The Book of Genesis
Day 340
Ge 37:14 Then he
said to him, "Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well
with the flocks, and bring back word to me." So he sent him out of the
Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.
15 Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the
field. And the man asked him, saying, "What are you seeking?" 16 So he said, "I am seeking my
brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks."
Joseph arrives at
Shechem, but can’t find his brothers anywhere. A certain man approaches him and
asks, “What are you seeking?” Joseph replies, that he is seeking his brothers.
Once again we see a parallel between Joseph and Jesus, because Jesus came to
this earth to “seek and save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10) He is still in
the business of seeking today!
But you may say,
“his brothers weren’t the ones who were lost!” Well, they weren’t in a physical
sense, but in a spiritual sense as being representative of those under the Law,
(those who think their good deeds will save them,) they were lost! And Joseph, representative of grace is
seeking them!
Jesus tells us in Mt
18:11, "For the Son of Man has come
to save that which was lost. 12
"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes
astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the
one that is straying?”
Who is the one who
is straying? Isn’t that the one who strikes out on his own and thinks he can do
it without the Good Shepherd? That’s the essence of salvation by good deeds or
the Law! But Grace keeps searching, keeps seeking those under the power of the
Law to deliver them.
Oh how we need to
hear the call of grace in our own lives as the Law continually tempts us to put
us under its power again. Jesus cleans us up with grace, and then once clean we
think we can get by on our own merits. We find ourselves thinking more highly
of ourselves than we ought!
Hear again the
voice of the Good Shepherd in Joh 10:10b, “I have come that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly.”
The way of grace
is abundant life. Joseph lived a life of grace even in terrible circumstances
in Egypt and he was abundantly blessed, the brothers on the other hand, living
a life of Law, ended up in famine, and
in the end had to come to grace begging for food.
Ga 3:1-3 says, “O foolish Galatians! Who has
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus
Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you
receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the
Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
Man, this grace
thing! It is so easy, and yet so hard. Let go and trust Him to save you and
keep you saved, rather than turning to or reverting to the Law.
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