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More to the Story with Dr. Andy Miller III is a podcast exploring theology in the orthodox Wesleyan tradition. Hear engaging interviews and musings from Dr. Miller each week.
Welcome to the more to the story podcast. I am so glad that you have come along. This is going to be an interesting episode, one that I hope that you'll enjoy as it's not going to be me interviewing. Rather I am going to do something a little different. I'm going to share something that I presented last week at Wesley Biblical Seminary Chapel in a podcast form. Now I'm doing this because I'm copying. Somebody else I have noticed that I love the podcast. The hour of holiness by Doctor Bill Yuri. It's something that he's been doing for a long time as a radio show, but it comes out on a regular basis. You can find on Apple Podcast and often I I he's does teachings and sermons and he does it in a podcast form, so I'm going to do my best impersonation of him on this podcast, or at least that style. I so appreciate his teaching and I recommend that to you. I'm so thankful, too, for Wesley Biblical Seminary, which makes this podcast happen. We are developing trusted leaders for faithful churches, thankful to Bill Roberts, who's a financial planner, and Keith Waters, waters and WIPO development for helping me get this podcast going. And I'm. Thankful to all of you. You who listen to this podcast regularly as I've been traveling lately, I've come upon people who listen to the podcast. I even had one person call it a TV show, which meant a lot to me. I always want to be on TV, right? Well, I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to connect with you and I at some point I'm going to read some of the letters that have come in and share those with you. We have some great guests coming up soon. Some of you might know Aaron Wren. He has a new book that's come out. Life in the negative world. Is it like important article that came out a few years ago? I hesitate to often talk about very contemporary issues like things that might be happening this very week, because sometimes my podcasts come out maybe a month or two after I recorded them. Also, make sure that if you haven't done so yet, I'd love to get you on my e-mail list and. If you sign up for my e-mail list at andymillerthethird.com, that's Andy milleriii.com. I'll send you free tool called 5 steps to deeper teaching and preaching, and then you'll get regular updates from me a couple of times a month where I share various things happening from more to the story minute. Entries and one of the neat things that's happened lately is that even in this month of January, where I didn't have like one of my, I didn't have NT right on the podcast and or one of these big guests, or a controversial issue. This was the second biggest month we've ever had. So in January was. So what? What a treat that is to be able to, to have more people coming along and downloading and join the podcast. I love it if you share a link to this and that kind of thing. OK now today's. Broadcast. If you are sitting down and you're not in your car, I'd love for you to open your Bible to Exodus 13 and 14 now. This is an interesting portion of Scripture which comes at this pivot point in the life. It will independent Duke as a whole, but in the the life of the people of Israel. As they have been let go by Pharaoh, it literally says they I think in verse 17 that he spits them out, so to speak, and lets them go away from Egypt. I've noticed that often transitions and I'm in a bit of a transition out. There's a transition happening at Wesley Biblical seminar right now as they're searching for a new president. There's a search committee, it's going on, and people are wondering what's next. But I've been in a lot of transitions. I've I've transitioned from being in the Salvation Army to serving Wesley Biblical Seminary. I grew up in a situation where my parents were in itinerant ministry in the Salvation Army, and I moved a lot. Transition was a regular part of my life, but transitions can at times feel like dead ends. Do you know? It's like. Any times where something changes, it can lead us to a place where we think we might be at a dead end. Now the very beginning of Exodus starts in the middle of a very long transition. This is after kind of the high point of the end of Genesis and Genesis 50. We see kind of this. Culminating point in all of the history of Israel as they're coming together, even though they had come to a dead end themselves in the desert, because what God has used for good, even though man intended for evil through Joseph, they're able to come to Egypt and have this situation that enables them to be saved. Just 770 of them come to Egypt and it's through God's Providence. They're able to sustain themselves. As a nation, as a group of people, but by the time we get to exit some 400 years later, even though the people of Israel have followed the creation mandate that comes earlier in the Pentateuch and earlier in Genesis, they've been fruitful. They've multiplied. There's at least hundreds of thousands of them. The numbers. As a debate. The point they come to this place where they're I like the King James version that says in verse 8 of chapter one. Now there arose up a new king in Egypt who knew not Joseph. And that idea is echoed at various other points in scripture like this. This moment where they come to a place where the new king. Doesn't remember, doesn't know and that that word know there is a very intimate term. It's a similar way that Adam and Eve are intimately connected at the very beginning of Genesis, that there is no knowledge, there is no intimate connection anymore. Instead, they