Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What's the Trajectory of Your Life? | Torah | Genesis 43

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Small decisions can make a big impact on your life. The choices you make now will affect the person you become. Are you listening to your heart and following your desires, or are you pursuing God? Patrick shares from Genesis 43, where we see what Judah does to change the trajectory of his life for the better. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Genesis 43 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. A plane takes off in L.A. for New York City, but its pilots mistakenly set its trajectory off by just two degrees to the south. That can't make a big difference, though, can it? I mean, for example, over short distances, being two degrees off makes literally no difference. If someone was walking down the hallway towards you, but was actually walking,

two degrees to the right of a straight shot, you'd think they were still walking in a straight line. You'd have no idea that they were two degrees off. It's just so, so, so, so, so minor. But two degrees makes a big difference over a long distance. That plane, leaving L.A. for New York, would actually end up in Washington, D.C., 200 miles south of its intended destination. Small changes in trajectory don't just matter when you're flying. It matters in your life. a small behavior can reap a bigger habit, which becomes an even bigger character. Small errors in trajectory in your life can become massive problems in the outcome of your life. And honestly, that's like totally terrifying to me because like any good American,

I was taught that I'm the captain of my life. I'm the pilot of my ship and that it's my job to make what I will of this life. It's my job to make what I will of myself. But I honestly had no idea how tiny habits of thought, when I was 16, like pride, selfishness, lust, or anger, how those could produce massive character problems now that I'm 34. The truth is that if I pilot my life, all of my tiny little errors, they begin to compound into a disastrously poor character. No one exemplifies this problem in the book of Genesis more clearly than Judah. Judah was the youngest son of his mother, Leah, and his father,

Jacob. And we don't know much about his youth, but we can tell from the stories that come later on that he was a lot like the worst versions of both his grandfather and his dad. Like his grandfather, Isaac, Judah was a sensual man. He was driven by his appetites, his passions, his desires, far more than he was driven by the will of God. And like his father, Jacob, he was a schemer. He was always looking for some way to protect his own self-interest, to grow his personal wealth. And I'm sure that these traits, they were probably subdued when he was a young man. They existed in his thoughts. But slowly over time, they began to characterize his actions as he was piloting his ship, as he was setting the trajectory for his life.

Maybe he was just two degrees off in the beginning until finally Judah became the kind of man who would join his brothers and trying to murder his youngest half-brother, Joseph. And at the last moment, it's Judah who comes up with a stroke of genius, this amazing idea. Why should we murder Joseph when we can just sell them into slavery? Then we make a quick buck and we don't have to live with blood guilt. That's the kind of guy Judah became. His actions ultimately prevent Rubin from saving Joseph. But he doesn't stop there. He mistreats his daughter-in-law Tamar again and again and again.

And his actions force her to behave like a prostitute to get what was rightfully hers. And he's following his animalistic passions. That ends up leading him to sleep with. his daughter-in-law as a prostitute. And as if that wasn't enough, he turns around and self-righteously demands her execution for sleeping with him. You see, this is the power of trajectory. Small acts of selfishness and self-indulgence grow into corruption, rage, injustice, sensuality, greed, and self-righteousness. What's the trajectory of your life? Are you the one piloting your ship right now? Are you following your heart?

Are you trusting your desires? Are you letting your ambition, greed, lust, and idolatry set the trajectory for your choices? Does your desire for a companion or a relationship set your prerogatives? Does your need for control or success guide your behaviors? Small deviations in trajectory lead to big outcomes over time. So how are you doing? What's the trajectory of your life? Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar confronted his evil.

She holds up a mirror to his character and she forces him to come to terms with the awful twisted person that he's become. And when she did that, something strange happened. It broke Judah. He apologized. He admitted his fault. He broke down. And we don't know exactly what happened between that time period in Genesis 43, which is

today's passage. But I think we can guess. I think we can guess that Judah stopped piloting his share. ship. He realized what a mess he made of his life and he finally turned to Yahweh. He cried out to Yahweh and said, I need your mercy. I need your grace. You take the rudder. You set the trajectory for my life because I'm blowing it. And as the decades passed, his life trajectory changed. We learned in previous episodes that there was a famine in the land and Jacob's sons, including Judah, all go down to Egypt to get some food. They had no idea that they were getting it from

Joseph, but in the process, Joseph ends up imprisoning one of their brothers. Now, he's trying to test them, because Joseph says he will only release their brother, Simeon, if they bring their youngest brother, Benjamin, to come see him. And of course, Benjamin was Joseph's only full-blooded brother. And it's obvious that he's afraid that maybe his older brothers killed Benjamin or sold off Benjamin, the same way he did to him. And so he's trying to force them to bring Benjamin down as a proof that this guy's still alive that they aren't as evil as they once were. Now, naturally, Jacob, their father, he refuses. He's already lost Joseph after all. I mean, he doesn't want to lose Benjamin. And the years drag on. The family is going hungry. And then Judah does something remarkable. The man who once chose his

own life and his own self-interest again and again and again and again suddenly becomes the man who is willing to lay down his life for his family, who's willing to lay down his life, for his brother Benjamin. He makes this promise to his father, Jacob. We'll pick it up in chapter 43, verse 8. And Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me. He's talking about Benjamin. And we will arise and go that we will live and not die, both we and you and also your little ones. I will be his pledge for safety. From my hand, you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. Judah is saying, I will give my life in the place of Benjamin. I'll do it for you, Dad. I'll do it when I'm down in Egypt. I will do

everything and anything in my power to make sure that he's safe. I will give up myself even. Even though I've been self-interested in my whole life, I will give up myself. It does not matter. I will die for the sake of Benjamin. And then Judah leads his family down to Egypt. And as we'll see in the next passage, he actually ends up offering his own life in place of Benjamin's. But here's what I want you to see. Judah's trajectory as a young man, it made him into to a selfish self-seeker who sold his brother into slavery for quick cash. When you pilot your life, you always end up becoming someone you never intended to be. And yet there's good news.

You are never too old. You're never too far gone for God to take the trajectory of your life back over for him to begin the long, quiet work of correcting your trajectory and turning you into a selfless person who gives your life sacrificially. You know, I've been reflecting on my own life lately, and I realized that there were several ways that I was trying to pilot the ship. I was trying to be in control. Because the thing is, these aren't big one-time decisions. These are daily decisions. Am I going to pilot the ship or am I going to let God be the one who takes the rudder? But I was realizing that on daily basis in a lot of areas, I kept taking the rudder.

But what I also realized is that God never gave up on me and he never gives up on you. And so God, he kept knocking, pestering, and reminding me to, to give him control, to let him set my values, to let him set my prerogatives, my habits, my actions, to let him set my life's trajectory so that he could shape me into a Christ-like person, so he could grow me into having a Christ-like character. How does God want to take over in your life? How does he need to reset your trajectory? Do the smart thing.

Do the good and beautiful thing. And trust yourself to him. before that tiny little two-degree error in your choices become something much, much worse over time. And trust yourself to him to see how the right trajectory can transform you into someone full of love, mercy, justice, self-sacrifice, and truth. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter.

Hit the link in the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that's going to help you beat that midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.