Sun.’s Devo - Joseph

Read: Genesis 37:1-38:30; Matthew 12:22-45; Psalm 16:1-11; Proverbs 3:27-32 When Joseph was 17 years old, he brought back bad reports of what some of his brothers were doing. These brothers were Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, the sons of the concubines. To further ostracize these four, Jacob had a coat of many colors made for Joseph. This coat signified that his father favored him above the rest of them. *** Joseph began having dreams from the Lord. The first one had to do with his sheaf of wheat rising up and theirs bowing down to his. His brothers knew what it meant and taunted and hated him because of them. Joseph had another dream and in this one the sun, moon, and stars bowed down to him. His father even wondered if it meant that he and his mother would bow to him. *** His brothers told their father’s flock to pasture near Shechem. After a while, Jacob sent Joseph to see how they were. He found them at Dothan, but as he was approaching them, they talked of getting rid of him and his dreams. *** Reuben heard their talk and told them they could throw him in a pit, but not kill him. So they took his coat from him and threw him in a dry pit. *** Then they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt and decided to sell Joseph to them. They sold him for 20 shekels of silver. Reuben had not been with them and came to the pit to rescue Joseph. He was very upset not to find him. They took his coat and smeared it with the blood of a goat they slaughtered and took it to their father. *** They let Jacob come to the conclusion that Jacob had been attacked by some wild animal and killed. Jacob was distraught and could not be comforted. *** Meanwhile, the Ishmaelites sold Joseph to Potiphar when they reached Egypt. Potiphar was an officer of Pharaoh's and the captain of the guard. *** Judah left his father’s house and moved to Adullam which was a royal city of Canaan. He became friends with a man named Hiram. Judah married a Canaanite woman named Shua and conceived three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah. *** Judah found a wife for Er named Tamar but Er was so wicked, God killed him. Judah told Onan to go in to Tamar and have children with her for Er. Onan made sure not to pass his seed to Tamar because he didn’t want to raise up children in Er’s name. God saw his wickedness and killed him also. Judah told Tamar that when Shelah was old enough, he would give him to Tamar, but he was lying. Judah was afraid that if he gave her his last son, he would die also. *** Years later, Judah’s wife, Shua died. Tamar waited till he was over the death and found out where Judah was going to be. She went ahead of him and set up a prostitute’s booth. When Judah passed she solicited him. He wanted to have her but had no way to pay, so she suggested he leave his staff, his cord and his signet as collateral for the young goat he had promised. Judah agreed and they spent the night together. *** Judah sent someone with the goat and no one knew of the prostitute so the messenger went back with the goat. *** Three months later, Judah learned that Tamar was pregnant and Judah wanted her burned for her sin. She sent the staff, the cord and the signet to him with the message that the owner of these things was the father. Judah was not going to kill his seed, so he realized she had been more righteous than him. He had not given her Shelah as he promised. He let her live and never slept with her again. *** Tamar was pregnant with twins. When she went into labor, one of the babies stuck out his hand and the midwife put a scarlet thread on it, but the other baby came out first. This was a breach so they named him Perez. Then the second boy came out and they named him Zerah. *** In Matthew, Jesus healed a man who was possessed by demons which made him blind and mute. The Pharisees had a litmus test they taught everyone of what the real Messiah would do when he came. 1) He would heal a Jewish leper. 2) He would heal a man born blind. 3) He would deliver a man who was blind and mute. This was number three, so when Jesus did this, the people looked at the Pharisees to see if they would pronounce him as the Messiah since he had jumped through all their hoops. The Pharisees had to come up with an answer, so they said he did this by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. *** Jesus then said that a kingdom that was divided against itself would never last. If he was the prince of demons casting out demons, how would his kingdom stand. But if he was casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then God’s kingdom was here and he was now plundering the house of Satan. He was telling them they had to choose a side. They would not be able to lie to the Holy Spirit and live. If they had a good heart, they would produce good fruit, but if they had an evil heart they would be condemned. *** Some of the scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign from him. Jesus rebuked them and told them the only sign they would see would be the sign of Jonah. He reminded them of the three nights Jonah spent in the belly of the fish and compared it to the three nights he would spend in Sheol. The sign would be the resurrection. Jonah’s resurrection was not comparable to what his was going to be like. The queen of Sheba was smart enough to know that Solomon was wise and sent from God and she would stand in judgment against them for not recognizing who Jesus was. *** Then Jesus went back to explaining about how demons work. When they are cast out, they roam around looking for a body to inhabit that is empty of God. If they can’t find one, they will go back to where they were and find out if it is still empty. If it has not been filled with God, then they bring in seven other spirits more evil than the ones before and they take up residence there. Then that person is worse off than before. *** Lord, may we learn and understand the way of the spiritual world. We are sent to plunder the kingdom of Satan and help set up God’s. May we stand up for You and fight till we see your kingdom come in our family, our cities and the nations.