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Wisely Choosing Silence

Today’s chapters:

Genesis 36, 37

Matthew 13

Psalms 10

The very first thing that we hear about Joseph’s character at the age of 17 is that:

Genesis 37:2d NLT
But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.

Modern culture might label Joseph a “snitch”, but we don’t know how bad the things the brothers were doing here — or how much those things endangered the family, etc. We do see that Joseph “chose to speak about it”.

It is also clear that these half-brothers had chosen to make an enemy out of Joseph his whole life:

Genesis 37:4 NLT
But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.

Notably, it can have a devastating effect on children’s development when a parent plays favorites and spoils a child, and it can make them a target:

Genesis 37:3 NLT
Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.

Admittedly, Joseph’s telling his brothers his dream might have been innocent or it could have likely been boasting. There is no question that it seems either very foolish and naive or extremely prideful, (Depending on our own assumptions when we first read this, right?)

While reading this, I’m immediately reminded of wise advice from the New Testament book of James that we should consider when it comes to “choosing to speak” (especially when sharing our vision and our plans):

James 4:13-17 NLT
Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

Admittedly,  these were dreams and visions sent from God to Joseph, not “his own pretentious plans”, but there is still wisdom in being silent unless God tells us to speak on such things.

There is something the world calls strategic secrecy that could also be rooted in the categories of humility and wisdom that the Bible teaches.

Strategic Secrecy

“Don’t tell your plans to your enemies” means that you should keep your future intentions and strategies confidential, especially from people who might actively try to hinder your progress or success; essentially, avoid giving your opponents any information that could allow them to sabotage your plans. 

Key points about this phrase:

  • Strategic secrecy: By not sharing your plans, you prevent your enemies from anticipating your moves and taking action to thwart them.
  • Maintaining an advantage: Keeping your plans close to your chest gives you the element of surprise and allows you to react flexibly to situations. 

Having a vision, a plan, and dedicating ourselves to hard work are wise:

Take time 

  • Proverbs 21:5: “The plans of the diligent lead to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty”
  • Luke 14:28-33: Consider the cost before starting a project

Seek counsel 

  • Proverbs 15:22: “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed”

Commit to the Lord

  • Proverbs 16:3: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” 
  • Proverbs 16:9: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” 

Plan for good 

  • Proverbs 14:22: “Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness”

Plan with pure motives

  • Proverbs 21:5-8: Careful planning leads to success in the long run 
  • Biblical Leadership: God blesses planning that is pure-hearted, prayerful, and seeks to glorify Him

I can tell you from a mountain of personal experience, that God does bless and encourage planning. But how He gets us to our vision and purpose rarely looks exactly like we expected or planned for. Joseph definitely couldn’t have expected from these dreams the turmoil and chaos that was going to come into his life as part of fulfilling these dreams,  right?

Lord, help us to not play favorites and create division by doing so — the consequences can cause unnecessary pain, heartache, and chaos, even if we know you will eventually turn it to good for those who love and obey you. Help us to repent and make amends where we have done this. And Lord, help us to not be jealous and envious — living in a victim mindset instead of a grateful mindset will lead us to justifying all kinds of wickedness and evil against others we have painted in our minds as an “enemy” when they are truly just an imperfect brother/neighbor trying to make their way through this journey as well. Help us to forgive and make amends where we have done this. Lord, help us to plan alongside with your wise counsel and the counsel of wise advisors, but there is nothing to gain in sharing our pearls with those who won’t appreciate it, who won’t help us get there, and who might oppose us. Lord, help us to be more quiet about what we are “going to do” and more active and diligent in what we are “doing to get there”. And keep us in your presence and on this narrow path as we fulfill the good works you have set before us.  Correct us in your gentle mercy when we are tempted to be cystectomy or stray, for your glory not our own boasting. May we continue to be genuinely humble about this work you do and the blessings you provide, and to repent and make amends when we have not. Amen.

