sort of

"As for you, you meant evil for me, but God meant it for good..." Genesis 50:20... sort of.

In the last chapter of Genesis, a book that saw the ebb and flow of God's creativity, goodness, grace, and mercy yet His power, judgment, and (softly put) His clarification of just who is God, we see a weird scene at the end. The sons of Jacob, Joseph's brother, try to trick Joseph into forgiving them! They clearly got that from their father. However, Jacob's response to them is one that when i first had heard really vindicated a lot of events happening in my life.

"As for you, you meant evil for me, but God meant it for good..." Which is funny that i resonated with this. I really don't think i've had too many people intentionally throw me in a cistern, and trick my dad into thinking i'm dead. But i resonated nonetheless. And many do with this verse! We think, "Oh! What has been bad in my life God WILL use for good in my life!"

But oh how deep my selfishness runs. The rest of the verse says, "but God meant it for good, that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."

Joseph's relationship with God ran so deep that he never once needed vindicated personally. (Actually, he did once try to vindicate himself. And it didn't go as he thought it would. See Genesis 40 and 41. But anyway...) It was more important that God use the whole of his life and his story so that "many should live."

When something bad happens to you or someone tries to bring an aspect of your life (more likely just your day) down, maybe we should have our mind more on the others around us, on the eternal, on the worldwide impact that acting Godly in that moment may have.

If i could just get my eyes off of preserving my own well-being...

There.

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity...It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore." Psalm 133:1,3

Does anyone else have a sudden hankering or a Biblical appreciation at the least for some Mountain Dew right now?

The dew mentioned here is a dew that fell on vegetation, securing its growth and fruitfulness during relatively dry seasons in the area. Zion if the mount of worship and praise of God. Of Christ as Lord. This idea of unity is very interesting.

Unity isn't having one purpose in this passage. It goes beyond that. Unity is "when brothers dwell." And that dwelling together has an impact like "the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion!" This dwelling together, again, isn't just a bunch of people with a similar purpose. This dwelling together is a form of heavenly praise we offer to God when we cause each other to be fruitful. And when is it hardest to be fruitful? In the dry seasons.

Maybe unity is easy when all is peachy keen. (Where does "peachy keen" come from?) But i think heaven hears our worship of God when we act it out in such a way that our unity doesn't necessarily come in the form of a shared vision, but in a communal help of one another in their personal and corporate fruitfulness. The morning dew doesn't pick and choose the more correct fruit to soak. The morning dew falls and covers all. In verse 2 of the Psalm unity is depicted this way, covering all of Aaron's head, soaking his beard (which for analogy's sake means he probably had a monstrously awesome beard), and staining his clothes. It got him good!

When you think about unity, what do you think about? Where is the blessing of "life forevermore?" It is there, there being where this fruit enabling dew of Hermon falls.