Missions Paul

An appeal to get me up a hill in the middle of the night for a powerful cause!

6 days to go – https://www.justgiving.com/page/paul-hudson-elim?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

“Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” ¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with harsh labour in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labour, the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.”  (Exodus 1 v 8-14)

Be careful of those who rise and want nothing to do with the past. I know of someone who used to be a Pastor, and when they commenced their new appointment, they deleted every sermon and every indication on the church website that there had actually been previous Pastors before they arrived on the scene. Like verse 8, they come to power, but they come with fear.

Pharaoh looked at Israel and saw a problem to be managed. There were too many of them, and from pure hate, he ordered their oppression.

It didn’t work.

The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.

This is the covenant promise, a refusal to be buried. Here is the example we need when the pressure becomes too much for us. Pharaoh thought he was the author, but it is God who writes the story.

You don’t have to look far to see the same logic at work today.

In northern Nigeria, Christians face violence and death. Their villages are burned down and communities scattered, all because they are Christian. In parts of South Asia, conversion means rejection or worse. In country after country, the powerful look at the church and see a problem to be managed. They reach for the same tools Pharaoh reached for.

Yet the same thing keeps happening.

Parts of Nigeria and Iran are perhaps the most difficult places to live as a Christian right now. Yet the Christian Church continues to grow. Many missionary organisations say that the Iranian church is growing faster than almost anywhere in the world. Persecution has not buried these communities; it has multiplied them.

I am not romanticising their suffering, for the cost is real and we grieve for them.

But Exodus 1 reminds us that when human power sets itself against divine purpose, it tends to produce the opposite of its intent. Pharaoh’s logic was completely wrong. The persecutors are still wrong. Hell and all that this word entails, Jesus said, will not prevail against the Church.

7 days to go:- An appeal to get me up a hill in the middle of the night for a powerful cause.

https://tinyurl.com/3fywsnjm

Joseph, his brothers, and an entire generation are gone. For the next two hundred years, the Bible records no leader, no judge, no prophet, no name worth mentioning. Just silence. Just ordinary people living ordinary lives in a foreign land. However, it was the best moment for the Israelites.

“These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; ³ Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. ⁵ The descendants of Jacob numbered seventyin all; Joseph was already in Egypt.⁶ Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷ but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.” (Exodus 1 v 1-7)

Between the death of Joseph and the rise of a new king (who did not know him) stretches roughly two hundred years of silence. In that time frame, the Bible records no named leader and no dramatic event; in fact, nothing noteworthy except one thing. Throughout Genesis, we have been used to a named person doing extraordinary things, acknowledging God as they did. But now there is no named leader, and yet something is still happening. The Israelites were fruitful, they multiplied, they increased, and they filled the land. For those of us who firmly believe in leadership, here is another example that shows that there are times when God can work in a community, even a nation, without one. I often see churches (that are waiting for a minister to join them), actually not decreasing but increasing in many ways in that interim period. The members suddenly start to get involved in the life of the church as never before. It becomes a time of mobilisation and growth.

In the silent years when there was no reporting, God was at work.

Look at the language Moses used in this. Fruitful. Multiplying. Increasing. Filling the land. Moses deliberately used language that echoed Genesis 1. This was the creation mandate being fulfilled, not through the vision of a great leader, but simply by God.

We have become deeply dependent on leaders. Being a leader, I’m a firm believer in them! God does raise them and appoints them for a reason. But Israel’s two centuries of silent growth remind us that the people of God do not need a leader to be faithful. They need to know who they are and whose they are.

God had made promises to Abraham. Those promises did not require a human leader to keep them moving. They required a faithful God and a people who kept living for Him. A lesson for us all.

I am sure you will agree, Joseph had lived a remarkable life. Then, in his dying moments, with three generations of grandchildren around him, he looked to the life after he had died and made his family swear an oath about his bones.

“Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years ²³ and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees. ²⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” ²⁵ And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” ²⁶ So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.” (Genesis 50 v 22-26)

Joseph died in Egypt. He wasn’t taken to the family tomb in Machpelah beside Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He dies with the belief that at some point he will be carried out of Egypt. Moses would eventually do this hundreds of years later (see Exodus 13:19). Joseph died believing that God would finish what He started. It might be much later, but it will come.

Have you noticed he didn’t ask to be buried but to be carried? Egypt was not his home. His bones declared that the story was not over when he died.

Joseph teaches us how to die. That is to lean forward with trust. Joseph died believing he would make it home. He may have believed this to be much sooner than it was, 400 years later. But Moses eventually came, and Joseph’s bones made the journey home.

We live, like Joseph, between promise and fulfilment. There are things God has spoken over our lives that we may not see completed in our lifetime. Joseph shows us how to hold those promises intact and to die with faith.

The same God who kept every promise to Joseph keeps His promises to you. You may be waiting on a promise that feels long delayed. Four hundred years was a major delay, but God finishes what He starts.

For years, the brothers had sheltered behind their father. Perhaps Joseph’s kindness had only been for Jacob’s sake. Now he was gone: What if? These two words come from a conscience that hasn’t quite accepted the grace given.

“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” ¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ¹⁷ ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. ¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.” (Genesis 50 v 15-21)

What if?

I am sure we have all said those two words that set off a panic moment, imagining the worst possible things that could happen.

In this scenario, what if Joseph had only been holding it together for father’s sake? What if the kindness was a performance, and now, he will deal with our sinfulness?

When Joseph heard another made-up story, he wept. After all that had happened, his brothers still didn’t know him and his love for them. They hadn’t understood the forgiveness he had already given them.

Joseph then gives the theological statement that has rang throughout the generations since: “You intended to harm me. God intended it for good.”

Joseph had come to understand something that we must also. Whatever has happened, God is bigger than whatever has sought to harm us.

He was ahead of his time.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, whohave been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8 v 28-30)

Everything of our life, what happens to us, what we have done, the hurts and difficulties are not outside of the gaze of God. Neither is it outside of His control. We may not realise this side of heaven, exactly how this works for the good. But the promise is that God is filtering everything and using it for His purposes.

More than this, He is also in control of our future. Predestined, called, justified and glorified. It shows us that God controls our eternity. He knows. Therefore, no one can say they have worked enough to get the qualification to get there. He has sorted it all.

So, whether in the present or in the future, God is in control of your life. Nothing happens outside of His control. He holds you.

That is the comfort we need today.

We can live as though God’s goodness is conditional, as though one more crisis might finally exhaust His patience or expose the limits of His care.

But Joseph’s words point us beyond himself to the God he trusted. You intended harm. God intended good. It is the ground on which we stand today.

Jacob had made his sons promise. They would not leave him in Egypt. He wanted to go home to Canaan, to a precise place.

Promises are easy; keeping them is another thing entirely.

“So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him—the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt— ⁸ besides all the members of Joseph’s household and his brothers and those belonging to his father’s household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen. ⁹ Chariots and horsemenalso went up with him. It was a very large company. ¹⁰ When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father. ¹¹ When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning.” That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim. ¹² So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them: ¹³ They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. ¹⁴ After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.” (Genesis 50 v 7-14)

It was a big funeral, probably the largest in the ancient world. That’s the first thing we notice. All for an old shepherd. But this old man had touched more people than he ever knew. His son was the second-most powerful man in Egypt, so when he died, the nation mourned him.

My eyes this morning hovered over not so much the enormity of the funeral, but a very small word, in verses 7 and 12.

So.

“So Joseph went up.”

“So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them.”

All that went before, the deathbed blessing, the charge to bury him in Canaan, the oath Joseph swore with his hand under his father’s thigh, he dies and then a very small word, so.

How many things do we know we should do, maybe even plan to do, but we never arrive at the ‘so’? We intended to do it. We may have even promised we would. There can be a huge gap between what we said and what we actually did.

His sons said they would do it. Jacob died with that promise. And when the moment came, it can be said, ‘So, they did it.’

