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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Monday, July 24, 2017
Today's Passage : Today's Passage: Subject:Joseph Sold by His Brothers Bible Verse:Genesis 37:25-36 "Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. " Message:
he brothers have second thoughts about murdering their own flesh and blood, and so they dispose of Joseph by selling him into slavery. They cover up the crime, as planned, by covering the coat of many colors with goat’s blood and telling Jacob that they had found it thus. Jacob swears he will mourn his beloved son until his death.
Notice that Jacob does not even know the concept of heaven. The early Hebrews had a vague concept that their souls would go somewhere mysterious and not necessarily pleasant, Sheol, which is sometimes compared to Hell. At the time of Abraham and Jacob, they conceived that both the righteous and the unrighteous would still exist, but in a world of darkness and without form or personality, cut off from God.
The reference to Ishmaelites takes us back to Abraham. Remember that Ishmael, Abraham’s elder son by his wife’s maid (Hannah) was not cursed, even though Abraham expelled him in favor of Isaac. Ishmael prospered and had twelve sons, who became a sizable nomadic tribe ranging from the borders of Egypt north all the way to Assyria. They would have been third cousins (really, half-second-cousins) to Jacob’s sons.
The Midianites, similarly, are descendants of Abraham, but through his later wife (after Sarah’s death). Most likely they were centered in the northern Arabian peninsula (although some scholars place them in the Sudan). Like the Ishmaelites, they are nomads and, as can be seen here, traders. They have a caravan transporting gum, probably referring to mastic gum, which had many uses in medicine and as the base for cosmetics; myrrh, another sort of gum used to embalm corpses; and balm, yet another gum made from tree sap — no doubt the “balm of Gilead” mentioned several times in the Bible. All three were precious.
The traders have money and can pay twenty shekels for a healthy young male slave — 7 or 8 ounces of silver. While it is very difficult to evaluate ancient prices, this amount would be roughly the cost of four sheep or one cow.
Meditation : [To give and not count the cost.] Prayer : And now, as a little child, let me abide in you all this day, oh Christ, so that when you appear I may have confidence and not shrink from you in shame at your coming. For I know that you are righteous, and I am sure that I will be made righteous only by my life in you... Amen |
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