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January
26
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Reading 1 - Genesis 42 & 43
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Peter Cresswell
Peter Cresswell
43:14
- In appealing to 'God Almighty' Jacob is echoing a phrase rarely used
in Scripture. The other occasions are Genesis
17:1 28:3 35:11 48:3. There is value in checking out the circumstances
of each use.
Peter
Forbes
42:6 In the bowing down of the brothers we begin to see the fulfilment of Joseph's dreams (Genesis 37:5-10)
ch
43 - Whilst it may be thought that Joseph was just getting his own
back on his brother for the evil that they had done to him that is clearly
not so for :30
he was anguished. He was not getting his own back - rather he was seeking
their repentance.
Peter
Forbes
The last thing Joseph had seen of his brothers was when they ripped his coat off him, threw him into a pit ready to kill him and then sold him as a slave. Even as brothers who were united in their hatred of Joseph, they still could not get on with each other when it came to getting rid of Joseph. One wanted to rescue him, others wanted to kill him and others wanted to sell him. Joseph's ten brothers were far from honest men - they were liars, cheats and almost murderers.
There was a big change in their maturity when Joseph next saw them. When Joseph suggested that they might be spies, his brothers replied, "Your servants are honest men, not spies."
So tests were set to find out if what Joseph's brothers had said was true. Would they measure up to the standard of honest men? This time they showed unity, self sacrifice, repentance, honesty, generosity and humility - qualities that showed that they had changed and had become Honest men.
The test is on for us too. We claim to be honest men, servants of Christ - how do we measure up? Has our life changed since before we became a Christian? Have we matured? Have we developed the Christ-like character he expects from us? One day the judgement will come and may we, like Joseph's brothers, be accepted.
Robert Prins
How
often the three readings tie in so well together! In the Genesis reading
today, Joseph is in the presence of his brethren, but they could
not discern him, just as the Jews in the main could not discern Jesus,
even going to the extent of fabricating fantastic and fanciful evidence
to refute His obvious triumph over the grave - which triumph the 3 Psalms
readings today so eloquently describe for us.
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Genesis
42:9 - At last God brings the sons of Jacob face to face with
the central issue in their lives. Accused of being spies, it is now the
very best thing to tell the Truth. No swift weaving of deceit now. No
collaborating to cover their tracks. They are trapped, as we all will
be in a way, as we stand before our Lord soon. The Truth, the Truth...
always the Truth, that is the best policy for life - the sons
of Jacob are now on their way to becoming the Sons of Israel.
42:13 -
"and one is not" - Out of their own mouths, confession is being
wrought. For at least 22 years the brothers had told their father lies
about Joseph. Here they are rehearsing for the moment when they will have
to tell him the Truth - though they know it not yet.
43:31-33
- What character Joseph had. Now he is in a position of power enough to
have them all slain for what they had done to him 22 years earlier.
But no! He sets up a fellowship meal with these villains, that when the
truth is out, their conscience may so smite them so as to embrace the
Grace of God. Joseph even arranged to wash their feet - v22.
What a magnificent example of Godliness this man was, and that hundreds
of years before our Lord showed the way, the truth and the life - John
14:6
Cliff York
Cliff York
in life clearly and wants truth.
And so in v9 a vow is made - not on a whim with no substance like Reuben's 42:38 but a solemn vow to guarantee Benjamin's life by bartering his own.
Jared Schipper
Reading 2 - Psalms 46, 47 & 48
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Peter Cresswell
Peter Cresswell
47:6-7 The cal to sing praises with understanding shows us that we must think carefully about the words we sing in our hymns and the words we utter in our prayers.
48:2
the joyful description of Jerusalem is contrasted by Jeremiah [Lam
2:15] with how he saw it after the Babylonians had taken Judah captive.
However it's fortunes will be restored when the lord Jesus returns.
Peter
Forbes
Psalm
46:1 -
"A very present help" - A help found to be very powerful and
effective in all our trials and difficulties. The words are
very emphatic: "He is found an exceeding, or superlative help
in difficulties." Do we believe that? Do we trust that He is
such? He has proven to be so, faithfully through the ages. Our challenge
is to live as though we believe it to be true.
Psalm
47:1-4 - The God with whom we have to do, is a God of awful majesty.
The universal and absolute sovereignty of a holy God would be too terrible
for us even to think of, were it not exercised by His Son from a mercy-seat;
but now it is only terrible to the workers of iniquity. While His people
express confidence and joy, and animate each other in serving Him, let
sinners submit to His authority, and accept His salvation. Jesus Christ
shall subdue the Gentiles; He shall bring them as sheep into the fold,
not for slaughter, but for preservation. He shall subdue their affections,
and make them a willing people in the day of His power. Also it speaks
of His giving them rest and settlement. Apply this spiritually; the Lord
Himself has undertaken to be the inheritance of His people. It shows the
faith and submission of the saints. This is the language of every thankful
servant of the Living God. The Lord shall choose my inheritance for me;
He knows what is good for me better than I do. Do we believe that?
