The Vision (12.5.25): Behold I die: but God shall be with you

 

Image: Snowy country lane. North Garden, Virginia. December 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 48.

“And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers” (Genesis 48:21).

Genesis 48 describes how Jacob (Israel) on his sick bed blessed Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph. Paul said in Romans 15:4 that all the Scriptures were given for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of them might have hope. Here are three lessons from Genesis 48:

First, we learn from the model faith and piety of Jacob.

Though in the land of Egypt, he still trusted in the promises the LORD had made to him (48:4).

He acknowledged God had done more for him than he ever could have asked or imagined, He had not only seen Joseph again but also Joseph’s sons (v. 11).

He acknowledged that God had fed him “all my life long unto this day” (v. 15).

He desired to direct his son and even his grandsons to share in the covenant blessing which he and his fathers had known.

Second, we learn about the sovereign election of God.

Through Jacob, the Lord chose to bless Ephraim above Manasseh, even though Ephraim was the second born (vv. 14-20).

This recalls the teaching about election in Romans. In Romans 9:13, Paul writes, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Likewise, in Romans 9:18 Paul said the Lord has mercy upon whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens.

Those are examples of Biblical teaching on election to salvation, but there is also election to service, which may be more appropriate to Ephraim and Manasseh. God chooses whom he will among his saints to serve in various ways and to bless as he sees fit. Ours is not to wonder why, but to serve gladly wherever he places us with contentedness.

In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul noted that God chose him to plant churches and Apollos to water or nurture them, but it was God alone who gave the increase.

Ephraim had one role and Manasseh another, just as Paul had one role and Apollos another, just as each of us have our own roles of service as sovereignly chosen by God.

So let us rest in his wisdom and do our duty.

Finally, we learn about the Immanuel promise of God to his people, that He will be with us and with those who come behind us.

Jacob knew that he would soon die, but God would continue to be with his children (v. 21). As the prophet Isaiah puts it, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever” (Isa 40:8).

One generation passes away and another arises (Ecc 1:4). But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever (Heb 13:8). The one who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again on the third day told his disciples before he ascended, “and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt 28:20).

Christ is always with us!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Vision (11.28.25): Joseph: A Man of Virtue and Diligence

 

Image: Joseph sold into slavery by his brethren, floor tile, Gloucester Cathedral, England.

Note: Devotional based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 47.

“And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household…” (Genesis 47:12).

We are right to suggest that there are whispers (types) of the experience of Christ in the life of Joseph, though we would also admit that this connection is not explicitly drawn within the NT itself, unlike the connections that are made with other OT types (cf. Jonah as a type of Christ in Matt 12:40).

The historical Joseph of Genesis is not mentioned directly in the NT Gospels, although our Lord’s legal father, Joseph of Nazareth, the husband of Mary, was named after him, as was Joseph of Arimathea, the man who took Christ’s lifeless body down from the cross.

The historical Joseph of Genesis is mentioned in only two places in the NT: First, in Stephen’s speech before his martyrdom (cf. Acts 7:12-15), and second, in the “faith chapter” of Hebrews 11 (cf. Heb 11:21-22). In both of these, the main emphasis is on Joseph’s providential role in preserving his family and bringing them into Egypt. But there is also a focus in the sacred account in Genesis upon the piety and righteousness of Joseph.

We saw it when Joseph had to bring an “evil report” to Jacob about the sinful behavior of his brothers (37:2).

We saw it when with innocence and sincerity (with no guile or grandiosity) he reported his dreams of his family bowing before him (37:5-11).

We saw it when Moses said Joseph was a “prosperous man,” even when he was a slave in the house of Potiphar (39:2).

We saw it when he fled from the salacious advances of Potiphar’s wife (39:12) and when he refused to sin against man (Potiphar) in committing adultery, but most especially to sin against God (39:9b: “how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God”).

We saw it in his willingness to extend mercy and forgiveness to his brethren who had treated him so maliciously (45:5; 8a).

And we see it also in Genesis 47 as Joseph is presented to us as a man of virtue and diligence. We see this in at least three ways in Genesis 47. First, he nourishes his father and brethren (47:1-12); second, he faithfully serves Pharaoh the king, so that the people say, “Thou hast saved our lives” (47:25); and third, he honors his father, even as Jacob neared death (47:30).

The Bible is not a mere moralistic handbook. Its focus is on the glory of God, not the virtue of men, though it does provide us with virtuous models to follow. Joseph is one such model.

The apostle Paul said, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). And here in Genesis, Joseph is saying to us: Follow me, as I also followed Christ.

As we have opportunity: Let us nourish our brethren. Let us faithfully serve those who are over us in the Lord. And let us honor father and mother, that our days may be long upon the land which the Lord our God giveth us.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (11.21.25): And God spake unto Israel

 

Image: Autumn evening skies, North Garden, Virginia, November 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 46.

“And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I” (Genesis 46:2).

Genesis 45 presented a great climax in the life of Joseph, as he finally made himself known to his brothers and was reconciled with them.

The story does not, however, end there. Genesis 46 follows with the account of how Joseph’s father Jacob [Israel] made his journey to Egypt.

God had been at work providentially to preserve the line of Abraham, and in bringing Jacob [Israel] and his household to Egypt, God is further working out his providential plan. That plan will include hardship for this elect nation, as they will be placed in bondage in Egypt. Yet it will also include God’s mighty work of deliverance in the Exodus under Moses.

Jacob did not know all that was ahead. He simply listened and obeyed the command of God.

As we look back at the opening verses to this chapter (46:1-7), we can see how Jacob and his household might stand as figures for every believer and for all the people of God, his church, collectively.

Jacob was called to leave his homeland and go to Egypt. We too have been summoned to answer the call of God upon our lives. We have been called to leave all behind and follow Christ wherever he leads (Luke 9:23).

Jacob worshipped God (see v. 1 “and [Jacob] and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.”). We are called to give worship, to offer spiritual sacrifices, the fruit of our lips, to the one true God of the Bible.

God has spoken to us in this age, not in visions, but by his Word written (v. 2: “And God spake unto Israel…”). We are to receive his Word and take it into our lives.

He gives us his perfect love which casts out fear (v. 3: “fear not…”).

He gives us his promises that we will be a great nation, the spiritual seed of Abraham (v. 3: “for I will make of thee a great nation”).

He promises to go with us into every circumstance and to bring us out again, to be all our comfort and hope in life and death (v. 4: “I will do down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again…).

Moses records Jacob’s response to this call: “And Jacob rose up…” (v. 5). He took with him “all he had” (v. 1) and followed. This included “all his seed” (vv. 6, 7). He entrusted not only himself but all his family to the Lord.

May we learn from men like Jacob in Holy Scripture how we are to obey when the Lord calls upon us.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (10.31.25): How shall we clear ourselves?

 

Image: Fall path, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 44.

And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants (Genesis 44:16a).

Genesis 44 continues the ongoing record of how the Lord worked out reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers.

Here are at least two things we might consider in this chapter as practical applications:

First, we might consider that reconciliation, both vertical and horizontal, often takes a slow and circuitous route.

It might stretch over a long time, even over many years, before all things are resolved.

Are there men with whom we need to be reconciled, especially ones who share with us a like precious faith in Christ?

How might the Lord be working even now to overcome sinful resentments, hurts, and ill feelings to bring about a glorious reconciliation?

Might we join in praying and even working toward such ends?

Second, we can meditate on what I have called the “evangelical” statements shot through this chapter.

Consider v. 4: “Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?”

Has God done good to you and you have answered with evil?

Has some fellow man, or fellow believer, done good to us, and we have answered with evil?

If we have been confronted with some unresolved and festering sin in our lives, might we answer with the realization that Judah did when he said in v. 16: “What shall we say…?” “What shall we speak?” And especially, “how shall we clear ourselves?”

Have we thought, as did Joseph’s brothers, that we could hide or harbor in our hearts sinful thoughts and deeds which God did not know about? Joseph’s brothers did.

This is a theme that appears in several Psalms.

In Psalm 10:11 we read that the wicked man “said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.”

Likewise in Psalm 94:7 it says that the “workers of iniquity” (v. 4) say, “the LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.”

Would we confess as Judah does in v. 16, “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.”?

A.W. Pink said of this passage, “There could be no communion of heart until full confession of guilt had been made. And this is the goal God has in view” (Gleanings in Genesis, 404).

Once we come to such a realization will we then say to the Lord Jesus Christ as Judah did to Joseph in v. 18: “Oh my Lord… let not thine anger burn against thy servant.”?

The man whose conscience has been awakened to his own sinful life and his own guilty conscience apart from Christ realizes that he cannot clear himself. His only hope is to look to Christ and live.

We hear evangelical echoes of that theme even in this OT account of Joseph. May the Lord use and apply these words to us, by the power if his Spirit, even today.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (10.24.25): And God Almighty give you mercy

 

Image: Fall Morning Scene, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 43.

And God Almighty give you mercy… (Genesis 43:14).

Perhaps the greatest theme in the record of Joseph (Genesis chapters 37—50) is providence, but a key subtheme is reconciliation, both vertical (men with their God) and, especially, horizontal (among men).

Four straight chapters are devoted to this theme in its account of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers (Genesis 42-43-44-45), and it even reappears in the final chapter, as the brothers fear Joseph’s retribution when their father dies (see 50:20).

Genesis 42 ended with a cliffhanger. There is a terrible famine. Simeon is being held hostage. Jacob refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt.

Genesis 43 continues and advances the record of holy history relaying how Jacob/Israel finally relented in the face of terrible famine to send his precious son Benjamin with his remaining sons to Egypt. He did so with a prayer for them, “And God Almighty [El Shaddai] give you mercy before the man….” (43:14a).

Israel continues in v. 14b, offering up his resignation to the circumstances: “If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” Sometimes men today say, “It’s going to be what it’s going to be.” This sounds like the Doris Day song “Whatever will be, will be” from the classic Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much. It’s hard to discern whether this is a sentiment which Moses commends as a godly response or whether it is a sign of Jacob’s spiritual weakness. No matter, all things are indeed in the Lord’s hands.

Maybe some hearing this today may think they are in a similar situation. If so, we are called to offer up our circumstances to the just judgements of an all-wise God and pray for his mercy for all involved.

God heard Israel’s prayer. When the brothers arrived in Egypt, Joseph welcomed them to his home (43:17). His steward washed their feet (43:24). And Joseph spread a table and “set on bread” for them (43:31-32).

Joseph might be seen again as a type for Christ. We can reasonably see in Joseph’s gracious reception of his brothers what the Lord does for every believer. He meets our prayer for mercy with mercy. He welcomes us into his household, ministers to us, and spreads a table before us.

May God Almighty give us mercy.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (10.10.25): A man in whom the Spirit of God is

 

Image: The Saqqara relief showing famine scene on the causeway of the Pyramid of Unas, Egypt,

c. 2500 B.C.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 41.

And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? (Genesis 41:38).

Perhaps the key doctrinal term in the narrative of Joseph is providence. God was at work in the life of Joseph to bring about greater and wider purposes than even Joseph was aware. God was providing for Joseph and through him for the people of Israel and, indeed, for all men. He was preparing the way for the Messiah. In time of grievous famine, Joseph would preserve the nations, including his own family, including the brothers who had betrayed him, including unrighteous Judah, who had suggested he be sold into slavery (Gen 37:2-27). But who came from Judah in the fullness of time? The Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ve suggested the theme verse of Genesis chapters 37—50 might be Joseph’s words to his brothers in Genesis 50:10, “ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

The New Testament equivalent to that verse is Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

The Lord allowed Joseph to undergo the most outrageous misfortunes and suffer the cruelest injustices, but all the while God was working out his plan of salvation, first heralded in Genesis 3:15. Joseph has a role in that plan.

In Genesis 41 we see the tide dramatically turn in Joseph’s life. He goes from the prison to the king’s palace. The Lord can sovereignly reverse a man’s condition and circumstances in a matter of mere moments. That’s what happens when we are saved. We go from sinners to saints, from orphans to co-heirs with Christ.

What Joseph’s brothers could not see (having been blinded by their own sin) in Joseph, even the pagan king of Egypt saw: That Joseph was a man in whom the Spirit of God was.

God is still at work all around us. As an old saying goes, “We cannot always trace His hand, but we can trust His heart.” Our lives are sometimes like a pebble cast into a pond. We never see where the ripples end. But if we are men and women who have been filled with the Spirit of God, we trust that he has worked in us, he is working in us, and he will work in us in ways that are greater than we could ever ask or imagine.

We entrust all things into his hands. Even our lives.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.12.25): Joseph & the Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 37)

 

Image: Cobwebs by round bales. North Garden, Virginia. September 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 37:

Genesis 37 begins the inspired narrative of the life of Joseph, an account which extends through Genesis 50. It tells us how his envious brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. What do we draw from this inspired account?

We are reminded that there is a sovereign God who is working out his perfect and all-wise will in all the providential circumstances of this life, including in the face of evil, in grief and pain and loss.

It is noteworthy that the name of God nowhere explicitly appears in this chapter. He is not always named, but He is always there.

And we see something in this lesser story, shadows and hints, of a greater story, if we compare Joseph with the Lord Jesus Christ:

Joseph was the beloved son of his father Jacob (Genesis 37:3).

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father from all eternity, made flesh in the fullness of time (John 1:14, 18; Galatians 4:4).

Joseph was given special revelation by God, as a dreamer (37:5-11, 19).

Christ is the prophet, priest, and king, who spoke the Word of God. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, over and again, “Ye have heard it said….but I say unto you…”

Joseph was hated of the brothers he was sent to deliver from the death of famine (37:4).

John said of Christ, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:10). Christ himself said in John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

Joseph came seeking his brethren to do them good on behalf of their father (37:13).

John 3:16 says, “God so love the world that he gave [sent] his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Christ told in Mark 12 the parable of the vineyard owner whose husbandmen abused his servants sent to them, till finally he sent his own dear son, and they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours” (Mark 12:7).

Joseph was stripped of his coat and cast into a waterless pit (37:23).

Christ was stripped of his clothing for which the soldiers cast lots; he was crucified, and then placed in a tomb.

Joseph was sold by his brother for 20 pieces of silver (37:28).

Christ was betrayed by Judas one of the twelve, a friend like a dear brother, for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15).

Joseph’s coat was dipped in the blood of a kid of a goat (37:31).

Christ shed his own blood on the cross, and He gave himself a ransom for many.

Jacob mourned and wept at the loss of his son, though he did not know Joseph still lived (37:34-35).

The disciples wept and mourned at the death of Christ, not knowing, at first, that he would, as he said, be gloriously raised on the third day.

Our Lord was under the power of death for three days. For 36 terrible hours. 12 hours Friday evening. 24 hours from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. And for six more hours from midnight Saturday till the early morning on the first day of the week. But then he was gloriously raised just as he said, and death was swallowed up in victory.

One of the great themes throughout this Joseph account will be summed up when Joseph meets those brothers years later in Genesis 50:20, and he says to them, “ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.” That is the Old Testament equivalent to Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Joseph was a great man with a great story, and he had a great role in God’s plan of salvation. But Christ is a greater man than Joseph, with a greater story. He is the Savior of all men. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle