120124 - Genesis 40-41 - God saves the world through an advance message and a man of sorrows

Tuesday SOAP: God saved the world from an upcoming famine by placing His servant Joseph within reach of Pharoah. Does God give insight to leaders of today about what He is about to do? It's there for us and for them, if we'll but seek it. (Amos 3:7)

-------------------
(Why "SOAP?" See http://www.enewhope.org/firststeps/journaling)
-------------------

S: And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. (Genesis 41:25).

O: This reminds me of the dreams given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel's Babylon. Neither Nebuchadnezzar nor Pharoah were specifically seeking the Lord's guidance. Yet God gave them guidance, albeit guidance requiring an interpreter.

A: In both cases God provided wise counsel for these rulers of world empires. Daniel even survived to give witness to the son and grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and even the conquering Medes and Persians. It's reported that Cyrus was shown the scroll of Isaiah which predicted his coming a hundred years before he was born, calling him by name. What might God be doing for world leaders even in our day? Does He send dreams to them? Are counsellors placed by Him to provide interpretation? Pharoah's dream proved to be the salvation of the world and the means of purchase of all Egypt, a type of the world, because he instantly saw the wisdom of Daniel's advice. But Nebuchadnezzar ignored the advice and consequently spent seven years living like an animal.

Our prayers for kings and those in authority, (1 Tim. 2:1-4), then, should first of all be that they would be saved, as is His wish for all men (1 Tim. 2:4), that He would give them guidance, surround them with counsellors who understand that guidance, and soften their hearts to listen to godly counsel. Above all, that they would be students of His already-revealed plans in His Word.

P: Lord, your Word and your direction to us through it gives us confidence that you are at work in the world and that you are not without means to change the direction of the basest of rulers. From oppressive regimes in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia to the executive offices in Europe and the United States, I pray that you will turn hearts in order to save more souls while there is time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have all contracted the virus....

Last week and this weekend, I spent precious development time trying to rid myself of unwanted software on my coumputer called " Virtumonde ." Believe it or not, I'm pretty new to viruses and that kind of thing, coming from a background of developing on the Macintosh platform and using the Windows platforms to deliver product on. Well, this was a nasty wake up call to what Windows users have to deal with all the time. Virtumonde is called "Adware" and it's something that has sneaked on to your computer either by being installed along with some kind of trial software, or getting past your computer's defenses on the network. Its job is to watch what you do at all times with your computer, then occasionally pop up advertisements. In my case, most of the time, these advertisements were for anti-virus software. But they kept popping up an installation window for the software and beginning the installation even when I clicked, "no" for "do you w
Read more

2023—Week21: Ezra01-Nehemiah11; John19-Acts04

Ezra-Nehemiah 11 : In the Jewish Canon, Ezra and Nehemiah are one book, and, although the division in ours makes sense, it’s clear that they cover the same basic period. They form one answer to the question at the end of 2 Chronicles’ hanging question, “Therefore, who among the LORD's people trusts in his God? Whoever among this group wishes to do so may travel to Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:23, ISV) Yet despite their trust, the people are greatly weakened until the ministries of Ezra and Nehemiah (and Haggai and Zechariah, Ezra 5:1) encourage them. Ezra’s trust is clearly represented in 8:22, where he is ashamed to request a protective guard for the fortune in treasures he carries, instead trusting in the hand of God for protection. Ezra’s prayer in Ezra 9, Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11, and the people’s covenant prayer in 9:5-37 are the outcome. Faith precedes confession, because we don’t fully understand how badly we fall short until it’s revealed to us. Even then, we ne
Read more

1 Samuel 28-29; Psalm 106; Romans 10

  June 4 : In Job 34:14 and Psalm 104:29, the authors make the point that if God withdraws His Spirit, we die and return to the dust. In today’s three passages, I see how crucial His continual presence is in my life. He withdrew His Spirit from Saul, and it upended his reign and legacy. He sent leanness to the souls of the Israelites in response to their repeated concupiscence and whining at Him about what He was providing. The religious leaders in Israel by the New Testament times had been purified to some extent of yearning for carnal pursuits and of literal idolatry by the captivity’s exposure to a carnal and idolatrous culture, but they had become religious relativists, taking their extreme fastidiousness about the Law as evidence of their holiness, while ignoring the purpose of the Law, which was to make them dependent upon God, to be ready for His salvation, to long for the true holiness they couldn’t find in themselves. As Paul has said, I have to avoid the ever-present temptati
Read more