A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers   

Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. . .” There is coming a time when we will understand the meaning and love of all God’s dealings with us, however strange and inexplicable they may seem now. There is an old Hebrew story which illustrates the fact. It represents a rabbi as journeying on a donkey through a wild land. His only companion was a rooster, whose shrill crowing at sunrise awoke him to his devotions. He came to a certain village at nightfall and besought shelter, but the inhabitants churlishly refused him. Outside the village, he found a cave, where he prepared to spend the night. He lit his lamp to read a chapter, as usual, before retiring; but a gust of wind blew it out. During the night, a wolf killed his rooster and a lion devoured his donkey. He passed a sleepless night. Early in the morning, he returned to the village to see if he could obtain a horse or a donkey on which to pursue his journey. To his surprise, he found no one alive in the whole village. A band of robbers had come during the night and plundered the village and slain the people. “Ah!” said the rabbi, “now I understand my annoyances. Had not the villagers closed their doors against me, I would have died with the others. If my lamp had not been extinguished, and my animals had not been killed, the light, or their noise might have revealed my hiding place to the robbers. Truly God has been good to me.” In our Scripture lesson today, Joseph, after revealing himself to his brothers as the Prime Minister of Egypt, recounted all of the bad things he had suffered at the hands of his brothers; but reminded them, that all of those bad things they had intended for his demise, God had turned around for his benefit, to bring him to the desired place God had afore prepared. Initially, when bad things happen to us, we often focus on the specific events without taking into consideration the context of those bad events against the back drop of our total experience. When we look at the whole picture, we will find God’s sovereign hand shaping those events to bring about an ultimate good for us, for this and each new day.