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A Picture of a Savior…Who walks on water
5 Comments | Posted by Mike Hutchison in Genesis, Matthew, New Testament, Old Testament
I hope that I am not stepping on anyone’s toes or stealing anyone’s thunder by inserting this summary of the life of Joseph as the narrative regarding Joseph does not end until Chapter 50 of Genesis.
In a book that is very free and honest in its portrayal of the weaknesses and sins of its characters and hero’s, Joseph stands as a unique individual. We cannot come to the conclusion that Joseph was sinless as all men have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, but for some purpose we are not told of any of Joseph’s sins and short-comings. Joseph was his father’s beloved or favorite son who was given prophetic dreams and the ability to interpret dreams. ..Dreams that were fulfilled in his person and work. Joseph was despised by his brothers and who in their jealousy betrayed him and sold him for the price of a slave. Joseph was placed in the ground and then lifted up, when his distraught father learned many years later that he was still alive; Joseph was received back to Israel as if back from the dead. He was numbered as and treated as a criminal and in whatever unfair or unjust situation Joseph found himself in, he was always promoted due to his high integrity and ability. He literally fled temptation and sin. In fulfillment of prophecies regarding his life and work, he was elevated to the position of a savior and king over his people and they bowed the knee to him. He not only became a savior and ruler to the circumcised but he also became a ruler and savior of a pagan and uncircumcised people! Joseph had a generous ability to extend forgiveness to those who had sinned against him grievously and to see his life as being used by God for a greater purpose.
Hmmm…does any of this sound familiar?
Now that we are done with reviewing a bit of type teaching, let’s visit a few other things we can learn from Chapters 46-48 of Genesis:
In chapter 46 God speaks to Jacob/Israel in a dream and reassures Jacob that going down to Egypt is all a part of His plan and that Israel should not be afraid despite his and his families dubious past history with Egypt. God comforts Israel with the information that God will bring Israel back up from Egypt and that Joseph would himself close Israel eyes. When all things look grim and we wonder if we are outside of God’s will, God will speak to His children love and encouragement and confirm his plan and commitment to them.
In Genesis 47 we see that as the famine continued to ravage the land that Joseph indicates that he had bought the Egyptians for the one that he served Genesis 47:23. And the people exclaim, “You have saved our lives!”
Thank God that Christ has bought us in our desperate condition to be servants of the Father!
In consternation to Patriarchy People everywhere and in all generations, God in chapter 48 once again sovereignly promotes the younger over the older regarding Josephs sons, this will play out within the OT narrative and redemptive history in interesting ways.
Thank God that in Christ the weak and foolish are used by God to shame the strong and the wise, that’s good news for me! 1 Corinthians 1:25-27.
In our Matthew passage, I will focus on the account of Christ walking on the water:
It is interesting that Jesus had to “make”/constrained his disciples to get into a ship. Perhaps they were afraid to return into the jurisdiction of Herod, or they were unwilling to embark without their Lord and Protector, and would not enter their boat till Christ had commanded them to embark.
Regarding our Lord’s conduct, spirit and practice of prayer, we can observe that He frequently withdrew from the world, elevated His heart to God and sought solitude, I hope and pray that this activity can become a bigger part of my life as it expresses my dependence upon God for strength and His direction for my life and activity.
Meanwhile His disciples are being “Tossed with waves” and “grievously agitated”. Perhaps the proper meaning was that they where being, plunged under the waves, frequently covered with them; the waves often breaking over the vessel.
Could it be that our Savior is interceding and making petition for us even as we are going through different struggle and difficulties in our lives? Even when it looks like the boat is going to sink?
As the disciples struggle in a situation they cannot control, between the hours of three and six in the morning Jesus makes his appearance to his disciples.
I want us to be careful to see more than just a lesson on personal faith and belief that God will pull us through in this passage, even though God will most certainly come through for His children. I think there is much more here.
Jesus suspending the laws of gravity as a proper manifestation of unlimited power, Though at a distance from his disciples, he knew their distress, He found them out on the lake, and probably in the midst of darkness and He walked upon the water. Job, speaking of those things whereby the omnipotence of God was demonstrated, says this: He walks upon the waves of the sea: indicating that this was impossible to anything but Omnipotence.
It is I; be not afraid. Nothing but this voice of Christ could, in such circumstances, have given courage and comfort to his disciples: those who are grievously tossed with difficulties and temptations require a similar manifestation of his power and goodness.
Peter is his usual intrepid way says to Jesus, “Tell me to come to you on the water”. Christ commands Peter to come and however impossible the thing commanded by Christ may appear, it is certain he will give power to accomplish it to those who receive his word by faith. Peter starts out well but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. It was not the violence of the winds, nor the raging of the waves, which endangered his life, nor is the temptations and difficulties that swamp our boat that endangers our lives it our habit of taking our eyes off of Christ and focusing on our circumstances that pose us the biggest threat.
