Wed.’s Devo - The War of the Kingdoms

Read: Genesis 37:1-38:30; Matthew 12:22-45; Psalm 16:1-11; Proverbs 3:27-32 Jacob had settled in Canaan where he was the foreigner in his own God-given land. His son, Joseph was seventeen and worked with the sons of his father’s concubines Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. They hated him because he tattled on them for all the bad things they did and it was obvious he was his father’s favorite, and because of his dreams. They were very mean to him. Joseph shared his dreams with his brothers. In his first dream, he saw their bundles of grain all bowing down to his. In his next dream, he saw the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him. He told this one to his father who understood the dream. Jacob, his wife and his sons would bow down to him. (Joseph’s mother was dead so I speculate the wife would be Leah although we don’t hear anything else about her alive.) Later, Jacob sent Joseph to Shechem to check on his brothers who were suppose to be pasturing his sheep. He found out they had gone to Dothan. When his brothers saw him from afar off, they conspired to kill him and hide him in a pit. Reuben heard their plans and planned to stop them from killing him. They did put Joseph in a pit then sat down to eat planning to attend to him later. In the meantime, God prepared a company of Ishmaelites from Gilead on their way to trade in Egypt. The brothers decided it would be more advantageous to profit from Joseph so they sold him. They took his coat his father had given him. Reuben found out Joseph wasn’t in the pit and was upset. They took Joseph’s coat and smeared it in the blood of a goat and took it to their father. He surmised that Joseph had been attacked by wild animals and died. He mourned for years. Meanwhile, God was with Joseph and he was sold to Potiphar in Egypt. Potiphar was Pharaoh’s captain of the guard. Our story shifts to Judah, one of Leah’s sons. Judah traveled to Adullah and married a woman named Hirah. They had three sons named Er, Onan and later Shelah. Judah arranged for Er to marry Tamar. Er was so wicked, God killed him. Judah made Onan marry Tamar to have a son in Er’s name. Onan didn’t want to do that so he made sure she didn’t get pregnant. God killed him also. Judah promised Tamar that she would be given Shelah when he grew up but he didn’t keep his promise. When Tamar realized Judah wasn’t going to give her Shelah, she took matters into her own hands and set up a prostitute’s stand on Judah’s way home. Judah had lost his wife so he would be lonely. Tamar disguised herself and enticed Judah to come into her tent. He had no money to pay for sex so he gave her his staff, his bracelets, and his signet ring. He would send a kid from his flock and get his things back. True to his word, Judah sent a kid to the prostitute but no one around there knew of a shrine prostitute so Judah kept his mouth shut. Tamar became pregnant and when Judah was told she had played the prostitute, he wanted to burn her to death. She sent him his things and told him that she was pregnant by this person. There was no way he was going to kill his own offspring so she was allowed to live. Tamar had twins. In childbirth, an arm came out first so the mid-wife put a scarlet thread on it. Then the other baby came out first. She called the one who came out first Perez since he broke through to be first and she named the one with the scarlet thread Zerah meaning “scarlet or brightness”. The first born in the Old Testament was a picture of our first birth in the natural. The second born is a picture of our “born again” experience, thus the scarlet thread. In Matthew, when Jesus healed the blind, deaf and dumb man who was also demon-possessed, the Pharisees gave credit to Satan. Jesus nailed them. They accused him of being Beezebub (Satan) and now he was casting demons out of a man. If he was from Satan’s kingdom, why would he be casting himself out. But if he was casting out Satan’s kingdom by the power of God’s kingdom then God’s kingdom had arrived. Only someone stronger than Satan could cast out Satan and so far no-one had been able to do that. They could blaspheme him and be forgiven but to blaspheme the power in him would not be forgiven. Demons had to occupy a person’s body because they have no body of their own. If a demon is cast out of one body he will search for another body to occupy. If he doesn’t find one, he will return to the one he was cast out of and if it is not occupied by the spirit of God, he will bring seven other spirits more evil than itself and occupy that person making him worse than before. Jesus said that that would be the case in their generation. Lord, we honor your power over all of Satan’s kingdom. We thank you that we carry your kingdom in us and have been given authority over Satan’s kingdom. May we use this power to bring your kingdom nearer.