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Doing Good to Evil People

Readings:

Genesis 34

Genesis 35

Matthew 12

Matthew 13

Psalms 10

In the heat of anger, the flesh cross out for “justice” but what it really wants is “vengeance”. And there is a high cost to vengeance, not just for us — but for all around us. Using vengeance against one person who has wronged us usually means significant collateral damage. We hurt more people than just the offender when we seek vengeance on our own,  and we create danger for us and those around us.

This is why the Lord tells us that vengeance is His. He is better at diverting actual justice and insuring full amends and compensation because He can turn what was meant for evil to good.

Romans 12:19-21 NLT
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

Genesis 50:19-21 NLT
But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.

As Jesus tells us the parable of the seed in Matthew 13, we have to consider which type of person we are:

Matthew 13:11-12 NLT
He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.

And if we are someone who doesn’t yet have eyes to see our ears to hear,  Jesus gives us the recipe. 

Matthew 13:12 NLT
To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.

Will we just hear this Word, or we listen?

Are we willing to listen, contemplate and try to understand?

Are we willing to wrestle with it when the Word teaches The Way that is narrow and uncomfortable to the desires of our flesh and humiliating to the foolishness of our ego?

If someone says,  “Do good to people who are evil to you” — our flesh and our ego will stand up to call them an idiot. But do we have another still quiet voice that wants us to listen and understand what is being taught?

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Servant, Chosen, Beloved *Your Name Here*

Readings:

Genesis 31

Matthew 12

Psalms 9

Matthew 12:18-21 NLT
“Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious. And his name will be the hope of all the world.”

This passage in Matthew speaks to the prophecy in Isaiah about the Messiah, so to only make it about ourselves would not be a perfect application. We MUST realize that this is first and foremost about Jesus Christ, Jeshua Hamaschiach, our Lord and Savior. And only when this is clearly about Him, and when we realize that He walks with us,  and that the Holy Spirit lives in and through us — can we safely and humbly examine our life to see how our life is also the life of a chosen, beloved servant of the Lord.

What is it to be a servant of the Lord, to be chosen? To be beloved and pleasing to the Lord?

Be filled with the Spirit of the Lord.
Proclaim justice to the world, but not by fighting or shouting or raising our voice to be unable to ignore in public — but so gentle that we do not crush the brokenhearted or put out the flame of hope. Our lives will demonstrate that Christ is victorious and that their hopes for justice will be fulfilled.

Those who are truly servants and messengers of the One true God are not making a name for ourselves or putting ourselves on display — yet we do not hide the light we have been given either.

We do not cower or refuse to deliver this good news to the world and to the nations. He makes it so. Amen.

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Apples and Trees

Readings:

Genesis 29

Genesis 30

Matthew 11

Psalms 9

Isn’t it interesting how Jacob the deceiver becomes Jacob the deceived (when he is given Leah first instead of Rachel). And how Abraham’s sleeping with Sarah’s maid is multiplied in how Jacob ends up with two wives and both their maids.

I’m reminded that the example we set for our children is important for their lives. It seems that the enemy knows what temptations are most familiar and attractive to our family.

Watching TV with my daughter and wife recently,  I heard JJ and his father Groff  on “Outer Banks” laugh about “apples and trees” — alluding to that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I’m reminded that “apples and trees” are a good reminder for all of us sinners since Adam.

What generational curses will be broken in us that our children will not suffer or which will be compounded?

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Want good outcomes?

Readings:

Genesis 24

Matthew 9

Psalms 8

The story of Jacob’s servant going to find Isaac a wife reminds me of the power of a humble prayer. The servant didn’t pray so that God would do something amazing that would make the servant look good for picking a good wife for his master. No, the servant was concerned that on his own, he might make a foolish decision.

