The Vision (12.19.25): God meant it unto good

 

Image: December sunset, North Garden, Virginia, December 2025.

Note: Vision devotional article taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 50.

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive (Genesis 50:20).

When Joseph’s brothers fall on their faces before him, afraid he will take just vengeance upon them after the death of their father Jacob, Joseph makes this most amazing and insightful statement. Perhaps one of the most important and most meaningful and practical in all of Scripture. “Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.”

This is the way the Lord operates. He allows the evil actions of men. But he takes that evil, and, in his sovereignty, he makes it into good.

The Lord allowed Joseph’s brothers to strip him of his special coat, to cast him into a waterless hole in the ground, and then to sell him into slavery. They thought evil against him. But had this not happened Joseph never would have gone to Egypt, and he never would have risen to the top and saved many nations, including his own family, from starvation and annihilation during seven years of grievous famine.

The NT equivalent to Genesis 50:20 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.”

Joseph only learned this lesson through prayerful retrospection and reflection. We also should meditate on Joseph’s statement. The Puritan John Flavel wrote, “Sometimes providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backwards.” Look back over your life and consider those times when others thought evil against you. God permitted it, but he always had a gracious purpose. He meant it for his glory and for your good.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (12.12.25): The scepter shall not depart from Judah

 

Image: Snow covered branches, North Garden, Virginia, December 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 49.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from beneath his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be (Genesis 49:10).

In Genesis 49 Jacob offers a prophetic blessing upon his sons who will form the twelve tribes of Israel. The blessing on Judah (vv. 8-12) is a prophecy of Christ.

Judah’s name means “praise.” From him would come the kingly line. Jacob says he will be at the neck of his enemies (v. 8b). His father’s children will bow down before him, just as they had bowed to Joseph (v. 8b).

His sign is a lion (v. 9). The ancient Hebrews also knew this animal as king of the beasts, the most powerful and fearsome.

Then Jacob prophesies that the scepter of rule shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from his feet (from his line of descent), until Shiloh come. Some suggest the name “Shiloh” means the peacemaker or Saviour (M. Poole). One commentator called it a “cryptogram” meaning “Messiah” (MacArthur Study Bible).

From Judah would come King David, and his descendants would rule in one form or another all the way up to the time when Herod the Idumean (Edomite) was made the King of the Jews by the Romans. And who was born then? The Lord Jesus Christ, Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. In John’s vision of heaven in Revelation 5:5 one of the elders says to him, “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” But when John looks he sees “a Lamb as it had been slain” (v. 6).

Jacob says, “and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (v. 10b). This means all his elect people, Jew and Gentile.

In v. 11 it says he washed his garments in wine. This figure anticipates the shedding of his blood in his atoning death on the cross. We see this in Revelation 19 when John sees Christ as a victorious champion riding on a white horse in his second coming, “clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God” (v. 13).

In Genesis 49:12 it adds his eyes shall be red with wine. This does not mean bloodshot but that the pupil of his eye will be full and dark, a sign of extraordinary health and vigor. And his teeth white as milk, pure and strong.

This is the apex of Jacob’s prophetic blessing. It points us toward the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer! He came from the line of Judah through King David, in the fullness of time, born in Bethlehem.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

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 (10.24.25): 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 (10.3.25): Forgotten by Men

 

Image: Knockout rose, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 40.

“Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (Genesis 40:23).

What if your birthday came and not a single person remembered you? You got no gifts, no cards, no texts.

What if you got sick and went into the hospital and got no visitors, no calls from friends, no consolation, no offers of help?

It can indeed be very disappointing to be forgotten by men.

There were men in the Bible who sometimes felt this way. Righteous Job, for example, in the midst of his suffering, lamented, “My kinfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me” (Job 19:14).

Worse yet, some men sense that they have been forgotten by God himself. Psalm 13 begins with the lament, “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hid thy face from me?” (v. 1).

In Genesis 40 we read how Joseph was cast into prison after being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife. He had been sold into slavery by his own brothers at age 17 (Genesis 37:2). The next chapter begins two years later when Joseph was 30 (cf. Genesis 41:1, 46). This means in Genesis 40 he was 28 years old and had been in slavery or prison for 11 years (since he was 17)!

Genesis 40 records how two servants of the king of Egypt were also in the prison with Joseph: the butler and the baker. They each had dreams, and Joseph accurately interpreted both, asking the men, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (v. 8). Just as Joseph had predicted by their dreams, the king ordered the butler restored to his position and the baker put to death. Joseph had asked the butler, “Think on me when it shall be well with thee…” (v. 14), but the chapter ends, “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (v. 23).

