February 10, 2010

Genesis 43
Up until February of 2008, I never had a pair of prescription glasses. I never needed them. When my reading vision started decreasing after I hit 40, I began purchasing magnifying glasses. For over ten years I only needed them to read. Then at 50, I occasionally noticed that I couldn’t read distant signs any better that Laura could read them with her glasses on. Her long distance sight has never been all that great. So I went to the optometrist. Indeed, my distance sight was not as good as it used to be. Buying my first pair of prescription glasses and wearing them constantly, I found how annoying it is to have cloudy lenses. At first it was just a problem with finger prints. But after 2 years, now I have a problem with lots of tiny scratches. I can still see what is there. It is just annoying because it is often cloudy and I do not see as clearly as I would like. Often we view the glory of the Lord through the cloudy lenses of our past. We have been looking at the glory of the Lord from Joseph’s perspective. He had sharp clean lenses to view the glory of the Lord

Look at Jacob’s perspective. His wives have died. He thinks Joseph, the eldest son of his favorite wife, is dead. He has only one other child by his favorite wife, Benjamin. Should we mention the other sins of his past that surely cloud his vision of the glory of the Lord? And now they are in a regional famine of great intensity. His grain supply is mostly depleted. He cannot clearly see the glory of the Lord in this dire situation. His lenses need to be cleaned or reground. He sounds like Eeyore, the depressed donkey of Winnie the Pooh fame.

Reuben’s perspective as the first born is interesting. In Chapter 42 he was willing to put his children’s lives on the line in order to obtain food for the clan (typical first born reaction). He then stops just short of literally telling his brothers, “I told you so.” Do you suppose that he was having issues with guilt from not having done enough to intervene for Joseph before he was sold into slavery? Perhaps he was having guilt issues for having slept with Bilhah, Dan and Naphatali’s mother, Joseph’s mother’s handmaid. But now in chapter 43, he steps out of the picture. The field of vision has become just too dim.

What is Judah’s perspective like in the midst of this? It was Judah who put forth the idea to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelite slavers. It was Judah who had the problem with his daughter-in-law-eventually-wife. Judah had said nothing when Reuben offered his sons. Now it was Judah who volunteered not his own sons to be held as ransom for their safe return but his own life. He does so not because he sees the glory of the Lord and trusts in the Lord’s provision, but he does so because he sees no other way for life. His own guilt clouds his ability to see the Lord’s glory.

What is the ten’s perspective as they enter into Joseph’s house? They feared death. I submit it was because their own spiritual vision was clouded by their past sin, particularly against Joseph. The cloud was so thick that they could not see who Joseph was even when they were seated according to birth order and when Benjamin was given a portion 5 times greater than theirs. God was working in their midst, and they could not see Him.

Some times the glory of the Lord is working all around us, and we cannot see it. Our spiritual glasses are to greatly smudged and scratched for us to see what is clear. Does that change His glory? Not one bit. He is still working and doing amazing things. We just don’t see it. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

Matthew 25:31-46
Remember the years before and after the death of Howard Hughes? There were a lot of reports of people claiming to have seen the recluse. (Yeah I know, there are people even now who claim Elvis sightings.) Usually they were reports of a man disguised as a homeless person who turned out to be the eccentric billionaire. In a way, that is kind of like the glory of our Lord Jesus. His glory is all around us in a veiled form. We are all created in the image of God. That image is marred and ruined by our sin. But, it is non-the-less still there. It reflects a little of the glory of Jesus. Granted it is greatly veiled by our sinful flesh, but it is still there.

So, anyone, no matter how sinful or impoverished, has something, somewhere deep inside that reflects a little bit of God's image and therefore the glory of the Lord Jesus. This extends from the homeless person to the Queen of England, from the mass murderer on death row to the Pope, from George Bush or Barak Obama to Sadaam Hussein. How I treat them is how I am treating the Lord Jesus. What I do to them is what I am doing to the Lord Jesus.

How can His glory be there? It is simply amazing that He could share a little bit of His glory with each of us, even after we had sinned against Him. I think it is often easier for us to believe that Howard Hughes could show up as a homeless person than to believe that Jesus shows up in some of the people we know and live with. But He does, and that increases His glory!

We also have this promise from Him. One day He will return in His full glory, no more veil. He will sit on the throne of His glory. What is the throne of His glory? Is it just some brilliantly lighted chair? Think about this possibility. If we are created in His image, if we have marred that glorious image with our sin, if He is in the process of restoring that fallen image in us, if the least of these is Him in disguise, maybe the throne of His glory is us in our fully redeemed state. Who gets the glory for our forgiveness? He does! Who gets the glory for our changed lives? He does! Who gets the glory for the reverse of the curse? He does! When He gives us crowns as a reward for our deeds in the flesh, what will we do with them? We will throw them back down at His feet and say, "We are undeserving servants; we have only done what we should have done in the first place!" Truly grasping this will change how I treat other people. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John