June 27 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Genesis 50:22–26

Devotional

Joseph testified on his deathbed of the coming exodus of the people of Israel. He therefore commanded them to take his bones along to bury them in the land of Canaan. The significance of this is that Joseph, through the Spirit of God, was telling them, “Remember that you are strangers here. Remember this is not the land of rest. Do not forget that you are not a citizen here but a pilgrim.”

Did Israel understand this? No, they did not understand this because they lived in Egypt as if they belonged there. They did not live as strangers. They ate out of the same fleshpots as the Egyptians. They joined in with the Egyptian idolatry. They forgot the God of gods. What a blessing that the Lord brought them into bondage. It was a blessing that the Egyptian whips came down upon these people. This was painful for the flesh, but it is through affliction that the Lord leads people to salvation. If we have never been in affliction we can never be set free. If it has never become dark it will never become light.

God eventually makes matters so difficult for Israel that they say, “Indeed, it is true, we are strangers here, and Joseph already told us so. He reminded us that we had to take his bones along with us.” The bones of Joseph were, as it were, a warranty, or a sacrament, promising them that they would leave the land of Egypt. They would be delivered from the Egyptian slavery. They would enter into Canaan because that is what Joseph told them. It was God’s plan.

In the freedoms of Egypt, Joseph’s bones were a promise of deliverance from a bondage they had not yet experienced. Life was easy for them. They had no desire to go into the wilderness. Even when God’s promises are valid and man has blessed tokens of His salvation, on his own account man still has no desire to leave an easy life and to go into the wilderness. Man says, “Leave me alone for I want to live here. I want to die here. I don’t want to leave this city of destruction because life is so sweet here.” In their freedom the promises of God had no value. But God’s blessings gain value for people who are in affliction. As Israel is taken into bondage, they begin to find a blessed promise in the bones of Joseph. The bones are a promise of deliverance.

By nature, we do not feel like strangers in the earth. What does it mean to be a stranger? Just as the people of Israel could not live in bondage, likewise you cannot live in bondage under Satan. You are tired of sin. You are pursued by sin and you want to run. It used to be that you ran toward sin and now you want to run away, but sin runs after you as with a whip and you cry out, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” And then you learn to be a stranger.

If you do not know this life of being a stranger, remember God is willing to teach you this. There is a fountain of grace that is abundant. God is still waiting to receive a guilty, poor person who is under bondage. This must be a personal matter for us.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.