00:00Good people, what's going on, man? My name is Miko, the prison director here at Crossroads Church, and welcome to my one-on-one time with God. Simply put, this is just a time where, as I'm reading scripture or as I'm journaling or praying, whatever I feel the Holy Spirit reveals to me in that time, I just share some of it with you. And so today, we'll be in Genesis 46, starting at verse 7, I'll give you some context. This is the part of the story where Jacob, who is also Israel, he is on his way into Egypt. His son, Joseph, is in second command there next to the pharaoh. There's a famine in all of the land. Actually, God foretells this earlier in the story of Genesis back with Abraham. But there's a famine in all of the land, Joseph is sent for his father and all of Israel to come to Egypt to be saved. And so Jacob is on his way to Egypt, and starting at verse 7 in chapter 46, it says, Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters, all of his offspring. And then it goes into listing his offspring. These are the names of the sons of Israel, Jacob and his descendants, and all who went to Egypt. Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, the sons of Reuben, Hanuk, Pelu, Hezron, and Carmi, the sons of Simeon, Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. And it goes on with all of Jacob's children and lists all of the people that all of their offspring and everyone that comes with them. But when I saw this, this verse right here, and it talked, it spoke of Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman, immediately, my curiosity peaked, and I'm like, okay, what, like, what is the significance of us knowing that this was a son of a Canaanite woman? And then, so what does it say and why do we need to know it? And so, you know, naturally, like most of us do in modern times today, I went to chat GPT to kind of get some context.
02:33And what I found, two things, I found a number of things, but there are two things that I'll share with you. One, it says, it quietly highlights intermarriage with Canaanites. From earlier in Genesis, God has made it clear that Canaanite culture is spiritually corrupt, idolatry, sexual practice, child sacrifice. So when scripture pauses to say a son of a Canaanite woman, it's signaling this union fell outside of the covenant idea that God had in place. Simeon did not guard the promise the way that Abraham, Isaac, and eventually Jacob were called to. It's a theological red flag, not just the family note. The second thing that I found said it, it says it contrasts with God's covenant faithfulness. Notice the tension. God is preserving Israel through Egypt, yet Israel is already carrying mixed allegiances into the, inside the family. This reinforces a major Genesis theme. God's promise, God's promises advance despite human consistencies, not because of human purity. The covenant doesn't depend on perfect bloodlines, but God still names when the line strays. I thought this was so good. This spoke so many things to me, man. And one, what I see in that is this, this, this truth and grace, what God doesn't hide or turn a, turn a blind eye to, um, Israel's, um, disobedience. But when God wants to do a thing through us, it does not stop with us that in some cases we're not big enough to thwart God's plans, even when they're coming through us. And it's like, okay, God, that's what, that's what like his grace is for. Like his grace has gone before us to cover all of our missteps. When he's called us to a thing, when he chooses to operate through us, he's already taken all of our steps and missteps into account for me, that's just so encouraging for me. What I hear in this is this, this, this theme that we, that we constantly see throughout scripture of this truth and grace, that he's a God of both where he's going to clearly
04:51identify like, Hey, no, this is the truth of the matter. But in spite of that, because I'm God. I'm faithful, and this doesn't negate, this doesn't say that our disobedience doesn't have consequences. God's sovereign, God's omniscient, He knows where to apply grace, where to apply judgment, that's totally up to Him, man. But it's like, it encourages us, it encourages me to acknowledge that His grace is sufficient, so I don't have to sit and dwell on my own sins or my own past mistakes. God is a God of truth, and He's also a God of grace, and for me, it calls me to want to walk worthy of that grace, and it encourages me to move forward, to move beyond how my sin or my mistakes might cause me to want to sit in guilt and shame. Passages like this, it reveals this nature of God that gives me the encouragement to say, you know what, okay, pick myself up and keep moving forward, and trust You with whatever the process looks like moving forward, man. I love, it reminds me of in 2 Timothy, I believe, in 2 Timothy, this verse where it says, if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself, where it's like God's faithfulness is not contingent on our faithfulness. If it was, then it wouldn't be something that we can rely on, because it would only be as reliable as our own faithfulness. His faithfulness, it's beyond our faithfulness, man, and for me, it's like that just makes me value this God that we serve that much more. Something that I wrote down that I want to share with you, and it kind of just reiterates something that we read there, but it's God's sovereignty isn't void of our missteps. God uses us in spite of us. What God wants to do through us is bigger than us, and that gives us perspective. It shapes our perspective, and hopefully, it encourages us. It encourages us to dust ourself off, to embrace His grace that has been given to us, to pray and desire to walk worthy of the calling that He's given us, to not sit in shame, to not sit in guilt, and to grow us in obedience in the long run. I hope this encourages you.
07:42This is something that it's not like I've arrived, and I have this understanding, and then I take off, and it's something that I'm constantly reminded of. It's something that I'm constantly having to be mindful of, of the grace that's been given to us along this journey. Brothers and sisters, hear me. He knows every mistake we've made and every mistake we're going to make, and yet He says, I choose you. I pray that encourages you today, and I pray that also it challenges you to want to walk worthy. See you tomorrow.