A LEGACY OF FAITH

Promises can be an incredible source of hope and expectation. They can also be the cause for great frustration. In my case, more often than should be the case, my promises are the source of my own frustration. It is not for lack of a desire to follow through; I simply forget. In recent years I have discovered the importance of setting reminders in my phone… which only works if I remember to do that step. Fortunately for us all, God is not like me in this. He never forgets, and always follows through on His promises. Our reading for today in Exodus 13 provides a great example of this faithfulness, as well as the faith of those to whom the promise had been made.

In Exodus 13, the children of Israel are finally getting out of Egypt. It’s an exciting time, and in the midst of impossible plagues, and victorious confrontations with Pharaoh, a would-be-god-king, it is easy to gloss over verse 19. But herein lies a true testament to a legacy of faith in the unfailing promises of God. It would almost seem trivial to focus on the bones of one person, when you are organizing the departure of an entire people group, but Moses does just that. He takes the bones of Joseph away with them. Why? Because Joseph had made their ancestors swear to do so once God came to bring them back to their promised home.

This oath ties back to another. In Genesis 46:3-4, God comforted Jacob about leaving Canaan for Egypt by telling him that not only would that be where they become a great nation, but that He would also bring them back out one day. Jacob trusted that promise and on his death bed, he declared the plot of Canaanite land that Joseph’s line would receive when they came into it. He passed on the faith of his fathers to his sons. Joseph continued that legacy of faith, asking for an oath that would keep the people from forgetting. Four centuries later, the legacy of faith was vindicated, as the bones of Joseph were carried out of the land of bondage by the vast nation that God had promised to Abraham, on their way to claim their promised inheritance.

God’s promises are sure and true. His timeline is not ours, but He will never fail to bring to pass what He has said. The challenge we face is how we will act on those promises. Will we live our lives with unshakable faith? Will our children see and hear about our trust in God’s promises? Will we bank our futures on His plans, rather than the wisdom of this age? If the Lord should tarry in His second coming, will our descendants greet Him with that same faith that we passed on? What will our legacy be? I pray that you and I will be found faithful.