God: Lover of the Excuse Makers

"Moses answered: "What if they do not believe me or listen to me or say 'The LORD did not appear to him?"  Exodus 4:1

God:  Lover of the Excuse Makers!
By Rev. William Dohle

God has a strange sense of humor sometimes!

You spend so many of your younger years making excuses for things.  Why your homework didn't get done.  Why you CAN'T do the dishes right now.  Why your bedroom will always stay a mess.

Then you grow up, get married, and have kids and...THEY start making excuses!

Little things at first, just like you did.  "I didn't hear you..." they say when you've asked them countless times to do something.  "I forgot to bring home my book..."when a certain assignment is due.  "I didn't know I had to..." they say when you ask them again, for the umpteenth time to finish their chores.

Ahh, yes.  God has a righteous sense of humor!  The excuses we give...come right back to haunt us later in life!

God should know too because God's chief prophet.  His messenger to Pharaoh.  His right-hand man.  The only person to ever have seen God face to face.  The author of five books of the Bible.  Moses.  Moses was...above all things...the king of excuses.

Don't believe me?  Just read chapter 3 and 4 of Exodus.  Then you'll see what I mean.

It begins with a simple question.  "Who am I?" Moses says.  The excuse?  I'm a nobody.  Choose someone else.

Then Moses thinks up another excuse.   "What's your name?  I don't even know your name, God!"  The excuse?  Not enough information.

Then Moses thinks up another excuse.  "What if they don't believe me?"  The excuse?  My friends!  Peer pressure!

Then Moses thinks up another excuse.  "I just can't talk." The excuse?  It's just too hard!

Four times Moses offers God one excuse after another and each and every time God shoots his excuses down.  Talk about persistent!  I wonder sometimes if I chased after people as God chased after Moses, could I overcome their excuses?

But God does... in a way.  Moses does lead Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness.  True...Moses complains the whole way.  He really gives God a hard time...but he does it!  Excuses and all!

We laugh at Moses, but frankly we're really no different.  We too are excuse-makers.  We are like little children to God.  And the number of excuses we offer God is staggering!  Numbering in the thousands!  And what does God do with our excuses?  Take them?  Of course not!  God leaves our excuses and keeps pressing.

We say to God... "We don't know who you are..." And God surrounds us with creation and gives us Scripture and the Church to teach us about his grace.
We say to God... "We don't have time..." And God makes time for us, sometimes in the most inopportune moments, to call upon him.
We say to God... "We can't do it.  We just don't know how."  And God gives us gifts of the Spirit and a community to teach us how to use them.
We say to God... "What if we fail?'  And God gives us forgiveness in His Son, Jesus, that overcomes all our failings.

God doesn't take our excuses.  He never has.  And He never will.  And, though we may give excuses to the world, to his church, to our families, and to everyone else, God still remains close to us.  Close enough for us to touch.  Always ready to break open our excuses with his grace and lead us into service.

Heavenly Father, Moses was the king of excuses...and I am his prince.  Help me to put aside my excuses and trust you, no matter where you should lead.  Amen. 

God of the Ordinary

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." 1 Cor. 1:27-29

God of the Ordinary
By Rev. William Dohle

Like many families, my family has two sets of dishes.

We have the dishes we use every day.  Those we dirty on ordinary occasions.  Dinner, lunch, etc.  These dishes all go in the dishwasher to be washed and then thrown in the cupboard.

Then there are the special dishes.  The china.  These dishes only come out at special occasions, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and they DON'T go in the dishwasher.

The ordainary dishes have normal wear and tear on them.  They're stained in some places.  They're scratched.  We've even broken a few pieces of the ordinary dishes.

But the china... Now that's a different story.  Because they're stamped on the bottom, we are extra extra careful with the china.  Nothing(and I do mean nothing) stains the china.  It's all very special you see.

Now... here's a question for you.  If God was going to use dishes... which ones would he choose??
Would he choose the dishes that are used every day.  The ones with scratches and stains on them.  The ones thrown about in the dishwasher?

Or...  would he use the china?  The special dishes.  The ones that we set aside as a little holier than the other dishes?

You might think that God would use the holy dishes.  Since God is...well... holy!  But if you did you'd be wrong.  Very wrong.  You see God loves ordinary things.  He resides in ordinary things.  He uses ordinary things.  God is just an ordinary thing sorta God.

Take God's first face-to-face encounter with Moses for instance.  Instead of speaking to Moses from one of the great cedars of Lebanon(one of the holiest trees in all the Middle East!).  Instead of speaking to him from a cloud or a pillar of fire...God speaks to Moses through a bush.  A SHRUB in Hebrew.

Now you might think:  Come on... This shrub is pretty important, isn't it??

Well... no its not.  It's just a shrub.  One of many, many thousand you would see growing all around the area.  God doesn't choose a special tree.  He chooses an ordinary shrub.

Even Moses doesn't get it at first.  The Bible tells us, "Moses saw that the though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.  So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up."(Ex. 3:2-3)  Moses walks up to the shrub to see this freak of nature.  To him it's nothing special.  Nothing holy.  It's just a strange bush!

Moses walks up to the thing, but still doesn't get it!  God calls him, "Moses!  Moses!" from within the bush.  (Notice, it's from WITHIN the bush, and not from some voice in heaven.).  Moses still doesn't get it.

"Here I am." He says.

Finally, God tells him, "Do not come any closer.  Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground."

Without these words from God, Moses wouldn't have had a clue who was talking to him or why!  And, catch this, the Bible never tells us whether Moses obeyed!  It never says he took off his sandals or anything!

Now, why would Moses have this reaction?  Because... Moses was expecting a God of the Holy and God is a God of the Ordinary.  God works in ordinary ways, transforming ordinary things into extraordinary.

We see it's true for Moses here... and we see it's true elsewhere.

God changes ordinary people...into HIS ordinary people.
God changes ordinary bread and birds...into manna and meat from heaven!
Later with Jesus God makes an ordinary manger...into the cradle of a king.
God changes ordinary water...into baptismal water!
He molds ordinary bread and wine...into the body and blood of Christ!