Psalm
48:2 - "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city
of the great King" - But not yet! Only the eye of faith can see
this huge mountain. Mt Zion at this point is an insignificant little rise
just to the north of the old city of Jerusalem. But the day comes soon,
when it will be the Joy of the whole earth, and all people from every
nation will go against their nature, and willingly flow [as water] up
to the City of the Great King - Isaiah
2:1-4
Cliff
York
Reading 3 - Matthew 28
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Peter Cresswell
Peter Forbes
Peter Forbes
Matthew
28:1 - Chapter 27 should actually end with the
words recorded here - "in the end of the Sabbath." Chapter
28 begins - "As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week..."
There is an abundance of evidence that proves that Jesus was
interred in Joseph's tomb for a full 72 hours - i.e.. 3 full nights
and 3 full days. His death had occurred on the Wednesday (Paschal) afternoon
around 3pm. There is Bible evidence that the original Passover in Egypt
was also held on a Wednesday afternoon, with the lambs (or kid of the
goats) being slain between 3pm and 6pm on that day - Exodus
12:6 [see margin].
28:2
- "for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled
back the stone from the door, and sat upon it" - The resurrection
has now become an established fact. Righteousness has proven victorious
over sin, this part of the work of the Angels with Jesus has now been
completed, signified by the Angel sitting on the stone.
28:8
- "did run to bring his disciples word" -
Isaiah
52:7-9 "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that
bring good tidings, that publish peace; that bring good tidings of good,
that publish salvation; that say unto Zion, Thy God reigns! Thy watchmen
shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for
they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. Break
forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD
hath comforted his people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem." - Oh what joy
these women felt, yet they could not help but wonder whether some
cruel trick had been played on them. Fear and Joy are twin emotions that
attend the lives of every one of His Brethren oft times. The question
remains - which emotion rules your heart?
28:9
- "All Hail" - it is more probable that Jesus said "Peace
be with you" as "All Hail" is pure Anglo Saxon meaning "Health
be to you."
28:15
- "So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this
saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day" - This
account of the Jews is attended with the following difficulties and absurdities:(1).
The Roman guard was composed usually of 60 men, and they were stationed
there for the express purpose of guarding the body of Jesus. (2). The
punishment of "sleeping" while on guard in the Roman army was "death,"
and it is perfectly incredible that those soldiers should expose themselves
in this manner to death. (3). The disciples were few in number, unarmed,
weak, and timid. They had just fled before those who took Jesus in the
garden, and how can it be believed that in so short a time they would
dare to attempt to take away from a Roman guard of armed men what they
were expressly set to defend? (4). How could the disciples presume that
they would find the Roman soldiers asleep? or, if they should, how was
it possible to remove the stone and the body without awaking even "one"
of their number? (5). The "regularity and order" of the grave-clothes
- John
20:6-7 - show that the body had not been stolen. When men rob graves
of the bodies of the dead, they do not wait coolly to fold up the grave-clothes
and lay them carefully by themselves. (6). If the soldiers were "asleep,"
how did they, or how could they know that the disciples stole the body
away? If they were "awake," why did the guards suffer it?
28:19
- "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit" - Notice that it does not say "the names
of..." It is one name - the name of the Father Himself, by whose authority
the Son operates; and from whom the Holy Spirit Power emanates. The phrase,
"in the name" does not mean, here, "by the authority" of the Father, etc.
To be baptized in the name of the Father etc., is the same as to be baptized
"unto" the Father; it is the same as to believe on the "name" of Christ;
it is the same as to believe "on Christ,"
John 1:12. To be baptized "unto" anyone is to publicly receive and
adopt him as a religious teacher or lawgiver; to receive his system of
religion. Thus, the Jews were baptized "unto Moses," 1Corinthians
10:2. That is, they received the system that he taught; they acknowledged
him as their lawgiver and teacher. So to be baptized in the name
of the Father, or unto the Father, means publicly, by a significant rite,
to receive His system of religion; to bind your life to obey
His laws; to be devoted to Him; to receive, as the guide and comforter
of the life, His instructions, and to trust to His promises. To be baptized
unto the Son, in like manner, is to receive him as the Messiah - our Prophet,
Priest, and King - to submit to His laws, and to receive Him as a Saviour.
Cliff York
Cliff York