I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day, or more. in advance. My work schedule has recently changed, meaning that I may not have time every day to complete these. As a result, I am trying to get several days ahead. I hope this does not negatively impact the quality of these posts (if that is possible). If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.

     Joseph’s testing of his brothers’ change of heart continues in today’s passage. He frames his brother Benjamin to see how his half brothers will react. When his servants overtake his brothers and discover the “stolen” cup in Benjamin’s possession, Joseph’s brothers all return to Egypt. When they get back to Egypt, they tell Joseph that they have all returned to be his slaves. Joseph tells them that only the man who “stole” the cup would be his slave. The rest were free to return to their father in peace. At which point Judah, the brother whose idea it was to sell Joseph into slavery, steps up to beg for his brother’s freedom. Judah makes an impassioned plea for Joseph to make him a slave and allow Benjamin to return to their father.
     All of the brothers stood by Benjamin when trouble arose. An important point to note is that none of the brothers knew that Benjamin had not stolen the cup. Then when their solidarity was not sufficient to save Benjamin, Judah stepped up and offered himself in Benjamin’s place. When that happened, Joseph could no longer contain himself and revealed to his brothers who he was. Joseph’s brothers showed that not only did they regret what they had done to Joseph, but they had changed and were willing to suffer to prevent the same thing from happening to Benjamin.

     Until today, I had never noticed that the reason Jesus attempted to go off by Himself in this passage was because He had just heard that Herod had executed John the Baptist, His cousin. When Jesus suggested to His disciples that they feed the crowd, they responded that they did not have enough food for that many people. This was after they had been sent out to heal the sick and cast out demons. They had seen Jesus do those things and had then done them, but this was something new. How often are we like that? When God calls us to something new, do we lack the faith to believe that He will provide us with the power to do it?
     The story of feeding the 5,000 is followed up with Jesus walking on the water. It is a kind of follow-up to the way the disciples reacted to Jesus telling them to feed the 5,000. This time when Peter sees Jesus walking on the water, he asks Jesus to tell him to come to Him. When Jesus tells Him to come, Peter gets out of the boat and begins walking on the water as well. However, Peter soon stopped focusing on Jesus and began thinking about the danger he was in. That is when he began to be overwhelmed and started to sink. But even then, he called out to Jesus to save Him. There are two important lessons for us as Christians here (actually, there are probably more than that, but I’m just going to look at two of them). First, if we are going to “walk on water” when God calls us to, we need to get out of the boat. That’s one that lots of people talk about, but it’s important enough for me to repeat. Second, when the distractions around us start to overwhelm us, we can call out to Jesus and He will rescue us from the danger that our lack of faith has gotten us into.

     At the beginning of psalm 18 the psalmist told us that he was at his end, about to be overtaken by death and his enemies. Then he called on God for deliverance. In response, God reached down from heaven and struck his enemies. The psalmist was victorious, but not because of his own strength and power. It was only through the strength which God gave him that he was able to stand up and defeat those arrayed against him. The important point of this psalm is that if we remain faithful to God, not only will He rescue us from desperate situations but He will give us the strength to completely defeat those who stand against us. If we are fighting to accomplish the goals which God has set us, we will completely overwhelm every person and force which stands in our way. But we will not do so through our own power, but with the power which God has given us.

The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock!
May the God of my salvation be exalted!

     If we seek out wise teachers (and learn from them) and follow those who walk on straight paths, we will not be held back when we walk nor stumble when we run.