Day 17, or January the 17th. Our God is totally reliable.
Our thought today is rooted in Genesis chapter 50, verses 24 and 25. God will surely come
to your aid. God will surely come to your aid.
Now the big picture surrounding these verses. Joseph brings both of his sons born in Egypt,
to his father Israel, for a blessing. This usually only happened to sons, not grandsons.
But Jacob says that he will treat them as sons, just the same as Reuben and Simeon,
etc. He blesses them and treats Ephraim as the elder, just the same as Jacob had been
treated as the elder over Esau, many years earlier. Jacob then proceeded to bless all
his other sons, as his death approached. When he dies, Jacob is treated as an Egyptian
nobleman. He is embalmed and mourned nationally for seventy days. Joseph dutifully takes his
father and buries him in Hebron, in the same cave that contained his father Isaac and grandfather
Abraham. Joseph's brothers are scared now. They fear reprisals from Joseph, now that
their father has died. But Joseph reassures them that he is not looking for revenge. When
Joseph dies, he is buried in Egypt on the understanding that when his people do leave
Egypt for the promised land, he will be taken with them for burial. He was willing to wait.
And now our action step for today. In two consecutive verses we are reassured
by this lovely truth that God always comes to the rescue. Even in the darkest hours Joseph
knows that his God would come to his aid. Even when he was sold into slavery, even when
he was unjustly imprisoned, through it all Joseph knew that his God would come to his
aid. If you were going through good times at the moment, it's easy to say amen to
this. If you were going through trials and difficulties, it stretches your faith sometimes
to believe this. But it is nevertheless true. The account of Joseph is so reassuring, and
it's not because he was his father's favorite. It's because he trusted God in good times
and in bad. Trusting can become a habit, one of the best you can ever develop.