Daily Devotional Thought--From the Old Testament

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

From Genesis, chapter 45: ²⁵ So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. ²⁶ And they told him, "Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. ²⁷ But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. ²⁸ And Israel said, "It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."

You know the story well, Jacob’s favorite son had been beaten and sold to the Egyptians by his jealous brothers.  And while Jacob had thought for years that his son had died, because of the hand of God, Joseph had become the right-hand-man to Pharaoh himself.  And that’s when the good news comes—news that is too good to believe.

“Hey dad, Joseph is alive!  No, it’s even better, he’s ruling in all of Egypt!”

Like Thomas, who would later be slow to believe the other disciples account of the risen Lord, Jacob is stunned and cannot believe; his long lost son, seems to have been resurrected.  And while he doesn’t have to see Joseph to be convinced, he doesn’t believe until he sees the evidence: the carts that Pharaoh had sent with them to bring Jacob back to Egypt—carts that are loaded with the good things of Egypt even though they are in the midst of a terrible famine.  And so, the carts convince him that what his sons are saying about Joseph is true, and he must go to see him.

We know that Joseph wasn’t raised from the dead like Lazarus, and especially not like Jesus, but in Jacob’s mind, he was dead and gone.  Resurrection may be difficult to believe by itself, but it is even more difficult to believe that it can happen to people that have been cast off.  Who will we be surprised to see on the last day, when Jesus raises all the faithful and gathers them into heaven?  “Hey, I remember you!  It’s GREAT to see you again.”  We may be surprised by the likes of who we will celebrate eternity with, because, you see, while we may give up on people who seem to show no indication of a living faith, God does not.  Maybe the seed of faith hadn’t sprouted yet when we knew a person, or maybe we were too self-righteous to see the faith that did exist.  For many reasons, and ultimately because of God’s gracious love in Christ Jesus, there will be those who were forgotten by us, that will be our eternal brothers and sisters in heaven—and what a joy it will be.

Like Jacob who rejoiced that his son was alive, we too will rejoice for all those that are resurrected on the last day.

With hope in the resurrection! Amen.