Acts 7:1-51 \/ 11-13<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cThen a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.12\u00a0When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit.\u00a013\u00a0On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was,\u00a0and Pharaoh learned about Joseph\u2019s family.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n
There were four hundred years of silence in which the Lord did not speak to Israel.\u00a0 They had become rebellious and hard hearted.\u00a0 They would not listen to God and they did not obey Him.\u00a0 So God stopped speaking to them.\u00a0 Although many died early and some lived long lives, the average lifespan at the time of Jesus was about fifty-five years.\u00a0 That means that although Israel were certainly the receivers and protectors of the words of God to man, there were about seven generations of Israel that did not have a prophet of God speaking a message from God to them.\u00a0 It was a very sad time in the history of Israel.\u00a0 Israel had a famine from the blessing of hearing from God. \u00a0The last word of God in the Old Testament is\u00a0Malachi 4:5-6<\/b>\u00a0\u201cSee, I will send the prophet Elijah\u00a0to you before that great and dreadful day of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0comes.\u00a06\u00a0He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children,\u00a0and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike\u00a0the land with total destruction<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 It spoke of a coming Elijah-like prophet that would come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord (The Great Tribulation).\u00a0 God was silent to Israel for four hundred year and then John the Baptist came on the scene.\u00a0 Jesus said of John the Baptist (who the last Old Testament Prophet) \u201cTruly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 He meant that of all the heroes of Israel, John the Baptist was the greatest one of all.\u00a0 John was the \u201cgreatest\u201d because he had the high privilege of preparing the way for the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah to Israel and the world.\u00a0 So the last word from Malachi was predicting the coming of the prophet to prepare the world for Jesus and John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the prophecy.<\/p>\n
The Lord uniquely positioned Joseph to be type of savior for Abrahams\u2019s descendants.\u00a0 Joseph was a type of the coming Savior Jesus.\u00a0 God used Joseph to bring God\u2019s provision for life to the Jews.\u00a0 God the Father used Jesus to bring eternal life for all who would come to Him.\u00a0 Joseph came for the physical famine, Jesus came to end the spiritual famine. \u00a0Stephen states that by their best efforts their ancestors could not find food.\u00a0 This was just as we cannot find spiritual sustenance to restore our spiritual lives except through the God provided Savior to the Jew and to all the world, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
We see that the first time that Jacob\u2019s sons came to get food from Egypt they did not recognize the one whom God provided to save them as their very own brother.\u00a0\u00a0 They also did not recognize Jesus as their Savior when Jesus first came to the world.\u00a0 It was at the second visit that Joseph was revealed to them who He was.\u00a0 It was then that the brothers, who had carried the heavy burden of having sold Joseph, received full forgiveness and blessings.\u00a0 The Jews also did not recognize Jesus as their Messiah at His first coming.\u00a0 But it will be just before His second coming that they will realize that they had rejected their Messiah.\u00a0 They will repent and as Joseph forgave his brothers and welcomed them back with open arms, so will Jesus forgive Israel and welcome his family with open arms.<\/p>\n
Family, we can be grateful that Jesus gives us second chances.\u00a0 In fact, at any time in our lives before our natural death, Jesus extends His love and will to us that we might receive full forgiveness and the full benefits of being a child of God.\u00a0 I had many opportunities to come to Jesus before I did and, when I finally did respond to His call, I found Him waiting with open arms to receive me.\u00a0 So have we all who love Jesus had the same experience.\u00a0\u00a0 If anyone does not know with absolute certainty that when they die they will go to Heaven, it is never, before natural death, too late.\u00a0 And for those who are called by His name, remember that Christ died for all the sins we will ever do.\u00a0 Jesus died because God loves us (John 3:16<\/b>).\u00a0 Let\u2019s walk in God\u2019s forgiveness and share with others that God\u2019s forgiveness is for all who will receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord.\u00a0 Praise our good and loving God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 7:1-51 \/ 11-13\u00a0\u2013 \u201cThen a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.12\u00a0When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit.\u00a013\u00a0On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was,\u00a0and Pharaoh learned about Joseph\u2019s family.\u201d There were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,100,2472,94,17],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-john","tag-malachi","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1509,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/1509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}