FAITH OVER FEAR

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph.

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, "Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare dinner; they are to eat with me at noon." The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph's house.

Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, "We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys." So they went up to Joseph's steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.

"Please, sir," they said, "we came down here the first time to buy food. But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don't know who put our silver in our sacks."

"It's all right," he said. "Don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver."

Then he brought Simeon out to them.

Genesis 43:15-23

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There wasn’t any other better option.

This is the realization that came upon Jacob as he considered the following circumstances:

First, nine of his ten sons returned from Egypt with grain to feed the family during a difficult famine but one son, Simeon, was held captive by the Egyptian ruler the sons dealt with.

Second, the Egyptian leader, who was none other than Jacob’s presumed dead son, Joseph, demanded that the other nine sons return to Egypt with their youngest brother, Benjamin, to prove they were telling the truth about their family. You’ll remember that Joseph accused them all as being spies.

Third, Jacob refused to send Benjamin out of fear that something would happen to him. In his mind, he had lost his beloved wife Rachel, and believed Joseph, his first son with her, was also dead. Benjamin was all he had left to connect him with Rachel and the thought of losing him was too much for Jacob to handle and so he decided to not send him away.

Finally, all the grain that was brought from Egypt ran out, leaving Jacob no other choice than to send Benjamin with his brothers as the Egyptian ruler had demanded. He made sure each son had two bags of silver, the one that they returned from Egypt with and a second one for the Egyptian leader. He also sent “some of the best products of the land” with his sons as an additional gift. Those products included “a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds”.

With this, we turn to our passage for today as we continue our study of Genesis, chapter 43. Look again at those words here:

So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph.

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, "Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare dinner; they are to eat with me at noon." The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph's house.

Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, "We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys." So they went up to Joseph's steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.

"Please, sir," they said, "we came down here the first time to buy food. But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don't know who put our silver in our sacks."

"It's all right," he said. "Don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver."

Then he brought Simeon out to them. Vv.15-23

Here, we find ten sons, including Benjamin, taking the gifts and silver to Egypt where they "presented themselves to Joseph." Of interest, we find that Joseph wasn’t interested in the gifts or the doubled sum of money in the sacks. His sole focus was toward once again seeing his little brother Benjamin.

What a joy it must have been for Joseph to see him. In fact, we find him immediately commanding his steward to "take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare dinner; they are to eat with me at noon." The scriptures tell us that the steward obeyed and carried out the instructions.

Now, you would have thought at this point that the sons would have felt overly fortunate. After all, they had feared being charged as thieves as well as spies upon their return but instead of a curse, they received a blessing.

So what happened? Why were the sons still gripped with fear?

The main problem was that they didn’t recognize the blessing because they allowed their fears to take over and overcome their trust in God. Just as their father had been reluctant to show faith in God to deliver his sons from harm while in Egypt, now the sons failed to have faith and trust God to deliver them once they were there.

How often are we like this, failing to properly recognize just how very blessed we are each and every day because we allow our fear to overshadow our faith?

Question: How well do you realize and acknowledge the many ways that God is blessing you every day? Like Jacob’s sons, do you miss the very things he is doing in and around you because you are afraid or fearful of your life circumstances?

If we’re honest, we all have probably been guilty of it, guilty of forgetting God’s awesome assurances a few of which include:

1. That He would never leave us nor forsake us

2. That He would never give us a burden we couldn’t bear if we only keep our trust in Him.

3. That through Him being with us, no one can be against us because He is on our side.

So what does the Lord do when we fall short of remembering His blessed assurances?

Many times, we find Him putting someone in our path to remind us of His promises and as we see in our scripture passage for today, He does just that for Jacob’s sons in the way of Joseph’s steward who points the sons back toward the true source of their good fortune.

...they went up to Joseph's steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.

"Please, sir," they said, "we came down here the first time to buy food. But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don't know who put our silver in our sacks."

"It's all right," he said. "Don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver."

Here, we find the sons communicating their anxiety and fear to the steward, detailing all that had happened. At the heart of their concern was the silver they had brought the first time somehow ending up back in their sacks with the grain which essentially meant they were given the food for free.

In response to these worries, we find the steward speaking peace into their hearts as he assures them that it was their God, the God of their father Jacob, who had given them the treasure in their sacks. He then blesses them further and returns Simeon to them from his imprisonment.

Friends, the message from our Lord is clear. He’s telling us to not be afraid in the midst of our uncertainties and challenges because all we need to do is commit our matter to Him. We need to lay our problems down at His feet and allow Him to handle our situations, fully trusting that He will bring us through.

When we do this, we find peace and not just any peace but one that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:6-7) because it can only be found in Him. When we trust our Lord completely, He, in turn, will assuage our fears and worries and stresses while revealing to us His glory and blessings. And so when times get difficult, let’s commit ourselves to turn our eyes toward Heaven and our Father who grants every good and perfect gift from above (James 1:17)..

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.