Plans Change
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Work Plans
Work Plans
I have a character trait that I'm not sure that my wife is even aware that I have. I am a meticulous planner. The reason that I say that I don't think that my wife is aware, is because it's certain things that I plan in certain things that I allow to be more flexible and I have pretty tight boundaries on those things.
At my bi-vocational job during the week I have found that it has become very important that I plan my day every day. I live in Microsoft outlook, checking email and my calendar constantly. In fact, I start each day by blocking out in half an hour increments all of the work that I know that I have for that day and often spilling into the next days. — the last year has been crazy and that is really the only way to stay on top of things.
But there is something that I've had to learn. Plans change. I could have every half an hour mapped out, but all it takes is one phone call and my entire plan has to be rearranged.
Life Plans
Life Plans
Life is like that isn’t it. There is a famous quote that has been attributed to a whole host of people:
Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.
— This is most likely from Allen Saunders back in 1957 but it has it’s roots in Greek wisdom. The emancipated slave Publilius Syrus has a collection of writings and in he said
Man intends one thing, Fate another.
But for us, who don’t believe in fate, we have an even older proverb to fall back on: Prov 16:9
9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: But the Lord directeth his steps.
Flexible
Flexible
James 4:13-15 gives us some perspective
13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
All that Proverbs 16:9 or James 4 is really telling you is that you need to be flexible. When God is forcing your plans another way, you need to bend to God’s will and go that way — no matter how much you have invested in your original plan.
Context
Context
As we continue in the book of Hebrews, I hope that I don't even really need to give this context to you: that it is already engraved in your thinking, but the context to Hebrews chapter 11 is found in verse 1.
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
or as Cockerill paraphrases in his commentary on Hebrews
Faith is living as if the things hoped for are real.
And so scripture makes it clear that these aren’t super-humans of the faith that have been endowed by God with ability far beyond our own, and therefore we put their deeds here in Hebrews 11 — the faith hall of fame, the trophy case of the holy.
Not at all. This chapter gives us example after example of people that are just like you and I — That have the same flaws or maybe even worse flaws than you and I have — but they were faithful — they believed that the promises of God were true and they lived their lives accordingly.
And so this morning we come to Jacob in Hebrews 11:21
21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
Our message this morning is entitled Plans Change as we continue our series By Faith (Again)
Let’s Pray
The Faith of Jacob
The Faith of Jacob
The Patriarch
The Patriarch
It should be of no surprise to you that Jacob was a man of faith; after all Jacob is listed among the patriarchs, the forefathers of the Jewish and Christian phase: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Even in the book of Acts Peter refers to God this way when he addresses Israel saying:
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
It is to say that God can be known in that God is the God of Jacob. — Parenthetically, the God of the promise.
The Father
The Father
Jacob was also a father. He was a father to Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, gad, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. He was also the father to at least one daughter Dinah.
But Joseph is special. Joseph was the one if you remember was thrown in the pit by his brothers and then sold off to be a slave in Egypt. Joseph is the one who Wallace slave, and through great hardship rose to a position of great power. And it was a Joseph who would later forgive his brothers for their mistreatment of him.
Speaking of Plans
Speaking of Plans
I mean speaking of plans! What plans did Joseph have before he was thrown into a pit? Where did he think he would be in life, before he was sold to be a slave. — for all intents and purposes his life was over, he had lost all autonomy and now belonged to someone else, like property, like livestock.
I'm sure Jacob had plans for his son. Fathers have plans for their children. See to Jacob, Joseph was more than just his son in the past and in the present but also represented potential. He represented the man he would become. The Hope the father had to see great things from his child as he grew and matured. And all of those plans were destroyed one day when he was given told that his son was eaten by an animal. — Certainly a change from Jacob’s plan.
Meant for Good
Meant for Good
How things turned out wasn't quite the way that Joseph's brothers planned either. Years later when they discover that their brother had risen to power in Egypt, and when Jacob found out that his son lived — Joseph said one of my favorite quotes from the Old Testament
20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
You had evil plans — But God’s plans were for good.
Blessing
Blessing
But then we come to this blessing referenced in Hebrews 11:21 — Here was the plan, and this was a plan of conventional wisdom; something we even find codified later in the old testament for the way things are to be done.
