Read: Genesis 50:1-Exodus 2:10; Matthew 16:13-17:9; Psalm 21:1-13
Joseph’s brothers had a hard time accepting Joseph’s forgiveness and grace just like we have a hard time accepting Jesus’ forgiveness and grace. When Israel meets Jesus, the one they pierced and repents, they are going to struggle with this great love also. He reminded them that what they meant for harm, God meant for good so that he could go ahead of them and prepare a place for them to preserve them. That is exactly what Jesus is doing right now. He is preparing a place for us in heaven.
They carried Jacob’s body and buried it in the same place Abraham and the others were buried. Joseph gave them strict orders that he was to be buried here also. When he died he was placed in a tomb in Egypt. He was to stay there until God sent his people out of Egypt into the place where his father was buried. This would become the promised land.
The next king didn’t know the story of Joseph and how he saved the nation. All he could see was how the Israelites were growing faster in number than the Egyptians and he was afraid they would eventually take his kingdom from him. So, he let his fear make him a tyrant and he put the ones he feared to hard forced labor. When the midwives wouldn’t corroborate with him, he decided to just kill all the boy babies under the age of two. The devil must have sensed that God was birthing a deliverer. The only one who survived this horrific law was the very one he was trying to destroy. Moses was saved out of the waters and protected by the palace - his very enemy. There he would stay until God called him out.
Jesus asked his disciples who everyone else thought he was and was given the wrong response. Then he asked them who they thought he was and Peter got it right. He said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus commended Peter and said that upon this statement he would build the church and the gates of hell would not even be able to stop him. Then he gave them the keys to the kingdom of heaven to bind on earth things that were bound in heaven and to loose on earth, things that were loosed in heaven.
Jesus laid out the plan. He was to go to Jerusalem and suffer under the elders, priests and scribes and be killed, but he would rise again on the third day. Peter rebuked Jesus for saying this and Jesus rebuked Peter for acting as Satan. He then explained that they and anyone after them that wanted to be his disciple would have to lose their lives to find them.
Next, Jesus took Peter, James and John to a high mountain and allowed them to see him in his glory. They also saw Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus. When they wanted to elevate Moses and Elijah to Jesus, God spoke to them and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Moses stood for the law and Elijah stood for the prophets. Hebrews 1:1 says that in the past, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken unto us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things…” Jesus was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets but so much greater.
Our Psalm today speaks of the end when God will destroy the earth with fire. All of God’s enemies will be destroyed.
Lord, we rest in your eternal plan. We exalt you as Lord of all!
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