Joseph Gets Recognized

Genesis 41

Joseph was thrown into prison for something he did not do. He was raised to a responsible position in the prison. He was used by God to interpret two dreams and now the story of Joseph takes a new twist. In chapter 40 he told the cupbearer to remember him while he was in prison. Nothing happened for some time. Joseph was in prison for another two years after the incident with the cupbearer. This time Pharaoh had a dream and it disturbed him greatly. He asked for all his wise men to be able to interpret this dream but none of them could. The cupbearer who had his dream finally remembered about Joseph. He told Pharaoh about that and Pharaoh called for Joseph. Joseph told Pharaoh, “I is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” Joseph interpreted this dream by telling Pharaoh there will 7 good years of growth of food and then there will be 7 years of famine. This famine will be very severe. Joseph then told Pharaoh he better get a wise man to be able to handle the good years wise and be prepared for the 7 bad years.

God’s Plan in Joseph’s life

Pharaoh realized that it was God who is with Joseph and Pharaoh gave Joseph a great position in Egypt. Joseph was going to be over the house of Pharaoh and everyone will listen to his command. Joseph was like second in command just like that. Pharaoh gave him his ring as a sign to show he was serious and to show other people that he was serious. Joseph was 30 years old. He spent over 13 years in prison or in slavery. God’s plan meant for him to spend 13  years trusting him to have him in the place where God wanted him. Joseph did a good job with his position and saved the food for the 7 years of famine. God’s timing is perfect, he puts those in position at the right time for his cause even when we do not think so. Joseph kept on giving credit to the Lord even when he was forgotten by the chief cupbearer. He trusted the Lord even when he lost his whole family. He trusted the Lord even when he was thrown into prison by a false accusation. Do you trust the Lord when life is not going that well? Do you trust the Lord even when you get mistreated?  

God’s Timing

Genesis 40

Joseph is in prison for a crime he did not commit. We now get to see a scene from inside that prison. Joseph who was good at being a servant is now good at being a prisoner. He was faithful and full of integrity. Because of his faithful attitude God brought him up into another important position in prison. As Joseph was doing his prison thing he received a good reputation and people would go to him that needed help. There were two guys who had dreams and they went to Joseph for him interpret them. It was the cupbearer and the baker who both were thrown into prison for different things. The cupbearer’s dream was a good dream and in three days he was going to be restored to his previous position for pharaoh. The baker had a dream that was not so good. In three days you will be hung and die. Three days went by and what Joseph said would happen happened. 

 Joseph used-

Joseph was placed in a good position as a prisoner. He had a big responsibility of overseeing the other prisoners. He saw these two men who were in distress and he asked why they were so sad. He saw a need and did not overlook it. He was not better than these men but desired to help. They confided in him what was the problem and he spoke truth. Joseph was faithful to what he was called to do even when it was a bad situation. He could have become bitter at God for him not only being thrown intro slavery by some jealous brothers or thrown into prison for something he did not do, but instead he just kept his integrity and God used him. This was not it though, we will see that there was a reason why he was thrown into slavery and why he was thrown into prison. God’s timing is perfect even when we are impatient or do not understand what is going on. Remember God’s timing is perfect and trustworthy.   

God’s Hand

Genesis 39

 Our story now focuses on Joseph, the young guy who was mistreated by his other brothers and sold into slavery. It turns out Joseph is sold to a man named Potiphar. Potiphar was actually the captain of the guard for Pharaoh. This was a very high position in Egypt to have. Joseph was a very good slave and was successful at what he was put in charge of. He finally became overseer of the house for Potiphar. This meant that all that Potiphar had was left in charge to Joseph, he was responsible for all of that. The Bible made it clear that Joseph succeeded because God was with him.

Trial #2

The Bible says Joseph was handsome in form and appearance meaning he was not only good looking but had a good body. Potiphar’s wife (no name is ever given) liked Joseph and wanted him more than just a servant boy. Joseph was a godly man who desired to please the Lord. He said no to whatever Potiphar’s wife was trying to get from him and she would try to tempt him day in and day out. It was a continual temptation and actually he ran away from the situation so he would not do what was evil in the sight of the Lord.  Potiphar’s wife decided that she would lie about Joseph and that he did something wrong against her. Joseph then was arrested and put into prison. Think about it, Joseph did everything that was right. His brothers sold him into slavery, and now he is thrown into prison. He was innocent on both accounts and yet was treated like he was guilty. God had a bigger plan that involved being over a head of a household. We will see this unravel in the next few chapters.

