Jacob’s response to the dilemma was to ask why they didn’t
lie about having another brother. It is
certainly interesting that they chose to divulge this truth to Joseph but it
tells us something about Jacob’s character that he is still thinking the old way,
the way of Jacob the deceiver and supplanter.
Unless there is a good bit left out of the account of their encounter in
the previous chapter, Joseph didn’t actually carefully question them to elicit
the information regarding their brother, they provided it willingly without a
question at all. Judah agrees to act as
surety for the return of Benjamin and finally, because of the famine, Jacob
relents and allows them all to go to Egypt.
The sending of gifts to the man sounds a bit like Jacob’s ploy with Esau
when he returned from serving Laban doesn’t it, Jacob was always working an
angle in the belief that everyone could be bought off at the right price.
The disciples’ reaction of fear to Jesus calming the sea was
appropriate. The power to speak to the wind
and the sea and command obedience is truly awesome and fearful. It is the same power of Genesis 1, the power
of creation, the power of which the Lord spoke to Job in answer to his
questions and his demand for an explanation for all that had happened to
him. Job’s reaction to God’s response
was silence and awe, the same thing the disciples experienced here this
night. The question the disciples ask
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” is ironic in that the whole
purpose of his bodily existence is answer to that question at a level they
can’t imagine. All they have seen does
not prepare them to see what they see in this night. There are many parts of this story that
should remind you of the story of Jonah
1.
Paul has a different view of the rights of women concerning
their bodies than was common in his day.
Those who argue that Paul is a misogynist or a product of his times
don’t know the times in which Paul lived.
Paul consistently extended rights to women that were unique to the
Christian faith. Here Paul says that
both men and women belong to one another in their bodies. He is aware of the realities that we were
created with certain passions that are not wrong in themselves but there are
right and wrong ways to express and fulfill those passions and within the
confines of marriage is the proper outlet.
God has made provision for all our passions to be appropriately
satisfied, we need to stop trying to work angles and allow ourselves to become
disciplined to God’s way.
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