Day 11 – September 12, 2025: Genesis 37-41 and John 20-21

We find ourselves today entering the weekend with two of the most powerful and arguably most important Scriptures that we have read so far. The story of Joseph is easily applied to our everyday lives as we reflect upon how God is able to do the impossible in our lives when things seem so out of hand and out of control. Think of what Joseph had to overcome and yet each step along the way he tells anyone who would listen: it isn’t me, it is the Lord who is able to do all things. From a favored child to a brother about to be slaughtered in a pit. From a slave to the head of a household. From a prisoner long forgotten, to the head of the most powerful country in the world. The changes Joseph experiences reminds us that nothing is beyond God’s ability to redeem and transform into His purposes. What impossible situation is confronting you today? God is able to take it and make it something that works into your and His purposes. This becomes even more clear and is said in black and white later in this story as Joseph’s brothers come and the entire nation is saved because Joseph finds himself in the position in which he is because of the evil that his brothers did to him. But as a result Israel is able to be saved. It is to our advantage to follow Jesus knowing that we believe in the end of the story and so our present life will be based upon the ending which is our redemption. Then all things become possible.

The story of Jesus’ resurrection in John is filled with details and stories that none of the other Gospels have. The rehabilitation of Peter is crucial for anyone who has lived life in such a way that they think that they are beyond God’s saving. Can you think of doing anything worse than denying God right in the presence and in the face of Jesus? Now, of course God is always present, and anytime we do anything God is in our midst. But Peter denies Jesus and then goes back to fishing assuming that his journey with Jesus as a disciple and a follower is over. But Jesus returns and rehabilitates him as he does for each one of us. We are never beyond God’s redemption just as our life situation can never be beyond God’s redemption. This is the joy that we have in our salvation in Jesus.