Mon.’s Devo - Faith in Action

Read: Genesis 46:1-47:31; Matthew 15:1-28; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 4:14-19 Jacob left the land of Canaan with all his possessions. When they had come to Beersheba the place where Abraham had made an oath to Abimelech, God spoke to him in a vision. He told him not to be afraid to go to Egypt because he was leading him there. God promised him that Joseph would be with him to close his eyes to his life on earth. Jacob left with 66 descendants, not counting the wives. Joseph had two sons in Egypt so counting Jacob there were 70 total. Joseph went to meet them in Goshen and had a tearful reunion with his father, Jacob. He left them there and took five of his brothers to present them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh was glad to give them the best land of Goshen to live and pasture their sheep. The Egyptians hated farmers so it was the perfect scenario. They didn’t have to live in Egypt and they also got the best land where they could worship their God without hindrance. The famine grew worse till the people had no money to buy grain so they sold their property and themselves for grain. They were thankful to be able to live. Joseph bought up all the land except the priest’s land and all the people became the property of the Pharaoh’s. Joseph gave the people grain and in return they had to give back a fifth of their produce to the government. But, in Goshen, the people of Israel were able to acquire property and were fruitful. They grew rapidly. Jacob lived for 17 more years and died at 147. Joseph was called in before he died so he could make Joseph promise to take his bones out of Egypt and bury them in the land of Canaan with his ancestors. Joseph swore he would do that. Jacob knew the future and wanted to be buried in the future. In Matthew, the Pharisees came to Jesus offended about why he didn’t teach his disciples to go through their traditional hand washing ritual before they ate. Jesus asked them why they chose tradition over God’s laws. He gave them an example. They were not honoring their parents. Everything in their religion had to do with outward appearances. The more you gave to the Temple, the higher you were esteemed. They had made it legal to use the money you had saved up to care for your aged parents and give it to the Temple instead. You would gain importance in the Temple while your parents were neglected and poor. Jesus told them their worship was a farce because they taught man to obey their commands instead of God’s. Jesus told the crowd that it was not whether they were eating from clean hands that would defile them, it was the words that came out of their mouths that would defile them. Jesus told the people to ignore the laws of the Pharisee because they were blind guides leading them into a ditch. No wonder the Pharisees hated Jesus! A Gentile woman came to him pleading for her daughter who was demon-possessed. Jesus ignored her but she wouldn’t give up. She wore them down with her begging so Jesus finally told her that he was sent to the people of Israel only. She worshiped the Lord and asked him one more time to help her. He told her that it was not right to throw the children’s bread to the dogs. She responded that even the dogs get to eat the scraps from the master’s table. Jesus was amazed at her faith and her daughter was delivered at that moment. This story gives me so much hope. The mother was like Mary when Jesus was at the wedding and they ran out of wine. He did not think it was time to start publicly doing miracles, but Mary knew that the situation warranted a miracle. She pressed in to have Jesus move before he was ready to move. This woman did the same thing. Jesus came to save the lost in the whole world, Jew and Gentile and healing was for the Gentile too, only it was not time. She was able to press the future into the present. She got her miracle before it was ‘time.’ We can do the same thing. We can pioneer into the future and bring it into our present. Lord, teach us to live in the future and not in the past. May we cast off limitations and doubts and press into the future with faith and vision. May we act on your promises.