Genesis 44 - Exodus 10
Matthew 14 - 18
Note: even with the best of intentions of keeping up with the daily Bible reading schedule, it's still very easy to fall behind and then struggle to 'catch-up' if you miss a few days. So, if you do miss a day or two's readings - don't panic, and don't give up! If you can read an extra daily chapter a day for a time, great! However, if that's too big a burden, then just pick up reading again with the passages for 'today'. It's much more important and helpful to keep on reading steadily than to rush through a host of chapters merely to keep pace with the calendar. Anyway, back to what you can expect this incoming week…
Genesis: we said last time that Moses writing the book of Genesis was initially to help his fellow Israelites, now enslaved in Egypt, understand the back story of how and why they were where they were. The stories about Joseph show him to be God's instrument to preserve Israel outside their Promised Land. Despite being abandoned by his brothers, the LORD - Israel's God - was with Joseph, blessing him in difficult circumstances and raising him up to a position of authority and responsibility. The turning point of the story is the 'great reveal' (Gen 45:4-8) where Joseph shows himself to his brothers. From this point onward, we read of family reconciliation, abundance and God's blessing. Israel's future is clearly under God's providential care - that's what Moses' first readers need to know. While Joseph's brothers had sold Joseph into slavery "for evil, [ultimately] God had meant it for good" (Gen 50:20). The present-day generation of Israelites are about to experience God's goodness despite the evil intent of Pharaoh and those around them.
Exodus: we now jump forward 400 years (see Genesis 15:13-16). Moses recounts the events of more recent history. As the book begins, Israel is enslaved, weak and helpless - a lesson the Israelites will be repeatedly told to remember when, sometime in the future, God will expect them to treat any strangers in their company differently, with a mercy and compassion they did not receive from the Egyptians. The main plot-line of Exodus however, is first, how God prepares His people to dramatically escape their enslaved bondage, and secondly, how he prepares them to begin their march towards their Promised Land.
As you will see, there are lightly veiled Gospel references throughout this book which both forecast and which are finally fulfilled in the great story of Christ's redeeming love. Exodus, which begins against the background of slavery and concludes with how God's redeemed people should worship Him, echoes the experience of every Christian life and provides a pattern for Christian living for believers of every age. The transition from slavery to worship is accomplished by means of the great redemption described at the centre of the book (next week's readings!). At the heart of Israel's later theology described as we move through the Old Testament, is the events described in this book.
Matthew: There's a very good reason why the Gospel writers record so many of Jesus' clashes with the Pharisees, as Matthew does in chapters 15-16: for as they hold up the mirror of the Bible to our hearts and lives, they expose the "Pharisee-mindset" in all of us. Like the original hypocritical Pharisees of Jesus' time on earth, we too have a natural tendency to (1) become pre-occupied with highlighting the sins of others while minimising our own (15:2); (2) to think we can engage in sin-management by devising our own super-spiritual rules that we know we can keep and which make us look better than those around us (v5-6,9) rather than owning up to our spiritual struggles with the higher demands of God's Law (v3-4); and (3) emphasise the importance of observing specific, superficial, religious markers that sit on the surface of our lives (v2; see also Mark 7:3-4), all the while ignoring the deep, root problem of sin which is found in and arises from our unclean hearts (v16-20). The cure for sin must address the core problem of our idol-making hearts.
Another block of teaching from Jesus in chapter 18, the implications of which spill over into next week's passages. If there is a unifying theme bringing it all together, it's possibly how living the Kingdom life should be expressed in community, in the living fellowship of the local church and the welcome it shows to outsiders. As disciples of Jesus, Matthew highlights that our relationship to Him will shape our relationships with others so as to become a loving community with intentional humility, purity, accountability, mutual submission, forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration.
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