GENESIS- JOSEPH

I'm home in Oregon today.  It is Wednesday and I'm excited about the day.  I'm so looking forward to our mid-week service where I will begin A Walk Through The Bible.  It will be my own material, but still I'm excited to share the continuity of Scripture and teach on the main themes and characters and events and teachings of the Bible.  It will be very enjoyable for me and hopefully educationally to others and a blessing as well.  As you look at the last chapters of Genesis, it dawns on you just how great Joseph was.  Fourteen chapters are given to him in Genesis, the same as is given to Abraham.  Now you can see that when God gives fourteen chapters to one individual in Scripture it is something special.  Genesis covers about 2,300 years of history and 28 of the 50 chapters are given to two men:  Abraham and Joseph.  These are special men.  Here is a few short thoughts about Joseph this morning: 1) INJUSTICE- Tell me how you handle injustice, and I can tell you how mature of a Christian you are.  In fact, just let me watch you when you are treated unjustly and I can see how mature of a Christian you are.  Genesis 40:23 says:  "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him."  Forgot him to leave him in prison for two more years!  How do we see Joseph respond?  Nothing!  Joseph responds like every Christian should.  He is a classic example of all that is good in a follower of Christ.  Let us heed this example when we too are treated unjustly or we too are at the ugly end of injustice. 2) IT IS ALL ABOUT GOD- Joseph focused on God.  This is the key to any success he had, any blessings that came his way.  Notice some verses:  Genesis 41:16 "It is not in me:  God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace."  Genesis 41:25 "... God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do."  Genesis 41:51,52  "... Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house..... Ephraim:  For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.'  Genesis 45:5 "for God did send me before you to preserve life."  Genesis 45:7 "And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance."  Genesis 45:8  "So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God:..."  Genesis 45:9  "God hath made me lord of all Egypt:"   And on and on we could go.... in Joseph's life, it was all about GOD.  How about us dear friend?  Let our lives be all about God too! 3) A DREAM FULFILLED, A DREAM REMEMBERED- Here is the last one to share today.  I love the fact that Joseph was a dreamer.  Dreams that came from God, about God, and for God.  I hope to have the same kind of dreams even today.  I have lived with dreams like this as well, for God's glory, not mine to be sure.  Notice in Genesis 42:6 ".... and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth."  (In Genesis 37, Joseph dreamed this dream twice; that his brethren would bow down to him.)  Here we see that this dream is fulfilled.  Praise God for dreams He fulfills in our lives!  And then notice Genesis 42:9 "And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them,"  There is a thing called "the death of a dream".  What that means is that usually, a dream is never fulfilled until you reach that stage where it seems so impossible that you give it up... then God brings it about.  Here 22 years later, God brought the dream to pass and Joseph had to remember it, because he had long ago forgotten it.  He gave up on it.... and yet, God brought it to pass!!  Stay faithful..... there are dreams God has to fulfill for your life too!!!  Don't give up... just go on!!  Have a blessed day dear friend.  Share the blog with someone else if you get a blessing from it as well.  May God bless!  Dr. Mike Mutchler, Pastor & Friend