Photo by 9/11 Photos, Creative Commons
To read the last post on Genesis, go to Ready to Die.
Read Genesis 47:1-6
Joseph’s family are now with him in Egypt, and while that’s good, he still has a big frog to swallow. He has to present some of his family members to Pharaoh and gain permission for them to settle in Egypt, in the land of Goshen.
So Joseph goes to Pharaoh and tells him his family is in Goshen. He chooses five of his brothers and he presents them to Pharaoh.
What’s your occupation? Pharaoh asks.
Your servants are shepherds just as our fathers were, they reply. And we’ve come to live here for awhile, because the famine is so bad in Canaan we have no pasture for our flocks. So please, let your servants settle in Goshen.
Pharaoh says to Joseph, Your father and your brothers can settle anywhere you like. Put them in the best part of Egypt. Let them live in Goshen. And if any of them have special talent with livestock, put them in charge of my herds.
Genesis 47:1-6
9/11
Today is the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. While I was still a firefighter I traveled to New York City, after the towers were attacked, with a group of Christian police officers, firefighters, and dispatchers to see what we could do to help. I spoke with many firefighters who experienced the loss of family and/or friends when the twin towers were taken down. (There were so many killed, very often firefighters had to choose between attending the funeral of a fellow firefighter who was family, or one who was a friend, because they were held at the same time) I attended funerals where Mayor Giuliani addressed the crowd. I spoke with forensics specialists who collected gruesome evidence at ground zero.
I’ve given this terrible tragedy a lot of thought over the last eleven years. And I’ve not just thought about 9/11, but I’ve also given considerable thought to our country’s leadership during that tragedy, and the leadership to come in the 2012 election.
I’ve come to a conclusion.
Egypt’s Tragedy
Egypt had a tragedy with the potential to kill more than we lost on 9/11. A seven year famine could have been devastating. However through God’s intervention with His servant Joseph, Pharaoh and Egypt escaped this famine relatively unscathed. But in spite of his success, can’t you just hear the criticisms that must have come from the people?
Pharaoh didn’t handle it right. He shouldn’t have given the best of the land to Israel and his family. He shouldn’t have given them positions of authority over Pharaoh’s flocks. That land and those job positions should have been given to Egyptians. This only happened because Joseph is so well connected.
The Coming Election
Just a few minutes ago I came across a video about how 9/11 was an inside job. How President Bush knew. How it was all a part of Bush’s effort to usher in the new world order. (I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, so I won’t dignify this video by posting a link)
The last few months of the presidential race, I’ve seen both sides meet out huge doses of negative campaigning.
On Twitter and Facebook I see my friends and family lambasting the opposition, either Republican or Democrat, Romney or Obama, depending on their political leanings.
But think this thing through with me — Remember back to that moment of optimism after “our guy” won the election? How’s that been working for us? After “our man” was in office for awhile, was there any appreciable difference? Time and time again when “our man” is in there, the real tangible changes made have been negligible. Many today maintain that the differences between the parties are rapidly narrowing. The reality is…
…putting your time and energy into politics won’t make a difference.
The Answer
In a democracy, where we elect our leadership, we will continue to get what we ask for. You and I and the rest of the voting population are responsible for who serves in political office. And the voting public seems to choose leadership that doesn’t change much, time and time again.
In a democracy, the voting population gets what they deserve — every time.
You know what? Pharaoh’s decisions concerning the famine, Israel, and Israel’s family weren’t made because of Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s decisions concerning the famine, Israel, and his family were all a part of God’s divine plan.
God is where the power is for change. So why invest your time and energy into a man?
Here’s my conclusion: Take all the time and energy you invest in the political process and reapportion it into prayer. Because here’s the real solution to effecting change in a democracy:
Revival.
Because after revival, the voting public will no longer put up with mediocre leadership. They’ll vote in better (not perfect but better) leaders into office. After revival, many of the country’s problems will be mitigated. We’ll see a reduction in corruption, drug and alcohol abuse, broken families, crime, etc. We’ll see these things improve because after revival more people will walk through life closer to Christ.
So stop bashing the other guy, whatever side you’re on, and start praying.
Pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revival in your family, in your church, in your city, in your state, in your entire country.
Pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and revival in you.
God is where the power is for effecting change.
Pray.
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Truly 9/11 was and continues to be a somber day, Kurt, yet every physical and spiritual wound in our lives can be healed by the Great Physician. Still, when we go to the dentist, they lie and say. “This is going to hurt a little”. No, it hurts a lot! Truth is like that also.
“A seven year famine could have been devastating.”
