A String of Pearls

Saturday, January 25, 2014

January 26 "Let's Celebrate Others" Genesis 41-42

Pharaoh yanks Joseph out of his dungeon to interpret the king's disturbing double dreams.  What's the first thing you would say to the one who has wrongly sentenced you to a dungeon?  Joseph's response:  "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer."  Immediately, Joseph gives God the credit.  And Pharaoh gives Joseph the job and a kingdom and a wife.  30 years old.  Joseph is back standing tall and humble as ever and honored.  Alone, starting his own family:  The name of his firstborn---Manasseh or "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house; the name of his secondborn---Ephraim or "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."  Genesis 41:51-52.  Oh, to see life's tragic twists-and-turns like this patriarch. 

 And here come Joseph's brothers to buy grain from the Governor Joseph.  You know, the brothers who sat down to eat a meal right after they threw their brother into a waterless pit.  No active conscience then.  But now, in their afflictions, their consciences are waking up.  Affliction has a way of awakening our lives if we listen.  

 And the reading closes with Jacob denying his sons permission to take Benjamin to Joseph---"he is the only one left" in my life and the decision is a firm "no."  God is working on Jacob's heart, at home, for it seems he has forgotten about his other sons---and they need him so.  

 "You are born into a world, that by its very nature, is the celebration of another." Paul David Tripp.  Life is not about me.  Life is all about Someone Else.

 COME BOLDLY

 PHOTO:  Flickr photo credit.  US National Archives.  Egypt.  Only God can make us fruitful in the land of our afflictions.  Only God can awaken our consciences. Only God can change our lives.  Will we give God credit this day for what He is doing in our momentary afflictions?

Posted by Bev Brandon

1 comment:

  1. annetteJanuary 26, 2014 at 9:46 AM

    Joseph is one of my Biblical heroes and go-to examples in how to face adversity with grace and forgiveness. He sees the big picture and still loves deeply. We know not what affliction is shaping in our souls. Charles Spurgeon understood the furnace of affliction and realized that "The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction." So true of Joseph.

    Lord, help us to understand temporary affliction is producing eternal results. Adversity creates soldiers of us all. Whether we fall on our face or on our knees, help us to bring it all to Your Feet, where You can make something beautiful of it within us, within our lives. Bless us with the fruit that can be had out of these experiences. Because of Jesus. Amen.



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