For any of us who have sons, brothers, fathers, how can we begin to understand an edict that any male babies had to be thrown into the Nile? How can we begin to understand that kind of cruelty? That comes from a heart that does not know love. We’ve all read the story in Exodus…

How many people have been enslaved in the history of mankind? Slavery is an ugly word and an even uglier reality for those enslaved. It’s also an ugly reality of a persons heart who enslaves. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor and they built Pithom and Ramses as…

With Jacob’s passing in Genesis 50, not only Joseph and his brothers and their families, but the Egyptians also mourned for 70 days. So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them: They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham…

In Genesis 49 Jacob’s sons are gathered around him. An end of an era. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob has watched his sons throughout their lives as only a father can. Our Father knows each of us as only He can. He knows our thoughts, our hearts, all of us. I wonder what God would…

In Genesis 48 Jacob is ill and Joseph brings his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him to be with Jacob. Jacob claimed Manasseh and Ephraim as his own. “Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be…

In reading Genesis 47 I can’t help but think about the power that Pharaoh had. The famine continued and got so severe that the people sold their livestock to Joseph to gain food. When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord the fact…

Jacob and his adult children and their children and all they had were now embarking on a journey to Egypt during a famine in the land that would last five more years. So much had happened, so many surprises. Joseph was alive and sending for him. And God spoke to Israel in a vision at…

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21. Genesis 45 reminds me of a future reunion…

Genesis 44 shows how our hearts can change. “Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.” v. 34. Judah’s heartfelt plea to Joseph. Judah and his brothers were willing to carelessly bring misery to their father Jacob when they sold Joseph into slavery. Maybe that’s why Joseph tested them. Were…

When the famine continued and the grain had run out Jacob told his sons to go back to Egypt to buy more grain, Genesis 43:1-2. It was Judah who stepped up and insisted his father understand they would not get to see the man’s face until they brought Benjamin, the youngest son, with them. It…