have come to a dead. They've done exactly what they've been told to do, yet they're in this position. Where they are enslaved. They're caught, they're they're added dead. And what? What is it? So they they cry out to the Lord. Then I'm gonna just jump through the next set of passages as we have the emergence of Moses, his calling, his eventual negotiating with Pharaoh. He comes to a place where they're coming to the the brink of liberation. And even when they get to a place where they are let go. What is? That happens after they leave edge leave Egypt. A dead end. The the dead end of a desert. Then eventually the dead. End of the Red Sea with Pharaohs armies coming right behind them. And this is where we read and see this interesting passage in excess 14 verses 11 and 13. They said to Moses. Is it because there are no graves in Egypt? That you have taken us away to die in the wilderness. What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. We don't intend generally to arrive at dead ends in life. Nobody starts a journey and says, you know what? I can't wait to get to that. College sat on the other side of my other side of my neighborhood. No one begins a journey and expects to get lost. No one seeks a dead end. Nevertheless, this was the Israelites experiences. We might come to dead ends as well. Not only did they get to the dead end of being enslaved now, even in their liberation, they're at a dead end. Our dead ends might be something else. Maybe it's you've started this year and you had your New Year's resolutions all in place and then. They've come crashing down on you or you've realized you can't really do it. You took. On too much. Maybe it's you're a student at Wesley Biblical Seminary in another school, and you realize, oh. This work is coming. And this is going to be really hard. I'm not sure I can make it through this. Maybe you've arrived at a place in life where your adulthood or your parenting your marriage isn't what you thought it was going to be, your job, whatever it may be. It might be too that there are moments that we experience like the Israelites. Where they might be suggesting. So you wanted to liberate us, right? God. Couldn't you have had something else in mind then? The dead end of the Red Sea? Now there's an interesting facet to this story at this moment where the Israelites are leaving Egypt, that I have missed for a long time, and I I I've read it and maybe I've seen it. I thought, well, that's a little weird. Why? That there, but it comes before they get to the Red Sea and his exes 1319. It says this. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry up my bones with you from this place. Now this is an interesting detail to me that as they're ready to leave Egypt, here's what happens all of a sudden, they take most Joseph's bones with them. They pick up Joseph's bones. And remember, this is 400 years, 400 years before. Now imagine what where we are. This is before the founding of the United States of America. Like it's been that long yet they still have Josephs bones. I was interested in even the placement of this story. Why? Why does this detail come now? One reputable scholar who's written in a a commentary that is would be well known says this. It says he's he thinks it's actually he quote, somewhat arbitrary, and it's a quote interruption. Of the narrative End Quote. He thinks that the placement of this idea as they're leaving Egypt before they actually get out of town, and the fact that they include this detail seems somewhat arbitrary. Now is that the case? Is this is like this little detail about Joseph's body really arbitrary? I'm reminded of the words of my preaching instructor and former President of Asbury Seminary, Doctor, Ellsworth Callis. He had a interesting way to think about the placement of stories within the Pentateuch, and he was actually thinking of when he when this quote that I'm going to read to you. He was thinking of Genesis 38 cause a lot of people questioned that story of Judah and Tamar why that comes in the middle of in the middle of the Joseph narrative or something people called the Joseph novel. Well, you'll have to read his book, Grace and tree stump to find his answer. But he said this about the author of Genesis and the placement of these type of details. He says you might be careful when you criticize A storyteller who has been around as long as the writer of Genesis has. It's just possible he knows more about his plot line than we do. It's just possible that he knows more about his plot line than we do now. Let's think about this. What? Where does this detail even come from? Let's just go back and some of you. Maybe you've just done a Bible reading plan this year and you've read through Genesis and at the end of Genesis 1, some of the very last verses talk about these details of Joseph's bones. At the very end, he realizes he's dying in Genesis 5024 and it says this. And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die. Why? But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Now one of the interesting things that happens about Genesis. I think all of Genesis is the represents the structural relationship of particularization. You have the creation of the world. And then we have. These are the descendants of. These are the descendants of. This is a story of and it moves from. This is about the creation of the world, Adam and Eve to Noah. Then we get to Tara, then Abraham, Abraham. Isaac. Jacob and then Joseph, I think Joseph and the certainly the length of the narrative about Joseph is the culmination. Of Genesis, like his lead us to his place where we come to the now and say quite a climax, but at the very end of Genesis he even recognizes this is about the promise, the oath that was given to Abraham or Abram. But they might even feel at this point he just imagine what they are. They've been saved because of Joseph's placement. Josephs, hierarchical position within the Egyptian reality. But yet it is a dead end. What's going to happen after he dies? It might be Joseph even sees this. And then Joseph repeats himself and says this in verse 25. