ESOCS Devotional 20 October 2023 – In All, Fear God
MEMORY VERSE: “And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God.” Genesis 42:18
TEXT: GENESIS 42:18-28 (KJV)
And Joseph said to them on the third day, Do this and live! I reverence and fear God.
19 If you are true men, let one of your brothers be bound in your prison, but [the rest of] you go and carry grain for those weakened with hunger in your households.
20 But bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified and you shall live. And they did so.
21 And they said one to another, We are truly guilty about our brother, for we saw the distress and anguish of his soul when he begged us [to let him go], and we would not hear. So this distress and difficulty has come upon us.
22 Reuben answered them, Did I not tell you, Do not sin against the boy, and you would not hear? Therefore, behold, his blood is required [of us].
23 But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.
24 And he turned away from them and wept; then he returned to them and talked with them, and took from them Simeon and bound him before their eyes.
25 Then [privately] Joseph commanded that their sacks be filled with grain, every man’s money be restored to his sack, and provisions be given to them for the journey. And this was done for them.
26 They loaded their donkeys with grain and left.
27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he caught sight of his money; for behold, it was in his sack’s mouth.
28 And he said to his brothers, My money is restored! Here it is in my sack! And their hearts failed them and they were afraid and turned trembling one to another, saying, What is this that God has done to us?
Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is to hate evil. The fear of God is to obey God rather than man in moral, legal and spiritual matters. The fear of God is to keep to a righteous agreement and change not in the face of an enticement.
This was actually the secret of Joseph’s success right from his father’s house, to the Egyptian master’s house, in the prison and then in Pharaoh’s palace.
Without this character stabilizer and moral ingredient-the fear of God, Joseph would have lost out in life’s journey to a glorious destiny. Looking at the life of Joseph we will see that all he had was his dream and God. We also saw in his life there were threat and distractions. But he was able to scale through all the threats and distractions that were against him. His own brothers threatened to kill him.
The wife of his master threatened his moral sanity, distracting him with immoral temptations on a daily basis, almost. False allegation of the master’s wife threw him into prison, yet in all these trials that came to him, he was not embittered against any and was not discouraged. God helped him through all and he triumphed. This is because he feared God.
One would ask how he was able to come out victorious in all. The secret he revealed in verse 18 saying, “… for I fear God.”
Beloved, we need to as of necessity and strategy of survival and preservation in this wicked world to fear God.
Without the fear of God sinners will perpetrate more wickedness and evil every day. Without the fear of God, a Christian, a believer, a child of God, a born again or a disciple of Jesus Christ, whichever of the appellations you love, will mess up his spiritual life and Christian testimony and even his worship to God.
Without the fear of God, you cannot complete or be perfected or manifest the holiness God has imparted into you (2 Cor. 7:1).
Without the fear of God, you cannot be a good student of grace (Titus 2:11 – 12), but find yourself, a saved child of God, wallowing in deep worldliness and its lust.
Beloved, the fear of God is a necessary tool to preserve yourself from the decadence of this world and the contamination thereof.
In all your living and in all you do – Fear God!
- Do you agree with the conclusion of Ecclesiastes 12:13. If yes, have you positioned your heart to do so?
- Father LORD God, thank You for Your Word, please fill me always with the Spirit of the fear of the LORD. So that I will not mess up and belittle the finished work of Your Son on the cross. And then be able to serve you acceptably in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Genesis 9:1–17; Mark 3:7–19; Romans 6:1–14
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ESOCS Devotional 20 October 2023
