Bible In One Year-Day 94 (Friday, April 4, 2014)

Commentary: Joshua19-21. In these three chapters, inheritance was distributed to the Israelites by lots. Also, we could see the power of blessing and effect of ancestry on destinies. Birthright is quite important and powerful. When it comes to the issue of blessing, it does not go by age, position in the family or by education but in whom God has taken special delight. Blessing does not look at what you have, who you are but just divine favor. Blessing solves the problems we cannot solve. Jesus blessed five loaves and two fishes, it fed five thousand people with left over of about twelve baskets; which means that blessing is prayer answered beyond our thinking or asking. By right, Reuben was supposed to be given the first lot of the inheritance, but this was not so. Joseph had the first lot instead. This is because of Jacobs pronouncement on Reuben in Genesis 49:3-4 “Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.”

The beauty of Reuben’s destiny was first remarked, and then Jacob cursed that destiny that it shall not excel. That curse changed the beauty of the destiny. The curse became an evil river flowing in the lineage of Reuben for any child born into that line to drink. Moses’ blessing in Deut33:6 did not cancel this curse but it only gave him the grace to enjoy long life under this curse. That was what affected his lineage;

1 Chronicles 5:1 “Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.”

An ancestral error could put the whole generation unborn into serious trouble. The other side of curse is blessing. Joseph received this in Gen49:22-26. This blessing changed the position of Joseph in the family. When you are blessed, your status changes, the prison becomes too small for you to stay, the pit of the enemy rejects you and people that matter calls you for solutions. When you are blessed, the seat of destiny is not by the road side but in the palace of the king. The blessing on Joseph made heaven and earth to cooperate to yield excess to the point of swallowing seven years famine. When you are blessed, you don’t have enough space to store and you can’t count what you have because it meets the need of difficult and impossible situations;

Genesis 41:49 “And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.”

The amount you have in the bank is not the measure of heavenly blessing. In most cases, it is foolishness due to ignorant. It can dry up any time. But blessing outlives a man from one generation to the other. A blessed man increases in the face of famine;

Genesis 26:12-13 “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year (year of famine) an hundred fold: and the LORD blessed him.And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:”

God, in His infinite mercy and unquantifiable abundance, has given each family their lots on earth. But some ancestors had traded in with the devil, some messed it up, some went to the grave with it and those who are supposed to be enjoying it now are suffering. You must claim your own lots back from any ancestral grave if you really want to enjoy life and change the history of your family;

Matthew 11:12 “And from the days of John the Baptist, until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

Nothing else to do but to pray yourself out unrelentingly; i.e. don’t agree for a lesser bargain than claiming them because Jesus had paid the price. Consider the hymn

And now complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Refrain

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow

Today is 94^th day of reading the bible together and, as you move into the second quarter, may the heaven over your destiny tear open for the out pour of God’s unquantifiable blessings into your life in the name of Jesus. Our next reading is Joshua22-24. Keep the fire burning and alive.