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry up my bones with you from this place. Notice that that line God will surely come to your aid now is repeated at least three times. In Genesis and Exodus now I wonder this makes me really curious how Joseph came to this place. What was Joseph thinking? We know, of course he had visions. Could it be that he had a vision of a prophecy, so to speak, of what was going to come for the Israelites? Maybe. It's certainly. Is in the realm of possibilities, but it might be that he was looking back to Abraham or Abraham. Now, I mentioned already that Abrams promise comes in Genesis 12, but then that promise is amplified several other times or that covenant is amplified other times like Genesis 15, that's that beautiful section where he says look up at the stars like and your descendants will be greater as as numerous as the stars in the sky. But in that passage. It's interesting too. In in Genesis 15, there's another detail that's given by God to Abram. He's just Abram at that moment. And God says to Abram in verses 13 and 14 of Chapter 15 that there will come a time when your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants. And they will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. This is describing, of course, what eventually happened. Could it be that Joseph was aware of that, and maybe even in his death, he saw how that could be happening? Maybe Joseph realizes after that, after he dies, the Israelites are headed for a dead end. What is it? Daddy says. God will surely provide for you. God will surely come to your aid. It's interesting to me that Moses includes this. I just assume Moses as the author of the Pentateuch. Generally, I mean, of course he didn't write the little piece that says about his own death, but there certainly are, like editorial components to the Pentateuch, but that that Moses includes this detail.
Right.
At the very end of this book of Genesis now. I think that's interesting. Think about what it's like. Have you ever been around somebody when they're close to death or just really up there in age? My wife's grandmother. So my grandmother in law is there such a thing? We call her Mimi. Her name's Mildred Kee, but she really goes by name. Sunshine. She is 99. Next month, she will turn 100 and I'll tell you that for the last few years. As she's been getting closer and closer to 100, I know that the way I listen to her is different. Like I'm very interested in the things she has to say because you don't know if this would be the last words, but certainly there's something really powerful about somebody's the words that somebody chooses to use as they get a little slower. Maybe get a little bit more elderly. There's a way that you want to listen, and I remember this being the case with both all four of my grandparents, but particularly my grandfathers, as I listened to them closer to their. Deaths. There's like these words are so powerful in in, in the Wesleyan tradition, we think of the last words of John Wesley, best of All, God is with us. These are like such important moments. And I can imagine that there's something about these words from Joseph that carry a resonance that continues. God will surely. Come to your aid. Those words come out of 110 year old man at the end of his life. Now, not to be outdone from the author of Genesis, but the Book of Joshua, which also has a way to emphasize the life of Joseph. Now now like I think there is certainly continuity between the first five books of the Bible and Joshua. Some people have gone as far as to say that it's not just the Pentateuch, but the Hexa Tuke. I'm not saying that at all, but certainly there is a tradition of like, a continuing of the same. And I find it interesting that after Joshua dies in Joshua 24, then there is this detail that comes to the foreground. Joshua 2432. As for the bones of Joseph, this is the very end. This would be like the last paragraphs in the very last words of Joshua. As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem in the peace of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamar, the father of Shechem for 100 pieces of. Money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph. I think that they're trying to emphasize that there is something significant about Joseph's prophecy. Joseph's vision being realized. Now let's get back to the the passage that we're thinking of, specifically Exodus 13 and 14. When they have come to a place, when they are at a dead end, the dead end of the Red Sea, and there are all of these people that have as a result of the Israelites being fruitful and multiplying there they are. And they are about to see all come crashing down. They are reminded, and Moses reminds them. Of Joseph's words, God will surely come to your aid. It's like his bones will be a reminder of that. When Walt Disney World. Was the the kind of opened this kind of historic day was there? And Walt Disney's wife was there with Walter Cronkite, who, interested enough, grew up in the same town as Walt Disney. And Walter Cronkite leaned into Walt Disney's wife and said wouldn't, wouldn't it be great if Walt were here to see this today? But Missus Disney responded wisely, saying if Walt had not seen if Walt had not first seen this. You would not be seeing it today. If Walt had not first