90 Day Bible Challenge – Day 8

Let’s celebrate! We made it through our first week of the Read the Bible in 90 Days Challenge. How was your week? I have to say that mine was challenging and wonderful. I’m doing my reading at night and so far I’ve only fallen asleep once, and then I was only two pages short of the day’s goals.

There is a lot to talk about from the week’s reading, but I’ll just focus on one person: Joseph. I’m encouraged anew every time I read his story. Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and then go back and tell his father that he’s dead. Now, when you think about it, Joseph didn’t have the best people skills in the world. He was his dad’s favorite; he knew it and all his brothers knew it. He was also a little bit of a tattler, going back and reporting to his dad on his brothers’ work. I also think he went into a bit of overkill in telling his brothers about the dreams he was having in which they were bowing down to him. That really didn’t go over well. Of course, all of this is no reason for his brothers to do what they did, but Joseph was a bit of an irritant to them. I can think of a few irritants in my life. How about you?

Anyway, that part is not my fascination with the story. No, my fascination is with what Joseph tells his brothers after their father dies and the brothers are afraid Joseph will finally take his vengeance.

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”–Gen. 50:19-20 (New International Version)

You see, Joseph being in Egypt actually worked out for Joseph and his brothers. As a result of having been sold into slavery, when famine came upon the land, Joseph was in a place to provide food to his brothers, his father and a whole bunch of others impacted by the famine. You can read the full account of Joseph’s story in Genesis 37-50.

I pray to be like Joseph when I go through adversity. He didn’t complain every day about what his brothers had done to him; I don’t remember one pity party. He didn’t sit around plotting how he was going to get back at them. He didn’t even try to escape and return home. No, he “bloomed where he was planted.” He lived a godly life right there in Egypt and God blessed him all the way. Now things weren’t always good for Joseph in Egypt. Sure, he achieved some status, but he lost it and ended up in jail because he wouldn’t sleep with his boss’ s wife. Of course, God restored him to an even greater status, but that’s not really the point.

The point is that Joseph’s brothers carried out their evil intentions for him, but God’s plans turned those evil intentions into something that was a blessing to them all. So what do I get out of Joseph’s story? Well, instead of complaining about situations in which I find myself and wailing about how I got there, I should be asking God what he wants to accomplish in the situation. I think a lot of times we miss the blessing that we could be to others and to ourselves because we have a pity “woe is me” party instead of continuing to thank God and seek His direction.

Okay, enough from me. I’ll post every week of our journey so that we can encourage each other. Now tell me about your week.