We are all God’s ambassadors to everyone we meet, regardless of our culture, customs, or circumstances, and should make the most of the hands we’ve been dealt. Ceilon Aspensen, January 25, 2024February 4, 2024 Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is we are all God’s ambassadors to everyone we meet, regardless of our culture, customs, or circumstances, and should make the most of the hands we’ve been dealt. Genesis 49-50: We are God’s ambassadors to everyone we meet, regardless of culture or customs. Matthew 25: Each of us is responsible for our own salvation. No one else can do it for us. Regardless of the hand we are dealt, we are to play that hand for all its worth for the maximum payout. We are responsible for making the most of what God gives us. Psalms 25: We all make mistakes, but if we seek God and cry out for his help and forgiveness he will restore us to himself. Proverbs 25: The ways of God are unfathomable. We can only do all we can to stay close to him and be true to his commandments and the spirit of the law in all of our dealings, and in doing so we will be provided for. In these last chapters of Genesis, we see several important things. The first is the reminder that no matter what kind of life we live, whether glorious and full of successes, or persecuted and full of injustices, or something in between, we all face the same fate in the end–our individual stories will all come to an end at some point and we will all die. It’s one of the only guarantees of life on Earth. We see not only the end of Jacob’s story, but the circle of life, completed. Jacob dies and is laid to rest in the burial place he chose for himself so many chapters ago, back in Canaan. Joseph honors his father’s wishes about where to be buried, and once they have traveled to that place he is buried and mourned according to the customs of Jacob’s ancestors. Another important thing we see in these chapters is that before carrying Jacob back to Canaan, Joseph has him embalmed as per the Egyptian custom and Jacob is mourned by the Egyptians according to those customs. This is something important that I think a lot of people (particularly traditionalists) miss altogether. Joseph has become an Egyptian, culturally. He has embraced all of their customs, right down to observing their rituals of death and burial. What Jesus says in Matthew 8:22 comes to mind when I read this passage: “Follow me and leave the dead to bury their dead.” There are God’s laws and there are human customs. While they are not always aligned, the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Additionally, Joseph did not stop following God when he became an Egyptian. In fact, he modeled God for the Egyptians and the previous stories associated with Joseph in Genesis demonstrate the ways in which the Egyptians saw God through Joseph and his behavior. God uses us wherever we are, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, if we stay close to him. The Egyptians mourning for Joseph’s father demonstrates to us that Joseph had a great impact on them, and they felt a great connection to him; so much so that they grieved his father’s death with him. If you have never read about Hudson Taylor, the English missionary who established the China Inland Mission in 1865 (which is still operating today as Overseas Missionary Fellowship), I highly recommend that you read his autobiography. What Joseph did in Egypt was what Hudson Taylor did in China. They both seemed to know that cultural customs are of humankind’s making and they make no difference to God. There is no culture or custom on the planet that is more preferred by God than another–he created us all. Joseph and Hudson Taylor both knew that people are entrenched in their customs, which can prevent them from seeing God; so they both embraced the customs of the countries and cultures they found themselves immersed in, and in doing so removed a primary barrier between the people amongst whom they were living and their ability to see God for who he really is. Two other great missionaries who learned and practiced this were Bruce Olson (Bruchko) and Don Richardson (Peace Child). I highly recommend their books. The last important thing I’ll talk about from these chapters in Genesis is Joseph’s unconditional forgiveness of his brothers, and perhaps the greatest lesson of the life of Joseph. With Jacob dead and buried, Joseph’s brothers become afraid that his kind, benevolent treatment of them may have just been a kindness to Jacob. Without Jacob as a buffer between them, they seem afraid that Joseph may now seek vengeance and retribution upon them. They throw themselves at his feet and on his mercy and offer themselves as his slaves in order to avoid the worst they think he might have planned for them. To their surprise, Joseph replies, “Do not be afraid; is it for me to put myself in God’s place? The evil you planned to do me has by God’s design been turned to good, to bring about the present result: the survival of a numerous people. So there is no need to be afraid; I shall provide for you and your dependents.”1 It can be difficult to impossible for devious people to believe that not everyone has an ulterior motive for their kindness, but Joseph spent the rest of his life demonstrating it for them. You can join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can Get the FREE worksheet for this program here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts. 1 Genesis 50: 19-21, New Jerusalem Bible, 1985. Please follow and like us: Read the Bible in a Year Spiritual Practice