Genesis 50:25 – GOD WILL SURELY VISIT YOU
Genesis 50:25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
Joseph was about to die. However, before he died, he communicated to those who were left in his family that there was going to come a day that God would direct them to go back to the promise land. Joseph understood the promise of God to Abraham that the promise land belonged to the children of Israel. Just because Joseph spent most of his life in the land of Egypt, Joseph never forgot who he was or the promises of God.
Joseph lived in the land of Egypt for 93 years. However, even though he was a great Egyptian who saved the lives of many Egyptians, Joseph understood that he was an Israelite first. Joseph understood that while he lived in Egypt, Egypt was not the place that God had for him. As such, as a remembrance to the children of Israel, he commanded them to keep his bones and to bury him in the promise land once God finally permitted them to return.
In the same way that Joseph understood that his real home was back in the promise land, so likewise must we understand that this earth is not our home. God has promised us a better place. Jesus has promised that HE has gone to prepare a place for us. While we may have been born in this world, while we may have lived our entire lives in this world, and while we will die in this world, our focus is not to be on this world and the things that this world has to offer us.
Instead, our focus is supposed to be upon the things of God. Our focus is supposed to be upon those things that God has promised us. If our focus becomes where we are at today, we will quickly become distracted with the things of this world and lose track of the promises of God.
Joseph was most likely a very wealthy man. Egypt had given him great power and great wealth. However, Joseph understood that it was God who had directed him to live out his life in the land of Egypt. Joseph understood that it was God who desired the children of Israel to live in Egypt and it was God who in accordance with HIS perfect timing called them back to the promise land. Joseph did not attempt to go back to the promise land late in his life, instead, he reminded his children that someday, God would make clear to them that it was time for them to return.
Heaven will someday be your home; however, do not spend so much time thinking about heaven that you fail to be a faithful steward for God right where HE has placed you. Heaven will someday be your home; however, do not spend so much time enjoying the things of the present life that you forget about the things of God and the promises that HE has given unto you.
Temperance is a gift from God. God has promised his children that they can add to their faith, virtue, and knowledge temperance. Temperance enables the believer to have a proper prospective for their life. Temperance enables you to live in this world without being of this world. Temperance enables you to say no to the things of this world so that your spiritual hearing will be properly prepared to hear the voice of God.
Your life is a tool in the hands of God. The question is, is your life a tool that God reaches for a lot in order to bring about much good, or is your life a tool that is dulled by the things of this world that God passes you by and uses others. Joseph was a man who was used mightily of God because he understood and hung onto the promises of God. Joseph understood the promises that God made to him but he also did not forget the promises that God made to Abraham.