Eternity Is Now In Session | A SOAP devotional, By Pastor Jamie

 

Read Genesis 47 Genesis 47 NIV - Joseph went and told Pharaoh, “My - Bible Gateway   Genesis 47:28-30- Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.” “I will do as you say,” he said.

Jacob, the one renamed by God, Israel, wanted to be buried in his homeland, the place of God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and then to Jacob. It was a way of longing for the better place that God had in store for His people not, of course, yet in Jacob's timing, but in God's perfect timing. Joseph made the commitment to honor his father's last request.

In Hebrews 11:22 it says, "It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left." Just as Jacob's longing for the better place, we see Joseph's longing for a better place is a foreshadowing of the better place we long to receive in eternity when we die through the free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. By faith we live each day trusting that God is our ultimate resting place, and that we get to begin to understand and receive that reality today- here and now. An eternal perspective on al we experience helps us face all of our dilemmas and storms.

Lord, as Your children give us inquiring minds and discerning hearts. Bless us with courage and strength to persevere through all of the many trials and difficult circumstances we are bound to face. Give us Your grander vision of the Ultimate Better Place You have in store for us. Give us the desire to know and love You and help us receive all of the love You have for us in Jesus. Give us eyes to see all that is worth celebrating in the midst of this imperfect world awaiting the fullness of Your redemption. Amen.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11),   Pastor Jamie