04/22/2020 GETTING THROUGH IT –
(Lessons from Joseph)
Genesis 47:11-12;27-28 So Joseph assigned the best land of Egypt—the land of Rameses—to his father and brothers, just as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph furnished food to them in accordance with the number of their dependents…So Israel lived in the land of Goshen in Egypt, and soon the people of Israel began to prosper, and there was a veritable population explosion among them. Jacob lived seventeen years after his arrival so that he was 147 years old at the time of his death.
Summary
Roman 15:4 tells us: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Let’s listen to what Joseph can tell us about “Getting Through It.”
JOSEPH
Life Before the Trial – My name is Joseph. I often refer to my teen years as “My Peacock Years” or “My Ostrich Years.” Looking back, it was as if all I could “see” was “me.” It was like my head was buried in the sand. I had no sense of justice or family or who I needed to be.
I grew up in a large household. A very large household. I have lots of half-brothers, because my father, Jacob/Israel had lots of wives. His favorite wife was my mother, Rachel, who died giving birth to my younger brother, Benjamin. (Gen 35:19) I don’t know if it was because of my mother’s death or because she was his favorite, but growing up, “I could do no wrong,” in my father’s eyes. I was his favorite son. I was also a tattletale, always ready to tell my father about something or other that any of my half-brothers did wrong. (Gen.37:2) Needless to say, it didn’t endear me to any of them. To tell you the truth my brothers were rugged, hard-working men, and I was just “a boy,” still “wet behind the ears.” More often than not, while they were working, I was off wandering around trying to look good. Like many teenagers, I liked looking good---styling. And to make matters worse, my dad gave me this special coat that was “Phat.” And, it was really expensive. It had all these different colors in it! (Gen. 37:3) You could see me for miles! It never even crossed my mind that it really wasn’t fair that I received special gifts or that I got treated better than my brothers because back then, it was just “all about me.” And, I loved it that way!
Even though I was a self-centered, obnoxious teen, looking back, I know that I was also blessed with special spiritual gifts. I just didn’t know what to do with them. Some might say, I had the gift of prophecy. Maybe some might say, “back in the day--my day,” it was the old men who had visions [like my dad Jacob had when he was older (Gen 32:24] and the young men [like me and my dad, when dad was younger (Gen 28:11-13)] who had dreams. GOD’s gifts are to bless others. But I was seventeen and thought everything given to me was just all about me. I remember that when I had prophetic dreams at seventeen, instead of going to GOD and asking GOD what the dreams meant because I was “the center of the universe,” I thought everything happening was “all about me.” I thought the dreams were “my” dreams. And when I interpreted my dreams, I was center stage. Really, I was “something else,” back then. (Gen. 37:5-7). And my cockiness just made my brothers hate me even more.