Zion's Women's Bible Study has been reading The Promised One: Seeing Jesus in Genesis by Nancy Guthrie. I have learned so much; it has been amazing to see Christ in all of the Old Testament stories. No, it wasn't just about an old man who built an ark, put the animals in two-by-two and was saved from the deadly waters. Instead, we learn that just as God's grace was poured out onto Noah and his family, God's grace is poured out on us, as believers, when we turn to Christ in faith. Noah was a sinner like you and me, but he was preserved and protected by God's grace and goodness. This is just a tiny example of what I have been learning - I wish my Sunday school teachers had shown me Christ in Genesis. Unfortunately, too many churches just take the stories at face value or try to find moral goodness from them. But, as I have been reminded over and over again in this study, the bible is a story. It is the story of Christ. It's all about Him. Creation, fall, redemption. We see Christ in it all.
"...beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them all the Scriptures the things concerning himself," (Luke 24:27).
This morning, my studying brought me to the story of Joseph (Genesis 37-50). Brian mentioned Joseph in the sermon on Sunday, and I've been thinking about him a lot lately. I feel like Joseph. We've all felt like Joseph at one time or another. We can relate to him. There are so many circumstances in life when it's easy to ask, "Can any good come out of this?" Yet Joseph didn't ask that question. He knew the answer was a resounding YES! Joseph was a fruitful sufferer.
Joseph understood that when God's people suffer, it isn't wasted suffering. During his best years of life, Joseph was locked in a prison. It would have been easy to think that something had gone terribly wrong in God's plan. But Joseph's mind doesn't go there: "Yet when we hear Joseph speak during his years in captivity, it is not complaint or self-pity or rage that we hear. Over and over again, we hear him speak of God in great submission and confidence," (pg 243). He knew that God had not forgotten or abandoned him. (In Genesis 39:1-23, eight times it says "The LORD was with Joseph.") Joseph knew that the jealousy, the pit, being sold into slavery, and eventually imprisoned was all part of God's plan to get him to Egypt. In fact, he "...emerged from prion celebrating what God was doing through his life by means of the suffering," (pg 244). And when Joseph's cruel brothers showed up for grain? Joseph was gracious and forgiving: "His recognition of God's invisible hand at work in his circumstances - even in the cruelty of his brothers - left no room for bitterness," (pg 246). Joseph clung to the promise:
"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..." (Genesis 50:20a).
The purpose of this story isn't to make us say, "Whoa, Joseph was a really Godly man, and I want to be like him." No, he draws our eyes to the One who said, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger," (John 6:35) as he sells grain to people from all over the earth during the seven-year famine. God allows (and even sends) pain and suffering into our lives; God summoned the famine (Psalm 105:16-19). Joseph didn't view God as a passive observer who quickly makes something good out of a disaster. "He has a purpose and design in what is happening to us from the beginning, and even though what is happening to us might not be good, God intends it all for our ultimate good," (pg 250). The purpose of suffering is to draw us closer to Him, the One who satisfies our hunger.
Author Nancy Guthrie bore a daughter with Zellweger syndrome, a fatal genetic disorder. The baby girl's life was filled with pain and suffering; she died just before her six month birthday. Despite having a vasectomy, they bore a second child, Gabriel, who also was inflicted with Zellweger syndrome. Gabriel lived to see his six month birthday, but not his seventh.
After such incredible suffering, Nancy is able to write, "Only when I turn my gaze to the cross of Christ can I begin to believe that God really can use something desperately evil and painful for incredible good. When we look to the cross, we see the most innocent victim, the most immense suffering, the greatest injustice, the most hurtful betrayal, the greatest physical and emotional agony. Surely putting the pure Son of God on the cross was the greatest evil of all time.
"But was it not also the greatest good ever accomplished? Because of the cross, guilty sinners like you and me don't get what we deserve - punishment. Instead, we get what we don't deserve - the mercy and forgiveness of God. When we look at the cross, it fills us with confidence that God is sovereign over everything - including evil and suffering," (pg 250).
May we know, as Nancy does and Joseph did, that Romans 8:28 is true:
"We know that for those who love God all things work together for good."
And place our confidence in the glory ahead:
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us," (Romans 8:18).
"...we can be confident that there is the purpose and promise [of glory] for all who are willing to share in the suffering of Christ," (pg 252).
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