I
first heard of the wonderful story of Joseph from my mother when she
related in part Joseph’s story one night before we went to sleep
with my younger siblings during my grade school days. Significantly,
I now realize, she omitted, purposely perhaps, that part of the life
of Joseph when he was enticed or tempted by the wife of Potiphar to
lie with her, which we would not be able to appreciate and understand
anyway for lack of knowledge or experience, and perhaps in order not
to pollute our young and innocent minds. It is too bad that I can no
longer ask my mother why she omitted the episodes of Joseph with Mrs.
Potiphar. Incidentally, Joseph’s temptation with
Mrs. Potiphar has been the topic of our guest sharer last Saturday
fellowship, September 15, 2012. Someone remarked, that Joseph being
then only a teenager, did not succumb to the temptation of Mrs.
Potiphar because she was very much older than him. Joke only.
I
personally came across the complete story of Joseph which is the
longest account of any Bible character, recorded from Genesis
37:1-50:26 when I became a Sunday School teacher. Notably, his story
significantly starts when he was seventeen years old, coincidentally
my age when I started to work as stenographer-typist of the late
Justice Leopoldo M. Abellera (which I related in my latest article on
the Sept. 15, 2012 issue).
Joseph’s
work was that of a shepherd of his father’s flocks with his half
brothers. He reported to his father some of the bad things his
half-brothers were doing (Gen. 37:2). The Bible tells us, “Now
Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children, so that “one
day he gave Joseph a special gift—a beautiful robe (a coat of many
colors [vs 3 NLT]). In our modern Filipino term, he was a “sipsip”
to his father. Consequently, “his brothers hated him because of
their father’s partiality, so they couldn’t say kind word to him”
(vs. 4 NIV).
I
can relate to this favoritism shown by Jacob, you may
call it, because having helped my parents send to school all my
younger brothers and a sister (six of them) while I was myself a
self-supporting student of law after resigning from the Abellera Law
Office to work in a large foreign company, and helped my parents
develop our farm into an irrigated rice land located immediately at
the back of the Municipal town hall of Kapalong, Davao del Norte,
Philippines. Because of my generous help to my parents, when my
father during his lifetime divided our land which has been converted
in 2005 into an exportable Cavendish banana farm, he apportioned to
me a double portion, and named me the administrator.
The difference in the kind treatment of me by my siblings to that of
Joseph is that they have not complained so far, and upon the demise
of our parents, they confirmed my “administratorship” as
eloquently evidenced by the fact that they authorized me to sign on
their behalf the Exclusive Banana Production and Purchase Agreement
(EBPPA) with our exclusive buyer DOLE Philippines, Inc., Stanfilo
Division.
God
knows from the beginning to end our individual life.
He
knew what will eventually happen to Joseph who was a “good boy”,
so to speak. He knows the forthcoming persecutions to be made by his
half-brothers because of his being a “secret agent” of his
father.
As
a way of revealing in advance to Joseph what will happen to him and
to encourage him not to give up on his being a “good boy”, God
revealed to him in a two-part dream, in a similar manner that God
appeared to Solomon in a dream when he was newly installed as King of
Israel to succeed his father King David where God granted his request
for wisdom with bonuses as follows:
“Behold, I have done
according to thy words; so, I have given thee a wise and an
understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee ,
neither after thee shall any arise like into thee and I have also
given thee that with thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour, so
that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy
days. And if thou will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my
commandments, as thy Father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy
days, and Solomon awoke , and, behold, it was a dream” (1 King
3:12-15 KJV).
Joseph
had a two-part related dreams. First, he told his brothers: “We
were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf
rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and
bowed down to it.”
His
brothers tried to interpret the dream by saying, “So you intend to
reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” The scriptures say:
“They hated him all the more because of his dream” (vs. 8).
Then,
he had another dream which he again told to his brothers. “Listen,”
he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and
eleven stars were bowing down to me” (vs.9). This made “his
brothers jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”
(vs.11).
Then
came the fulfillment of the dream. First of all, when his father sent
him to check his brothers who were grazing the flocks of his father
and to check the condition of his brothers, his brothers stripped him
of his coveted multi-colored robe and throw him to a deep well
without water. While they were eating their meal, a caravan of
Ishmaelite merchants passed by. Judah proposed to his brothers not
to kill Joseph but sell him to the merchants saying, “Come let’s
sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all,
he is our brother, our own flesh and blood”, to which all his
brothers agreed (vss. 23-26). Indeed, even in Old Testament times,
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6:10).
