Joseph’s Bones

On the American one dollar note it says, “In God We Trust” and this was from the days when indeed God’s Israel peoples in America, Great Britain and kindred lands did actually believe in and trust Almighty God.  Would that the same could be said of today.  The lack of belief in our once Christian lands of the West is astounding – but it was ever so with God’s people – an ebbing and flowing of belief and trust in our Maker and His Son Jesus Christ.

One night just before I fell asleep, as I closed my eyes I saw, in capital letters, the word BELIEVE.  And this is the key to having Faith and Trust in the LORD.  We have to be like Abraham and believe all that the LORD has said.  Indeed, if not for Abraham, where would we be today?  He was God’s ‘kingpin’ as it were, concerning the broadening out of His mighty plan – for a people, and for our Saviour to be born into the world.

Whilst God’s people, as they grew into a nation, swung like a pendulum from doing as He asked them, to blind disobedience – and back again, the patriarchs did, for the most part put their faith and trust in the Lord God – and did as they were asked, or inspired by the Spirit.

Our LORD Jesus Christ constantly told His followers to believe, and this applies to us today. “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed:  blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” John 20 v 29

There is a film for children called; “The Never-ending Story”, whereby a boy gets drawn into a magical land that is being destroyed by the Nothing, due to lack of belief.  This could be said of our own Christian/Israel lands today – a lack of belief is destroying our Christian way of life, and opening wide, the door to corruption.

Isaiah closes the prayer for the nation by imploring, “Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?”

Joseph believed in Almighty God.  His actions show this throughout his life.  When he dreamed his prophetic dreams, he believed them!  This to his detriment as his brothers became jealous when he told them that basically they were going to have to bow down to him.  ‘Little upstart’ they no doubt thought.  But his faith in the validity of his dreams carried him through even the worst part of his life, when he was thrown into the pit, then sold to a party of Ishmaelites – and worse still, when later after refusing to succumb to the whims of Pontifer’s wife, he was thrown into Pharaoh’s jail – with no apparent hope of release.

But God had not abandoned Joseph, as we know, and when the Baker and the Butler were also cast into prison, He gave them dreams for Joseph to decipher.  This was quite astounding, for how many of us, if someone told us of their dream and we knew without a shadow of doubt it prophesied their death – would we tell them?  But Joseph translated both dreams correctly and the Butler, whose dream told of his re-instatement back into Pharaoh’s favour and household, remembered this – although not right away.  So, Joseph still had to remain in his prison for a while longer.  Until Pharaoh himself had dreams – dreams which troubled him greatly.  

We all know the result – that Joseph was elevated to being Pharaoh’s right-hand man, and Egypt being saved from famine – and by this, Jacob and his family likewise being saved from the famine, and the whole of his family, Joseph’s brothers included.  How amazed Joseph must have felt when before him, his family, not knowing it was he, bowed down before him – just as his dreams of many years prior had indicated.

Jacob, of course, had learned by experience of the power of Almighty God, and it is interesting to note that his own sons had deceived him with Joseph’s disappearance.  He was made to feel the pain of being deceived.  The LORD was perhaps reminding him of his own actions towards his father Isaac, concerning the Birthright and blessing.  But in Joseph, was He showing His forgiveness to Jacob?

Unfortunately, deceit is a part of our fallen nature, and is still with us today.  The serpent deceived Eve, right at the start, and just as one lie leads to more, to deceive is the same.  A belief in God will always prove beyond all doubt that His Will, will always prevail, and there is no need for us to intercede on His behalf.

It often amazes me, when reading my Bible, how God’s people were always forgetting His help and miracles, when back then God Himself was often making Himself known to them.  A short time after He parted the waters of the Red Sea for them, while Moses was with the LORD up the Mount, His people persuaded Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship, and dance around!  And so, it has carried on.  You have to wonder that if the people back then didn’t believe in a very active and prominent God that performed in front of their very eyes, then what hope is there for us in our current world to urge people to believe in, what seems to be an invisible God?

We can only look to the patriarchs of old and read how their belief and trust was validated by what followed.  Let us go back to Joseph, who when he knew his days were coming to an end, told the children of Israel… “God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry my bones from hence…”. Gen 50 v 25

Of course this came to pass; ”And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.” Exodus 13 v 19

Joseph was showing his trust and belief in the LORD when he had given instructions concerning his bones – and one could suppose also that he did not wish his bones to reside in Egypt.

Belief in the LORD is something that we all need to nurture and expand, for without it we are surely lost.  The prodigal son went off and forgot about his father while he enjoyed himself in the world, tasting the delights of a Babylonian existence – until that is, he ran out of money and lost all his so-called friends.  Lost and alone he remembered his father and humbly returned to him, willing to become a servant if only he would be allowed back into his father’s household.  Fortunately, it is the same for us, like the prodigal son, who realised and believed his father was actually a good man and would likely have mercy on him, the same is marvellously true of our Father in Heaven, and His Wonderful Son Jesus Christ.  “If thou canst believe – all things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark 9 v 23

And of course, in turning back to Almighty God, it shows that you must believe in Him, after all, how can you return any other way.

I was greatly impressed by the article in the January issue of Thy Kingdom Come, of the two elderly ladies and the revival of faith in the Scottish Island of Lewis.  When Jesus said would He find faith on the earth, it was an open-ended question.  If He had returned to the Earth and visited the Isle of Lewis at that time, He would most surely have found faith there!  So perhaps it is up to us to each try and do our part, by praying first, and hopefully this will lead to us by example, encouraging others to believe in the Lord.  For, ”all things are possible to him that believeth.”