Want To Hear A Story?
I am fairly sure you have never heard it told like this. I am a technician, studying an Engineer.
It's the story of Joseph, the youngest son of Jacob-Abraham, Issac and Jacob-the beginnings of Isreal. Jacob had 12 sons and Joseph was the youngest. The other sons were all much older and were shepards in the field. But Joseph being the born in Jacob's older years, was his favorite and he loved him dearly. The other sons were jealous. Then Joseph started having these dreams. The dreams were about his brothers and father bowing down to hm. And Joseph told his brothers and father about these dreams. His father scolded him, but his brothers were determined that Joseph was not going to rule over them.
One day, Joseph took some food to his brothers in the field and they grabbed him and threw him in a pit until they decided what to do with him. The brothers went to the house that night and left Joseph in the pit. One of the brothers, Ruben, was afraid the others were going to kill Joseph, so he sneaked back and sold Joseph to a Caravan going to Egypt. Then all the brothers later, told the father, Joseph was dead.
The Caravan sold Joseph in Egypt as a slave to an Egyptian named Potifer. Joseph worked hard and became head of Potifer's household. Potifer's wife thought Joseph was cute and wanted to sleep with him, but Joseph wouldn't, so Potifer's wife told Potifer, Joseph tried to molest her and Joseph was sent to the King's dungeon.
While Joseph was in the dungeon, two of the King's Palace men- a baker and a butler were thrown in the dungeon with him. Both had dreams. Joseph told them, one would be killed and one would be restored. Everything came true. Later the King started having dreams. The dreams troubled him. None of his fortune tellers could tell him what they meant.
But then the baker remembered Joseph and told the King. The King called for Joseph. Joseph told him his dreams and their meaning. Egypt was about to go through some very rough times and needed a good food-grain manager. The King put Joseph over all of the Kingdom-And his brothers and father did indeed bow down. Sounds simplistic, doesn't it?
The Bible wasn't written to a Physicist or a Rocket Scientist, it was written to a general audience. A Paper is only as good as its ability to reach the target audience. But if one has a mind to, there is plenty there to be extracted- to go as deep as your mind is capable of.
Academics has a problem with a snake. I do too. But for much different reasons. The world mindset is one rises to positions of power through prominence and prestige. But Scripture teaches just the opposite. One rises through humility and an agape-altruistic spirit. The world mindset is, "I have arrived." The agape mindset is, "Ah, there you are."
My problem with the snake is not that a python has no genetic make-up for speech or context driven thought, the author of the genetic database and the integrated environment that enables it, would have no problem enabling a snake to speak. My problem is, if that is all there is, there is nothing there for me to learn and the snake is not in class, so there must be more.
We must step back in time. In the garden, before the fall, there was no veil. angels came and went. They followed the Creator. -Another Story- Adam had seen angels, lots of times. But a different type of being showed up. He looked different, he spoke different...he acted different. This was a very awesome Cherub that had lost his first estate through pride and possiveness. He lost his ability to integrate in different environments-to adapt and his spirit shimmered a metallic shimmer, as it faded in and out of time. The strength of his being was still intact. It was mesmerizing. His voice was mesmerizing. It was deep and hypnotic. It reverberated like small drums-tabrets. The aura of his presence was almost overwhelming. And Adam fell.
The conversation God had, was with this Cherub. We are translating a pure function specific language-Hebrew, into a heinz 57 context driven derivitive of a totally different language line. Our words aren't function specific, they are defined by context. So we are translating Scripture into something that makes sense to us. "You will eat the dust of the earth" a type of metaphor, we say, "You will fall flat on your face." But here is what was said..."Everything you try to do, the undoing will be by your hand....Everything you try to undo, the doing will be by your hand...That which I declare, you will fulfill...When you try to prevent it, you will establish it...I am God and there is none like Me." A chess match unfolds...
The other day, I ask God if He had ADD. I said, "Don't you see what is happening?!" That is when He unfolded the story of Joseph. God picked a fight with Lucifier-Joseph's dream. A demon was trying to stop what he thought was the promise of a coming deliverer. So Joseph went into slavery. Joseph rose to prominence in Potifer's household and the demon thought the palace is going to get wind of it and Joseph will be taken to the palace..in promenence. So he had Joseph thrown in the King's dungeon-the pit. By trying to stop him from going through the front door, he hand carried him through the back door.
God always looks like He is one move behind...like He reacts. Not so. He doesn't work to cause and effect or linear sequence of the little picture, He always integrates to the big picture, so you can't see what He is building until the final move is made and the board lights up. We work by linear sequence from the bottom up, He works to the integrated whole from the top down.
I said all of that, to say this: "Let God finish! Your house is going to be awesome!" God didn't send you to Egypt to be prince of Potifer's household, He sent you to be Prince of Egypt!!... The plan He has for you is not in the little window. That is just some interdependencies necessary to the build.. So hold on...The Best is Yet To Come!!!
Have a great day!
Author of Image-Unknown