Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

Up early, off to the 9.00am service, Gorden - very good: The Lion of the tribe of Judah from Genesis 49
- In the passage, 'I' is sometimes God, and sometimes Jacob - it being obvious from the context Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. (vs. 1)
- The passage is Jacob's will, and spiritual inerhitance.
- Ruben the first born is first; starts pleasantly, but he is disinherited for sleeping with his step-mother. He was not caught in the act - forfeiting his life, but lost his spiritual inheritance.
- So why mention it all ? well, in modern terms apparently if you want to disinherit someone, they must be mentioned in the will - otherwise it can be contested.
- Simeon and Levi the next 2 sons, also disqualified. This was all detailed in Genesis 34 where, having defiled Diana Shechem did the right thing by her - and went to great lengths to marry her, and Simeon and Levi decieved, and slaughtered them all.
- Although there is no mention of God's displeasure with S&L recorded in scripture at that point - often things are so bad as to not need a divine moral footnote 'that was bad'. Here, sometime later on Jacob's deathbed we get the verdict: Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. Genesis 49:7 ie. the sin is hated, not the sinners; but they are punished.
- And Simeon had no separate inheritance in the promised land, and the Levites had no inheritance either.
- So how can God's punishment on these brothers decendants be irrevocable ?
  - God is the soverign judge who rules.
  - But ... God can turn a curse into a blessing,
  - Of all the tribes Levi repented at Mount Sinai with the golden calf incident. And God who is unchanging didn't reverse his punishment - but instead He was their inheritance and the Levites became the holy priesthood.
  - So truly God works to turn all things for the good of those who believe.
- Judah - the 4th Son ( his name derived from 'Praise' ) gets the blessing from Jacob.
  - He will be like a Lion - the king of the beasts.
  - The sceptre will not depart from Judah until he comes to whom it belongs and indeed all the kings from David onwards were from the line of Judah - until the King of Kings came.
  - Tethering a donkey to a vine ( which is a valuable thing and takes several years to grow and breaks easily ) is a picture of superabundant prosperity.
- So why Judah ?
  - Ruben committed sexual Sin,
  - Simeon & Levi killed their near brother in law,
  - But, Judah also a sinner.
    - Suggests selling his brother Joseph to Egypt Gen 37
    - Marries a cananite woman, Gen 38
    - Sleeps with what he thinks is a prostitute Gen 38 but is actualy his daughter in law Tamar.
- So what is the difference ? why him ?
  - By no means a sinless life
  - But a tender concience and repentence
    - Of Tamar - a women who deserved death he says She is more righteous than I
    - By the time Joseph sees Judah again in Egypt he offers himself as a substitutionary prisoner in place of his brother Benjamin, for his Father's sake.
- Again with David - Judah's offspring, a man after God's own heart,
  - He admits that he was wrong - as he is deflected from killing Naban
  - After taking Bathsheba and confronted by Nathan the prophet he says I have sinned against the LORD.
- So God doesn't look for the perfect life, the spotless hero, but instead humility, repentance and faith.
- It is this same tenderness of concience that lets Paul say: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- of whom I am the worst.
Larry Ewing arrived - great to catch up with him.
Dinner with Chris at 'DunWells' steak-house ( strangely they didn't serve steak on Sundays ).
Off to church in the evening with Iain.
Honeydew dohnuts and bed very early.

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Stuff Michael Meeks is doing

2001-08-19: Sunday