What Seek Ye?

In Genesis 37:15, Joseph's father had asked him to go find his brothers and bring him a report as to how they were doing with the flocks. The verse says, "And a certain main found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?" The Hebrew word translated "wandering" in this verse means "to err, go astray, stagger". Joseph thought his brothers were in one field when in reality they had moved to another location. Even though he had gone to the location his father told him, he suddenly found himself in the wrong place to accomplish his stated mission. It took a "certain man" asking a pointed question to get him back to the right field.

We can speculate over the passage, but we don't know Joseph's motives. The fact is, we can get off of the path to accomplish our stated mission for a multitude of reasons. The bottom line is, will we heed the words of a "certain man" in our lives who points us in the direction we need to go? What seekest thou?

Jesus asked this very question of two men who would become his disciples. They had heard about him and began to follow him when he passed by. John 1:38 tells us Jesus' response to their action, "Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi...where dwellest thou?" They wanted to know where Jesus lived. They wanted a more personal relationship with him.

Pharaoh, a picture of one who has all the "good things" in life, asked Hadad an interesting question in I Kings 11:22, "What have you lacked with me that you seek to go to your own country?" This is a question we may pose in our own minds when God is asking us to seek Him in a different place. Perhaps he wants us in a different field in order to know Him more. Maybe changing fields is uncomfortable. Maybe the current field in which we are wandering is comfortable and offers the opportunity to "lack nothing" physically, but is God there? Are we seeking him in the right place?

So I leave you with this admonition from Jesus in Luke 12:29, 31 "Seek not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind...but seek ye first the kingdom of God."

The somewhat cliche Christmas saying is applicable...wise men do still seek him.