Jerks for Jesus
In reading through Genesis 46 today I again ran across one of those great scriptural themes, division. And it struck me because I’ve never thought of it as a major scriptural theme like faith or love, but it most definitely is. Joseph instructs his father and brothers to tell Pharaoh they are just shepherds, because “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”1 This is quite important because their very livelihood caused a deep and immediate rift with their Egyptian hosts. They were completely separated from the world around them. This kept them from eating with or marrying, the Egyptians; it kept them from being absorbed into Egypt.
The world as in the Tower of Babel is always emphasizing unity but God wants no part of it. He is always dividing, separating and creating disharmony, case in point . . . the Jews. Out of the entire world God chooses one man, and from him, he builds a new nation, through which he will reveal himself to the world. He didn’t work through an existing nation he separated one man from his nation; He is a God of separation.
Jesus put it this way . . .
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36
If we are his disciples, we should expect division to follow in our wake. If no one hates or maligns us we should be quite worried, for Christ promises us that these are the natural fruit of following him. We are not to go out of our way to pick fights and be Jerks for Jesus, but need to realize that if we are living for Him, opposition and division will always follow.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. John 15:18
1. Genesis 46:34
