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Day 17, or January the 17th. Our God is totally reliable.

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Our thought today is rooted in Genesis chapter 50, verses 24 and 25. God will surely come

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to your aid. God will surely come to your aid.

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Now the big picture surrounding these verses. Joseph brings both of his sons born in Egypt,

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to his father Israel, for a blessing. This usually only happened to sons, not grandsons.

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But Jacob says that he will treat them as sons, just the same as Reuben and Simeon,

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etc. He blesses them and treats Ephraim as the elder, just the same as Jacob had been

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treated as the elder over Esau, many years earlier. Jacob then proceeded to bless all

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his other sons, as his death approached. When he dies, Jacob is treated as an Egyptian

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nobleman. He is embalmed and mourned nationally for seventy days. Joseph dutifully takes his

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father and buries him in Hebron, in the same cave that contained his father Isaac and grandfather

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Abraham. Joseph's brothers are scared now. They fear reprisals from Joseph, now that

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their father has died. But Joseph reassures them that he is not looking for revenge. When

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Joseph dies, he is buried in Egypt on the understanding that when his people do leave

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Egypt for the promised land, he will be taken with them for burial. He was willing to wait.

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And now our action step for today. In two consecutive verses we are reassured

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by this lovely truth that God always comes to the rescue. Even in the darkest hours Joseph

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knows that his God would come to his aid. Even when he was sold into slavery, even when

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he was unjustly imprisoned, through it all Joseph knew that his God would come to his

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aid. If you were going through good times at the moment, it's easy to say amen to

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this. If you were going through trials and difficulties, it stretches your faith sometimes

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to believe this. But it is nevertheless true. The account of Joseph is so reassuring, and

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it's not because he was his father's favorite. It's because he trusted God in good times

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and in bad. Trusting can become a habit, one of the best you can ever develop.