Genesis 47, Luke 1:1–38, Job 13, 1 Corinthians 1

Date	Version	Reading Plan
@February 14, 2024	ESV (2016)	M’Cheyne Plan 2024

Genesis 47

Genesis 47:19 (ESV) 19 Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh. And give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”

The famine was great in the lands of Egypt and Canaan and their inhabitants had run out of money to give in exchange for food. The only thing left to give to Pharaoh was themselves and their land, which were accepted in return for one-fifth of its produce. The only land Pharaoh did no except was from the Egyptian priests because they had a fixed allowance from him. This payment of land did not exactly equate slavery since the people were able to keep four-fifths of the produce, but the shift of ownership granted Pharaoh immense power. There seems to be every indication that this Pharaoh stewarded his power justly, but his successor abused this power. Perceiving the growing numbers of Israel as a threat, he sought deal shrewdly with them (Exod. 1:9).

Luke 1:1–38

Luke 1:19, 26-27 (ESV) 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. … 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

The parallels between the narratives of John the Baptist and Jesus are fascinating. In both, one parent was approached by the angel, Gabriel, who told them that they would conceive and bear a son. Gabriel first came to Zechariah and told him to not be afraid, that his son would be named John and that he would be “great before the Lord” and “be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). Six month later, Gabriel came to Mary, told her to not be afraid, that her Son was to be named Jesus and that “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” (Luke 1:32). These similarities are certainly worth meditation, but even more so is the concentration of angelic ministry and that something truly extraordinary was happening at this time.

Job 13

Job 13:15 (ESV) 15 Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.

Following a rebuke of the friends and that he is just as wise as they are, Job speaks of his relationship with God. In looking at some commentaries, there seem to be two readings of this passage. Most translations have Job making a positive statement about his hope in God but others translate it that Job has no hope in God. In either case, Job is extremely animated as he pleads his case before God, demonstrating how we can come to our Lord with raw passion and zeal.

1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 1:9 (ESV) 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The greatest expression of God’s faithfulness is the sending of His Son. Incapable and even resistant toward fellowship with God ourselves, He initiated fellowship with us by sending Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. This fellowship was presented in Christ’s condescension and secured in His death on our behalf. It is a wonder that God would call us to fellowship with His Son and no more appropriate answer exists than gratitude and the full surrender of our lives to Him.

Carson on Luke 1:1-38

[Luke] tells us that “many” had already “undertaken to draw up an account” of Jesus’s life and ministry, in line with what was “handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word” (Luke 1:1–2). From this we can infer two things: (a) Luke does not himself claim to be an eyewitness of Jesus. He does claim to be in touch with what the original “eyewitnesses and servants of the word” handed down. (b) By the time he writes, Luke knows that already there are many written reports circulating. This is not surprising. The Jews were a literate race. Every boy learned to read and write. It is inconceivable that no one committed anything to paper in the first years after Jesus’s death, resurrection, and exaltation.

Carson is helpful here in describing how Luke was not a direct eyewitness and that the Jews were a literate race, likely transcribing the account of Jesus life and ministry on physical media. Regarding the latter, it is incredible to see God’s sovereign hand in ensuring literacy and record-keeping among His people in order that the gospel of Jesus Christ could be preserved and shared.

Justin Houtz