"So, I keep having these dreams where everyone is bowing down to me."
"Oh! Oh! Can I be the president of your fan club?"
That's probably not how Joseph envisioned his brothers' reaction when he told them about his dreams, but he had to know that it wouldn't go over well. I've often wondered why Joseph even bothered telling his brothers about the dreams at all. They already harbored enough resentment over the whole coat issue (the Hebrew suggests it was a coat with long sleeves, similar to something worn by royalty).
One thing I've learned through my children is that they have a hyper-sensitive sense of what they perceive to be fairness. It must skip a generation, because I don't remember being that way. I just learned to deal with the fact that I was the only child who wasn't spoiled...
So when Jacob gives Joseph the fancy coat, that didn't go over very well with the other kids. In fact, they "could not speak peaceably unto [Joseph]" (Gen 37:4). That must've made for some incredibly awkward dinner table conversations...
"Nice coat Joseph, looks like a bathrobe. Did it come with slippers too?"
Then Jacob would threaten them with washing dishes or cleaning the kitchen if they didn't stop fighting (just speculating on that part, it's not actually in the scriptures).
So when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers as they were feeding the flocks (45 miles away), the brothers took advantage of the situation, and little Joe gets sold off to Egypt.
He ends up a servant to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, and is eventually put in charge of the whole house. Potiphar's wife was a little loose in the morals department and poor Joseph ends up in jail for sticking to his standards.
We sometimes get stuck in the idea that good things happen to good people and bad things come as punishment. That philosophy makes it very difficult to deal with the tough times that just happen as part of life. Joseph didn't get caught in the self-pity trap, he continued to gain favor and ended up as #2 on the prison's corporate ladder.
One thing we can learn from Joseph's example is his attitude towards trials. As Bishop H. Burke Peterson once said, “Whatever the source of the trial, if properly approached and handled, it will draw us closer to God” (H. Burke Peterson, BYU Devotional, 16 Feb 1996). And that seems to be exactly how Joseph handled his trials, and as a result, "the Lord was with Joseph" (Gen 39:21).
President George Q. Cannon taught:
"No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. ... We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments ("Freedom of the Saints," in Collected Discourses, comp. and ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987¬92), 2:185; emphasis added)."
One of the challenges of this life is to see trials not as punishments, but as God's invitation for us to draw nearer to Him. And since we're going to have trials anyway, it seems to be pretty good company...
"Oh! Oh! Can I be the president of your fan club?"
That's probably not how Joseph envisioned his brothers' reaction when he told them about his dreams, but he had to know that it wouldn't go over well. I've often wondered why Joseph even bothered telling his brothers about the dreams at all. They already harbored enough resentment over the whole coat issue (the Hebrew suggests it was a coat with long sleeves, similar to something worn by royalty).
One thing I've learned through my children is that they have a hyper-sensitive sense of what they perceive to be fairness. It must skip a generation, because I don't remember being that way. I just learned to deal with the fact that I was the only child who wasn't spoiled...
So when Jacob gives Joseph the fancy coat, that didn't go over very well with the other kids. In fact, they "could not speak peaceably unto [Joseph]" (Gen 37:4). That must've made for some incredibly awkward dinner table conversations...
"Nice coat Joseph, looks like a bathrobe. Did it come with slippers too?"
Then Jacob would threaten them with washing dishes or cleaning the kitchen if they didn't stop fighting (just speculating on that part, it's not actually in the scriptures).
So when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers as they were feeding the flocks (45 miles away), the brothers took advantage of the situation, and little Joe gets sold off to Egypt.
He ends up a servant to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, and is eventually put in charge of the whole house. Potiphar's wife was a little loose in the morals department and poor Joseph ends up in jail for sticking to his standards.
We sometimes get stuck in the idea that good things happen to good people and bad things come as punishment. That philosophy makes it very difficult to deal with the tough times that just happen as part of life. Joseph didn't get caught in the self-pity trap, he continued to gain favor and ended up as #2 on the prison's corporate ladder.
One thing we can learn from Joseph's example is his attitude towards trials. As Bishop H. Burke Peterson once said, “Whatever the source of the trial, if properly approached and handled, it will draw us closer to God” (H. Burke Peterson, BYU Devotional, 16 Feb 1996). And that seems to be exactly how Joseph handled his trials, and as a result, "the Lord was with Joseph" (Gen 39:21).
President George Q. Cannon taught:
"No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. ... We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments ("Freedom of the Saints," in Collected Discourses, comp. and ed. Brian H. Stuy, 5 vols. (Burbank, California: B.H.S. Publishing, 1987¬92), 2:185; emphasis added)."
One of the challenges of this life is to see trials not as punishments, but as God's invitation for us to draw nearer to Him. And since we're going to have trials anyway, it seems to be pretty good company...
1 comment:
Cool lesson. I'm with Helen Keller "Life is either an adventure or it is nothing." I think trials are kinda exciting myself. Ohhh I have my LOW low moments when all that is between me and the pit of defeat is a thin layer of faith in Christ. When there is nothing and no one to cushion my fall and the only thing to rely on is His light.Those lowest moments have been some of my greatest - because those are the moments when i have called on the Lord and discovered his absolute power to rescue me, redeem me, heal me or comfort me. That is why i find trials exciting. To me, they are only moments to rendezvous with the Lord. Cheers dude. You rock.
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