Day 24: Deja Vu

Today's Reading: Genesis 35-37

I preached this morning on chapter 35...a sacramental chapter, indeed. (I guess you had to be there) But as I read through the whole reading today, I want to reflect upon chapter 37.

Have you ever experienced deja vu? Deja Vu is French for "already seen." It is this wierd phenomenon a person experiences--one feels like they have seen, experienced, or been someplace before.

Reading chapter 37 is a deja vu experience for the Biblically saturated Christian. Joseph is a foreshadowing, a prototype, for Jesus. Check this out:

+ Jesus like Joseph is the favored son. Jesus is called the only begotten son in whom God is "well pleased."

+ Jesus is known as the intercessor of heaven. He, like Joseph, prior to his incarnation, is aware of the "bad report" of us and shares this with the Father.

+ God has given Jesus the expensive garment of righteousness which he alone can wear.

+ Jesus is the one to whom we all will bow one day.

+ God says to Jesus, "Come, and I will send you to your brothers." Jesus says, "I will go." That's called "incarnation."

+ Like the brothers of Joseph, the scribes and pharisees are jealous of Jesus. They, his Jewish brothers, plot to kill Jesus.

+ It is believed that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimethea, who were Pharisees, tried to save Jesus from crucifixion. They are like Reuben.

+ Just like Joseph, Jesus was stripped, and in death, was thrown into the pit of hell. The Apostle's Creed states, "He descended into hell."

+ Jesus' tunic in most paintings of the crucifixion is scarlet; Joseph's tunic was covered with the blood of a sacrificial goat.

+ Jesus, like Joseph, was sold out by the very ones he came to save.

I wonder why the rulers and scribes and pharisees, who were grounded in God's Word, did not see the connection of Joseph to Jesus.

Were they blinded by God so that Jesus could go ahead to a place and prepare it for us, just as Joseph went ahead to Egypt to ultimately save his family and the rest of the world by preparing it for them?

Which makes me ask the question: M. what are you missing? What are the signs and wonders God has shown you as revelation in God's Word? Will you come upon an experience in your life when all of a sudden you are feeling like you have seen, experienced, or been in this before? Are you catching God's revelation all around you?

Perhaps this is not deja vu. Perhaps this is the definition of revelation, discernment and vision.

Lord, so saturate me in your Word that I might not only KNOW it but COMPREHEND its foreshadowing of your kingdom, that I might recognize the entrance of your reign as it dawns upon me.