joseph – well, it was more about Mary really because he was her fiancé so perhaps in this silly imaginary scenario imagine him going from house to house looking for a girl, not yet married but who has a fiancé in tow who would eventually agree to the job? No, I don’t think it was like that at all. God looked, God saw, and God knew.

What did God know? Well the good things first, the obvious things. Zechariah was described as righteous, a follower of the Law blamelessly (Lk 1:6). All we are told about Mary is that she found favour with the Lord (Lk 1:30). Joseph, we are told was “faithful to the Law” (Mt 1:19) but also that he was clearly compassionate and caring not wanting to expose her to public disgrace. Each of these three are clearly righteous, godly people. When it comes to their futures, Zechariah, I would suggest, has really given up hope of ever being a father and is just living out his days serving in his division of the priesthood without much hope. Mary and Joseph are looking to a future together, as we said in the previous study, looking forward to setting up home together and having a family. A positive expectation, a future full of hope.

But God knows everything. Yes, God knows the past, the present and what will be the future. He also knows how we will respond to each situation so, I would suggest, He is not at all surprised when Zechariah splutters over the thought of becoming a father in his old age. He is not at all surprised when Joseph determines to quietly divorce Mary, i.e. break off their relationship, for that is what a righteous man apparently faced with unfaithfulness would do. He also knows that giving Zechariah a nudge of dumbness would make him a believer and giving Joseph a dream would be all that was necessary to bring him round to take on the responsibility of being a husband and a father to a child that was not his.   And Mary? He knew she would simply acquiesce to His plans for her. Why was Mary an easy-believer, Joseph a bit of a struggler and Zechariah a serious struggler? I want to say that they each have reasons to struggle (Joseph’s righteousness, Zechariah’s childless old age) but the simple truth is that it is a mystery why one person is full of faith and another is a struggler.

Knowing the end result: Now here is the exciting thing, I believe: God knows what He can achieve with each of is, even if He needs to nudge us forward once or twice. Now this is actually monumental when you think about it. You and I look at one another as we are now, and we assess one another on what we are now, and sometimes write one another off on what we see now – and that’s where we differ from God. God knows our capabilities. God knows that Zechariah will struggle to begin with but with nine months of dumbness he will come to a place where he declares his new son’s name in line with God’s will and will then be filled with the Spirit and prophesy. God knows that Joseph will struggle in his righteousness in the face of what the circumstances seem to be telling him, but with just one dream will come around and will join the place of possible shame and being the butt of gossip when Mary has a baby within an unacceptably short period after their wedding – indeed she might have been showing signs of it at the wedding – even more gossip! Mary is just simply a devout child of God who doesn’t need any nudging to accept the will of God for her life, even if it does mean loss of reputation and lots of misunderstanding.

Others? But go back into the Old Testament, as I did in a previous series entitled, ‘Reaching into Redemption’ and see some of the strugglers back there. Abraham, man of faith, friend of God, struggled in the face of threats to his life (Gen 12:12-), and struggled when his wife failed to conceive and gave way to her suggestions (Gen 16:2-) – and that had serious long-term consequences! Yes, he was a man of faith but it was often a struggle. Then there the schemer and twister, Jacob, and all the comings and goings of his life before he ends up being a faithful patriarch who understood the ways of God and prophesied the word of God over his sons. He was followed by Joseph, the spoilt brat who ends up a wise ruler who, again, understands the ways of God (see Gen 50:20). It gets better (or worse depending on how you look at it): Moses, a Hebrew Prince of Egypt who totally blew it and ended up on his own looking after sheep in the desert for forty years before God came and had a long argument with him (Ex 3 & 4) to get him to accept his destiny. All great men – eventually!

Us? Don’t you find this encouraging?  Here we are, chosen of God (Eph 1:11) but so often feeling we are spiritual nightmares, tripping over our spiritual feet! You know one of the even bigger and more amazing things about this is that God chooses us, and calls some of us into leadership, even while He knows we are going to make a mess of it. I wonder how many leaders could say with an honest heart they haven’t got it wrong some way along the path, and as for those who have clearly blown it…..   the Lord knew and continues to work to redeem each of us and, as we said at the end of the previous study, the long-term outcome may be more determined by our availability or otherwise, although these stories challenge that belief. If it is our availability it will only be because the Lord presses us forward. I am always challenged by the words the apostle Paul uses, “the faith God has distributed to each of you,” (Rom 12:3) and “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” (Rom 12:6) We do have a part to play without doubt, but the Lord’s impartation of faith and gifting is of major importance and He will be there, knowing exactly what we are like, but encouraging us on.

The supreme example: We’ve been looking at how the Lord ‘encouraged’ on Zechariah and Joseph (not needing to do it with Mary) and pondering how He does it with us, but possibly the best example in the New Testament has to be the apostle Peter. When Jesus renamed him (Jn 1:42) he knew Peter was destined to be changed from ‘a small pebble’ to a ‘big rock’ but it wasn’t going to be without its downsides. The fact that he three times denied Jesus (e.g. Mt 26:69-75) – with Jesus’ prior knowledge (Mt 26:34) – did not disqualify him from the role Jesus had for him, leading his church (see Jn 21:15-19). God knew all about Zechariah before Gabriel left heaven, He knew all about Joseph and He knew all about Peter and He knows all about you and me. Thank goodness, thank God!

6. An Arrogant Prophet?

Reaching into Redemption Meditations: 6. An Arrogant Prophet?