seen this, you would not be seeing it today. It's interesting that Joseph saw. That even when they would come to the place of the dead end at the Red Sea. That they would need to be reminded of this truth, that God will surely come to your aid. I can imagine just as Moses Moses is raising his hands and his staff and the Red Sea is partying. If we could get a picture of that scene, and maybe in the new heavens and the new Earth we have an opportunity to see what that look like. I would think that in that picture you might not see. You might see Joseph's coffin not far away. As a reminder. Of that what man? Intended for evil, God would intend for good, and this idea is also picked up by the author of Hebrews, who Doctor Gary Cockrell calls the pastor of Hebrews right, who who gives us some. It kind of ideas about what Joseph might have had in mind as he gets to Hebrews 11. Thinking of the Faith Hall of Fame, where faith is being certain of what we cannot see. This objective reality, which can be ours. It says this in verse 22 by Faith Moses at the end of his life, made mention of the Exodus. Of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. This pastor that is responding through the letter, the Sermon of Hebrews suggests that Joseph is an example of someone accessing the objective reality of things not seen. Faith is being certain what we hope for. We are trusting that when we come to dead ends, when we arrive at moments. Maybe they're in transitions. Maybe they're in challenging at challenging points of our life. Maybe when things came up that we didn't anticipate a sickness. Maybe a job change, whatever it might be, that in those moments dead ends for those who are in Christ. Are just a mirage. They're not eternally lasting. A dead end is an opportunity. A. A transition is an opportunity. To say. I trust you. God, I trust. And. And I think that that's what Joseph might have had in mind. And maybe he didn't see exactly the moment the Red Sea, but he knew that this was coming. Abraham was told this was coming. And so here they are at that dead end. And they have an opportunity to trust that God will burst through that God. Will surely come to the. Aid. Now I think it's interesting too that there are several other Josephs in Scripture and there's another Joseph who is connected to bones in the biblical story. This Joseph was also the agent of a dead end. Maybe the dead end of all dead ends. And I was Speaking of Joseph of Arimathea. What was he responsible for taking Jesus's body? Jesus's bones. He was the steward of a dead end, the dead end of the cross. We're told in Psalm 16 and this theme is picked up in acts Chapter 2. For you will not abandon my soul to sheol, or let your holy one see decay or see corruption. See dead ends for the Christian. Are an opportunity for us to see the way Jesus's resurrection speaks life and how. Even in a place where there is nothing but bones, Jesus's resurrection was ultimately what Joseph was looking for. Jesus's resurrection, as I've talked about in my heaven course, which is you might be interested in seeing Jesus's resurrection as Andy Wright says, is the model and the means of our own resurrection. So when we. Look at dead ends. We look at the dead end that might have come as a. Cult of thinking that the Jesus Revolution was over. Nevertheless, what happens? Jesus is raised to new life and we are a people who believe in a God who created the world out of nothing. The God a God who took a dead man and brought him to life as the first fruits of a new creation, a God who led Joseph at the end of his life to believe there was more. To his life than just his life. A God who led Moses to look at a coffin and believe the Red Sea wasn't a dead end. A God who looks at the challenges that might be experienced in your institutions. The experience, experience in your families and believes that dead ends are just a mirage. Why? Because if our bodies. Are going to be raised and if there is a new heavens and a new Earth, and if there is a time coming when Jesus will wipe the tears from our eyes and there will be no more pain and no more suffering. There is no such thing as a dead end. There's no need for a bucket list. Even if even if, like and I'm very connected to many institutions like Wesley Biblical Seminary. Two institutions in Wilmore, KY. The Salvation Army, the Global Methodist Church, and they could go on and on, even if. Every institution fails. Even if we come to a place that feels like we're at a dead end, we can say God at this dead end. I believe there is an empty tomb. And while the dust of Joseph's bones are in the ground somewhere. These bones will one day live again. I believe that Joseph might have even been aware that there was a reality coming for him. Where he his bones will be raised to a new life. You know, my family does something interesting. We at night time we have our family prayer time and we do different things in different days. But often we sing a song that's often the last hymn in him. Now it's it's called. It has uses old English and sometimes we sing praise songs and contemporary short courses too. But we we enjoy singing this song, and my sons will play guitar for it the day thou gavest. And so we've memorized this somewhat kind of archaic sounding song. The day the day thou gavest Lord has ended, the darkness falls at thy behest. But the the last line which we've memorized is this. So be it, Lord, thy Kingdom shall never like Earth's proud empires. Pass away. A Kingdom grows and stands forever till all thy people own thy sway. Look this, this idea that, even though Earth empires, Earths institutions pass away all. All of them will pass away. What is it that doesn't pass? Thy