It has been a bit so I want to start with a reminder that as we go
through The Story we are reminded of the Lower Story and the Upper Story. The
Lower Story is the things we deal with on a daily basis. It is the choices and
decisions we make. The Upper Story is God’s big plan, tied to His supreme
passion of wanting to spend eternity with us and how it works out in our lives.
In Genesis we saw that God created everything in the universes.
The opening verse, Genesis 1:1, introduces us to the Story’s main
character: God.
Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
See God is not something man dreamt up or He is not something that can
be explained through evolutionary theory of a ‘big bang’. God is the main
character of our Bible’s and as it tells us right here He existed before time,
He always was, The Creator, and a God with a plan.
God created everything out of nothing. He created order and wonder out
of chaos.
Day 1 –Light and Dark
Day 2 – Sky and WaterDay 3 – Land
Day 4 were the Sun, Moon, and stars
Day 5 was the birds and creatures of the sea
Day 6 was all of animal kind and human beings
Genesis 1:27
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.”
The crowning accomplishment of all creation was God’s core passion, and
that is that people were made in God’s image. In God’s opinion all of creation
regardless of how remarkable or beautiful we say it is dulls in comparison to
you. God’s sees you as His ultimate creation.
God’s supreme passion is to be with us at all costs.
Think about that for a moment. The God that existed before anything
else, the God that existed before all of creation, the God that existed before
the creation of the universe, the God that already exists in a loving community
as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit wants to spend time with you. You may not feel
like God is with you, maybe you wonder if He has forgotten all about you, but
Genesis 1 tells us something different. There is not even the slimmest of
chances that God has forgotten or overlooked you. His supreme passion is to be
with you at all costs. The entire Bible is about God’s passion of being with
you.
God created you to be with you!
Adam and Eve were essentially given a choice and as we know, they chose
to eat of the forbidden fruit and to turn away from the life that God had
created them for. God’s vision to be with His ultimate creation was ruined. He
had to take His plan to the next step and begin the process for restoration.
The rest of The Story, the rest of the Bible is about God’s pursuit to get us
back.
The life of Joseph, the son of Israel, is a great example for how God works
in the Upper Story while we are living in the Lower Story. Remember Joseph was
the favoured son of Israel and had a simple life of reading scrolls and hanging
around Mom and Dad while his brothers were out tending the fields and herd. Life
for Joseph went from great to real bad.
He was kicked over and over again. His brothers betrayed him and sold
him into slavery. He ended up as a slave in Egypt. When things started looking
up and going good, he was falsely accused and ended up in prison. He was lucky
he did not end up dead. He helped out a fellow prisoner and was forgot about.
Joseph had every reason to be angry at the world and God. Instead we find that
Joseph continually honored God and God
blessed him for it.
Joseph was sold into slavery.
Genesis 39:2
“The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in
the household of his Egyptian master.”
Joseph was thrown into prison.
Genesis 39:21
“But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted
him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.”
Joseph was summoned to Pharaoh.
Genesis 41:15-16
“15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have
had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you
that you can hear a dream and interpret it.” 16 “I am not able
to,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable
answer.”
God blessed Joseph and he became the number 2 man in
Egypt and that is when we see how the cruddy stuff that Joseph lived through in
the Lower Story was paving the way for God to work in the Upper Story. After
all of the hardships Joseph ended up exactly where he needed to be to save his
family and the new nation of Israel.
The story of Joseph reminds us that God is at work in
all the details of our lives to accomplish His purposes.
Romans 8:28
“We know that all things work together for the good
for those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.”
Knowing that God is working in our lives even when things seem to be
crumbling around us, allows us to honor Him and remember that we need to look
to the Upper Story and see what God has in store.
Remember God loves you and He wants to spend eternity with you!
Daniel and his three friends showed us a couple of
very important things, we need to keep our Christian identify and we need to
have faith. Remember they were strangers in a foreign land like we are
foreigners in the world we live in.
1 Chronicles 29:15
“15 For we live before You as foreigners and temporary
residents in Your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are
like a shadow, without hope.”
We are strangers in a foreign land where violence is on the rise. You
can’t watch the nightly news without hearing about something horrible happening.
We are strangers in a foreign land where greed seems to impact
everything around us.
We are strangers in a foreign land as morals and ethics continue to
deteriorate and people don’t worry about who they hurt.
We are strangers in a foreign land where over 1 million babies are
murdered each year through abortions.
We are strangers in a foreign land where faith is no longer important, and
many people Christian and non-Christian think there are many paths to heaven.
These things seem pretty foreign to me.
1 Peter 2:11-12
“11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary
residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you. 12 Conduct
yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak
against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good
works, glorify God on the day of visitation.”
We are strangers in a foreign land and we need to learn how to live in
this foreign land and continue to retain our identity and to be seen as the
Children of God. Peter tells us to ‘abstain from fleshly desires’.
Part of the Babylonian strategy to force captured people into their
society is to separate them from their people, change their names, and train
them in Babylonian culture, history, language, ethics, morals, and religion.
It started with something as simple as food. Part of changing their culture was to give them the
best food and wine from the kings table. At first glance it sounds like the
king is being a good host. The problem was that food and wine from the kings
table would have been offered to pagan altars. Daniel and his buddies did not
want to eat or drink food or wine that had been offered to idols. To some that
is worship and to many it would have been viewed as accepting the idol worship.
They requested a special diet and God blessed their health, which allowed them
to avoid the king’s food. Daniel and his friends continued to live as strangers
in Babylon.
Then we see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being
threatened to be thrown into the blazing hot furnace because they would not bow
down to the statue of the king. Instead of cowering to the threat they had
faith and spoke boldly about the power of the One True God.
Daniel 3:17-18
“17 If the God we serve exists, then He can rescue us
from the furnace of blazing fire, and He can rescue us from the power of you,
the king. 18 But even if He does not rescue us, we want you as
king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you
set up.”
Talk about having faith! They say plainly that our God can rescue us
from the fire and from you Nebuchadnezzar. They had faith that would get them
through just about anything that this world can come up with. What did God do,
He honored that faith and protected them.
Then Daniel would not stop praying to God and was thrown into the
lion’s den. King Darius was so upset with this that at first light he ran to
find out if God protected him.
Daniel 6:20-22
“20 When he reached the den, he cried out in anguish to
Daniel. “Daniel, servant of the living God,” the king said, “has your God whom
you serve continually been able to rescue you from the lions?” 21 Then
Daniel spoke with the king: “May the king live forever. 22 My
God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths. They haven’t hurt me, for I was
found innocent before Him. Also, I have not committed a crime against you my
king.”
Daniel was faithful to God and God was faithful to Daniel. Daniel and
his friends showed the world that being strangers in the world is not a bad
thing as long as you have faith in God. We to can live as strangers in the
world, with the presence and power of Jesus Christ. With His help we can be
‘in’ the world, but not ‘of’ the world.
Through our journey through the Old Testament we have
seen many, many things. I think these
examples remind us of the common themes.
God Created You to be with You!
God Loves You more than anything and He wants to spend eternity with
You!
Live for God not the world!
Trust in God every day!
I am looking forward to us re-starting our journey next week, Christmas
Sunday with chapter 22 The Birth of The King!
Thanks for Reading - Merry Christmas!
Robert
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