Gen 37:3,4   Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.  When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

 Focus: Please do not confuse these studies as merely character studies. The whole thrust is on the redemptive acts of God in the lives of us human beings and we are starting by observing them in the lives of the people who are so familiar to us in the Bible. But the whole thing is about how God acts to redeem us and take us out of what we were, to become something completely different, and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the life of Joseph in the Old Testament.

The situation: To catch the full thrust of what is going to happen we need to focus on the family setup in which Joseph found himself. He has ten older brothers, but he is the apple of his father’s eye and as such, is spoilt. As so happens in such situations he becomes the object of their jealousy and even hatred. Now that is how it starts. It is an inflammatory situation from the outset. Also, as we shall see, spoiled children are not also the wisest of children. OK scene set. Not a very good situation to say the least and certainly not one that you would expect the gain the attention of God. But then this family has already been chosen by God, right back with Abraham and are part of the outworking of His promise to that patriarch, but they aren’t just going to drift on through history, they are going to seriously impact it – more than they have a clue at present.

God’s intervention: Most of the time we don’t expect God to intervene in our affairs and when He does we frequently don’t realise what is happening for it can come in such a variety of ways. This time it comes in a really mundane way: “Joseph had a dream.” (v.5) If only it had been about it going to rain the next day, or something equally usual, but it wasn’t, it was all about how he was going to lord it over the brothers! Whoops. But it gets worse; he has another one of the same sort, but this time it includes his parents bowing before him.  A match to tinder. It doesn’t say it was God, but it clearly turns out to be prophetic, so it has to be Him.

Explosion: So often family explosions have just been waiting to happen and they come about because of our thoughtlessness or our failure as parents to do stuff we should do. This situation goes bang when old man Israel thoughtlessly sends Joseph out to take provisions to the rest of the boys out looking after their flocks some distance away (you went wherever there was still grass). It is there they sell Joseph off to slave traders – sounds so simple when you put it like that!  (see Gen 37:12-28).

Long story shortened: Joseph is sold as a slave in Egypt (Gen 39:1), prospers with God’s help (39:2-6), rebuffed his owner’s wife trying to get him in bed (39:7-12), is falsely accused and put in prison (39:13-20) where he again prospers with God’s help (39:21-23). Shortening the story even more, he gets known as a prophetic dreamer (40:1-23) and is eventually taken before the pharaoh to interpret his dreams (41:1-24) and tells of seven coming years of prosperity followed by seven years of famine (41:25-36) and so is put in charge of working into these coming fourteen years (41:37-57). In the days that follow his brothers and eventually his father come and settle in Egypt.

A long story but they are all saved by the revelation and wisdom of God shown through this young man who was just thirty when he started as the king’s right-hand man (41:46) and so possibly coming up to forty when his brothers arrive. The most amazing thing of the story is his response to his brothers at the end of the story (well it goes on and on), which was, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” (Gen 50:19-21) He is a transformed man, a man who acknowledges the lordship of God and is gracious and merciful because of it.

The tools of change: Now how do we interpret all this? There are two sides to this particular coin: the first is the side of God’s activity to bless. First, there is God’s foreknowledge, God knew all what would happen. But second, God gifted Joseph with prophetic dreams. Third, He also gifted him with wisdom and twice we are told He blessed Joseph and was “with Joseph so that he prospered” (39:2) and had “success in whatever he did”. (39:21-23) But the other side of the coin is the sinfulness of mankind. We see it in this story in a) Israel’s folly in having a favourite, being insensitive to the other sons and thoughtless sending Joseph out, b) Joseph’s initial pride and insensitivity towards his family, c) the brothers jealousy, hatred and eventual act of selling him to slavers, d) Potiphar’s harshness, e) his wife’s amorous infidelity and then spite, and finally f) the cup-bearer’s lack of care, forgetting him in prison. All of these things work to change this spoilt young brat into a wise, merciful and gracious ruler. It may not be a ‘rags to riches’ story materially, but it is one spiritually!

God who tolerates sin?  Have you never realized that when God called you, you were distinctly imperfect with lots of edges to be rubbed down and rough bits to be chipped off? We’ve said it before, but do you not realize that God loves us even while we are ‘works in progress’? When we come to Christ, we tend to think we have arrived, but the truth is that the journey of change has only just begun, and it will continue until we leave this earth. As we’ve seen before, God doesn’t want us to sin, but He still loves us with our imperfections and all He wants is our loving willingness to let Him have His way in carrying out this lifelong process. How can He tolerate us? But the fact is that Jesus died, for all our sins – past, present and future.

God who uses sin? That is what is beneath all this, that God will make use of the sinfulness of mankind. We see it in the way He let Satan stir up ungodly enemies (Job 1:15,17) and in the way the Lord, knowing what would happen given the circumstances, allowed His Son to die in our place (read Acts 2:23)

And Today? Yesterday I concluded with thoughts about our prodigals. Today’s study builds on that. You may have a spoilt brat child and, if they have left home, you make think it is too late, but it is never too late to pray, to ask for change and also to add, “Lord, show me if there is a part you want me to play to bring this prodigal into a good place.” We may have contributed to the ‘spoilt-brat syndrome’ but it is never too late to seek the Lord’s grace to bring change. He is in the business of redemption – mine, yours and your prodigals. Can we be available, can we pray and act with hope, can we truly believe that He has a project (my life, your life and their lives) and it is to redeem, to change and deliver from the messed up and missed-opportunities times of the past, into a gracious and glorious future?  May it be so.

Application for further thought and prayer: Lord, again I affirm I am a work in progress and there is still some way to go. Thank you that you see me and those I love and know, and wherever you see even a glimmer of faith, you will be there, working to redeem. Thank you so much.