Kingdom shall never so be it. Lord, thy Kingdom shall never like Earth's proud empires. Pass away. Why? Because dead ends are not dead ends for the. Dead ends are a mirage. Dead ends are an opportunity to say to God I trust you. I trust you with where you're taking the universe. I want to just mention. To end with two stories about trees and leaves. When my family and I lived in Lawrenceville, GA, we actually lived in Snellville, GA we served the Salvation Army in Gwinnett County. Our kids were much smaller than we moved there. I think there are 5, three and one. And a couple of years into our time there, my daughter, Georgia was four years old and I was with her is in a busy time in our in our year as the Christmas season. And we were just standing out in front of our house and there was 1 little tree in front of our house, our Parsonage, our quarters and that tree. Interesting enough, in one week lost most of its leaves. And I said this to George, said Georgia, look, that tree, it lost all of its leaves this week. And she, in a very kind of like, almost somber way, came up to me, and she put her hand on my back. And she looked at me and she said, I guess we should cut it down. I guess we should cut it down. You see, Georgia thought that when she saw that tree, that it was a dead end. Like, well, if it doesn't have leaves anymore, it must be dead. That might be how we feel. About some of the activity that we go about. In this world. Maybe even the the the things we're trying to do for the Kingdom. It's like man, it's just not producing fruit or I. I really feel like this is a dead end. I leaned down to Georgia and said, well, Georgia, here's the thing. In just a few months, that tree is going to have leaves again because spring is coming. And I love how, through the Christian tradition, the imagery of spring represents the new creation that things that look like they're dead can come back to life. That things that look like where we come to the Dead Sea or the Red Sea, or there's just bones, they that bones will come to life. That there'll be a resurrection of all bodies. Another story too, to do with leaves. You might know that JRR Tolkien had an interesting point as. He worked on. The Lord of the Rings for years. I'm not sure if it's probably even a decade or more, and he got to several points where he was pretty frustrated with the process and at one point he just gave up entirely. He was like tired of working through this process. It just wouldn't wouldn't really work. He actually could be called. In the British, I've been told. This the term is a a niggle, somebody who just always trying to make things just perfect and get them just right and he could never make it work. He had multiple. Copies and drafts of chapters, and he could just never make it go. But then one night he had a dream. And after he woke up from that dream, he had it. It was a dream about a story. And he wrote that story down. And it's called leaf by niggle. And the story is about an artist named and how he was commissioned by his town or his village to do a mural on the side of the town hall. So days, weeks and years went by and he hardly accomplished anything, even though he had this idea of having a tree and a sun and all sorts of various things that would be a part of this like masterpiece, all he did. Was paint one leaf, so the town leaders were frustrated with him. They complained about his lack, lack of progress. Spoiler Alert here, niggle dies. And Tolkien takes us through this story as he's on a train headed to Paradise. And along the way, he sees a tree in the distance, and he gets off the train and he gets on a bike and he rides a bike up a hill. And I I wish I could, you know, just read the whole thing. But Jr. Tolkien describes, like, coming to this flat place and seeing this tree. And I will read this little portion. He sees the tree and he says it's before him stood the tree. If you could say that of a tree that was alive, its leaves opening. Its branches growing and bending in the wind that had so often felt or gassed. And had so often failed to catch, he gazed at the tree, and slowly he lifted his arms and opened them wide. It's a gift, he said. Cytokine realized there is a real tree. There's a real story. And someday that real story would ultimately get out. When he realized that the deepest desires of his heart would be accessed, how through the future, the deepest desires of his heart would be acts of all he'd been trying to convey in the Lord of the Rings. This gave him a way to handle the dead ends of his life when he realized. That ultimate fulfillment was coming. You see, Token believed that something would happen to his bones. Tolkien believed in the resurrection. He believed that lifes dead end of death is not a dead end. He could have affirmed what Ezekiel said as God said to Ezekiel, son of man. Can these bones live? And that passage goes on to talk about the reality. That the graves. Will burst open and the bones will come back together and is a prophecy and is in Ezekiel 37 of the resurrection where he'll put his spirit in us. And like as we look forward to this. This helps us understand how to handle dead ends in our life. We take our dead ends to the ultimate future that the resurrection promises us. To the future that will give us answers for our world. Now, some of you might be saying. Ohh Andy. Optimistic Andy. You're just being a little too like sun, shiny at the end of life here. Well, maybe. But I say. And when you face dead ends, maybe. Maybe you could hear the words of Joseph. God will surely. Come to your aid. Thanks, Peter. God, thanks for checking out this podcast today. We'll be back to have a regular edition next week. God bless you.