The Weekly Word
The past two weeks I have read chapters 37-46 of Genesis. I have read mostly about Joseph and his story, and I have learned some awesome lessons from his life and walk with God. Some of the things that stuck out to me this week were:
Jealousy and envy make it impossible to grow goodness and love
In Genesis 37 Joseph tells his brothers of the dreams that God has sent him, and his brothers become very jealous of him. They do not like the pictures that the dreams depicted of them kneeling to their brother and soon their jealousy grows out of control. They go from hating him to plotting to kill him in just 18 verses! You might say that they were just evil people, but that is not the case in my opinion. The problem here is they let jealousy take over their hearts. Jealousy and envy can grow nothing but hatred and bitterness for another person or situation; they stamp out any love or grace that you could have for another person. This is why we have to pluck these feelings out of our hearts like the ugly weeds they are. God will take care of all of us in His way, there is no need to look to your neighbor and envy what God has blessed them with. Don't let these weeds overtake your heart, weed them out and allow love to blossom in its place.
God is still with us and blessing us even in hard situations
I know I have talked about this before in previous posts, but it is such an important lesson that I feel takes time for us to actually learn- at least for me it does. God is always with us, even when it feels like he isn't. At the end of Genesis 37 Joseph's brothers end up selling him as a slave to travelers who end up selling him to a man in Egypt named Potiphar to be his slave. Things are looking bad for Joseph, he has been betrayed by his brothers, his father thinks he is dead, he is in a strange place, and he has been sold into slavery. But, in Genesis 39:2 it says, "The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master." Even in slavery God was still with Joseph and blessing him! He made Potipher and later Pharaoh like Joseph and show him their favor, so he became a very powerful man in the land of Egypt. God will do this for us too. He will watch out for us and be faithful to us in all times of life.
God rewards our faithfulness
God gave Joseph an interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams about the seven years of abundance and the seven years of famine. Then, he gave him instructions on what to do so that the people would be able to survive it. Joseph listened to God, and he and the people of Egypt were rewarded because of it. They were hit with a serious famine, but they all had food and people from all around the lands were able to come to Joseph and get food. I say this to say, God sees your labor. He sees you listening and following Him, and He values it. You may not always see the point in the moment, but He knows why He has asked you to do something and He will reward you for it in the end.
We can always choose to show grace to those around us
If there was anyone ever that had reason to be salty and hate his brothers forever, it was Joseph. I mean they hated him, sold him into slavery, and let their father believe he had been murdered for years! But Joseph did not hate them nor did he hold any of this against them. He was able to see God's plan through it all, and in Genesis 45:5 he told them, "....don't be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life." THE GRACE. Like he tells his brothers, don't be upset with yourselves for SELLING ME! God was sending me here to save the lives of many from this famine. Just the humility, obedience to God's plan, and forgiveness Joseph shows his brothers here astounds me. This is the kind of forgiveness with no strings attached that we should strive for. This kind of unconditional love and kindness for even those who are evil to us is what it's all about.
I hope these lessons have given you something to think about over the week and give some encouragement to face the week ahead! I would love to chat in the comments about your thoughts on these topics! Have a wonderful week, and thanks for reading!
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