What is the church? Dependent on Grace...actively.

What is the church?  And what can we liken it to in the cupbearer?

"But remember me when it goes well with you, and please may you show kindness with respect to me, and mention me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For I was surely kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me in this pit.”"

The church, though chosen and blessed by God are not forbidden nor discouraged from using all available means before them to improve their situation.  The world is ours after all.  So when presented with a chance to gain Pharaoh's ear, Joe doesn't sit mum and think, "well, the Lord will provide."  The manna shows up miraculously every day, yes, but we still were required to go out and gather it.  With our hands.  And mix it and knead it and bake it to make bread.

In the same way, God provided the opportunity with the cupbearer and Joe avails himself of it.  And the cupbearer would actually turn out to be the means of grace to Joe... in God's timing...

"And it happened that after two full years Pharaoh dreamed...Then the chief of the cupbearers spoke with Pharaoh, saying, “I remember my sins today."

The church are those who can work with the cupbearer who forgets us and his three days with us in the pit but eventually remembers his sins before the king of Egypt, because we believe and trust in the one who dwelt with us, bore the cup of wrath for our sins though He had done nothing deserving of the pit, spent three days in the pit and then was restored to his place as King of Kings beside God's throne where he forgets our sins but never his great love for us so that in His timing, He can set us on the throne next to him!

What is the church? Called.

What is the church?  What shall we liken it to in Genesis 6?

"And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth was filled with violence because of them. Now, look, I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood..."

i'm always telling my kids in the Sunday school class i teach, 'Don't skip over that!  Don't read, "And God said to Noah," as if it were, 'Once upon a time,'!  In some ways, it is the most important and improbable words in the Bible!  That God, The God, Yahweh, the Great I AM, spoke TO us!  That's why we know anything!  That alone sets up the church!  God called us!  Jesus, God in the flesh, called us, "Come, put down what you're doing and follow me.  Put down what you presently consider your life, take up your cross, the life I will give to you of service and sacrifice, and follow me.  God calls people as they are, yes; God formed you in the womb and knows you through and through and loves you as He made you, but what we do with that on our own is very rarely what He has for us to do!  Otherwise stories like this one with Noah would read more like, "And God came to Noah who was building a boat and said to him, "Nice boat.  I spoke to the animals, they should be arriving sometime after Thursday."  And Noah spake unto him, "Cool."  And God merrily went upon his way.

"When Israel (which means, 'wrestles with God') was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt (slavery to sin)  I called my son."  (Hosea 11)

 

Know for Certain

“Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

These are words God told Abraham way back in Genesis 15. When one looks backwards at prophecy fulfilled there's not a lot of awe. Our natural reaction is somewhere along the lines of, "duh. I saw the Ten Commandments and/or Prince of Egypt. Who doesn't know that?" What we forget is that, Abraham hadn't seen those movies. He was a little behind with Netflix. He was talking to God and God was telling him what was going to happen in the next four hundred years. Wow. That had to be mind blowing. Too bad God doesn't tell us what's going to happen now, huh? Right?

Only he does. God's always telling us what's going to happen. It's one of the ways He proves He is God, in control and immutable. God never saw something happen and said, "Oh myself! I totally didn't see that coming!" Quite the opposite. He warns us all the time what's coming so that we can be faithful and confident in Him and His power. Setting aside even the prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled, we'll deal with them later, let's go back and look at His words to Abe.

"Why?" you may ask. "This prophecy was fulfilled. There's nothing here for us apart from a bit of history and an object lesson. What can five thousand year old words tell us today?"

1. First, they tell us that it's pretty freakin' amazing that we have a recorded conversation that occurred five thousand years ago! That's not really my point, it just now hit me how wild that is. Sorry.
2. This conversation is between God and man. God took some time out of His day to talk to his created child. Don't lose the awe of that! That right there should tell you something vital about His nature. He wants us to know some things. He doesn't want us kept in ignorance. He wants us to know Him and so He talks with us. And what does He say?
3. "Know for certain..." See, don't wonder, KNOW. I'm gonna tell you.
4. "...for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there." He knows our plight. Not only that, but He's allowing it...for a while. For you see...
5. "But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves," He's keeping records and nobody's getting away with anything. You are His and while it may not feel like He's protecting you, He doesn't take lightly anything done to you. Our best guess as to when the Exodus happened was right after Pepi II's reign. A guy named Merenre II, believed to be his son took power for only one year. Archeologists have no idea what happened to him (cause they're not looking on the bottom of the Red Sea) but they know that his reign began something called the First Intermediate Period. A one hundred and fifty year Dark Ages for Egypt that kicked off with famine, plague, looting, chaos, an end of international trade, art and building and civil war. Just the kind of thing you may think would happen after: the Nile turns to blood; having enough of blood, the frogs abandon the Nile for the people's homes; dust becomes gnats all over everyone's faces; God ups the ante and adds flies to the gnats (i'm picturing those freakin greenhead ones that bite you in the center of your back and even draw blood); a disease strikes the Egyptian livestock; boils cover the Egyptians; a hailstorm kills everyone outside; locusts finish off the Egyptian crops; God sends darkness upon the Egyptians, darkness that can be felt (i have no idea what that is but it sounds creepy); all the firstborn who are not protected by the blood of an unspotted, innocent lamb die in one night (remember what i was saying about God telling the same story over and over again?)
6. "...afterward they will come out with great possessions." God compensates his. That generation, who had known nothing but slavery, oppression and poverty, in one day was free and rich beyond they're dreams.
7. "You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age." A lot of times, when God really digs you, He spares you from coming tragedy altogether. (Enosh, Noah, Abe, Lot, Elijah, Daniel, the Rapture)
8. "In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." God's got a plan and a limit. He's merciful. He tolerated the Amorites nonsense for four hundred years until their sin just got so putrid He'd had enough and He wasn't going to let them pollute the rest of the world with it any longer. Many like to paint this as a portrait of God's genocidal nature. Few see it as mercy and justice. What was the final straw for God. How do you know when you've finally pushed Him too far? Seems like a good thing to know right? What is the last recorded act of Pepi II in the Bible? The slaughtering of the Israelite children. What religious rites were the Canaanite's known for? Temple harlotry and child sacrifice. "But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel." (2 Kings 16) "Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?" (Ezek 16) Is it really psychopathic genocide to wipe out a people who kill their own kids? Would you want to live next door to them? Go to school with them? Have them serve on your town council?

As sexual promiscuity and perversion become the norm and abortion statistics become more staggering and sad, one (one being me) wonders how much more of US will God take?

Next post: What is God still telling us? or How the answer to the last post is probably, "Not Much."