Verse 21 reminds us of this mistreated by saying, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love” God was with him and showed love on Joseph who was mistreated. God sees those who are mistreated and has steadfast love on us. He has steadfast love on us even when we do not deserve it; we are wretched sinners and yet his love on us was the cross and dying for us. May we go through our trials and have joy because God does have steadfast love for us.  

Mistakes Made

Genesis 38

Sometimes politicians will make a public address over an issue and they will say, “Mistakes were made.” They make mention of it because something happened that should not have. The Bible mentions humans mistake but they were allowed to happen for a reason. God uses these mistakes for a reason. As we will continue with the story of Joseph the next chapter but now we focus on Judah. Judah is the heir of the messiah. This story is interesting because Judah is not at home living or in the area with his family. It might have been because he was guilty and disturbed about what they did with their little brother Joseph. It is easy to want to run away when you did something wrong. He moved to far away but married a Canaanite women named Shua. She had three sons. Er, the oldest, was born and then Onan and Shelah. 

In the culture it was common that the oldest needs to be married. That is why Jacob was to be married to Leah first even though Laban neglected to tell him that. Judah decided to find Er, the oldest son, a wife and as he took his time he finally found Tamar. The parents would try to arrange the marriages for their children because they wanted the best for them. Remember Abraham had the servant find Isaac a wife.  But somehow and the Bible does not say how Er died but he died because he was rebellious against the Lord. It says he was wicked against the Lord. The culture rules were if the oldest son died and was married the next son in line, if not married, was to marry the wife of the dead son. So Onan was to marry Tamar and they were to have children together. Another rule of the culture was if the son who married the wife and they had a child, the child was considered the heir of the dead son. Onan did not want to have a son that would not be considered his. This was considered wicked in the eyes of the Lord and he died. The next son in line was going to be Shelah to marry Tamar. 

There was a mistake that was made by Judah the father in law of Tamar. He saw a women in the distance that was attractive. He did not know it was his daughter in law for her face was covered. He had relations with her and became pregnant. It was told to Judah that Tamar has been immoral and was pregnant and he was furious and was ready for her to be put to death. She then brought certain things to his attention and he realized that he was in the wrong. She bore Judah two sons who were twins Perez and Zerah. When we read this we can not only be disgusted with how these people lived and treated each other but we also need to realize God uses people and through the line of Judah Christ will be. You could read this and say Judah did not know and was ignorant or you could say how come Tamar did not say anything. These questions may come up but the Bible is silent in these details but what we do know is that God is going to use this bad situation for his glory. We are going to see how God is going to use the bad situation of Joseph for his glory. God can use unfortunate bad situations for good. He did in the history of the Bible as well as the history of the church and will do so even now. Throughout any bad situation always ask God what he is going to do in it. 

Trials

Genesis 37

We now are introduced to the next main character of Genesis, Joseph. He will take the spotlight for the rest of the chapters.  Joseph was the first son that Rachel had. Remember it was hard for Rachel and Jacob to have children and God finally blessed them with Joseph.

 How it starts-

The story of Joseph starts with him telling on his brothers as they were working. Man, Joseph was one of those annoying brothers that would tell on you for every little bad thing you did. Jacob favored Joseph more than all the brothers which did not help Joseph’s popularity among the other guys. He was also spoiled as his dad gave him a coat with many colors, which was a sign of significance and that he pretty much did not have to work hard like the other brothers. I know reading this, I was somewhat mad because Joseph was that spoiled, goody-goody, tattletale boy. His brothers really  did not like him and there was a day that Joseph had a dream and he shared this dream with his brothers. The dream was that all his brothers would be bowing down before him. Remember Joseph is the young brother, he is only 17 and all the others are grown men. Hearing this was not soothing to their ears which added to them hating him even more. To add to their hate Joseph gives another dream. This time the sun and moon and 11 stars were bowing to him. This was in their face, I am going to be over  you guys and even over dad. Now Joseph had no idea what the next many years were going to bring him. He had no idea that God was going to have trials come his way and this dream would come true.

