Elevate Monroe
Summer Sunday School Week 7 AUG 23
What actually happens: a man with an unresolved history of lethal violence gets recruited for a mission he actively refuses four separate times, succeeds at leading a rebellious and terrified people who repeatedly want him dead, intercedes for them at the cost of his own standing with God, and is then barred (permanently, by God's own explicit ruling) from entering the promised land he gave his life for.
This isn't the story of a bold biblical hero. It's the story of God fulfilling His covenant through fear, frailty, and humility.
Numbers 12:3
Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
Exodus 3:
"Who am I, that I should go?" (3:11)
"What is your name — what do I even tell them?" (3:13)
"What if they don't believe me?" (4:1)
"I've never been eloquent — I am slow of speech." (4:10)
And finally: "Please, Lord, send someone else." (4:13)
God had been positioning Moses for purpose before Moses ever knew he had one.
Exodus 32:10
Now leave me alone, that my anger may burn against them and destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.
Exodus 32:32
If you will forgive their sin — but if not, please blot me out of the book you have written.
Moses declined the promise of personal greatness and asked for the people's pardon instead.
Numbers 20:12
"Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."
Standing close to the sacred leaves no space to seek the spotlight.
Elevate Monroe
Summer Sunday School Week 6 AUG 16
Biblical narrative is descriptive, not prescriptive
Generation one: Abraham
Abraham passes Sarah off as his sister to protect himself. Twice.
Abraham and Sarah use Hagar as a reproductive tool, then cast her out to die.
Generation two: Isaac and Jacob
Jacob and Rebekah conspire to deceive a dying, blind Isaac
Generation three: Jacob and his sons
Jacob repeats his own father's favoritism on Joseph, inciting jealousy.
God's redemptive plan for the Abrahamic line doesn't run AROUND four generations of family dysfunction and deception, It runs THROUGH it
Joseph connects Abraham's descendants to Egypt, to Exodus, and ultimately, to the eventual arrival of Emmanuel
Genesis 45:1-15
Joseph could stand it no longer. There were many people in the room, and he said to his attendants, “Out, all of you!” So he was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was. Then he broke down and wept. He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh’s palace.
“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.
“Now hurry back to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me master over all the land of Egypt. So come down to me immediately! You can live in the region of Goshen, where you can be near me with all your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and everything you own. 11 I will take care of you there, for there are still five years of famine ahead of us. Otherwise you, your household, and all your animals will starve.’”
Then Joseph added, “Look! You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that I really am Joseph! Go tell my father of my honored position here in Egypt. Describe for him everything you have seen, and then bring my father here quickly.” Weeping with joy, he embraced Benjamin, and Benjamin did the same. Then Joseph kissed each of his brothers and wept over them, and after that they began talking freely with him.
At the one moment his whole family's history predicted revenge, Joseph chose restoration over retribution
Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people
In the end, Joseph reframes his whole story not as suffering he survived, but as something sovereignly steered.