Waking Up From the Dream!

“This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.
Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him.” Genesis 37: 2-4 (MSG)

In the nearly forty years that I have been coming to church, I have heard thousands of messages, counting all those I’ve listened to on the radio, television, workshops, seminars, etc. And yet if I were to have to recall those messages, there are only a few that really stand out enough for me to remember the time, place, and occasion. One of those messages, Sowing into Another Man’s Dream – perhaps rates highest on the list of being called to remembrance.

There are many components to the story of Joseph and although it is great to dwell on the part of the story of Joseph that took him from “prisoner to prime minister” in ONE DAY! That is one element we can all identify with as we daily wait – on our change to come. But Joseph’s story is so much more than that. Two of the components I want to address are the “giving” part of sowing – and the “for-giving” part of sowing, for both contributed to Joseph’s victory!

Joseph went from being a very rich young man, who not only had all that he needed and wanted – but he received lavish gifts from his father as the favored son (the coat of many colors). When he was sold as a slave by his brothers – his financial resources went from plenty to nothing! He had to work with what he had – and yet what he had was not yet proven. Joseph knew that he possessed talents and abilities, but as of yet – as one of the youngest sons of his father, those talents and abilities had not been proven under pressure – it appears that even in the above text that when given a task to do with his brothers, that Joseph had the ear of his father in reporting their behavior to him.

It was only when his brothers took him out of his cocoon of protection and set him up to be tested, that even Joseph himself knew what was in him:

“They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.” Genesis 37:18-20 (MSG)

How would Joseph respond? What kind of person was he really?

Mark 4:17 (AMP) states:
“And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away.”

Joseph was being tested not only in one area (the ability to function in an unknown area) but also, how would he go through this testing (what kind of endurance did he possess). Take a journey with me this week into the life of Joseph, by reading Genesis 37-47 and find out why he was a type of Christ – and what that means to us today.

God Bless You,
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