Isn’t it so true that the proud that “know what should be done” and who listen to no one else,  and who definitely don’t ask God are usually do not produce the best outcomes. For example,  a CEO of a ruthless haircare insurance company might know what is best for making himself and those around him rich — by taking advantage of people and not providing the services that they have paid for, but instead keeping more of the money that is fair or just. Yet, his wife and children have no husband anymore, the reputation of his company is that they are murderers, and those he profited fear that the people might rise up and kill then as well. Imagine being rich but living in fear that the people will rise up and murder you,  or having nightmares about all those souls who have died because you denied them care, that is a poor way to live no matter how much money one might have.

But this servant was wise. He asked for counsel from his master. And he asked for help from God. What a great example for us to follow!

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Lord, Open our Eyes

Readings:

Genesis 21

Genesis 22

Genesis 23

Matthew 8

Matthew 9

As I read about God opening the eyes of Hagar at the well in Genesis 21:

Genesis 21:19 NLT
Then God opened Hagar’s eyes, and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink.

I am reminded of the fact that the Samaritan woman at the well was Jesus’s first evangelist — the first in the gospel of John to recognize Jesus as Messiah and actively spread the good news about Him to her community. She would have been a marginalized outsider in her community,  in parallel to Hagar who was cast out by Sarah and Abraham’s community.

Both of these women were considered outcasts from the “Jewish” community,  yet these are the women God spoke to directly, and through whom God would grow another community.

As I read about Abraham offering Isaac his son,  I am reminded of how this parallels Christ the son on the cross — and how it parallels the life of the believer. We must die to ourselves daily,  and we mystery gave the refining fires of the trials that we will face as followers of Christ walking through this foreign land.

The Lord has provided the sacrifice (Christ), and he also teaches us to be like Isaac and to be like Jesus, trusting our Father in Heaven to not harm us — even when it may look in the moment like they might slay us. It will sound weird, but I love those moments in my life where I have faced what looked like the end, that seemed as if God had written my ending — yet He makes a way where there was no way. Those moments are intense and not fun in the moment — but how wonderfully they grow our faith and our testimony!

As I read Matthew 8

Matthew 8:27 NLT
The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”

I thought to myself “Who is this man?” — shouldn’t they know by now? They have been walking with Him as his disciples for some time now! But I wonder how often we are in the presence of true,  powerful men and women of God — yet never recognize it because of their humility? We probably expect someone to look powerful with a title and position and plenty of followers so much that we might miss the miracles that follow these believers because they walk with God. We may not see so many of their prayers being answered because they do not pay publicly and loudly like the ones who want to be seen. We may not realize when just the shadow of their presence (which was truly the presence of the Holy Spirit of God) changes the atmosphere and demons scatter and flee from the light. I wonder how many times I have been unaware whole sitting amongst truly powerful ambassadors of Christ because my eyes weren’t adjusted to seeing true riches and true treasures and true power!

And isn’t this the right heart and mind of every Christ follower– not that we would see ourselves as great or powerful — but that we would know our need for our Lord and Savior:

Matthew 9:13 NLT
Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

It is the humble that He protects and the proud that He opposes:

Psalms 7:10 NLT
God is my shield, saving those whose hearts are true and right.

And those with renewed hearts and minds — those walking with their guide, comforter and teacher — those bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, against this there is no law, and there is no fear of God’s being just even as He is merciful. It is the wicked man that fears the law because he breaks it, not the godly man. And for the wicked man, trying to keep the law can’t save him — because he can’t keep it, and even if he kept the letter of the law, he can’t comprehend the meaning and purpose of the law is to lead him to God (not to just measure his own filthiest).

The law is a mirror to see that we are filthy. If you look in a mirror from far away, but the closer you get and the more you look into the mirror, you will see that you are dirty. But the mirror does not clean you, and neither does trying to keep the letter of the law. Because if your heart is filthy, you only need to look close enough into the mirror and you will see that your life is filthy in some way as well (no matter how hard you might try to hide it, or to look clean, or to justify your filth).

So are we washed by the Blood of the Lamb, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk as a new creation?