Joseph was forgotten by men.

One commentator observed: “It is difficult to fathom, but nowhere in the text does it say that Joseph became discouraged or was in despair” (Currid, Genesis, 2:249).

He had been 11 years a slave and prisoner and would wait two more years forgotten by men, but he did not despair.

Joseph becomes a model for the believer who perseveres in the faith even in the face of the severest of trials. The LORD was with him (see Genesis 39:2-3, 21, 23). We too must continue to trust and to persevere in the Lord. He will not forget us, and He will not forget our works of service to Him. So the apostle wrote, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name” (Hebrews 6:10).

The believer might be forgotten by men, but he will never be forgotten by God.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (9.19.25): Can anything good come out of unrighteous Judah? (Genesis 38)

Image: Fall tomatoes ripening in the window, North Garden, Virginia, September 2025.

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 38.

“And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I…” (Genesis 38:26).

Genesis 37 ended in v. 36 with the note that Joseph was sold as a slave into the house of Potiphar. The Joseph narrative will continue in Genesis 39:1. But what is in-between Genesis 37 and Genesis 39? Genesis 38.

This chapter is not about Joseph. In fact, Joseph’s name is not even mentioned. Some of the old rationalistic scholars of the modern era even went so far as to say, wrongly, that this chapter had been forcibly inserted into the account of Joseph narrative, sort of like trying to ram a square peg into a round hole, denying the unity and integrity and preservation of Holy Scripture.

Genesis 38 is about Joseph’s brother Judah (cf. 37:26-27). So what are we to make of it? What spiritual lessons do we find? It really is a sordid story. It is an R-rated story. Judah does almost everything wrong:

He chooses ungodly companions (vv. 1, 12).

He does not choose a godly wife (v. 2).

He burns with lust (v. 2, 15-16).

He raises two elder sons who are so wicked that God strikes them down (vv. 7-10).

He does not provide for his son’s widow Tamar (v. 11, 14).

He makes promises to her that he either never had any intention of keeping or simply refused to keep (v. 11).

He seeks out a woman whom he thinks is a harlot (but is really Tamar in disguise) (vv. 15-16).

Driven by impetuous lustful desires, he offers up precious tokens (v. 18).

He commits fornication with a woman he thinks is a prostitute (v. 18).

He is a hypocrite, who orders the death penalty for his daughter in law, but takes no accountability for himself (v. 24).

He only seems to express remorse when he is exposed (v. 26).

The label over this entire chapter could be simply, “total depravity.”

The only sliver of light appears when Judah at least acknowledges that Tamar’s righteousness exceeded his own (v. 26). This foreshadows the fact that later when he and his bothers are confronted with what they did to their brother Joseph, they will feel shame and remorse. Relating to Joseph, it also sets up a foil with what happens next to Joseph in Potiphar’s house in Genesis 39. Whereas Judah ran headlong into fornication, Joseph will flee from it (39:18).

Still, we ask: How could anything good come from unrighteous Judah?

As in Genesis 37, God is also seemingly absent from this chapter, his name never being mentioned. He is there, however, as an unmentioned presence working out his will, and pulling it out of even twisted and ungodly circumstances.

Tamar had twin sons of Judah, Pharez (or Phares) and Zarah (vv. 27-30).  To get the significance of this we need to turn to the genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels. Matthew 1:3 (in the line of Joseph, Christ’s legal father) lists Phares “of Tamar” in the family tree of our Lord. Luke 3:33 also lists Phares in the line of Mary, his natural mother.

From this line, in the fulness of time, would come the Lord Jesus Christ. As one has put it, God very often strikes straight licks from crooked sticks. From unrighteous Judah came Christ, the standard of righteousness. God is working out his plan of salvation in Christ, in the midst of a fallen world, and this plan cannot be thwarted by the unrighteousness of men!

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

The Vision (8.29.25): Put on the whole armour of God

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:10-17.

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11).

In Ephesians 6:11-17 the apostle Paul offers one his most expressive, intriguing, and enduring metaphors for the equipment needed by believers for living the Christian life. It requires putting on the whole armour [panoplia] of God.

This is a martial or military image of the Christian life. The Christian life is like a military contest. It involves spiritual warfare. Later theologians will contrast the church on earth as “the church militant,” as over against the church in heaven as “the church at rest.”

