Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. Genesis 37:2
Today we begin looking at the life of Joseph. He is one of 12 brothers, and his father, Jacob, was the grandson of Abraham, to whom God had given great and precious promises.
God’s hand was on Joseph in a special way, and for this reason, he was hated by his brothers. They sold him as a slave, and he was taken to Egypt where he suffered greatly.
But God loved Joseph and caused him to be promoted to the highest office in the land, giving him charge over the food supply for the whole nation. In time, a famine came, and Joseph’s brothers traveled to Egypt to get food, not realizing that the man in charge was their own brother.
Joseph is presented to us as a model of godliness. Nothing bad is ever said about him. Joseph had his faults, like any of us, but the record passes over them because the point of the story is to shine a light on how God would bring redemption to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Read the story of Joseph in order to see Jesus. The whole Bible is about Jesus. It is all pointing to our need of Him and to the glory of the One who meets our need. And read this story to see the life to which we are called. What does a godly life look life? What can we expect if we walk in the footsteps of Jesus? How can we be useful, as Joseph was, in the work of God’s kingdom?
From the story of Joseph you can learn how to overcome envy, how to face adversity, how to resist sexual advances, how to plan for the future, how to forgive those who wrong you, how to dispel doubts about forgiveness, how to have faith in God’s promises, and how to recognize the sovereignty of God, even in the wrongs done to you by others.
What one thing in Joseph’s story are you most interested in learning about?
