Jan 25 (Daily reading: Genesis 38-40) Yesterday we began reading about the heartbreaking, yet triumphant story of Joseph and Israel’s move to Egypt, which we will continue for several days in Genesis. We could say about Jacob and his family the same thing we could say about our two-party system of democracy: there is blame enough for everyone! Jacob’s favoritism, Joseph’s boasting over his favored status, his brothers’ hatred and deception; it was indeed a dysfunctional family. We can learn by their negative example how our families should or should not function.
Yet Joseph’s boyhood dreams were only a token of all that God would do for him and for his entire family through God having chosen him for phenomenal things. We see hints of this throughout Joseph’s story. We read in chapter 39: he was Potiphar’s slave, but “the LORD was with Joseph.” And, “the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph.” Even when he was wrongly imprisoned, “the LORD was with him; and the LORD made whatever he did prosper.” The “dreamer,” as his brothers called him, had a God-given gift of interpreting dreams while he was in prison. God was preparing him for a God-sized assignment!
God’s interventions with Joseph encourage us to believe that God will always have the final say in our lives, and that we should never despair over present circumstances. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
-Al Gary
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