Genesis 37:8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Luke 19:14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
Another aspect of Mashiach ben Yosef is that the world would resist his authority.
When Joseph told his family of his dreams, they were outraged at the suggestion that their younger brother would reign over them. They simply had no idea that God would make Joseph exactly the kind of ruler they needed.
Likewise, the world is outraged by Yeshua’s claim to be ruler of this world. Never mind that His astounding humility completely qualifies Him to be loved, worshiped, and respected.
Joseph won the hearts of his brothers through the grace, forgiveness, and love that he showed them after they had rejected and sought to kill him. Yeshua wins our hearts the same way, and yet we still find resistance to His authority in some areas of our lives.
The longer I walk as a believer, the more I find myself between two realities. As my life becomes more consecrated and I realize how Holy He truly is, I become increasingly aware of my own true condition, “Woe is me, for I’m a man of unclean lips!” My life may seem to be holier to the world, while inside, my spirit is crying out, “Lord, Help me!” It’s because I can see and feel more clearly the areas in my soul that are still not submitted to Him. Yet His Spirit is constantly nudging me, “I want this part of your life too!”
If the Spirit of God is nudging you to surrender something, somehow, somewhere… it’s time to give it over to Him. Don’t wait another day. Take a moment and say once again, “Lord, I want you to reign over all my life!”
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]A recent study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of California Los Angeles wanted to find out, “if you had to choose between more time and more money, what would it be?” While they found most respondents answered, “more money”, they also found that those who preferred “more time” were generally happier! When I read this article, it reminded me of a story, that I’d like to share.
The Lord spoke to Moses, who led the children of Israel out of Egypt to be desperately cornered with the Red sea before them and Pharaoh’s chariots advancing upon them from behind. Overwhelmed with terror they cry out to Moses, “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” Having just miraculously escaped from the miserable life of slavery, and only beginning their new life of freedom, the children of Israel were faced with the most dire threat to their existence.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve begun a series of devotions based on the Exodus wanderings of the Children of Israel, and their tragic mistakes which we can learn from and avoid. One powerful influence common to their failures was fear.
For the past two weeks we have examined lessons from the OT account of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt in hope of avoiding the errors and attitudes of the children of Israel. This week we will draw connections between the Exodus and the prophecies in the book of Revelation.
For the past two weeks we’ve been building life lessons derived from the Exodus wanderings and from Paul’s exhortations to the church in Corinth. Notice carefully that Paul says, “these were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come”…
…that is, written for us today! – admonitions from Paul to learn lessons from the history of the children of Israel.
Paul exhorts the church at Corinth about grumbling and complaining. He reminds the believers of the judgments that befell the 10 spies who brought a bad report of the land – and were struck down by a plague, and terrible fate of Korah and those aligned with him that came against Moses and Aaron and were swallowed up by the ground under them.
Here we have a stark word. Here we see the Lord testing Israel: “He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” [Deuteronomy 8:16]. Yet Paul says that they put Him to the test. A great irony occurs when God is testing us, and we despise His discipline, thereby testing Him.