Is this just a lesson on the failure or the littleness of Peter’s faith? I think not. Can we see that each circumstance and difficulty in our lives is being used by God to increase our faith and dependency upon Christ? Can we see that even when we fail, as His child he we are only sustained by His mercy as He puts His hand forth and grabs a hold of us to keep us from going under. Are we not saved and sustained in that salvation only by the strong hand of our gracious and merciful God?
In Christ, the Prince of peace is peace and calm where He condescends to enter and abide.
5 Comments for A Picture of a Savior…Who walks on water
chas pike | January 20, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Hutch | January 20, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Hey…you make Joe sound like the Federal Government…thanks for always making me think…thinking…thinking…thinking…this may take a while. Grin.
Author comment by Lionel Woods | January 21, 2010 at 9:44 am
Good word Hutch. I really love your impartial and non-pompous view of Peter (you know I love the pictures of Christ). Often times the messages we hear is about how little Peter’s faith was. However, the bible gives us a much different picture of Peter doesn’t it?
chas pike | January 21, 2010 at 10:28 am
my heart breaks for peter. what a much misunderstood and maligned soul.
Steve Scott | January 21, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Boiling down what Chas said: If Yahweh isn’t your god, Caesar is. Er, um, Pharaoh, in this case. Long live Molech worship!
Joseph understood American politics well.
lots of nice stuff to say about joe. he is a great employee and serves each of his masters well. he knows how to survive in adversity, be it as a slave, as a prisoner, and as a master himself, the father of pharaoh.
he creates irrigation systems that cause egypt to flourish. he is a city planner in the tradition of the chaldeans. he understands the power of resources, and also how to control economics for consolidating power.
with visions from God, he sets about transforming all of egypt. he has them grow grain and build depositories the grain. he institutes a harsh tax, taking 20% of all crops. he takes from everyone to build up his power base. he does, however, let the priests slide, and collects nothing from them, and provides for them. of course they are his family,he has married into them.
in seven years of plenty he takes enough of the peoples grain that he is able to sell it back to them. taking first their grain, then their money, then their livestock, and then the land itself. then he takes the people. they are all now slaves to the state, which provides a welfare system that keeps them alive enough to work. eventually all of egypt becomes sharecroppers, growing seed given to them by joseph, on land provided by joseph, paying a large tribute to the state.
at some point he is taking in so much grain that he stops keeping books. what? wait a minute, he stops keeping books? he is accountable to no man, and “lord” over all of egypt. interesting fellow.
abe and joe in egypt. fascinating. the presence of the descendants of terah has not been a good thing for egypt. the first time disease and pestilence are introduced, it is in egypt, and as a result of the presence of abraham. here is a coincidence that i find interesting; when abe goes to war to rescue lot, he carries off booty and slaves, women and children. remember? this is where night appears for the first time? and on the morning after that first night, we are introduced to melchizedek? melchizedek shows up with the bread and the wine and abe gives him 10% of the plunder. he allows the ones that help him to take what they want, making a big show out of taking nothing for himself. then he gives the slaves, the women and children, to the king of sodom. in doing this he delivers them over to death. they will all perish in sodom at the hands of the angel of death.
joe enslaves all of egypt, taking all of their material possessions. some will say that he saved egypt. i guess. in the next book of the torah, all of their animals are killed, all of the land is poisoned, and once again the angel of death comes through and decimates the country, killing all the first born of egypt. so, egypt after the presence of joseph went into slavery and ultimate destruction.
israel finds its way to egypt, and you know the story, the weeping, the game playing, the reconciliation, etc. israel allows itself to become slaves out of fear and complete lack of direction. they are in egypt living in the land of goshen, the richest most fertile valley in the world, and when the 7 year famine are over, they are still there. jake is there for 17 years before he dies. they are living off the “largess” of joseph, who, after having been delivered into slavery by his brothers, sets a snare that enslaves israel for hundreds of years. as he prepares to die, he tells his brothers that God will surely provide someone to lead them out of egypt. yet they are not captives, or are they? they have, however, offered themselves up as joseph’s slaves. and they remain slaves of joseph’s for hundreds of years, until they cart his carcas on a 40 years journey into the wilderness and burry his mummified body in the promised land. the only son of jacob’s to be buried in the promised land.
i know i am getting ahead of the program, but the next book will tell us that after a few hundred years, God remembers israel. so, for the period they are in egypt, after the death of joseph, God does not remember them. they are separated from God. isnt there another word for being separated from God?
thats my two cents for today. thanks for listening. and thanks
for the food.