JANUARY 24 "OOOOPS, THOUGHT I GOT AWAY WITH THAT"

 Ever do something you thought there was going to be "hell to pay" so to speak, but yet, no thunder cracked, you did not fall in a pit of mud, you didn't get struck with lighting, you didn't get fired, as a matter of a fact, nothing happened and you thought...I GOT AWAY WITH IT. This is what Reuben thought all these years, the firstborn son to whom all the rights and blessing should be bestowed, but it is when Jacob is distributing the blessings (symbolic of God) that he says, "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, excelling in honor.......you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed onto my couch and defiled it" OUCH! Where did that come from, if Jacob knew about it why didn't he do something years earlier? ALL blessing flows down from God. People who are blessed are not those that gave the gal at McDonald's back the extra change on Sunday. It's those who over the long term live righteously, act justly and show mercy and compassion. There are things we do, ways we treat people, areas we compromise in that never seems to get us hit with lightening but God does have seasons when he distributes blessings and that's when it hits. Joseph was not blessed because of a few good decisions he made (running away from Potiphar's wife), but rather from his righteous disposition in life, he wasn't perfect, but for the most part he lived righteously and reverently before God and at the end of the day, you cannot help but look at Joseph's life and say, "the dude is blessed". There are Christians that you can't help but look at and say, "they're blessed" and it's good to remember that it's not because God is a respecter of persons, but because he keeps good books, Reuben, this is what you're going to get, and Joseph, this is what you're going to get and God makes a clear distinction here in our text. This principle is consistent throughout scripture and the principle applies both here on earth and also in eternity. God doesn't make this distinction every day, but he does make it when he chooses. As the old saying goes, God does pay, but it's not always on Friday!


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