In fact, if you think about it, God doesn't use very many things that start holy.  He likes to infuse his own holiness into them and through that holiness, make the ordinary, extra-extra ordinary!  He does it for things.  And he does it for people.  Our God is a God of the Ordinary!

So... ordinary people... if God can speak out of a shrub...what could he possibly make of you?

Almighty Lord, you spoke out of a shrub to call your servant, Moses.  Use us as your shrubs in the world, calling the world to behold your presence here, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

"You Remind Me Of..."

"God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them."  Exodus 2:24-25

"You Remind Me Of...."
By Rev. William Dohle

My wife and I have a little game we play around our children.  We call it: "Tell me where that comes from..."

We play it whenever our kids do...well pretty much anything.  Jenny will say something like:

"That's SO you!"

Or

"He gets that from your side of the family."

Or

"He or she reminds me of you when they do that!"

I'm sure other families play that game too, but we've taken it to an art.  Everything, and I do mean everything, connects back to someone else in our family.

William's growing stature... "Your father is pretty tall..."
Matthew's red hair... "My grandmother used to have red hair..."
Lynne's personality... "She reminds me so much of your mother!"

Maybe it's good.  It shows that we're all connected to each other.  Maybe it's how we "prove" to each other that our kids really are...our kids!  In any case, our kids remind us of our family which remind us of our kids.  It's a gigantic game of memory!

God played such a game in this passage from Exodus.  The people of Israel, once at home in Egypt, had been enslaved and their cries rose up to God.  Now, God had a choice of what to do here.

God could have ignored them.  He hadn't really spoken to any of them for quite some time.
God could have told them it was their fault.  It was Jacob who led his people into Egypt in the first place.
Or... God could act.

And act God did.  God acted too, not because he had a soft spot in his heart for Israelites, but because, according to Exodus: "...he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."  In other words... the Israelites REMINDED God of the promises he had made with their forefathers and it was because of the patriarchs that God was concerned about them.

You know, too often we feel that we should stand on our own.  "Judge me," we say.  "By my own actions, not the actions of my family!"  We want to be so individual.  So distinct.  And yet...even with all our independence, we are still products of our families!  They raised us.  They nurtured us.  They may have made mistakes...but we are forever connected to them.  Their memory lives on within us.

God remembers us too, not because we are so important or special on our own, but really all because of Jesus!  It is Jesus and the promises made to us through Jesus that God acts in our lives.  He sends his Spirit...because Jesus promised it.  He forgives our sins...because Jesus promised they would be forgiven.

Just as the Israelites were remembered because of the promises God made with and through the patriarchs, we too are remembered because of the promises God makes through Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who sparks God's memory.

So...the next time you look at your children or your grandchildren and think about someone they're related to...remember how you, child of God, are remembered because of Jesus.  And every time God looks at you...he remembers the promises he made through him!

Oh the promises you have made through Jesus Christ.  Remember me because of him.  When you look at me, God, may you see Jesus!  Amen. 

Just Like Moses?

"Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"  Numbers 12:8b

Just like Moses??
By Rev. William Dohle

A few years ago, a gentleman in the congregation I was serving asked me to have dinner with him.  He was a little upset.  Having served the congregation as their president for some years, he had a few things to share with me.

We met at a diner just down the street.  After a bit of small talk, he looked at me and said: "Pastor...I need you to be more of a leader!"

"Really?"  I said.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean... I need you to be a leader.  Like Moses."

"You want me to be like Moses?" I asked him, a bit puzzled.

"Yeah.  I need a pastor who's like Moses."

I listened to him as he described his own version of a strong leader.  A leader who is brave like Moses.  A leader who stands up in front of people.  A leader who's able to bring his people into a sort of promised land.

As we parted company, I realized something.  My friend really didn't know anything about Moses.

Why?  What gave me that impression?

Well, because if you really knew Moses, you would never want a pastor who was like him.  Never!

Moses wasn't your model leader.

First of all... he starts out on the wrong foot.  He starts out a murderer.  After his miraculous rescue from the river and his raising in Pharaoh's own palace, the next thing Moses ends up doing is murdering a fellow Egyptian!

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.  He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.  Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."(Ex. 2:11-12)

Now, you might be thinking: "Boy, pastor, it seems like Moses was just defending his friend's life." and it does seem that way to our 21st century eyes...only listen to what his own people say.

"The next day, Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting.  He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"  The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us?  Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptians. "  Then Moses was afraid..."

So...you see...Moses knew he had done wrong.  Moses knew what he had become.  Moses had become a murderer!

The next thing Moses does too is flee Pharaoh who tries to do what any rightful ruler would do: punish Moses for what he did!  So...in addition to this indiscretion... Moses also becomes a fugitive outlaw!

Murderer... Outlaw... Fugitive!  Is this the sort of man you would want as YOUR pastor??

I'm sure that many churches would dismiss a candidate right from the start if it were known they were a murderer.  Even if they claimed it was in defense of someone else.  The law is the law!  Not to mention, Moses too didn't even stay put to be put on trial.  Moses ran.  A Murderer...and an outlaw!  What sort of leader is this?!

But it's just the sort of leader God can take.  You see, God isn't put off by our sins and past transgressions.  God isn't scared away by our past.  In fact...he seems attracted to it!  The people God works with are losers, right from the start.  They have nothing going for them.  And they shouldn't be leaders.  Not from the world's standing.

But God is able to raise up such leaders and choose foolishness over the wisdom of the world.  God doesn't give up on Moses.  Not for a second.  God follows him from Egypt to Moab where Moses meets his wife.  God stays with him as Moses discovers a new life there.  And God calls Moses out of that life, back to the Egypt he had fled as a murderer to lead his people to the Promised Land.

That's what God can do...with a fugitive murderer like Moses!

Imagine what God can do with you?!  Imagine what God can do with all your flaws and foibles.  Imagine what God can do with you, weak and frail and foolish as you are.  Imagine what power can come out of your weakness.

So...if that's the kind of leader that's wanted.  The kind who is deeply flawed and yet forgiven, sinful but redeemed.  Whose only hope is the Lord!  Then I am like Moses!  And so are you!

God of the murderer Moses, you chose the weak things of this world and the things that are not to shame the things that are.  Choose us, frail though we be, that we might be instruments of your grace, through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Well... I Never!

"For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28

Well... I Never!
By Rev. William Dohle

Life... is a wild journey!  Life has a way of working out in the end.  Never in the way we think it should and never in the way we expect.  It might start out looking bad...terrible even...but God has a way of turning it all for good...in the strangest ways.

It almost seems sometimes that God has a wacky sense of humor!

My life I've certainly seen that to be true.

• In Seminary, we stayed at a motel on our way home...just a few miles away from where we'd eventually live for 5 years.  Never once did I look south and think: "I want to live there..."
• I visited Montana when I was kid, drove up through Yellowstone park and everything.  I remember standing outside the gate...never knowing that I'd live there five years as well.
• I flew into the Chicago airport going to a conference in college.  I flew over prairies...never knowing that I'd be living south of there in Peoria some years later.

God just has some strange sense of humor.

Moses proves that true as well.  Moses' mother, I imagine, never realized that placing her child in the reed ark would save her child for the future.  She expected to never see him again.  She expected him to die.  And casting him on the waters isn't the bravest way to see your baby off.

She did it in faith.  Never realizing what would happen to him from there.  Never imagining that Pharaoh's daughter would rescue the baby from the reeds.

But there's more.  The irony doesn't stop there!  Pharaoh's daughter, seeing Moses was just an infant and would need a nursing mother, called, of all people, Moses' sister forward.

"Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

Did you hear the irony of it?  Could you sense God's chuckle?  Here Moses' mother was, expecting to lose her baby boy, and she ends up being asked to care for him.  And even more than that!  For being a mother to Moses, she's paid for her work!

Talk about crazy...and ironic!  Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined it would turn out that way.  She expected a curse...but received a blessing.  She expected death...and received life!  She expected bad...but God works for good, and good God was doing.  And that good included giving Moses back to his mother in a way that no one could have ever expected or anticipated!

God works in your life the very same surprising way!  God is constantly turning our sorrow into joy, your tears into laughter, your death into life.  It happens when an unexpected baby turns into the greatest blessing of the family.  Or when being laid off at one place leads us to a better job.  Or when even a death in the family brings peace.

These times happen often but can only be recognized in retrospect.  At the time of stress, we can't see past our noses.  We can't see the good being prepared for us.  We wait, nervous and confused and frustrated and lost.  We think life has no meaning.  And then the marvelous new beginning unfolds before us.  God's gift of the good appears.  And our eyes are open to a whole new reality.  A place where God is present for us, in Jesus Christ.  A whole new adventure.  God turns our tears into cries of joy, and our sorrow into laughter.  And He does it all in Jesus Christ our Lord!

God give us the faith to wait for that marvelous new beginning and the eyes to see and recognize it when it appears before us.  Amen.

God's Extraordinary Grace

"Salvation belongs to the Lord."  Psalm 3:8

God's Extraordinary Grace!
By Rev. William Dohle

If someone was to walk up to you and ask: "Are you saved?" What would you think they meant?  Would you think they meant...
A:  Are you safe?  Are you free from danger?
B:  Are you protected from your enemies?
C:  Are you going to heaven when you die?

I would imagine most of us would assume that, whomever is asking us "Are you saved?" is really asking us "Are you sure you're going to heaven when you die?"

Salvation in normal Christian-speak is another way of speaking of the after-life.  It's after death that salvation is given.  Salvation doesn't apply to now.  It's not from our enemies that we are saved, unless our enemy is the devil. It's not from danger that we are saved...unless it's the danger of going to hell.

But when most of Scripture speaks of salvation, it's speaking of a real event taking place in the present.  Now...God is saving us.  Now...God has given us his salvation.  When the Bible speaks of salvation...it's a present reality.

Take the salvation God gave baby Moses.  Moses, born of a Levite mother and a Levite father, both Hebrews, should have been killed when all the other Hebrew baby boys were being killed.  But Moses' mother, loving him, decided to save Moses.  Moses' mother built for him an ark(yes, it's the same word that's used for the famous ark Noah builds too!).  Moses builds him an ark and sets him a float, hoping beyond hope, that someone else will find her little baby boy.

Moses' mother takes a leap of faith!  And that faith pays off.

Because God ordained to save little Moses...and Pharaoh's daughter just happened to be playing in the reeds when Moses' ark comes floating by, salvation is given to Moses.  Salvation from danger and death.  Salvation from Pharaoh's hand.  Salvation in all of it's glory.

Is this the salvation that we speak of most Sundays?  No.  Is it the salvation so often questioned by well-meaning Christians?  No.  Does it involve heaven and eternity, with bright lights and all the rest?  No.  But is it salvation nevertheless.  Absolutely!

You see, we seem to forget sometimes that God is alive and among us TODAY working his salvation TODAY in the lives of others. Salvation isn't just about heaven.  That's a piece of it sure, but there is more.  Far more actually.  When the Bible speaks of salvation, it's not thinking of the afterlife.  It's thinking of the here and now.  Salvation is God's saving act here among us today.

This salvation takes on a variety of different forms.  Everything from...
Salvation from disease, when the doctors find and remove the cancer.
To salvation from our enemies... when bullies are caught and dealt with.
To salvation from poverty...when work is found for us and our families.

Salvation comes in the form of others.  A simple handshake.  A hug on Sunday morning.  A kind word spoken by a stranger.  All of these can be saving acts by God in our lives.

I heard a story once of a man who had suffered from depression.  He had planned on committing suicide one day and had said his goodbyes.  That was, until another individual spoke kindness into his life.  A few simple words of grace.  Some kind words shared by a neighbor.  That was all it took to save that man's life.  He didn't commit suicide.  He got help.  And it was all thanks to the salvation God gave him, not at death, but here in this life.

So, open your eyes.  Keep an open mind.  God will save us when we die...that is true.  But God's salvation is much larger than just death.  It's not just about heaven, my friends.  It's about life.  Life everlasting that starts today with God's ordinary saving actions in our lives.

God, your salvation in Jesus Christ is for today and for eternity.  Help me live today saved and freed by Christ, freed to love and serve my neighbor.  Amen.

When Disobedience is Commended

"The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live...So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own."  Exodus 1:17, 20-21

When Disobedience is Commended
By Rev. William Dohle

The law is good...or so we are taught.

From the time I was a little kid I was taught: "Obey the law...or else!"  Obey the law, do what the police say and what your government tells you, or face the consequences.

This fear, implanted in me since I was a child, has kept me driving the speed limit(for fear of the police lights behind me.).  It's kept me paying for things(for fear of being caught stealing).  It's kept my hands to myself(for fear of retribution from others).

All of these are good things to do.  Good things required by the law.

But what happens when the law requires you to go against your conscience?  What happens when you are faced with a decision like the midwives were in Pharaoh's day?  When you must choose between obeying the law and doing what is right?  What do you do then?

The Israelite midwives are faced with a tough decision.  On the one hand they are told, by Pharaoh, "When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."

Since these words come from the mouth of the god's emissary on earth(also known as Pharaoh), these words are LAW!

They can choose to obey the law...Or...they can choose to fear God and let the babies live.  These women choose the second option.  They fear God, allowing the babies in their care to live.

But then they go the next step.  When asked why this happened...they lie!  They say: "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."

Ironically, God doesn't punish them for lying.  He doesn't even mention the lie.  Instead, God is kind to the midwives and gives them families of their own.  All because they stood up against the law of Pharaoh and stood up for what is right.

In our day and age, we are faced with all kinds of issues.  Abortion and marriage equality, taxes and health care all fill the airwaves, especially during this time before an election.  As important as these issues are, though, most of them do not directly affect us.  Our opinions concern what OTHERS do...not what we do ourselves.  We may feel strongly one way or another, but either way our opinion is an easy one to keep.  We are breaking no law thinking this or that.  And most of the issues themselves do not directly affect us, so we can think or say anything we want to.  We may picket an abortion clinic, knowing full well we will never have to face the decision the young women are facing entering there.  We may stand up for or against marriage equality, knowing again that that issue has no personal bearing in our lives.

But when the issue and what we think of it does affect us and when our loving action goes against the law...that's when we join the ranks of the brave Egyptian midwives.  When we stand up against a group like the Nazis and hide Jews away in our home, despite what the law and the police tell us to do, we join their ranks.  When we stand up against segregation and sit where we're not suppose to on a bus full of white people...we join their cause.

For these brave women didn't care if the law said this or that.  They knew what was right and just.  And they acted accordingly.  They knew that they could be put to death for what they did, but their respect for God was greater than their respect for their Pharaoh.  And God blessed them for it.

If the law ever requires you to treat anyone with disrespect or unkindness or if the law ever tells you to love one person over another, stand up for what is right!  Fear God.  Do what God requires and commands...even if it means standing up against a human law.  For, in the end, you will be blessed just as the midwives were blessed for what they did.

Almighty God, king of the Universe, give us courage to stand up for what is right, no matter the cost to ourselves.  Give us strength to be a voice to the voiceless, even if it costs us everything.  Give us your Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

When Everything Changes

"Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt."  Exodus 1:8

When Everything Changes!
By Rev. William Dohle

It happens to everyone...

You're going along, minding your own business.  Doing nothing really out of the ordinary to call attention to yourself...just living life.  When suddenly... BAM!

Everything changes!

What follows brings turmoil to your once peaceful life.

When could this happen... well...
You could have had a good paying job when... BAM! ... You're laid off!
You could have just been living when... BAM!... A Heart Attack!
You could be enjoying your family when... BAM! ... Cancer!

However it happens, the moment everything changes is never a good one!  When it does happen, we long for better days.  We yearn for the days of health and well-being.  We pine after the days of a steady income and less stress over money.  We want, above all else, to escape from whatever has changed our lives.

This moment happens, not just to us, but also to the people of Israel.

Between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus a lot has changed.  The Bible tells us "Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers, and became so numerous that the land was filled with them."

In other words... time has passed for the people of Israel in Egypt.  And that time has brought... babies!  More babies than they can count.  So many babies in fact that the land is filled with Israelites babies and their babies' babies!

The prosperous time has come!  No longer are they stranded in Canaan, a people of just a single family.  Now the people of Israel are so numerous that the land can't hold them!

Wow!

But now... everything is changing!  For a new king who doesn't care for Joseph and what he did for Egypt has ascended to the throne.

And now the time of stressfulness has come!  For this king, seeing the number of Israelite babies has decreed that boy babies born of Israelites are to be killed after birth.  Girls may life.  And the rest of the Israelites are to be worked ruthlessly.  "They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the field."(Exodus 1:14)

Everything has changed...and it's not good!

Still God is working in their lives.  "God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own."

God is still watching out for them!

And God watches out for you too!  The question we pose most often after everything has changed is simple and yet so profound.

"Where are you, God?"

Thinking that God is only with us when things are going right.  Thinking that for some reason nothing should change if we truly believe in God, we get hung up on this question.

And yet... God is with us, just as he is with the people of Israel.  God isn't found high above in some highest heaven.  He's down here...with the midwives.  He's here where people respect God enough to disobey their civil leaders.  He's here where people are struggling and fighting oppression on every side.  He's here where death is at every turn.  He's here...in the details of their lives.

And God is with you there too.  The fact that everything changes doesn't mean that God has changed.  God is still faithful, no matter what.  God's promises remain with us both when life is at its best and when life is at its worst.  And God will see us through, one way or another, to His Promised Land.

God we live in a world of changes, a world of dangers and disasters.  Give us faith that we might see your unchanging love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

God's Intentions

"Do not be afraid.  Am I in the place of God?  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  Genesis 50:20

God's Intentions
By Rev. William Dohle

We have a natural tendency in life to look at the good in our lives as being from God.
And the evil of our lives as NOT being from God.

We see the newborn baby and say: "That precious gift is from God."
We see the West Nile virus and say: "That isn't from God."

We see the hungry being fed, the naked being clothed, and we think: "That is from God."
We see the homeless suffering and the poor go needy and we think: "That isn't from God."

We judge, even the actions of others, as being from God or not from God.

The cashier who was kind to you...was from God.
The daughter's rejection you suffered at the latest family gathering...was not from God.

It's natural, I suppose, to assume this and place the good in one pile under God's leadership and the bad under the leadership of someone or something else.  It's part of our dualistic world.  God is good and only wants good things for us.  God wouldn't put something bad in our way.  Would he?

Imagine if you or your loved one was diagnosed with cancer.  A terrible aggressive form of cancer.  The only thing that could counter such a cancer would be a chemotherapy that was equally as terrible and equally as aggressive.  You start on the therapy, knowing that in killing your bad cells, the good cells in your body will also be killed.  You suffer from terrible sickness...but it works!  You emerge cancer-free.

Now... was the terrible chemotherapy from God??  Did it not kill you to save you??  Did it not hurt you to help you??

This is the conclusion Joseph comes to when his brothers come worried over their fate.  With their father dead, they're unsure what Joseph will do.  Joseph says, with all wisdom.

"Am I in the place of God?"... That is... do I have the power to judge you?

"You intended this to harm me..." ... Joseph's brothers didn't want to help him.  They wanted to hurt him.  Their intention was not to bring their brother to a better place, but to get rid of him.

"...but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."... God's intention behind Joseph being sold into slavery, Joseph being thrown into prison, and all the terrible things that happened to him, was to bring him to Egypt so that others might be helped.  God intended this death to bring him to new life!

In my life, I have faced problems caused by people who intended to harm me.  Despite their platitudes, they didn't intend to help me but to hurt me and punish me.  Their evil I could see on their faces, in the words, and in their actions.  They really didn't want me to succeed.

But God has used such things for good.  God has closed one door and opened another.  God has pushed me from one place, only to help me arrive in a better place.

A part of me wishes I could be angry with them about it.  After all...they intended it for evil!  But God has intended it for good.  And so, I cannot be angry with them over what happened.  I am not in the place of God.  I cannot judge them.  God has used their actions for good, just as He promised.  God has used this death and that death to bring me more and more life.

And he does the same for you.  The actions or the inactions of others in your life have made you the person you are today.  Even the suffering in your life has contributed to the person you are today.  So...relax!  Forgive!  Let God be God.  Do not try to assume you know the effect others actions have had on your life.  Instead trust it all to God, who we know "works all things for good to those who love him, those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

I am not in your place, God.  I do not understand your intentions for my life, but I trust that you want only the good.  Lead me to trust you with everything in my life, through Jesus Christ my Lord.  Amen.

Oh to forget!

"What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?"  Genesis 50:15

Oh To Forget!
By Rev. William Dohle

I am a very forgetful person.  I just am!

I forget where I put my keys...probably 3 - 4 times per day!
I forget my wallet the same.
I forget what I'm supposed to get at the store...unless I write it down.
And I forget people's names...sometimes spontaneously so!
I forget what I'm doing in a particular room.

I'm just forgetful!

But there are things that I wish I could forget.  Things I wish were no longer in my head...

I wish I could forget...what those who injured me have done.
I wish I could forget...how hurt I was when they talked behind my back.
I wish I could forget...the guilt I have over a broken friendship.
I wish I could forget...what I've done wrong.

There are things I wish I could forget...and those I wish I didn't.  And for some reason...those two lists don't work so well together.  I find myself forgetting what I need to remember and remembering what I need to forget!  Ahh!

Today we hear Joseph's brother's falling into the same trap.  Joseph's brothers, after these many years, are worried.  You see...they remember what they did to Joseph.  How they sold him into slavery and sent him off to Egypt.  But they worry: "Does Joseph remember?  Is Joseph holding a grudge?"

"What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong we did to him?"

So... what do Joseph's brothers do?  They lie!  That's right!  They lie about what their father said.  They figure, since Joseph loved Jacob as much as he did, that maybe Jacob's word will clear their name.  So they tell Joseph...

"Your father left these instructions before he died: 'This is what you are to say to Joseph:  I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.'  Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father."(Gen. 50:16-17)

We're told, after he heard this, Joseph wept!

Why?  Why did he react that way?  Because Joseph had forgotten!  He had put what they had done to him out of their mind.  Their sins were erased, forgotten.  The past was past and Joseph had moved on!

His brothers hadn't!  Even after all this time.  Even after Joseph had been kind to them and shown them every kind of compassion, his brothers were afraid.  Thinking their father had stopped Joseph from taking revenge, they feared for themselves and their families after what they did.

Only there was nothing to be afraid of.  Joseph had forgotten.  The past was past.

We can learn a lesson from Joseph here.  To forget!  There is nothing so bad that requires you to hold on...and remember it forever!  There is no sin so bad that forgiveness cannot cover it.  There is no hurt you have that cannot be put behind you.

God knows!  God forgets!  When sins are forgiven, they are forgotten by God.  "As far as the east is from the west, so far have you put our transgressions before you."  That's how far away your sins are to God.  God doesn't remember them... why are you?

You have a choice.  You can hold onto the past.  You can live in your own mistake, thinking and believing that others judge you because of it, or you can choose to move on, to forget the past, and allow that mistake to make you a better person.

What will you choose to do?  Allow yourself to forget and live forgiven?  Or live instead in the past?

Forgiving, life-giving God, you have put our sins far behind you in Jesus.  You no longer remember what we did.  Help us to forget the sins of others.  Help us to forgive ourselves too.  Amen.

God's Crazy Turnaround

When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.  Joseph said to him, "No my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."(Gen. 48:17-18)

God's Crazy Turnaround!
By Rev. William Dohle

I'm convinced: Parents don't realize how their words affect their children.  Not really.

It was eight years ago.  I was driving home with my family back from Utah where my parents and siblings all live.  We had stopped at a gas station just outside town and my father had graciously agreed to pay for our first tank of gas to get us home.

(For some reason I feel like I've shared this story here before...but good stories like this are worth repeating...as we shall see by the Genesis tale where the same theme is repeated again in Joseph's life!).

As we stood there by the pump, my father smiled.  "You know, Billy, your brother is really going to go far in life!"

"Really, Dad..." I said, wondering where he was going with this.

"Yup.  It's funny how different you kids are from each other.  Someday I can see your brother Sam having a big boat and a huge house.  He's going to be the richest one of all of you.  Then he'll have you all out on that boat together and..."

I really don't remember much more from the conversation than that.  I was too busy in my own thoughts.  But those few words stuck in my head.  Maybe you could say they reminded me of our Joseph story for they sounded just like the words Jacob speaks to his sons.  They were words of prophecy, foretelling the future, words of blessing, commending good behavior, and words of cursing, sealing their fates.

When Jacob tells his son, "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.  Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel..."  I could hear echoes of those words coming from my father.

"Your brother will be the rich one.  In riches he will outdo you..."

True, I know my father loves me and is proud of me.  But at that moment it didn't feel that way.  Maybe it's because I'm the oldest of four and I've always had some form of sibling rivalry going on with my siblings, much like Joseph's family.  Even as an adult, I still feel like I compete for my parents' attention.  And at that very moment, those words hit me in the gut and I felt like the biggest loser of all my siblings.

That feeling, if bottled, might actually be what Joseph and his sons felt as they knelt down at their father Jacob's deathbed.  Joseph had just brought his two boys to their grandfather's bedside.  They knew really nothing of each other.  Each of Joseph's boys(Ephraim and Manasseh) had been born in Egypt with little knowledge of their extended family elsewhere.

Jacob called them over to him.  "Your two sons," he told Joseph, "will be reckoned as mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine".   It was an honor.  Joseph's children would become the ancestors of the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh!

Bringing them close to Jacob's bedside, Jacob laid his hands on the two boys' heads.  Ephraim on Jacob's left hand and Manasseh on his right hand.

But when Jacob reached out to touch them, he switched.  Placing his right hand on Ephraim's head, he essentially gave him the blessing that comes from being the oldest, switching their birth orders.

Joseph tries to intervene, but Jacob stops him.  "He too will become a people and he too will become great.  Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations."


Why he did this?  Why did he switch the birth orders?  Didn't he realize how many problems it might cause?  Didn't he see the sibling rivalry that would ensue?

Maybe he did.  Maybe he remembered what happened with him when he stole his brother's birthright.  Maybe he recalled how God worked through that event.  Maybe Jacob recalled how God chose Jacob, the second born of Isaac, also the second born of Abraham.  Maybe Jacob could see at the end of his life that God's crazy way of turning this world around wasn't stopping with him or even with Joseph, but would continue through his sons and their sons all the way to Jesus.  Maybe Jacob could see that this mistake was no mistake for God!

For in God's craziness, God often chooses the weak to shame the strong.  He chooses the second borns and the third borns, not the first ones, to accomplish His will.  As Paul says: "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."(1 Cor. 1:27-29)

So the next time you think to yourself: That person won't amount to anything!  Or the next time you try to figure out what your children will become... stop!  You don't know the mind of God!  God has great plans in store, even for the lowliest among us.  For, it is from bloodline of Judah, a line filled with losers, riddled with sins, peppered with scandals, that Jesus Christ emerges, who is and who was and who ever will be the Lord and Savior of losers everywhere!

With a limited view, Lord, we see the world and each other.  Give us the eyes of Christ that we might see the good and the potential in everyone we meet, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Taking the Lowest Place

But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. Matthew 19:30

Taking the Lowest Place
By Rev. William Dohle

Every two years we Americans suffer through a time full of big egos and empty promises.  A month when men and women in high positions take time out of their already busy schedules to speak well of themselves and ill of each other, hoping beyond hope that they will look better than the other person and win the populous' approval.

That's right.  It's election season again!

No matter what your political persuasion.  No matter which party you adhere to.  No matter who you vote for there is but one formula everyone is using when running a political campaign.

Self promotion + Negative Press of the Other Candidate = Victory!!

Show me a political campaign that doesn't include one or both of these elements and I will be greatly surprised!  That's how elections are won, after all.  Promote yourself while tearing down your opponent.

But what if that wasn't the case?  What if we took out the negative press AND the self-promotion?  What if instead of lifting ourselves up high and stomping the other low, instead of promoting ourselves to the highest level and pushing the other down, what if we volunarily took the lowest place instead?  What would that look like?

That's what Jacob does when he's standing before Pharaoh.  After leaving his home in Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, as they use to say, Joseph tells his father to ask for nothing from Pharaoh except a place in a land known as Goshen.  A land occupied by the detestable shepherds!

"When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”(Genesis 46:33-34).

And so, Jacob does just that.  Instead of asking for the best land in Egypt.  Instead of acting like royalty.  Instead of demanding his own rights, Jacob assumes the lowest place in Pharaoh's kingdom.

"Your servants are shepherds,” [Jacob and his sons] replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.”

Pharaoh agrees, ironically calling Goshen the best land in Egypt and giving Jacob and his sons rights over his own livestock. 

"Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you, and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”

Whether Goshen was the best land or whether, as Joseph says before, the Egytians despise shepherds and sent them off to live there, Jacob still took the least place with Pharaoh.  Instead of demanding his rights or any kind of special treatment, he calls himself and his children Pharaoh's servants.  He doesn't presume anything about himself.  He takes the lowest place...confident that God will raise him up.

This wisdom sounds absurd!  Take the lowest place?  Give up promoting ourselves?  But it is a wisdom echoed elsewhere in Scripture and even by Jesus Christ himself.

Jesus, like Jacob, speaks of taking the last place.  “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.  If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”(Luke 14:8-11).

Maybe Jesus understood what his ancestor had done.  Maybe Jesus knew that in taking the lowest place, by agreeing to go to Goshen, Jacob had allowed himself to be humbled so God, in his infinite mercy, might raise he and his family up again.  For it was from the land of Goshen that Jacob's descendants would one day be led by Moses from Egypt into the Promised Land.

We too are challenged with these words and actions.  We are commanded by our Lord not to raise ourselves up with our words and deeds, but to take the lowest place, to humble ourselves.  We might not win an election with our actions, but we will be following Christ Jesus who humbled himself for our sake and was exalted by God.

When tempted with self-promotion, help me to take the road to the cross, the road that your Son walked that led from the cross to resurrection.  Amen.

How's Your Blessing Coming?

Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh.  And Jacob blessed Pharaoh...  Genesis 47:7

How's Your Blessing Coming??
By Rev. William Dohle

I had the strangest conversation last week.

Coming back from lunch at our area's Leadership Conference, I walked next to our synodical bishop.  We started talking about the conference and the speakers and about his upcoming visit to our congregation.

When suddenly the strangest thing popped out of my mouth.

"Bishop," I said.  "I just want to tell you what wonderful gifts of administration you have!  You really know how to organize people!  What you said in there... I couldn't say.  And your job is something I couldn't do.  Thank you for your hard work, bishop.  Thanks!"

The bishop looked strangely at me...really strangely...and then walked on.  I'm not sure if he knew what to say to me.  I sure didn't know what to say back.  I hadn't planned my conversation out.  But suddenly I had done something biblical without even realizing it.  I had blessed the bishop!

Blessing people has a long history.  Going clear back to Genesis, people have blessed other people.  God himself told Abraham and his decendants.  "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."(Genesis 12:2-3)

Jacob follows in this tradition.  When he meets Pharaoh, he doesn't receive the Pharaoh's blessing, but gives Pharaoh his own blessing.  Jacob blesses Pharaoh!  And not once either...but twice.  Once when he first meets Pharaoh and once as he leaves!

Now, most of us in the presence of leadership wouldn't dare bless them.  If the President of the United States walked into our office, few of us would approach him with thanks.  Either because we are angry with him or because we don't feel worthy to be in his presence.  Instead we might hope that the man in leadership would pay attention to us or look our way.  But blessing them or thanking them?  How many of us would do that?

But Jacob does.  Jacob doesn't flinch from doing so either.  He knows what his role in life is.  He has been blessed to be a blessing to others...and that's what he does.  Jacob doesn't come to Pharaoh with criticism.  He doesn't tell him to turn away from Egypt's false gods and serve the Lord alone.  And Jacob doesn't expect blessing from Jacob.  He doesn't expect to be told what a great father he was to raise up Joseph who has saved the land.  He doesn't expect to be blessed or thanked or praised by the leader of the known world.  Instead, Jacob knows it is his job to thank, praise, and bless Pharaoh.

So... Jacob turns to Pharaoh and gives him his blessing, saying in effect: "May God bless you...as he has already!  May you be blessed by the Most High God!"

What a radical way to live life!  To be a blessing to others.  And to give our blessing freely...to those in power, to those less fortunate, and even to those we dislike!

A few years ago, I met a man who decided on a whim to write a letter to his favorite actor, Jimmy Stewart thanking him for his work in the movie, It's A Wonderful Life.  The letter writer didn't expect a response.  He didn't really know what to think.  But a response he got.  A personal letter from Jimmy Stewart thanking him for his letter.  Jimmy told him that no one had ever thanked him like that before.  No one had ever thanked him period.  It's A Wonderful Life had been panned by critics at the time.  A flop at the box office.  But Jimmy Stewart had always liked that movie too.  And he told the letter writer that.  He had received many letters but no one had ever blessed him as he did.

When was the last time you blessed someone else?  When was the last blessing you gave to your spouse or to your kids?  To your pastor or to your teacher?  When was the last letter you wrote to your senator, to your governor, even to the President, thanking them for their work?  Too often in this election time we look at the negative.  We focus on all the things we dislike about the people.  And in this way, we curse them!

But Jesus says we are to not to curse our enemies, but to bless them.  "But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."(Lk. 6:27-28)

Our blessings were given to us to share.  So...share those blessings with those you like...and those you dislike.  Be a blessing to others, just as God has been a blessing to you.  Bless others...and may God cover you with with his grace.

God of Abraham, Jacob, and me!  I thank you that you have blessed me so richly.  May I share that blessing with others, through Jesus Christ my Lord.  Amen. 

The Grand Family Reunion

“As soon as he appeared before Jacob, Joseph threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.”  Genesis 46:29

The Grand Family Reunion!

By Rev. William Dohle

Growing up I use to think I come from such a large family.  My family numbered thirteen of us in all.  It included… Me, my three siblings, my father and mother, my aunt and uncle, their three children, and my grandmother and her husband.  Thirteen of us in all.

I use to think that was a pretty large family.  Now I know that my family was really quite small.

I have met people whose families are huge!  Families who number in the hundreds with all the kids, their spouses, grandkids, aunts and uncles and cousins.  Talk about a family reunion!  Of course they don’t see each other except on family reunion days which makes their numbers manageable, but still.   Wow!

Well…  imagine a family reunion.  A big, huge family reunion.  Imagine being just one person in, say, 70 brothers and sisters, all with their own children and wives.   Imagine the chaos moving that group of people.  Planning for their arrival.  Imagine how lost you might feel in such a crowd.  “Who notices me?” you might say.  “I’m a nobody.”

Joseph might have thought that before his homecoming.  Seeing his family at a distance with, I’m sure, more people there than when he left, Joseph very well could have felt overwhelmed.  “What does my father care about me,” he could have thought.  “I’m just one person in this crowd!”

But that was not the case.  Joseph was special.  Joseph was unique.  Joseph…was Jacob’s son!

And so, as his family made their way into the region of Goshen, Joseph had his chariot ready to meet his father.  And, as soon as the two saw each other, Joseph and Jacob threw their arms around heach other and wept.

Jacob says: “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”

And the family reunion commences.

But we must remember  that this isn’t a happily ever after.  Problems still exist in the family.  The homecoming is sweet, but the journey into Egypt has just begun.  And there’s still Joseph’s brothers’ guilt to contend with.

