Tag Archive | Joseph

Genesis 39

Nov6

Good morning y’all. Today we in chapter 39 of Genesis. Here we see Joseph prosper in Potiphars house; he was thrown into prison for refusing to lay with Mrs Potiphar and even in the prison we see God favour him.

Be blessed 🙂

God is always with us even when we are in situations that are not so pleasant. He never leaves nor forsake his own. Verse 2 tells us that the Lord was with Joseph. Not only was he with Joseph but he also prospered him.
Our location or circumstances doesn’t matter, what matters the most is the presence of the Lord with us. As long as the Lord is with us, we are sorted :). HE can cause us to be favoured and prosper us even in a foreign land. God is not limited by our location or circumstances.

Verse 3 tells us that, his master noticed and could tell that the Lord was with him. His master here is an Egyptian; one could say he was an unbeliever, but he could still detect that there was something different about Joseph – the Lord was with him.
When people see us, what do they see or perceive. Can they tell that we belong to Jesus’s camp? Can they see Jesus reflected in our lives? The presence of the Lord in our lives should cause their to be a change in our lives such that it is evident for all to see. Our speech and actions should reflect Jesus. I’m sure that was what Potiphar saw in Joseph.

Also the latter part of verse 3 says, “and that the lord gave him success in everything he did”. Joseph was successful at everything he did. He wasnt lazy, moaning or complaining about the bad hand he had been dealt, rather he busied himself doing the task he was assigned as a slave and God rewarded him by making him successful at it. I am reminded of Colossians 3:23-24 which says “Do your work willingly, as though you were serving the Lord himself, and not just your earthly master. In fact, the Lord Christ is the one you are really serving, and you know he will reward you“.

The Lord caused Joseph to be favoured,  which then led to him being promoted to the officer in charge of Portiphars household. “When the ways of a man pleases the Lord, HE causes his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7). Joseph was sold as a slave to potiphar but the Lord was pleased with him and as a result Potiphar favoured him and made him in charge of everything he owned. A slave being in charge! That’s God for you :). He is sovereign and can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. He can open doors in the least expected places.
Lets keep on doing the right thing and our day of favour will surely come. Galatians 6:9 says: “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up“.(Galatians 6:9 NLT)

Potiphar household and all that he owned was blessed as a result of the presence of the Lord and favour of Lord in the life of Joseph.
We are blessed to be a blessing to others. Our presence in a place should cause there to be a positive change.

Mrs Potiphar had a thing for Joseph. I love Josephs response to her silly request. He said ‘how can I do this wicked thing against God‘. He didn’t even say how can I do this against my master. His first concern was God. Joseph knew that it was God that favoured him and brought him thus far in Potiphars house and to sleep with his wife will offend God greatly. The offer I’m sure was enticing but Joseph knew better. Joseph was more concerned about obeying God and pleasing God than gratifying his flesh.
What are we concerned about? Pleasing our flesh or God?

We are told Mrs Potiphar hounded Joseph day by day. She was relentless in her pursuit!. I know how persistent a woman can be when she wants something and wants it bad, so I can imagine the torment Joseph was facing. She must have been torturing the poor dude….lol
One day though, Joseph went to attend to her and for some reason they happened to be alone and she must have thought this is my chance to get what I want. This time she didn’t even ask him gently, she grabbed him by the cloak and demanded he lay with her. I’m tryna picture the look on Josephs face at this point. I’m sure dude was terrified and full of fear. He didn’t even try to reason with her, brother Joseph ran for his dear life :). He fled to the point that he left his cloak with potiphars wife. ..lol.
Lesson here is; do not play with sin. Joseph could have tried to reason things out with Mrs Potiphar that day, but he understood that sin is not something you play with. Perhaps if he had stayed a min longer, he would have given in to the temptation. At the end of the day, brother Joseph is a man and has feelings, but thank God he chose to obey God as opposed to his feelings. Sin looks good and pleasurable on the surface but the end result is never worth the few mins of pleasure.

Mrs Potiphar didnt take the rejection from brother Joseph lightly; she was furious and cooked up a story to tell her husband and her husband put Joseph in prison. There might be times when we have bad consequences for doing the right thing but we know that God will vindicate and fight for us. He will honor our obedience to him and come to our defence eventually. We just need to hold our peace and keep doing good.

Joseph is now in prison but it doesn’t end there. We are told that God was with him even in the prison. God is always present, even in the good and bad times; He is there watching over us. Verse 21 says God showed him favour and caused him to find kindness in the eyes of prison warden.  Again, I don’t know why but this scripture “when the ways of a man pleases the Lord ….” keeps dropping into my mind. I feel like God wants us to know this morning that as long as we are pleasing to him, honor him, obey him, we don’t need to worry about anything because he will take up our case and fight for us. He will make sure we are well taken care of. He will even use the people that are meant to be against us to bless us.

In the prison Joseph became the one in charge. The prison warden didnt concern himself about anything else cos he knew Joseph was on top of things and God was with him. Joseph was destined to lead. Even from his dream he was gonna be in charge and his brothers where going to bow to him. God was preparing him for the next level to come.