There are other places where Paul uses this type of military imagery. He sometimes refers to his ministry colleagues as his “fellowsoldiers.” In Philippians 2:5 he refers to Epaphrodites as “my brother, and companion in labor, and fellowsoldier.” In Philemon 1:2 he refers to Archippus as “our fellowsoldier.” He speaks of Christian service as like that of serving as a soldier in battle. In 1 Timothy 6:12 Paul exhorts Timothy: “Fight the good fight of the faith….” In 2 Timothy 2:3 Paul further exhorted Timothy to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

In modern times, some Christians became uncomfortable with the martial imagery. Back in the 1980s some mainline Protestant churches even removed the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” for fear that its words might be misunderstood. BTW, it is still in our Trinity Hymnal (# 490) under the topic line, “The Christian Warfare.”

Paul, in using this martial imagery, was certainly not advocating violence. It is a metaphor. This is what the spiritual struggle of the Christian life is like. Paul exhorts, “Put on the whole armour of God…” (v. 11) and “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God…” (v. 13).

The apostle was drawing an analogy from a reality that was familiar to his first readers. All the Ephesians would likely have seen a Roman soldier (the most lethal and feared and capable warrior of the first century) fully decked out with his military kit, allowing him not only to defend himself when attacked but also to go on the offensive.

The Christian is to arm himself spiritually with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, having feet shod with the gospel of peace, taking the shield of faith, and taking the helmet of salvation (Ephesians 6:14-17a). Finally, he is to take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (v. 17b).

May we thus arm ourselves so that we might stand “in the evil day” (v. 13).

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (8.22.25): Duties of Servants and Masters

 

Image: Zinnias, North Garden, Virginia, August 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:5-9.

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh…. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there any respect of persons with him (Ephesians 6:5a, 9).

Paul’s “household code” in Ephesians 5:21—6:9 addresses three key relationships: wives and husbands, children and fathers, and servant and masters. That third pair is the thorniest to understand and interpret in our contemporary context. Some, including R. C. Sproul, have suggested we consider Paul’s instructions as applying to employees and employers (see Ephesians, 146-147). We can also apply all of this teaching, in general, as principles in living the Christian life and especially how we relate to one another as “superior, inferiors, or equals.”

Here are three gleanings:

First, we should consider this passage if we are employees. Do we serve with fear and trembling, with singleness of heart, as to Christ? Or, do we serve only with eyeservice as menpleasers, rather than as slaves of Christ, doing his will? Do we serve with good will, to the Lord and not to men, knowing one day we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10)?

Second, we should consider this passage if we are employers, managers, or supervisors. How do we treat those who work under our authority? Do we treat them as we would like to be treated (Matthew 7:12)? Do we rely on threatening? Do we understand that we have a Master in heaven?

Third, we are reminded that the church is composed of all kinds of people: women and men, young and old, and people with all kinds of societal standings. And the God we worship is not a respecter of persons.

I’ve been reading again recently through D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s classic book Preaching & Preachers. In a chapter on the congregation, he addresses the folly of ministers who are always trying to adjust their message to fit their audience. He noted once preaching the simple gospel at a church in Oxford attended by many university related people. Later a woman approached and thanked him for not trying to put on some kind of intellectual show, but just reminding them they were sinners who needed Christ.

Lloyd-Jones says the preacher does not need to know the particulars of his congregation, but to know there is a general, common need. He writes:

[The Christian preacher] knows the problem of the factory worker, he knows the problem of the professional man; because it is ultimately precisely the same. One may get drunk on beer and the other on wine, as it were, but the point is that they both get drunk; one may sin in rags and the other in an evening dress but they both sin. ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ ‘There is righteous, no not one.’ ‘The whole world lieth guilty before God’…. The glory of the Church is that she consists of all these types and kinds and all the possibly varieties and variations of humanity; and yet because they all share this common life they are able to participate together and to enjoy the same preaching (Preaching & Preachers, 135).

We might say the gospel is a simple, one size fits all message, and we, as a church, need always to remember this.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (8.15.25): The Duties of Fathers to Children

 

Image: Cardinal Lobelia, Moscow, Michigan, August 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:1-4:

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

This teaching comes in the context of Paul’s “household code” in Ephesians. He addresses first here the duties of children to parents, based on the fifth commandment (Ephesians 6:1-3; cf. Exodus 20:12)

The corresponding admonition to parents in Ephesians 6:4 is directed specifically to the father. This tells us, as with the charges to wives and husbands (Ephesians 5:22-33), about the special responsibilities of men, according to the order of creation, within the family.

Notice again that these instructions to fathers is what would have surprised the first readers. They assumed the power and authority of the father as the Pater Familias, the head of the household. In the Roman context a father was an absolute power in the home. He literally had the authority of life and death when an infant was born. What the first hearers would have been struck by is the fact that he had duties to his children to treat them in a responsible and loving manner, seeking especially their spiritual good.

Paul begins with a negative command, “ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath” (v. 4a). Some modern versions read, “Do not exasperate your children.” The father does not exercise discipline and rule so as to crush the spirits of his children, or to make them angry due to his cruelty or indifference or unloving spirit towards them.

R. C. Sproul wrote on this passage:

This doesn’t mean that every time a child becomes angry with a parent, it is because the parents have been guilty of unjust provocation. But there is such a thing as a belligerent, insensitive, harsh, and stentorian type of discipline which so frustrates children that they are filled with hostility and resentment towards their parents which then spills over into the rest of their lives (Ephesians, 145).

Paul then offers two positive commands:

First, but bring them up in the nurture (paideia, a term referring to education and discipleship), and second, in the instruction (nouthesia, counsel or exhortation) of the Lord.

The Puritans described the family as like a “little church.” The father acts as a pastor and as a priest in his household. He is concerned for the spiritual well-being of his children above all, just as his duty to his wife was for her sanctification (cf. Ephesians 5:26-27).

How beautiful it is when these two things work together in harmony: When children honor parents in the Lord and when godly fathers, alongside their wives and the mother of their children, raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Note: In the Practical Application at the close of last Sunday’s sermon on Ephesians 6:1-4, I offered a list of some of the duties of children and parents (fathers) drawn from some teaching from past years. You can review some of this sort of family material previously posted to my blog here:

Five Duties of Children to Parents.

Five Duties of Parents to Children.

The Puritan Thomas Vincent’s list of seven duties for children and parents (1674).

A Summary of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book Raising Children God’s Way.

Vision (7.11.25): Walking as children of light and walking circumspectly

 

Image: Blueberries, North Garden, Virginia, July 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 5:8-16.

“Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).

“See then that ye walk circumspectly” (Ephesians 5:15).

Paul uses “walking” in Ephesians as a metaphor for conducting the Christian life. This began in Ephesians 4:1 when he exhorted believers to “walk worthy” of their calling and continued in Ephesians 5:2 with the command to “walk in love.”

In Ephesians 5:8 this theme persists as Paul exhorts believers to “walk as children of light,” in other words, to live as Christians.

He adds in 5:15 an exhortation to “walk circumspectly,” which means carefully, intentionally, and deliberately.

At the end of v. 15 we hear the spirit of Solomon. Walk “not as fools but as wise” (cf. Proverbs 3:5-6; 9:10).

He adds in v. 16, “Redeeming the time…” The verb “to redeem” means to purchase out of the marketplace. We usually think of this term as relating to salvation, but here it applies to sanctification. It means, Make the most of your time. Be a good steward of your time. Do not wander about aimlessly in life. Don’t fritter away your time. Make the best use of it for the spiritual good of yourself and of others.

Time is slipping away and soon our days will be gone. How will we have spent them?

R. C. Sproul observed on this passage: “We are called to be productive Christian people, and in order to be productive, we must be careful with our use of time. I have as much time in the day as the President of the United States has. To make the most of every opportunity means to make wise use of it, so that the things we are doing are productive and helpful, not destructive and wasteful” (Ephesians, 129).

It is likely not accidental that a great watch making industry developed in Geneva, Switzerland, the city of John Calvin and a center of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers taught that we were to be good stewards of every minute in our lives, so they wanted carefully to measure it.

Life can indeed be swept away in a moment. I think of those floods that swept through Texas last week. I think of the dear brother in our church whose mortal life was also swept away so unexpectedly last week. Who knows if we will make it through this day, this week, this month, this year. Psalm 31:15 says, “My times are in thy hand.”

Paul says, “the days are evil” (5:16) He means we are living in this present evil world (cf. Galatians 1:4). We are living between the times, between the ages. We are awaiting the return or our Lord and the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection. But this does not mean we merely rest in passivity in this life. It means active living of the Christian life, active pursuit of faithfulness and holiness.

It calls for walking as children of light and walking circumspectly.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle