Monday, March 2, 2009

Today's Passage: Genesis 38

Who said reading the Bible isn't exciting? This story is just as racy as any drama on TV today. I do find it interesting that the second chapter into the long story about Joseph is completely about one of the brothers who betrayed him.

I imagine that God's purpose behind this side story is to show us the side effects of living a life consumed by sin. Here is what I mean, Judah was one of the brothers who didn't like Joseph and ended up kidnapping him, throwing him into a pit, selling him into slavery and finally faking his death to cover it all up. Every aspect of this situation is tied up in selfishness, inhumanity and lies (aka sin). Fast forward to Judah's own family, specifically his three sons. Two of them God finds wicked and destroys them. This leaves only the youngest, Shelah. Which I find interesting since it was the youngest of Judah's siblings that he hated so much. Then to protect Shelah, Judah breaks the promise he made to Tamar and winds up being deceived by her.

Other religions would call this karma or bad luck, God just calls it the consequences of sin. It says in James 1:14-15: "but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death", this is the progression of consequences that God wants us to understand. When sin goes unchecked it grows into an uncontrollable and deadly mess that we can't get out of on our own.

Living a life consumed by sin is dangerous, yet there are millions of people who honestly believe that they have no other choice but to live that way. We can never stress enough, how important it is for us to share with others the hope and freedom we have in Christ. You never know who is living with a secret and deadly mess in their life, while longing for there to be another way.