Gen 46:1-34; 47:1-12 An Old Testament lecturer of mine once suggested that Jacob should have returned to Canaan after the famine and never have settled in Egypt. While I felt that this interpretation was mistaken, it does touch on an…

Gen 45:1-23 Few narratives in the Old Testament have the same emotional appeal for modern readers as that of Joseph and his brothers. Although the story is well known, it can still move us as it explains a tragic, even…

Gen 44:14-34 Being unloved in a family is a hard thing to live with, whether the parents wish they had a child who is a boy rather than a girl or vice versa, or whether one child is preferred over…

Gen 43:15-34; 44:1-13 I once heard a pastor discuss the prevalence of sexual abuse cases in the Church. He suggested that Christians are often soft targets for such offenders. In other words, it is not that religious people are somehow…

Gen 43:1-14 Back in my single days, I rather liked a guy. We were in the same church and good friends, but the friendship never developed into anything more. As our circumstances changed and our lives went their different ways,…

Gen 42:18-38 Every once in a while, we encounter someone who has undergone a dramatic change in a short period of time, but for most of us, transformation is a slow and often painful process. I suspect that even for…

Gen 42:1-25 It is often argued that forgiveness is important because harbouring bitterness against those who wronged us causes harm to ourselves, so that it is in our best interest to forgive others irrespective of whether they repent of their…

Gen 41:37-57 The story of pastors leading megachurches or tele-evangelists who acquire world-wide fame and enormous success and then fall into sin has become almost a cliché these days. Handling the adulation of the masses, living with others’ worshipful deferment…

Gen 41:1-36 A young pastor who was just starting his ministry was particularly busy one week and neglected sermon preparation. He consoled himself with the truth that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, who ‘will teach you in that very hour…