Prayer:
Dear Lord thank you for today. Thank you for your word.  We ask Lord that we will be pleasing to you in all that we do. That your hand will be upon us for good and favour. Help us to flee from all appearances of evil and not toil with sin. Thank you for victory. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed day and remember God is always with us 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Genesis 37

Nov4

Good morning y’all. Happy Tuesday!!!.
Today we in chapter 37. Here, we are introduced to Joseph and his siblings and the rivalry between them. Also how they plotted to kill him but instead sold him off to Midianite traders.

Be blessed 🙂

There are 5 points I want to bring out from this chapter.

1) Favoritsm amongst siblings –
As parents we shouldn’t be showing favoritism amongst our kids. It doesnt promote healthy relationship. Jacob made the same mistake and it caused the seed of bitterness and jealousy to take root in the life of his children. He singled Joseph out from the rest and as a result they hated Joseph. Scripture says he was hated by them.

I also think we can apply this to our everyday lives. We should endeavour to treat people equally as much as we can so that we promote healthy relationships wherever we go. James 2:8-9 tells us not to show favoritsm.

You will do all right, if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves. But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that you have sinned. (James 2:8-9 CEVUS06)

2) Discernment to know when to talk and when to shut up! –
I am sure Joseph knew his brothers hated him yet youthful exuberance led him to  share his dreams with them (this he did twice. Even his own father rebuked him the 2nd time) which caused them to hate him even more.

Not everyone will be happy or agree with our dreams and visions therefore we need discernment and wisdom to know when to share those dreams and when to keep quiet about them. We don’t have to go round blabbing everything that God has revealed to us about our lives, rather lets trust God to reveal them to the world in his own time.

3) Uncontrolled emotions/feelings/desires will lead one down the path of destruction –
Josephs brothers were jealous of him and Joseph sharing his dreams with them didn’t help matters at all. Jealousy if not dealt with will lead one to commit sin.

We saw the effect of envy and jealousy in the life of Rachel in Genesis 30 (see blog on Genesis 30 ). Jealousy robs us of our joy and peace. Instead of his brothers to enjoy his company and bond together as a family, they were plotting how to kill him instead.

I noticed the decision to kill Joseph was a joint decision. I once heard a preacher say “evil loves company”. His brothers conspired together except for Reuben who wasn’t too happy with the decision to kill him. He told them to throw him in a well with the intention of coming back to rescue him from the well after the other brothers have left.

Let’s make sure we do not let our emotions get the best of us. Their uncontrolled Jealousy led them to plot to kill their own brother; their flesh and blood. Uncontrolled desires will lead us astray.

We see similar sibling rivalry and jealousy in the life of Cain and Abel (see blog on Genesis 4 ). Jealousy led cain to kill his brother. What i find amazing here is that before cain killed Abel, God warned him about his desires and emotions.

You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” (Genesis 4:7 NLT)

Same warning applies to us today. Those emotions will come but we must learn to master them with the help of the holy spirit. We can’t be led by our feelings or emotions -that’s carnality. We are to be spiritually minded -led by God’s Holy Spirit. Romans 8:12-14 says:

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. (Romans 8:12-14 NLT)

4) One sin always leads to another-
After selling Joseph, they decided to come up with a story to cover up their actions seeing as they have to answer to their father when they return home.

Ain’t it funny that we always have to cover up our sins because we don’t want people to know about them. We are ashamed of people finding out about our actions or even the consequences to follow when they find out about what we have done; so we come up with a plan to cover up our sins. In the process of trying to cover up, we end up sinning again and eventually it becomes a cycle we struggle to break free from. One sin ALWAYS leads to another. They already sold their brother, now they are having to lie to cover up for it .

Sin won’t rest until it has fully destroyed the person it has taken a hold of. Hence why scripture constantly warns us to flee from sin. I like the way James 1:14-15 explains the sin life cycle. It usually starts with a desire and ends up giving birth to death!

We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead. (James 1:14-15 CEVUS06)

5) Gods Providence and Sovereignty–
Josephs brothers started with a plot to kill him; then they moved on to dumping him in a cistern and then finally moved on to selling him to Midianite traders who took him to Egypt. I think that was God indirectly ordering Josephs steps. He must have been the one making his brothers change their mind. Even though it was a bad situation, God was still watching out for Joseph and we know that in the end God turned everything around for Joseph and his dream came to pass. See Genesis 50:20

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but  God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it  is this day, to save many people alive. (Genesis 50:20 NKJV)

Whatever situation you find yourself today, remember God is sovereign and HE can move on your behalf and even cause your enemies to send you to your place of destiny. HE can turn whatever evil plans they have around for your good. Be encouraged 🙂

Prayer:
Dear Lord we thank you for today. We thank you for your word that gives life to us.  Today we ask for grace to treat people aright as you desire of us. Give us a discerning spirit and wisdom to know when to talk and when not to. Help us not to be controlled by our desires but rather give us the grace to yield ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Teach us to trust you and know that you can turn things around for our good. Thank you dear Lord. We love and appreciate you. In Jesus Name. Amen

Thanks for joining today and I know you have been blessed 🙂

Have a wonderful Tuesday, yielding to the leading of the Holyspirit 🙂

***With God all things are possible***