Wed.’s Devo - Covenants

Read: Genesis 46:1-47:31; Matthew 15:1-28; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 4:14-19
God spoke to Jacob in Beersheba, the same place that both Abraham and Isaac had made covenants with Abimelech and God had given them both a covenant of promise. God gave Jacob that same promise that he was his God and that He was going to make him into a great nation. He would go with Jacob down to Egypt and one day bring his descendants back to this land. Joseph would be the one to close his eyes when he died.
Jacob left with 66 family members to join Joseph’s four in Egypt making his family 70 total. Interestingly, he sent Judah first. Later, God will tell Moses to send Judah first when traveling and when going to war because Judah means “praise” and praise is how we should start everything we do and every day. It is how we fight the enemy and how we enter God’s courts.
Jacob and Joseph’s reunion was full of tears and joy. I can’t imagine the emotions of that meeting. I would think it would be close to when Jesus entered heaven after enduring the cross. That had to be another joyful reunion.
Joseph presented his father to the Pharaoh and Jacob blessed him. The greater always blesses the lesser. Jacob and his family was given the best land in Egypt called Goshen and totally provided for in the midst of the famine.
When the people had spent all their money buying grain, they gave their livestock in exchange for grain. Guess who got these animals? Pharaoh had turned his livestock over to them.
God preserved his family on the earth and blessed them.
When Jacob was going to die, he called for Joseph and made him promise to take his bones back with them when they returned to the land of Canaan.
In Matthew, the scribes and Pharisees were adamant about their man-made laws but didn’t follow God’s. Moses’ law says nothing about washing hands so Jesus didn’t teach his disciples to do that. The Pharisees neglected giving to their needy parents in their old age saying that they were giving that money to the synagogue which freed them from taking care of their parents. Jesus called them hypocrites. They wanted the esteem of others who watched how much they gave over love and honor for their parents.
Jesus explained that it wasn’t eating with unclean hands that was going to make them unclean. Being unclean had to do with the heart, not the hands. Jesus was told that this had offended the Pharisees to which Jesus called them blind guides.
Jesus went to Tire and Sidon, the land of the Gentiles. He was confronted by a woman who had a daughter controlled by demons. Jesus explained that he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel and compared her to a pet dog. She pleaded that even the dogs eat the leftovers from the master’s table. Jesus loved her tenacity and her faith and healed her daughter.
Lord, thank you for the covenant you made with us. Help us to follow you from our hearts and not obligation.