Rejoicing through Great Change

Psalm104:19 reads, “God made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.” Our Creator fixed those times at creation (Genesis 1:14). I find this thought of consistent order under our unchanging God’s hands comforting, as I find myself in a season of great change.

In 15 years of pastoral ministry, I have witnessed a lot of change. Our great enemy death has claimed so many friends. Church members may suddenly appear, then vanish. Old leaders I relied on step down, new leaders rise. I watch as my own children are growing up. My hair is beginning to shine with new white hairs. Time answering to our Creator’s drum beat marches on.

The familiar fades. The predicable deteriorates. However, we can and must “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4). We can have great joy in the Lord with every season of change. First, because our God is unchanging. This is good news, for His promises to us are unchanging. “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). Our salvation is dependent on our unchanging God, not on us. Life everlasting is promised by He who lives forever and does not change!

In Isaiah 40, the prophet compares our flesh with grass and asks to consider the beauty of the flowers in such a field of grass. The grass withers, the flower’s beauty fades when God breathes on the field. But the Word of God endures forever. Never dying. Never fading in beauty.

In every season of change, our unchanging God washes us with the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:26). We are in need of change, and our unchanging God is good to change us through every season that we might be presented to Christ as a bride beautifully adorned by His Word which never dies nor fades in beauty.

Now, dear reader, consider this. Our unchanging God is to be delighted in during change. Do not let your heart fall into bitterness when the familiar fades and the predictable deteriorates. Rather, delight yourself in the Lord Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Christ Himself is to be our comfort and joy, not familiarity and predictability in our earthly life.

When the temple was rebuilt as recorded in Ezra, some saw it and shouted with joy! However, the folks who remembered the glory of the first temple wept (Ezra3:12). Things are not what they once were. They took a look at such great change and wept while others rejoiced in the same sight. We should rejoice that God would give us life long enough to witness change and to see His faithfulness from generation to generation as He raises up leaders in their youth.

For our Creator’s drum beat marches toward that final day when all the world’s troubles and sorrows will be swallowed up forever. Oh, beloved child of God, our Savior’s hands will wipe away the tears from our eyes for the last time (Revelation21:4)! No more sorrow. No more pain. We will enjoy the comfort and joy in the presence of our unchanging God…forever.

Born to Save Sinners

“The LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” –Genesis 39:21

Joseph was in Egypt, but not by choice. He was beaten by his brothers, thrown into a pit only to be pulled out of the pit to be sold into slavery. Yet, the Lord’s favor promised in dreams of his brothers kneeling before him remained on Joseph. He was appointed by his Egyptian master Potiphar to head the home, and his master prospered and had no worries under Joseph’s care.

Yet, Potiphar’s wife kept making sexual advances at the young, handsome Hebrew. Joseph remained faithful saying, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God” (Genesis 39:9)? The lustful woman kept advancing, one day trapping Joseph only to see him flee from evil. In the chaos, she held Joseph’s garment and deceived her husband into believing Joseph was the evil one. Potiphar then threw Joseph in the pit, though he did no wrong.

It is here Moses reminds us God’s steadfast love and favor remained on Joseph, and this time in the sight of the prison master. Moses inserts a short story about his brother Judah before returning to the Joseph narrative in Genesis 38, a chapter filled with sexual immorality. First, Judah took a Canaanite woman as a wife, something God prohibited. Then, Judah found a wife for his son named Tamar, who was widowed as both Judah’s sons were wicked and the Lord took their lives.

Tamar then dressed as a cult prostitute to seduce her father-in-law Judah, only to disappear with his belongings. When she was found to be pregnant, Judah judged her guilty and deserving death (Genesis 38:24). Yet, Tamar brought out Judah’s belongings which proved his culpability. It is here, Judah confessed Tamar to be more righteous than him, which in a way confesses his guilt and deserving more than death (vs 26).

Why does God’s Word tell us Joseph has God’s steadfast love and favor on him, yet he is imprisoned and suffers for sexual crimes he did not commit while Judah commits heinous sexual crimes, confesses guilt, and does not suffer as Joseph does? Read on, and we find Judah confessing he deserves punishment for his sin against Joseph (Genesis 44:16), only for Joseph to reconcile with his guilty brothers, draw them near to himself and tell them God sent Joseph ahead in suffering then exaltation to preserve their lives (Genesis 45:4-5). What the brothers meant for evil, God sovereignly meant for good (Genesis 50:20). By his sufferings, the brothers’ lives where preserved by God’s hand.

Think deeply what God is pointing us to in the favored Son Jesus Christ. He is perfectly righteous, yet treated as a great criminal. Suffering mockery and beatings. By His wounds we have inflicted on the Son of God, we sinners are healed. He suffered instead of us, and by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone we receive His benefits.

Think about the great evil of Judah and his brothers, plotting evil against their brother with intense jealousy. Jesus taught on this evil in His parable of the wicked tenants. The tenants were left the vineyard as the master went to the far country. Sending servants to receive his share, the tenants beat them all. Finally, the master sent his son, but the wicked tenants killed the son expecting to take his inheritance (Matthew 21:38).

Jacob, Joseph and the brothers’ father, passed away with a final request for Joseph to forgive his brothers all their sins (Genesis 50:17). On His cross, our Lord cried out, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). At Jacob’s funeral, Joseph gathered his brothers now forgiven and said not to fear twice, then a promise of good. He will provide for them.

Joseph was born to suffer, then be exalted to save his wicked brothers, all by God’s sovereign hand. Deeper still, the sinless Christ was born to save sinners as Joseph was told to name Him Jesus (Matthew 1:21), a saying trustworthy and deserving your full acceptance (I Timothy 1:15).

Dear sinner, think upon the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows. Jesus did this willingly. Christmas is the time we meditate on the Son of God taking on flesh, being rejected and despised, suffered and crucified as a criminal though He did not wrong, to save the wicked. Deeper than the weeping Joseph’s drawing his wicked brothers to himself with forgiveness, Jesus draws sinners to Himself to forgive us and reconcile us to our heavenly Father. Sinner, believe upon Christ and call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

As Linus concluding in his reading of Luke 2, “That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.”

This is what Christmas is all about. God sending His favored Son to suffer and die instead of you to save many, glorifying our God who is mighty to save.

Heavenly Father, as this season draws family and friends together, remind us why Jesus came into the world: to save sinners. A sinner like me. All praise be to our gracious God who placed our guilt on Christ and His righteousness on us that we may glorify our God and enjoy You forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.