When a father dies and leaves his inheritance to his children, it was customary for him to give a double portion to his eldest son. That means that if a father had two sons the inheritance would be divided by 3 — 2/3 will go to the oldest son and 1/3 one go to the youngest. Now that might not seem fair, but the thought here is that the oldest son had a lot more responsibility for the well-being of his parents and for their affairs, a lot more fell upon the older sibling and so he was rewarded in kind. — there's also put some responsibility on the oldest child to perform their duty and caring for the well-being of our family.
If you have your bibles turn them over to Genesis 48 and I want to read to you what happened when Jacob blessed his grandchildren, the children of Joseph:
13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him. 14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, 16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
This wasn’t the plan! And so in the next verse Joesph speaks up and tries to get the situation corrected but look how v19 continues:
19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
God’s Strange Plan
God’s Strange Plan
It is interesting to note how often God's plan jumps off of the rail of conventional wisdom. How often God's plan goes away that we would have never done it. And even with this exact subject: sure Abraham was the eldest son to consider what follows: Isaac was the second son, Jacob was a younger son, Joseph was a younger son, Efriam here in our passage today is a younger son: but all of them received the blessing and were the vessels that passed down the promise of God. — we can continue: when God raised up Amanda lead his people out of Egypt it wasn't Cameron's first son Amran it was his son that was three years younger, Moses. It was Jesse's youngest son David who slayed Goliath and then became King. — Solomon was not the eldest son, Gideon was the youngest son — and if we wanna go all the way back it was able Adams second son who was favored over Cain the oldest.
Second Adam
Second Adam
All of this is forshadowing of the truth we find exposed in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 by Apostle Paul:
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
The first Adam, the first man plunged the world into sin and death, but the second Adam, Jesus Christ, delivers man from sin. All of this breaking of tradition, this changing of plans was to God’s purpose — And if I could, let me say that it wasn’t really a change of plans at all, it was man getting on board with the plan that God had all along.
What did Proverbs 16:9 say?
9 A man’s heart deviseth his way: But the Lord directeth his steps.
Directed Steps
Directed Steps
Here is what I'm not saying: I am not saying that later on today when your spouse says to you that you need to make some sort of plan or you need to work on making some sort of plan for your finances or for vacation or for cleaning the house for that matter: what I'm not saying is that you should look to your wife and respond well the preacher said we are supposed to make plans. That is not what I'm saying.
You do need to make plans, you need to be wise with your time and you need to be wise with your resources. But I understand that while we are devising, while we are doing our best to come up with a plan that will be best for our selves and for our families, don't forget that it's God who is ordering our steps. What we have planned may very well go completely out the window.
When things don't go according to plan, there is such a great tendency to drift towards frustration and nihilism. This tendency to wanna throw up our arms and despair, declaring that it doesn't matter what we try to do things just fall apart. That is the stuff that depression is made out of.
I want you to understand today is that even when things aren't going our way it is the Lord who is directing your steps. When your plans fall apart remember that god knows what's going on, he knows your needs, he knows the plan. Take comfort in that. That one thing seemed the most out of control, that may likely be when God is going to do his most amazing work.
Tribes
Tribes
Before we close I want you to consider the legacy of Joseph. After all of the awful things his brothers did to him, and being a slave and imprisoned and on and on. — Consider the tribes of Israel.
Asher, Dan, Gad, Issachar, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun, Judah and Benjamin. — There are the sons Jacob, but notice who isn’t on the list: Joseph. There are 2 more names I didn’t mention. Ephraim and Manasseh. — Instead of Joseph being represented by one tribe, he was represented by two: named for his children, the only grandchildren of Jacob on the list. Joseph’s double portion as a favored son.
Please bow your heads and close your eyes as we prepare to concluding prayer. And as we do this morning I want you to consider the heartaches, and the difficulties, and the struggles in your life right now. I want you to consider the frustrations that you're facing in your plans are just falling apart. And I hope today as we close that you can purpose this in your heart: to trust God, that he is ordering your stops even when the steps seem to be going over a cliff. And to trust him for each mile of our journey.
If this morning you're hearing this and you aren't a follower of Christ, meaning that you haven't turned from your sins and surrendered your life to service our Lord and King Jesus. I want you to know this, but we serve a Savior who cares about us. And we can take great comfort and rest and knowing that he is always in control. If you have any questions about this message or you want to know more about what is to be a follower of Jesus and I would love nothing more than to talk to you after we close.
Let’s Pray