There are many books on how to be successful and how to gain in this world. Not many people in the world will get to read those books, and if they did, it wouldn’t relate to their situation.

As I have been reading this next passage and thinking about Jacob’s death, I have had a text conversation with two men, one from Indonesia and the other in Africa. The Indonesian Pastor buried his teenage son not so long ago and is now facing the difficult and expensive journey to take his wife for cancer treatment. The African man is mourning his wife’s death and is making steps forward in a completely new chapter of his life.

Faith is not only measured by what has been gained. It is also measured by whom we have lost along the way and by what we do in the aftermath of their deaths. Suffering accompanies and reveals faith.

“Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. ² Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalmed him, ³ taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. ⁴ When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, ⁵ ‘My father made me swear an oath and said, “I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’” ⁶ Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.” (Genesis 50 v 1-6)

There are times to weep, to mourn your loss and to do all that within the protocol of your culture, perhaps. For Joseph, this was seventy days of waiting for the period of mourning to be over.

These days do pass.

There are times to do what you promised. To keep your word and honour commitments made.  A life of faith is not only measured by great achievements and what has been gained. But it is also measured by what and who we have lost along the way.

The conversation with the man grieving his wife’s death has filtered through this passage I have been reading. In the eyes of many, the man has been very successful. He has had many victories and years of plenty. His faith is not only measured by these things. It is also measured and is so now in the faithfulness of his life in loss.

That faithfulness looks like this: weep when you need to weep. Wait through the days that must be waited through. Then get up and keep your word; do what you said you would do.

That is what love looks like when it outlasts loss. This is what tests faith when those we love are taken from us.

Jacob is dying. He has finished blessing his sons, and he is now ready to give the final instructions. As a pastor, I saw this on numerous occasions. “Pastor, I’ve done my funeral” was usually the message that let me know everything was sorted upon their death. The family had been told where the grave was going to be or where the ashes were to be scattered. These final decisions have indicated what was important to them.

Jacob’s last instructions were about his grave. It had to be in a certain place. Where he wanted to be buried tells us everything about how he lived.

“Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. ³¹ There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. ³² The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.” ³³ When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.” (Genesis 49 v 29-33)

Where he was to be buried was a declaration of faith. Though he had spent 17 years in Egypt and his sons had built a life there for their families, he knew he had to return to Canaan. By insisting on burial alongside the covenant family, he identified himself with their story and with the future God had promised them.

The cave at Machpelah was the only piece of Canaan that Abraham ever legally owned. It may have been small compared to the land of Canaan, but it was tangible evidence that a covenant stake had been driven into the ground. To be buried there was to say, “I believe the promise. I am not an Egyptian. I am a son of the covenant.”

How he ended his life is a testimony to us even today, when the time comes for us to depart this earth. He refuses to let death anchor him to the wrong story. His story had so many ups and downs. But he ends his time on earth trusting that God would finish what God had started.

This is so encouraging for us all.

Yesterday I was talking to a friend about pensions and financial security in our later years. Maybe, reading this, you also think about such things. Our ultimate security is not found in earthly success or comfortable surroundings. It is found in belonging to God and trusting His promises. Like Jacob, we can face even death itself with confidence, knowing that God’s covenant faithfulness does not stop at the grave.

Jacob’s last words were about where he belonged. The truth is this: a life anchored in God’s promises can end in peace.

Moses closes the story of the blessings on Jacob’s sons with an interesting few words.

“All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.” (Genesis 49 v 28)

They didn’t have the same blessing, but they had the appropriate one for them.

The blessing was shaped for the person receiving it. Each one speaks to you and me, thousands of years later, living in the blessing of Christ.

Reuben — You are not cast aside and forgotten; under the blood of Jesus, you are at the table as a full son and daughter, not a diminished version of one.

Simeon and Levi — Your past does not have the last word; the cross does, for the blood shed in anger was answered by blood shed in love.

Judah — The sceptre belongs to the one who offers himself, and from this line came the King who earned the obedience of nations not by power but by sacrifice.

Zebulun — Purpose is not necessarily ahead of you but here, where you are right now, as you become the safe harbour others aim for in the storm.

Issachar — The Holy Spirit comes so you can carry something you could never carry in your own strength, so bend your shoulder.

Dan — Snakes don’t need to be seen to be effective, and God speaks justice over you before the world has seen a single thing.

Gad — The raiders don’t get the final word; you will attack at their heels, and you will live to fight another day.

Asher — What you carry is exactly what someone else needs at the table, and what you bring generously is fit for a king.

Naphtali — You were not meant to live constrained; when grace sets a life free, it releases the power of multiplication, so run.

Joseph — The wall, whatever it has been throughout your life, could never stop the vine, for the grace of God means fruitfulness beyond every barrier.

Benjamin — The same intensity that once tore things apart becomes, in surrendered hands, the energy that builds, advances, and refuses to quit.

God works the same way. He knows your name, everything about you, all that has happened in your life, the wounds and the graces. You are unique to Him. You are not just part of a crowd.  Which of these words speaks to you today? Jacob spoke the appropriate blessing. So does your Father. Receive it today.

Of all Jacob’s sons, Benjamin receives the shortest blessing. One image: a wolf. Jacob is not running out of words. This is certainly not a gentle blessing, and perhaps we are surprised by that. It is, however, something that will continue through the centuries that followed, and perhaps even to you today.

“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.” (Genesis 49 v 27)

Comparing Joseph’s lengthy blessing, Benjamin gets a sentence. It doesn’t sound much of a blessing, but it is.

Benjamin was the youngest and the one Jacob protected the most after Joseph was gone. We might have expected some tender words, but rather, he is a wolf.

History shows that the tribe of Benjamin produced some of Israel’s most ferocious warriors. Ehud, the judge, who delivered Israel from oppression. King Saul was the first king chosen to lead God’s people into battle. Even the apostle Paul, born of the tribe of Benjamin, who once devoured the church as a persecutor, and who by the grace of God spent the rest of his life dividing the plunder of the gospel across the known world.

The wolf became a servant of the Lamb.

Pause.

God does not waste nature, even the fierce red-hot tempers. The same intensity that once tore things apart becomes, in surrendered hands, the energy that builds, advances, and refuses to quit.

Maybe you have always been told you are too driven, focused and restless. But what others call a problem, God calls a gift waiting to be redeemed.

The wolf was always part of the plan.

We might have expected Jacob to save his longest blessing for Joseph. They are beautiful words of a dying man pouring what is in his soul to his son. His words reach beyond Joseph to us today. These words are for you and me.

“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. ²³ With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. ²⁴ But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayedlimber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, ²⁵ because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.
²⁶ Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince amonghis brothers.” (Genesis 49 v 22-26)

Perhaps we would have expected Jacob to say more about Joseph than any other son. These words are a blessing to us today.

1. Your life was never meant to be contained. This is why God has always written a new chapter for you. Look back and see the author. Whatever the pit, the slavery and the prison chapters are for you, the grace of God means this image: a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. The wall (whatever it has been throughout your life) could never stop the vine. That’s not resilience but the grace of God, as you have surrendered to Him.
2. God has been with you in every pit and palace of your life. With bitterness archers attacked him. The wounds were real, and yours have been too. But notice it doesn’t end in the wounding: his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber — because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob. Somewhere deeper than willpower or just your character or even the gifts that God has given you, which are irrevocable, was God Himself.
3. The truth we arrive at in the last point, we stay at. He has carried you through everything. Who has? The Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, the Almighty, the names could continue to be written here; there are so many, each carrying a testimony and revealing when heaven opened over your life. Jacob closes with something deeply personal: your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains. They are fresh and living blessings for today.

What wall stands before you today? Are you carrying marks of the arrows? God is the same. The Mighty One of Jacob is here. Goodness will come for He always finds a way to bear fruit in your life.