We move on today to the story of Joseph.  Joseph’s story is a great one filled with lots of interesting twists and turns.  It starts out with Joseph, who is his Father’s favorite, showing a lack of judgement and wisdom in confronting his brothers.  Let’s look at the account found in Genesis 37.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

First, Joseph tattles on his brothers instead of simply talking to them.  Mind you at this point they are grown men.  Then Joseph proceeds to tell his brothers and Father about two dreams he has where everyone bows down to him.  Between this and him already being his Father’s favorite the brothers dislike Joseph.  Joseph ends up going to check on his brothers again and they decide to kill him.  Ultimately Reuben convinced them to throw him in a cistern.  He intends to go back and bring him home to his Father in safety.  Judah then gets the idea to sell him to a traveling group of Ishmaelite’s and tear up his famous robe and tell their Father he must have been killed by animals.  The beauty in this story is of course how God ends up using it.  God does that in all of our lives.  He takes Joseph’s lack of wisdom and ultimately uses it not just in Joseph’s life but ultimately to save an entire family or the nation of Israel.  There are bumps along the way but it turns out as a beautiful thing.  Perhaps there are some bumps in your life right now.  Pray, watch, and see how God uses those bumps to create something beautiful in your life as well.

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave