When you think of Joseph, what springs to mind? Coat of Many Colors? The hateful brethren? Famine?
How about stubborn dude?
Joseph's story is one that highlights perseverance of spirit. You can touch upon any number of important character traits worth embodying in his life, but the stubbornness is something that may not be as evident to begin with.
We know about his dreams, about his betrayal, rise and second betrayal. What was it that made him tick? I think he was stubborn.
This guy was blessed with the gift of foreseeing the future. When he does display his gift, he barely misses getting killed and is sold off into slavery by his siblings.
Plenty of justification to be angry. What does Joseph do? He becomes the best slave in the household, eventually coming his master's caretaker. Now, at this point, we could probably imagine a Ben-hur-ish like ending with master adopting Joseph and everybody swaying to the cued music.
Except it went bad. Very bad. Joseph decided to be honorable and resisted the romantic overtures of his master's wife. When the scorned woman accused him of attempted rape, he got thrown in the slammer.
One thing I am certain of is that prison life, in those times, was not easy. I suspect concepts like prisoners rights and cruel punishments didn't get a lot of press in those days. So, I think most people would have given Joe a pass if he had decided to wallow in anger and self-pity. But he didn't.
He packed up all the lemons and made some award-winning juice. Soon, he was running the prison. And the rest of the story is well known; he eventually became governor of the entire land, and was used by God to save the country. And his brothers, who sold him away.
Joseph stubbornly waited on the promise. He kept getting stuff thrown in his face, but he excelled anyway. He was a rock head. He glorified God in spite of his circumstance.
In this life, and particularly this economy, we all have received (or are receiving) tough blows. I think we all feel the justification to cut corners and to avoid doing the right thing... albeit temporarily. We can all take refuge in the fact that it will all end up for His glory.
This we know.
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