The first Trial-

Joseph’s brother really did not like him and so they were planning on killing him, but the good older brother Judah stepped in and said let us not kill him but sell him into slavery.  They did this and told Jacob that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for only 20 pieces of silver.  In Jacob’s eyes, Joseph was dead. The Bible does not give the detail of what Joseph thought or said during the time he was in the pit but we will see in the future chapters that Joseph relied on the Lord.We will all go through trials. Every single one of us will face these. A trial will be a hardship in our life. This was just the beginning for Joseph. He lost his family, his placement in life, his house, his possessions, he lost his name in way, etc. What trials do we face, the loss of a friend or family member? Maybe it is family problems and it is tough? There are also financial issues that will come  up. But who is bigger than any problem or trial? God is, James 1:2-4 tells us to count it joy when you meet trials of various kinds, for  you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let your steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. I know it is hard to have joy through trials, but you do grow through them, you do come out better than when you started. God allows us to go through it for a reason. We will see that through the trials of Joseph.  

God Answers in My Distress

Genesis 35

After the reading chapter 34 I wonder if I was reading a script for a drama movie. The Bible is full of not only interesting stories but also shows human flaws as well as the achievement of God through the men and women he uses throughout its pages.  In this chapter we see a refocus on God’s plan. It kind of takes a break from human drama and bad choices and reaffirms Jacob of God’s plan. God appears again to Jacob, after several years living in the land that God called him back to and we see that God wants an altar built. Jacob tells his family (which includes not only his two wives and sons and daughter but also the servants and their children) to put away all the foreign idols and to purify themselves. During this time the surrounding nations did worship idols (images made out of stone or wood that people worshiped as god). They listened to him and forked over the idols and made the journey to Bethel. Jacob was obedient to God and built the altar and praised the Lord. 

God Gives Jacob a New Name verses 9-15

We see people are getting new names from the Lord. Abram had his name changed to Abraham. Sarai was changed to Sarah, Saul was changed to Paul. God changes the name of people for a reason. Here Jacob’s name will be Israel; this is the name of the nation. His name represents a whole nation, God’s chosen people. God spoke to Jacob and gave him a command to be fruitful and multiply, meaning I will keep you and your family safe. Your children’s children will be many and continue to grow. Jacob then set up a pillar in that place where God spoke to him. A pillar was a symbol or served as a reminder of what happened at that place. It was not a like a road marker but more like a life marker. If people walked by and ever saw Jacob they could ask him what was that pillar up for and Jacob would be able to respond with what God had promised.

Rachel his beloved wife and Isaac his father die verses 16-29

It is sad to have to say goodbye to someone in your family that maybe is ready to die or maybe someone has been battling a disease and you know the time was coming. That is hard but it is even harder when it is unexpected. Rachel died while giving birth to the last son of the 12 tribes of Israel, Benjamin. Not only that Jacob had to bury his wife but his father too. Isaac lived to be 180 years old. 

God who answers me in my distress— 

In verse 3 Jacob gave glory to God by mentioning God answers him in the time of his distress. In verse 5 God protected Jacob and his family on their journey to Bethel from the surrounding nations that may have wanted to overtake his family and his possessions.  God does answer us in our distress. Psalm 61 is a Psalm by David. He says, “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer, from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” God heard Jacob when he needed the help, like when his brother was coming with 400 armed men. God heard to cry of David several times. In this particular Psalm, David just got word Absalom, his son died. Do you ever feel that you are in this life alone? It gets tough and you do not know which way to go. Let me encourage you that God is the God who hears our requests. He hears our cries. He hears our problems. He not only hears them but he takes action on them. He may wants us to wait, he may want us to grow, and he may say no, but either way God hears our prayers. It is not like when a person who is uninterested listens like, “One ear and out the other.” Go hears them intently and knows how we feel. He knows what we need. He gives us an answer. May you be strengthened to know God hears your prayers.