Joseph, Joshua, Daniel
Last summer I posted observations from GENESIS. Today and the next two weeks I plan to post observations on these three men as they have been the focus of our women's Bible study this year. Actually, it hasn't been so much these men as their God who has been the focus of our studies.
Joseph went from favored son to anonymous slave, yet we never see him, hear him, complain of his change in status. I think that is because he prayed, pouring out his heart to his God, including the bafflement at the treatment he received at the hands of his brothers.
I'm not sure if he wore that coat of many colors to show off or if he was just naive, as seems to have been the case when he told his family his dreams.
It seems that once Joseph got over the shock (well, it must have been that) of being sold into slavery, he committed himself to being the best wherever he was. And continued to pray in each circumstance: anonymous slave to favored slave to imprisoned slave to useful slave to forgotten slave to remembered slave to interpreter for the Pharoah to second in Egypt to the Pharoah.
Joseph spent most of his life in a hostile, pagan society, as Daniel would later, yet it appears he matured significantly in his relationship with his God through those years. How else could he have said to his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20)"
May we, like Joseph, trust that the Lord means our circumstances for good though humanly speaking they may not appear so. Praying without ceasing.
Last summer I posted observations from GENESIS. Today and the next two weeks I plan to post observations on these three men as they have been the focus of our women's Bible study this year. Actually, it hasn't been so much these men as their God who has been the focus of our studies.
Joseph went from favored son to anonymous slave, yet we never see him, hear him, complain of his change in status. I think that is because he prayed, pouring out his heart to his God, including the bafflement at the treatment he received at the hands of his brothers.
I'm not sure if he wore that coat of many colors to show off or if he was just naive, as seems to have been the case when he told his family his dreams.
It seems that once Joseph got over the shock (well, it must have been that) of being sold into slavery, he committed himself to being the best wherever he was. And continued to pray in each circumstance: anonymous slave to favored slave to imprisoned slave to useful slave to forgotten slave to remembered slave to interpreter for the Pharoah to second in Egypt to the Pharoah.
Joseph spent most of his life in a hostile, pagan society, as Daniel would later, yet it appears he matured significantly in his relationship with his God through those years. How else could he have said to his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20)"
May we, like Joseph, trust that the Lord means our circumstances for good though humanly speaking they may not appear so. Praying without ceasing.
Labels: reviewing Joseph
posted by Ebeth | 6:55 PM
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