The Community

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE COMMUNITY

Gen 48:1-7

48:1 Some time later Joseph was told, "Your father is ill." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. 2 When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you," Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed. 3 Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me 4 and said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.' 5 "Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. 6 Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers. 7 As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).

NIV

We will get to the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh, but first, there is something that caught our attention at the beginning of the time Joseph spent with his father with his two sons. Jacob confirmed the blessing of God on his life and the promise that he would become fruitful and increase in number, that God would make him into a community of people. We, the church, are a community of people and we are not thinking of just each local church or, for that matter, each separate denomination. This is the church universal, all people who profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. We cannot define that meaning within the constraint of our local church understanding but must see it through the lens of the scripture. Does a church, a denomination, accept the triune God? Do they accept the work of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of sins? Do they believe Jesus was resurrected and ascended back into heaven? Do they believe Jesus is coming again? Whether they understand the language or the complete concept of being born again, as long as they have been born from above they will see the kingdom of God and they are all our community of people whom God has blessed us with. It matters not their form of church governance or what various titles they use to define their shepherds or leadership. What matters is they are preaching Jesus Christ crucified, died, was buried, raised from the dead, ascended and returning to take us to the place he prepared for us. They must believe in the full authoritative word of God. But the fact remains, all who believe are our community of people and we best get used to them because we are going to spend eternity with them. We need to put away all our petty differences because we live in the community of God.