The
Ishmaelite merchants sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of
Pharaoh’s officials, the Captain of the guard (vs. 36). However,
because of a false charge lodged against Joseph of “sexual abuse”
we call it today, he was thrown into prison.
The
Bible tells us, “But while Joseph was in the prison, the LORD was
with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of
the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those
held in prison” (Gen. 39:21-22 NIV). The Bible tells us further:
“When
two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He
was standing by the Nile, when
out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and
they grazed among the reeds.
After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile
and stood beside those on the riverbank. And
the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows.
Then Pharaoh woke up. He
fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of
grain, healthy
and good, were growing on a single stalk.
After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted--thin and scorched by
the east wind. The
thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then
Pharaoh woke up; it
had been a dream. In
the morning his mind was troubled, so
he sent for all the magicians and
wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no
one could interpret them for him”
(Genesis 41:1-8).
“Then
the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, "Today I am reminded of my
shortcomings.
Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and
he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of
the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had
a meaning of its own.
Now a young
Hebrew (referring
to Joseph) was
there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We
told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man
the interpretation of his dream. And
things turned out exactly
as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the
other man was hanged" (Genesis 41:9-13 NIV).
Whereupon
the Pharaoh called Joseph out of the prison cell to interpret the
meaning of his twin dreams. This was how Joseph interpreted the twin
dreams of the Pharaoh:
"The
dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God
has revealed
to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
The seven good cows are
seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is
one and the same dream. The
seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so
are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind:
They are seven years of famine.
"It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he
is about to do.
Seven years of great abundance are
coming throughout the land of Egypt, but
seven years of famine will
follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and
the famine will ravage the land (Genesis 41:25-30 NIV).
Joseph
recommended to the Pharaoh, the following steps to be done:
“And
now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and
put him in charge of the land of Egypt.
Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over
the land to take a fifth of
the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They
should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and
store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the
cities for food.
This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used
during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so
that the country may not be ruined by the famine" (Genesis
41:33-36 NIV).
The
moral lesson is that while we are earning in abundance, save for the
forthcoming famine days you never know when they will come or happen.
The
Pharaoh said to Joseph in response:
"Since
God has made all this known to you, there
is no one so discerning and wise as you.
You shall be in charge of my palace, and
all my people are to submit to your orders. Only
with respect to the throne will I be greater than you."
This
is now the fulfillment in part of the earlier dreams of Joseph. The
full fulfillment of Joseph’s dream came about when the severe
famine spread to Canaan land, the country of Jacob and the siblings
of Joseph.
Joseph
was then the GOVERNOR of Egypt where Jacob sent his ten sons
(excluding Joseph’s full blood brother Benjamin) to buy food. This
is what the Bible says:
“Now
Joseph was the governor of the land, the
one who sold grain to all its people. So
when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed
down to him with their faces to the ground.
As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he
pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. "Where
do you come from?" he
asked. "From the land of Canaan," they replied, "to
buy food." Although
Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him”
(Genesis 42:6-8 NIV).
Everyone
of us has had dreams. Many of our dreams have no significant
meanings. But those people who are godly like the cupbearer, King
Solomon and all others of their kind will receive revelations of the
will of God through meaningful dreams usually figurative in character
like the dreams of Joseph, the cupbearer, the Pharaoh of Egypt, or in
some exceptional circumstances, like in the case of King Solomon, by
actual direct revelation.
Let
us, therefore, be sensitive to meaningful dreams which are
revelations of God to us of what is forthcoming. Let us remember
“that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NIV).
Because of the love of God to the dreamer there is a forewarning for
his guidance. Don’t give up despite the ordeals or hardship along
the way. Keep on clinging to the LORD our God with all faithfulness:
he will make us victorious in the end.
Let
us bear in mind what the Bible promises to godly people like Joseph.
“and the LORD was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man;”
(Gen. 39:2); “Because the LORD was with him, and that which he did,
the LORD made it to prosper” (vs. 23). If we want to prosper
personally and in everything we do, let us emulate Joseph.
No comments:
Post a Comment