But for now there is joy!

Our family reunions can feel like the same mixture of things.  We are glad when we can gather together, but, as often happens, our sinfulness can impede our true joy.  We remember how annoyed we are Aunt so and so and how she doesn’t seem to care for us.  We get upset with our cousins and how they treat us and each other.  We growl at our mother-in-law and wish she’d get out of our business.   We snarl at our daughter-in-laws and how they are raising our grandkids.

And in the end we’re all so grateful to be in our own cars driving away from the family reunion we’ve looked forward to all year long.  So much for the joy of the family reunion.  Now we'll have twelve more months to forget about all the hassle our family truly is.

But what if there was a way to bottle what we love about families reunions.  To have the reunion of the century without all the headache that comes with the family?  What if there was a way that we could live in that moment of joy forever?  To enjoy a family reunion and not be burdened with all the baggage our sinfulness brings?

Perhaps our heavenly homecoming will be such a grand family reunion.  Perhaps heaven is really a grand party where we meet our immediate family and see how we are connected with everyone else in the family of God.  Perhaps there all the baggage that divides us from each other will be taken away.  Perhaps we will see our family members how God sees them.  And, just perhaps, there’s enough family members that if you were to meet and know them all it would take an eternity just to meet them all.

What a family reunion that would be!

And, of course in such a place, the first person to meet you at that grand party isn’t a staunch St. Peter with a book full of wrongs you have done, but Jesus Christ, his arms open wide running at you to scoop you up for the biggest bear hug in the world, just as Jacob did when he saw his son he thought was dead coming to him that day so long ago.

God of Jacob, we see in your Joseph’s homecoming a foretaste of our own homecoming in heaven.  Forgive us in the meantime and give us strength that we might love our families as you love us.  Amen.  

The Promise follows YOU too!

“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”   Genesis 46:1


The Promise Follows YOU too!
By Rev. William Dohle

Its hard to believe, but I am somewhat of a travel-bug.  In my 37 years of life, I have lived in nine different states.  Arizona, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Minnesota, and now, Illinois.  I have moved some eighteen times, lived in that many residences.  Everything from a little apartment, a trailer, a dorm room, and three houses.  I have boxed my things up more times than I care to admit.  And lived out of a suitcase on more than one occasion.

Traveling is fun.  It's cool to meet new people and see new places.

But the one question I always get.  The one that I have a hardest time answering is perhaps the simplest one of all...

"Where is home for you?"

That question has haunted me on most of my travels since leaving home.  Where is home?

I use to say that home was Utah.  "Utah!?" they'd say.  "Why aren't you Mormon?"

Then I'd have to explain that Utah wasn't really HOME...it was just where I grew up.  It was where my parents and my siblings all live.

"Ahh," they'd say.  "So...where is home for you then?"

Home is really hard to define, especially when you've lived in so many places.  Is it the place you grew up?  Or the place you spent most of your time growing up?  Is it where your parents reside or where your siblings still live?  Is it the place that you go to when you're in trouble?  Or the place that you call when you need someone to talk to? Is it where your family is?  Or where your kids are?

Since having kids, myself, I have received that question less.  Perhaps because kids make my home stable.  Home is where the kids are.  But I still wrestle with that question, especially living as a nomad out here in the midwest while my parents and siblings all reside in the intermountain western United States.  Where is home?  There or here?

That is the question I think Jacob was pondering as he was packing up for Egypt.  You see, Jacob had by this time already received God's promised land.  He was living in Israel.  His kids all had grown up there.  The well his family would have for generations to come had already been dug.  Jacob was set.

But then this nasty famine struck and his sons all went to Egypt for more grain and then they found Joseph, Jacob's lost son, and then came the request: "Come on Dad!  Move to Egypt!"

I can only imagine what was going through Jacob's head at the time.  "What?  Move?  Are you kidding?  We're living in the PROMISED land!  The land that God swore to grandpa and dad and me!  This is our land!  We're not going anywhere!  We can't leave God's promise!"

Perhaps these thoughts are what prompted God to visit Jacob.  God, so far throughout the last few chapters of Genesis, has been relatively quiet.  We haven't heard a peep out of him since before Joseph's story began.  But here God comes with a message for Jacob in God's typical fashion.

"Jacob... Jacob!  Get up and go, Jacob!"

"But God," Jacob says.  "You said that this was the promised land that I'm standing in.  Why should I leave?"

"Don't you think my promise can travel?  Besides, no one said what that promised land thing really meant anyway?  Don't worry!  My promise travels.  And I will go with you!"

And so, Jacob leaves with everything, his wives, his children, and all his possession.  After living in the Promised Land all his life, Jacob goes to Egypt.

But what Jacob doesn't realize, and what this text fails to say too, is that God has already gone ahead of Jacob.  He's already in Egypt.  He's been with Joseph since the beginning.  And God is there, waiting for Jacob to arrive!

Throughout all my moves and all my travels, I have known this to be true too.  God has always gone on ahead of me.  He's been there at every truck stop we stopped at, at every rest area we visited.  He was there when we pulled into our new home.  He had everything ready for us.  He was there when we met His people in our new location.  He went on ahead of us...just as he promised.

No matter where life takes you and what moves are ahead for you in the future...there is one thing that is certain.  "The Lord your God himself will cross over ahead of you...Do not be afraid...he will not leave you nor forsake you." (Deut. 31:1-8)

That is a promise for you...whether your next move is out of the country.  Or your next move is to a nursing home.  That promise is for you.  He has gone ahead of you, wherever you are going.  And he will be there when you arrive, a smile on his face, and a "welcome" banner across the front step.  And one day, when your travels take you out of this life, you'll find he's gone on ahead of you there too, to prepare a place for you with all the saints of God.  That welcome home celebration will truly be a treat.  For you will have finally arrived at your true home away from all the temporary homes on this earth.
 
Good, gracious, and giving God.  What a joy it is knowing that you go on ahead of us.  That wherever we are, you have been, even death itself.  Teach us to trust you, wherever life takes us, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.