If so, we can walk upright and praise God for being just — because He has adjust been merciful:

Psalms 7:17 NLT
I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

But if we cannot praise a just God, is it because we have not truly repented of our sin,  have we clung tightly to some sin that we’ve refused to hand over to God? Are we foolishly presuming upon the kindness and mercy of God and expecting that He will not be Holy, righteous, and just?

Hebrews 10:20-31 NLT
By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. For we know the one who said, “I will take revenge. I will pay them back.” He also said, “The Lord will judge his own people.” It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Lord, open our eyes in your mercy, reveal yourself to us, teach us, guide us, and mold us, so that we can do the good works you have irritated for us. Do not let us get puffed up by the work that you do through us, but let us be humbled that you use someone even like me. Heal our hearts to be like yours, our lives to bear the fruit of your presence, and help us to walk upright and straight so that we love and abide in your justice and your holiness and your righteousness. We cannot get there without your mercy, nor can we take your mercy for granted and love a flawed “idea of mercy” while we love wickedness and sin instead of You. Amen.

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Polishing with Suffering and Lament

Readings:

Job 17

Job 18

Job 19

Job 20

In all of Job’s mourning, in his deep suffering — no one would actually listen to him and consider that his words could be true. Not one of them had even considered that God had removed the hedge of protection around Job, or that God might call Satan’s attention to Job to be purified by the refining fires of true, deep suffering.

Look at the examples of so many who walk with God who have faced levels of suffering that would leave those who do not know God saying, “He has sinned and God is punishing him” or similar. But have they not heard Jesus’s preaching from the mount that teaches about what real blessing looks like — do they not hear the call for us to share in the suffering of Christ — so they not know the example Christ and the Apostles and the martyrs have set before us?

Or are everyone’s eyes set upon chasing happiness and fulfillment and being honored in this life?

How often have I foolishly thought easy was best — rather than remembering that broad is the way that leads to real destruction.

I’m grateful for the book of Job and the Psalms of lament like Psalm 6, Psalm 38, Psalm 10, Psalm 42, Psalm 43, and Psalm 130 — and even in Jesus’s words of Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 where He recites the words from Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”

We should not be surprised that suffering and lament are tools the potter uses like sand and grit to polish a fine finish on his vessels.

Thank you Jesus.

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Be Perfect as God is Perfect: Love Your Enemies

Readings:

Genesis 14

Genesis 15

Genesis 16

Matthew 5

Matthew 6

Psalms 6

Love your enemies — not just your friends and those who treat you well. This is the emphasis of Jesus’s sermon on the mount when He says,

Matthew 5:48 NLT
But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

It’s easy for us to be offensive and petty when we are offended. In fact,  that is probably our default — “you hurt me, so I’ll hurt you” seems to be how our pride and our flesh screams out for what it thinks is “justice”.

But God has a different way. And it isn’t to be a spineless coward either. Mercy and loving our enemy is strength under control. We may have the strength, the ability, the opportunity,  and even the self justified motive for why we might destroy our enemies, but we are told to love them — and to leave Vengeance to the Lord.

Romans 12:19 NLT
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.

This advice in the New Testament builds upon what we see in the Old Testament:

Psalms 94:1 NLT
O Lord, the God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!

Leviticus 19:18 NLT
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

The New Testament goes beyond loving your fellow kinsman and neighbor even to living your enemy. And isn’t this how Good loves us?

Romans 5:6-11 NLT
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

And such a call is beyond the weakness of our flesh and pride. So Lord God our Redeemer and our strength,  you must do this in us and through us. Since this is who you would have us be. Help us to not resist your Holy Spirit and to willingly die to ourselves and be raised to life in you today.  Amen.

