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Where is God's Story Going?


(Photo cred: Pixabay via PEXELS.com)

(Originally written for The Baldwin Bulletin: Pastor's Column August 2, 2019)

“I didn’t know where you were going at first…” remarked one of my congregants after a recent sermon. Most people who listen to sermons have probably thought that before…and so have the pastors preaching them. I’m a “manuscript preacher,” meaning I write out my sermons every week. There are definitely times in my preparation when I have to stop and ask myself how I got to a certain thought or idea. Sometimes I trust the Holy Spirit has brought me in a direction I didn’t plan or expect to go, but other times sentences and paragraphs meet my computer’s delete button.

The Bible and God’s plan can be like that at times, too. In Genesis 37, we meet a man named Joseph, the son of Jacob (a.k.a. Israel—yes, that’s where the name of the country originates, see Genesis 32). Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons…When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. Joseph’s brothers plotted to kill him, but before they did, one spoke up to rescue Joseph, convincing his brothers to only throw him in an empty cistern. Then the brothers decided to sell him off to merchants who brought him to Egypt.

If you opened your Bible to that account, without knowing anything else, you’d likely think, “I don’t know where this is going.” Something we learn through Joseph’s life is God enabled him to interpret dreams. After several years, Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, got to witness this firsthand and made Joseph, a foreigner who came to Egypt as a slave, his number 2.  

Through dreams, it was known a time of agricultural abundance was coming, followed by famine. Joseph prepared Egypt for this, and eventually his family sought out food there. They didn’t realize, however, the one helping them was the brother they had once sold. Long story short: amends were made, the whole family moved and settled in Egypt, and they grew in number. As we enter the book of Exodus, we find the Israelites ended up enslaved by the Egyptians for centuries. But out of slavery, much like we begin our lives enslaved to sin, God redeemed the Israelites and set them free, a glimpse of the freedom those who trust in God have through Jesus.

It takes years for this all to develop. It takes chapters and multiple books of the Bible to see where this was going. There’s so much that goes on in our lives and in this world, which we don’t understand when it’s happening. God does have a plan though, and can use any event, to accomplish his salvation. Where is God’s story going? We are called to trust and love and obey.

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