The Amazing Story of Joseph.
This is a remarkable story of God’s goodness to a man named Joseph. Joseph had disappointments in his life but God was able to turn those disappointments around for his glory.
Joseph was a young boy when God started to speak to him through dreams. Joseph would tell his brothers what the dreams were and he told them, one day in his dream he saw them bowing down to him. His brothers became very angry with him. They also saw that Joseph was their father’s favourite son as he was born to him in his old age. This caused great resentment in them.
One day his brothers were busy working in the fields. Joseph’s father said to him, “Please go and see your brothers are well and come back and tell me”. His brothers saw him coming and said here comes the dreamer. They thought this was their chance to capture him and kill him.
They captured him and threw him into a cistern. As they were deciding what to do with him. God intervenes and sends a group of people called the Ishmaelites. His brothers decide that they would not kill him but sell him as a slave to them and tell their Father Joseph was killed by a lion.
So Joseph is sold to the Ishmaelites. The Ishmaelites travelled to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar. Potiphar was an Egyptian who was one of the Pharaoh’s officials. Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph and because of that everything he had was being blessed by God. He did not have to concern himself with anything because he trusted Joseph.
When Joseph just thought things were working out for him he has a setback. He is falsely accused of raping Potiphar’s wife and is sent to prison.
The prison warder sees that God is with Joseph and puts him in charge of other prisoners. In prison, Joseph is learning total dependency on God. He knows he does not have the power to change his own circumstances. He is in the prison and at the lowest point in his life, but does not give up on God.
Two other prisoners have dreams. God gives Joseph the interpretation of those dreams and Joseph tells them those interpretations and gets them right. One of the two prisoners is released and the other is killed. The prisoner who was released forgets Joseph and does not remember him.
Two full years passed, Joseph is still in prison. He still keeps his faith in God despite his circumstances. Pharaoh the leader of Egypt has a dream. There is no one able to interpret his dream. The Pharaoh asks his officials to find someone to interpret his dream.
The prisoner whose dream Joseph had interpreted and was released from prison, remembers Joseph. He tells Pharaoh of Joseph. Joseph is brought before the Pharaoh and God gives Joseph the interpretation of the dream. Joseph’s interpretation of the dream was that for seven years, there would be plenty of food and for seven years there would be famine.
Pharaoh saw that God was with Joseph and puts him in charge of Egypt. He had come from being a prisoner in an Egyptian jail to being put in charge of the whole land of Egypt. God gave Joseph wisdom to store up food in the seven years of plenty so that when the seven years of famine came, there was food available so many thousands of people did not die from hunger.
This story has a beautiful ending. Joseph is reconciled to his brothers. He meets his brothers again and forgives them because he saw that it was part of God’s bigger plan to send him to Egypt so that many lives could be saved from hunger.
My dear friend, have you had setbacks in your life. In the same way God turned things around for Joseph, so he can turn them around for you. Come to him and put your trust in him. When circumstances seem to be out our control God can turn them around for our good and his glory.
Dear God,
I come before you,
You are the True God,
There is no other God,
I turn my back on all that this world has to offer me,
I turn to you and face you,
Please restore all the broken relationships in my life,
Including my relationship with you,
Often life has disappointed me,
Please turn things around for me as you did for Joseph,
For your glory.
I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen
By Harbajan (servant of Jesus)
(The full story of Joseph is found in Bible Genesis Chapter 33 in the Old Testament)