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How different holiness “looks” than we might expect

Readings:

Genesis 11

Genesis 12

Genesis 13

Matthew 5

Psalms 5

Man, how many things we take for granted these days. Imagine a world so corrupt that a faithful and righteous man who walks with God chooses to offer up his wife to a ruler as if she is his sister so that he would not be killed — and God, knowing Abram’s heart and the whole situation brings curses onto the rulers house and blessings through this wickedness onto Abram and his wife. In a world where laws and attempts at justice for all are at least the appearance that most people and nations want to project — this story can seem confusing and uncomfortable, right?

But imagine how much closer our sin is to what Abram did here — in fact, how much closer our best acts are to what Abram did here — than they are to the holiness of God. In fact, our best works are filthy rags. We can easily be distracted if we’re looking for Abram, ourselves, or anyone else to be the hero figure in these stories. No, we are all fallen, we have all fallen short, we are all in great need of Christ.

And, I love the “don’t go to the altar of you have unsettled problems with someone”. Some of the most valuable missed Sunday church services or “walk outs” in the middle of a church service have been when I’ve remembered this very verse — and choose to fear God more than fearing man.

Those moments when you know that any attempts at actual prayer time in the presence of God are going to be hindered, and instead of “looking like a good church goer” you’d rather “look like a heathen but walk as the church we are called to actually be”.

It’s funny how many times doing the things that God actually calls us to do won’t earn us any honor or respect in the eyes of people around us — and it shouldn’t anyways, if it’s really Him doing work through us.

And what about those times when we are hurting and grieving so deeply that the one that we have a problem with is God — and we’re faced with the Rock that we need to fall down upon, but it feels in some way that the rock might crush us.

This path is narrow, but it’s still so much better than when I stray or when I was blind and lost. Thank you Jesus!

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Drawing Close

Readings:

Genesis 4

Genesis 5

Genesis 6

Genesis 8

Genesis 9

Genesis 10

Genesis 11

Matthew 2

Matthew 3

Psalm 3

Matthew 3:10 NLT
Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

Good fruit is quite different than a religious/pious life or a life focused on less sin. Paul encourages us in Romans 7:24-25 that starts out “O wretched man that I am…” and in 1 Tomothy 1:15 where he proclaims “I am chief among sinners”.

The Way is not just about turning away from sin that hands is and others, it is about living close with God. We see this distinction about both Enosh and Noah who walked with God. We too are called to walk with God, to personally seek and know Him. He is not just our Lord, not just our Savior, not just Father God, but He is also our Friend.

It is this walk with Him that produces fruit that others around us get to enjoy — not works of our own hands, but supernatural nourishment provide to others by the Holy Spirit working through us.

Like Peter’s shadow healing the sick in Acts 5:14-16 and “miracles following those who believe” mentioned in Mark 16:17-20 — God uses those He loves and that love Him to be a blessing to those around us — just as He models in Israel to be a blessing to the nations (Gen 12, Gen 18:18, Gen 22:18, Jer 4:2, Zech 8:12).

Isn’t it so much more amazing that God does work through us to bear fruit than just some demand that we be good enough to earn or prove our worth and value to Him? Being in His presence changes us, and He is responsible for the good works He prepared for us in advance, and even for our salvation, so that none of us should boast our get puffed up in religious pride.

What a wonderful, awesome, amazing God we serve, and know, and love. Amen.

And what about when it “feels” like a curse more than a blessing? What if we are hungry for nourishment ourselves, hurting, grieving, suffering?

He is the God that both builds up and tears down — and in all of it there is purpose. Jeremiah 1:10, Jeremiah 31:28, and Jeremiah 45:4

I love the song “Though you Slay Me” by Shane and Shane, and especially love the Son excerpt from John Piper where he voices the spirit of Job 13:15 that even in our suffering and pain, God is renewing us day by day (as 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 teaches).

John Piper says, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

So if we are in this current moment of grief, of suffering, of trial. of discipline, or “whatever does not feel good in the moment”, we can seek to understand in the perspective of eternity, not just feelings in a moment.

In fact, in these times, we are drawn to find our comfort in Him and not the things of this world.

Thank you Jesus!