Devotion Acts 7.1-51 Irrefutable Defense Part 5

Acts 7:1-51 / 8b-9 Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.  “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

“Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.” God is faithful.  When it was beyond worldly belief, God kept His promises to Abraham.  After his father died and Abraham left Harran he was seventy-five years old. There are not many seventy-five years olds fathering children.  Still, Abraham faithfully believed God would keep His promise and so he did not quit at Harran but continued on to receive the promises of God. Even though many believe that Abraham should not have stopped in Harran to bury his father (perhaps [squeezed] from Matthew 8:21-22), still Abraham showed continued faith that God would do what He had promised.  Family, God is faithful even when we are weak (2 Timothy 2:13) because if we understand who God is, His righteousness, goodness and justness, we know that God cannot be anything but faithful.  If God were to be unfaithful He would be turning, He would be changing from who He is.  But we know that God does not change (Malachi 3:6).  If God ever changed than He would not be the God whom we know Him to be.  God changing would be a great cause for fear because that would mean that if He changed in any way that He might change in every way and that would include being the loving, merciful and gracious God that He is. No, God does not change and part of what we draw from that is that He is always faithful to what He promises.  If God promised it then He will do it.  Without exception.  Every single time.  So Abraham did father Isaac at the seemingly impossible age of one hundred years and Sarah did give birth to Isaac when she was ninety years old.  Impossible?  Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).  God is faithful beyond understanding or physical laws, praise God!

““Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt.”  Stephen illustrated that nothing is impossible when God is involved, even seemingly natural rules of our bodies, such as the normal age of a husband and wife conceiving and giving birth to a baby.  Stephen now gives an example that men cannot stop the promises of God.  Jacob loved Joseph more than the rest of His sons because Joseph was born to Jacob when Jacob was of an old age (Genesis 37:3).  We know that is true because the Word states it.  Yet certainly there was more reason than age.  If age were the only factor than Joseph’s younger brother Benjamin would logically have been his favorite.  Another reason that Jacob loved Joseph so much was that he was born to his beloved Rachel, his favorite wife.  Yet, again, Benjamin was also born to Rachel.  Rachel was whom Jacob first fell in love with.  Rachel’s father Laban had promised her hand to Jacob in return for seven years of labor.  Laban then cheated Jacob and substituted Leah (Rachel’s older sister) for Rachel.  Jacob, who greatly loved Rachel, was required by Laban to work for another seven years before he would give Rachel to him.  So Jacob gave fourteen years of labor to have Rachel as His wife.  Rachel was the love of His life.  So we know that Joseph being born of Rachel was another part of the reason that He loved Joseph more than the rest of his sons.  However, if being born to Rachel, and being born late in Jacob’s life were the sole factors of being Jacob’s favorite, then Benjamin would have been his favorite.  Of course we know the custom that the eldest male born would gain the full inheritance and be the favorite.  However that custom has not held up in the Bible and if that were the sole factor, then Reuben, the eldest son of Abraham, son of Leah, would have been his favorite, but Joseph was.  Family, our all-knowing God who has known all things from eternity past knew who was best suited to fulfill His plans as the descendant of Jacob.  He knew how Israel would be provided for and protected and which of Jacobs’s sons would be most suited to do the will of God and so keep the promise of God to Abraham.  God is the one who grants favor. God is the one who places people in position.  Why did Joseph have Jacob’s favor?  Because it was God’s will.  God steered Jacob’s heart.  Family, it is our all-knowing God who grants favor.

We should not wonder about our position, or be jealous of the position of another, but rather faithfully know that God knows our position and has prepared and gifted us for it, as He prepared Joseph for all he was called to do.  The person who seems to be in an elevated position is prepared by God for it.  And we are prepared and gifted by God for where we are.  Neither the one who seems to be elevated nor are us meant for the other’s position.  Not that positions don’t change.  Besides, is God working through one person more highly valued than God working through another?  No, God working through any of us in any way is to be treasured and valued.  And who of us is to say who is in a position to better serve the will of God.  Let us be humble and let God be the one who exalts (Matthew 23:12).  After all, He is never wrong. Praise God!

We see in Stephen’s defense of the Jesus that God is forever faithful.  God was faithful to Abraham during his life.  God was faithful to Abraham as He watched over and guided his descendants.  God is still faithful to Abraham as His eyes are today on Israel.  In the book of Revelation we see that God remains faithful to Abraham and they receive Jesus their Messiah.  God is also faithful to us.  Jesus died for the Apostles and loved them, and also died for us and loved us (John 17:20).  As God has been and is faithful to Abraham and to His descendants, so He has been and is faithful to all who love and honor His Son Jesus as Savior and Lord.  God was faithful to Jesus and remains faithful to Jesus.  None shall live with God forever except those who belong to Jesus.  None! (Acts 4:12, 1 Timothy 2:5) If that were not so, then God would do Himself evil and He cannot do that because there is no evil in Him.  And God cannot be unfaithful to us without being unfaithful to Himself.  So when we want to call what happens to us wrong, or evil, or bad, let us first consider who truly knows what is wrong, or evil or bad and ask ourselves if we really want to accuse God of being slack or of being unfaithful.  God forbid that any of us should do so!  Rather let us live in faith in the goodness of God.  Let us live a life of praising and not doubting Him.  Family, let us shout praises to God!  Praise our God!