This week we start our study through the life of Joseph. Hopefully you have picked up a study guide and are committed to diving into God's Word this fall. Joseph's story is one of the most beautiful and powerful in all of Scripture. His life models many aspects of the life of Christ and his faith through many unfair, painful trials is an encouragement to us all.
Joseph's story highlights the providence of God.
God is always at work, moving circumstances and events according to the counsel of His will. He guides human history with an unseen hand. He sovereignly guides our own lives for His glory and our good. But, let's be honest, it doesn't always look that way! Much of what happens to us (and around us) seems random, accidental, purposeless, and out of control.
Sitting in prison as a falsely convicted slave, hated by his brothers, alone and forgotten, Joseph could have thought the same thing. But God was at work in ways that Joseph could not have imagined.
This Sunday we will be exploring Genesis 37 together, Hatred & Envy According to God.
Joseph's story does not start off well. He suffers the loss of his mother at a young age. And, though his dad dotes all over him, the rest of his family cannot stand him. He is a spoiled brat in many ways. And his own brothers envy and hate him.
In one of the most shocking scenes in Scripture, his brothers attack him, throw him like garbage into a pit, and plot his death. Then in an ironic display of "mercy" in their eyes, they decide to sell him into slavery to make a little cash off his demise.
The dysfunction of Jacob's family is on full display in Genesis 37. And these are the people who are supposed to be the vehicles of redemption in the world!
Yet even in their dysfunction, disdain for each other, and determination to counteract the will of God, they end up moving God's plan closer to fulfillment.
We will examine this story on Sunday and consider the state of our own hearts as we live in this world and relate to one another.
May God's glory, power, sovereignty, and grace strengthen our hearts and teach us to live boldly, wisely, and humbly in this present age!