It's Your Destiny
I have been reading the book of Genesis for the last few days, enjoying the story of Abraham and his descendants. Today my readings centred on the story of Joseph which is a story I have heard so many times since I was a child but this time there was something different as I read it. Maybe it was the fact that I was reading it as an adult or maybe because I am in a period of my life where many things are in transition; to be honest I don't know what the reason is, all I know is that it was different this time.
The first thing I thought when I read it was how the situation was born. It all went back to Jacob stealing Esau's blessing. Esau had planned to kill Jacob once Isaac died so Rebekah sent Jacob to live with her brother Laban. As we know Jacob, which means "heel" was aptly named so because he held the heel of his twin brother Esau as they were born. The bible also eludes to the fact that the twin boys were fighting in the womb and that the boys were destined to fight throughout their lives as they became two great nations, namely Israel (as Jacob is later named by God) and Edom (the land where Esau settles when his family and property grow too large to remain in the same place as his brother Jacob). Stealing his brothers blessing resulted in Jacob fleeing to Haran to the home of his Uncle Laban (a deceitful man) whose name ironically means "white" or "to be white" which he was far from. Upon his arrival to Haran, Jacob sees Rachel who was tending to her fathers sheep. Immediately he fell in love with Rachel. He stayed with his uncle and agreed to labour for him. As Jacob had been blessed by his father Isaac to prosper, meaning this was the line that Abraham's blessing was going to flow through, everything he did was blessed and prosperous because the Lord was with him upholding his promise to Abraham and Isaac. At this time in his life Jacob didn't actually have a relationship with God. Earlier in Genesis 28:13 when God speaks to Jacob in a dream he refers to himself as "the God of your grandfather Abraham and your father Isaac" and later in Genesis 28:20-21 Jacob says "If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father's home, then the Lord will certainly be my God". That said, God still honoured the blessing and prospered Jacob wherever he was. Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years to earn the hand of Rachel in marriage. The bible tells us that the seven years felt like days for Jacob because he loved Rachel so much; true love is a wonderful thing, but this is another blog in itself. When the time came to honour their agreement, Laban deceived Jacob and placed Leah in the marriage tent instead of Rachel. Followings deceit he agreed to let Jacob marry Rachel as well as long as he agreed to stay and work with him for another seven years, his way of receiving the extended blessing of Jacob on his household. Jacob stayed and fulfilled his agreement with his uncle and then made another agreement which would see him build his own wealth. His uncle once again tried to deceive him but God's faithfulness was evident as he gave Jacob intelligence and wisdom which saw him prosper and amass wealth greater than that of his uncle. There is a lesson here; it seems as Jacob grew, he grew in integrity and he honoured his promises. The encounter with God changed his perspective and attitude. As we walk with God our conduct should change and we should find that carrying out our daily activities and obligations with integrity become second nature, to the point where deceiving someone upsets and frustrates us. The second part of the lesson is that when we are blessed by God, no plan to deceive or rob us can prosper against us. God will see our plight (as long as we maintain our integrity) and will protect us. God is a defender of the weak and the oppressed. He stands for justice and will ensure that his people (which is who we are) receive what he has prepared for them.
Moving forward, the Jacob is blessed with many children from his wife Leah (whom God favoured as she was unloved by Jacob), her maid Ziplah and Bilhah the maid of Rachel. For a long time the womb of Rachel was sealed by God because of the treatment of Leah at the hands of Jacob and Rachel. This is evidence that God will not allow our evil to go unnoticed because he is a God of justice as I said before. As the time came, Rachel was blessed with a child - Joseph. She was later blessed with another child Benjamin. Jacob eventually left the home of his uncle, who sought to destroy him when he realised that Jacob had left (this was probably because he also realised that the blessing that Jacob brought with him had also left when Jacob left) but God once again fulfilled his promise and protected Jacob warning Laban in a dream that he must not harm Jacob. We find out that Rachel stole household idols from her father and deceived him when he came to recover them. She was truly her father's daughter. I had always pictured Rachel as being a really wonderful woman who was hard done by but this time as I read, I saw her more as the spoilt younger sibling who acted in a deceitful way. She came across as unsavoury and spiteful, a little like the mean girls you see in those high school movies. The bible tells us that there was no sparkle in Leah's eyes but Rachel was beautiful in figure and face, so I really think she flaunted these attributes and expected everything to be done for her and given to her. Not the sort of girl you would pick for your son to marry because you can only see a life of stress and frustration ahead for him but God had another plan. She was the line by which he planned to continue the blessings of Abraham.
We later come to find that even after this time has passed, Jacob still has not fully acknowledged God as his own because in Genesis 32:9 he says "O God of my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac". This is evidence of God's unfailing grace and favour. He honours his promises and the covenant that he made 2 generations before. While in Bethel on his journey back home God appeared to Jacob once again and spoke to him and renamed him Israel meaning preserved by God (Genesis 35:10) and God makes it clear to Jacob that he is the line by which the covenant with Abraham and Isaac would continue (Genesis 35:11-13).
The sons of Jacob (the 12 tribes of Israel) were:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.
Now we know that Joseph was his father's favourite as he was the first born son of Rachel, the love of his life.
On a side note, Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin as they returned to Ephrath and she was buried on the side of the road. Leah, Jacobs first wife was buried alongside Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah in the tomb that Abraham purchased for himself and his ancestors. So God restored Leah to a place of honour allowing her to be laid where he would eventually be laid to rest.
So moving to Joseph, know the story well as it has been replayed to us in many guises and we are familiar with it. Joseph was the vehicle God had chosen to use to fulfil the promise that he made when he renamed Jacob to Israel.
While I was reading I thought to myself, Joseph is a bit of a loud mouth constantly blabbing his dreams to his brothers, especially when the dreams said that they would bow to him. His constant talking and the favouritism of Jacob resulted in his brothers being resentful of him. They were resentful to the point where they sought to kill him. An act which would have seen the dreams unfulfilled. This resonated with me as my mother has always said to me that I talk too much and as I have gotten older I have grown in wisdom to know that when God has shown you something, you don't need to shout about it and announce it to the whole world. It will become evident when the time is right. If you scream and shout about it before it's time then you risk that dream being destroyed and cut short by those who do not understand it or are jealous or maybe resentful. A caterpillar hides away till it's transformation into a butterfly is complete so we should be wise and keep God has shown us tucked away during its time of preparation so it can be revealed in all its glory at the appropriate time. This is echoed in Matthew 6:1-18 where it talks about keeping things between God and yourself (I am summarising extensively).
Anyway, Joseph's constant talking got him into trouble one day; whilst out checking up on his brothers (as he usually did for his father - Joseph was the sibling that told tales) they plotted against him and were on the verge of killing him until the oldest sibling Reuben convinced them otherwise. Reuben was actually planning to go back later and rescue Joseph and return him to their father safe and sound but whilst he was away, his other siblings sold Joseph to the Ishmaelite traders (who coincidentally are their distant relatives - the descendants of their great uncle Ishmael the son of Abraham). Reuben was distraught at the fact that they had done this and he was now party to their wrong doing and as a result would partake in their punishment. Reuben was by no means a saint, he had slept with his father's concubine Bilhah (the mother of his half brothers) which his father held against him as we later find out. Reuben once again stepped up to offer his sons in place of Benjamin should anything happen to Benjamin when they Joseph asked them to bring Benjamin to Egypt. Were these attempts by Reuben to restore himself to his father following what he did? I don't know, the bible doesn't delve further into the relationship but we know that Jacob repaid Reuben when proclaiming his blessings on his death bed. He took away Reuben's right as the first born proclaiming that he would be first no more because he slept with his wife and defiled his marriage couch. Again, this is evidence that there is judgement against those who defile the institution of marriage. No man or woman should put themselves into the covenant that two people have made with God.
Joseph's sale into slavery took him to Egypt and immediately we see that God was with him. Joseph was a handsome, well built young man. He was intelligent and wise but most of all he trusted God. God made everything he did succeed and this was seen by his master Potiphar who quickly put Joseph in charge of his household so God blessed Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. As Joseph worked diligently in the home of his master, not grumbling or complaining he found himself in a predicament. The wife of his master looked at him lustfully and wanted him to sleep with her. Being a man of integrity, Joseph rejected her advances and did his best to avoid her (Genesis 39:7-9). As he kept rejecting her advances she schemed against him and this resulted in his master throwing him in prison. There are 2 things I want to point out here:
The first thing I thought when I read it was how the situation was born. It all went back to Jacob stealing Esau's blessing. Esau had planned to kill Jacob once Isaac died so Rebekah sent Jacob to live with her brother Laban. As we know Jacob, which means "heel" was aptly named so because he held the heel of his twin brother Esau as they were born. The bible also eludes to the fact that the twin boys were fighting in the womb and that the boys were destined to fight throughout their lives as they became two great nations, namely Israel (as Jacob is later named by God) and Edom (the land where Esau settles when his family and property grow too large to remain in the same place as his brother Jacob). Stealing his brothers blessing resulted in Jacob fleeing to Haran to the home of his Uncle Laban (a deceitful man) whose name ironically means "white" or "to be white" which he was far from. Upon his arrival to Haran, Jacob sees Rachel who was tending to her fathers sheep. Immediately he fell in love with Rachel. He stayed with his uncle and agreed to labour for him. As Jacob had been blessed by his father Isaac to prosper, meaning this was the line that Abraham's blessing was going to flow through, everything he did was blessed and prosperous because the Lord was with him upholding his promise to Abraham and Isaac. At this time in his life Jacob didn't actually have a relationship with God. Earlier in Genesis 28:13 when God speaks to Jacob in a dream he refers to himself as "the God of your grandfather Abraham and your father Isaac" and later in Genesis 28:20-21 Jacob says "If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father's home, then the Lord will certainly be my God". That said, God still honoured the blessing and prospered Jacob wherever he was. Jacob agreed to work for Laban for seven years to earn the hand of Rachel in marriage. The bible tells us that the seven years felt like days for Jacob because he loved Rachel so much; true love is a wonderful thing, but this is another blog in itself. When the time came to honour their agreement, Laban deceived Jacob and placed Leah in the marriage tent instead of Rachel. Followings deceit he agreed to let Jacob marry Rachel as well as long as he agreed to stay and work with him for another seven years, his way of receiving the extended blessing of Jacob on his household. Jacob stayed and fulfilled his agreement with his uncle and then made another agreement which would see him build his own wealth. His uncle once again tried to deceive him but God's faithfulness was evident as he gave Jacob intelligence and wisdom which saw him prosper and amass wealth greater than that of his uncle. There is a lesson here; it seems as Jacob grew, he grew in integrity and he honoured his promises. The encounter with God changed his perspective and attitude. As we walk with God our conduct should change and we should find that carrying out our daily activities and obligations with integrity become second nature, to the point where deceiving someone upsets and frustrates us. The second part of the lesson is that when we are blessed by God, no plan to deceive or rob us can prosper against us. God will see our plight (as long as we maintain our integrity) and will protect us. God is a defender of the weak and the oppressed. He stands for justice and will ensure that his people (which is who we are) receive what he has prepared for them.
Moving forward, the Jacob is blessed with many children from his wife Leah (whom God favoured as she was unloved by Jacob), her maid Ziplah and Bilhah the maid of Rachel. For a long time the womb of Rachel was sealed by God because of the treatment of Leah at the hands of Jacob and Rachel. This is evidence that God will not allow our evil to go unnoticed because he is a God of justice as I said before. As the time came, Rachel was blessed with a child - Joseph. She was later blessed with another child Benjamin. Jacob eventually left the home of his uncle, who sought to destroy him when he realised that Jacob had left (this was probably because he also realised that the blessing that Jacob brought with him had also left when Jacob left) but God once again fulfilled his promise and protected Jacob warning Laban in a dream that he must not harm Jacob. We find out that Rachel stole household idols from her father and deceived him when he came to recover them. She was truly her father's daughter. I had always pictured Rachel as being a really wonderful woman who was hard done by but this time as I read, I saw her more as the spoilt younger sibling who acted in a deceitful way. She came across as unsavoury and spiteful, a little like the mean girls you see in those high school movies. The bible tells us that there was no sparkle in Leah's eyes but Rachel was beautiful in figure and face, so I really think she flaunted these attributes and expected everything to be done for her and given to her. Not the sort of girl you would pick for your son to marry because you can only see a life of stress and frustration ahead for him but God had another plan. She was the line by which he planned to continue the blessings of Abraham.
We later come to find that even after this time has passed, Jacob still has not fully acknowledged God as his own because in Genesis 32:9 he says "O God of my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac". This is evidence of God's unfailing grace and favour. He honours his promises and the covenant that he made 2 generations before. While in Bethel on his journey back home God appeared to Jacob once again and spoke to him and renamed him Israel meaning preserved by God (Genesis 35:10) and God makes it clear to Jacob that he is the line by which the covenant with Abraham and Isaac would continue (Genesis 35:11-13).
The sons of Jacob (the 12 tribes of Israel) were:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.
Now we know that Joseph was his father's favourite as he was the first born son of Rachel, the love of his life.
On a side note, Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin as they returned to Ephrath and she was buried on the side of the road. Leah, Jacobs first wife was buried alongside Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah in the tomb that Abraham purchased for himself and his ancestors. So God restored Leah to a place of honour allowing her to be laid where he would eventually be laid to rest.
So moving to Joseph, know the story well as it has been replayed to us in many guises and we are familiar with it. Joseph was the vehicle God had chosen to use to fulfil the promise that he made when he renamed Jacob to Israel.
While I was reading I thought to myself, Joseph is a bit of a loud mouth constantly blabbing his dreams to his brothers, especially when the dreams said that they would bow to him. His constant talking and the favouritism of Jacob resulted in his brothers being resentful of him. They were resentful to the point where they sought to kill him. An act which would have seen the dreams unfulfilled. This resonated with me as my mother has always said to me that I talk too much and as I have gotten older I have grown in wisdom to know that when God has shown you something, you don't need to shout about it and announce it to the whole world. It will become evident when the time is right. If you scream and shout about it before it's time then you risk that dream being destroyed and cut short by those who do not understand it or are jealous or maybe resentful. A caterpillar hides away till it's transformation into a butterfly is complete so we should be wise and keep God has shown us tucked away during its time of preparation so it can be revealed in all its glory at the appropriate time. This is echoed in Matthew 6:1-18 where it talks about keeping things between God and yourself (I am summarising extensively).
Anyway, Joseph's constant talking got him into trouble one day; whilst out checking up on his brothers (as he usually did for his father - Joseph was the sibling that told tales) they plotted against him and were on the verge of killing him until the oldest sibling Reuben convinced them otherwise. Reuben was actually planning to go back later and rescue Joseph and return him to their father safe and sound but whilst he was away, his other siblings sold Joseph to the Ishmaelite traders (who coincidentally are their distant relatives - the descendants of their great uncle Ishmael the son of Abraham). Reuben was distraught at the fact that they had done this and he was now party to their wrong doing and as a result would partake in their punishment. Reuben was by no means a saint, he had slept with his father's concubine Bilhah (the mother of his half brothers) which his father held against him as we later find out. Reuben once again stepped up to offer his sons in place of Benjamin should anything happen to Benjamin when they Joseph asked them to bring Benjamin to Egypt. Were these attempts by Reuben to restore himself to his father following what he did? I don't know, the bible doesn't delve further into the relationship but we know that Jacob repaid Reuben when proclaiming his blessings on his death bed. He took away Reuben's right as the first born proclaiming that he would be first no more because he slept with his wife and defiled his marriage couch. Again, this is evidence that there is judgement against those who defile the institution of marriage. No man or woman should put themselves into the covenant that two people have made with God.
Joseph's sale into slavery took him to Egypt and immediately we see that God was with him. Joseph was a handsome, well built young man. He was intelligent and wise but most of all he trusted God. God made everything he did succeed and this was seen by his master Potiphar who quickly put Joseph in charge of his household so God blessed Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. As Joseph worked diligently in the home of his master, not grumbling or complaining he found himself in a predicament. The wife of his master looked at him lustfully and wanted him to sleep with her. Being a man of integrity, Joseph rejected her advances and did his best to avoid her (Genesis 39:7-9). As he kept rejecting her advances she schemed against him and this resulted in his master throwing him in prison. There are 2 things I want to point out here:
- Joseph did not complain about being a slave
- Joseph maintained his integrity at all times
Most of us tend to find a reason to complain about our situation. We moan about our jobs or how little we have or how challenging things are for us. A man that had no choice in his predicament worked hard though he was wrongly sold into slavery and when he was given an opportunity to take advantage of the authority he had been given he stood firm and maintained his integrity. When we are walking with God we should have the wisdom to know that he will be with us in every situation and we should be diligent in every role that we may be found blameless in the sight of God even though man may consider us to be in the wrong.
Joseph was imprisoned on this false allegation and he spent over 2 years in prison. Whilst he was in there God allowed him to succeed, he also began to prepare Joseph for his time of unveiling, even though this did not come for a very long time. When the time came Joseph was ready and at no time did he take the glory for himself. Joseph always pointed the glory to God. When he interpreted dreams he said "Interpreting dreams is God's business" (Genesis 40:8, Genesis 41:16). The character of Joseph was evident, he was a man who knew that everything that came his way was God positioning him so that he could fulfil his purpose and his destiny. Joseph was not resentful for anything that he experienced. He made sure to remind his brothers that he did not resent them for selling him into slavery and that it was God's will. Joseph fulfilled his destiny and the promise God made to his father when he changed his name to 'Israel'. You see Joseph was reunited with his brothers in a time of great famine. His brothers and his father's household would have starved if Joseph had not been in Egypt, if he had not been thrown in prison by Potiphar, if he hadn't been assigned to Pharaoh's cup bearer and baker, if he hadn't interpreted Pharaoh's dreams and also provided an intelligent solution to the problem that was about to befall Egypt, if he hadn't been made governor and 2nd in command in all of Egypt. He was in a secret place being prepared for his time of unveiling and when he was unveiled he was ready. He was ready to walk in his destiny, bold and aware of what he needed to do. He gave glory to God and was not ashamed of his God and he was faithful with what he was given.
You remember that Israel means 'preserved by God' well Joseph's appointment in Egypt was no accident, God needed Joseph to be there to 'preserve' his father and his brothers. Joseph was the key to the preservation of the 12 tribes of Israel, the line from which the King David was born and from which Jesus was brought into this world.
Your destiny is yours and yours alone. The only person who can stop it from coming to pass is you. Will you grumble and complain or will you walk your journey of preparation so you can be ready for your unveiling?
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