Welcome to another day of God's mercies. May he bless our studies.
Read Psalm 40
Luther has some interesting comments about this psalm. He talks as if Christ himself is praying this psalm. The problem is, what does it mean, then, when Jesus prays, "my iniquities have overtaken me"? Well, we must remember that when Jesus prays for forgiveness, he is praying on behalf of all of us who have committed the sins. Jesus has taken those sins upon himself. Standing in the place of sinners, he cries out to his Father for help and rescue. This helps us to understand Luther's comments:
"The 40th psalm is a beautiful psalm of prayer in which Christ himself laments His sufferings and calls for rescue from death. It clearly prophesies that He alone does God's will and fulfills the Law, and that this is written about Him in the book of Moses...God alone does everything for us; nothing is done by our work or sacrifices. He therefore promises and establishes the New Testament in which the justification of the believers will be preached in the great congregation, that is, in the entire world, and not the justification by sacrifices or our works." Reading the Psalms with Luther, CPH.
Read Genesis 43
The themes from the last chapter carry over to this one. God is setting them up for reconciliation. We see Joseph unable to be harsh anymore. Though not revealing himself just yet, he cannot help but treat them warmly, inquire about their well being, and share a feast with them. What a forgiving brother!
I would guess that when Joseph focused on the goodness of God, His plan carried out, His strength that carried Joseph through it all, His unfailing faithfulness to help Joseph, it was impossible for him to bear a grudge.
Is God's grace that powerful in us? Do we recognize that God has a plan for us? Do we look back on our life and see him active through it all, carrying us along, helping us and strengthening us? Even if others have hurt us, if we look at all of God's goodness, we will be motivated to love and forgive. Just look at the love of Christ! - love that led him to suffer, bleed, and die that our sins and rebellion against God might be forgiven.
Jacob (Israel) sent his sons saying, "May God Almighty grant you mercy." We pray the same thing as we seek to live for Christ: May God Almighty grant us mercy! We have fallen short. May he forgive. We are weak. May he strengthen us. We are in need. May he help us and give us peace. Amen.
Pray:
We give thanks to You, Lord Jesus, for Your bitter suffering and painful death, whereby You purchased us from the pangs of eternal death. Thanks be to You that You have sent us the Word of Your salvation. Preserve it with us pure and unadulterated, and whenever we hear or read it, reveal Yourself to us as the Savior of our souls. Amen.
Study with me tomorrow,
Pastor Jon
Soli Deo Gloria!
Do we have any way of knowing how much time passed between the first trip to Egypt and the second? I wonder if Simeon was thinking about how they had abandoned Joseph so many years before?
ReplyDeleteWe read in Genesis 45:6 that there has been 2 years of famine, with 5 years remaining. Unless I missed it, we don't know how long the famine went on until the family ran out of food and came to Egypt. But if you figure out travel times and however long it took them to eat the grain, we can assume that Simeon was there for a while - long enough for Simeon to have plenty of time to think.
ReplyDeleteI guarantee he was thinking of Joseph. And probably all the other stuff he had done wrong in his life. I think we all do that when we can't do anything else.