We are facing a more serious famine in our nation than a famine of food, which I believe is yet a possibility for our nation. America has been blessed with plenty of everything good, by way of amber waves of grain, clothing, opulent homes, and transportation, for God had certainly shed his grace upon us. Nevertheless, we have not been good “stewards” of what the Almighty has given the United States of America. And for certain we have not been faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Our “melting pot” of rich and poor has overall disregarded His Laws and now we have over 4 million laws on our governmental books. How do we even know when we are breaking the law of our land? None could know at a given moment if we are breaking a federal, state, county, or city law; there are way too many to memorize. Duh! It seems to me, it is as though we have traded His Book of statutes, rulings, commandments, and ordinances for our very own adaptation of rule of law which has been abused by the writers of such. We are indeed in trouble. Life was simpler adhering to the Creator’s way of life. Consider this famine:
“There was a famine in the country — different from the previous famine which took place in the time of Abraham — and Isaac went to Abimelech, the Philistine king at Gerar. Yahweh had appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the country which I shall point out to you. Remain for the present in that country; I shall be with you and bless you, for I shall give all these countries to you and your descendants in fulfilment of the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I shall make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I shall give them all these countries, and all nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants in return for Abraham’s obedience; for he kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws.’ (Genesis 26:1-5)
Notice because of one man’s obedience (Abraham) in keeping the Creator’s rules, all nations on earth will bless themselves by Isaac’s descendants. But now it seems that His rules are outdated, so we suffer. Amos and Hosea make this plain:
I have written to him the great things of My Law, but they were counted as a strange thing. (Hosea 8:12)
The most serious famine we have is a famine of the Word; we choose the wrong things and we spiritually starve to death!
They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of Yahweh, and will not find it.
(Amos 8:12)
Oh, we have multitudes of bibles and concordances and dictionaries, but we’re too busy reading romance novels and thrillers, or watching documentaries on living longer through practicing mystical experiences like “Christian” yoga (which is Hindi for “yoking,” a religious practice for attaining union with God or Brahman–all intended to arouse/awaken kundalini) thus housing evil spirits; we’re going to theaters in spite of the fact we may even be shot while salivating and satiating ourselves in the salvation of super heroes like Iron Man, Spiderman, and the Dark Knight. Well, yes, indeed it is a dark night in the history of our nation. We need to wake up out of the American stupor for people are dying about us, and we do not see it though the harvest is white. We need to wake up out of fantasy and deal with real life issues.
So here is a solution:
We the people of the United States, and especially the Called-Out/Ekklesia, need to repent (teshuva) and truly return to the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob–there is no other true Elohim. We the people need to find romance with our Groom, the Messiah, and prepare for His Kingdom that is coming. Learn what it means to be His Bride, get ready NOW. Fill your lamp with oil NOW before He gets here, lest it be too late. The clock is ticking.
We need once again to be thrilled with the way He delivers His people from danger, and rejoice in the truth of His spoken and written Word, be grateful for His life-giving sustenance, and be revived through His Spirit which gives abundant wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and discernment to all who ask. Now would be a great time to ask.
We must turn from lukewarmness; be either hot or cold, turn from sin and wasting time on things that have no life-giving value. We the believers in these United States need to rise up and shine for our Light has come for the Glory of the Risen Messiah is upon His people. If we are His people, we are Set-apart for His purpose, not for our purposes. He speaks not to the stubborn or the faithless:
“ In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive: for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should turn again; and I would heal them.’ (Matthew 13:14-15)
“…putting your time and energy into politics won’t make a difference.”
Amen to that! Lest we forget, the voting booth does not choose the next President. We’ve seen the polluted problems with the polling. When we aren’t combing the scriptures we forget Who is really in charge here. Daniel reminds us who is CEO in charge of those who sit in the office of authority:
“ in these words: “Blessed be the name of God from eternity past to eternity future! For wisdom and power are his alone; he brings the changes of seasons and times; he installs and deposes kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those with discernment. He reveals deep and secret things; he knows what lies in the darkness; and light dwells with him. (Daniel 2:20-22). Want a deeper relationship with Him? How deep, how intimate do we want to be with Him? Do we want to know why we have so much pain and sorrow? All His deep and secret things are only “discovered” in His Book. Now would be a good time to go treasure hunting.
Genesis 47 was a time of great distress, however, it was a time of restoration between Joseph and his brethren, and on that day they became “unified” again. Had not Joseph died to himself in that prison experience, neither his family, Israel, would have survived, nor the gentile nations. Joseph, a symbol of the Messiah, died to himself for the saving of many lives.
“But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood.” (Eph 2:13)
“Yes, in union with him, you yourselves are being built together into a spiritual dwelling-place for God!” (Eph 2:22)
‘.. you fail to see that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should perish.’ He did not speak in his own person, but as high priest of that year he was prophesying that Jesus was to die for the nation-and not for the nation only, but also to gather together into one the scattered children of God. (John 11:50-52)
Truly, 9/11 was a time of great distress and great sorrow, yet we must not fool ourselves into thinking we have been restored as a nation. No, restoration will only come from on high, when we die to ourselves, confess our sins, and we lift up our heads to the heavens declaring He alone is God, not we ourselves, surely not our leaders, and then whole-heartedly cry out:
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yehovah! We have blessed you out of the house(hold) of Yehovah.” (Psalm 118: 26)
For our Messiah left us with these very words: “Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” (Matt 23:38-39)
Thank you again Irene for a great comment. Turning our hearts toward, and putting our hope in God instead of man is the key!
God’s richest blessings on you.